A WELL-known novelist is playing her part in Independent Booksellers Week, which runs from June 18 to 25.

The week is a celebration of independent bookshops and writer Sheila Quigley, from the Sunderland area, will be starting things off at Hambleton Books in Thirsk.

From 11.30am on June 18 she will be signing copies of her latest crime novel, Thorn in My Side.

The author is well known for her crime novels featuring Inspector Lorraine Hunt, set on the fictional Seahills Estate, but her new work is the first of a new series featuring DI Mike Yorke and set on evocative Holy Island.