Short Bio (98 words)
Author Stella Oni creates content in Food and Technology. She also loves reading and reviewing books on her blog. Her debut police procedural, “Deadly Sacrifice,” featuring detective Toks Ade, the first black female police detective in UK fiction, was nominated for the SI Leeds Literary Prize and was an Audible Crime and Thriller pick.
She has contributed short stories to various anthologies, including “Midnight Hour” published by Crooked Lane.
She is writing book two of the Toks Ade Mystery series and book 1 of her contemporary crime mystery, The London House Mystery series, set in Lagos, Nigeria and Knightsbridge in London.
Mid Bio (150 words)
Author Stella Oni creates content in Food and Technology. She also loves reading and reviewing books on her blog. Her debut police procedural, “Deadly Sacrifice,” featuring detective Toks Ade, the first black female police detective in UK fiction, was shortlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize and was an Audible Crime and Thriller pick.
She has contributed to various anthologies, including “Midnight Hour”, published by Crooked Lane.
She won the International Thriller Writers (ITW) scholarship in 2021 and was a runner-up for the inaugural CrimeFest bursary for writers of colour in 2022.
Stella is an ITW judge and was an adjudicator for the Scottish Association of Writers Crime Fiction Pitlochry Prize 2023. She is a popular speaker and also delivers crime fiction workshops.
She is writing book two of the Toks Ade Mystery series and the first of her contemporary crime cosy, The London House Mystery series.
Long bio (470 words)
British Nigerian Stella Oni is the author of DEADLY SACRIFICE, book 1 of the Toks Ade Mystery series. It is a fast-paced police procedural set in London and Nigeria about human trafficking and ritualistic killing. Its lead character is Detective Toks Ade, the first black female police detective in UK fiction, published by Jacaranda Books.
Deadly Sacrifice was nominated for the SI Leeds Literary Prize and was an Audible Crime & Thriller pick.
Stella won the ITW Thrillerfest BIPOC Scholarship in 2021 and was chosen as one of the runners-up for the inaugural CrimeFest bursary for writers of colour in 2022. She adjudicated in The Crime Novel – Pitlochry Quaich competition for the Scottish Association of Writers(SAW) in 2023 and is an International Thriller Writers judge. She serves on the board of the Crime Writers Association.
Stella has a Linguistics and African Languages degree from the University of Benin and an MSc in Information Systems and Technology from City University, London. She is a content creator across Food and Technology and loves reading and reviewing books.
She is a cake enthusiast who decorates exquisite cakes. Stella is a regular contributor on Medium and wrote cultural articles on Thrive Global. She dreams of travelling worldwide to taste and experience food from different cultures. She believes that growing up within two worlds has given her a unique perspective.
Stella is working on book 2 of the Toks Ade Mystery series.
She is also writing “The Stranger in the House” – book 1 of The London House Mystery series. The lead character is Elizabeth Ojo, the clever housekeeper of the Mews luxury hotel in Knightsbridge, who gets embroiled in the troubles of her secretive wealthy guests. It is “The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency Clients Meet Crazy Rich Asians“.
Stella loves to explore the world of The Mews Hotel in short stories and her 3rd story is The Troublesome Rich Girl, in the limited holiday anthology Festive Mayhem 3. Here is a summary;
“When Elizabeth agreed to look out for the rebellious teenager Tayo Adelaja and her cousin Angelica, she enlisted the help of the Mews hotel’s social media obsessed apprentice, Rosie O’Toole—only for the three to disappear!”
Another short story titled “The Black Widow of Oshogbo” is based on a work-in-progress private Investigator series Lara’s Detective Agency, which appears in Midnight Hour – an anthology featuring twenty Crime Writers of Color and published by Crooked Lane. She also wrote “A Wedding Most Bitter” for the anthology Malice, Matrimony and Murder, to be published in November 2023 and is now on pre-order. Stella describes Lara as lean, mean and ready to fight!
Stella is also a speaker who can be contacted by email or via the Contact me page.
A member of:
International Thriller Writers(ITW), Black Writers Guild(BWG), Society of Authors and Crime Writers Association
Useful links
Twitter: sonithewriter
Instagram: stellaonithewriter
Facebook: sonithewriter
Website: www.stellaonithewriter.com
Linkedin: Stella Oni
Books
Deadly Sacrifice
Description
When a child’s severed hand is found, DC Toks Ade and DS Philip Dean are put on the case. Thrown into a world of Nigerian traditional customs, ritual sacrifice, and international trafficking, they must find the guilty parties before more children are lost. A chilling new thriller introducing Detectives Toks Ade, Philip Dean, and investigative author Coretta Davis.
Content Warning: physical violence, ritual sacrifice, child abuse, family abandonment, human trafficking
Short Stories
The Black Widow of Oshogbo – in Anthology MIDNIGHT HOUR published by Crooked Lanes
The Stranger in the House – in limited anthology FESTIVE MAYHEM
The Jollof Rice and Crayfish mystery – in limited anthology – FESTIVE MAYHEM 2
The Troublesome Rich Girl – in limited anthology – FESTIVE MAYHEM 3
MIDNIGHT HOUR anthology
Description
Set in Nigeria, The short story The Black Widow of Oshogbo features ex army and ex intelligence agent, private investigator Lara Thompson as she hunts the serial killing of male farmers in the town of Ilaje in Oshogbo.
REVIEWS
An Intriguing Story!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 14 December 2020
“Two firsts for me; listening to my first audio book and discovering the writing talent of Stella Oni!
In Deadly Sacrifice, Oni creates a world of intrigue, crime and ritual sacrifice. And if that isn’t thrilling enough, how about discovering traditional Nigerian customs and delving into the world of human trafficking.”
A unique insight into the chilling world of cults and sacrifice
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 October 2020
“I can see Deadly Sacrifice being perfectly suited to a screen adaptation or a TV crime series, starring three central characters who are ideal for further development in subsequent books and episodes. I look forward to re-acquainting myself with the dark but compelling world of crime which Oni has clearly researched and depicts with convincing details. If subsequent books involve further delving into the exotic and fascinating world of Nigeria, all the better!”
The Stranger in the House – in limited anthology FESTIVE MAYHEM
“The Stranger in the House” features Nigerian housekeeper, Elizabeth Ojo, who simply cannot resist getting nosy about some of the guests staying at the guest house where she works. She discovers more than she bargained for and finds herself tangled in a case that could have deadly consequences. Like Blanche White from the works of Barbara Neely, Elizabeth is a character readers will relate to and immediately fall in love with; thankfully, this story is listed as a prequel to the London House series. – Bolo Books
