Jess Kidd

Jess Kidd grew up in London in a family with roots in Ireland's County Mayo, and her fiction combines historical research with mystery and imaginative storytelling. The Night Ship is shaped by the wreck of the Batavia and told through two children living more than three centuries apart. In 1629, Mayken travels aboard the ship toward the Dutch East Indies; in 1989, Gil arrives on an island off Western Australia where the wreck's history remains present. Atria Books published the United States edition, while Kidd's bibliography places the novel alongside Himself, The Hoarder, and Things in Jars. She holds a doctorate in creative writing, won the Costa Short Story Award in 2016, and has also written fiction for children. Her later Nora Breen books move into a 1950s seaside mystery setting.