Harriet Tyce, the acclaimed British crime novelist, is experiencing a whirlwind year—one that’s seen her leap from the cloistered world of writing to the high-stakes drama of reality television, and back again, with a supernatural twist. Her latest novel, Witch Trial, released on February 26, 2026, is already making waves, not least because it arrives hot on the heels of her memorable appearance on the hit reality show The Traitors. For Tyce, the line between fiction and reality has never felt thinner.
Tyce first catapulted into the literary spotlight with her debut, Blood Orange, in 2019. The novel quickly established her as a rising star in crime fiction, thanks to its gripping narrative and nuanced characters. But it’s Witch Trial that’s capturing the public’s imagination now, weaving together the procedural drama of a courtroom with the eerie allure of the supernatural. The story centers on two teenage girls accused of murdering their friend Christian, with the entire trial seen through the eyes of a jury struggling to distinguish fact from fiction as the case takes increasingly uncanny turns.
“It’s always an exciting time around publication,” Tyce told Radio Times, reflecting on the buzz surrounding her new book. “I have to say this time it’s like it’s on steroids. It’s been amplified so much.” That sense of anticipation is palpable in her work, which pushes the boundaries of the crime genre by introducing elements inspired by Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Tyce confessed, “I’ve never done anything with a supernatural element before and I’ve always been terrified of that kind of thing. It was frightening but it was an interesting frightening because I was looking at subject matters I knew nothing about—and that always brings a level of excitement as well, to embark on a completely new topic.”
The origins of Witch Trial are as intriguing as its plot. Tyce revealed that her editor initially suggested she write about teenage serial killers. But the idea of a teenage defendant—someone caught in the crosshairs rather than behind the trigger—stuck with her. “I had become very interested in the idea of jurors, in what each individual person brings to the jury room,” she explained. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place after she attended a production of The Crucible, which inspired her to blend the real and the otherworldly in her narrative.
What’s truly uncanny is how Tyce’s recent foray into reality TV seems to echo the themes of her novel. As a contestant on The Traitors in early 2025, Tyce found herself in a real-life game of suspicion and deduction, not unlike the fictional jury in Witch Trial. She handed in a near-complete draft of the novel on Halloween 2024, just weeks before applying for the show. “The mad and crazy thing is that I handed in a near-complete first draft on Halloween of 2024 and I put my application in for The Traitors in mid-December! There were six weeks clear water,” she recounted to Radio Times.
During her time on the show, Tyce couldn’t help but draw parallels between the roundtable’s feverish deliberations and the jury’s struggle in her book. “The thing about the roundtable is that all you can go on is your best instincts—your best instincts when we have no actual evidence can be very, very tough... no jury in the land would be able to perform on what you actually have to go on in The Traitors because there’s just nothing,” she observed. Tyce added, “It turned out I had a good gut instinct, but I don’t think gut instinct is good enough when it comes to actually finding someone properly guilty of an offence.”
For Tyce, the show’s immersive, almost claustrophobic environment offered more than just entertainment—it became a psychological experiment. “I was fascinated by how real it became to me; it was my life. We were all living in it. It’s incredibly clever, the way they set the scene and keep you in an isolated space where you don’t have to think about anything except playing the game. You know perfectly well it’s a game—of course it’s a game—but when you’re there day after day, it does feel a little bit life or death. I’m quite interested in the idea of what happens if you don’t snap out of it,” she mused.
That fascination is likely to shape Tyce’s future work. She’s openly considering a sequel to Witch Trial and is keen to keep playing in the supernatural sandbox. “I’m interested in examining how immersive experiences in games, like The Traitors, can impact one’s psyche and creativity,” she said, hinting at more genre-bending stories to come.
Of course, Tyce’s literary journey is also shaped by those who came before her. She credits Dorothy L. Sayers’ detective fiction for sparking her desire to become a writer, especially the series featuring Harriet Vane. “Detective fiction and crime fiction are brilliant,” she said. Her admiration for David Nicholls’ One Day is equally pronounced: “It’s genius in its simplicity—something is just such a brilliant idea and you can’t think how nobody had thought of it before, but they didn’t and he did.” For readers looking to break free from genre snobbery, she recommends Jilly Cooper’s Rivals, praising its fun, engaging storytelling.
Tyce’s current reading list is as varied as her own output. She’s delving into the diaries of Helen Garner, which she says make her nostalgic for a pre-digital age, and she’s judging collections of crime short stories for the Crime Writers’ Association. In a humorous aside, she admitted to feeling a bit awkward reading Blank Canvas by Grace Murray, a contemporary of her son, but finds the story compelling nonetheless.
As 2026 unfolds, Tyce’s creative energy shows no signs of waning. Her ability to blend her real-life experiences with her literary ambitions has opened up new avenues for storytelling, challenging readers to question not just the stories they’re told, but the very nature of truth and judgment. Whether in the jury box, the roundtable, or the pages of her next novel, Harriet Tyce is set on keeping us guessing—and maybe, just a little bit spooked.
With Witch Trial, Tyce cements her reputation as a boundary-pushing voice in crime fiction, and her fans can only wonder what supernatural mysteries she’ll conjure next.