RHYS DYLAN
writing as
DYLAN YOUNG
Several years ago, Rhys—writing under the pseudonym Dylan Young—was commissioned to write a trilogy for a publishing company. He chose to focus on DI Anna Gwynne, a young officer in Avon and Somerset Police, based in Bristol.
What he didn’t realise at the time was that these books would become the proving ground for his later work featuring DCI Evan Warlow. Anna Gwynne has appeared in a recent Warlow novel (Druid’s Moor), and now, with the rights returned, Wyrmwood Books can republish the books as they were always intended: as the Black Squid trilogy.
The Anna Gwynne books follow a young detective learning how to survive in a busy city police force. The first book centres on a disturbing death with links to the city’s hidden, exploitative underworld—sex work, power, and the people who slip through the cracks. That case sets the tone for the trilogy: who gets protected, who gets ignored, and how easily institutions close ranks when exposure becomes inconvenient. The pressure comes not just from criminals, but from rank, politics, public image, and the quiet compromises needed to keep your career intact. Anna is still finding her moral footing, and much of the tension lies in deciding what she is prepared to overlook—and what she isn’t.
Warlow is already an experienced detective, carrying the weight of past cases and personal damage. These stories stretch out into landscape, history, and the long memory of small communities. Instead of asking how to survive the job, they ask what the job has already taken—and what it might take next. Warlow’s health, family, and past decisions are inseparable from the crimes he investigates, and the consequences linger long after the case is closed.
Where Anna’s stories ask “How do I survive this job?”, Warlow’s ask “What has this job already taken from me—and what will it take next?”
That’s why Anna can move naturally into the Warlow world later on.
Clicking on the covers will take you to a separate website with more details about the books. It’s likely we’ll be hearing more from Anna at some point. I hope you agree with me she is worth exploring.
