S. M. Dooley

Welcome to my website, a place for me to share some of my writing projects!

I have worked as a secondary English teacher, a Head of Department and a senior leader both in the UK and in Shanghai. I am currently an Assistant Headteacher and Head of English at a secondary school in Cambridge. For my writing, I am represented by Caroline Wakeman at the CWLAgency.

My children’s detective fiction novel ‘The Hot Chocolate Mystery’ comes out in September 2026 and is available to pre-order now from all good book shops! You can read more about it here!

I enjoy writing fiction for young adults and am currently working on a series of middle grade historical adventure fiction stories set in 17th Century London. The first, 1666 won the WriteMentor Children’s Novel Award 2021. It was also shortlisted in the 2019 Bath Children’s Novel Award and longlisted in the Flash500 Novel Opening! More information about my other writing projects (including ‘Voxmort’ which was longlisted in the 2017 Bath Children’s Novel Award) can be found on the Novels page.

Please take a moment to explore the site and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to read my writing, perform my plays, or purchase a murder mystery.

I would love to hear any comments or questions about my writing, so please get in touch via the Contact Me page and you can follow me on Twitter @sean_m_dooley.

Thank you for visiting!