J.D. Malle is an urban fantasy and thriller author.

Her work has been recognised by Penguin Michael Joseph (Undiscovered Writers' Prize shortlist, 2023) and Headline Eternal/Curtis Brown Creative (Modern Stories: It Must Be Love runner up, 2026).

Projects

She is currently querying an adult gothic romantic fantasy about two Underworld dynasties secretly managing the afterlife through funeral homes. It was a runner up in Modern Stories: It Must be Love 2026, a competition part of Hachette UK’s The Future Bookshelf. The story uses death to examine vulnerability as a misjudged weakness, and how inequality persists in supposedly fair systems. It follows a powerful BIPOC female lead navigating the dynastic secrets of her family that started generations before her.

She has a completed adult contemporary fantasy novel with series potential, blending Western and non-Western mythology and deities with thriller elements. Set between modern London and Reykjavik, it follows oppressed descendants of gods hiding in plain sight in a mortal-majority world. It combines the London-set government agency dealing with magic as seen in Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London, the social commentary of T.L. Huchu's The Library of the Dead, and the mythological-powers-vs-mortal-world tension of TV’s Carnival Row.

Themes/tropes: Knowledge vs power; Trust vs mistrust; Fate vs free will; Legacy/intergenerational burden vs self-identity; Personal sacrifice; Systems of oppression and supremacy; Found family