THE Brontes’ work has been re-imagined in many interpretations, from silent movies to pop-up comedy gigs.

But in her new novel The Red Monarch, best-selling author and Bronte fan Bella Ellis gives the literary sisters’ own story an intriguing twist.

It is of course set in Haworth, in 1846, and the Bronte sisters’ first poetry collection has just been published, potentially marking an end to their careers as amateur detectors, when Anne receives a letter from her friend, Lydia Robinson.

Lydia has eloped with a young actor, Harry Roxby, and following her disinheritance, the couple have been living in poverty in London. Harry has become embroiled with a criminal gang and is in great danger after losing something very valuable that he was meant to deliver to their leader.

The desperate and heavily pregnant Lydia has a week to return what her husband supposedly stole, or he will be killed. She knows there are few people who she can turn to in this time of need, but the sisters agree to help Lydia, beginning a race against time to save Harry’s life. In doing so, our intrepid Bronte siblings come face to face with a terrifying adversary, even to the toughest of the slum dwellers - The Red Monarch.

The latest in Bella’s historical crime series The Bronte Mysteries is filled with twists, turns and Gothic touches, and a strong feminist streak. The Times Literary Supplement called it “A touching and often funny portrayal of the sisters’ devotion to and exasperation with one another and their debauched brother.’”

Bella Ellis is the pseudonym of best-selling novelist Rowan Coleman. The Red Monarch was published this week, with a book launch at Wave of Nostalgia in Haworth.

A Bronte superfan, Rowan has a collection of more than 1,000 rare and first editions and is a supporter of the Bronte Parsonage Museum. She’s the author of 14 novels including The Memory Book, The Summer of Impossible Things, and co-author of Mirror, Mirror, debut novel by actor and model Cara Delevingne.

“I couldn’t be more delighted to be launching the new Bronte Mysteries novel at Wave of Nostalgia,” says Rowan. “Diane and Ian have created the most brilliant bookshop, they’re dear friends and naturally Haworth, the Parsonage and the home of the Brontes is an incredibly special place to launch my book about the family.”

* The Red Monarch: The Bronte Mysteries, published by Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99.