Meihan Boey wins with third book in Miss Cassidy series

Epigram Books Fiction Prize

- Clement Yong

Meihan Boey, best known for her supernatural Miss Cassidy series blending Victorian tropes and Asian monsters, is the winner of 2025's Epigram Books Fiction Prize.

Her as-yet-unpublished The Mystical Mister Kay is the third entry in the Miss Cassidy universe that spans colonial Malaya, Scotland and London. It prevailed over three other finalists to make Boey a second-time winner of the $25,000 grand cash prize, earning her another contract with the publisher specialising in Singapore literature.

The 48-year-old said at the Aloft Hotels gala ceremony on Feb 13: "My assumption was always that it is very unlikely for the third in a trilogy to win an award. It was very unexpected."

When asked why she chose to publish with Epigram, Boey said: "So far, the support that Epigram gives, I find it second to none."

She added that her agent from Epigram is the reason she has contracts in the United States, Britain, Albania and Italy. "All that does not happen without a really strong publisher."

The Mystical Mister Kay picks up the multi-limbed tale after The Formidable Miss Cassidy (2021) and sequel The Enigmatic Madam Ingram (2023).