A woman’s body is found decomposing in a shallow grave, stab wounds to the neck and blows to the head and shoulders. She is identified as Yvonne, missing wife of local property developer John Blundell. When Antony Sumner, English teacher and Yvonne’s lover, confesses to striking her down with his walking stick, it looks like an open and shut case for Detective Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey. Too much so thinks Crown Prosecutor Helen West. Sumner denies murder - and where is the knife? And when Helen and Geoffrey dig deeper into the secrets of the sleepy commuter village what they discover is a hidden world of passion, envy and betrayal.
FROM THE AUTHOR
The mystery genre chose me rather than the other way round. Always wanted to write from the days of composing gloomy, teenage poetry and winning the essay prize in school, but it took a while to know what to write about. I became a criminal lawyer, with a wild ambition to write romance as an antidote to the daily diet of homicide, theft and lives of quiet desperation.
I came to write mystery fiction because I wanted to explore the unfinished, incomplete stories that unfold in a court room, where no one knows more than half of what really went on. Storytelling, the use of compassionate imagination, penetrates the darkness and squares the circle of half truth like nothing else.
It also allows for wit, humour, irony and romance, and you can always include the enduring power of love, in which I heartily believe. This genre is the best. What better to write about than Crime and Redemption?
****
From the first Agent to whom I sent a full-length script, these lines; ‘We could be in business here, if only you delete all the introspective crap and cut it down by a third.’
She was right. I cried for three days and then did it. The story is all that matters. I have kept mine lean every since. They aren’t about me; they are about my characters.
Goodreads ** Amazon ** Barnes&Noble
I grew up in rural Derbyshire, but my adult life has been spent mostly in London, with long intervals in Norfolk and Deal, all inspiring places. I was educated mostly in convent schools; then studied English and went on to qualify as a solicitor, working for what is now the Crown Prosecution Service, thus learning a bit about murder at second hand. Years later, writing became the real vocation, although the law and its ramifications still haunt me and inform many of my novels. I’m a novelist, short story writer for magazines and radio, sometime Radio 4 contributor, (Front Row, Quote Unquote, Night Waves,) and presenter of Tales from the Stave. When I’m not working (which is as often as possible), I can be found in the nearest junk/charity shop or auction, looking for the kind of paintings which enhance my life. Otherwise, with a bit of luck, I’m relaxing by the sea with a bottle of wine and a friend or two.
No comments:
Post a Comment