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Do you know what your book’s about?
I thought I did. There I was, at the front of the church hall, being introduced by the chairperson, looking forward to my first public event as an author. My appearance in the local paper the week before seems to have drawn a good number of people. They look keen, friendly and welcoming, laughing as I recount some of the strange and amusing incidents from my time as an environmental health officer (EHO). I should tell them more about my work. Instead I launch into my talk. Holding up a copy of my first published book, No Accident, I tell my audience to feel free to ask questions at any…
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Why I Wrote No Accident
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After the Funeral by Agatha Christie
If you read my book reviews, you’ll know I’m a huge fan of Agatha Christie. I’ve enjoyed the Poirot series and looked forward to reading After the Funeral. While it’s an interesting murder mystery, it didn’t quite hit the high notes of the ones before. The story started slowly as the main players and relationships were introduced. The cast was large, which made it difficult to remember who was who and how they were related. Most of the characters weren’t particularly likable either. Richard Abernethie died, leaving his estate to be equally divided among the family. But after the funeral, his niece Cora suggested he was murdered. There’s no evidence…
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Mrs McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie
James Bentley has been convicted of Mrs McGinty’s brutal murder and awaits sentencing. But Inspector Spence, who carried out the investigation that led to the successful prosecution has a niggling doubt about Bentley’s guilt. With no evidence and only a feeling the wrong man may be heading to the gallows, Spence asks Poirot to review the case. Poirot travels to the small village where the murder took place and can find nothing to cast doubt on the murder verdict until he discovers an old cutting from a newspaper that Mrs McGinty kept. The cutting relates to a Sunday paper article about four women involved in murders in the past. Determined…
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Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie
In yet another original and intriguing story, Hercule Poirot is drawn into the world of Cloade family, where nothing is as it first appears. Gordon Cloade, wealthy and generous, has supported various members of the family over the years. Then he married a younger woman and was tragically killed in a bomb blast during World War 2. Overnight the widow inherits his fortune, and Cloade’s relatives lose the source of income they have come to take for granted. Then rumours claim the widow’s first husband did not die in Africa, as reported. If these rumours are true, her marriage to Gordon Cloade was illegal and she cannot inherit his house…
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Why I Wrote No Accident
When you set out, you never quite know how things will turn out. I wanted to create something new, something different and exciting to entertain murder mystery readers. No Accident, the first book in the Downland Murder Mystery series, was actually the third book I wrote, featuring my sleuth Kent Fisher. The first novel wasn’t quite good enough. It led to a second, No Bodies, which was intended to be the first book in the series, but couldn’t be. Picture the scene. Kent Fisher is approached by an old family friend, whose wife has been missing for a year. When asked to investigate, he responds by saying, “Who you think…
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Do you know what your book’s about?
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The Hollow by Agatha Christie
In another complex case, Hercule Poirot is faced with a murder where all the clues and evidence seem to lead nowhere. John Christow, a Harley St doctor, is found dead at the side of a swimming pool at the countryside home of the Angkatells. His wife, Gerda, stands a few feet away, a pistol in her hand. Yet Christow’s final word is ‘Henrietta’, referring to a lover of his, also at the house. It soon becomes clear that all the people at the house have a motive to either dislike or kill Christow. Even the next door neighbour is an actress, who was in a relationship with him fifteen years…
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An Accidental Detective
How do you create something familiar, but different and less formulaic? Do you go for something original and distinctive – unique even? Perhaps, but you run the risk of alienating the readers you want to attract. They read certain books because they know what they want and what to expect. They might not take to kindly to you messing around with this. Murder mystery readers are pretty savvy when it comes to the classic whodunit. But they still want you to give them something they’ll enjoy and remember. For me, the desire to create a murder mystery readers would love held me in a vice-like grip. I had to start…
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Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
Poirot is on holiday at Burgh Island off the Devon coast. When beautiful actress, Arlena Stuart enters the hotel, she makes a grand entrance, catching the attention of everyone there. It isn’t long before she’s spending time with another man on the beach. Her husband watches, silently and without comment. The wife of the man on the beach looks angry. Poirot watches, sensing there will be trouble. When Arlena is found strangled in a nearby cove, an investigation begins, dividing the disparate group of holiday makers into those with alibis and those without. But as the police and Poirot delve into the lives of these people, the solution is far…
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One Two Buckle my Shoe by Agatha Christie
As an Agatha Christie fan, I’m used to her original and complex plots, particularly in the Poirot series. This 24th outing for the Belgian detective is no exception, leading you down false trails, baffling you with a plot that makes little sense until he reveals all in the denouement. Poirot visits his dentist, Mr Morley, who is found dead a couple of hours later. It looks like suicide, prompted by an accidental overdose of anaesthetic that kills another patient. Only Poirot isn’t convinced. Morley wasn’t the suicidal type. The mystery deepens when the body of a woman is found in a flat. Links to an influential banker, who is shot…
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Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie
13th May 2023. This is another masterful lesson in deduction, red herrings and false trails as Poirot investigates the baffling murder of Giselle, a French money lender, on a flight to England. She was killed by a poisoned dart, delivered from a blowpipe. But how was the murder committed in the confines of an aircraft without anyone seeing it happen? Poirot assists both the French police and Scotland Yard to solve the murder. The investigation soon reveals motives for some of the people on board, but the deeper Poirot digs, the more difficult it becomes to work out how the killer carried out the murder. But Poirot never gives up,…
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The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
14th April 2023. This is another original and imaginative mystery featuring Hercule Poirot. When Ruth Kettering, the daughter of an American millionaire is murdered on the Blue Train, travelling to Nice in France, Poirot is also on board. He soon offers his assistance to the French police. They soon identify a number of potential suspects. In his usual methodical way, Poirot employs his little grey cells, probing and questioning a number of people on the French Riviera. Ruth’s estranged husband, who has been having an affair with a dancer, is soon questioned and ultimately arrested. Poirot’s not convinced, but struggles to get a lead and evidence to identify the real…
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The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
3rd April 2023. In another original and ingenious mystery from Agatha Christie, an unknown serial killer announces his intended murders by letter to Hercule Poirot. At first, it appears to be a hoax, until a murder is committed in Andover. An ABC guide to railway travel is left with the body. When a second murder is announced and carried out in Bexhill on Sea, Scotland Yard take control, working with Poirot, but with little success. A third murder at Churston attracts the attention of the press, but offers few clues to the killer’s identity. Unable to make any progress, Poirot calls together all the people closely involved with the three…
