Five Rules I Stole From Christie (And One I Broke on Purpose) It started, as these things always do, with a reread. I was sitting in the writing nook by the window last Tuesday evening, rain doing its very best against the window, Carruthers presumably stalking something outside, and I had picked up a dog-eared […]
What Would Agatha Do? Read More »
Pull up a chair and pour yourself a nice cup of tea (duty-paid, I promise!). As I’ve been tucked away in my writing shed working on the final edits of The Mystery of Mossington Manor, I’ve found myself falling down a rabbit hole, or rather, a clutter hole, of local history. There is a specific
The Smuggler’s Legacy of the South Hams Read More »
Two Articles By Harmony Stone for the Kingscombe Gazette Writers have lots of ways to get to know the characters and settings for their stories. We like to really get to know them. As part of my research into the character of Harmony Stone, I imagined her writing articles for the Kingscombe Gazette. Writing her
Deleted Scenes From The Mystery of Mossington Manor Read More »
A Feline’s Guide to Solving Crime “Humans spend a lot of time talking. If they spent more time watching the twitch of a tail or the direction of a whisker, they’d find the killer much faster.” — Carruthers Every good detective has a partner. Holmes had Watson. Poirot had Hastings. And Harmony Stone, retired schoolteacher
The Secret Language of Carruthers the Cat Read More »
The morning fog hadn’t yet lifted from Kingscombe’s harbour when Nikki Trent unlocked the door to the Cream First Café. The bell over the door chimed softly, a sound that always made her smile.
On the counter, a folded note. It must have been left there last night. Someone had scrawled three words across the paper in looping script:
LEMON BREAD ARC
A riddle? A request? Or another little mystery brewing before the spring fête?
Baking Scones at the Cream First Cafe Read More »
Hi there fellow sleuths and members of the Kingscombe Secret Society. There’s something delicious about a house that seems to watch you back, isn’t there? When I set out to write The Mystery of Mossington Manor, I knew the house couldn’t just be a setting—it had to be one of the main characters. The South
Old Mansions, New Murders: The Houses That Inspire Kingscombe Read More »
Hello there, fellow secret society members! If you’ve been following my new life in the South Hams, you’ll know that I didn’t exactly get the quiet retirement I was promised. When I packed up my classroom and moved to the fictional, yet oh-so-vivid town of Kingscombe, I expected my biggest challenge to be teaching Carruthers
Why Kingscombe’s Ancient Soil is a Sleuth’s Best Friend Read More »
Why the most dangerous person in the room is the one holding the house keys. Welcome back to the nook, fellow mystery lovers and members of the Kingscombe Secret Society. Every writer eventually hits a wall where they realise the world doesn’t necessarily need another ‘grumpy detective with a drinking problem’ or a ‘socialite who
Meeting Harmony Stone Read More »
