History and Mystery - by Helen Hollick

Today I'm delighted to turn the blog over to author Helen Hollick, whose new book in her Cosy Murder Mystery series has just been published. Over to Helen:

History and Mystery

By Helen Hollick

Apart from the fact that those two words rhyme nicely, both are very popular subjects in their own write where fiction is concerned. (See what I did there? Write/right!) Readers love an intriguing mystery to solve, and if the sleuthing is set in the past, all the better. (Think Cadfael by Ellis Peters for instance, probably the most well known of the genre.) In a way the reader is getting two for the price of one: a historical novel and a murder mystery.

The ‘cosy mystery’ (coZy in the USA) is increasing in popularity. ‘Cosy’ meaning a light, easy read, usually with an amateur female sleuth, who has a romantic interest and gets mixed up in a murder or a mystery to solve. Some of these mysteries are village, countryside or seaside based while many of the popular ones are also set in the past, from Rome to Regency, from Saxon to Victorian Saxe-Coburg. I decided to base my Jan Christopher Mysteries in the 1970s, far enough back to be classed as ‘historical’ near enough to remember those years.

Jan is a young North London suburb library assistant – as I was back then in the 1970s, hence my choice of era and setting. Orphaned as a child her Aunt Madge and uncle, DCI Tobias Christopher, adopt her, and when she meets the DCI’s new Detective Constable, Lawrence (Laurie) Walker it is a case of love at first sight. But is their blossoming romance to be hindered by the discovery of a brutal murder?

I admit here that I thought I could remember a lot about the ‘70s, but I soon discovered that I needed to do as much research for these books as I did for my ‘serious’ historical fiction. It’s getting the little details right that matter, the correct price of a bus ticket or a chocolate bar. Loose leaf tea, not teabags. Blue police telephone boxes (as in Dr Who’s TARDIS), no mobile phones in the 1970s. No computers, no Internet – no DNA! (Ah, but there were fingerprints!)

In some ways, I initially thought that this lack of ‘modern techniques’ would be a hindrance for a mystery series, but I soon discovered an advantage because I know very little about police procedures, and even less about murders. These bits I glean from TV shows such as Morse, Lewis, and Foyle’s War – the rest I either use what I remember, research, or make up.

And making things up when writing an entertaining cosy mystery series can be a lot of fun!

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Jan Christopher #1 A Mirror Murder

Jan Christopher #2 A Mystery of Murder

Jan Christopher #3 A Mistake of Murder 

Recently released: A MISTAKE OF MURDER by Helen Hollick

The third Jan Christopher Cosy Mystery

Was murder deliberate - or a tragic mistake?

A series of burglaries and an elderly person is murdered. Can library assistant Jan Christopher help discover whether murder was a deliberate deed – or a tragic mistake?

January 1972. The Christmas and New Year holiday is over and it is time to go back to work. Newly engaged to Detective Sergeant Lawrence Walker, library assistant Jan Christopher is eager to show everyone her diamond ring, and goes off on her scheduled round to deliver library books to the housebound – some of whom she likes; some, she doesn’t.

She encounters a cat in a cupboard, drinks several cups of tea... and loses her ring.

When two murders are committed, can Jan help her policeman uncle, DCI Toby Christopher and her fiancé, Laurie, discover whether murder was a deliberate deed – or a tragic mistake?

About Helen:

First accepted for traditional publication in 1993, Helen became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow Crown in the UK) with the sequel, Harold the King (US: I Am The Chosen King) being novels that explore the events that led to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Her Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy is a fifth-century version of the Arthurian legend, and she writes a nautical adventure/fantasy series, The Sea Witch Voyages. She has also branched out into the quick read novella, 'Cozy Mystery' genre with her Jan Christopher Murder Mysteries, set in the 1970s, with the first in the series, A Mirror Murder incorporating her, often hilarious, memories of working as a library assistant.

Her non-fiction books are Pirates: Truth and Tales and Life of A Smuggler. She lives with her family in an eighteenth-century farmhouse in North Devon and occasionally gets time to write...

Links:

A Mistake of Murder  by Helen Hollick available from an Amazon near you, or order from any bookstore. Paperback and e-book available.

https://mybook.to/MISTAKEofMURDER

Helen’s Amazon author page: 

https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick

Helen’s Website: https://helenhollick.net/

Subscribe to Helen’s Newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/HelenHollick