The idea behind THE SOUTH BINNESS MURDERS

Two things inspired me for THE SOUTH BINNESS MURDERS, DI Andy Horton Solent Murder Mystery (16), one, that things aren’t always what they appear to be on the surface, and two the matter of contrasts.

In this DI Andy Horton mystery I chose to have a blood-stained abandoned boat belonging to a Portsmouth refuse collector – who could either have had an accident and fallen overboard or been murdered – and an art theft which isn’t an art theft in the usual way. 

This is the contrast between the visible world of art with the invisible one of a refuse collector (after all no one really looks at a bin man!) and between someone who creates and another who disposes.

And of course, nothing is as it appears to be on the surface.  What really lies beneath the art theft? And is the missing refuse collector all he appears to be?

Essentially it’s a tale of greed and guilt which lead to murder and which Andy Horton has to solve.

One of the most interesting things when writing the book was working out what the blood stains on the abandoned boat in Langstone Harbour meant. In order to do this I consulted a forensic scientist, an expert on Blood Pattern Analysis. He could tell me how the victim might have met his grisly end and what could have killed him. Why he was he killed though and who did it was down to me – or I should say down to the killer, who DI Andy Horton, of course, manages to find but not after many trials, tribulations and red herrings along the way.

I hope you enjoy reading THE SOUTH BINNESS MURDERS (16)