The inspiration behind THE COWES WEEK MURDERS

It's Cowes Week 29 July to 4 August 2023 so what better time to promote THE COWES WEEK MURDERS, no. 10 in the Detective Inspector Andy Horton Solent Murder Mystery Series!

THE COWES WEEK MURDERS opens with Andy sailing off the Isle of Wight on the small yacht on which he lives. He’s trying to find inner peace after a gruelling investigation which has left him questioning his desire to remain in the job.

His ongoing conflict with his nit-picking, control-freak, Alpha female boss DCI Lorraine Bliss doesn’t help matters either. He’s also seeking to escape the mental torment being caused by the startling revelations his own private investigations are revealing into the disappearance of his mother, Jennifer,when he was ten.

Then a call comes from Sergeant Cantelli, Horton’s most revered friend, and colleague in CID, to say that his nephew, Johnnie is missing. Johnnie was due to join a sailing team on one of the large yachts taking part in the racing during Cowes Week. The news brings Horton straight back to work and on the investigation into Johnnie's disappearance which soon triggers a race to find a killer.

While researching the novel I  also found another rather unique location which I just had to bring in, that of the ancient fortifications on the northern border of the island city of Portsmouth, five miles across the Solent from the Isle of Wight, the Hilsea Lines where the charred remains of a body are found.

In THE COWES WEEK MURDERS, as in some of  my other crime novels, I’ve drawn on my husband’s expertise, he is a retired fire fighter and can provide valuable assistance when it comes to researching fires and charred bodies.

Cantelli’s missing nephew also brings Horton’s personal emotions into focus as he continues his investigation in the disappearance of his mother.

The inspiration for this one like many of the novels in the series featuring my flawed and rugged Portsmouth detective from the location. It is locations that inspire me and with the Horton series, set against the powerfully evocative British marine landscape of the Solent on the South Coast of England, there is always a good place to put a body.

Placing my crime novels against the backdrop of the sea has many advantages. The sea is never constant. In one day it can change from being calm to turbulent. It is also dangerous, misleading and evil like many villains, and although it can look safe, beneath can be a sandbank, a rock, a wreck, a dangerous current all of which can cause havoc and kill, and be used to good effect in a crime novel. It also provides a great backdrop for pace and great settings for a climax, which, of course, I’ve used in THE COWES WEEK MURDERS.

The sea is also completely uncontrollable. No matter how much you think or wish you can control it, you can't, you need to respect it. In life sometimes you need to go with the flow and other times swim against the tide, the trick is knowing when to do which. My detective, Andy Horton, hasn't quite got it sussed, or when he thinks he has something happens to throw him completely off course, just as in life.