The #MysteryNovember Book Tour Day 4 – Frances Evesham @FrancesEvesham #wwwblogs

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It’s Day 4 of the #MysteryNovember book tour.

Mystery Book Tour Bus copyright

Today our guest is Frances Evesham and her book Murder At The Lighthouse

lighthouse cover photo large

Book blurb

Love cosy crime? Feed your little grey cells on Murder at the Lighthouse, a short culinary mystery set in a small seaside town in Somerset.

Everyone knows the dead woman under the lighthouse, but no one seems to know why she died. What brought the folk-rock star back to Exham on Sea after so many years? Who wanted her dead? Did the key to her murder lie in the town, or far away across the Atlantic?

Libby Forest arrives on the coast after years in a disastrous marriage, determined to build a new life making cakes and chocolates in Exham on Sea. She finds the body and discovers her own talent for solving mysteries, helped by Bear, an enormous Carpathian Sheepdog, and Fuzzy, an aloof marmalade cat. Libby joins forces with secretive Max Ramshore and risks the wrath of the townspeople as she puts together the pieces of the jigsaw to solve the mystery of Susie Bennett’s death.

Pit your wits against Exham’s female sleuth and solve the mystery.

The first short read in the series, set in the coastal resort of Exham on Sea, Murder at the Lighthouse introduces a cast of local characters, including Mandy the teenage Goth, Frank Wolf the baker at Wolf’s the Bread and Detective Sergeant Joe Ramshore, Max’s estranged son. The green fields, rolling hills and sandy beaches of the West Country provide the perfect setting for crime, intrigue and mystery, for lovers of Agatha Christie novels, Midsomer Murders, lovable animals and cake.

Frances cropped

Where is your home town? 

I live in Burnham on Sea, in Somerset, although I’ve only been here for 20 years, so I’m still a newcomer in Somerset terms. Burnham is the inspiration for Exham on Sea. As the series features a collection of sometimes eccentric characters, I’ve set the stories in a mythical place, to avoid giving offence to friends and neighbours.

What do you like about writing in the mystery genre? 

Sir John Gielgud put his long life down to solving crossword puzzles: he lived to be 97. Just like crosswords, mysteries exercise your little grey cells, challenge and tease, then leave you with a deep sense of satisfaction when the pieces fit together and you find the answer. It’s even more fun to write them.

What sub-genre of mystery does your book fit?

Murder at the Lighthouse is a short cosy mystery, one of a series of quick reads, where the focus is on discovering ‘who (or why) dunnit’ rather than on gory murder scenes. To go even further my sub-genre, it’s a British cosy animal, culinary, small town seaside mystery. Who knew there could be so many sub-genres?

Where is your book set?

As mystery fans will have spotted, I gave that away in my first answer! Somerset is perfect for mystery, with sea, hills and the famous flooding levels all within easy reach. In autumn, when the confusingly named Spring tides are high, the sea is a treacherous place. That’s why the body shows up under the lighthouse in the first Exham on Sea story. Then, the weather calms and Glastonbury Tor rises like a ghost out of the November mists, promising more mystery, murder and mayhem.

Can you introduce us to the main characters?

Libby Forest, widowed after a long, unhappy marriage, comes to Exham to build a new life, with her true love, cooking. Along with the aloof cat Fuzzy, and Bear, the enormous Carpathian Sheepdog, she’s determined to get to the bottom of the mysterious death at the lighthouse. Then, there’s elegant, puzzling Max, Mandy the teenage goth, and a few gossipy members of the local history society, who somehow never get around to talking about history – there’s far too much happening right now in Exham.

 

Where can readers find out more about you and your writing?

I tweet (a lot) at www.twitter.com/francesevesham

and an author page at Author.to/francesevesham

I have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/frances.evesham.writer

My website is at www.francesevesham.com

Where can readers find your book?

Murder at the Lighthouse is available from Amazon, currently on sale. Snap it up quickly, because it goes back to its usual price tomorrow!http://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Lighthouse-Exham-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B015RR2C4C

Here’s a universal link that should take readers to the Amazon page in their own country myBook.to/murderatthelighthouse

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Lighthouse-Exham-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B015RR2C4C

 

 

29 thoughts on “The #MysteryNovember Book Tour Day 4 – Frances Evesham @FrancesEvesham #wwwblogs”

  3. I’ve just downloaded this, Frances – hope to get to it before the end of the year! I’ve never read anything of yours but have heard good reports, so I thought now was a good time 🙂

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  6. *waves* they say to write about what you know….but I think it’s also true to set a novel where you know. I sometimes read a book set in London, but written by an American author (Dan Brown is a prim example of this) where the writer has clearly based his setting on either old films or google. It just doesn’t read true…better to stick to what you know..after ll. most of us don’t know Somerset….until we read your boo, that is

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    • Waves back with thumbs up. I recently read a seaside mystery set in Cornwall, written by someone who’d clearly never been! Only trouble with writing about a place I know well is that I might offend people living here.

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    • Carol, Carol, I couldn’t agree more. I was talking to a proofreader I know about this; she was saying that she always knows when the writer has never been to the place because it’s full of ‘I walked down the Rue de Something, admiring the Jardins de Whatever on my left, before turning left into the Place de Blah Blah’ – and as for the Americans who’ve never set foot in England…

      It’s why all my books are set in Northants or surrounding counties, East Anglia partic Norfolk, and the North East!! I’ll do a little internet research for a minor scene or two, or even use some of the few places I have actually been to, but you have to understand the FEEL of a place, I think.

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  7. I read with interest the Amazon sampler and was immediately drawn into the story. I loved your characterization. The characters are 3d. You have also pushed me into doing something I have been thinking about for some time. I write thrillers but never published shorts and I have a few of them. I think I’ll put a couple out. I’ll be purchasing a copy and promise I’ll review All the best Frances.

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    • Many thanks, Ray, I’m flattered. I found I really enjoyed writing shorts – and people seem to like the idea. I’m well into the next one now, which feels a bit like writing a serial. I’ll look out for yours…

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  8. Pingback: #MysteryNovember Day 4 – Frances Evesham | The Write Stuff

  10. Your book sounds so cozy and intriguing. Just the thing to read on a cold wintery night. I must get some hot chocolate to go with it.

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  13. Rosie’s wonderful blog always costs me money in the end when I can’t resist a review in a genre I love. It only took me a second to download all the way to North Carolina. Looking forward to this new author, a Somerset setting, and a women who hopes to reinvent herself. Thanks for this tempting story.

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