Crime in Cornwall (British Book Tour Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Publisher: Camel Press (October 13, 2020)
Paperback: 228 pages
Synopsis
Patrick and Rita Stonning, Claire’s neighbors in Ashton-on-Tinch, dash down from London on weekends to host loud parties. They work in a publishing house and use their Ashton semi-detached home as a break from big city stress. Patrick arrives at Claire’s door distraught, reporting one of his partygoers, Olive Nott a best-selling author, dead. Claire discovers that not only is he dead, he’s been murdered. Patrick is suspected of the murder and has enough motive to satisfy the police. Nott wrote mysteries set in Cornwall and had planned to take his lucrative contracts to a competing company. His latest book dealt with smuggling in the caves of Cornwall. The police, including DI Mark Evans from the newly formed Major investigations Team wonder if he learned too much from his research. Claire takes her six tourists, most from America, to the Cornwall coast in search of sites of mystery novels and hears the opinions of the Cornish people on smuggling. She asks Patrick to meet her in Penzance to give a guest lecture on the smuggling in Oliver Nott’s novels. Claire finds Patrick self-aggrandizing and arrogant but doesn’t agree he would murder and sets out to find the one responsible.
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Guest Post
Claire Barclay, tour guide for those fascinated by mystery novels, is getting ready for her trip to the sites of mystery novels in Cornwall. Her neighbors on the other side of their shared wall keep her awake with their loud party, In the morning Patrick Stonning arrives at the door distraught to report one of his guests murdered, and not just any guests, Oliver Nott, a well known thriller writer. Claire talks it over with her significant other, Detective Inspector Mark Evans, but leaves him with the problem, collects her guests, and drives them to Cornwall. One of the guests is Dr. Lena Jane Prior. The following is her point of view.
I came on this tour of Cornwall to do research for an article, as I need more articles to get tenure at the University of Washington. “Publish or perish” is still operating in academia. I’m studying the author Mary Wesley. She lived in Cornwall for many years, so this excursion should offer me stimulus, even if I have to deal with the mystery fans who make up the majority of the people on this tour. Mysteries seem tame to me, I prefer the excitement of reality. But the intelligent people on this tour appreciate them, so perhaps I’m wrong.
The tourist who isn’t enamored by literature of any kind is George Baker, a rather attractive Englishman, who seems to have an agenda of his own. Mary Wesley’s example of indulgence might apply to George on this trip. I’ll stay aware of him. There is always someone in any gathering who is ready for pleasure. I was looking forward to this trip as a diversion from my life in Seattle. Although, from my email correspondence with Oliver, I expected to resume our affair. I hadn’t planned on murder.
The murder shook me. I joined the tour with relief, aching to escape interrogation by British detectives. While I was happy Oliver Nott had finally gotten his just deserts and died as only a low-life like him should, I didn’t expect to be seen as a suspect. I wasn’t the only person with a past liaison with him. He was serially promiscuous; which I have to admit I am myself. But now, he is seriously complicating my life. I need to get back to the States at the end of this tour and I can’t do it without my passport. Can the police in this country just take your passport? Apparently, they can. If I don’t get it back soon, can they keep me in England? I’ll ask the tour guide, Claire Barclay, who in spite of, or perhaps because of, her continually pleasant manner and considerate behaviour, can be irritating. But she is my best bet for getting my passport.
I’ve been after here for over a week but, and the police still have my passport. I’ve demanded it back many times. It’s strange to feel an alien in England. I thought I’d feel at home because I’ve studied English literature for so long. I wonder if there is anything in the theory that we have a collective, ancestral heritage. I should be accepted here, as my ancestors came from Kent. Of course, Cornwall feels like a country separate from the rest of Britain. It has its own flag, and, at least, parts of its own language. The people seem aloof, although Claire manages to talk to everyone and get cooperation from the local people. She does have a way of getting what customers want and need. She should be able to get my passport back. She must get it back. She’s on very good terms, even intimate terms, with the detective inspector. It’s her job to get my passport back. I wanted to visit here; not live here, especially not in jail.
As you can see, Dr. Prior is not particularly likable, but she’s interesting, and she gives Claire, the protagonist, quite a bit of trouble.
This is Fowey, pronounced Foy where Claire takes her guests.
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About the Author
Emma Dakin lives in Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. She has over twenty-five trade published books of mystery and adventure for teens and middle-grade children and non-fiction for teens and adults. Her love of the British countryside and villages and her addiction to cozy mysteries now keep her writing about characters who live and work in those villages. She introduces readers to the problems that disturb that idyllic setting.
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