Three Cosy Mysteries to Escape in!

 It's time to cosy up and snuggle down with feel good reads, Gardner & Chattaway cosy mysteries are just perfect for hiding from the world... if only for a little while!

The Best Ingredients for a Cosy Mystery

 

What are the best ingredients needed to create a cosy mystery? Award winning, author, Michael Reidy gives an insight into the magic that makes this genre so very popular.

 

Readers are now familiar with the “cosy mystery” genre, but the origin of the term is elusive. It seems to have appeared in the 1980s as a branding exercise (creatio ex nihilo) by publishers to describe novels that imitated or were reminiscent of “the golden age” of detective fiction. Nonetheless, it is a very useful term to categorise mysteries – even murder mysteries – with certain characteristics.

Among the common features are a village setting (with a town hall, friendly police force, independent shops and restaurants, a parish church, a river or a canal, and one or more amateur or professional detectives), a relatively close community, and host of “the usual suspects” – eccentrics, outsiders, grumpy pensioners, local ne’er-do-wells, snobs, busybodies, twits, agreeable – or disagreeable – children, people with strong opinions, suspicious “foreigners” (who may just be from the next county), playboys, slovenly females, vicars, and old money or nouveau riche people “up at the big house.”

The final key element is that – in the true style of classical literature – the crime is solved and order restored.

It’s all very easy to parody and ridicule, but the appeal, success and endurance of cosy mysteries cannot be disputed. All of these identifiers can be traced at least back to Agatha Christie’s earliest works in the 1920s, and you’d have to be pretty churlish not to consider many of today’s examples anything but worthy successors.

Dare - Pauline Barclay’s third story in the Gardner & Chattaway series - has many of these ingredients and mixes them well to present the reader with credible plot lines, intrigue, humour, a sense of an essentially harmonious community (but not excessively so) with examples of both meanness and kindness, and, of course, enough crime to keep private investigators Craig Gardner and his young assistant, Roo Chattaway, in tea and biscuits.

No spoilers here, but the plot develops when a series of seemingly unrelated requests for investigation arrive on the desks of the detectives. Are they related?

Since the appearance of Serendipity in 2021 and Past Secrets and Lies (2022), Craig and Roo have settled into a trusted (though not always smooth) working relationship. Gardner is an ex-policeman who draws on his experiences and community connections, while Roo has more discipline than many of Gen Z, and is passionate about her rollerblading – and her boyfriend, Taylor.

Pauline Barclay’s eye and concerns for young people (recently featured in her short story, Tormentors) appears in Dare, and it is handled subtly and with sympathy – as are the observations on age.

Dare is engaging, nicely written, entertaining and reassuring: all that a cosy mystery should be.

One caution: if you’re a cat lover (not, I, for certain) you may wish to put your animal in another room as Barney, the office dog, scampers about quite a bit.

 

Dare is available in Kindle and paperback from all Amazon sites

Amazon co uk

 

You can find all 20 of Michael Reidy’s books by clicking on the link below

Amazon co uk

Bullying! What do you know?

As you know, earlier this year I wrote and published a short story, Tormentors, after meeting a young man who had been so badly bullied he wanted to take his own life!

Thanks to a wonderful organisation, Red Balloon in Norwich, a charity that helps traumatised children who can no longer attend mainstream school, Sam was slowly and carefully nurtured and today is a credit to his family and Red Balloon.

Tormentors is just 12,000 words that will open your eyes and break your heart on how crushing bullying is.

Tormentors is fiction based on Sam's story.

It's a must read for every parent giving a glimpse into how clever bullies operate and how they terrorise their victims. 

Tormentors is available in Kindle and paperback.

Amazon co uk

Newsletter - September

 Hello and a warm welcome to my September newsletter.

A huge thank you to all of you who have agreed to receive notification when my letter is published. Also a special thank you for popping along and catching up with what's going on in my world.

I hope the last months have been great for you and those who live in the northern hemisphere you all have had a great summer and relaxing holidays.

And, those living down under are looking forward to spring, warmth and the colours of spring.

For me, it's been up and down!

Sadly, throughout July and part of of August I suffered with shingles!

I had no idea you could get them twice!

I had them 14 years ago and thought that would be the end of it... but no!

Despite this, wonderful things have happened.

The third book in my Gardner & Chattaway cosy mystery series was published at the end of August. All the details are below.

Also with little training over the last two months, I still did the Norwich 10k on 8th September - a hot and sunny day! It was very tough, but I ran through the finishing line and was handed my medal. Pic below.

So, it wasn't all bad and there were many things to smile about and enjoy.

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A Gardner & Chattaway Cosy Mystery – Book 3

 Craig Gardner, Private Investigator and his young Assistant, Roo Chattaway find themselves caught up in events that will change people’s lives forever.

 How did a unique model submarine end up in the mud on the riverbed? Why are the police surrounding the church? What has caused a sudden spate of household robberies? And does a woman walking down the street have anything to do with what happened fifty-nine years ago?

Dare, is the third in a series of feel good, mystery novellas.

Available in

Kindle & paperback

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Norwich 10k - I saved my energy and breath for the last dash to the finishing line, thankfully the pain of the course is not visible!!!

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As usual with my newsletter here are a selection of photos taken by me of late

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Just a reminder about my newsletter, if you do agree to allow me to send a link to your email address to let you know it is out, I want to reassure you that you can unsubscribe at any time, just email me and say remove me. Also I will NEVER use your email other than if I need to email you. I will never share with anyone else.

As to the content, it is designed to be fun with me sharing: my photos, snippets of information, offers or free books from award winning authors, a design or two I have created using my Photoshop and anything else that I think might interest you. It is not about my opinion on any matter. I want my newsletter to make you smile and leave you with a warm feeling.

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Celebrating Success – My Podcasts

If you have missed any of the many podcasts, you can catch up at https://paulinebarclay.podbean.com

You can also listen to ALL my podcast on SPOTIFY!

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So what next?

At the moment I am taking a little time off from writing, but hope to pick up my quill sometime soon.

As of this August, I have 11 books published, all available from Amazon.

If you haven't dipped into any of them, may be for the winter, it might be worth taking a peek and curling up with one or, dare I say, all of my books and snuggle down to a good, feel good read with a sprinkling of emotion.

Amazon co uk

or you can check out my web site

Pauline's World of Books

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Books Worth Checking Out!

Button Box:

Rascals & Revenge

by Ruth Enright

When Susan and Baxter fall into the employ of Bram Jarvis, a man with revenge on his mind, they are soon caught up in strange new adventures. Meanwhile, old enemies are still on the loose.

Susan time slips between two very different worlds. Her everyday present is at home and school but by night she has a magical past in Victorian London. There Baxter, a Pearly King coster boy and rat catcher, has taken her under his wing. Children alone in the crowded city, Baxter’s trades bring them into unusual company across a richly varied society.

Each of her worlds is just as real to Susan, who never knows what might happen next in either of them during the twists and turns of this exciting sequel to Button Box.

Amazon co uk

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Northaw

by Michael Reidy

Northaw is the recently-discovered first novel by Alabama-born Ben Nitaokpulo who tragically died in 2020, aged 40. Part Choctaw, Nitaokpulo eschewed being referred to anything but American, and it was traveling writing about America was what he loved best. His blog, “Following the Path,” had a dedicated following, and his first book Who’d Want to Live Here? (2016) brought some of those pieces to a more paper-based audience.
He followed that with three novels that drew on his strong sense of place. Northern Noise (2017), The Girl from Rapid City (2019) and the posthumously published Black Warriors (2021) furthered his reputation as a story teller.
Following his death, fellow blogger and friend, Cordelia “Dolly” Madison, was convinced that there was another book, written before Northern Noise that lay somewhere undiscovered. The story of Northaw’s discovery is told in her own blog, “Alabama Dreaming”, and divers magazine articles.
A mysterious girl and a forgotten plantation mansion in antebellum Alabama form the foundation of this tale of a family, a homestead, and a river, all meandering along unaware of the turbulence just beyond the horizon.

Available in Kindle & paperback

Amazon co uk

Amazon com

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Well, that's it for this newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to read it.

 Please share with your friends and I hope you will take a look at Dare... thank you!

If you would like me to email you with the link to the next newsletter, please email me  using the contact form in the right hand column.

Until next time, I hope the sun is shining on your face

and in your heart.

Take care. Look after yourself and each other.

Hugs

Pauline x

Five stars for Dare

Excited to share Dare's first 5 star review on Amazon.

"I really enjoyed meeting Craig and PI Roo again in this third book of the cosy mystery series. It thoroughly entertains, with plenty of twists and tugs on the reader's heartstrings as the various plot strands develop. Not forgetting the incomparable Barney, Craig's loveable Cockerpoo! I am hoping for a book four!"

Available in Kindle & paperback

Amazon co uk

Now in Paperback!

Dare is now available in paperback

A Gardner & Chattaway Cosy Mystery – Book 3

 Craig Gardner, Private Investigator and his young Assistant, Roo Chattaway find themselves caught up in events that will change people’s lives forever.

How did a unique model submarine end up in the mud on the riverbed? Why are the police surrounding the church? What has caused a sudden spate of household robberies? And does a woman walking down the street have anything to do with what happened fifty-nine years ago?

Dare, is the third in a series of feel good, mystery novellas.

Links to Amazon co uk

Paperback

Kindle

Publication Day for DARE

 

It's publication day for 

Dare in Kindle.

Dare is book 3 in the Gardner & Chattaway cosy mystery series

Amazon co uk