Category: Historical Fiction

Cover Reveal: 'The Mystery of Mad Alice Lane'

7/1/2022

'The Mystery of Mad Alice Lane'
Book Cover

What a great start to the New Year!
I'm delighted to present to you the book cover for my brand new short story, The Mystery of Mad Alice Lane, which is the prequel in The York Ladies' Detective Agency Mysteries. It was created by my hard-working and loyal cover designer, Lisa Horton, who's also responsible for all the Detective Lavender book covers. We do hope you like it.

Mad Alice Lane is a real alleyway in York, one of the many snickets that dissect the tall medieval streets. It is said to have once been the home of a poor woman who was hanged in the 18th century for the crime of insanity. Mad Alice Lane is dark, twisty and smells of damp masonry, rotting vegetables with a hint of Medieval slops. No doubt several other ghosts besides poor Alice flit along it's uneven flag-stoned floor at night!
I intend that all the book covers in this series will feature some of the amazing historical buildings and streets of York. Lisa and I are now busy working on the book cover for Smoke & Cracked Mirrors but can't decide between York Minster or The Shambles...ah, decisions, decisions, decisions...

Pre-order 'The Mystery of Mad Alice Lane' here

News: 'Willow Marsh' Audiobook Published

31/12/2021

I'm delighted to announce that the audiobook of The Willow Marsh Murder is now published and available to buy on Amazon.
I know many of my fans have been waiting a long time for this day.
I sincerely hope you all enjoy Michael Page narrating this latest instalment of Lavender and Woods' adventures.

Buy 'The Willow Marsh Murder' Audiobook Here

News: 'Smoke & Cracked Mirrors' available for pre-order

4/12/2021

It's been a long time a-coming!
I'm excited to announce that the eBook of SMOKE & CRACKED MIRRORS, the first full-length novel in my York Ladies' Detective Agency Mystery Series, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
It will be published on 15th April 2022 and the book cover will be uploaded in January.

York, England: 1940
‘An unsuitable job for a woman…’
When her husband goes ‘missing in action’, Jemma James returns to the city of her birth to set up a private detective agency with her best friend, Roberta ‘Bobbie’ Baker, with whom she shares a passionate love of Golden Age crime fiction.
These two enterprising young women soon find themselves embroiled in a series of mysterious cases, shadowing blackmailers and bigamists, and investigating the perplexing history of a wealthy young woman who seems determined to wipe out her past. And it’s not long before they stumble across an unsolved murder.
But the dead don’t stay dead for long in historic York.
As the ‘phoney war’ draws to a close, and the sky above the soaring twin towers of the twelfth century Minster darkens with menace, Jemma learns that even she is not above suspicion in wartime York.

Pre-order 'Smoke & Cracked Mirrors' here

News: Brand New Series!

24/11/2021

I am delighted to announce that in 2022, Famelton Publishing will release an introductory short story and the first two novels in my brand new series: The York Ladies' Detective Agency Mysteries.
The series will start with a short story, a prequel to the first full-length novel.

The Mystery of Mad Alice Lane

This short story, will be released on February 1st 2022. It tells the tale of how my intrepid sleuths, Jemma and Bobbie, solve the mystery of a murder in a shop window which baffled the police.
The first chapter of the full-length novel, Smoke & Cracked Mirrors, will be in the back.
This eBook will only cost $1.99/£1.99 pence and is an ideal opportunity for readers to sample my new series and decide if they want to follow my enterprising young women onto their next adventure.
There's no book cover yet, but The Mystery of Mad Alice Lane is already up on Amazon and is available to pre-order.

Pre-order 'The Mystery of Mad Alice Lane'

News: Audiobook for 'The Willow Marsh Murder'

17/8/2021

Publication Date:
31st December 2021

I am delighted to announce that the audiobook of The Willow Marsh Murder is scheduled for release on 31st December 2021. In addition to that, Tantor Media have confirmed that Michael Page has agreed, once again, to narrate the novel.

I know many of you have been waiting a long time for this audiobook and I hope you're as pleased as I am with this news.
I'm still waiting for confirmation about exactly where it will be sold. Obviously, listeners should be able to buy the audiobook from Amazon as normal, but I believe Tantor publish on a variety of platforms, so you may have more choice this time around.

Review: The Scent of Death

15/10/2020

THE SCENT OF DEATH
by Andrew Taylor

NEW FAVOURITE AUTHOR
I know I am late to the party (again) - Andrew Taylor has been writing award-winning historical mysteries for decades - but I've only just discovered his incredible novels!
I really enjoyed The Scent of Death and have happily ignored everything else on my TBR pile to go straight into the sequel, The Silent Boy.
Americans may find The Scent of Death particularly fascinating as it is set in 1778 in the besieged loyalist stronghold of New York in the middle of the War of Independence against Britain. I had a bit of a personal connection. Some of our Charlton ancestors left Northern England, emigrated to the Colony and farmed around New York at this time. When the Yankee rebels won the war, like many loyal to the Crown, they emigrated again to Canada. Having now read Taylor's vivid description of what life was like at the time, I can understand why they fled.
The Silent Boy is set ten years later in the aftermath of the French Revolution.
Both novels are highly recommended.

News: 'Murder in Park Lane' Reaches 50,000 Sales

25/9/2020

SUPER NEWS FROM MY PUBLISHERS!

I'm delighted to announce that 'Murder in Park Lane', book#5 in the Detective Lavender Mysteries, has just passed 50,000 sales worldwide.
That's at least 20,000 sales in the last year alone, and I sincerely hope it brought pleasure to every reader and a few hours distraction from the grim and frightening news about this nasty pandemic.
Thank you to all my loyal readers for their continued support.

News: My New Series...and Some adventures from Lockdown

13/8/2020

and some adventures from lockdown....

2020 has been a dreadful year for everyone across the globe, and I sincerely hope that all my readers and their families have stayed safe during this horrible pandemic.
Of course, us authors have been self-isolating since 4000 B.C., however, this little gad-about has had her wings well and truly clipped in 2020. So, with no social life or travel to distract me, I've quietly got on with my research for my new series of Gemma James Mysteries, the first book of which I've decided to call: Smoke & Cracked Mirrors.
I trawled through 1940's newspapers online; ordered and read a couple of obscure 1920's books from an antiquarian bookshop in the US; watched WW2 documentaries on TV and underwent a massive reading programme to re-acquaint myself with the 'Golden Age of Crime Fiction'. Most of the books I've read have been eBooks but the photo below shows a selection of the paperbacks/hardbacks I've acquired.

Unbelievably, I've also had a couple of adventures during lockdown while trying to research for my novel.
I made email contact with the staff at York Central Library, who have been incredibly helpful - but unknown to them, I also managed to get myself locked in their grounds during one of my visits to the deserted streets of this historic city.
The library was shut but I decided to take a few photos of the outside of the 1930s building. I found an open gate and wandered off down a path. There's a Roman wall at the bottom of their garden (as so often happens in York) and I was distracted by this for a while. When I returned, the 6 ft high, spiked gate had been locked. There was no way I was getting over that. I had to hail a passing electrician who went and fetched out a male librarian to release me. He gave me a funny look but thankfully, didn't ask for my name. York Library has several of my novels on their shelves and I really don't want them to know what a daft idiot I can be.
I also bought three non-fiction books about wartime York from a masked bookshop owner while standing outside the shop in the historic, cobbled street. This enterprising lady had opened her business but was serving everyone from over a tressle table blocking the door. She wouldn't let anyone handle the books so I told her what I wanted and she read out the blurb from the back covers and the chapter headings. I bought three. It was an interesting and unusual form of customer service but those books were incredibly helpful and as you can see from the photo below of my planning, I'm now ready to start writing.

Each of the postcards in the first three columns is 'scene' in my new novel. Each of the different colours represents a different 'case' my two lady detectives are investigating. Of course there's computer software available which would do this for me if I wanted to use it - but I love the tactile feel of writing a scene and then screwing up the postcard and tossing it into the wastepaper bin. I find it very satisfying to watch them disappear from the board.
Those postcards only represent HALF of the novel (I got bored of writing them out at this point). But I know from experience that once I get going, I may be able to finish the story without postcards.
Anyway, wish me luck. I aim to write 20,000 words a month, which should still give me plenty of time to potter in my garden and play with my grandson, Little Bruce.
Hopefully, the first draft of Smoke & Cracked Mirrorsshould be finished by Xmas.
Best wishes - and stay safe.
Karen Charlton x

Researching The 'Golden Age' of Crime Fiction

23/5/2020

The Murder AT The Vicarage

Why Agatha Christie Was So Popular

As part of my research for my new series set in York in WW2, I’m currently reading dozens of novels and short stories written by British ‘Golden Age’ crime writers. Detective crime fiction is an inspiration for my two new lady sleuths, Gemma James and Roberta ‘Bobbie’ Baker. I needed to find out what books they might have enjoyed.

York in the 1940s

I've also trawled hundreds of old newspapers to gain some historical perspective and I was shocked to read about a bitter argument in York in 1940 between a women’s group and the local police. The latter had refused to recruit female officers even though a quarter of their men had signed up to fight and left.
Prejudice against women was rife in British society and the police force at this time. It doesn’t seem to have crossed anyone’s mind that women were as capable as men at solving crimes.
This attitude is reflected in the 'Golden Age' crime fiction. Most of these detective stories are narrated by very clever men, who tell other very clever men how they – or one of their very clever male friends – solved the murder. This style of narration - made famous by Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes Mysteries - was copied relentlessly in the first half of the 20th Century.

A brilliant fictional female detective had yet to be created. This huge gap in the market was eventually filled by Agatha Christie with the elderly spinster, Miss Jane Marple, a character whose crime-solving mind is sharper than her knitting needles. No wonder she was so popular.
I have just re-read Murder in the Vicarage and – when put into context against the output of Christie’s contemporaries – it was a breath of fresh air. No wonder she was so popular.
Christie’s plots are always a devilish brain-tease and this one is no exception. But to have a female character solving a crime that baffled the police was a radical and ground-breaking development.
Christie never commented on politics or involved herself in political campaigns and I’m sure she would have hated to be called a ‘feminist’. But the creation of Jane Marple was a subtle and brave contribution towards changing society’s attitude and lifting the ignorant prejudice against female sleuths and detectives.

News: Cover Reveal!

17/4/2020

DEATH AT THE FROST FAIR

I'm absolutely delighted with the new book cover for my latest short story, Death at The Frost Fair. (To be published on May 22nd).
My fabulous designer, Lisa Horton, has bought and used an image from Alamy, depicting the real fair in February 1814 and I think she's used it so well. Scroll down to see the original old drawing.
'Death at the Frost Fair' is available to pre-order and costs $2.99/£2.99.
Pre-Order it HERE.