KAREN CHARLTON
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Welcome to the official website of historical novelist KAREN CHARLTON

News: Success of 'Irish Nell' & 'The Willow Marsh Murder'

9/1/2020

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HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

2020 has already begun with a BANG! for myself and Detective Stephen Lavender.
My short story, The Death of Irish Nell has had a flurry of sales over the last few month, especially in the UK, and is doing very well in the Amazon rankings. It was lovely to see her awarded an Amazon 'Best Seller' badge.
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In addition to this, both Irish Nell and my forthcoming new novel, The Willow Marsh Murder, have been promoted on Amazon as HOT NEW RELEASES in Historical Mysteries.
Apart from doing my famous 'Happy Author Dance' around the kitchen, I added a sexy little wiggle at the end of my usual routine to celebrate my hotness.  Although, when several FB readers on my Author Page asked if they could buy tickets or get video evidence, I stopped that nonsense straight away. (Winky Face)
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News: Cover Reveal for 'The Willow March Murder'

12/12/2019

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Book Cover:
The Willow Marsh Murder

I'm delighted to reveal the amazing book cover for The Willow Marsh Murder, the sixth Detective Lavender Mystery. The Willow Marsh Murder, is due to be published on 1st February 2020 and is now available to pre-order on Amazon.  Simply follow this link or click on the image below.
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Once again, I'm in awe at the imagination and skill of my designer, Lisa Horton. I'm particularly impressed with how she took a stock photo we bought from Alamy of the Great Ouse River near Brandon Creek (a remote area which sees a lot of dramatic action in the novel) and turned it into the background for the book cover.

Of course, Ely Cathedral isn't really in that spot but we all have to suspend our imagination a bit now and then.

I hope you like the finished product as much as I do. 
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News: Cover Reveal for 'The Death of Irish Nell'

8/11/2019

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Revealed: The book Cover For
'The Death of Irish Nell'

TA-RAH!!!
And finally...we have a book cover for The Death of Irish Nell (to be published on 1st December).
I thought grey would be a great contrast to the vivid colours I normally use and I think my cover designer, Lisa Horton, has once again done a super job.
Now you can see what it looks like, if you fancy pre-ordering The Death of Irish Nell at the reduced price of £1.199/$1.99 the link is HERE.
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News: Two New Lavender Mysteries

6/10/2019

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TWO BRAND NEW LAVENDER MYSTERIES TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS!

There are exciting times ahead! 

I'm delighted to announce there will be TWO brand new Detective Lavender Mysteries published in the next six months: The Death of Irish Nell (a short story) and The Willow Marsh Murder (a full-length novel).

The Death of Irish Nell is due out on December 1st, 2019. The book cover is still being designed by the brilliant Lisa Horton (who's created all my lovely book covers) but it should be here soon. Meanwhile, the eBook of is already available to pre-order at the reduced price of $1.99 / £1.99.
 
The Death of Irish Nell is the prequel to my new full-length novel, The Willow Marsh Murder, which is due out in February. The Death of Irish Nell is a taster which has been especially written to whet my readers' appetites while we all wait for the publication of The Willow Marsh Murder. The short story features an early case of Lavender's, which he worked on with Woods at the start of his career as a Principal Officer. The decisions Lavender made back then have a profound effect on both of them ten years later when they're summoned to solve another murder at Willow Marsh Manor in Cambridgeshire.
Here's the blurb and a link to pre-order The Death of Irish Nell. 
Pre-order
The Death of Irish Nell 
Here
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News: 50K Sales for 'Plague Pits & River Bones'

28/3/2019

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Plague Pits & River Bones
​Reaches fifty thousand readers

My publishers have just told me that Plague Pits & River Bones (Book #4) has now surpassed fifty thousand sales. 
I feel humbled and incredibly proud that so many people are buying and enjoying my Detective Lavender novels.
Thank you for your support.
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Article:  Murderous Underwear

4/3/2019

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Killer Corsets

I first came across the unusual effect corsets can have on stab victims while researching the assassination of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria in 1898. ‘Sisi’ as she was called by her family and friends was generally considered to be one of the most beautiful women in Europe and she had the world at her feet.  That same world was devastated when she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist while walking with her lady-in-waiting to catch a steam boat on Lake Geneva. 

Part of Sisi’s tragedy is that her life may have been saved if her corset hadn’t been so tight.
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Empress Elisabeth of Austria
Due to the pressure from her tight undergarment, the haemorrhage of blood was slowed to mere drops. This confused her attendants who didn’t realise she was fatally injured and were slow to seek medical help. She was helped to her feet, walked another one hundred yards and boarded the steamer which left port. It was part way across the lake before she lost consciousness. Only then did her servants and the crew realise that they needed to turn back for urgent medical help. It was too late.

When I read about Empress Elisabeth’s murder, I knew I’d discovered an unusual device I could use in my fifth Detective Lavender Mystery, Murder in Park Lane. And my victim didn’t have to be restricted to a woman either.  Fat Regency gentlemen (including the Prince Regent) often used male corsets. 
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Further research revealed that the internal bleeding caused by a single stab wound to a tightly-corsetted victim would probably cause them to lose consciousness within half an hour. But a dying person can travel a significant distance from the scene of the crime in half an hour, even in the horse-drawn world of the early 19th century. In addition to that, stabbing is a silent crime and if the victim was alone, the absence of a blood trail would make it very difficult, even impossible, for an investigator like my Bow Street Principal Officer, Stephen Lavender, to identify where the attack actually took place. 

But where would be the fun in an unresolved crime?  

If you’d like to follow how Lavender rose to the challenge and solved the strange murder of David MacAdam in The Murder in Park Lane, you can purchase the novel here. 
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News: 'Murder in Park Lane' Published

13/2/2019

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Fifth Detective Lavender Mystery
An Instant Best-Seller

Murder in Park Lane, the fifth novel in The Detective Lavender Mystery Series, was published on February 12th 2019 and within 24 hours it was already in the Top 200 on Amazon.com - and had  a Best-Seller tag.
At the time of typing, it is the best-selling novel in Historical Thrillers.
​Go, Lavender!
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News: Cover Reveal

1/11/2018

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Murder In Park Lane

I'm delighted to reveal the wonderful new book cover for Murder in Park Lane, the fifth novel in The Detective Lavender Mystery Series, which will be published on February 12th 2019.
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News: 'The Sans Pareil Mystery' reaches 100,000 sales

30/6/2018

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Sales Milestone for The Second Book In The Lavender Series

I received a lovely surprise in the post today from my publishers - a plaque marking 100,000 sales of my second book in the Detective Lavender Series, The Sans Pareil Mystery. 
I've now got a matching pair on the wall in the study.
The same plaque for The Heiress of Linn Hagh arrived two years ago.
​I'm a very happy little author today.
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News: Researching in Ely

16/10/2017

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Researching Lavender Book #5

The summer is over, the academic year has started again and I've gone back to work. 
I've recently spent four days researching for the fifth Detective Lavender Mystery in the tiny cathedral town of Ely in the watery fenland of Cambridgeshire.
Armed with a notebook and my phone camera, I've pounded the city streets; visited three museums and a nature reserve and taken two boat trips through the rural countryside.
I take photos of anything and everything which I think may come in useful from rush matting on the floor of ancient cottages to information plaques about the flora and fauna. My quest was to get 'a feel' for life in this remote and harsh area in the early part of the nineteenth century. I wanted to know about the social history of the people and their lifestyle. No detail was too small to note, whether it was the diseases that plagued them, how they survived the winter or how their gaols/jails were run.
Anyway, here are a few of the photos that will inspire my writing over the next few months. Enjoy.
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