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

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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News: Publication date for 'Plague Pits & River Bones'

27/8/2017

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D-Day: 11th January 2018

That's the date,folks.
On the 11th January 2018, Thomas & Mercer will publish the fourth novel in The Detective Lavender Mystery Series:
​Plague Pits & RIver Bones. 
It's already up for pre-order on Amazon with its lovely new book cover and racy blurb and this happy, little author is doing an excited dance around the kitchen.
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Pre-order on Amazon
London 1812: Savage gangs intent on treachery and revolt besiege the capital, while a brooding menace stalks the corridors of the Palace of Westminster. When Detective Stephen Lavender is called in to investigate a highway robbery and a cold-blooded murder, both the cases take a dangerous and disturbing personal twist.
Meanwhile, Lavender’s trusted deputy, Constable Ned Woods, finds a mysterious, severed foot washed up on Greenwich Beach. They soon realise that these ancient bones are more sinister than they first appeared.
With Bow Street Police Office undermanned and in disarray, it will take all of Lavender and Woods’ wit and skill, with help from Lavender’s spirited wife, Magdalena, to unmask the fiend behind the mayhem; restore peace and justice to the beleaguered city and solve the tragic mystery of the severed foot.
But will they do so in time to foil a plot that threatens to plunge the country into chaos?
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News: Wonderful sales for 'The Sculthorpe Murder'

21/6/2017

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'THE SCULTHORPE MURDER' REACHES 50,000 SALES

I am absolutely delighted. My publishers have just informed me that 'The Sculthorpe Murder' has already made 50,000 sales worldwide in the 9 months since its publication. It seems unbelievable that this many readers have followed Detective Lavender and Constable Woods to the third book in the series. In addition to this, the reviews on both sides of the Atlantic have been fantastic! It has an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars in the UK.
My happy but crazy imagination is now trying to work out what 50,000 readers look like...it's a football stadium full, isn't it? 
Cue happy author dance around the kitchen....
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News: New novel to be published in December

18/4/2017

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PUBLISHING DEAL FOR
PLAGUE PITS & RIVER BONES

I'm delighted to announce that Thomas & Mercer have agreed to publish the fourth Detective Lavender Mystery: Plague Pits & River Bones.
​I don't have a firm date for publication yet, but it MAY be as early as December 2017.
In the meantime, I have a few more days left to tweak the manuscript before I submit it to my editors.
Over the last six weeks, I have pain-stakingly removed 6,500 surplus words and phrases. Then with the help of my friendly Alpha-readers I've restructured it and tightened it some more. The novel, my most complicated plot to date, has now gone down from 110,000 words to 100,000 and is a lot better for this revision.
It'll go thorugh three more rounds of edits with Thomas & Mercer and, hopefully, by December it will be a smooth, thrilling and enjoyable read.
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BBC RADIO INTERVIEW

14/1/2017

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The Real Stephen Lavender

Today I was interviewed about my recent contact with the living descendants of Stephen Lavender and what I've learned about the real Bow Street officer.
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