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

13/8/2020

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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.
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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.
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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
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Researching The 'Golden Age' of Crime Fiction

23/5/2020

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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. 
PictureYork 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. 

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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.

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