The perfect setting for a new DI Horton crime novel
The news that two Solent forts have been sold and will be turned into a luxury hotel and a museum gives me some great ideas for a new DI Andy Horton crime novel. I've already featured Spitbank Fort in A Killing Coast, the seventh in the DI Horton crime series with a body floating close to it.
Spitbank Fort is owned by the same company who has now bought two other forts in the Solent, Horse Sand Fort and No Man’s Land Fort.
Clarenco bought Spitbank Fort in 2009 and has turned it into a hotel and conference centre in a £3 million revamp. I've not been on it yet though I have been angling for an invitation. It would make for a great publicity shoot, but perhaps they're not very fond of having a crime writer on board!
No Man’s Land Fort is over 35,000 sq ft, three times the size of Spitbank Fort, and was converted into a luxury hotel in the 1990s. Working with English Heritage, Clarenco said it wanted to restore it to its former glory with plans to develop 30 bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool, games and billiards room and several meeting and dining spaces.
Planning has also been approved for a helipad. I don't think I need one of these yet but the police helicopter could certainly land there and Clarenco have plans for a marina and harbour area. Perfect for the police launch with DI Andy Horton on board with Sergeant Dai Elkins and PC Ripley.
I can definitely feel a new Horton novel coming on. Better finish the one I'm writing first though I guess, which will hopefully be published early 2013. Meanwhile A Killing Coast has been published this year and Death Lies Beneath, the eighth in the Horton series is to be published in July 2012.
Spitbank Fort is owned by the same company who has now bought two other forts in the Solent, Horse Sand Fort and No Man’s Land Fort.
Clarenco bought Spitbank Fort in 2009 and has turned it into a hotel and conference centre in a £3 million revamp. I've not been on it yet though I have been angling for an invitation. It would make for a great publicity shoot, but perhaps they're not very fond of having a crime writer on board!
No Man’s Land Fort is over 35,000 sq ft, three times the size of Spitbank Fort, and was converted into a luxury hotel in the 1990s. Working with English Heritage, Clarenco said it wanted to restore it to its former glory with plans to develop 30 bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool, games and billiards room and several meeting and dining spaces.
Planning has also been approved for a helipad. I don't think I need one of these yet but the police helicopter could certainly land there and Clarenco have plans for a marina and harbour area. Perfect for the police launch with DI Andy Horton on board with Sergeant Dai Elkins and PC Ripley.
I can definitely feel a new Horton novel coming on. Better finish the one I'm writing first though I guess, which will hopefully be published early 2013. Meanwhile A Killing Coast has been published this year and Death Lies Beneath, the eighth in the Horton series is to be published in July 2012.
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