DEAD PASSAGE. number fourteen in the DI Andy Horton mystery series. is set in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. A
mysterious telephone call sends Horton on a complex and twisted
investigation into the death of a local politician twelve years ago and
uncovers a trail of lies, secrets and revenge with roots deep in the
past. See one of the locations featured in DEAD PASSAGE and read an extract.
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Dead Passage, DI Andy Horton mystery 14 by Pauline Rowson
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This is No Man's Fort which, like another of the Solent Forts, Spitbank Fort, is now a unique luxury hotel and well worth a stay or a visit for lunch. It is one of the locations used in DEAD PASSAGE, a DI Andy Horton mystery
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No Man's Fort - Solent featured in crime novel DEAD PASSAGE
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About the Solent Forts
Fear of invasion by the French led by Napoleon III resulted in the commissioning of these sea based defences by British Prime Minister Lord Henry Palmerston. Concerned that the naval fleet and Portsmouth dockyard would be a target, work began on five commissioned forts in the 1860s. With 15ft granite walls and armour plating, these magnificent structures are testament to the skill of Victorian engineering. Taking 15 years to complete, by the time the forts were ready for occupation, the feared French threat of invasion no longer existed and hence, the forts became known as "Palmerston’s follies”.
My grateful thanks to Solent Forts for helping me with my research for DEAD PASSAGE
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Pauline Rowson on No Man's Fort, Solent researching for DEAD PASSAGE, DI Andy Horton mystery
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On research for DI Andy Horton mystery 14 DEAD PASSAGE
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Pauline Rowson writing up notes on No Man's Fort for DI Andy Horton 14 DEAD PASSAGE
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An extract from DEAD PASSAGE
Horton drank his coffee and stared out at the grey, increasingly choppy sea. There were only a couple of hardy sailors braving it and a launch which was making its way towards the solid circular granite structure of one of the four Solent forts built to protect Portsmouth from the marauding French in 1867. The French had never made it to Portsmouth in the 1800s but they did now on the ferries that sailed into the international port. In the Second World War the forts had played their part in helping to defend the dockyard, after which they had lain derelict for years until Spitbank Fort, where the launch was heading, had been converted into a luxury hotel like its larger sister, No Man’s Fort, further east and closer to the Isle of Wight. Horton had never been on them.
He will be called upon to do so though, but that would be spoiling the story for you.
DEAD PASSAGE is available in paperback, as an ebook on Apple Books and Google Books also on Kobo and on Amazon Kindle.
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