Locations
are often an inspiration for me for my crime novels and number four in
the DI Andy Horton Solent Murder Mystery series, THE ROYAL HOTEL MURDERS
is no different.
It started, not with an hotel but with a wharf of which there are
two close to where I live, Kendall’s Wharf and Bedhampton Wharf
(although the latter stopped operating during Covid and is now up for
sale). Both front on to Langstone Harbour, which is on the eastern side
of the coastal city of Portsmouth, the setting for many of my DI Andy
Horton Solent Murder Mysteries.
Both wharves deal in shingle and gravel extracted from the sea bed
which is then delivered to the wharves and I often see the ships sail up
the harbour on the high tide to unload their cargo. This shingle is
then used in property and road building.
Kendalls
Wharf in Portsmouth was the inspiration behind the Inspector
Andy Horton crime novel THE ROYAL HOTEL MURDERS and they were extremely
helpful with my research allowing me on site and to question the
workers. Without giving away the plot I wondered if I could have a body
there. I contacted Kendall’s Wharf who were kind enough to spare me the
time to explain their operations and show me around. From that visit
came further ideas for the plot line.
The Royal Hotel Murders doesn’t start with the discovery of a body though but in ... yes, you've guessed it a hotel!
Perry Jackson and his team are filming a
new TV series about wrecks in the Solent and staying at the large and luxurious
Royal Hotel on Portsmouth’s seafront.
Shortly after they’ve checked in, Jackson receives a series of threatening phone calls telling him to watch his
back and you’ve been warned. Horton thinks it’s a publicity stunt to
promote the new TV show.
Meanwhile at the Rest Haven Nursing Home,
Mrs Kingsway says she’s been assaulted by an intruder, but there’s no
sign of a break-in. The staff thinks she’s lost her marbles, but her
son wants action from the police.
As if that isn't enough Horton is troubled by a mother's distressed
insistence that her son’s fatal car accident on Christmas Eve was not an
accident.
When a man in diving gear is found
dead in Oldham’s Wharf with several of his fingers missing, the pressure is on. Detective Inspector Andy Horton’s
deep in a web of intrigue, deception and corruption that stretches back into
the past. Can he, aided by Sergeant Cantelli, find his way back and stop a killer?
It’s
difficult to explain where all the threads of this crime novel came
from (or indeed any of my crime novels come to that) but I start with an
idea usually a location – the wharf in this instance – and begin to ask
myself questions: how does it feature in this crime novel? Is a body
found there? If so whose? How did it get there? Why was he/she killed?
What other pressing cases does Horton have to investigate? Are they
linked or are they separate?
Then there is the matter of Horton’s personal and professional
life. Horton is still reeling from the startling discovery in THE HORSEA
MARINA MURDERS (3) that the disappearance of his mother, Jennifer,
thirty years ago was not as he thought, a single mother abandoning her
child because she didn’t want a kid in tow, but could be linked to an
international criminal.
This crime novel like my others is multi-layered and is available on Amazon Kindle, and in paperback,
so why not grab your copy now!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"Great protagonist and lots of odd turns and fantastic ending. I hope to read many more books from this author." Terry G.
This novel was previously published as Dead Man's Wharf and has been
re-titled and re-published with an exciting new title and cover.
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