Locations are always a great inspiration for me and trigger ideas for many of my crime novels particularly those in the series featuring my Harley-Davidson, sailing detective Inspector Andy Horton, whose patch is Portsmouth on the South Coast of England. For number seven in the Horton crime series, THE CHALE BAY MURDERS, I was inspired by the beautiful and rugged coastline on the east of the Isle of Wight, in particular the stretch from Ventnor to St Catherine’s lighthouse and the secluded bays, a good place to put a body! First though I decided to feature a body being found drifting in the Solent, between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, just close to one of the four forts built as coastal defences by Lord Palmerston in 1859 to repel a French invasion. The French never arrived, not then although they certainly do now and are welcomed on the ferries that sail into Portsmouth International Port. But I digress. I decided to add a couple of unusual elements to the discov
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