Visit my website at www.rowmark.co.uk for details of all my crime novels

I’m often asked by readers whether my tough, earthy character, the flawed and rugged Inspector Horton in my marine mysteries , is based on anyone I know. Well the inspiration for Andy Horton comes from my lifelong love of heroes both fictional (James Bond for one) and real, in particular my fire fighter husband and the men I have met on his watch and in the Hampshire Fire Service. These fearless men also provided me with the idea for my crime thriller novel, In Cold Daylight which is in fact dedicated to them and to all fire fighters, ‘the true heroes.’ Fire fighters go in to dangerous situations and risk their lives when everyone else is rushing away and my husband has had some very near misses in his career. Inspector Andy Horton is like this. He fearlessly charges in and gets himself into all sorts of difficulties in order to see that justice is done. He’s fit, brave, and a maverick, but he’s also self-contained and controlled with a disturbing past that has made him reluctant to ...

Well now I can say I’ve lunched at The InterContinental Hotel, Park Lane and a very nice lunch it was too. When my husband, Bob, gave the London taxi driver the hotel’s address, the cabbie asked if we’d won the lottery – obviously then we didn’t look the usual clientele of The InterContinental. I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or offended. I, of course, pretended to be a World famous crime novelist, but it didn’t fool the cabbie. The problem with authors is that people only recognise the names J.K Rowling and Dan Brown. Still, he said his wife reads crime novels, so I duly handed over one of my bookmarks, giving details of my marine mysteries and thrillers, and told him she might like to look me up in her local library, or dare I say it, buy one of my books. The hotel staff were very polite and friendly, but then they should be for the amount is costs to stay there, not that I know the price, I didn’t bother checking – way out of my league. The lunch was a pleasure and by that I ...