A warm welcome to author Charlie Cochrane joining us today to talk about Riptide’s new release “Jury of One”.
Welcome Charlie 🙂
Novels featuring writers and writing – an insider’s view
Recently I’ve read – and very much enjoyed – two books featuring writers. “The Circle” by Peter Lovesey (who is a cracking author and a really nice bloke) is a cosy mystery concerning the murder of a publisher who’s been to talk to a writer’s group. It’s a smashing little story, full of affectionate jibes at the industry, and at authors and their foibles. It also is possibly the only novel I’ve ever read to mention the village where I live, although it misses the final ‘s’ from the village name, alas.
The other book was “Crooked Herring” in the wonderful “Herring” series by Len Tyler – another good author and nice bloke. Len has a unique pair of detectives (an author and his agent) and breaks lots of rules like using different fonts for the chapters in Ethelred and Elsie’s POV. And using other fonts for things like Ethelred’s draft writing or Amazon reviews of his books. Amazon reviews feature heavily in “Crooked Herring”, as do author rivalries, sockpuppets and the machinations of the publishing industry.
It’s great fun for authors to write about things they have inside knowledge of, not least because of the little insights they can give and the sly digs they can make. They can produce a real sense of veracity and flavour to the story, which adds depth; so long as there aren’t too many in jokes, which can be alienating. I did a similar thing in “The Best Corpse for the Job” where I featured school governors and can honestly say that many of the daft things said or done by the characters are based on real life. To a lesser extent I’ve drawn on my experience on a jury for “Jury of One”.
Back to the business of writing, there are various mystery books which have writers featuring in them. Ariadne Oliver in the Agatha Christie books writes crime novels and Dorothy L Sayers’s Harriet Vane is also a crime novelist. I’ve often suspected both of these ladies are based on their creators. (No, none of the school governors are based on me!) More recently, my old mate JL Merrow’s story Relief Valve features a possibly murderous writers’ group. There are many more – please share your favourite ones in the comments.
Although, going back to my very first example, I have to say it’s slightly worrying. Last summer I had a lovely evening talking to a local writers’ group about research. I hope they haven’t got machinations going on about me!
About Jury of One
Inspector Robin Bright is enjoying a quiet Saturday with his lover, Adam Matthews, when murder strikes in nearby Abbotston, and he’s called in to investigate. He hopes for a quick resolution, but as the case builds, he’s drawn into a tangled web of crimes, new and old, that threatens to ensnare him and destroy his fledgling relationship.
Adam is enjoying his final term teaching at Lindenshaw School, and is also delighted to be settling down with Robin at last. Only Robin doesn’t seem so thrilled. Then an old crush of Adam’s shows up in the murder investigation, and suddenly Adam is yet again fighting to stay out of one of Robin’s cases, to say nothing of trying to keep their relationship from falling apart.
Between murder, stabbings, robberies, and a suspect with a charming smile, the case threatens to ruin everything both Robin and Adam hold dear. What does it take to realise where your heart really lies, and can a big, black dog hold the key?
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About Charlie Cochrane
As Charlie Cochrane couldn’t be trusted to do any of her jobs of choice—like managing a rugby team—she writes, with titles published by Carina, Samhain, Bold Strokes, MLR and Cheyenne.
Charlie’s Cambridge Fellows Series of Edwardian romantic mysteries was instrumental in her being named Author of the Year 2009 by the review site Speak Its Name. She’s a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, Mystery People, International Thriller Writers Inc and is on the organising team for UK Meet for readers/writers of GLBT fiction. She regularly appears with The Deadly Dames.
Connect with Charlie:
- Website:charliecochrane.co.uk/
- Blog: charliecochrane.livejournal.com/
- Twitter: @charliecochrane
- Facebook profile page: facebook.com/charlie.cochrane.18
- Goodreads: goodreads.com/goodreadscomcharlie_cochrane
Leave a comment for a chance to win a download of Lessons in Love (Cambridge Fellows Mysteries #1) in audio! Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on March 26, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!
Thanks for hosting me. 🙂
You took my favourite when you mentioned Dorothy L Sayers’s Harriet Vane! However, another of my favourite characters is also a writer: Adrien English in Josh Lanyon’s mystery series. Fatal Shadows is the first book, in which Adrien’s incentive to investigate the death of one of his friends is the fact that he seems to be the main suspect. The fact that this means he sees quite a lot of the very attractive policeman in charge of the investigation, Jake Riordan, is just luck.
We don’t really see Adrien getting much writing done, but he keeps at it and is published.
Ooh – good example! xx
Love cozy mysteries.
They’re fun, aren’t they?
this sounds great
I’d love to win book 1 in audio!
leetee2007(at)hotmail(dot)com
Fingers crossed for you, Lee.
Thank you so much for sharing your personal insight!
Oops! ree.dee.2014 (at) gmail (at) com
Thanks, my dear.
Ariadne Oliver is one of my favourite characters and I agree, I’ve always thought she was based a least partially on Agatha Christie herself.
I’m sure she was. Did they not both carry round bags of apples or am I dreaming that?
This sounds like a great book and I can’t wait to read it.
sstrode at scrtc dot com
Thanks, Sherry.