Author Carmen Radtke on Story Locations

The charm of small places by Carmen Radtke.

I’m a sucker for old world charm. In my youth, I spent many happy hours in St Mary Mead with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, spotting crime and misdemeanor behind ivy-covered cottage walls, the thick, turreted walls of mansions, where bodies lay in libraries and the sharp-witted, harmless looking sleuth outwitted every criminal she encountered because she knew how people behaved, especially in a village setting.

Thanks to the Margaret Rutherford movies I know exactly how cottages and cobbled alleys appear in the slanting morning sun, I can hear the milkman calling out, and deep in my heart I’m absolutely sure this place and others like it exist. Somewhere. Probably.

Let Sleeping Murder Lie is an homage to the locations where so many cozy mysteries live, because it’s all about the people who are deeply acquainted with each other’s habits and peccadilloes, if not necessary with their thoughts.

It’s the one place my heroine has longed to find, when, like me, she moved around. Like me, she’s also aware that it might just be a fantasy, but one she’s not willing to give up on yet. Even if it comes complete with homicide. Because that’s the other lesson Miss Marple taught us so well: Here be murder, and if you see a white-haired spinster with a guileless smile, knitting needles and a rockery, pack your belongings and run. Or watch from a safe distance, because there is something irresistible about the St Mary Meads, at least on the page and on the screen.

About Carmen Radtke

Carmen has spent most of her life with ink on her fingers and a dangerously high pile of books and newspapers by her side.

She has worked as a newspaper reporter on two continents and always dreamt of becoming a novelist and screenwriter.

When she found herself crouched under her dining table, typing away on a novel between two earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, she realized she was hooked for life.

The shaken but stirring novel made it to the long list of the Mslexia competition, and her next book and first mystery, The Case Of The Missing Bride, was a finalist in the Malice Domestic competition in a year without a winner.

Carmen was born in Hamburg, Germany, but had planned on emigrating since she was five years old. She first moved to New Zealand and now lives in York, UK, with her daughter, cat, and sometimes her seafaring husband comes home.

About the Book

Title: Let Sleeping Murder Lie by Carmen Radtke
Genre: Cozy Mystery

Synopsis

‘A wildly entertaining read for lovers of cosy mystery and romance alike’ Fiona Leitch, author of ‘The Nosey Parker mysteries’

Love can be the death of you …

American Eve Holdsworth is living her quintessential English dream in a picturesque village in the countryside. Meeting an attractive stranger adds to the appeal.

But Ben Dryden is a pariah in Eve’s new neighbourhood, since his wife was murdered five years ago, and he was the only suspect. Eve, who is absolutely sure someone as charming as Ben could never be a killer, is determined to solve the case and clear Ben’s name, even if it’s against his will.

Soon enough Eve finds herself in deep waters, and with her life at stake, she can only pray that her romantic notions won’t be the end of her …

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