Christina Hamlett is…On the Writing Block!

Before we talk about the first book in Christina’s mysteries, let’s find out a little more about the author herself…

Former actress and theatre director Christina Hamlett is an award-winning author whose credits to date include 52 books, 277 stage plays and squillions of articles and blogs. She is also a consultant for stage and screen, a professional ghostwriter and teaches distance-learning writing courses through Wow! Women on Writing. She holds a degree in Communications with an emphasis on Audience Analysis and Message Design.

To learn more, visit her website at http://www.authorhamlett.com.

Do you always know who the killer is, or do your characters surprise you in the end?

I do indeed always have a plan even though I have never embraced the practice of copious outlines or Post-It notes and suspect photos on a vision board like an episode of Britbox’s Death in Paradise. And although I always listen to what my characters want to do (for who knows the story better than they do?), the only time I was surprised and found myself switching gears was in A Little Burglary in Bibury. By the midpoint I was pretty firm in who the villain was going to be. All of a sudden, another character started jumping up and down, waving both arms and protesting, “But I want to be the bad guy! Please, please, please!” And I was pleasantly surprised and intrigued to realize this character was much better suited to being the guilty party. What’s funny is that one of my fans wrote to me and said, “I was so certain halfway through that I had figured this one out and then—WHAM! I did not see this coming.”

In what stage of your writing, did you determine that your book was to be a standalone, or a series?

I knew from the start of A Little Larceny in Lynmouth that I had created characters who would be hard to say goodbye to by the end. The obvious solution was not to say goodbye at all! The challenge in creating a series, of course, is writing in a way that each book could be enjoyed as a standalone in the event readers buy them out of order. To that end, there are always hints of what happened in previous installments but never giving away how the earlier crimes were solved and murderers exposed. For those who do want to read my series in the correct order, it’s A Little Larceny in Lynmouth, A Little Scandal in St. Andrews, A Little Drama in Dunster, A Little Poison in Paisley, A Little Tumble in Tintagel and A Little Burglary in Bibury. The seventh book, A Little Revenge in Robin Hood’s Bay, will be out this summer.

How much is based on real life versus made up?

In my cozy mystery series set in the UK, friends instantly recognize me as Rocky, the amateur sleuth who works for an import/export company in London and unwittingly keeps getting involved in all manner of skullduggery. Rocky’s love interest, Jon Tapping, is inspired by one of my best male friends and, yes, is really named Jon Tapping. (He is quite chuffed to have such a dashing alter-ego, especially since all of my female readers are madly in love with him.) The rest of my characters are drawn from people I know in real life or composites of multiple personalities. Even my villains have a basis in reality—primarily bad bosses, ex-friends or former beaus who turned out to be flakes and snakes. Perhaps the most interesting feature of my fiction works is the incorporation of gourmet meals at a mix of real and made-up venues throughout the UK. A friend told me I should have an advisement upfront of which restaurants actually exist because I make the meals sound so mouthwatering that tourists will be disappointed at not being able to find them at a physical address.

Who is your favorite mystery sleuth? (Books, TV, amateur and professional alike)

My favorite mystery sleuth, Jessica Fletcher, was created by my mentor and one of my closest friends—the late Peter S. Fischer (Murder/She Wrote and Columbo). I actually have quite a lot in common with JB. We both write mystery novels, live in small towns, are active in our respective communities and are both widows. Thus far, however, the local police have not approached me to help them solve any crimes.

What is A Little Larceny in Lynmouth about?

The picturesque harbor village of Lynmouth on the Devon coast was supposed to be a respite after being made redundant from her job at a prestigious import/export firm in London. But when her landlady is poisoned by chocolate a scant three days after she moves in, Rochelle Reid and her new neighbors discover they have become overnight murder suspects. Red herrings abound, romance teases, a heroine learns her past is about to collide with the present, and a daylight break-in at the house hints that--even with a victim neatly out of the way--the murderer is not yet in the clear if a damning piece of evidence hidden within its walls isn't recovered.