The Body at Rookery Barn: A totally gripping cozy mystery (A Georgina Drake Mystery Book 1)
Outside, Rookery Barn glows in the mid-morning sunshine while fat bees flit lazily between the forget-me-nots. Inside, a body lies dead…
Widowed Georgina Drake has no regrets about moving to beautiful, sleepy Little Wenborough in rural Norfolk. Until she opens the door to her rental property and finds the dead body of her latest guest, irritable university professor Roland Garnett. And on top of that she’s suddenly hearing a woman’s voice through her hearing aids.
Completely shaken by the discovery, Georgina can hardly believe it when the police conclude that Professor Garnett was poisoned, with a dinner delivered by Georgina herself. Is she about to be accused of murder? Georgina needs to pull herself together, try to ignore the distracting voice, and clear her name!
Asking around, it seems Roland Garnett offended half the village during his three-week stay and made unwelcome advances to the rest. But who was provoked enough to poison him? Georgina’s best lead is the deadly oleander found in Roland’s system. Her gardener, Young Tom, had access to the plant, but before she can talk to him Tom becomes the killer’s next victim.
As the crimes mount up, so do the clues, but does Georgina have what it takes to follow them to their conclusion? Even when her amateur sleuthing puts her next in the killer’s sights…?
An addictive and completely gripping cosy crime novel. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Midsomer Murders.
Buy on:
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
I think revising a manuscript is the hardest part for me. And, for crime books, the hardest bit is hiding who the murderer is! I think that’s because I’m more interested in WHY the murderer does it than who does it.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
I tend to overlap books – I write four romances a year for M&B, and two to three crime novels. It’s generally around three months, start to finish.
Do you believe in writer's block?
If I’m struggling with a book, I know that I’ve gone off track with it and that can sometimes make me stuck. Also, it’s important to go with my process. I write new stuff straight to the laptop, but I can’t revise on screen; I need to be able to scribble over a manuscript (always with a pink pen) or I find myself messing about with online wordgames instead!
Tell us about your book...
The Body at Rookery Barn is set in Norfolk, England. My heroine’s a widowed photographer who wears hearing aids, and my hero’s a detective inspector who’s burned out after a really tricky case. Add a cast of good friends (you’d want to be sitting on Sybbie’s terrace, eating one of Cesca’s amazing cakes, or being served a decent pint in the Red Lion by Jodie), English spring flowers, a cold case that might be solved by the modern case, and people covering for each other… and then have some fun solving the puzzles!
About the Author
Kate Hardy lives in Norwich with her husband, two grown-up children, two spaniels and too many books to count.
She’s won three Romantic Novelists’ Association awards for her romantic fiction – and is thoroughly enjoying her new life of crime! When she’s not writing or researching, she’ll be out at a gig or the theatre, at ballet class, doing cross-stitch, taking photographs of the sunrise while persuading the spaniels to stay still for one second, fossicking around on a beach or in archives, or exploring ancient buildings.
She loves learning new things, which is why you’ll always discover something different in a Kate Hardy book…
