Alert on Liz Fielding & Murder Under the Mistletoe

 MURDER UNDER THE MISTLETOE

MEET ABBY FINCH. SHE’S THE BUSY MUM OF THREE, AN EXPERT GARDENER AND THE STAR OF YOUR NEW FAVOURITE COZY MURDER MYSTERY.

Abby Finch arrives at the old church hall armed with festive mistletoe and holly, ready to decorate. But within moments of her walking through the door, tragedy strikes . . .

Edward Marsh reaches to test the antique star at the top of the tree. There’s a fizz and the lights go out.

Abby hears the sickening thud of a body hitting the floor. When the lights turn back on, Edward is dead.

It soon becomes clear it was no accident.

The real victim should have been Gregory Tatton. Dapper silver fox. Popular with the ladies of the seniors’ lunch club. A known blackmailer . . .

Abby is desperate to find out the truth, but putting herself in danger isn’t on her Christmas wish list.

Who’s been naughty? Who’s been nice? Who’s hiding the fact they’re a murderer?

Fans of Faith Martin, Jane Adams, Frances Evesham, M.C. Beaton, Clare Chase or Jeanne M. Dams will love this addictive cozy mystery!

Buy on:

Amazon Kindle          

Amazon UK               Amazon Aust

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

Not the ideas. People always want to knows where the ideas come from, but they are everywhere. 

An idea is not a plot, that takes some figuring out, quite a lot of research, ventures down blind alleys. But a lot of that is fun. Actually, it’s probably the best bit.

It’s the actual writing that’s tough. Sitting down at the desk every morning and putting down 1000 words, more if it’s going well. It’s hard on your back, your knees and your brain. 

It’s physically tiring.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?

I think Murder Among the Roses took five or six months of continuous writing. Murder Under the Mistletoe was achieved in two big chunks with one of those rabbit hole blocks in the middle but again about six months. There were a couple of months when the words were pouring out of me. 

One short romance, when life got in the way, took me eighteen months.

I should be able to write a crime novel in six months but, as with that romance, life does sometimes get in the way. 

Do you believe in writer's block?

I believe that there are moments in a book when your plot takes a wrong turn and goes down a rabbit hole. It’s dark, you’re disorientated, panicked and you can’t find your way out. 

There is only one way out. You have to go back, work your way through the ms until you spot the wrong turning. It sounds easy. It isn’t. It’s absolutely horrible, but you’re not going to fix it by staring at the screen and the sooner you accept that the better. 

Use a notebook and a pen and write down each plot point. Then ask yourself where it leads. 

I’m speaking from experience. There have been wasted months...

Tell us about your book...

It’s a three weeks before Christmas. Local organisations have got together to decorate the village hall for the parties they will be holding there in the run up to the holiday. Abby Finch, who is a garden designer and has her own garden design and maintenance company called Earthly Designs, is asked if she can contribute some mistletoe.

Happy to do this, she delivers the mistletoe and some other decorative plant stuff to a hall packed with people working on the decorations. Gregory Tatton, who is organising everything, orders Edward March, Abby’s old high school teacher, to take his place fixing the last of the tree lights. Minutes later Edward is lying dead at the foot of the tree.

The next day Gregory Tatton delivers what can only be construed as a blackmail note to Abby. Convinced that he was the intended victim of the “accident” that killed Edward, she gradually unravels the secrets that many of the people in the hall that day are desperate to hide.

About Liz Fieding 

Liz Fielding met her husband when they were both working in Zambia and were keen members of the Lusaka Theatre Club. He was playing John de Stogumber in St Joan, and she was the pageboy to the Earl of Warwick. He swore it was the purple tights that got him. Years spent in Africa and the Middle East provided the background to many of Liz's romances. Her first, An Image of You, was set in Kenya, in a place where they had spent many happy weekends on safari. It was plucked from the slush pile because the feisty feminist heroine made her editor laugh. Emotion touched with humour has been the hallmark of her work ever since.

 

After writing 70 books for Harlequin Mills and Boon, Liz has now turned to crime, signing with Joffe Books for three "Maybridge Mysteries", the first of which, Murder Among the Roses, is published on 18th April.

 

 Liz Fielding on the web:

Website             Facebook           Twitter