The English village of Raven’s Edge was originally created in a short story I wrote twenty years ago, called Something Wicked, which was never published. I loved the idea of a village where the inhabitants have embellished the stories of their ancestors purely to attract tourists. I think I had the idea for that after living close to a village called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, supposedly the longest name for a village in Europe. Originally known as Pwllgwyngyll (the pool of the white hazels), the name was changed to the longer version in the 19th century to attract tourists!
Even though the original short story was never published, the village I’d created stuck in my mind, along with some of the characters. Ten years ago, when I wrote the book that became Trust Me I Lie, I used the same setting. I envisaged incorporating the short story as historical backstory segments throughout the book, in the same way I’d written Breathless, but it didn’t work. So the material I took out became Something Wicked, which I extended into a 30,000 words novella and published in 2014. Trust Me I Lie was given a new historical story, explaining the past of the Graham family, and published in 2016. In 2022, When Storm Publishing asked if I’d be interested in writing a new series, featuring the same setting and characters, the book was retitled Murder at Raven’s Edge.
In 2017 I had begun writing a sequel to Trust Me I Lie/Murder at Raven’s Edge, called Trust in Me. I was about 30,000 words into the story when my father died unexpectedly. I had assumed I could carry on writing but completely underestimated the grieving process. After two years, I gave up and wrote a seasonal romantic comedy called You Make It Feel Like Christmas.
I hate not finishing things, so when Storm Publishing commissioned me to write the English Village Mystery series I remembered Trust in Me, which is a mirror to the first book. Murder at Raven’s Edge is about Milla and her dark family secrets; Trust in Me – now called Murder at Ravenswood House – is about Ben and his notorious family, who were hinted at in the earlier story. Again, we have the quirky village, the quaint buildings and the eccentric characters who live and work in them.
The third book in the series will be published in January 2025, featuring some new characters, and we’ll learn a little more about Harriet’s family…
So, sadly, Raven’s Edge is not real and the legends and the inhabitants come entirely from my imagination.
But…
when the air is cold and the sky is clear, and a mist curls in from the river…
For more Behind-the-Scenes stuff, click on the links below:
Raven's Edge 