Spotlight on Kate Hardy & The Body at Rookery Barn

Our Spotlight this week is on:  Kate Hardy. She has a new book out this month, The Body at Rookery Barn. 

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…

Kate Hardy on the web:

Website        Facebook     Twitter       Instagram         Tiktok

Storm Publishing.        BookBub

What inspires you to write? 

I often start with a setting – it might be somewhere I visit, or something I see in a magazine or on TV. As soon as I get that ‘tingle’, I know that’s where the magic will happen! Once I know the setting, the theme and the characters come next. And again, it could be anything from a snatch of a song to the line of a poem, or an overheard conversation that inspires me and makes me think ‘what if…?’

What is your favorite genre and why?

I think it depends on my mood. When I’m writing crime, I tend to read romance; when I’m writing romance, I tend to read crime! What I like about both genres is that there’s a conflict and a resolution, and strong characters.

Share a little about your writing process.

I’m very much a plotter, and I like to know where I’m heading. So, once I have the setting, the characters and the theme, I sit down and work out the plot on paper. I pull out the conflict – what’s keeping them apart? Is it strong enough to sustain a whole story? Digging deeper often helps.

I also try to write a consistent amount each day. I know how long I have until deadline (and how many words I need to write a day to hit that deadline), and I keep a spreadsheet to help me keep on track.

Tell us about your book...

If you’ve read any of my romances, you’ll know what to expect: my characters are warm and full of heart, and have an emotional journey they need to travel. The main difference here is that I’m allowed more secondary characters, so there’s very much a community feel to the book. And there’s also a character you really won’t expect to see… 

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:

Amazon Kindle

Amazon Aust

Amazon UK