Peter Bartram has another big hit with his latest Crampton of the Chronicle mystery, Front Page Murder. Colin Crampton is a fun character with his quick wit, sarcasm and bevy of quirky friends who help him to solve crimes and provide stories for the Evening Chronicle.Peter Bartram has a delightful way of introducing places and characters:
Mrs. Gribble, my landlady - the Widow to her tenants - and I nurtured a healthy dislike for one another but found a way to rub along. . . The Widow was dressed in a long flannelette dressing gown in shocking pink. She'd put her hair in curlers and fixed a net over it all . . The Widow shuffled uncomfortably in her fluffy slippers.
For me, it's not just about the mystery, but being immersed into 1960s Brighton, bringing back lots of memories of visits to the seaside town.
Front Page Murder: Comic postcard artist Archie Flowerdew is sentenced to hang, but his niece, Tammy, is convinced her uncle is not guilty of the crime. After defacing the Royal Pavilion with words to that effect, she is wanted by the police and Colin not only tries to get to the bottom of the crime, but hussles Tammy to a safe house.
Front Page Murder e-book
is on special offer until the end of December for 99p/99c
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| The Royal Pavilion, Brighton |
Note: The Crampton of the Chronicle mystery series can be read out of order without being confusing to the reader.
A Message from the author:
WHY CHRISTMAS IS THE TIME FOR
COZY MYSTERIES
By Peter Bartram
Will you be having a murder for Christmas?
No, I don't mean a real
one. You don't want blood on the carpet when the children are playing with
their new toys. Or old Uncle George slumping forward with a knife his back just
as he's about to tuck into his Christmas pudding.
I mean a fictional murder.
A good old-fashioned cozy mystery. I confidently predict that more readers than
ever will be curling up by a crackling log fire during the festive season with
a cozy book.
So just what is it that
makes cozy murder such a popular pastime when Christmas comes? I suppose it
could partly be the beginning of winter and the longer nights. Perhaps they
stimulate the darker sides of our own psyches and get us reaching for the
murder mysteries.
Or perhaps it has
something to do with the need for escapism. Of course, it's great to have
friends and family around and join in the festive cheer. But it's also good to
have a quiet moment alone when you can let your mind journey into another world
- one of adventure and mystery.
And maybe the special
attraction of cozy mysteries at Christmas is in the name. Christmas is a time
when we all want to be cozy. By that, I don't just mean we want to be cozy and
warm by a fireside. We also want to be cozy in spirit. That's because Christmas
is the time for forgiveness and redemption. And the best cozy mysteries capture
that spirit and warm the hearts of readers by doing so.
One of my favourite Christmas crime mysteries is The Blue Carbuncle, a Sherlock Holmes story. It's the one where a priceless jewel is found in the crop of a Christmas goose. Holmes and Watson track the carbuncle back to an opportunist thief who stole and then hid it by forcing the goose to swallow it when he thought he was going to be found out.
Holmes decides this
first-time thief regrets his crime and lets him go - thus offering him the
chance of redemption.
Many authors, including
big names such as Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer, have written Christmas
murder mysteries. So I approached writing Front
Page Murder, my own Christmas mystery, with some trepidation. I decided to
make the story a race against time - with the deadline Christmas Eve.
Then I peopled the story
with characters. The Crampton mysteries already have a cast of regulars - lead
by Colin Crampton himself. But there are some new ones - including a pompous
major who talks backwards, a vain artist with red trousers, and a sex-pest
vicar.
Atmosphere is important - so there's some
snow, cold winds and a winter fox. There are references
to Christmas activities, such as a mince pie baking competition and the
Christmas number one - it was The Beatles' I
Want to Hold Your Hand in the UK. (In the US, it was Dominique by the Singing Nun!)
There's an unusual puzzle
based on the old song which begins, "On the first day of Christmas my true
love sent to me a partridge in a pear tree." Perhaps you can see if you
can solve the puzzle before Colin.
And, finally, there's a
very Christmas denouement - but no "spoilers" here! Merry Christmas
and stay cozy!
ABOUT THE BOOK…
FRONT PAGE MURDER
A Crampton of the Chronicle mystery
It's December 1963 and Archie Flowerdew is sitting in a cell at Wandsworth Prison waiting to be hanged. On Christmas Eve. It's not exactly how he planned to spend the festive season. But, then, Archie was found guilty of murdering fellow comic postcard artist Percy Despart.
It seems there's nothing that can stop Archie's neck being wrung like a turkey's. Except that his niece Tammy is convinced Archie is innocent. She's determined he will sit down on Christmas Day to tuck into the plum pudding. She persuades Brighton Evening Chronicle crime reporter Colin Crampton to take up the case.
But Colin has problems of his own. First, that good turn he did to help out Chronicle sub-editor Barry Hobhouse has come back to bite him on the bum. Then Beatrice "the Widow" Gribble, Colin's trouble-prone landlady, needs him to sort out her latest faux pas - she's accidentally sent a Christmas card to her local butcher suggesting she's available for hot sex. And that's before Brighton cops clap Colin and girlfriend Shirley Goldsmith in jail on the charge of harbouring a fugitive from justice.
And, anyway, the more Colin investigates Archie's case, the more it looks like he is guilty… Pick up the third full-length novel in the Crampton of the Chronicle mystery series to get you in the mood for a murderous Christmas!
For readers who want to start the series at the beginning, there's a deal which includes Headline Murder, Stop Press Murder and Front Page Murder in e-book formats for £4.97/$4.97. This offer also closes on 31 December.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR… Peter Bartram brings years of experience as a journalist to his Crampton of the Chronicle crime mystery series, which features Colin Crampton, crime correspondent of the 1960s fictional newspaper the Brighton Evening Chronicle. Peter began his career as a reporter on a real-life local newspaper not far from Brighton. Then he worked as a journalist and newspaper editor in London before becoming freelance. He has done most things in journalism from door-stepping for quotes to writing serious editorials. He’s pursued stories in locations as diverse as 700 feet down a coal mine and Buckingham Palace. Peter's "Swinging Sixties" murder mysteries combine clue-solving with comedy - the laughs are never far from the action. Other books in the series, which has already logged more than 100 5-star reviews on Amazon, include Headline Murder and Stop Press Murder.
