Riverside Lane

Riverside Lane

by Ginger Black

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GENRE:   Cozy Mystery

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BLURB:

After arranging a house swap with a debonair antiques dealer, a darkly handsome American named Luca Tempesta arrives in a quaint English village. Tempesta, who claims to run a detective agency in Los Angeles, is supposedly on holiday – but the inhabitants of the village are unconvinced.

Yet, as they attempt to solve the mystery of the stranger in their midst, it gradually transpires that there are more than enough secrets to go around in the village itself, harboured by the local MP and his uptight, ambitious wife; the has-been former game show host; the respectable couple with the jailbird son; the hometown journalist, striving for a scoop that will rescue her from debt; and so on. The place is revealed as a labyrinth of deception masquerading as a picture-postcard hamlet; tension begins to mount in between the dinner parties and evenings at the pub, and soon culminates in an unexpected death.

Behind perfect privets and brightly painted front doors, the lives of Riverside Lane’s residents slowly unravel. Tempesta, guarding his secrets with a vengeance, is suddenly threatened with exposure by the elderly religious zealot Ivy Midwinter, whose own past involved keeping professional confidences. When she challenges him in church, she learns that Tempesta will stop at nothing to protect his privacy ...

Set against the exquisite backdrop of a gastronomic village by the Thames, Riverside Lane is a tautly paced page-turner that also gently satirises middle- class English manners: the upstanding denizens of the village watch and whisper behind a mask of English hauteur, whilst their own fragile lives come undone.

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EXCERPT:

A dusky gauze veil lifted to reveal the soft pink light of dawn. The sun recast the Earth in a glorious patchwork of fields, and a cacophony of birdsong stirred the residents of Riverside Lane from their slumber. Cherry and magnolia trees formed a guard of honour over the lane, which lay tranquil, deserted and calm.

High above, skimming the rose-coloured clouds, a British Airways jet descended over the River Thames. Luca Tempesta checked his seatbelt and reached for his cigarettes, curling his fingers around them with the zeal of a junkie. He flipped the packet, prompting disapproving looks from a couple playing chess beside him, and thought about his meeting with the Russian academic. He had felt bound by reckless honour to visit his wife’s friend and mentor in Moscow, despite the risk. The man had deserved to know what happened to Natasha, but it gave Luca even more to hide.

The scent of freshly ground coffee permeated the cabin, reminding the American of his caffeine-addicted wife; he missed her clear, analytical mind and ability to rationalise situations. He thought of her final moments, and her terror as the net had closed in. She had paid the ultimate price for her loyalty. He stretched his legs into the aisle, seeking a comfortable position for his tall frame, and quashed a familiar feeling of dread that he knew served no purpose. It was imperative that he maintain a cool head; he could not afford the luxury of surrender. He turned his attention to a photo of Kingfisher House. Luca’s agency partner, Maria, had found the place through a movie-industry fixer who knew an Englishman in need of a roof over his head in California.

A Word From the Author

1.Did you always want to be an author?

Julia Thum: No, I was definitely going to be an actress, but it was not to be.  I have always loved writing and still have all my diaries, my dreadful poems and the weird and wonderful stories I wrote as I was growing up.  A particular favourite is Gulp, a frog who lived on a lily pad and ate lies for breakfast. 

Twenty years in the PR industry gave me copious opportunities to exercise my writing muscles on non-fiction, and when I started my family I began to write fiction again.  I have a couple of thrillers in my bottom drawer and then began writing children’s stories, one for each of my kids. 

It wasn’t until I met Gaynor that I had the confidence to complete a novel to submission standard and put it forward for publication. 

Gaynor Pengelly: Yes, from a very young age I dreamed of writing for a living. It was this ambition that led me to a career in journalism, and then the publication of Riverside Lane. I always tell my son to work hard and get a job you love doing, what can be better that getting paid for something you love to do?

2.Tell us about the publication of your first book.

Julia Thum: Riverside Lane is a cozy mystery set in the culinary English village of Bray–on-Thames, home to the famous Fat Duck and Waterside Inn restaurants.  The story is based on a house swap, with a mysterious American moving into the village and a caddish Englishman trying his hand in LA.  We came up with the theme walking the dogs together, observing the rights and rituals of English village life that is rife with unspoken rules.  We began to wonder what would happen if you dropped a secretive and intriguing stranger into the mix, one who had no care for the social nuances but who everybody wanted to draw into their social circle.

The result is Riverside Lane and it has been a thrilling success.  The hardback sold out immediately and the paperback is selling like hot cakes (or should I say like English scones and clotted cream?)

3.Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre in which you write?

Julia Thum: I am pretty sure I can answer for us both on that one.  We both respect and admire Alexander McCall Smith and his wonderful Number One Ladies Detective Agency series, 44 Scotland Street and the Corduroy Mansions series.  His writing is beautiful, the characterization impeccable and the stories provide escape to an entertaining and gentle world.  He really is the master of the genre.

Gaynor Pengelly: I would have to include, Agatha Christie the Grande Dame of cozy mysteries.

Whether it’s a knitting needle through the eye, deadly poison in the brandy or decapitation with a garden scythe, there are many ways to be mercilessly bumped off in an English village. Don’t be fooled by wisteria clad pubs, genteel church fetes, cucumber sandwiches and bunting fluttering in the breeze, Christie’s famous detective Miss Marple in the fictional village of St Mary Mead, made English villages very dangerous places to live!

4.What's the best part of being an author? The worse?

Julia Thum: What a great question.  The best part must be talking to readers, hearing what they made of the story, the characters, the setting.  We love to know what they liked and didn’t like.   We became so absorbed in the characters when we were writing the novel, talking to readers about them is like discussing old friends you haven’t seen for a while.  There are a lot of books out there and we are always touched when somebody takes the time to read ours.  Giving us, feedback is the icing on the cake.

For me I think the worst part is social media.  I don’t hate doing it, it just takes up so much time and can be the antidote to creativity.  It is getting easier though as we have a network of virtual friends and faces we recognize popping up in reviews, blogs and tweets.  And of course, it’s a great way to talk to our readers across the world.  We have made friends with a few US book clubs and even done a Facebook author Q & A with one of them and that has been thrilling so readers – please do reach out to us via our Facebook page.  We love it!   I have just talked ‘the worst part’ into ‘the best part’ haven’t I? 

Gaynor Pengelly: For me it’s the perfect job because I love people watching and understanding what makes people tick.  Spending hours getting lost in my imagination is not a real job, and I feel privileged to have made a career out of it. The downside, is the long hours spent marketing the novel once it has been written.  Luckily, my co-writer Julia, a successful businesswoman, who created, ran and sold a highly successful PR business and has lots of experience.  I am in awe of her energy and knowledge. 

  

5.What projects are you working on now?

Julia Thum: I have a children’s novel in submission.  It is called The Witches Punchbowl and like Riverside Lane is set on the Thames.  I wrote it before I met Gaynor and the incredible success of Riverside Lane gave me the confidence to dust it off and send it in.

Gaynor and I are working on the next Ginger Black novel together which is great fun.  We don’t have a title yet but it will be a sequel to Riverside Lane featuring another house swap and lots of new characters as well as cameos from the Riverside Lane community.  We are setting the story upstream from Bray in Cookham, a Thameside village most famous for being the setting for Wind in the Willows as well as home to the artist Stanley Spencer and the eponymous gallery. Because of all the Michelin starred restaurants in Bray, Riverside Lane has a culinary flavour and our next novel has artistic undercurrents with story links to the fabulous Hammer House of Horror series that was originally filmed just outside the village.

Gaynor Pengelly: I’m working on a time-travelling historical novel in the Young Adult genre.  I haven’t yet decided on a name, but The King of Infinite Space is my current favourite. I love the nod to Shakespeare, and the suggestion of science and astronomy, which is a big theme in the novel. I’m really enjoying writing two very different novels at the same time, it’s a great writing discipline.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Ginger Black is a writing partnership between Gaynor Pengelly and Julia Thum.

JULIA THUM

Julia left Somerset for London at 16. She founded & ran her own consumer P R agency representing a range of international brands including Braun, Molton Brown, Clairol & Kleenex. After selling the business she trained as a psychotherapist specializing in eating disorders & hosted a phone-in show on Radio Luxembourg.

Julia writes bespoke literature & articles for private clients and visits secondary schools & prisons representing two national charities in providing emotional support to pupils & inmates. A keen kayaker and a passionate cook, she lives in Bray-on-Thames with her husband Nicolas and their four children.

GAYNOR PENGELLY

Gaynor has worked as a national newspaper correspondent for more than twenty years, interviewing everyone from the great and the good to extraordinary people in ordinary lives. The rich variety of her subject matter and their circumstances has given her a rare insight into human nature and the challenges many people face.

Gaynor's great loves include sitting in pavement cafes watching the world go by, National Trust and English Heritage and hiking across the windswept Yorkshire moors. She lives in Bray-on-Thames with her husband Jonathan and their son, Freddie James.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Riverside-Lane-Ginger-Black-ebook/dp/B01B3BJP1O

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GingerBlack.ink/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/gingerblackink

Website: http://gingerblackink/

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:

Ginger Black will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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