Blurb

Harmony is not on the calling card for this group of friends when their holiday camp is disturbed by murder and revenge…

June 1998: Elodie Marshall has committed a terrible crime. But when she’s deemed unfit to plead, she is sentenced to living within the confines of a mental health facility.

Present day: Sleuthing librarian Pru Pearce and her friends from the Winterbottom Women’s Institute are about to embark on their annual getaway. The 1960s Butlins style Harmony Hollows Resort has caught their attention for a few reasons: the northern ballroom championships and the unsolved double murder from 1983.

But what the women thought was just a cold case mystery soon steps into the present when a murderer, dubbed The Grim Sleeper, strikes. Soon, Pru and the other WI women are dragged deeper into the mystery investigating both the 1983 and present-day murders. But this is no evening entertainment, this is real life, and everyone is in danger…

Gina Kirkham was born in the late 1950s to a mum who frequently abandoned her in a pram outside Woolworths and a dad who after two pints of beer could play a mean Boogie Woogie on the piano in the front room of their 3-bed semi on the Wirral. Being the less adventurous of three children, she remains there to this day – apart from a long weekend in Bognor Regis in 1982.

Her teenage years were filled with angst, a CSE in Arithmetic, raging pimples and Barry White. Marriage and motherhood ensued, followed by divorce in her early thirties and a desperate need for a career and some form of financial support for herself and her young daughter. Trundling a three-wheeled trike along a leafy path one wintry day, memories of her favourite author Enid Blyton, ginger beer and solving mysteries along with her lifelong passion to be a police officer, excitedly gave way to an epiphany. And thus began an enjoyable and fulfilling career with Merseyside Police.

On reaching an age most women lie about, she quickly adapted to retirement by utilising her policing skills to chase after two granddaughters, two dogs and one previously used, but still in excellent condition, husband. Having said goodbye to what had been a huge part of her life, she suddenly had another epiphany. This time it was to put pen to paper to write a book based on her experiences as a police officer. Lying in bed one night staring at the ceiling, Gina’s alter-ego Mavis Upton was born, ready to star in a humorous and sometimes poignant look at the life, loves and career of an everyday girl who followed a dream and embarked upon a search for the missing piece of her childhood.

Introduction

Happy publication week and huge heartfelt congratulations to Gina Kirkham on the eve of her brilliant new novel, MURDERS AT THE HARMONY HOLLOWS RESORT. Harmony Hollows is Gina’s seventh novel, and book four in her hilarious cosy crime series, featuring sleuthing librarian Pru Pearce and her friends from the Winterbottom Women’s Institute.

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BH: Today I’m delighted to welcome the very talented Gina Kirkham to my blog, as Murders at The Harmony Hollows Resort flies into the world for the first time. Part four in the Pru Pearce series, it comes hot on the heels of Murders at the Winterbottom Women’s Institute, Murders at the Montgomery Hall Hotel, and Murders at The Rookery Grange Retreat.

Prior to this series, Gina also penned a humorous trilogy, staring Police Officer Mavis Upton – she of the big pants and even bigger heart – set in the Northwest of England, UK, and inspired by Gina’s own long and fascinating career in Merseyside Police as a response officer.

Hello, Gina! Firstly, congratulations on launching book seven. I’m in awe of how prolific you are, and of the reviews your work has attracted to date. It strikes me that cosy crime is havinga moment, and that people are tuning into mysteries that include an escapist and witty element. What do you attribute this to?

GK: Oh, thank you Bev. I’m over the moon with the early reviews for Harmony Hollows,
readers have been incredibly supportive and kind. It makes writing special and rewarding
when you know they have enjoyed one of your books and even more so, when they take the time to leave a review. Reviews are a fantastic way to know you’re on the right track with your stories.

Yes, there has been a real surge in cosy crime, something my hubby and I were only talking about last week. Sadly, the world is not a very nice place at the moment, so I think people are looking for an escape to gentler times, where although you may get a murder or two, they can be served up with a dash of humour and a sprinkle of quirkiness. It’s a sign of the times when some of the more popular programmes on television are Father Brown, Sister Boniface and Grantchester, which all come under the cosy crime/mystery banner. When you are confronted with so much violence and conflict on our TV screens – and that’s just the evening news – people are keen to search out books that will not only entertain and keep them guessing but will give them a feeling of familiarity, warmth and a giggle too.

BH: I agree. In our house, we’ve recently been gripped by BBC 1’s Ludwig, so I know exactly what you mean. So, what can your readers expect in Pru’s latest adventure?

GK: Although Pru has always been my main protagonist, the wonderful self-styled Four
Wrinkled Dears, Clarissa, Ethel, Millie and Hilda, have been slowly coming to the forefront of the storylines. In Harmony Hollows I think they have truly found their feet and are starting to shine in their own right, so Pru and her friend Bree have taken more of a back seat.

The story begins in 1983 with a double murder at a holiday camp, which has remained
unsolved. Fast forward to the present day and a Perfect Storm is brewing. The winds of fate are bringing together once again the main players from the murder in 1983, dragging them away from the safe lives they have forged for themselves, back to Harmony Hollows and its dark deeds. The Winterbottom Women’s Institute ladies, laden with their secret stash of sweet sherry, several suitcases and an array of plimsolls and sandals, duly arrive at Harmony and their allocated chalets for their annual summer holiday only to find themselves embroiled not only in the historic murders, but a fresh wave of death that is about to engulf the Happy Campers and Harmony Hollows itself. Bored with bingo and ballroom, The Four Wrinkled Dears take it upon themselves to solve not only the 1983 murders, but the present-day ones too, but it’s a race against time and anything can (and does) happen!

BH: Wow, sounds brilliant, Gina – your readers are in for a treat! Moving on, it’s a poorly kept secret that the Mavis Upton novels were based on your own experiences as a Merseyside Police Officer, but who or what inspired the idea of Pru Pearce?

GK: I’m fortunate to be on the Women’s Institute Speaker list, so I get to meet so many
wonderful WI ladies who have such varied and interesting stories to tell during the tea and cake breaks of their meetings. The Winterbottom WI ladies are based on a fabulous group of women I met at one of those meetings, who had me laughing fit to burst with their antics and tales. After the meeting, before I had even reached half-way home, my imagination was running riot and suddenly Clarissa, Ethel, Millie and Hilda were born. The fifth lady at the WI meeting, who was the youngest member and a librarian, then became the inspiration for Pru.

BH: Will we be seeing more of Pru and her friends?

GK: I hope so. I’m just working on book 5 in the series. I have a working title, a rough draft and a first chapter, which as you know with that dreadful writers self-doubt that often creeps in, could very easily end up consigned to the little bin symbol on my laptop before the week is out, but I have the bones of it in my imagination. I just need my publishers seal of approval and a potential publication date, and I’ll be good to go with more Winterbottom Women’s Institute adventures!

BH: So, Gina, what are you reading at the moment? And who are your favourite authors?

GK: I’m currently reading The Devil’s Liar by Shani Struthers, I’m a huge supernatural and ghost book fan, I have all Shani’s books – no wonder I don’t sleep very well at night! Peter James, Harlan Coben, James Patterson, Dean Koontz, and James Herbert are just a few of my other favourite authors too.

BH: Goodness – I had no idea you were such a horror and suspense fan!

Tell me, what three pieces of advice would you give writers just beginning their journey?

GK: Gosh, just three! I’ll try my best, but you know me, War and Peace when it comes to
answering such a great question. Here goes…

Write from the heart and your imagination. The first step is to get the words that swirl
around your head down, in whatever format suits you best, be it pen and paper, laptop, iPad or scribbled in a notebook. It’s no good keeping them to yourself, you need to get the words out before you can start to create.

Then write for you. Not for anyone else at this stage, just for you. You will be your first critic, and probably a brutal one at that; so now is the time to make mistakes, develop your writing style and storyline and grow with your work. Writing classes are a fantastic way to find your ‘voice’. I went to my first one held by crime author, David Jackson; it was such an inspiring and informative class and really helped me.

Above all, enjoy writing and never give up. Getting published is not the easiest of roads, but when it happens, it’s amazing – still hard work, but amazing! I just wish my mum could have stayed with us a little longer and held and read one of my books; she would have been super chuffed.

BH: Sound advice; particularly your final point about digging in and never giving up – if anything, the industry is getting harder to penetrate – thanks in no small part to the glut of ‘celebrity’ authors cluttering up the best-seller lists.

Gina, thank you so much for taking the time to chat to me during your busy launch week and I wish you every success with your current and future books.

GK: Thank you so much for your endless support, kindness and friendship, Bev.

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For more information about Gina’s books, visit her amazon page at https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Gina-Kirkham/author/B072M12HYH

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