AtoZChallenge 2015: A is for Agatha Christie

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AtoZ Challenge 2015 Wittegen Press AAtoZ Challenge 2015: A is for Agatha Christie

Greetings to the first of our blog posts in honour of the A to Z Challenge 2015. Thanks to everyone who have spent months organising this fantastic yearly event where we bloggers go nuts and post 26 pieces in 30 days (we get Sundays off).

So, our theme here at Wittegen Press this year is ‘why’, specifically, why have we, as authors, written the titles we have. And, each day, the book we’re talking about will be FREE.

So without further ado, onto our first ‘why’.

The book I’m talking about today is Mouse Trap. This was one of the first books I wrote when Tash and I began publishing as Wittegen Press. It was written to request for a charity drive, but, in fact, the lovely requester left much of the development of the plot to me, so I took inspiration from the crime mysteries of the so-called Mystery Golden Age where the likes of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers had their white-tied detectives searching for murders in the English Aristocracy.

I grew up first watching and then reading the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and Dorothy L Sayers. I still love them! They have a strange, very stiff-upper-lip approach to crime where solving the case is the challenge, and all of them have gorgeous Downton Abbey style settings. They are surreal and escapist, and I wanted to emulate a little of that idea in Mouse Trap.

The story is a novella, and I knew I could never get the kind of complexities that Christie inserts into her books into such a short plot, so I stepped back from murder and went for theft instead. Then I threw in a country house weekend as my setting and the characters evolved from there. Harry Moorsely, my protagonist and sleuth, a free spirit, an artist and a lesbian. Mariam DeBoer, younger, naive, and attached to a jealous boyfriend.  When Lady Jane Devrill’s jewels are stolen, well, if you know your Christie, then you can guess what happens next.

Mouse Trap is very much a light-hearted tribute to those old mysteries, it does not pretend to be a full-out sleuth-fest, and it contains a steamy romance, something that Agatha might not have approved of ;). Still, I hope you enjoy it!

So, do you have a favourite murder mystery?

 



FREE Book Offer 

Mouse Trap by Sophie DuncanMouse Trap by Sophie Duncan

There’s no need for a code, this book is permanently  FREE, so just follow the title link above for all the download options.

Harry Moorsely is a noticing sort of gal.
And she has noticed Mariam DeBoer.

Visiting her God Mother, Lady Jane Devril, bright young thing, Harry, has set her sights on another guest at the weekend house party, the divinely elfin Mariam. Yet, when Lady Jane’s emeralds are stolen in the middle of the night, Harry’s eye for detail means only she sees the clues that point to an inside job. Should she believe her suspicions, or will her heart lead her to another conclusion?

Join Harry in solving the case in this entertaining, free, lesbian mystery.

WARNING: This books contains explicit adult content.


 Our other AtoZ blogs: Tasha’s Thinkings | Sophie’s Thoughts and Fumbles| FB3X (AC)


AtoZChallenge List 2015 click to see other participants.


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Curse of a Banshee
Sophie Duncan
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24 comments

    1. I haven’t read that one, but I just went and googled the synopsis and it sounds like I would enjoy it, so I just downloaded it on Kindle 🙂 Thanks for the rec.

    1. I’m a big Miss Marple fan myself, but I do like Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile for Poirot. 🙂 I’ve also watched all the David Suchet Poirot series.

  1. I’ve never actually read an Agatha Christie book (although I’ve seen the play version of Mouse Trap) but I love murder mysteries. It’s been awhile since I’ve read one so I can’t think of a favorite!

    1. I didn’t start reading Agatha Christie until way after I’d seen lots of TV adaptations. I really want to see the Mousetrap, it’s coming to our local theatre this year, so I’m trying to persuade my family to go with me :).

  2. I do like the Poirot TV shows. They come on during crazy hours when I have insomnia so I’ve seen a lot of them.

    1. They just did a TV movie called Agatha Rasin and the Quiche of Death – I had not idea she was a book detective too 🙂 I will have to look her up! M C Beaton also wrote Hamish Macbeth, a set of books I also need to read, we have a couple lying round the house somewhere – I loved the TV series.

  3. One of my favourite things about the A to Z last year was reading new books, so am very pleased to be starting the challenge by downloading your free book!!

    I love all the TV adaptations of Christie, nothing better on a Sunday afternoon to have a lazy day watching that type of TV, must say that I really don’t think I’ve read any in book form, which given how much I love reading is really odd!!

    Mars xx
    Curling Stones for Lego People

    1. I so agree with you – I watch and rewatch all the TV adaptations, I have Miss Marple in two versions, Joan Hickson and the latest ones feature Geraldine McKewan and Julia McKensie.

      It took me a long time to start reading her as well.

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