I had a nice email last night – a contract for Blue Christmas. This one is set in Cornwall and entirely my editors fault. She sent me a photo and the phrase Blue Christmas as inspiration… and this book is the result.

Here’s the cast photo.

And the working blurb. This may well change slightly before publication.

St. Morien., Cornwall. Beautiful. Peaceful.

Deadly.

Detective Inspector Aidan Urquhart has a mystery on his hands. Three young women  reported missing back in the summer have been found dead; all still wearing the clothes in which they they vanished; all frozen solid on the cold shore. 

When Jenica Zimmerman realises her sister is missing, she heads to the Cornish coast where the police have few clues. The DI leading the case warns her not to take chances, to go home and leave the case to his team. Determined to stay, Jenica takes a room at a local inn and attempts to find her sister herself. With Christmas fast approaching, all she wants a happy ending. But when a fourth body is discovered, all tidings of comfort and joy seem far away.

St. Morien itself is made up. However I did pick a real Cornish village on the coast and simply renamed it. The Smuggler’s Inn is part of a series I have mapped out, so it’s possible or highly likely that several of the characters from this book may well reappear at some point in the future. That too is made up. As is the winter festival in the book.