An Introduction to Little Compton

Good Evening,

I’ve been trying to create a map! It turns out I’m not very good at graphics either. I can’t say that shocked me. As The Murder, is the first in the new series, of Little Compton Mysteries, I thought I’d give you a flying tour. The map isn’t great, but it will give you an idea of the village layout. If I find myself with nothing to do (!!) I might try again. Here in Bristol we are surrounded by pretty villages, and it was one of these which inspired Little Compton. Not quite a one horse town, but small enough that everyone knows everyone else.

Little Compton is very close to Greater Compton, and between them you can get most of what you need, there are only a few things that require a trip into town. The villagers don’t mind for the best part, because that gives them the opportunity for a day out. Little Compton does of course have a pub, The Swan, a mini-market run by the lovely, Derek Vaswani, a posh delicatessen, or as village matriarch, Alice Green would call it, the cheese shop. There’s also a bakery, a cafe, a pizzeria, and of course the church and church hall, which houses the village’s library.  The map shows only Lower High Street, and a few of the roads which lead off it. But you can see where accountant Tom Large, and cleaner Liz Thorne live. An unlikely sleuthing duo, but it won’t surprise you to hear that they’re quite good at it. In the top right hand corner, is the area or woodland where poor old Denise Knight met her end, and in the bottom right, the Chow’s home, outside of which, Rhianna Chow was abducted. I’ve put the names of a few other residents on the map, all of whom you will meet either in The Murder or The Abduction.

Not long now until The Murder  is published (29th April) and The Abduction will become available for pre-order that day. Talking of The Abduction, here’s another tantalising glimpse of the cover.

If anyone would like a free signed copy of The Murder in paperback, I’m looking for characters for The Burglar, so please introduce me to a resident of Little Compton. Send me their name, age, and a brief description. The character will appear in the novel, and I will choose the winner on the 3rd May – who knows might be more than one – so thinking caps on.

That’s it for now, please feel free to laugh at my efforts with the map, and of course tell me where I should have gone to create it, but before I dash off, apologies to those who received two copies of my last email, that was my lack of technical skills kicking in! I do hope it didn’t cause too much inconvenience.

Now I really am going, happy reading,