C is for Chocolate Egg Murders, The

The seventh and most recent STAC Mystery, released on March 20th, just two weeks ago, the popularity of The Chocolate Egg Murders has proved outstanding. It was in the top 100 of the Amazon British Detectives genre chart on the day of its release, and rocketed up that chart into the top 10, where it remains at number 6 (at the time of writing).

“The Carrot”, Weston-super-Mare

The story is set over the Easter weekend in the Somerset seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, with a visit to Bath thrown in. It’s no coincidence that my wife and I were in Weston-super-Mare (with a visit to Bath) the year before Chocolate Egg was released, and from the moment we arrived, I wanted to set a novel there.

In common with all STAC Mysteries, the tale starts low key: two women arguing in the street, one throws a chocolate egg at the other, misses and hits Joe instead. 24 hours later, one of the women is found dead. Two more murders take place, there are underworld machinations to consider, and Joe is attacked more times than he cares to remember. Never much of a scrapper, it’s fortunate that he has his pals from the 3rd Age Club, and his ever-present guardians in the shape of Sheila and Brenda, as well as DCI Patricia Feeney to protect him.

And of course, when we come to the denouement, it’s Joe who pieces it all together.

The whole lot is delivered with a side serving of Joe and Brenda getting up to naughties, but again, as with all STAC Mysteries, we leave them at the bedroom door.

Here’s a snippet from The Chocolate Egg Murders. Brenda has hurried off to find Easter eggs the trio can give to charity, leaving Joe and Sheila in the Winter Gardens café discussing the recently revealed intimacy between Joe and Brenda.

“Ever since Colin died, Brenda has done her best to enjoy herself.” Sheila’s lips tightened. “I don’t always approve, but it’s her life to lead as she sees fit. She misses Colin, but I think his death brought home to her just how short life is. Peter’s death came as a shock to me. Even after the first heart attack, I thought he was on the mend. Colin’s was not a shock.”

“I remember. He was diagnosed a year before he died, wasn’t he?”

Sheila nodded. “A terrible, wasting disease. Her, er… oh, I don’t know. Her ways with men are, I think, a reaction to the way Colin died, and, of course, the way she was widowed so young. She knows that what happened to Colin can happen to any of us. He didn’t smoke, you know, and he drank only in moderation. He was fit and healthy, too. He looked after himself, and yet, the cancer still got to him. That must have had an effect on Brenda’s mindset. So she enjoys herself with an attitude that’s often mistaken for promiscuity.” Sheila narrowed her eyes on Joe. “She dates a number of men, but she doesn’t sleep with them all.”

“I know.” Joe took out his tobacco, his natural reaction to deeper debates. “If you’re worried that Brenda is simply freewheeling and I may be taking it more seriously, don’t.” He ran a fine line of tobacco along the V of the cigarette paper. “I had that Valentine’s date with Letty, if you remember. I liked her. She could maybe have become Mrs Joe Murray, mark two, but I remember saying to her that it would take a long time for me to come to such a decision.”

“Alison?” Sheila asked.

Licking the gummed edge of the paper, he completed the cigarette and dropped it into his shirt pocket for later consumption. “Yes. Alison. I loved her, you know… well, as close as I could come to loving anyone, but it all went wrong because of the Lazy Luncheonette. Living and working together just didn’t pan out. My old dad had the right answer. Ma never worked in the café. I did, so did our Arthur, before he cleared off to Oz, but my old queen stayed upstairs and kept house. She and Dad saw nothing of one another during the day. Maybe if I’d insisted Alison take a back seat, we could have survived, but…” He sighed again. “I got it wrong, Sheila. I thought it would save on the wage bill if Alison worked with me. It did, but it wrecked our life together.” A semi-humorous gleam came into his eye. “I’m not about to rush into the same mistake again. For the time being, I’ll treat my time with Brenda the way she does. A bit of fun when we feel like it. Nothing more.”

Sheila, too, injected some humour into her voice. “I’m glad. I’ll be watching you both, so be good.”

“If I can’t be good, I’ll be careful.”

As with all the STAC Mysteries, The Chocolate Egg Murders is available as a paperback or as an e-book download in all formats, or direct from Crooked Cat Books in MOBI, EPUB and PDF formats