Welcome to my first Friday Reads blog of 2024. My featured book this week is the murder mystery Murder in the Lady Chapel by Anne Coates. Let’s find out a bit more about the book and get chatting to Anne.

Blurb

“All that is now hidden will some day come to light. If you have ears, listen! And be sure to put into practice what you hear.” Mark 4, verse 22

A chorister is found dying in the Lady Chapel when the Reverend Peter Savage is about to begin morning prayers. It’s a suspicious death and no one seems to know much about the victim. The vicar implores Hannah Weybridge to find out what she can.

Little did the journalist know that this investigation would have her joining the choir in preparation for the Christmas services or that her daughter, Elizabeth, would be so enchanted by the church.

Hannah soon discovers that the deceased, Daniel Lyons, seems to be a man without a history and that’s suspicious in itself. Apparently, an insurance fraud investigator, he leaves no records: even his landlady knows little about him.

But, as Hannah discovers, someone does know him – and he was definitely not who he seemed to be…

And while she investigates, someone is trying to intimidate Hannah in a series of seemingly unconnected ways. The past as well as the present haunts her. Will she be able to solve the mystery before Christmas is ruined?

Buy Links to Anne’s books

Amazon

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/search/?keyword=Anne+Coates £1 off and free delivery

https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/anne+coates

Welcome to my blog, Anne, Murder in the Lady Chapel is the sixth book in your Hannah Weybrdige series. Can you tell us a little about the series, and the inspiration for this book.

When I told a friend about writing my latest Hannah Weybridge novel, Murder in the Lady Chapel, he commented that churches were not exactly safe havens for my characters and I realised how true that is. Death’s Silent Judgement, the second in the series, begins in St John’s Waterloo where Hannah discovers the dead body of one of her closest friends. Subsequent visits to that church prove to be equally life threatening for some of those involved!

     Murder in the Lady Chapel begins with the vicar of St John’s finding one of the choir members dying alone just before morning prayers. My inspiration for this book, as with all the others, was an image I’d had in my mind for some time before the plot as such was created. I say “the plot as such” since I am a total panster when it comes to writing fiction and often have no idea where the narrative will take me.

     Characters take over and lead me a merry dance. Of course, as I am writing a series, some characters reappear and evolve, showing diverse and often surprising aspects of their lives. I love meeting them again in different circumstances and, yes I do keep a notebook for their biographical details. One reader suggested a character list in each book and I am considering posting these on my website. One character who has been a joy to create is Hannah’s daughter, Elizabeth who is coming up to her second birthday. She is certainly coming into her own but having a small child in the equation means I always have to take childcare into consideration when Hannah is involved in her investigations.

     My narratives are usually take place within tight timeframes so I find it useful to monitor my timelines by printing out the calendar months for that year – in the case of Murder in the Lady Chapel, November and December 1994. I pencil in events as they take place or are coming up. I had to make sure references to the four Sundays of Advent, the Carol Service and Midnight Mass were all on the correct dates. In later drafts I deleted a few scenes and had to rearrange some events to maintain the momentum of the investigation. I also check if there were any real major news events during that time as my protagonist writes for a newspaper and I slip these references into the editorial meetings.

     I loved writing Murder in the Lady Chapel and who knows there could be another Hannah Weybridge in the offing as I had always envisaged a series of seven books!

How fascinating to read your writing process, Anne.

Meet Anne

It only took one tap dancing class (and some coaching from her mother who had been a dancer) for Anne Coates  to realise that she would never be a Ginger Rogers but being a journalist and writing fiction has allowed  her to explore all manner of careers and situations with far less embarrassment.

Anne has worked for a range of publications, including national newspapers and magazines and has had short stories published in major women’s magazines. She has  written seven nonfiction  books as well as her Hannah Weybridge crime fiction series set in 1990s London and featuring a single mother and freelance journalist who lives in East Dulwich. Her work as a journalist has informed and influenced her fiction while her time spent abridging books for Reader’s Digest honed her writing skills.

Anne was born in Clapham and has lived in East Dulwich for many years. She sings in her local church choir and is a Dulwich Festival Trustee. Apart from her family, theatre is her greatest love followed by film and, of course, books.

Her Hannah Weybridge crime thriller books in order are: Dancers in the Wind 2016, Death’s Silent Judgement 2017, Songs of Innocents 2018, Perdition’s Child 2020, and Stage Call 2022, have all been republished this year by Urban Fox Books now joined by latest, Murder in the Lady Chapel in November 2023.  All are available to order from bookshops, plus:

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/search/?keyword=Anne+Coates £1 off and free delivery

https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/anne+coates

Where to find Anne Coates

Instagram: anne_coates1
Author Website: www.annecoatesauthor.com
FB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/AnneCoatesAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anne_Coates1

Thanks for dropping by to talk to us today, Anne. Wishing you lots of writing success.

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