Welcoming Victoria Walters to the blog!

This week I am absolutely delighted to welcome my good friend and fellow author, Victoria Walters to the blog. Last month, Victoria's first cosy crime novel, MURDER AT THE HOUSE ON THE HILL was published and I loved it so much, I invited her along to tell us all about how writing a different genre came about, along with the inspiration behind writing such a clever and engrossing book!

I have published six women’s fiction novels, including the bestselling Glendale Hall series, but on 23rd September, I published my first ever murder mystery novel! It’s a cosy crime called Murder at the House on the Hill. 

I actually wrote this book just for fun. I was under contact with my publisher Hera for my Glendale series but I had hit my deadline and was struck by the idea of writing a murder mystery. I’ve been a fan of cosy crime books and TV shows for a long time, and I loved the idea of writing my own. I really enjoy watching shows like Shakespeare and Hathaway, Father Brown and Jonathan Creek, and am slowly making my way through all of Agatha Christie’s novels, and I loved the idea of creating my own similar cosy world. I had the idea of a woman who ends up solving crimes with her grandmother, and I really wanted my love of books and my experience working in Waterstones to feed into it too. At first, my main character Nancy Hunter, worked in a library but I realised that owning a bookshop would be much more fun and I made it one that only sells crime and mystery novels. I just loved the idea of a crime bookshop owner becoming an amateur detective!

If you read the book, I hope you’ll realise it’s a love story to murder mysteries. My characters, for instance, are named after literary and TV detectives – Nancy is named after Nancy Drew, and her grandmother after Jane Marple. We also have an Inspector Brown after BBC’s Father Brown, and Jonathan, the local reporter, is named after Jonathan Creek. The book is set in the Cotswolds, which is home to so many fictional crimes shows and books like Agatha Raisin, and hopefully you’ll enjoy the cosy quaintness of the story, a nod to Agatha Christie mysteries, and the fun the characters have as they solve their first mystery. I also hope you won’t be able to guess the killer but that you’ll enjoy trying to! There also is, of course, the bookshop to discover and as someone who has loved bookshops and wanted to work in one since I watched You’ve Got Mail, it was so enjoyable to write about Dedley Endings Bookshop, and I hope it’s just as enjoyable to read. 

After finishing writing the book just for my own enjoyment, I realised that I loved the characters and the village they live in, Dedley End, so much I didn’t want them to just live on my computer I wanted people to be able to meet them for themselves so I sent it to my agent and editor, and the rest as they say is history! For me, changing genres has been really fun but I won’t be leaving women’s fiction behind. I feel like all my stories, regardless of the genre, are full of characters you root for, have close knit communities you’d like to live in, are cosy and full of heart, and are basically books to curl up with and escape the real world with. I really hope they all leave you smiling at the end too. 

I hope I can keep writing murder mysteries alongside my romantic stories and I hope readers will enjoy both as much as I enjoy writing them!

Buy the book

AMZ UK: https://amzn.to/3yJqSKk

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2SzAN4h

Apple: https://apple.co/3yJGkWE

AMZ US: http://amzn.to/3mY2UHw

Waterstones: https://bit.ly/3k1apLW

Victoria Walters is a full-time author living in Surrey. Victoria writes the bestselling women’s fiction series GLENDALE HALL, which has won wide reader acclaim. She has been chosen for WHSmith Fresh Talent and shortlisted for two RNA awards. Victoria was also picked as an Amazon Rising Star. Her first cosy crime novel MURDER AT THE HOUSE ON THE HILL was published in 2021. 

Find out more about Victoria by following on Instagram at @vickyjwalters, on Twitter at @Vicky_Walters or by visiting her blog at: http://victoria-writes.com/ She is also on YouTube as Victoria Walters.