Please welcome, friend and author, Alice Castle...

...to the blog this week.  You're on your 6th book, Alice - I am so in awe of the speed at which you write - can you tell us what it's all about?

Those who know Dulwich might well think that Beth Haldane, the single mum amateur sleuth star of my London Murder Mysteries series, must be running out of places to find bodies in SE21.  Not a bit of it.  Dulwich may be small but there are still plenty of handy corners where a fictional corpse or two can be stashed, and Belair Park is a perfect example.

The park is nestled around, and used to be the very grand garden of, Belair House, which is without doubt one of the finest mansions in this pocket of south east London.  Belair House is a beautiful Georgian slab of white stucco, dating from 1785, which some say was designed by Robert Adam.  In a Jane Austen novel, the house would be the seat of the local eligible bachelor, who’d sweep Beth away to dance in the candlelit ballroom.  In real life, it was built by a maize farmer by the name of John Willes, who’d made his fortune in Whitechapel.  Nowadays, the place is a Grade II listed events venue.  For the purposes of my whodunit, it has been taken over by the imaginary Dulwich Bridge Club, a collection of sharp-elbowed, competitive retired folk who used to have top jobs and still want to trump the opposition wherever possible.  Beth’s difficult mother, Wendy, likes to think she’s a leading light of the club.  Tragedy strikes when her long term bridge partner, Alfie, dies suddenly.  Wendy is convinced it’s murder, and Beth finds herself reluctantly dragged into the mystery.

While Beth rushes around investigating, Belair House stands tall and aloof, as it has done for more than two centuries now.  It still has its own lawn, but most of its grounds, which are said to have been landscaped by the famous Capability Brown himself, are now open to the public and owned by Southwark Council.  It is here, on a park bench, that the body of Alfie Pole is found.  The park features a pond, which was rather cheekily formed by damming the ancient river Effra.  It now also has a new skatepark, which no doubt Capability Brown, Robert Adam and John Willes too would have been astonished at.

It was such a joy to set my book in this corner of Dulwich which feels like a well-kept secret. 

I’d like it to have a much wider audience.  Belair House would be a gorgeous backdrop to

any story but it really lent itself to a cozy crime.  Although in the past it’s been open as a restaurant and bar, for the moment you can only book it for larger events.  Could it be the perfect spot for Beth’s own wedding to irascible Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector Harry York?  I’m laughing even as I type that – and Beth is blushing furiously behind her fringe ;)

...about the book Beth Haldane is on the verge of having everything she’s ever wanted.  Her son is starting secondary school, her personal life seems to have settled down – even her pets are getting on better.  But then the phone rings.

It’s Beth’s high maintenance mother, Wendy, with terrible news.  Her bridge partner, Alfie Pole, has died suddenly.  While Beth, and most of Dulwich, is convinced that Alfie has pegged out from exhaustion, thanks to playing with Wendy for years, Beth’s mother is certain that there is foul play afoot.

Before she knows it, Beth is plunged into her most complicated mystery yet, involving the Dulwich Bridge Club, allotment holders, the Dulwich Open Garden set and, of course, her long-suffering boyfriend, Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector Harry York.  The case stirs up old wounds which are much closer to home than Beth would like.  Can she come up trumps in time to stop the murderer striking again, or does the murderer hold the winning hand this time? 

...about the author Before turning to crime, Alice Castle was a UK newspaper journalist for The Daily Express, The Times and The Daily Telegraph.  Her first book, Hot Chocolate, set in Brussels and London, was a European hit and sold out in two weeks.

Death in Dulwich was published in September 2017 and has been a number one best-seller in the UK, US, France, Spain and Germany.  A sequel, The Girl in the Gallery was published in December 2017 to critical acclaim and also hit the number one spot.  Calamity in Camberwell, the third book in the London Murder Mystery series, was published in August 2018, with Homicide in Herne Hill following in October 2018. Revenge on the Rye came out in December 2018.  Alice is currently working on the seventh London Murder Mystery adventure, The Slaying in Sydenham.  Once again, it will feature Beth Haldane and DI Harry York. 

The Body in Belair Park will be published on 25^th June by Crooked Cat and you can get a copy Here and Death in Dulwich is available as an Audio Book

You can follow Alice on her Website on Facebook and on  Twitter