Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. Her readers primarily know her for Morland Dynasty series. This historical fiction series is amazing, and each book is well-researched, her characters have real flesh on their bones, and her writing draws you in and plops you down into every scene.
Her Bill Slider series, while equally wonderful, is as much like the Morland Dynasty as chalk is to cheese. It is set in a suburb (Shepherd's Bush) of London, and takes place in the late 1980's, early 1990's. Grave Music is book 4 of the series.
These books are crime novels and our main character, Bill Slider, is an Inspector with the Shepherd's Bush police department. The books are full of puns, with great, individual characters and show off extremely clever writing.
On her website, CHE writes: "With no preconceived notions of how to write a detective novel, I started with a corpse; and, in order not to make it too easy, I made it a totally naked corpse in a completely empty flat â a clue-free zone! I didn't have to invent a detective â Bill Slider walked into my head the first day, complete in every respect.
So Bill and I started investigating our first case. I had no more idea than he did who the corpse was, let alone who had murdered her or why, so we had to work it out as we went along â not the recommended method for writing a mystery!"
In my mind, the Bill Slider novels give CHE the opportunity to write in a completely different manner than she is more or less conscripted to in historical fiction. For example, her clever and funny puns, relationships between work colleagues, use of contemporary slang, use of current things, i.e., restaurants, clothing, modes of transportation, etc.
This can be a little bit of a drawback to American readers who are not well-versed with the Brit's way of saying things. For example, the police department is the 'nick'. But, generally the reader can figure things out in context, and if not, the internet is a great help.
I highly recommend this series, but start with the first one, Orchestrated Death.
Her Bill Slider series, while equally wonderful, is as much like the Morland Dynasty as chalk is to cheese. It is set in a suburb (Shepherd's Bush) of London, and takes place in the late 1980's, early 1990's. Grave Music is book 4 of the series.
These books are crime novels and our main character, Bill Slider, is an Inspector with the Shepherd's Bush police department. The books are full of puns, with great, individual characters and show off extremely clever writing.
On her website, CHE writes: "With no preconceived notions of how to write a detective novel, I started with a corpse; and, in order not to make it too easy, I made it a totally naked corpse in a completely empty flat â a clue-free zone! I didn't have to invent a detective â Bill Slider walked into my head the first day, complete in every respect.
So Bill and I started investigating our first case. I had no more idea than he did who the corpse was, let alone who had murdered her or why, so we had to work it out as we went along â not the recommended method for writing a mystery!"
In my mind, the Bill Slider novels give CHE the opportunity to write in a completely different manner than she is more or less conscripted to in historical fiction. For example, her clever and funny puns, relationships between work colleagues, use of contemporary slang, use of current things, i.e., restaurants, clothing, modes of transportation, etc.
This can be a little bit of a drawback to American readers who are not well-versed with the Brit's way of saying things. For example, the police department is the 'nick'. But, generally the reader can figure things out in context, and if not, the internet is a great help.
I highly recommend this series, but start with the first one, Orchestrated Death.
