Please welcome Jan Edwards, whom Auntie M first read about on the wonderful UK Blog Gaslight Crime, to describe her new release, Winter Downs, the first in a new series:

Many readers have asked about the inspiration for Winter Downs, and, more specifically, why the county of Sussex, England in WW2, was the chosen setting.

Put simply, Winter Downs sprang from a Sussex childhood littered with abandoned airfields, pillboxes and dugouts, along with anecdotes swapped by parents with friends and relations.

Forgetting that, just like walls in the 1940s propaganda posters, small children also have ears, and the old timers would talk about how Mr ‘V’ was jailed for sheep rustling for the black market; How Mr and Mrs ‘W’ were interned for most of the war; How sad it was that Mrs ‘Y’s only son was shot down over France, before the Battle of Britain. And yes, I listened, never dreaming how many of those snippets would be filed away in my junk-yard brain, only to re-emerge in altered form, so many years later.

My amateur sleuth, Rose ‘Bunch’ Courtney, and her ancient family home, Perringham Hall, are entirely fictional. But they were inspired by a vast pool of local people and places, and their much-repeated intrigues – the sort of things from which all legends are born.

And what is Winter Downs about, I hear you ask?

“Bunch Courtney stumbles upon the body of Jonathan Frampton in a woodland clearing. Is this a case of suicide, or is it murder? Bunch is determined to discover the truth, but can she persuade the dour Chief Inspector Wright to take her seriously? In January of 1940 a small rural community on the Sussex Downs, already preparing for invasion from across the Channel, finds itself deep in the grip of a snowy landscape, with an ice-cold killer on the loose.”

Winter Downs is available in Paper and Kindle formats from:
Winter Downs on Amazon.com
Winter Downs on Amazon.uk

Winter Downs
Jan Edwards
3rd June 2017 | Penkhull Press
ISBN 978-0-9930008-6-7
Paperback £9.99 tbc | ebook £2.99 tbc
In January of 1940 a small rural community on the Sussex Downs, already preparing for invasion from across the Channel, finds itself deep in the grip of a snowy landscape, with an ice-cold killer on the loose.
Bunch Courtney stumbles upon the body of Jonathan Frampton in a woodland clearing. Is this a case of suicide, or is it murder? Bunch is determined to discover the truth but can she persuade the dour Chief Inspector Wright to take her seriously?

Winter Downs is first in the Bunch Courtney Investigates series. Published in paper and e formats.

Jan Edwards is a Sussex-born writer now living in the West Midlands with her husband and obligatory cats. She was a Master Locksmith for 20 years but also tried her hand at bookselling, microfiche photography, livery stable work, motorcycle sales and market gardening. She is a practising Reiki Master. She won a Winchester Slim Volume prize and her short fiction can be found in crime, horror and fantasy anthologies in UK, US and Europe; including The Mammoth Book of Dracula and The Mammoth Book of Moriarty. Jan edits anthologies for The Alchemy Press and Fox Spirit Press, and has written for Dr Who spinoffs with Reel Time Pictures.

For further information please contact Penkhull Press at: https://thepenkhullpress.wordpress.com/
Jan is available for Q&A s and interviews. Follow the links to the Q&A page if time is pressing and you can just pick a few questions that appeal to you or get in touch at the links below.
For reviewing purposes e ARCs available in Mobi, PDF or eFile for reviewing purposes. You can join Jan’s newsletter via the Contacts Page or at Jan @ rowangrove.co.uk or call Jan at 01538 751705