Earlier this year Margaret Duffy’s latest novel in her Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley mystery series was published by Severn House (severnhouse.com). It is the 14th novel in this popular collection, but can be read as a stand-alone novel.
Her novels are set around the City of Bath < https://visitbath.co.uk/>, which most readers would associate with Jane Austen. However, as Margaret explains,“Several crime writers have set their novels in Bath, Peter Lovesey probably the most celebrated. This World Heritage city <https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/428/> is steeped in history. It is hard to believe when one wanders the streets with its terraces of honey-coloured stone houses that in the distant past the whole area was a warm and steamy swamp in the crater of an extinct volcano. The Romans eventually arrived and built temples and baths and ever since there has been virtually constant human habitation. Now, one can walk the streets, especially at night and it’s there, history breathing from the very stones of the place. What has been concealed by the elegant facades? The city cries out to be written about by those with imagination.”
When asked who her favourite character was in this series of novels, Margaret gave an unequivocal answer, “My favourite character has to be Ingrid Langley, the author married to the charismatic Patrick Gillard. They met at school, then the occasion arose when he was sent round by his father to help Ingrid, fifteen, with her physics homework. (The two fathers knew one another). In Ingrid’s own words she was catapulted into womanhood the moment he sat down at the kitchen table where she was working looking extremely put out by his mission. And gorgeous. It was his mesmeric grey eyes that did it for her. Eventually they got married and she has been a rock for him ever since through the trials of working for MI5, then the Serious Organised Crime Agency which has been subsumed into the National Crime Agency.”
To find out more about Margaret novels do check out her website: <http://www.margaretduffy.co.uk/> or <https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/466465.Margaret_Duffy> and don’t forget if you would like to borrow one of her novels they are widely available in public libraries throughout the UK.
