Moving to a quiet English village should have been tranquil, but Claire Barclay learns that even an invitation to tea can be deadly. Who killed Mrs. Paulson, the president of the local Mystery Books Club? Was the motive for murder located in the archives of the book club? The members of the books club might have reason to want Mrs. Paulson’s out of the way. She had lived in the village all her life, been involved in many organizations and societies and knew many secrets of the villagers. Was one secret too dangerous for her to keep? She had been wealthy and left her money to a member of the club. Could the legatee have been impatient for her inheritance? Who cared enough to want her dead? Claire, an expert in solving problems in her job as a tour guide, decides to delve into the archives and into the lives of the villagers—and find out.
Book Details:
Title: Hazards in Hampshire
Author: Emma Dakin
Genre: cozy mystery
Series: The British Book Tour Mystery Series, book 1
Publisher: Camel Press (October 2019)
Print length: 190 pages
On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours
IFs ANDs OR WHATs INTERVIEW WITH EMMA DAKIN
Ifs
Q: If you could talk to someone (dead), who would it be and what would you ask them?
A: If I could talk to Max Planck who is long dead, I might be able to understand Quantum Physics. In spite of desperate attempts to read simplified books on this, the basic concepts drift past me. I have this idea that emotions can be explained by physics. It’s possible I really understand that emotions are unknowable. I still deal with them in my novels.
Q: If you could live in any time period which would it be? A: I’d like to live in the 1920s but with present day health care and, of course, plenty of money.
Q: If you could step back into a moment or day in time, where would you go?
A: I would go back to moments when I did or said something that impacted my children negatively. I’d love to get a chance to get it right this time.
Q: If you could be anything besides a writer, what would it be?
A: A research scientist on how people learn.
Q: If you had to do community service (or already do volunteer work), what would you choose?
A: Playing back up violin in a travelling band.
Q: If you could meet any author for coffee, who would you like to meet and what would you talk about?
A: Carola Dunn. We’d talk about Eleanor Trewynn and all the marvelous books yet to be written about her adventures.
Q: If you could choose a fictional town to live in what would it be and from what book?
A: I’d like to live in Kerry Greenwood’s Melbourne, Australia, but only for a short time. It’s very hot there, but I’d like to explore it. Of course, if her character Corinna Chapman was showing me around, I might stay longer.
Ands
5 favorite possessions:
• my violin
• my house overlooking the ocean
• my education
• my books
and
• the odd little gifts given to me by family
5 things you need in order to write:
• a computer
• time
• solitude
• functioning wi fi
and
• coffee
5 things you love about writing:
the unexpected production
new ideas
exploring characters
enjoying characters
and
hearing others give their opinions of my books characters
5 things you love about where you live:
• the ocean and paddling on it
• the musical community which accepts me, amateur that I am
• my friends
• my neighbors
and
• the ever-blooming countryside of this beautiful Sunshine Coast
5 things you never want to run out of:
• ideas
• brain cells
• food
• friends
and
• wine
5 things you always put in your books:
• humor
• characters you’d like to get to know
• characters you’d definitely NOT like to know
• pets
and
• a new setting
5 favorite books:
• Emily of New Moon
• L.M. Montgomery, read when I was about 12
• The Revenge of Annie Charley by Allan Fry
• almost any of Dick Franics' for its fast-paced plot
and
• Hazel Holt’s series
5 favorite authors:
• Elizabeth Peters
• Sara Rosett
• Jo Dereske
• Liz Freeman
and
• Rhys Bowen
5 living people you’d like to invite to dinner:
• Jacqueline Winspear
• Carola Dunn
• Sara Rosett
• Cathy Ace
and
• Frances Brody
5 people you’d like to be stuck in a bookstore with:
• Cathy Ace because she would liven up the event
• Debby Fowler
• Sara Rosett
• Frances Brody
and
• Kerry Greenwood. Then we would have Welsh, Cornish, Texan, Yorkshire, Australian, and Canadian accents.
5 favorite things to do:
• paddle outrigger canoes on the Pacific Northwest ocean
• read
• overhear conversations in airports
• play violin in groups
and
• meet my friends
5 things that drive you crazy:
• not enough time
• machines like computers that stop working
• missing the ferry
• favorite clothes that wear out or don’t fit anymore
and
• spam
Whats
Q: What’s your all-time favorite place?
A: Cornwall.
Q: What’s your all-time favorite memory?
A: The births of my children.
Q: What’s your all-time favorite city?
A: York.
Q: What’s your all-time favorite library?
A: Gibsons Public Library.
Q: What’s one thing that very few people know about you?
A: I’m an introvert.
Q: What’s your biggest pet peeve?
A: Irritatingly incorrect grammar.
Q: What’s your favorite hobby or past-time?
A: Paddling.
Q: What’s the loveliest sight you’ve ever seen?
A: Smiles on my family.
Q: What’s the most beautiful sound you’ve heard?
A: An organ in Reykjavic Iceland played by an Italnian organist.
Q: What’s your favorite Internet site?
A: Goggle.
Q: What’s your favorite time of day?
A: Morning.
Q: What’s your favorite song?
A: The flower song from Madama Butterfly.
Q: What’s your favorite vacation spot?
A: Home.
Q: What’s your favorite thing to do?
A: Write.
Q: What’s your favorite snack?
A: Chocolate.
Q: What’s your favorite beverage?
A: Wine, occasionally single malt scotch.
Q: What’s your favorite social media site?
A: Facebook.
Q: What’s your favorite color?
A: Blue.
Q: What’s one thing you never leave the house without?
A: My glasses.
Q: What is the wallpaper on your computer’s desktop?
A: A native design featuring my sister.
Q: What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
A: Listen more, talk less.
Q: What movie genre do you prefer?
A: Comedy.
Q: What smells remind you of your childhood?
A: Chocolate; turkey cooking.
Q: What book are you currently working on?
A: The third in this series, Perils in Yorkshire.
Q: What’s your all-time favorite place in your town?
A: The ocean.
Q: What’s your latest recommendation for:
Food: Roast lamb, Yorkshire pudding, fresh from the garden beans and carrots, roast potatoes from the garden and pumpkin cheese cake.
Music: Brahms Horn Concerto in F.
Movie: Love the Ice Mammoth ones.
Book: Liz Freeland’s Murder in Greenwich Village.
TV: Escape to the Country.
Miscellaneous: Exercise. The comedy value of aquafit in my local pool is hard to beat, and I’m in the middle of it.
This is Emma Dakin’s first series, set in Britain the homeland of Emma’s grandparents. Emma channels her mother’s inherited English culture along with the attitudes and sayings of the modern Brits. She travels widely in England and at one point this May while travelling through the Yorkshire Moors she had all the tourists in a tour bus looking for a good place to hide a body. As Marion Crook, she has published many novels of adventure and mystery for young adult and middle grade readers as well as non-fiction for adults and young adults and non-fiction on social issues. Firmly in the cozy mystery genre now, and committed to absorbing the culture and changing world of Britain, she plans to enjoy the research and the writing of cozies.
Connect with Emma:
Website | Facebook | Goodreads
Buy the book:
Amazon Digital | Amazon Paperback | B&N Kobo | IndieBound
