#BlogTour A Public Murder by Antoinette Moses

 

It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour A Public Murder by Antoinette Moses.

About the Author

Antoinette Moses a life - When I was young, your passport included your profession. I put writer. ‘Why writer?’ asked my then boyfriend, ‘You never write anything.’ ‘But I’m going to,’ I said. I always knew I was going to be a writer. It just took a while to get going. I kept getting distracted by other things.

First distraction: Editing. Journalism. - I had to earn my living and so I got jobs in journalism, publishing and as a staff writer for a photographic news agency. I also took time off to travel. That’s when I first lived in Greece which was on and off between 1973 and 1978.

Second distraction: Festivals. - I first helped run a festival in 1970. It was the Oxford Animation Festival, and it was a huge success. It ended with Yellow Submarine and the Beatles singing ‘You’re such a lovely audience’… I was hooked. Both on audiences and festivals.

When I came back to England in 1978, I re-founded the Cambridge Animation Festival, and was its director for six years. I also helped set up the Hiroshima Animation Festival, and worked for the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. In 2013 co-founded the Festival for Literature for Young people (FLY) at the University of East Anglia (UEA). I was its producer until I retired in 2018.

Third distraction: Teaching: -  I started writing fulltime in 1994 and had several books published. Then I began writing plays which led to my getting an MA in creative writing at UEA, followed by a PhD on verbatim theatre, and ten years teaching as a lecturer in Creative Writing and Literature.

And so we come to the writing: My first published book was a guidebook to Athens, then I wrote a cookbook for dieters and then I wrote a number of short fictions for young people learning English. These were published mostly by Cambridge University Press and have won three Extensive Reading Awards; Jojo's Story was described by one critic as ‘a classic for all time’. Several became bestsellers. I’ve also published essays and stories.

I wrote my first play when I was 9. It was an adaptation of The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Graham and I performed it with my father at the family Christmas. (Poor family) I’ve written a number of plays which have been produced in Norwich and Cambridge and Heidelberg, and have received rehearsed readings in Ipswich, London and Paris. A few have won prizes and awards. 

And now it’s crime fiction. And finally I’ve launched the first Pam Gregory novel, A Public Murder. Follow @AntoinetteMose on Twitter

About the book

'My mother was a very difficult person, Inspector, and not always a very nice one. I can think of any number of people who would want her dead.’

The shocking murder of the archaeologist, Stephanie Michaels in the new Leotakis Gallery in Cambridge is clearly going to be a troublesome high-profile investigation from the outset. But to track down the killer, DI Pam Gregory has to travel to the Greek island of Crete where she finds herself on a journey she never expected, one which will change her life for ever.

Review

Committing a murder is one thing, committing one that is supposed to draw attention to the act and victim, is quite another. Why would someone go to the trouble of killing an archaeologist in such a spectacular manner? What point are they trying to make?

It's up to DI Pam Gregory to follow the clues and stop a killer who is just getting started, and to try and keep the magnitude of the investigation and the murder under wraps, which is easier said than done. Fame hungry experts and billionaires who like throwing their weight around make things more difficult than they need to be. Although having to investigate in Crete, well it's not like that's a hard assignment is it, looking for a killer on such a beautiful history rich island - okay the murderous villain is a little bit of a mood spoiler.

Unbridled anger and grief can turn into something lethal, something that appears completely normal in the mind of the person suffering, but to others it's an extreme leap. How do you stop someone who isn't thinking straight and thinks their actions will end their pain or at the very least put things right.

It's a crime story that is enriched with the vast knowledge of the surroundings and history. It's the first in the DI Pam Gregory series, but certainly the first of many more.

Buy A Public Murder at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Black Crane Press pub date 1 Dec. 2020. Buy at Amazon com. At Waterstones. Via Black Crane Press.