Some years ago I set out to write a crime novel called SAY IT WITH POISON. I had in mind an amateur woman sleuth. I knew about living and working abroad, and finding, on my return to the UK, that I felt an outsider, I invented Meredith Mitchell, a returning consular officer, as my detective.

I soon discovered I needed a police presence in the book, so in came Chief Inspector Alan Markby. And, of course, they got interested in one another. The numerous letters and questions from readers made it clear that their awkward romance had got people hooked. After fifteen books I felt their relationship had either to move on or finish. If I married them off, it would change the whole basis of the books. I didn’t dare to break them up. So, in THAT WAY MURDER LIES, I took my leave of them.

I’ve also come to the end of the Fran Varady series with RATTLING THE BONES. I’m fond of Fran and sorry to say goodbye, but after seven books, it’s time. I don’t know whether Fran will ever achieve her acting ambitions. Perhaps she will.

But now I have two new characters, Lizzie Martin and Ben Ross, working in Victorian England. In SHADES OF MURDER, the thirteenth Mitchell and Markby book, part of the action took place in the nineteenth century. My research sparked an interest in that period and A RARE INTEREST IN CORPSES was the result. I’ve just finished the second book, A MORTAL CURIOSITY.

I’ll miss the other characters, of course. They lurk about my study as I work. ‘What about us?’ they demand. So far I’ve managed to turn a deaf ear and I’m about to start a new modern series to run alongside the historical one. It will be a challenge and I’m looking forward to it.