Covid chaos inspires a murder most foul
‘I STARTED CONTEMPLATING IF COVID COULD PRESENT ITSELF AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR DARK THOUGHTS AND DESPERATE DEEDS’ SAYS AUTHOR DUNCAN PEBERDY, IN CONVERSATION ADRIAN CAFFERY
THE ‘‘UK’s first Covid-19 murder mystery” has been published – and the action takes place in the Midland author’s home town.
Written during lockdowns, Lance Dune House cleverly uses the chaos surrounding the pandemic to hide a murder in plain sight, in a genuinely plausible way.
The plot begins in 1977 but culminates in July 2021.
Tina Rogers never knew the identity of her father until her mother revealed all on her deathbed in St Richard’s Hospice – including that she had been raped.
Shortly after, a shaken Tina confronts her new-found half-sister Michelle, who is running their dementia-ridden father’s successful business and suspects Tina wants a share of it.
She didn’t, but then to avenge her half-sister’s hostile rejection and her mother’s rape Tina and her partner, Alfie, embark on a dangerous scam to get their hands on some of Michelle’s millions.
When Michelle comes close to uncovering the truth, matters take a sinister turn as Covid-19 provides the perfect opportunity to get away with murder.
The tale is set in and around the Worcestershire town of Droitwich Spa, where author Duncan Peberdy has lived for the past 20 years.
The protagonists visit real-life locations The Castle pub, St Augustine’s Church, The Spinning Wheel cafe, Coffee No1, Crumps undertakers and many more locations that will be familiar to townsfolk.
Lance Dune House was originally billed as the ‘‘world’s first Covid-19 murder mystery’’ before Duncan discovered that he’d been pipped to the post by authors in other countries.
Duncan says: ‘‘During the lockdowns in 2020, I started contemplating if Covid could present itself as an instrument for dark thoughts and desperate deeds.’’
He adds: ‘‘The book in no way seeks to minimise the life-changing implications faced by many families resulting from Covid.
‘‘The reality of life is that all tragic events, from plane crashes, to 9/11 to the Grenfell Fire, ultimately find their way into art and literature.”
It’s not the first time Duncan has written a thriller based in Droitwich. Youthenasia, a novel about teenagers being bumped off by a serial killer, was written in 2002.
I’ve read your book and found the Covid-related murder to be both cunning and fully credible. How did you come up with the idea?
Firstly, I should like to stress that Lance Dune House is more than just a murder mystery. I feel that it is in part a romance, part almost historical, and part current affairs in that my characters experience living through the 2020/21 lockdowns and are affected by the restrictions and enjoy the opportunities that all of us have experienced by being confined to our homes for so long.
My idea for two half-sisters to meet for the first time when they are around 40 and the ensuing fraud was one that I’d had for some years, but the original focus wasn’t murder, rather the effect that a divorce has on the children. I thought that the children having to choose which parent to live with would be an interesting contrast to William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice where the parent has to choose between two children.
I had a chance conversation last year about the higher value of PR when it can be related to current circumstances, so I looked at which of my unwritten ideas might be able to dovetail around a Covid setting.
The inclusion of real-world events from 1977 to the present day clearly needed a lot of research. How long did it take you to write?
As I normally spend half of my working life away from home on university campuses across the UK, the Covid lockdowns gave me 12 months of daily routine that I’d probably not had since childhood. I discovered that I could write small 2-3 hour chunks every day, and for some reason the words just kept appearing on my screen. I’ve written two business books and two books on digital education, and they all took longer to construct, despite being shorter works.
To write Lance Dune House took me around three months, and then a further three months to give the characters more depth, develop the plot and build in real-life events that were occurring on the dates in my story; like the 1988 conviction of Colin Pitchfork based on DNA evidence, which is used to advance the plot.
It was lockdown that gave me the opportunity to write this book so quickly.
Why did you decide to base your book in and around Droitwich, including some real-life characters?
Writers often depict places and people they know, and then disguise the reality. But I thought that the familiarity of the setting would make it easier to find readers.
For people who don’t know Droitwich, it’s no different to anyone reading a novel set elsewhere that’s unfamiliar, and if they are intrigued, they can go and have a pint at the Castle pub or a coffee at Little Al’s Kitchen in the Lido Park, both of which are featured in my book.
You’ve incorporated a key plot development – the deathbed reveal – at St Richard’s Hospice in Worcester. How did that come about?
I wanted the death to be in the hospice so I could comment on the quality of care and the peaceful surroundings that a family member of mine had experienced, so I wrote to St Richard’s for their permission to use them as a location. Once that had been agreed, I then thought about using the book to fundraise. Like all charities, Covid has impacted St Richard’s by closing their shops for most of last year and cancelling the mass-participation cycles and runs that raise so much in sponsorship. At least £2 from each copy sold is going to the hospice.
At the back of the book you’ve mentioned that success will result in a second Covid-19 murder mystery, Pilgrim Corner. What is your measure of success?
I’ve set myself an ambitious target of raising £10,000 for St Richard’s Hospice, which means around 4,000 copies. Pilgrim Corner is currently written in outline to around 40,000 words. It is definitely more biographical, so I need to be very careful to protect the real identities of the guilty. Again, it was written entirely during lockdown and, being written first, was actually the catalyst for Lance Dune House.
For details of where to buy Lance Dune House, priced £8.95, visit www.thecovid19murders.com