Guest author day with Helena Dixon

 

Please give a warm welcome to Miss Kitty Underhay from Murder in the Bell Towe by Helena Dixon today as we sit down and see what makes him/her tick.

 

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not saving (the world, clients, your mate)? I very much enjoy a good, long walk near the sea where I live followed by a Devon cream tea. Scones, strawberry jam, with clotted cream and a fresh pot of steaming hot tea.

 

What is it about your love interest that makes you crazy in a good way? Captain Matthew Bryant and I have only been walking out together for a short time. He can be infuriating when he fails to recognize that I am a modern, independent woman quite capable of making my own decisions. However, I believe he is quite teachable and since he is a veteran of the Great War I do make allowances as he suffered a great loss at that time which scars him to this day. He is very generous and kind. He presented me with my own car this Christmas., an adorable red Morris tourer.

 

Do you sometimes want to strangle your writer? Thrash her/him to within an inch of their life? Make them do the stupid crap they makes you do? My writer is very fond of placing my life in peril. I always seem to be stumbling over bodies. This is most vexing when I’m all set for a nice romantic dinner or a pleasant little holiday. She is terribly mean to Matt too. She knows he cannot cope with dark, confined spaces, a legacy of his war service in the trenches. Yet, where does he often end up? Stuck in underground tunnels or exploring fire damaged cellars with me, that’s where.

 

What's your favorite food? I think I mentioned the Devon cream tea, but I also love fish and chips. Fresh fish nicely battered and delicious, piping hot chips with salt and vinegar with some bread and butter.

 

Tell me a little bit about your world. What are your greatest challenges in that world? My greatest challenges are that I am a modern woman. I run a business, the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth, with my grandmother and yet even today in 1934 I am treated as less than a man. It really is quite ridiculous. I hate being patronized and told that I can’t do something just because of my sex.

 

Describe yourself in four words. Blonde, petite, intelligent, independent.

 

What do you do for a living? I run the Dolphin Hotel which is the premier hotel in Dartmouth. I book the entertainment, organize the staff, deal with the accounts and the bookings from guests.

 

What do you fear the most? I fear being stuck at the Dolphin doing nothing but hotel work for the rest of my life. I enjoy my work but sometimes I feel as if the history and weight of the place is dragging me down. That’s why I enjoy assisting Matt with his business, Torbay Private Investigative services, so much.

 

Genre: historical Cozy Mystery

Buy Link: https://t.co/qivg75A3qj

Blurb: Kitty Underhay’s hymn book is open… at murder.

Winter, 1933. Kitty Underhay is enjoying a restorative break from sleuthing on a visit to her family at Enderley Hall. The only thing marring her peace – aside from the uncomfortable sensation she has of being watched – is the obvious history between her beau, ex-army captain Matthew Bryant and another guest, the beautiful Juliet Vanderstafen. So, when the parish clerk is found dead on her front doorstep, Kitty leaps at the chance of distraction.

The police are happy to conclude that Miss Plenderleith met her unfortunate end on a patch of ice, but Kitty isn’t convinced this was a case of bad weather and worse luck. And when the Reverend Crabtree fails to show for tea the next day, she heads to the church to speak to him. But she arrives to find the clergyman hanging from the bell rope, dead.

With Matt seemingly wrapped up with his alluring Austrian, Kitty must solve the case on her own. But as she snoops into parish affairs, she makes some less-than-saintly discoveries. Just who has broken the sixth commandment? Meanwhile the killer is preparing a churchyard grave for Kitty, and she’ll have to use all her wits to avoid falling in…

 

Excerpt: Matt rejoined them and handed Kitty a fresh cocktail. Lady Medford crossed the room, regal in dark grey silk. ‘Kitty my dear, allow me to introduce you to Mrs Baker. Mrs Baker, my niece, Kitty, and her friend, Captain Bryant.’

Kitty surmised her aunt had taken her fill of Mrs Baker’s company and was keen to palm her off onto someone else. The count spied his opportunity to escape.

‘Your aunt said you were a private detective, Captain Bryant? The events here during June were most disturbing. And I must confess I read about your mother in the newspaper, Miss Underhay, quite shocking. You were involved in that business at Torquay Pavilion as well I understand. Not that one expects much from those of a theatrical nature.’ She sniffed disapprovingly and glared in the direction of Tabitha Vernon.

‘Now then, my dear, I’m sure Mrs Vernon has been most generous to the church,’ Miss Plenderleith chipped in.

‘There is generous and downright ridiculousness,’ Mrs Baker declared. ‘Take that abomination of a nativity scene. The old one was perfectly good.’

‘It had woodworm and a mouse or a rat had eaten a hole in the angel Gabriel,’ Mrs Vernon declared crisply, having seemingly heard Mrs Baker’s booming complaints.

‘There was nothing wrong that a few small repairs could not have put right. Now we have that gaudy thing beside the altar.’ Mrs Baker glared at Mrs Vernon.

‘Some of us need to move with the times,’ Mrs Vernon snapped.

‘Ladies, please.’ Mr Frobisher was quickly drowned out by Mrs Vernon.

‘I’ve also replaced some of that half-dead greenery you’d placed in the displays. It’s much more cheerful and festive now.’

‘You had better not have touched my displays.’ Mrs Baker drew herself up, her cheeks blooming puce with indignation.

‘The vicar thought my additions were more Christmassy.’ Mrs Vernon smirked at her rival. ‘Did you not, Reverend?’

All eyes turned to Reverend Crabtree.