Exclusive interview with Author Elizabeth J. Duncan and a review of the third book in her Penny Brannigan mystery series
Rating: 3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“I visited the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney,” says A Killer’s Christmas in Wales author Elizabeth J. Duncan. “I have travelled places I never would have visited and met people I never would have got to know. I spent hours in the main library in Liverpool reading newspaper accounts. It was amazing reading about the Beatles in 1960s accounts, as the music was happening.”
Duncan writes great dialog that will make you chuckle. Duncan’s writing is warm and inviting drawing you into the lives of the townspeople of Llanelen. Even though this is set during Christmas you can read it anytime of year. This is the third novel in the Penny Brannigan mystery series by Elizabeth Duncan, but you don’t have to read them in order to enjoy them.
In A Killer’s Christmas in Wales, Penny and her friend Victoria Hopkins are called on to solve the mysterious death of Harry Saunders, an American who arrives around Christmas in the small Welsh town of Llanelen. A new face in town was welcomed by the ladies, and Evelyn Lloyd caught Harry’s special attention. Evelyn, a rich widow, is so charmed she gives Harry money to invest in a project. Not long after receiving the money from Evelyn, Harry goes missing. When Harry’s body is found, everyone wants to know, who is the killer?
“A Killer’s Christmas in Wales is the third in the Penny Brannigan mystery series, so the idea for it started to germinate while I was writing the second book in the series, A Brush with Death,” says Duncan. “Plots take surprising twists all the time. It occurred to me while I was writing that two characters could be related. That was a surprise.”
Duncan says she spends as much time in Wales each year as she can. “Research can be small, like hearing how people speak, or large, like getting important facts right. I began my career as a journalist and have written for several major Canadian newspapers.”
Duncan says the main challenge is the usual one every writer faces. Meeting deadlines.
The Penny Brannigan series is Duncan’s first foray into fiction. Her first book, The Cold Light of Mourning (2009), won the William F. Deeck St. Martin’s Press Award (2006) for unpublished writers, the Malice Domestic-St. Martin’s Press Award (2008), and was a finalist for an Agatha Award and an Arthur Ellis Award.
A Killer’s Christmas in Wales: A Penny Brannigan Mystery by Elizabeth J. Duncan • Hardcover, 288 pages, Publisher: Minotaur Books (October 25, 2011), Language: English, ISBN: 9780312622831 $24.99.
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