Diary Entry by Wendy Percival, Author

Even without a pandemic, as an author with a book to edit I’d already planned to stay at home and keep my head down. So when Lockdown was announced, I was kept busy preparing the 4^th Esme Quentin mystery, The Fear of Ravens, for publication.

For those who don’t know my books, my protagonist, Esme Quentin, is a ‘genealogy detective’ who gets drawn into solving present-day mysteries by revealing secrets from the past, invariably with unforeseen consequences.

When I wrote my first book, Blood-Tied, readers took to Esme, liking her tenacity and how she’d keep digging for answers, even if by doing so she put herself in danger. They wanted to know what she was going to do next. So I wrote another book and the series was born.

Apart from Blood-Tied, which takes place in Shropshire where I have family roots, the books are set on the coast of North Devon, around the Hartland area, where Esme “lives”.

The idea for Blood-Tied, came to me while I first began researching my own family history and realised how little we know about our family’s past. We meet Esme as she discovers her sister Elizabeth has a secret past after Elizabeth is attacked and left in a coma. Convinced of a connection, Esme resolves to uncover the truth, unaware of the dangerous path she is treading.

The second book, The Indelible Stain, takes place near Hartland Quay and was inspired after reading an article about convict ancestry. Esme makes the gruesome discovery of a fatally injured woman at the foot of cliffs. Troubled by the woman’s dying words, Esme’s search for answers leads her back to the brutal penal history of nineteenth-century England and the mystery of a convict girl transported to Australia for her crime.

In the third book, The Malice of Angels, Esme investigates the mystery of a nurse’s wartime disappearance, delving into the clandestine world of WWII secret agents and undercover missions into occupied Europe, inadvertently stumbling upon the truth behind a trauma in her own past.

The inspiration for the latest novel, The Fear of Ravens, came from the infamous history of Bideford as the home of the last women in England to be hanged for witchcraft in 1682. Esme is engaged to research the history of an ancient mill and uncovers dark family secrets, a bitter feud and a 19^th century witch’s curse.

Sadly, due to the current Coronavirus crisis, I won’t be able to have a launch party at East Worlington Parish Hall, as I did when The Malice of Angels was published in 2017. But never say never. Perhaps by Halloween, the time of year when the book is set, things may have changed enough to have a belated celebration!

Meanwhile, the book is available on Amazon in Kindle, with the paperback coming out on 20^th July. I’ll have signed copies for sale at £9 (delivered) to anyone interested in reading what Esme did next!

If you’d like to reserve a copy, drop me an email at wendy@wendypercival.co.uk

Further information can be found on my website www.wendypercival.co.uk

Link to Amazon http://mybook.to/FearofRavensKindle

During ‘lockdown’ due to Coronavirus students from Chulmleigh Community College, our community secondary school, have produced a song ‘Lean on Me’ in tribute to Keyworkers and in support of Teenage Cancer Trust.

Click on image to listen