At last good news about my next Radwinter book – the end is almost in sight (but I do need a title for it!) I’m at the slash and burn stage – going through and excising all the ridiculous extra words I stuff in when I’m writing. I hope within the next couple of weeks I might have some really exciting news!
Here is an extract, Thomas Radwinter is trying to find an elderly lady who seems to have gone missing. He and his two friends, Livia and Pat are in another part of town where missing Francine might be. The two women have gone to knock on her door, Thomas is killing time nearby, waiting to pick them up.
I did a circuit; more 1900’s houses, red brick, neat but with an air of benign neglect – then I saw Livia’s PT Cruiser! She’d parked outside a little shop with a stall at the front, laden with fruit and vegetables. I pulled up behind her, but no sign of the two women, so strolled over to the fruit stall, took a paper bag and helped myself to some pears. Inside it was an interesting shop with an old fashioned grocers’ vibe.
I gazed at a glass cabinet full of flapjacks and didn’t think twice but asked the friendly gent behind the counter for an assorted box. I complimented him on his nice shop, and mentioned that although I knew the harbour area of Hamwick, I was a stranger to this part.
I angled myself so I was looking at the window display and beyond it to the PT Cruiser.
“Gosh you don’t see so many of them anymore!” I exclaimed. “I always wanted a car like that, but my ex wouldn’t hear of it, and now I have kids it would be too small.”
“I was surprised by the two old dears who got out of it,” the grocer replied. Livia would not like being called an old dear! “They asked me if I’d invited Jesus into my heart…”
How I didn’t burst out laughing I do not know.
“Oh dear,” I said, trying to keep a normal face. “Yes, they knock on our door from time to time.”
I paid for my flapjacks, biscuits and a cream tea doughnut for lunch. I took one of his cards thinking Ruthie might be interested in him and his fine fare.
I sat in my car eating my doughnut and somehow, squirted clotted cream and strawberries down my shirt. I double checked the PT Cruiser registration to make sure it was Livia, wiped my sticky hands, dabbed my shirt, then set off to look for the two women.
I was being ridiculous; I should trust them. I drove past the old chapel again, then past the houses with the park behind them.
I was signalling to turn right to head back into Hamwick and stopped for three ladies to cross at the junction – bloody hell! It was Livia, and Pat – and someone else!! Livia glanced at me and raised her hand in thanks with not a flicker of recognition.
Here’s a link to my other Radwinter books, available as e-readers or paperbacks:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=lois+elsden&crid=S8LA4SEITYM7
Lois Elsden 