Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency offers new cosy crime series

SussexWorld

Brighton-based novelist Josie Lloyd dives into cosy crime with the launch of a new series of books.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Always lovely

00:06to speak to Josie Lloyd. And Josie, you just happen to be holding the new book, and this

00:11is the first in a really super exciting sounding series. You are introducing a new sleuth,

00:18Miss Beaton. Who is she? How does she get involved in murder?

00:22Oh, well, thank you so much for having me, Phil. It's so nice to be able to introduce

00:27Miss Beaton's murder agency. This book came about when I was clearing out my mum's cupboard

00:32and I came across her copy of Mrs. Beaton. Mrs. Beaton was a very famous Victorian writer

00:40who wrote a book called The Book of Household Management, which was all about teaching people

00:45how to run a proper household. And she became a sort of byword for things done properly

00:50and good home baking. And so I have invented Alice Beaton, who is a very distant relative

00:55of the famous Mrs. Beaton.

00:57And she's inherited those qualities, clearly.

00:59Yes, she's inherited those qualities. And she runs the Good Household Management Agency

01:03in London. And she places staff, elite staff, in the posh households of Knightsbridge and

01:09Country Piles. So in Alice's Rolodex, she's got, you know, she's quite old fashioned.

01:14She's got maids, chauffeurs, nannies, housekeepers, mixologists, she's got everyone. So she's

01:19got a whole raft of people that come to her agency and she kind of places them. And this

01:24lovely young woman, Enya, comes just before Christmas at a time when Camille Messon, who's

01:30a very famous society person with her husband in a very posh house, needs a new housekeeper.

01:38So with great aplomb, Alice sends off Enya to work at the Messons. But then on New Year's

01:45Eve, Miss Beaton gets the call that Enya has been found murdered in the Messons study.

01:51And now she has to find out why. So, of course, she's a great fan of crime fiction. But she's

01:58like an armchair detective.

02:01So what's going to make her a good detective?

02:04Well, the thing is, she's going to get completely out of her depth because she has to go in

02:07and find out why. And she has to use her wits and she has to find out clues. But it's not

02:12like it is in crime fiction that she reads. And she's got a little dog called Agatha,

02:15named after Agatha Christie. So she's got some great references to her. But real life

02:20is not how Alice would really like to find it. So it's a really fun adventure.

02:27And I've used Alice's, all of Alice's friends, but also I've put loads of recipes in the

02:32books because I love a recipe in a book. And so I've put in Mrs. Beaton's original recipes

02:37for things like Christmas pudding and Christmas plum cake. But I've also put in the recipes

02:41that Alice comes along as well. So it's Tiffin and all sorts of things like that. So it's

02:45broken up with recipes as she kind of sets about her murder investigation.

02:51It sounds fantastic. So the new one, the first one, the first in the series is out this October,

02:57paperback this time next year, two years time, it will be number two in the series, won't it?

03:03Yes, that's right. And I'm just sort of like going about planning that now. But the world

03:08of Alice is so rich because she's got all these wonderful characters around her. And

03:12she runs the agency with her best friend Jinx, who is a sort of lapsed it girl from the 90s,

03:16who's got loads and loads of contacts, and is quite posh. So she's quite fun. And then there's

03:22down to earth Helly, who's the Yorkshire, very dour receptionist. And she's got a whole bunch

03:28of friends that are around. So it's a great world to set up all these characters so I can use them

03:32all again. So it's been an absolute joy to write. I mean, as I mean, I would say that eating and

03:40writing are two of my great pleasures. Writing this book has been a dream.

03:44Fantastic. It sounds brilliant. Really lovely to speak to you again. Thank you.

03:50Thanks, Bill.

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