Walk With Horton: Sinah Lake — What Was Hidden Beneath the Water?

Sinah Lake, on the southern tip of Hayling Island, on England's south coast.  At first glance, it is a peaceful place.A fishing lake surrounded by grassland, birds and the distant sound of the sea.

But this quiet landscape provided the starting point for one of my DI Andy Horton Solent Murder Mysteries.

When the water receded

During a particularly dry spell, the water level in Sinah Lake dropped dramatically.

The fish had to be moved to another part of the lake, and as the water receded, the lake began to reveal objects that had been hidden beneath the surface.

And that got me thinking.

What if something unexpected was discovered during one of the clean-up operations?

Not a body.

Something far more puzzling.

That question became the starting point for The Hayling Island Murders.

A peaceful lake — and a mystery

Sinah Lake is a gravel pit of around fifteen acres and is managed as a mixed fishery.

The lake is associated with the Portsmouth and District Angling Society, which has cared for the fishery and carried out work to maintain the lake.

That real-life activity was part of what interested me.

There are always things happening beneath the apparently peaceful surface of a place like this.

The water level changes.

The fish have to be cared for.

The lake needs maintaining.

And when people are working around the water, they can sometimes uncover things that have been hidden for years.

For a crime writer, that's an irresistible starting point.

The question that became a novel. I began to wonder what might be discovered during one of those routine clean-up operations.

I didn't want it to be a body. I wanted something that would raise questions. Something that would make Andy Horton and his colleagues ask:

How did it get there?

When was it put there?

Who did it belong to?

And, perhaps most importantly...

Why was it there?

Those questions became part of The Hayling Island Murders.

The real Sinah Lake provided the landscape and the inspiration, but from that point the story took on a life of its own.

That's one of the things I enjoy about writing crime fiction. You can stand somewhere completely peaceful and ordinary and ask one small question:

What if?

And suddenly you have the beginning of a mystery.

The real locations behind DI Andy Horton.

That's what Walk With Horton is about.

I'm visiting some of the real coastal locations that have inspired or featured in my DI Andy Horton Solent Murder Mysteries — from marinas and harbours to creeks, islands and historic parts of Portsmouth.

Sinah Lake is particularly interesting to me because the landscape itself provided the initial idea. The lake wasn't simply somewhere to set a fictional story. What happened to the real lake helped create the story. And that is one of the great pleasures of writing about places you know.

You observe them.

You notice the changes.

You ask questions.

And sometimes those questions lead somewhere unexpected.

So next time you look at a peaceful stretch of water, perhaps you'll look at it slightly differently.

Because you never know what might be hidden beneath the surface.