Walk with DI Andy Horton

Walk With Horton: Discover the Real Coastal Locations Behind the DI Andy Horton Mysteries

Some places stay with you.

A stretch of harbour. A deserted shoreline. A harbour wall at dusk. An island glimpsed across the water.

For me, the Solent and its coastline have always been more than a setting for my crime novels. They are part of the stories themselves.

So I'm delighted to introduce Walk With Horton, a new series of short videos taking you to some of the real coastal locations that feature in my DI Andy Horton Solent Murder Mysteries.

You won't find me simply standing in front of the camera talking about the books. Instead, Walk With Horton is about the places — the sea, the harbour, the islands, the boats, the weather, the wildlife and the atmosphere.

I'll take you to locations around the Solent and share the story behind them.

Sometimes the place will look peaceful and idyllic.

But, as readers of the DI Andy Horton mysteries will know, appearances can be deceptive.

At Broadmarsh, for example, you can stand beside the peaceful waters of Langstone Harbour, listen to the birds and watch the boats in the distance. It seems an unlikely place for anything sinister to happen.

Yet it is here that DI Andy Horton makes a startling discovery in The Hayling Island Murders.

Human remains.

Then there is South Binness Island, a protected bird sanctuary in the middle of Langstone Harbour where public access is prohibited.

Looking across at the island, I found myself wondering:

What was a boat doing there — and whose blood was on board?

That question became the starting point for The South Binness Murders.

And that's really what Walk With Horton is about.

Taking a real place and looking at it through the eyes of a crime writer.

The Solent is beautiful, but it is also full of hidden coves, isolated islands, busy waterways, deserted shorelines and places where a story can begin.

Many of these locations have inspired my novels over the years. Some are places I've known for a long time. Others have prompted a question, an image or a possibility that eventually found its way into a book.

With Walk With Horton, I want to share some of those places with you.

The videos are short — under a minute — but I hope they give you a sense of the locations and perhaps make you look at familiar places in a slightly different way.

Because when you're writing crime fiction, you never quite see a peaceful place in the same way again.

So come and Walk With Horton.

Explore the real coastal locations behind the mysteries.

And remember…

Sometimes, the most beautiful places hide the darkest secrets.

You can follow the Walk With Horton Shorts on my YouTube channel, Seaside Secrets – British Coastal Crime, where I'll be adding new locations throughout the series.

The next walk is waiting.