The setting for Inspector Andy Horton THE PORTCHESTER CASTLE MURDERS

Portsmouth, the surrounding harbours, the Solent and the Isle of Wight is a great place to set down a detective and Inspector Andy Horton is that man. The area has a diverse community and bags of history including a Roman castle at Portchester which is one of the settings for the Inspector Andy Horton Solent Murder Mystery THE PORTCHESTER CASTLE MURDERS, book six of fifteen in the series, previously published as Footsteps on the Shore).

Locations inspire me. I’m always on the look out for a good place to put a body - a fictional one I hasten to add. I’m very fortunate to live in a coastal area which is extremely diverse and offers up all kinds of intriguing places for bodies, from bays, beaches and boatyards to shores, ships and shipwrecks, coast, coves, ferries and frogmen. OK so I haven’t used the latter in a novel but give it time because there is always the mystery surrounding Buster Crabb, the Royal Navy frogman and MI6 diver who vanished during a reconnaissance mission around a Soviet cruiser berthed at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1956. (Perhaps I should save this for the 1950s set Inspector Ryga mystery novels?)

In THE PORTCHESTER CASTLE MURDERS DI Andy Horton is called to a house next to Portchester Castle, where a woman he’d only met the day before, Venetia Trotman, has been murdered. Horton had been intending to buy her late husband's yacht to replace his small boat which had been torched by a villain with Horton only just managing to escape with his life. Horton has been living on board his boat in Southsea Marina since his estrangement from his wife, Catherine.

Portchester Castle is at the north end of Portsmouth Harbour and is the best preserved Roman fort north of the Alps! It is owned and managed by English Heritage and is open to the public. After the Norman Conquest a castle was built in one corner of the fort, which grew into an impressive royal residence. From 1665 Portchester was frequently used to house foreign prisoners of war, most notably during the wars with France between 1793 and 1815.

Other locations used in this novel are the Hayling Coastal Path and the Hard at Portsmouth Harbour.

A convicted murderer, Luke Felton, released on licence, has been reported missing. Could he be Venetia Trotman’s killer? Or is the decomposed corpse washed up in Portsmouth harbour the missing Luke Felton? If so does Horton have two killers on his hands or one? But what, if anything, connects an ex-criminal and a quiet unassuming lady?

There are many twists and turns in this novel with a hint of international crime behind it but I will say no more. I wouldn’t want to spoil your enjoyment of it.

'A detective novel in the tradition of Rankin and Harvey. Like Rebus, Rowson’s DI Andy Horton, if not a loose cannon, is a detective who does not always work within the rules. As with all Rowson’s novels the ending is dramatic and deeply menacing. If you are a fan of traditional detective fiction in a vivid setting that makes you believe that you are there, you will love this one.' Mystery Magazine.