Murder in Gilmerton is a re-release of the book originally called Hunter’s Revenge. I believe I’ve read all the other books in the series, but I somehow missed this one, so I was delighted to be invited by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines to take part in the blog tour for the new version.
The beautiful city of Edinburgh, the setting for the whole series, shines out in this brand new cover.
Blurb
Behind Edinburgh’s genteel facade, a killer is settling an old score . . .
An elderly man is shot dead on his own doorstep in the leafy suburb of Gilmerton.
One bullet. Point-blank range. A professional hit on a harmless old man who lived a simple life collecting rare books.
Detective Hunter Wilson knows the victim. George Reinbold was once head of Crime Scene Investigations. He’s one of their own.
What Hunter can’t understand is why George’s modest flat is fortified with reinforced doors, bomb-blast curtains and a Cold War pistol under the bed.
That same morning, a young woman vanishes from a luxury car showroom. No struggle. No witnesses. Just a discarded coat and a missing blue Volvo.
Two cases. One killer?
In a city where everyone guards their secrets, the past has come knocking.
Detective Hunter Wilson must catch a murderer who has waited a lifetime to strike.
Author BIO
Val Penny’s crime novels form the bestselling DI Wilson Series set in Edinburgh.
She is an American author living in SW Scotland with her husband and their cat.
My Review
Anyone in the business of story writing will tell you that the first line has to hook the reader, and Val Penny has definitely achieved that with this one. From there on, this fast-paced story takes the reader on an intriguing journey, solving several puzzles that arise.
DI Hunter Wilson, whose full name is the source of some embarrassment in one of the lighter themes of the book, thought he knew George. But while investigating George’s murder, he discovers that he didn’t really. The other murder victim doesn’t seem to have had any connection to crime, so why was she targeted?
I enjoyed reconnecting with familiar characters, on either side of the law, although this book can also be read stand-alone.
Next up (on my special birthday, as it happens) in the series That’s Not Me! is Val Penny, author of crime fiction set in Scotland.
That’s Not Me! examines how much of our fiction is autobiographical and why some authors try to insist there’s no link between their fictional characters and themselves. Over to you, Val.
Thank you for inviting me to your blog today. Let me tell your readers about my novels and my main character, DI Hunter Wilson.
I write crime fiction set in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. In every one of my books somebody is murdered. Now many tutors of writing advise their students to ‘write what you know’. I have only followed this advice to a certain extent. I have certainly never committed a murder, nor been involved in investigating such a crime. However, I do know Edinburgh well.
I decided to write crime fiction because that is the genre I most enjoy reading. I was also a lawyer for many years, a lifetime ago and met many of the types of people I write about.
When I was choosing where to set my books, I considered creating an imaginary Scottish town, much like Peter Robinson who created the fictional English town of Eastvale in the Yorkshire Dales. However, when I thought about it, Edinburgh is a small city (about 600,000 people) and it is a place many people know about through travel documentaries or have visited on vacation. It has a wide variety of types of housing, universities, a prison a beach and hills so why not base my stories here.
To tell my stories I needed a character that I and my readers could depend upon. Enter, DI Hunter Wilson.
I wanted a name that reflected the policeman’s job, fighting crime. One day when my husband and I were going to my mother’s house in Edinburgh, we passed a lawyer’s office. The name on the facia was Wilson Hunter. Perfect! However, my husband thought that I better not use that name, in case the lawyer objected, and so Hunter Wilson was born.
Although not consciously based on anybody in particular, when I drew up the biography for Hunter Wilson, I realised that his character reflected one of my uncles. He is an intelligent, hardworking man who is respected by his colleagues and has a wide circle of friends with whom he shares hobbies and interests and has deep love for his family.
Hunter, like my uncle, is loyal and determined. He is not pushy but does not shy away from difficult decisions, but perseveres with his work until he reaches a successful conclusion. Like my uncle, Hunter was denied promotion by a boss with whom he clashed. However, unlike my uncle, who has been married for over fifty years, Hunter is divorced. He also drinks strong coffee, my uncle is definitely a tea-jenny!
Hunter and his team are faced with many unpleasant characters and difficult situations in my novels. I am often asked if these are based on real events. The answer is a resounding, sometimes.
Authors are terrible thieves and grab ideas or characters from all sorts of places; a couple overheard in a coffee shop, a man talking in the phone in a train, or an event reported in a newspaper or on television. I have notebooks everywhere to jot down ideas or phrases as they come to me. Indeed, as I live in the very wet West of Scotland, one of the best presents I ever got was a waterproof notebook! You will often see me using this at bus-stops or in train stations during a sudden downpour.
Although my stories and characters are not autobiographical, there is definitely a lot of me and my life-experience in my novels and I hope that readers enjoy that and their visits with me to Edinburgh too.
Thank you again for inviting me to your blog today and allowing me to share some secrets about DI Hunter Wilson with your readers.
BIO
Val Penny has an Llb degree from the University of Edinburgh and her MSc from Napier University. She has had many jobs including hairdresser, waitress, banker, azalea farmer and lecturer but has not yet achieved either of her childhood dreams of being a ballerina or owning a candy store.
Until those dreams come true, she has turned her hand to writing poetry, short stories, nonfiction books, and novels. Her novels are published by SpellBound Books Ltd. Val is an American author living in SW Scotland. She has two adult daughters of whom she is justly proud and lives with her husband and their cat.
Miriam Drori, Author 