I’m fairly sure I’m not the only person who quickly rewound the last few minutes of last Sunday’s episode of Line of Duty (series 6) to take a photo of the screen on my phone in the hope that the identity of Jo Davidson’s blood relative would be revealed. If you are not a fan of the BBC television series, you are probably now thinking, ‘has she lost the plot?’ if you’ll excuse the pun! Having had a pretty tame first episode to this latest series (only my opinion of course) it has gone from strength to strength as the weeks have gone on and this latest episode was edge of the seat stuff throughout. Not wanting to wish my life away, I can hardly wait for 9pm Sunday to come around.
Funnily enough, Line of Duty was in part the inspiration for my DCI Rachel Hart series. The books I had previously written were more emotional family drama, although Alice in Theatreland was a kind of hybrid with a bit of ‘thriller’ thrown in. Incidentally, if you were one of the lucky winners in my April competition and have read and enjoyed it, an Amazon review would be much appreciated. But back to DCI Hart. Police Procedural/crime thriller was completely for me to write, despite loving to read them if they are not too gory. Little Girl Missing was the first in the series and to date is my most reviewed book on Amazon with 535 reviews/ratings and an overall 4.5 out of 5 stars. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s currently on a 99p Kindle Monthly Deal for April… can you believe we are halfway through the month already?!
If you’ve read LGM and didn’t know there were two other books featuring DCI Rachel Hart, the second in the series is called What He Did. The beginning of the book is set in the palm house of the well-known south-west London botanical gardens, and we have the first killing before the first chapter ends!!! My favourite line in the whole book has to be, ‘Forgive you father for you have sinned,’ which immediately precedes the stabbing of a priest. If that has whet your appetite, What He Did is available for kindle at £1.99.
Why She Died also has a very dramatic start with the discovery of a girl hanging by her neck from a tree by her best friend and running partner! My sister prefers my crime books to my emotional dramas as does her friend who sent her a What’s App message saying, ‘Julia’s books are very good and so well written, compulsive reading! She should do more crime – have they been dramatized on TV?’ Which brings me neatly back to Line of Duty. It is most writers dream to have their book picked up for film or television… one day maybe.
Line of Duty is about investigating corruption within the police force in the UK, in other words weeding out ‘bent coppers’ best said with an Irish accent, but I’m also currently watching a series called Your Honor. It is about widespread corruption in both the police and judiciary in New Orleans. At times it has been a bit ‘bloody’ for my liking, but it is excellent… the lengths a dad (who just happens to be a judge) will go to to protect his son after he kills a mob boss’s son in a road accident. Well worth a watch, although if they hurt the judge’s dog I will not be happy, TV drama or not!
Talking of hurting animals, I can hardly believe that as an animal lover, I could bash in this poor Easter bunny’s head… shocking isn’t it. At least I still have some chocolate left from the Easter weekend although not for much longer. Funny story about a Lindt chocolate bunny belonging to my daughter. She didn’t want to eat it because she didn’t want to smash it in, so it was still on our old Welsh dresser at Christmas. I know what you’re thinking – how sweet; was she four or five? No. that was about five years ago when she was twenty-eight!
I’ve had a very busy week at QVC with Monday being my only day off and on Monday I needed to get on with the editing of my next book which is due back with my editor by close of play on Wednesday, so I didn’t mind that when I opened up the curtains it was snowing. We’d had a few snow flurries the previous week but this was actually settling first thing.
I’m hoping that the weather will be a bit kinder this weekend as I’m off although it’s doubtful that I will get outside much as I still have quite a lot to do on my edit, including a couple of new chapters. I’m also hoping to finish the Harlan Coben book I’m reading. As I often say, if only there were more hours in the day. Whatever the weather is up to, I hope you have a good weekend
Much love
Julia xx
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