Some background for “The Body in the Snow (A Bebe Bollinger Murder Mystery)”

The Background for my story is simple:

As I said in a previous post: In 2012 our house was snowed in on a hill top and the electricity was cut several times for almost entire days. My partner joked that this was the perfect setting for a murder mystery, since nobody could arrive or leave. I liked the idea. We were cut off from everything, as is so often the starting point of good crime fiction, like “Then there were none” by Agatha Christie, or “Murder on the Orient Express”

We learned first-hand the limitations of life in such a big snowfall, from food supplies to transport and communication. Our dependency on public services and other people became apparent. Now what if relations between the neighbours weren’t ideal?

That year Englebert Humperdinck was chosen to represent the UK at an international Song Contest and that stipulated the thought for a plot with a faded star trying to make a comeback, interwoven with the effects of a snow disaster. I’m a fan of several singing divas, so the character of Bebe Bollinger came to me easily. It’s hard to look glamorous in the snow, isn’t it?

Since Bebe is an amateur sleuth who becomes involved in the investigation slowly and reluctantly, I had to give her a professional side-kick.

Beth Cooper, the Detective in the story, fell into place when a good friend of mine transformed from party girl to Buddhist. Watching her deal with the conflicts of this life style change inspired me to give Beth the same background.

I love that the genre allows for more colourful and flamboyant characters. Not quite a laugh-out-loud comedy, “The Body in the Snow” allowed me to explore the fun side of writing without losing credibility as a writer.

The Body in the Snow” is now available as e-book on Amazon on pre-order via these links:

http://smarturl.it/BodyInTheSnowBB

http://bookShow.me/B01LVYRI9L

For those who can’t wait, I have some ARC copies to give out.

THE BODY IN THE SNOW – A BEBE BOLLINGER MURDER MYSTERY:

Fading celebrity Bebe Bollinger is on the wrong side of fifty and dreaming of a return to the limelight. When a TV show offers the chance of a comeback, Bebe grabs it with both hands – not even a lazy agent, her embarrassing daughter, irritating neighbours or a catastrophic snowfall will derail her moment of glory. But when a body is found in her sleepy Welsh hamlet, scandal threatens.
Detective Sergeant Beth Cooper has a string of unsolved cases to her name. Her girlfriend left her and she’s a fish out of water in rural West Wales. Things couldn’t get much worse – until the case of the Body in The Snow lands in her lap.

Can Beth solve the case and save her career and can Bebe make her comeback? All will be revealed in this light-hearted, cosy murder mystery by best-selling and award winning historical and crime fiction novelist Christoph Fischer.