There can’t be many murder mysteries that are a family affair, spanning two generations and twenty years, but my book, Murder at the Herald, is just that. I published it on Amazon on 1 November 2022, but the story began many years ago.
In 2002, when my son Sam was eleven, he wrote a murder mystery novel for a school project. It was handwritten, with some challenging spelling and punctuation, but featured a fabulous protagonist. Polynesia Henman is a fearsomely clever, rather intimidating eleven-year-old who solves a murder that has baffled the police. She lives with her grandmother who is into online dating, has a tequila-drinking boyfriend and drives a Reliant Robin. As Polynesia begins to investigate the murder, she is sent a series of cryptic clues that she has to solve in order to unmask the murderer. She shows herself to be courageous and resourceful, albeit slightly intolerant of anyone less intelligent than she is.
The teacher returned the manuscript at the end of the project, and it ended up in a drawer at home, where it lay
forgotten as Sam grew up. Then, two years ago, I found it during a clear out and showed it to Sam. We sat down with a cup of tea and had a nostalgic leaf through the pages. This would have been the end of it, except that Sam’s wife, Alice, decided to edit the manuscript, punctuate it properly and correct the spelling. It was a mammoth undertaking because, as Sam now says, ‘Like Shakespeare, I enjoyed alternative spellings!’ However, Alice persevered with the editing, then she designed a cover and everyone in the family was given a printed copy for Christmas.
The cover went from this to this
I was delighted with my copy and I reread the story with great enjoyment. But afterwards the characters stayed with me, and I began to wonder what Polynesia had been up to in the nineteen years since her story had been told. She would be thirty by now and would obviously have a good career as she was clever and ambitious. At one point in the original story she writes to the BBC, and her letter begins ‘Dear purveyors of good programming with some exceptions’. I decided that someone who was so articulate at such a young age must be a journalist, and slowly the character and the plot began to form. Polynesia now works for a national newspaper and has lived with her father ever since his release from prison after being cleared of murder.
I had a lot of fun weaving bits from the original into my story; Polynesia’s father loves cooking, they both adore Chinese food, and they still live in Putney. But I also enjoyed creating new characters and fleshing out the character of Polynesia’s dad – although I did change his name. He was Albert in the original, but as I wrote him, I didn’t feel that it suited him, and so I changed his name to Trevor. Polynesia’s arch enemy at school is the class bully, Alice Smith, and of course I had to bring her in to my story too. She joins The Daily Herald as a rival reporter, and that is the catalyst for murder.
My only sadness is that Polynesia’s wonderful grandmother was eighty years old in the original and couldn’t have credibly lasted another twenty years. I kept thinking of all the things I could have done with a character who sings Donny Osmond songs at full volume, says things like ‘vegetables can make the difference between life and death’, and drinks a lot of whisky (there’s a disturbingly large amount of alcohol mentioned in Sam’s book – not that I’m reading anything into that …).
I built on the world that Sam had created, and I was very impressed that an eleven-year-old had managed to sustain this complex world as he structured the narrative with twists and turns, moving towards the denouement. The printed version of his book is a hundred and eleven pages long, which is a significant achievement for someone so young.
I kept my book a secret from Sam, as I wanted to surprise him with it. When I posted him a copy as an early birthday present, I got a message saying, ‘The Polynesia Henman book is the best thing I’ve ever seen!!!!!’ So I think it was a success, and he approves of what I’ve done with his creation.
People who’ve read Murder at the Herald have been contacting me and either asking when the next book will be out, or else giving me ideas for the next instalment, so I think there’s definitely the potential to develop it into a series. The only problem will be how to divide the royalties!
If you do decide to read my book, now that you know the story behind it, please get in touch, as I’d love to hear from you and find out what you think. There’s a contact me form on my website. It’s available as a paperback or an ebook from Amazon.
To read a review of Murder at the Herald click on the bookjacket
Louise Barden spent many years as a teacher who talked about becoming a writer. Finally, she took the plunge and signed up to study creative writing with the Open University. She says she learned a huge amount, and then won two prizes in short story competitions. Buoyed up by that success, she embarked on her novel, a historical story set in the 1920s. When it was finished, she put it away in a drawer and that was that. Hankering after adventure, she moved abroad to teach, and after several years of working, adventuring and blogging in Asia (Channelling Mr Toad), she returned to England at the start of the pandemic and began writing more seriously.
Having completed Murder at the Herald at the end of last year, she is currently redrafting her historical novel and plotting a second murder mystery. You can catch up with Louise on her website
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