News From the Continent: August 2024

 Murder in the Queen of Crime’s Hometown
by Holly Birtwell

Choosing Agatha Christie’s home town as the setting for my mystery series was a lucky coincidence. I had never heard of Torquay before, but I fell in love with the place and its history instantly, just like my protagonist Missy.

But how did I find Torquay? It started in Berlin where I took courses in creative writing. One weekend we studied crime novels, followed by an exercise imagining a new investigator. Within ten minutes the idea of Missy, who works in a vintage boutique, sniffing at old clothes to find out about their stories, and discovering a murder, came to me as if it had been slumbering in my head for a long time. During my homework I thought of a cigarette holder with a needle inside as a murder weapon. But where should it all happen? For me, it was clear that this slightly whimsical story had to become a mystery and that it needed to be set in England.

During this time, I loved watching humorous British TV series like “Agatha Raisin” and “Shakespeare and Hathaway” or the Australian series “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” as well as the spin-off set in the 1960s. These
extravagant, charming and witty female characters became my idols. With Missy I wanted to create a character that lives in modern times but is nostalgic and a lover of everything vintage and old. Objects that have a
sometimes-hidden story. Somehow, I instantly thought of South England as a setting. Many stories are situated in Cornwall, but I wanted to use a different area.  

I looked a little more east on the map and came across Devon and the English Riviera. This region looked very
charming and special with its warm weather, palm trees and Mediterranean flair. Thus, I dug deeper and found out about Torquay’s history of being a glorious town that boomed in Victorian times and still has a lot of wonderful buildings and stories of the 20^th century – just like the vintage clothes that Missy sells. When I found out that Torquay was the home of the “Queen of Crime”, everything fitted together, and I couldn’t think of a more perfect place for my mystery idea.

The nostalgic feeling is reflected in many places: in Victorian buildings, the Babbacombe Cliff Railway that has been taking people to the beach since the 1920s, old photographs with descriptions and stories from the past that are hanging in the city centre. The wonderful Torquay Museum holds interesting information and Torre Abbey exhibits art from the past. Agatha Christie herself can also be found in many places: There is an Agatha Christie Path, a statue, a plaque, the annual International Agatha Christie Festival as well as exhibitions about her and her books and films in the museums. One exhibition at Torre Abbey that inspired me was called “Dressed to Kill” and showed costumes from her movie adaptations. In the museum garden there was even an area with poisonous plants that were used in Agatha Christie’s crime stories.

I learned more and more about Agatha Christie’s life and was fascinated by her travels and modern lifestyle, like surfing in Hawaii or living with her second husband in the Middle East for some time.

As a German author, however, I couldn‘t write the character of my
protagonist Missy as being genuinely British. Instead, I made her a
German who has moved to Torquay recently and discovers all the
nostalgic places herself, just like me.

 

Accordingly, Missy becomes my alter ego while I’m writing my series „Mit Charme, Schirm und Mord” (engl.: With charm, umbrella and
murder). “Missy Marple”, as one of the characters calls her, will discover even more places in the future, as the second book was just published, and the third book is on the way.
As yet, you can read the books in German only.

Holly Birtwell is the pen name of Antje Wenzel, born in Berlin in 1984. After studying librarianship in Potsdam, she worked as a copywriter and wrote stories for children. She has always been drawn to vintage shops and to the sea. She lived in Hawaii for 1 ½ years. Since the Britpop days, she has had a soft spot for England and likes the British humour in books and series. Her children's book "RockeTim – Mein Hund legt los und ich zieh' Leine" (Oetinger, 2017) is set in Cornwall. In 2021 she completed her author training at Schreibhain in Berlin where she developed the topic of her mystery series. She works as a librarian and lives in Berlin with her son.