Murder Lost and Found – Debbie Young's Writing Life

Party Animals

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Debbie Young

In my Young By Name column in the May 2021 edition of the Tetbury Advertiser, I was anticipating my kittens’ post-lockdown lives

photo of two kittens on fleecy blanket — The perfect lockdown companions

Like all pets acquired in the pandemic, our two kittens, Bingo and Bertie, are starting to notice big changes in their little world. Until now they’ve led a very sheltered life. Born and raised in a Cats Protection League pen, the only humans they saw before they came to live with us were their foster parents.

Joining a household of three people – my husband, my daughter and I – more than doubled their human acquaintance.

They are used to seeing more cats than humans. When they first came to live with us a couple of days before first lockdown, our calico cat Dorothy was already in residence. Three neighbours’ cats, with wanton disregard for social distancing guidelines, treat our garden as their territory.

Open House

As far as Bingo and Bertie are concerned, cats rule our cottage.

We daily prove our subservience by leaping up from our armchairs to open the French doors whenever they want to go in or out of the garden. (And yes, they do have a catflap.) We spend more hours observing their antics than watching television.

Their friends sneak into our house for a snack when they think we’re not around. Often, when we are in another room with Dorothy, Bertie and Bingo, we hear crunching noises in the kitchen, followed by the rattle of the catflap.

Up to Tricks

kittens curled up asleep in base of plant pot — In their early days, the kittens moved so fast it was hard to get a photo that was not blurred – until they were asleep.

We’re wondering what they’ll get up to when, post lockdown, they have the house to themselves. It seems Bingo is already planning ahead for a more independent life. The brains of the trio, he has for some time been paying a great deal of attention to the bolt at the bottom of the French doors that give onto the patio. If his paws had opposable thumbs, he’d have flung the doors open by now.

He’s also been practising his party tricks. The other day, startled by Dorothy jumping out of the wardrobe, he executed a perfect back flip. If my daughter hadn’t been with me as witness, I wouldn’t have believed my eyes. He landed so neatly on all four paws that I wanted to hold up cards saying “10.0”, like the judges used to do for ice-skaters. I have never seen a cat turn 360 degrees from a standing start. The only animal I’ve seen perform that trick was battery-powered, a toy dog my grandfather bought from a street trader.

Bertie is equally athletic, easily jumping four or five feet into the air when pursuing an airborne insect. In relation to his height, this is about the equivalent to me leaping from the doorstep onto our cottage roof.

Of course, like all good pet owners, we’re conscious that animals acquired during lockdown may suffer separation anxiety as normal life returns. But part of me can’t help wondering whether for our cats the first day they have the house to themselves, the party will just be starting.

Like to read the whole of the Tetbury Advertiser for free online? Click here.

In Other News

Sneak preview of the paperback cover for my new novel, out on 23rd May

While we’re on the subject of cats, fans of Sophie Sayers’ black kitten, Blossom, will be pleased to know that she puts in an appearance in Murder Lost and Found, the new Sophie Sayers Village Mystery which launches on Sunday 23rd May.

cover of The Clutch of Eggs — Blossom plays a pivotal role in this little novelette

Since Sophie adopted Blossom in Springtime for Murder (in which the main storyline revolves around cats), any new story I write about Wendlebury Barrow would not feel complete without Blossom. She plays a critical part in my novelette, The Clutch of Eggs, too.

All of my fiction books have seasonal themes, and I’m glad to be launching a summery book at this time of year. It doesn’t always work out so neatly – I had to launch the Christmassy Stranger at St Bride’s in midsummer, because that was when it was ready! And during the coming summer I will be writing the wintry Scandal at St Bride’s, the third in the St Bride’s School series, which begins in January. Sometimes I feel so out of synch with the seasons that I might as well be working in the fashion industry.

Pre-order the ebook of Murder Lost and Found to have it land on your ereading device on launch day (23rd May).
Order the paperback from Amazon from launch day onwards (link not yet available), or ask your local bookshop to order it in for you, quoting ISBN 9781911223719. Within the next couple of weeks, they should be able to order it from their usual stockist – if not, they are welcome to contact me and I’ll be happy to supply them direct.

Writing

Trust Me, I’m a Bell Ringer

Posted on May 6, 2021 by Debbie Young

In this month’s issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News, I share cautionary tales about buying and selling our family cars.

Debbie learning to ring bells on the dumb bell — Learning the basics of bell ringing on the dumb bell, under the guidance of St Mary’s Tower Master Colin Dixon, who is also Editor of the Hawkesbury Parish News (Photo: Laura Young)

When buying or selling a car privately, it pays to be wary of would-be scammers, so when last month we decided to part with a vehicle we no longer needed, I braced myself to fend off shady dealers.

Sure enough, the first offer was what I’ve since discovered to be a classic case of overpayment scam:

Via email, the buyer offers your asking price without even viewing the car and asks to pay online, in this case by Paypal.
You then receive an email confirming his payment – but of a higher amount.
The buyer emails again, regretting his silly mistake and asking you to refund the difference direct to his bank account.
Then he disappears without trace, taking your refund with him, while his original payment to you bounces.

Suspicious when his supposed proof of payment went straight into my spam box, I called his bluff, rebuffing and blocking him without paying a penny.

The next offer came from a much more plausible source: a lady who told me she lives in Chipping Sodbury and works for Marks and Spencer.

What could be more respectable? I thought, before realising that was exactly what a scammer might expect me to think.

Last year I came close to committing an unintentional but plausible scam myself. At a dealer near Wells, we viewed and made an offer for a car, and I set up a bank transfer to pay for it. When I dropped my husband off to collect it and drive it home, the salesman was pleased to see us. “We’ve received your money, thank you,” he beamed, but his face fell when he double-checked. “Oh no, that’s from a different Young.”

“But I’ve paid from my Marks and Spencer bank account, and they told me it would be in your account by 5pm,” I replied. It was already gone five. “But I must dash – I’ve got to get back for bell ringing practice.”

Even though the money had not arrived by the time the dealership closed for the evening, the trusting young salesman let my husband drive the new car away. His nerve almost failed at the last minute.

As he handed over the keys, he said: “You realise if the payment doesn’t come through by the morning, I’ll have to report you for car theft.”

When I checked my bank account the next morning, the money still had not left my account. When I phoned to ask why, I was told it had been stopped it as part of a routine check for money-laundering. The transfer eventually went through, but it cost the salesman a sleepless night.

Only with hindsight did I realise my bell ringing practice would have made a great cover story for a scammer, second only to wearing a clerical collar. Or indeed living in Chipping Sodbury and working for Marks and Spencer.

Fortunately my Marks and Spencer lady turned out to be as genuine as my bell ringing practice, but I fear I may have put the car dealer off bell ringers for life.

A Note about the New Bells of St Mary’s

photo of the Wulfstan bell — Fresh from the mould, our new Wulfstan bell, named after our former parish priest, St Wulfstan

This month, our local parish church of St Mary the Virgin will take delivery of a wonderful set of eight new bells, which have been cast especially for us, after a mammoth fundraising effort by the Friends of St Mary’s. I’m on the Friends’ committee, and I also run their website.

For more information about this exciting and historic event in the life of our village, visit www.friendsofstmaryshawkesbury.com, where over the coming weeks we will be sharing the story of their blessing, installation and inauguration.

More About Money-Laundering

cover of Fatal Forgery by Susan Grossey — Constable Sam Plank’s investigations into historical financial fraud start with this first novel in Susan Grossey’s excellent series

I’m lucky to have a friend who is an expert on money-laundering – or rather on the prevention of money-laundering. If I ever have any qualms about the trustworthiness of a deal, I know I can count on Susan Grossey for advice. She is the author of a series of books and numerous articles on the topic, which have also inspired her to write an excellent series of mystery novels about historical financial crime. It’s kind of heartening to know that dodgy deals pre-date the digital age and online banking! I highly recommend her Constable Sam Plank series, which kicks off with Fatal Forgery – read more about Susan’s books and where to buy theme on her website: https://susangrossey.wordpress.com/

In Other News

cover of Murder Lost and Found — The ebook is now available for pre-order and the paperback will be out on 23rd May.

Meanwhile I’m gearing up to launch my next novel, Murder Lost and Found, which is due to be published on 23rd May – a date I chose as auspicious because it will be my daughter’s eighteenth birthday! One of the themes of this story, which kicks off when a dead body is found in the village school’s lost property cupboard, is the deceptiveness of eyewitness evidence, a dilemma encapsulated by the quote from psychologist Elizabeth Loftus in Psychology Today:

“Eyewitnesses who point their finger at innocent defendants are not liars, for they genuinely believe in the truth of their testimony. That’s the frightening part – the truly horrifying idea that what we think we know, what we believe with all our hearts, is not necessarily the truth.”

I’ve had great fun writing this story, the seventh Sophie Sayers Village Mystery, which sees Sophie gain new confidence as she reaches the end of her first year in the village of Wendlebury Barrow. I’ve introduced some fun new characters too, including a trio of mischievous workmen and Anastasia, a beautiful young intern that to Sophie’s horror Hector has appointed while she was away on holiday.

PRE-ORDER THE EBOOK from the retailer of your choice here: www.books2read.com/MurderLostAndFound.

The paperback will be available from the launch date – more news on that to follow soon.

Writing

Spring Scales

Posted on April 7, 2021April 6, 2021 by Debbie Young

cover of the April issue of The Tetbury Advertiser — Click the image to read the whole magazine for free online

In the April issue of the Tetbury Advertiser, I was talking about the weather (as you do…)

Although in the last twelve months the weather has been displaced as our favourite topic of conversation, I’m hoping it will regain that status soon. I’ve been fascinated by the weather from an early age, and not only because my father was a meteorologist in the Royal Navy.

For the Love of Ladybirds

cover of The Ladybird Book of the Weather What cemented my interest was borrowing The Ladybird Book of the Weather from our local public library when I was a child. I generally preferred fiction books, but the innate charm of the Ladybird format made non-fiction as appealing as any fairy tale. I couldn’t wait until I got home to read it, so I didn’t. Instead, I read as I walked, looking up at the sky every now and again in hope of spotting a cumulonimbus or a cirrostratus. I loved the language of clouds.

The Language of Weather

I thought the Beaufort Scale sounded rather grand too. It was the first time I’d come across that name, growing up in a London suburb rather than on a certain Duke’s stomping ground. (Note for readers beyond Tetbury: we are near neighbours of the Duke of Beaufort at his Badminton estate, home of the famous Badminton Horse Trials.) I longed to collect all the numbers in the Beaufort Scale, like stamps, from 0 for Calm (“smoke rises vertically”), demonstrated with a picture of factory chimneys, to 12 for hurricane (“disastrous results”), too awful to merit an illustration. The pictures only went up to Force 10, showing a house blowing over, even though, like the third little pig’s, it was built of brick.

pages from the Ladybird Book of the Weather on the Beaufort Scale

More recently, Ladybird’s rendition of the Beaufort Scale inspired me to invent a new way of measuring the temperature. I call it the Butter Scale, and it’s more reliable than any thermometer.

The Butter Scale

0 = The butter will be warmer if you put it in the fridge.

1 = No need to refrigerate the butter, as it will be just as cold in my kitchen.

2 = A hot knife cuts the butter into straight-edged slices, but spreading it is out of the question.

3 = The butter knife lives up to the promise of its name, spreading the butter like, er, butter.

4 = The block of butter develops a sinister gleam.

5 = Send out for kippers – we have butter sauce.

Still at Butter Scale 2 in the Young household today

I have only ever experienced Butter Scale 6, the very top of the scale, in my car in high summer, when a foil-wrapped pack of butter fell out of my shopping basket. Half an hour after arriving home, I returned to my car and found it on the front passenger seat. At least, I found the foil packet, which had kept its shape, but when I picked it up, it was completely empty. The butter had not only melted but dispersed into the upholstery, never to be seen again. Forever after, I thought of that car as the Buttermobile.

May April bring us the best spring weather for meeting our friends and relations out of doors, and a Butter scale of 3 for our Hot Cross buns. Happy Easter!

Speaking of the weather… my next book will include a pivotal scene in which Sophie and Hector, on a picnic on the Cotswold Way, engage in some cloudwatching. One of the key themes of Murder Lost and Found is the unreliability of appearances, and shifting shapes in the clouds triggers an important discussion between them.

Meanwhile here is what I saw in the sky above my parents’ garden in Bristol on Sunday – and, yes, it is actually a vapour trail left by a playful skywriter rather than a chance formation of clouds!

Murder Lost and Found will be launched on 23rd May in both ebook and paperback. Click the link below to preorder the ebook. The paperback will also be available from the launch date.

Pre-order the ebook from the ebook store of your choice