I think it was the idea of those classic characters – like Miss Marple, or Poirot – being played by different people over the decades. Or even a show like Doctor Who. Everyone has their Doctor – or their Poirot or Miss Marple – and it’s usually the one we first saw at an impressionable age. I liked the idea that there could be a fellowship of sorts between people who’d played the same role. They’re an exclusive group – no one else has done that, or been that person to the world. And with them having all played Dahlia in different decades, it gave me the chance to bring three women of different ages and experiences together, which really appealed to me. The fact that I also then got to create an entire fictional series of books and a fictional detective within the world of the novel was just an added bonus!

I really, really do! I’ve always been a big fan of classic Golden Age crime novels – in fact, my whole family is. My husband and I even had a sort of Poirot-themed art deco wedding, as a love of Agatha Christie was the one thing both families could agree on! I think there’s something wonderfully comforting and familiar about those books. They feel enough like another world not to be entirely real, and even when bodies are falling left and right, you know that the culprit will be apprehended and the world will be returned to its proper order by the last page. But I didn’t want to try and recreate what those golden age authors had done so well, by writing a 1930s murder mystery – although there are many authors now doing that marvellously. I liked the idea of taking everything I loved from those books and bringing it into a modern world.

It definitely took some extra care and attention to get into their heads! But that did ensure that I knew them inside and out by the time the book was done. I loved writing all three of them, because they’re such different women, with such strong personalities. They feel like real people in my head now, not just characters I made up. In some ways, Caro was the easiest, because she’s closest to my own age. With Posy, at least I could think back to how I felt at 28, 29, although her life experiences are so different to my own. For Rosalind, I’m fortunate to have a lot of wonderful, older women in my life – including my own mother – so I thought about all the conversations I’ve had with them, when I was getting into her head.

I have – now! But when I wrote the book, during lockdown, I’d never attended a crime convention, although I had been to other book and fan conventions. None of my characters are based on real people at all, but it has been fun to hear from readers who tell me they recognise them from conventions all the same! I think anyone who has ever been a fan of anything recognises that people express that fandom in different ways. Unfortunately, because most of my fans were suspects, I didn’t get to demonstrate how wonderful and inclusive fans can be, too! Hopefully in another book…

We absolutely are! I’m editing it at the moment, and hoping it’ll be out next summer. It’s so much fun to take the three Dahlias on another adventure, this time as friends from the start – and on the lookout for murder.