The Invisible Case by Isabella Muir | Blog Blitz Guest Post #TheInvisibleCase @SussexMysteries @rararesources

The Invisible Case: A Sussex Crime – heartbreaking tragedy or cold-blooded murder (A Janie Juke mystery Book 3)

Published by Outset Publishing Ltd for Sussex crime and mysteries (30 Jun. 2018)

Available in ebook and paperback

178 pages

|  About the Book   |

A shocking death turns a homecoming into a nightmare.

It’s Easter 1970 in the seaside town of Tamarisk Bay, and for one family the first Easter of a new decade brings a shocking tragedy. Amateur sleuth and professional librarian, Janie Juke, is settling into motherhood and looking forward to spending time with her family. When her Aunt Jessica is due back from Rome after nine years travelling around Europe, she arrives back in town with a new Italian friend, Luigi, and the whole family soon get embroiled in a tangle of mystery and suspicion, with death and passion at the heart of the story.

As time runs out on Luigi as prime suspect for murder, Janie has to use all of her powers of deduction in the footsteps of her hero, Hercule Poirot, to uncover the facts. Why did Luigi come to Tamarisk Bay? What is the truth about his family?

As Luigi’s story unfolds, tragedy seems to haunt the past, present and unless Janie acts fast, possibly what is yet to come.

Guest Post by Isabella Muir

I’ve been finding out more about that wonderful Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie.

The Invisible Case is the third novel in the Janie Juke mystery series and throughout the series Janie has been following in the footsteps of her hero, Hercule Poirot.

Janie is a young librarian, living in the Sussex seaside town of Tamarisk Bay in the late 1960s. She has successfully solved two mysteries so far in The Tapestry Bag and Lost Property.

So, as a rookie author, who has developed a fascination for writing crime mysteries, I thought I would delve into the life of Agatha Christie to get a glimpse of what inspired her to write over 100 books!

Agatha Christie lived a full life – grasping opportunities to explore and to learn about people, places, experiences. It seems to me that it was a life well lived. Inevitably that spilled into her writing and her energy and enthusiasm meant that she just kept on going – writing and living.

Having just read her biography, I have discovered some interesting facts about her. Here are some of them:

• her ideas for plots, characters and settings came in a random way – she filled numerous notebooks, but there was no order or organisation to her note-taking
• she lived a busy life outside of her writing and was prepared to try her hand at all sorts of pursuits – even windsurfing!
• she travelled extensively
• she loved her privacy.

While reading about her I have tried to deduce what it was about her writing that made her as famous and well-loved as she was – and still is.

Here are some thoughts:

• Agatha Christie lived for 85 years and was writing for most of those years – her first book was published in 1920 – when she was thirty years old, and she was still getting great reviews for newly published works in the 1970s – fifty years later
• her books have been translated into numerous languages and have been read by millions
• it seems to me that her focus was always the story – she loved the psychology of crime – creating twists and turns throughout to keep her readers guessing.

In the words of her biographer:
‘Agatha’s books last because they are good, if sometimes hopelessly improbable stories. The reader, once hooked, wants to know what happens next. They deal with myths, fantasies, obsessions shared by people of every sort: quests and contests, death, sex, money, murder, conspiracy, transformation, power, the triumph of the simple over the complex, the importance of the mundane as well as the cosmic. They construct a pattern, assigning facts and emotions to their appointed place as problems are resolved and guilt and innocence established.’
‘Agatha Christie – A biography’ by Janet Morgan (published 2017)

I have a feeling that Janie and I have a busy road ahead – but if we keep Agatha Christie in her hearts and in our heads then we are in good company!

|   Author Bio   |

Isabella Muir is the author of Janie Juke series of crime mysteries – all set in Sussex.

‘The Tapestry Bag’ is the first in the series, followed by ‘Lost Property’. Now – ‘The Invisible Case’ – the latest in the series is available for pre-order from Amazon.

The ‘Janie Juke mysteries’ are set in Sussex in the sixties and seventies and feature a young librarian with a passion for Agatha Christie. All that Janie has learned from her hero, Hercule Poirot, she is able to put into action as she sets off to solve a series of crimes and mysteries.

Isabella has also published ‘Ivory Vellum’ – a collection of short stories.

She has been surrounded by books her whole life and – after working for twenty years as a technical editor and having successfully completed her MA in Professional Writing – she was inspired to focus on fiction writing.
Aside from books, Isabella has a love of all things caravan-like. She has spent many winters caravanning in Europe and now, together with her husband, she runs a small caravan site in Sussex. They are ably assisted by their much-loved Scottie, Hamish.

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