A FAMILY TREE… SKELETONS FROM THE PAST
Brighton crime reporter Colin Crampton gets on the trail of a big story when Hobart Birtwhistle, a distant relative of feisty model Shirley Goldsmith, is mysteriously murdered.
Colin and Shirley team up to investigate the case. Spiky history don, Victoria Nettlebed, suggests the mystery may lie a century earlier in the life of an Australian gold prospector… and the death of his partner.
But does Nettlebed know more than she’s telling? And why did cockney metals trader Lionel Bruce meet Birtwhistle days before his death?
Shirley wants Colin to track down her long-lost relatives. But more murders bring the threat closer to home. The pair tangle with London East End gangsters, an eccentric Scottish lord, and a team of women cricketers in their hunt for the truth.
There are laughs alongside the action as Colin and Shirley uncover the shocking secrets of the family tree. And Shirley has one last surprise for Colin.
The Family Tree Mystery by Peter Bartram is the latest in the Crampton of the Chronicle adventures and was published on 21 November 2022.
As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour, I am delighted to share a guest post from the author with you today.
WHEN FAMILY SECRETS ARE HIDDEN…
By Peter Bartram
In the days of steam trains, sepia photos and gaslight, baby farmers did a brisk business.
The deal was this. If you had a spare baby who needed the care and attention you didn’t want to provide, you paid a “baby farmer” a fee to take the nipper off your hands.
The baby would, of course, have been born without benefit of clergy, on the wrong side of the blanket, out of wedlock. Select the phrase of your choice - but never use the I word.
Illegitimate.
For those were the days when an unlucky young woman might find there really was a fate worse than death. And even if she survived the birth, the gossips and whisperers could make her want to die of shame.
I mention this because the first memories of my own grandmother – Dorothy, my mother’s mother – were of living with a baby farmer in Brighton. Of course, at the time she didn’t realise the woman had been paid to provide her scant meals and lumpy bed.
Dorothy never ever knew who her father and mother were. It’s a mystery which helped to spark the idea for my latest Crampton of the Chronicle adventure – The Family Tree Mystery.
Dorothy used to recall being dragged down to the beach each day by the woman who bought fish from the boats that came in.
Later, she was taken from the baby farmer and sent to a school where all the lessons were in French. As a teenage girl she went to live with a property millionaire and his wife in a big house with servants.
The millionaire denied he was her father but promised to tell her who her real mum and dad were before he died. But, lips sealed, he carried the secret to his grave.
After Dorothy died, my mother tried to solve the mystery. But Dorothy’s birth was never registered and her name did not appear on early censuses. It looked as though the real mother and father had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure a paper trail would never lead to them.
The Family Tree Mystery has crime reporter Colin Crampton on the trail of a big story when Hobart Birtwhistle, a distant relative of feisty model Shirley Goldsmith, is mysteriously murdered.
Shirley wants Colin to track down her long-lost relatives. She doesn’t realise that long-lost relatives are often lost for good reasons.
Soon, more murders bring the threat closer to Shirley. The pair tangle with London East End gangsters, an eccentric Scottish lord, and a team of women cricketers in their hunt for the truth.
At least, we never had that trouble when hunting for Dorothy’s mother and father. But, then, we didn’t find them either.
Now, if only we could have got Colin on the case…
mystery series. His novels are fast-paced and humorous - the action is matched by the laughs. The books feature a host of colourful characters as befits stories set in Brighton, one of Britain's most trend-setting towns.
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