When I first sat down to write Murder at the Silver Shoes Jazz Club, I knew I wanted to capture the energy of 1926 London — a city buzzing with jazz, protests, and change. Researching the Great Strike was fascinating; especially how people got to work and managed to shop and keep going! (The answer was any way they could!) I pored over old newspapers, diaries, and many, many photographs, even films! This even included an old Pathe film of the Great Strike, in which I found a wonderful couple dancing on their car to pass the time in a traffic jam right on the Embankment. Those little human details are what bring history alive, and I couldn’t resist weaving them into Posie’s world. And so they appear in Chapter Seven, as Posie looks out from a window at Scotland Yard...

Please note I do not own the copyright in this YouTube clip/film.

Please see the photograph below for some of my inspiration!

One of my favorite parts of writing this book was placing Posie in the context of her Grape Street office. Many of you asked for more time spent with Len and I loved giving her that cozy, familiar, slightly-shabby space again — even as the outside world was in turmoil and even though her own private life, and Len's, has now changed up a gear... Balancing the glamour of a secret jazz club with the grit of strikes and protests was a challenge, but it made the mystery richer. For general 1920s vibes and high-octane inspiration I looked to the wonderful Rosewood Hotel in London, and also the underground bar just off the Strand, on Aldwych (https://cellardoor.london) which is fairly close to where I actually set and place the fictional Gorjoy Hotel.

And yes, I’ll admit: the “Banana Splits” jazz band were enormous fun to invent, especially the enigmatic but compelling Jack Smeaton, a musical genius with his own demons, and the ethereal but fragile Eglantine DuBarry. I listened to 1920s jazz while writing, and sometimes I felt like Posie herself was tapping her foot right beside me.

One of my main characters here is an aviatrix and I had a lot of fun reading up on the types of plane and pilot-training schools she would have attended (and yes, Le Touquet was really a good one!), and I explored all along the Le Touquet and Deauville coast in France to try and get a feel for what that would have been like in the 1920s.

I also use this novel to explore the themes of loyalty and love and all that that means, with Posie and Richard's relationship being tested to the max, for a number of reasons.

And my last and most favourite thread which I wove through this story was one of treasure, and searching for treasure. I’ve woven the ancient mystery of the historical Queen Anne Boleyn and the fate of her famous Tudor pearl 'B' necklace into the heart of my story, making it one of the main plotlines. For a gorgeous and really quite accurate historical replica, please see: https://shop.hevercastle.co.uk/products/az-necklace

I do hope you enjoy it!!