by Mel Pennant

The first time I found Miss Hortense she was in her garden. I saw her tending to her precious roses. I knew that she was in one of the few places she went to for solace and that she was hiding from something that was almost unbearable. I knew that she was an inherently strong and resilient older woman. I knew that she was fearless and had the power and determination to knock down walls to uncover the truth, but that whatever wound she was carrying had almost destroyed her. I knew that, as we first encountered her, her local community had turned their backs on her too. That image of Miss Hortense in her garden kick started my book, A Murder for Miss Hortense. It is still the image that begins Miss Hortense’s journey.

It was only after I’d written the book that I connected those roses to the roses that my grandmother had planted for my grandfather who passed away many years before. They were a variety called Deep Secret. It seemed fitting to call Miss Hortense’s roses Deep Secret too. I remember how important that rose bush was to my grandmother. Like Miss Hortense, she was an avid gardener. I recall her being in the back garden shelling peas or tending to her herbs. The land, the soil, so important to her. I imagine that, for my grandmother, being amongst nature was evocative of her life back home in Jamaica.

At the heart of my novel is the Pardner. A Pardner, also called Box Hand or Susu in the Caribbean community, is at its basic level a mutual saving scheme. A group of people come together and pool their resources, and the accumulated wealth is distributed on a regular basis amongst the contributing members.

In the UK, the Pardner was and is used by the Windrush generation––the women and men who came to the UK from the Caribbean between 1948 and the 1970s to assist in the rebuilding of the UK after the Second World War. At that time, many Afro-Caribbean communities were excluded from traditional forms of credit and finance.

At the core of any Pardner is often a person who leads it, often a matriarchal figure who keeps everyone in line and is often called the Pardner Lady. My grandmother was a Pardner Lady. I knew Miss Hortense had to be a Pardner Lady too.

This idea of the Pardner fascinates me. It was used as a solution to a problem encountered by my grandparents and their generation––a lack of access to traditional forms of finance and perhaps a distrust of traditional financial institutions, too. I began to wonder, what other problems might a community like theirs have encountered. What other areas might they have lacked access to, and what sort of practical solutions might they have come up with to overcome them. It felt logical to me to extend the remit of Miss Hortense and her Pardner network to solving crime. Crimes, for example, that a community might feel unable, for whatever reason, to go to the established authorities for help. Crimes, I imagined that could be both trivial and terrible. The Pardner Network of Bigglesweigh was born. Originally, a group of eight men and women from the Windrush generation who emigrated to the fictional suburb of Bigglesweigh in the West Midlands, whose mission was to find justice for those who couldn’t find it for themselves.

Then came the other characters that formed part of Miss Hortense’s Pardner. They include Miss Hortense’s loyal but melodramatic best friend Blossom. Blossom is Miss Hortense’s Watson, her foil who is forever putting her foot in it; Fitz, Miss Hortense’s trusted protector, an ex-boxer who was once upon a time involved in the under belly of their community and who would do anything now to protect Miss Hortense; Pastor Williams, a man with a deep faith but hiding many secrets of his own; and her nephew, Gregory. A policeman in his 30s, adored by his aunty, passionate about fighting for justice but carrying his own demons, and who begrudgingly understands the importance of the Pardner for uncovering truths that he cannot.

In this community, I’m interested in the secrets and mysteries that exist just below the surface. I mean those areas where there’s an appearance of normality and order, but actually if one delves more closely there’s plenty hidden and tucked away.

For many this world is familiar. At its heart, it is a community led by an older more experienced but overlooked character who utilizes their unique skills and their communities to create solutions. For many others, I hope A Murder for Miss Hortense will be an opportunity to access a new world full of interesting three-dimensional characters, delicious food, gardening, and more.

A Murder for Miss Hortense is the first in my new crime series. I can’t wait to introduce the world to Miss Hortense and the Pardner Network of Bigglesweigh.

You can click here to purchase Mel’s latest book from Amazon.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Also listen to our new mystery podcast where mystery short stories and first chapters are read by actors! They are also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify.

MEL PENNANT is a playwright, screenwriter and novelist. She graduated in 2014 with an MA in Screenwriting from the London College of Communication. In 2013, she won the Brockley Jack Write Now 4 award with her play, No Rhyme, and was involved with the Tamasha Theatre Company–writing for the Barbican Box. Mel has written audio plays with Tamasha and the National Archives and, in 2018, she was awarded a place on the Hachette X Tamasha scheme for aspiring playwright novelists.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.