It's five days to Christmas, a storm is blowing in, and thirteen people are trapped in Elderwick Hall... what could go wrong?
The Proof of the Pudding is the fourth and final instalment of the Elderwick Mysteries. Unlike the previous three books in the series, which are set in and around the fictional village of Elderwick, the events of this book all take place over the span of a single night in a single location, the sprawling Georgian Elderwick Hall. Inspired by the classic And Then There Were None, and films like Clue and The Glass Onion (follow-up to Knives Out), this book is my homage to the archetypal closed circle murder mystery.
I’ve come to be very fond of my central characters: Laurel, Maggie, and Albert – and Albert’s impertinent cockerel, Aroon. I’ve enjoyed pitting their wits against a variety of killers. In each book, there are newcomers to the village, and almost everyone has at least one secret they're keeping under wraps. Much like life in real villages, everyone knows everyone else's business, or at least they think they do, and the path of the amateur sleuth is never smooth.
From the outset, I knew I wanted to create a setting for my stories that was somewhere readers might like to live; a place of escapism – Three Pines in Lousie Penny’s Inspector Gamache series is the perfect example. Whilst Elderwick is entirely fictional, inspiration has come from the little village in East Yorkshire where I grew up, the real nearby town of Beverley, and the gorgeous golden villages in Somerset where I lived for a couple of years. The Pleasant Pheasant Café, St Stephen’s Church, and many of the walking trails mentioned in the books are based on real places in the West Country.
Although I’ve always known I wanted to be an author, it took me a while to get started. I spent twenty plus years working as a clinical psychologist for the NHS and healthcare charities, and it wasn’t until 2020 that I finally sat down at my laptop and tried my hand at writing fiction.
Book one in this series, A Little Bird Told Me, was the first book I ever wrote. It was a steep learning curve, and it took about a year of rewriting and editing to get a reasonably complete draft. Despite being a voracious reader, I had no real idea about how to create a narrative arc, story beats, or how to find 'my voice'. Even now, I'm still learning every day.
As for how I write, I discovered early on that I am a 'pantser'. That is, I don’t do a lot of planning ahead. Instead, I start with an idea for a murder, and the rest somehow follows from there. With the Elderwick Mysteries, the main characters appeared almost fully formed. They’re the kind of people I’d like to have as friends and neighbours – though, not the murderers, obviously. What’s fun about writing a book without a great deal of preparation is that you never quite know where it’s going to take you. Many’s the time a character has said or done something that has surprised me, and I love that.
Writing can be stressful, but I love it. There’s nothing like the sense of satisfaction I get from creating a story. Then there’s the excitement of working on it with my editor, seeing each new book cover, and anticipating publication day. However, I’m not such a fan of the after-publication bit when the book is out in the world. At that point, I became a bag of nerves, constantly checking reviews, Amazon rankings, and the number of Likes on social media. It’s easy to be overwhelmed with the pressure to self-promote, and it’s a tough market out there.
As a reader, I like to cast a wide net, because you never know what gems you might discover. The genres I enjoy most include crime, psychological thrillers, and dystopian novels. In non-fiction, I’m partial to reading about life in other parts of the world. At the moment, I’m especially fascinated by Japan and Alaska. I read books by traditionally published authors and indie writers and have come across some amazing talents in both spheres.
Rachael Gray
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