Posts by Evie Hawtrey
1666: The Devil’s New Year
Happy New Year all! Here we are at the start of 2022 in the midst of a pandemic. Gloomy times for sure. But at least we aren’t fearful of the violent wrath of God (are we?). In that we have an advantage over many residents of London at the start of the year 1666. If…
Read MoreShow and Tells—Looking for Lies and Omissions in a Witness Interview
“Liar, liar, pants on fire!” If ONLY it were that easy to detect falsehoods. I mean seriously—there is no way even a rookie detective is going to miss flaming pants. Unfortunately, interviewing witnesses and gauging veracity is a more nuanced and trickier business. One I took a close look at when writing And By Fire.…
Read MoreLondon’s Great Fire—A Selection of Fearsome Facts
The Great Fire of London was an event of HISTORIC proportions. While researching the 17th century timeline in AND BY FIRE, I read a collection of exceptional books on the Fire. In fact, let me drop a footnote in here with a couple of recommendations for those of you who would enjoy a deep dive…
Read MoreArson—a crime you generally CAN get away with
Please don’t think I am encouraging you to a life of crime, but most arson is NEVER detected—*shudder*—let alone prosecuted. In the US, Fire Chiefs estimate the percentage of arsonists detected and prosecuted hovers between 15-20%. And serial arsonists . . . let’s just say they get to burn a heck of a lot of…
Read MoreSir Christopher Wren’s Stamp on a NEW London
In 1666 when London caught fire, Christopher Wren wasn’t the city’s most famous architect—not by a long shot. Just thirty-three years old, Wren was considered an amateur in the field, albeit a passionate one. His actual job was as a Professor of Astronomy at Oxford (where he’d also been commissioned to design and build a…
Read MoreHow Bodies Burn
So, this is the kind of stuff that sends waiters scuttling away looking worried if you discuss it with friends over lunch (yes authors do that), and that makes authors certain they will be arrested if a body is ever found near their home. BUT honestly scientists probably have the same concerns, especially Elayne Pope…
Read MoreHelping London Rise Again . . . Allegorically
While London’s Monument to the Great Fire is, as a whole, splendid, its most significant artistic element is Caius Gabriel Cibber’s stunning bas-relief stone panel on its West face. So lets have a closer look (see, told you in my Monument Post that I’d get back to it). Cibber’s carving is allegorical, depicting post-Great-Fire London…
Read MoreThe City Has Eyes: CCTV in London
If, like me, you’re a Yank, living on this side of the Atlantic you have an expectation of privacy when you go out to stroll the streets of your favorite large American City. You don’t expect cameras to be watching.[i] Londoners KNOW they are. London ranks as the number one “most spied-on city” in the…
Read MoreLondon Circa 1666—oh the smell!
And By Fire is a dual timeline crime novel. While Nigella and O’Leary race around modern London trying to stop a brutal killer, a second pair of unlikely detectives (a lady-in-waiting to the Queen and a royal fireworks maker) search for a missing friend—a bookseller who disappeared into the smoke of London’s Great Fire some…
Read MoreLike a Fighter: Why the burned dead sometimes look like they are ready to punch you
Ever wondered why a burned corpse sometimes has its hands up like the fists of a boxer? Of course you haven’t! Because you are a normal person. But I am a Crime writer. And that means my thoughts often move in detailed and macabre directions. Frankly my search history is SCARY. [That’s actually a great…
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