Murder, mayhem … and romance? At Christmas? – Evonne Wareham

This week we remain in festive mode as Crime Cymru’s Evonne Wareham focuses on the season ahead including a giving a little insight into what crimewriters talk about when they get together

Murder, mayhem … and romance? At Christmas?

I write in the genre romantic suspense – also known as romantic thrillers. A fully realised thriller and a fully realised love story, in the same book. Two for the price of one, if that’s your thing.

My most recent books have been an escapist/holiday reading series, set on the Riviera – French, Italian, English – sunshine and glamour along with the mayhem.

For Christmas though, my new publisher has re-released a book from my back list, with a brand new cover. The new image has a much stronger thriller vibe than the Riviera books – which is appropriate, as while What Happens at Christmas still has the central romance, it is quite a bit grittier – and it’s set in Wales!

I never planned to write a Christmas book. I’m not a really big fan of Christmas, although I do like the traditional stuff – carols, a lighted tree and, of course, the food. The initial spark was sort of a challenge – a conversation with fellow writers over lunch about whether it was possible to write a Christmas romantic suspense, mixing the feel good things with the edgy elements. Lots of crime stories are set during the festive season, but to integrate the two? I wasn’t sure about that, but it did get me thinking…

Roll on a few weeks to another writers’ get together, when the hot topic was how to stage a kidnapping – and yes, writers do have some interesting conversations over lunch. Not sure what other restaurant patrons made of the discussion, if they overheard it, but no one actually called the police. That challenge about Christmas romantic suspense was still percolating and now I found I had the germ of a plot to feed it.

The two things started something mysterious moving around in the back of my brain, and by the time I had reached the station for the journey home, I had the structure for the book.

The result was a Christmas book I never intended to write. It opens with the hero – a very successful fantasy writer – agreeing to a fake kidnapping for a charity stunt. Things abruptly go dramatically wrong when he ends up, battered and bruised, chained to the wall of an abandoned hut at the instigation of an unknown enemy, who doesn’t appear to care whether he lives or dies. Enter the heroine, unexpectedly spending Christmas in a converted barn with her four year old niece…

No one gets the Christmas they were planning.

At the centre of the story is a traditional celebration, set in the wilder parts of Bannau Brycheiniog/Brecon Beacons. With the god-like powers granted to authors I was able to arrange a freak snow storm to trap hero and heroine in the barn for the festivities, keeping the threats at bay and allowing the first tentative beginnings of their love story. The plot doesn’t end at Christmas – the story unfolds over a year, until the following Christmas, while hero Drew gradually untangles who it is who wants him dead, but the romantic core of the story – the part when Drew and Lori begin to fall in love – is in those first few snow-bound days in Brecon. I’ve tried to use the senses to create atmosphere, Christmas lights, flickering scented candles, log fires, starry nights, carols playing on the radio – and in the centre of it Lori and Drew – gradually becoming romantically aware of each other, over a few hours of peace in the midst of tension. Because of course, there is tension – this is romantic suspense, after all. The crime plot is based more on mystery and lurking threat, rather than dead bodies piling up – although there are a few, before the final (happy) ending. But I’m not saying any more on that. While there are no Christmas serial killers here – I hope the story will still get the reader’s pulse beating a little faster.

If you’re looking for something a bit different in your festive crime What Happens at Christmas might be the book for your Christmas stocking.