Celina Grace writes psychological thrillers, mysteries, police procedurals and historical cosy mysteries. Here, she shares her writing process.
(Warning – spoilers included)
Until I became a writer, I had no idea that people really asked ‘where do you get your ideas?’ (which wasn’t very imaginative of me, ironically). But they really do. I suppose it’s not surprising really – most humans intrinsically like stories (if not necessarily books) and are curious about how and where they originate.
I can safely say that I get most of my ideas from reading the news (as damn depressing as it can be). Every single book in the Kate Redman Mysteries series, bar the first, is loosely based on something that was reported in the media. The plot of the first book in the series’ Hushabye came from several threads I had read on Mumsnet of all places (and not to sound cynical, but it’s a tale as old as time – man strings woman along for years with no intention of marrying her – and then leaves for another woman who he races up the aisle in double quick time! I still read Mumsnet and see the same old problems being posted regularly. They don’t all end in murder though, so there’s that).
Of course, the real situation reported on only forms the barest glimmer of the story. I’ve told this anecdote before but Echo (Kate Redman number 6) was sparked by a new sport on a long-buried Viking longboat in Somerset, when the area was suffering with terrible floods. A landslide had revealed the boat and as I watched the news that evening and saw the report, the idea of a landslide revealing a body burst into my mind.
The Kate Redman novella, Tasteful, is based on a very strange case that occurred when I was living in the beautiful city of Bath. A dog walker came across a severed human foot in one of the parks in Weston (a village just on the outskirts of the city and where I was living at the time). Tests on it proved inconclusive as it had been treated with formaldehyde. A few weeks later, another foot was found – but even more strangely this was not the pair of the foot first found but from a completely different person! Then two weeks later, a third, mystery foot. I like the solution I came up with for solving the mystery in Tasteful – in fact, I’m not entirely sure that the case has ever really been solved. Certainly (thankfully) there was no murder charge in real life.
Tasteful also ended on something of a cliff-hanger so I was pleased to be able to solve that in Muse (Kate Redman number 15).
Living in Bath also meant being surrounded by many beautiful ancient buildings and stately homes abound in the surrounding countryside. My sons and I used to go to Dyrham Park, a National Trust property in South Gloucestershire, which served to inspire both the Asharton Manor Mysteries series, of which the prequel novella to the Miss Hart and Miss Hunter Investigate historical mystery series is included. So thanks, Dyrham Park, for not giving our family a lot of fun with walks and play areas and the house, but also inspiring two series!
Talking of Miss Hart and Miss Hunter, my doughty pair of servant sleuths Joan and Verity, they came to my mind for the first time while watching a fairly terrible adaptation of Agatha Christie’s At Bertram’s Hotel. I’m a long-term fervent fan of Agatha Christie and (as is usual with most of the modern adaptations) fairly indignant at the diabolical liberties the program makers had taken with the plot. However, there was a new character in this adaptation, a housemaid who assists Miss Marple in solving the murder. This was an intriguing thought…
Gosford Park is one of my favourite films and, if you haven’t seen it (please do, it’s fabulous), involves a country house murder set in the 1930s. The hierarchy in the house is strictly divided into ‘us and them’; aristocratic employers and their many servants. Watching again not long after the Christie adaptation, I pondered on how the servants were so needed and yet so despised. But the very fact that they had to fade into the background until their services were needed meant that they could be privy to a lot of secrets indeed…
With that Joan and Verity sprang into my head, uttering the words ‘A good servant has to be invisible. So does a good detective.”
I do hope you’ve enjoyed this article. Now it’s time for me to grab today’s copy of The Times and see what inspiration I can find for the next book!
Visit Celina’s website: celinagracebooks.com
This article was published February 2025, and previously published on Substack by the author.