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Bath and North East Somerset Libraries

Interview With Rachel Ward


Rachel Ward is a local author living in Bath, who is the writer of the bestselling YA series ‘Numbers’, the brilliant ‘Ant & Bea Mystery’ series, and standalone crime novels.

Tell us a little about your Ant & Bea series

The Ant and Bea Mysteries is a cosy crime series, set in and around a supermarket in a fictional English market town (cough, cough, Keynsham). My ‘detectives’ are Bea, a bright and kind checkout worker, and Ant, a seemingly gormless trainee, with a troubled family life. I love the supermarket setting, as, when you think about it, all human life is there. In my books the staff at Costsave are like a big, extended family, and they really do care about their customers. I think this year we’ve seen how much we all rely on food store workers and appreciate the lengths they have gone to to keep us all fed and safe.

Expiry Date Book cover

What’s ‘Expiry Date’ about?

Expiry Date is the third book in the series and was so much fun to write. It pulls together a few threads set off in the first two books and develops the characters, tugging at their heartstrings a bit. One of Bea’s favourite customers is missing, with her two small children. At the same time a body is found in the foundations of a former factory. Bea gets caught up in an investigation which comes uncomfortably close to home, making her question happy childhood memories. As a bit of light relief, Costsave forms a workplace choir, with a surprising star soloist. I loved writing this one – starting work on a new Ant and Bea book feels like meeting up with old friends.

You run a Cosy Crime Club on Twitter – could you tell us more?

This has been one of my highlights of this horrid year. As I had a book coming out in June, but am part of a shielding household, I was looking for ways to connect with readers online. My publisher came up with the idea of having a crime book chat on Twitter, as that is my social medium of choice. Now #cosycrimeclub meets every fortnight, at 11.00am on Tuesday mornings, and we talk about books for 45 minutes or so.

Mostly it’s a general chat about what we’ve been reading and what we’d recommend. Sometimes we have a special guest (e.g. Vaseem Kham, SJ Bennett, Julia Chapman, Rowan Coleman) and quiz them about their books. It’s turned into a lovely, friendly, positive corner of Twitter. We invite people to make a cuppa and have a biscuit/cake (not compulsory), have a break from the news and chat with like-minded bookish friends. I thought it might peter out, but we’re going from strength to strength. Perhaps you’ll join us? You just have to use the #cosycrimeclub hashtag to join in!

You wrote the narrative and questions for our library murder mystery event ‘12 Days of Murder: A Festive Fatality’ – can you tell us a little about your process, how you wrote the narrative and built the story?

This was both a delight and a head-scratching challenge! It was a surprisingly difficult brief – involving writing an original murder mystery, with links to the local area, libraries, etc. all in bitesize chunks that could be released on social media over 12 days. After a few days flailing around and panicking, I tackled it from many angles at once. I developed a list of characters and motives, then looked at locations around Bath and North East Somerset and thought about how to include them both in the mystery and in a set of quiz questions.

Next I drafted the mystery and tweaked it a few times, then I broke it down into sections, slotting in quiz questions at the end of each section. I revisited the end to provide an extra twist or two – interestingly this is something I usually do with my novels. I think I’ve finished them, but then realise they need a bit more fiendishness at the end. I hope that people enjoy following the story and ‘playing along.’

You are also part of our ‘Bath Bloodhounds’ book group (who appear in the murder mystery) – what do you love about reading and writing crime fiction?

I’ve always read a lot of crime fiction. For me, there’s some sort of comfort in a good crime book – you know that there will be resolution at the end, and, usually, a sense of justice being done. There’s also the intellectual challenge of trying to work out whodunnit in many books. The best crime books are a magnificent blend of character, plot, setting and suspense. (My personal favourite is Jane Harper, who achieves this blend time after time.) I enjoy writing crime, partly because there are conventions to follow – although these can be subverted. In developing a crime series, I’m also able to develop characters and their relationships and there’s a lot of comfort in spending time with characters that you love.

Numbers book cover

We love seeing your photos and artwork online, you are so talented!  Does your art and photography inspire your writing, or are they another creative outlet?

Thank you! My photography definitely feeds into my painting and drawing, but it feels like this uses a different part of my brain to writing. I do think it’s useful to be able to visualise settings and scenes, though. Sometimes I ‘see’ my books as if they were films and my job is to describe the scene in my head. I do enjoy doing all sorts of things, although there’s an element of guilt involved, which I’m trying to train myself out of – when I’m painting, I often feel that I should be writing, and vice versa if I’ve got commissions waiting. I do feel incredibly lucky to have all these things in my life, though. They’ve all helped me cope with the enforced ‘indoor’ life this year.

Any new writing projects on the horizon?

I’ve taken a little break from Ant and Bea this year and am writing a standalone thriller. I wrote the first draft very quickly but am now (endlessly) redrafting to try and improve it and hopefully make it more commercial. It’s darker than my other crime books and I’m enjoying the challenge of doing something a bit different. Who knows if it will see the light of day? Perhaps it will be a bestseller! Such is the writing life. You have to travel hopefully…

Connect with Rachel online:


This interview was conducted in 2020.