The home of the Solar System’s newest amateur detective. Andorra Pett.
Relax and make yourself comfortable.
This page is dedicated to my favourite amateur detective, Andorra Pett. Way back in 2016, I had an idea for a short story featuring a female lead character, something that I’d never written before.
My wife had bet me that I couldn’t do it, having a wife and three daughters had given me enough ideas, so I figured I’d have a go.
I wanted to create an entirely new character, not a female version of the ones I already had. And I wanted her tale to be written in a softer sci-fi style. With a dash of humour thrown in.
Less blood and thunder, more thud and blunder.
The cozy crime genre seemed perfect. A sci-fi setting was a great twist. I couldn’t help wondering if those two heroes of mine, Miss Marple and Agatha Raisin, had been around, whether they would have been solving murder mysteries in space. And how they would have approached them.
Andorra Pett and the Oort Cloud Café was the title I gave the short story, and it detailed a fish-out-of-water character (Andorra Pett), fresh from a romantic breakup, arriving on her new home. Which just happened to be a space station orbiting Saturn. And what happened next.
I showed the story to a few people, who all said the same thing.
We need more of Andorra’s story.
I spent November and December of 2016 rewriting and expanding the short story. It became the first two adventures, which were written back to back. The series has grown since then, there are now six novels and another short story. So far, the series shows no sign of stopping.
I currently have ideas for another two novels and a spin-off series.
More about the books.
Listen to Chapter One of the audiobook. Available on Audible.
Building the world.
Because I wanted the small-town vibe of a more traditional Cozy mystery, I figured the enclosed space station was a perfect setting. In a way, it was just like a small town on Earth. As I got more ideas, the settings expanded to a colony in a cave on Mars, a spaceship on a voyage around the Sun and fictional Titanium mines on the Moon.
The stories are set in the near future, which gives me a chance to explore topical issues, like pollution and climate change. It also means that the technology isn’t too advanced to put off people who might not be that keen on sci-fi.
The Characters.
Andorra needed a sidekick, a Watson to her Holmes, if you like. Especially as she was accident prone and liable to say the wrong thing at any time. Cy was her oldest friend. He was someone who had stuck with her and had her back. He was gay, which meant there was no romance between them, which was a pity as they both knew they would have been a perfect couple.
Other characters come and go through the series. Andorra’s sister, Tia, features, as do the people she meets on her adventures. As in real life, they’re a mixture of good and bad. Some are based on people I knew, with their characters exaggerated, others are pure fiction.
There are a couple of them who are worthy of their own series of stories. Maybe one day.
The locations.
As I said above, Andorra has had adventures on the space station, Earth, Mars, the Moon and on an interplanetary cruise ship. All these settings need an accurate and unobtrusive realism. They need to feel real to the reader. That’s where the heavy lifting comes in. I do a lot of research, read scientific articles and keep my eye on new technology. Anything that I can use to create a world of the future.
Every setting in the stories is based on actual science, either something we can do now or a logical extension of current thinking. It’s all possible and may be happening soon. Apart from the one set in London, which uses real locations.
The crimes.
I don’t know if you’ve ever considered it, but when we move away from living on this planet and start to colonise other places, we will take one thing with us. Ourselves. By that, I mean our personalities.
All our vices, quirks and habits, good and bad. So, there will be crime in space once we can get out of the suits and start living.
And wherever there’s crime, there’s room for an amateur detective.
Even a reluctant and accident-prone one.
If you haven’t already, get your FREE copy of Andorra Pett and the Oort Cloud Café by joining my Exclusive Andorra Pett newsletter. You’ll get regular updates, behind-the-scenes information and all the gossip on the series.
Click below to get started.
And there’s a big problem, the freezer’s filled with the body of the previous owner. Everyone she meets is a possible suspect, from the customers to her rivals, they all have a motive.
Leave a Reply