The UK’s First Covid19 Murder Mystery, Lance Dune House, has just been published by Droitwich-based author Duncan Peberdy.  Here, he talks about his dark thoughts and desperate deeds

You’ve based your book firmly in Worcestershire using many real locations, including St. Richard’s Hospice, and some real people too.  Do you think that might limit its wider appeal?

As I started writing the book, I drew on places that I knew for inspiration, like the Chequers pub at Crowle, with the intention of changing their names before publication. 

My plot involves two half-sisters, both about to turn 40, who were not aware of each other’s existence, and required a way for this to be revealed.

Once I’d come up with the idea of a deathbed reveal in St Richard’s Hospice and the hospice kindly gave me their permission to use their name, I considered that the advantages of using real places outweighed any potential disadvantages.

I’ve already had some heart-warming feedback from local readers who’ve told me that they enjoyed the familiarity of the settings. 

If in some small way it puts Worcestershire on the map and people come to visit, then that’s great for our economy.

How did the association with St Richard’s develop into your novel fundraising for them?

St Richard’s has a great reputation throughout Worcestershire, and over the years I’ve supported them in a number of ways. 

Once they gave me permission to use their name, I then approached them about using my book to raise funds.  Fifty per cent of the profit after printing and distribution costs, which is a minimum of £2 from every printed copy, goes to the hospice.

It’s double that if I can sell them at events where there’s no postage.

Given that your book is the UK’s first Covid-19 murder mystery, was the story built around the Covid ending?

There seems to be an obsession to pigeon-hole books into a particular genre, yet I’d like to think that my book transcends several.  Yes, it is a murder mystery, but there’s also some romance and, from its starting point in 1977, it’s historically accurate and ends by documenting in fiction the real world that most of us have had to live in since the first lockdowns in March 2020.

The bones of the story, where two half-sisters meet for the first time in their 40s, having been raised in very different economic worlds, was there first.  However, the story never got beyond an idea, and the emphasis was very different. 

Following a chance conversation with a friend last year about the increased value of PR when it can be related to current real-life circumstances, I looked again at some of my half-incubated ideas to determine if any of them could have a Covid setting genuinely dovetailed into them.

We often hear that writers incorporate themselves and things that they know into their work.  Is any of Lance Dune House personal, perhaps even autobiographical?

None of the characters are me, but Edward Claines is based very loosely on a family friend, and maybe Michelle is someone I would like to have met. 

Lance Dune House is itself a fictional setting, but I’ve given it that name for a specific reason which so far only one Droitwich reader has detected.

There is also one occurrence in the book where I’ve used my ‘artistic licence’ to create a situation, which also remains undiscovered by readers – so it must come across as totally plausible.

For Lance Dune House, I’ve set myself an ambitious target of raising £10,000 for St. Richard’s Hospice, which means selling around 4,000 copies.  At least £2 from every copy is given to the Hospice, more if there’s no postage cost.

There’s also a Kindle version, and whilst that doesn’t generate as much money, for any overseas readers it makes the book available.

Lance Dune House is available at Waterstones in Worcester, Little Als’ Kitchen in Droitwich Lido park and the Heritage and Information Centre in Droitwich.