Petrona Remembered - The 'In a Word: Murder' anthology

In a Word: Murder

edited by Margot Kinberg 

published 2013

This ebook has been produced as a tribute to Maxine Clarke (aka Petrona), much-missed crime fiction fan, blogger and writer, who died last year. I wrote about her before on the blog, and said what a kind, generous friend she was: and many people feel the same. So much so that Margot Kinberg has assembled this collection of short stories, by a number of crime writers, as a tribute to her: all profits will go to the Princess Alice Hospice, where Maxine spent her last days. You can find the book here.

Margot had the brilliant idea of suggesting that the stories focus on crime in the writing, reviewing, editing, publishing and blogging world. 

I particularly enjoyed The Killing of Captain Hastings, a story by Martin Edwards, a very funny and clever look at a crime fiction convention in Whitby:

....They strolled along the cliff path together…In the distance, she could see the ruins of the old abbey, perched on the headland above the North Sea. The stonework glinted in the moonlight...

The cliffs at Whitby (picture from the Library of Congress) may be important to the plot.

Sarah Ward has a lovely story, La Lotte, set in France and featuring Simone de Beauvoir, ever elegant in this picture:

‘Roughly translated it said “Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable”. It’s a quote from Simone du Beauvoir….Once upon a time, about twenty years ago in fact, there were two restaurants in Caen connected to writers….’

And editor Margot Kinberg also contributed a couple of stories. The In-Box involves her regular sleuth, Joel Williams, academic and former cop, and combines, to splendid effect, emails and very up-to-date technology with proper old-fashioned detective work and finding clues in words.

Blake waited silently while Williams read. He glanced around the office – to him, a typical professor’s office. Dark wooden bookshelves on two of the walls, all of them filled with books; basic institutional beige carpet on the floor; two chairs facing the desk; picture of the wife next to the computer.

The picture is of the original private detective, William Pinkerton, in his office, so we don’t think either Joel or Margot will mind its lack of modernity. It comes from the Library of Congress.

So – a book full of great stories like these three, a good cause, and a fitting tribute to Maxine, who’d have loved it. You can visit the Petrona Remembered site here, and you can buy the book here.