Hello Tule readers! I’m Suzanne Gilchrist and I’m here today to share the release of my first book to be published with Tule Publishing. The Body in the Bath House is one that I’m very excited to bring to the world as it’s also my first cosy mystery story!
The Body in the Bath House is the second book in the Bitterport Mysteries series. The first, released recently, is Murder at Millmerran House by Raven Corbin.
There is a third book, this one by the other awesome member of our writing venture, K L Paterson, which will be released towards the end of this year. And a fourth, another story by Raven will quickly follow!
I’ve always loved mysteries and grew up on a diet of Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, The Three Investigators, anything by Enid Blyton and soon moved onto Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler and of course, the Sherlock Holmes books. Although I love thrillers and suspense, my all-time favourite story genre is the cosy mystery. It has everything – a secluded or remote setting, the slow twists and turns of the plot, the hunting down of clues and the gradual revelation of shady characters’ secrets.
So when my good friend, Raven Corbin, invited me to come on board a cosy mystery series she had planned, I had no hesitation in saying yes.
One of the most intriguing aspects of this series was the concept of intertwining through each story, historical facts about colonial Tasmania (where the Bitterport Mysteries series are set) and ensuring each book is linked to a past tragedy, crime or miscarriage of justice that has haunted the small township for far too long.
Raven had already brainstormed several working story titles, and one in particular, captured my imagination instantly conjuring up the image of a body buried in the basement of an old, abandoned bath house.
But – who was dead? And why? And from these two questions that I asked myself, The Body in the Bath House was born.
To celebrate my release day, I’d like to share with you a few fascinating snippets of Australian history. During the years of 1788 and 1868 over 162,000 men, women and children were punished by transportation to Australia. The sentences were for 7 and 14 years and for the more ‘serious’ crimes such as forgery, highway robbery, political agitation (for example) the sentence was life or as it became known, for the term of their natural life. Many were transported for petty crimes such as theft of anything with a value of more than 1 shilling, and – (how crazy is this!) – setting fire to a haystack.
To commemorate specific voyages ship, coin medallions were made. One such medallion is the Charlotte Medallion, a silver coin which on its obverse has etched an image of the ship and its name. On the reverse, a minute description of the voyage itself is inscribed. This medallion is on display in the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney and dates back to 1788 when it was made by Thomas Barrett (a convict) whilst The First Fleet was at anchor in Botany Bay.
In The Body in the Bath House, my intrepid main characters, Mercy and Zac, discover a medallion from the convict ship, The Minerva, which transported Irish convicts to Van Dieman’s Land (which was Tamanian’s original name) in 1818. They also found a convict love token. These tokens were made around the time of a person’s sentencing and were given to loved ones as a memento. The Museum of History New South Wales houses 315 love tokens which can be viewed by the public.
I found the idea of love tokens to be particularly poignant and imagined how precious they would have been to the recipients; the majority of whom were separated from their loved ones forever as most convicts never returned to England.
Below are some examples of convict love tokens:
Since I love history all this research was like manna from heaven for me and I hope that you found these snippets of the past just as interesting.
And even more – I hope that you enjoy my book, The Body in the Bath House. Thank you for stopping by!
About the Author
Australian author S. E. Gilchrist / Suzanne Gilchrist has written over twenty-nine books, several of which have been shortlisted in writing contests. Her sweet small-town romances and cosy mystery romances are written under Suzanne Gilchrist. Writing as S. E. Gilchrist she loves to combine romance with adventure and high stakes in the genres of: science fiction / space opera, and apocalyptic / dystopian.
A member of Romance Writers of Australia, she co-runs the Hunter Romance Writers’ group and is the organiser / brainchild behind the multi-author writing ventures Bindarra Creek Romance series and the Mindalby Outback Romance series. She also participated in a multi-author collaboration under the writing name of J T Sloane in an 8-book post-apocalyptic survival thriller series called ‘Swarm’ published by and with Mike Kraus.
When she isn’t writing or reading, S.E. loves spending time with her family, walking her two dogs, swimming, and pretending she knows how to garden.
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