Looking Out The Window: Clare Revell Talks About Down To Sleep, Book One In Her Say A Prayer Whodunit Crime Series. Gives Away An Arc.

A Warm Welcome to Clare Revell

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Clare shares a yummy recipe and one of her favorite Bible verses.

To Nourish Our Sweet Tooth

Fruit Cake 

 6 ounces butter

6 ounces sugar

8 ounces self-raising flour

2 eggs

4 tablespoons milk

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs. Fold in the flour and milk.

Pour into a lined tin

Bake Gas 6/200C for 10 minutes, then Gas 3/160C for 1½ hours.

Use dried fruit of your choice.

This was originally Nanna’s fruit cake recipe. She passed it onto Mum, who gave it to me and now my daughters make it as well. We’d go visit Nanna and Grandad on a Saturday afternoon and she’d always be baking. Probably to avoid the TV sport in the other room :-)

Yum!

To Soothe Our Souls

Bible Verse – 1 Peter 5:7

Cast all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you.

Thank you, Clare. Let's talk about your writing. Where do you get ideas for your books?

From all over the place. Sometimes, like with the Say a prayer series, my editor at PGB drops the idea on me and tells me to run with it. She gave me four titles and I did the rest. Or I’m watching TV and think what if… Or my daughter is watching something and says what if this happened here…

How do you get to know your characters?

I have a master character sheet I fill in. Sometimes as I go, but sometimes first. It contains their photo, as every single book is cast. There I list family names and details, their hobbies, dislikes, what car they drive. Stuff that may never appear in the book, but that I need to know.

Are you a plotter or a pantzer?

Both. I have a basic idea where I’m going, but the characters like throwing a curve ball at me and then I have to play catch up and fix things.

Does your faith affect your writing? If so, how?

Yes. I won’t write on a Sunday. And I won’t write sex—not even under another name which I know some Christian authors do.

Do you put yourself in your books?

I did once. But a lot of what goes on around me ends up in them. Dad often reads my books and knows exactly what I mean and where something happened. For example the hill with three crosses  in Married by Easter…

About Down To Sleep

Saying a prayer may just be the last thing you ever do.

DC Zander Ellery isn't sure which he dislikes the most: New partners, rookie female officers, or cases he can't solve. Right now he has all three.

DC Isabel York is fresh out of uniform and out of the proverbial frying pan into the fire as her personal and professional lives clash with her first case—ten stolen works of art.

When a postcard arrives addressed to Isabel with a cryptic message on it, it's just the beginning. The mystery deepens as the first of the stolen paintings is found alongside a dead body—bound and gagged and left posed in prayer at the place depicted in the postcard.

Are nine more murders coming? Can Zander and Isabel find the missing paintings and solve the murder before another victim falls?

Buy on Amazon UK

on U.S. Amazon

Excerpt

Zander grabbed an evidence bag and held out his hand. “May I?”

Isabel slid the card into the clear plastic bag and leaned back in her seat. She closed her eyes for a moment. “This means this isn’t over, doesn’t it?”

“Yep. We have a serial killer on our hands.” Zander reread the card. He took a photograph of it on his phone, glancing up as DI Holmes’s office door opened. “Guv? Do you have a minute?”

“Sure.” The DI strode across the room. “What’s up?”

Zander held out the bag. “This was on Isabel’s desk when we got back up here.”

Isabel tucked the envelope into another evidence bag. Not that it would be any good trying to get prints. There would be dozens. “Posted yesterday.”

DI Holmes studied the photo, his face impassive. That was never a good sign. Were his insides doing what Zander’s were? Tossing and turning and giving him fits? “Any idea where it is?”

“Looks like another river.” Zander took the photo back. “Other than that, no.”

“See if you can find it and keep me apprised. I don’t need to tell you how vital it is we catch this bloke.” The DI headed back to his office.

Zander dropped into his chair and pulled up the Internet search page on his computer. He typed “rivers in Headley Cross” into the box and hit images.

Isabel hadn’t moved. “Why me?”

“Why you what?”

“Why is he sending them to me?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing personal,” Zander said, beginning to scroll slowly. “Jack the Ripper taunted the police by sending letters. He sent them to the papers and got them to send them on. At least we’re getting them direct.”

“They never caught Jack the Ripper.”

He looked up. “Hey, we’ll get him, OK?”

A bit on the wan side, she nodded. “OK.”

Bio: Clare is a British author. She lives in a small town just outside Reading, England with her husband, whom she married in 1992, their three children, and unfriendly mini-panther, aka Tilly the black cat. Clare is half English and half Welsh, which makes watching rugby interesting at times as it doesn’t matter who wins.

Writing from an early childhood and encouraged by her teachers, she graduated from rewriting fairy stories through fan fiction to using her own original characters and enjoys writing an eclectic mix of romance, crime fiction and children's stories. When she's not writing, she can be found reading, crocheting or doing the many piles of laundry the occupants of her house manage to make.
Her books are based in the UK, with a couple of exceptions, thus, although the spelling may be American in some of them, the books contain British language and terminology and the more recent ones are written in UK English.

The first draft of every novel is hand written.

She has been a Christian for more than half her life. She goes to Carey Baptist where she is one of four registrars.

Visit Clare at her

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