RJ Beynon
Sign up to receive our Dispatches from the Water’s Edge here. In that lively monthly newsletter, James and I will share with you: behind the scene details of James and Inky’s life on Abbey Waters, features about the world that both he and I share, and news about new James Clatterbridge mysteries.
Abbey Marina sits on Abbey Waters in Bedfordshire, a small, eccentric community of houseboats and narrowboats tucked away from the world. James Clatterbridge is a horror writer who lives there with his wife Inky on Houseboat Number 7, Pontoon Pike.
James is a man who navigates the marina on his beloved mobility scooter Rocinante, makes his living from writing horror stories, and finds himself – with a regularity that would not entirely surprise him – drawn into the real thing.
Sharp, contrary, and constitutionally incapable of leaving a puzzle alone, James brings to each investigation the same quality of attention he brings to his fiction: an instinct for character, a taste for argument, and a cheerful willingness to construct elaborate theories that his more methodical, more sceptical wife will then take apart – a process he anticipates, accepts, and repeats without apparent remorse.
The Clatterbridge Mystery series is set in the heart of England, rooted in the rhythms of close-knit community life – the pub quiz, the allotment, the summer barbecue, the neighbour whose past doesn't quite add up – and in the uncomfortable truth that the quietest places have the most to hide.