The idea behind the Classic Comfort posts is that each featured writer chooses a favourite title from the classics – we’ll define ‘classic’ as pre-1940 – and a favourite comfort read, a book they always return to, for whatever reasons. As third book in each post, we’ll have one by the writer, usually their latest book. This week, we have writer A.B. Morgan, whose books are crime fiction, often with a touch of dark humour thrown in. Over to Alison:

Classic:

A passage from this book was set as English comprehension homework when I was about twelve years old. I was so hooked that I borrowed the book from the school library and read it with relish. Written in 1898, the book is set in 1750s England, in a coastal village set back on saltmarshes. This book has everything: a legend of a ghost, tales of smuggling, betrayal and loyalty, shipwrecks, and sacrifice.

When the main character, young John Trenchard, is trapped in the church crypt, he discovers the village’s smuggling exploits led by the local pub landlord. Ripping good yarn.

Comfort:

George Kranky creates his own special medicine from household items and feeds it to his revolting grandmother to cure her of her nastiness. ‘She had pale brown teeth and a small puckered up mouth like a dog’s bottom’. There is no stopping the laugh that follows when you read that line. Genius use of adjectives abound as Grandma is referred to as a ‘grizzly old grunion’. One of the very best read out loud books, ever! I’m never without a copy. When they were young, I read it to my children more times than I can count, and it now waits for grandchild No 1 to be old enough to appreciate it.

Thank you, Alison!

I’ve read several of Alison’s books now – they’re all very entertaining, not least of all her new series about private investigators Peddyr and Connie Quirk. By subscribing to Hobeck Books you can download a prequel novella, Old Dogs, Old Tricks, for a free taster of the series. Over Her Dead Body and Throttled were published last December and in June. Although it’s a series, the books can easily be read as standalones.

Here’s the blurb for Over her Dead Body, the first full-length book in the series:

Gabby Dixon is dead. That’s news to her…
Recently divorced and bereaved, Gabby Dixon is trying to start a new chapter in her life. As her new life begins, it ends. On paper at least.

But Gabby is still very much alive. As a woman who likes to be in control, this situation is deeply unsettling. She has two crucial questions: who would want her dead, and why?

Enter Peddyr and Connie Quirk, husband-and-wife private investigators. Gabby needs their help to find out who is behind her sudden death.

The truth is a lot more sinister than a simple case of stolen identity…

Alison Morgan is a member of the Crime Writers Association. She only took up writing full time 5 years ago when a heart condition ended her beloved nursing career prematurely. Writing, she says, saved her sanity.

Having spent thirty years in the National Health Service in the UK, gathering qualifications along the way, she specialised in psychiatry. As a registered Mental Health Nurse working in the community and specifically in First Episode Psychosis, she eventually became Clinical Nurse Manager for an innovative countywide service.

Retired from nursing, now she combines her wealth of career and life experiences by putting them into her plots, thus educating others about mental health issues through entertaining stories where more than a smattering of humour can also be found. Writing under the name A B Morgan, the first two books in the Quirk Files series have been published by Hobeck Books this year, making a total of eight British crime mysteries and psychological suspense novels to her name.

Find out more about Alison and her books on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her website.

The blog will be on holiday for a couple of weeks while I’m tackling my edits – see you on the other side, and have a good summer! ☀