I had the most lovely, literary evening on Tuesday night in the Clarence Hotel, courtesy of HarperCollins Ireland. It was a pleasure to be invited to the “proof party” to celebrate Jane Casey’s upcoming new book. The Secret Room is a locked-room mystery, so fans of Agatha Christie are in for a treat. It is always amazing to be in a room full of very enthusiastic book lovers, and it was so lovely to meet Jane in person.
Coming out in April this year, The Secret Room follows the very privileged Ilaria Cavendish as she checks into a luxury hotel in London. The glamour promptly fades when she is found dead in the bath by her lover.
It must have been an accident. After all, no one went into the room with her and no one came out, and yet, all the signs point to murder.
DS Maeve Kerrigan enters the scene, happy to have a case like this to take her mind off of everything going on at home. When her partner, DI Josh Derwent, is arrested, Maeve must investigate the two cases side by side, not wanting to face what will come to be if she fails.
Jane said she hopes this book will be a “just one more chapter” page turner, and based on the fact that she has described it as a story that will appeal to classic Agatha Christie fans, I’m excited about diving in.
I’m a fan of crime fiction, and I can thank my mother for that. She has always been a fan of Michael Connelly and too many other authors to name. Our windowsills at home are filled with books all about mysteries and cold cases, impossible cases that just don’t make sense until they do. We also watch our fair share of detective series together. Some are better than others, some are quite formulaic, I can admit that, but we still always have a great time watching a story unfold.
As you might imagine when I came home with this proof, she immediately said she wants to read it after me, and I already know that the concept of Jane’s locked-room murder is going to have her racing through the pages.
So, what is a locked-room murder?
Popular in crime fiction, a locked-room murder is a type of crime that seems impossible to commit. It usually involves a crime scene that, appears to have only been entered by the victim. In this case, Ilaria checked into her hotel room and locked the door. She went into her room alone. Nobody else went in or out, and then she was found dead. How did that happen?
Another example is if someone enters a room that has been sealed from the inside, meaning that nobody could get in or out, and there does not appear to be another way in at all e.g. there are now windows, no backdoors, but when the body is found, it is clear that a weapon was used, but in the sealed room there is no weapon to be found. So, where is that weapon now, and how did the perpetrator get in and out after using it?
The locked-room mystery presents readers with an impossible case, one that couldn’t have happened and yet it did. That is what is so addicting when our detectives enter the scene because they have been presented with a very strange puzzle, and we go along with them as they unravel what went on. Nothing is as it seems when faced with a locked-door murder. Readers can expect lots of twists and turns, dead ends and strange nuggets that become leads, and before you know it, you’re hooked and desperate to know more.
I look forward to writing a full book review after reading The Secret Room by Jane Casey. As always, all thoughts and opinions shared will be completely honest and completely my own.
In the meantime, I would like to say thank you again to the HarperCollins Ireland team for inviting me on Tuesday evening.
If you follow me on Instagram then you will already know that I have two literary discussions coming up soon.
Having just seen Blue Velvet, I plan to discuss the intoxication of morbid curiosity, and I am looking forward to seeing King Lear in the Gate very soon, and I plan to write about the obsessive nature of integrity.
Stay tuned.
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