No one was more stunned than Annie Maddox when they found the body of Gerald Culver MP. Because Annie, the manager of the Wellington Hotel, Amblesea, was Culver’s mistress.

Enter Harry Lambert, ex-policeman-turned-reluctant-private-eye, and there’s a new man in Annie’s life.

But her world is filled with menace, because somewhere out there, along the edge of a wintry sea, a killer stalks…

How did An Evil Hour come about?
I wanted to write a whodunit where a number of people who had absolutely no apparent connection with one another were murdered, for a reason that would have to be deduced by the investigator. It was one of the ‘plots’ that I had jotted down in a notebook, waiting for characters and setting to come along. Then I was in Watford, and saw a signpost to the Ministry of Defence Police HQ. This got me thinking about the sort of thing that they might investigate, and I realised that the terrorist-style murder of someone in government could send the police off on the wrong track, especially if the minister concerned had a secret life that no one knew about. And as I thought about that, I realised that I had the people for that plot.

Did it work?
Yes, it did – I was very pleased with how the plot developed when the novel was written, and with the characters that emerged. And people, including reviewers, seem to like it a lot, so it works for the reader as well, which isn’t always the same thing! But one reviewer pointed out that the minor characters were a bit sketchy, which was true. I’d probably fuse a couple of the minor characters into one if I were writing it today.

Have you written any more books about Harry Lambert?
No, though the odd thing is that he was conceived as a series character, unlike Lloyd and Hill. But I felt that I needed to let him develop a little before I wrote about him again, and somehow it never happened. I might revive Harry one day – I’m very fond of him. He’s altogether rougher and tougher than Lloyd – he was fun to write. I’ve thought of trying to develop him for a TV series, hopefully one where I write the scripts myself.

Have you ever had a TV script produced?
No, but it was my first love, as it were. Long before I thought of writing novels, I wanted to write TV plays. That was in the days when they were all made in the studio, on videotape rather than film. My tendency was to write non-naturalistic plays, very unlike my novels, and in no way connected with crime. I only completed one, and I can’t honestly remember whether I even sent it anywhere. I don’t think I did. I still think it was a good idea, and I might dig it out and polish it up some day, as a TV movie. I did write a half-hour script for a BBC competition and got a sort-of ‘highly commended’, but no cigar!