Authors Interviewing Characters: Connie Berry

A GRAVE DECEPTION

Antiques expert Kate Hamilton dives into the past to solve a fourteenth-century mystery with disturbing similarities to a modern-day murder in the sixth installment of the Kate Hamilton mystery series.

Kate Hamilton and her husband, Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, have settled into married life in Long Barston. When archaeologists excavating the ruins of a nearby plague village discover the miraculously preserved body of a fourteenth-century woman, Kate and her colleague, Ivor Tweedy, are asked to appraise the grave goods, including a valuable pearl. When tests reveal the woman was pregnant and murdered, the owner of the estate on which the body was found, an amateur historian, asks Kate to identify her and, if possible, her killer. Surprised, Kate agrees to try.

Meanwhile, tensions within the archaeological team erupt when the body of the lead archaeologist turns up at the dig site with fake pearls in his mouth and stomach. Then a third body is found in the excavations. Meanwhile, Kate’s husband Tom is tracking the movements of a killer of his own.

With the help of 700-year-old documents and the unpublished research of a deceased historian, Kate must piece together the past before the grave count reaches four.

Character Interview (Kate and Angela Foxe)

Hello and welcome! Today, to celebrate the launch of A Grave Deception, I’m chatting with two of my favorite characters in Long Barston, Suffolk—American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton and her good friend Angela Foxe, the local vet and wife of the village rector. 

I caught up with them over lunch at a lovely café along the Stour River. The early June weather was clear and sunny, so we chose a table on the outside patio. Below us, the river burbled along on its circuitous journey to the North Sea. 

The waitress had just taken our orders. She gathered our menus and left, giving Angela a curious look. Kate and I had ordered their classic Caesar salad with smoked salmon. Angela, who is almost eight months pregnant, ordered the glazed pork belly with buttery mash, roasted carrots, gravy, and a side of parmesan risotto. 

Angela: “Why am I starved all the time? I’ve gained two and a half stone already, and I still have a month to go.” She tore off a chunk of the whole-grain sourdough the waitress had brought on a wooden breadboard and dipped it in a bowl of herbed olive oil.

Kate: “Don’t worry. You’re healthy and active. It will come off.”

Connie: “Kate told me you’re having a locum fill in for you during the last month of your pregnancy.” 

Angela: “That’s the plan, but would you believe he had to cancel? Kicked by a cow with an inflamed udder. They’re finding a replacement, but it may take another week or so.” She popped the bread into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

Connie: “I’d like to ask you about the medieval body recently discovered near here. A young woman, I believe. Kate, you and your colleague, Ivor Tweedy, have been hired to appraise the grave goods. What kinds of things were buried with her?”

Kate: “Wonderful things—a couple of silver pennies minted during the reign of Edward the First, some personal items, like a glass mirror protected by two hinged copper alloy discs, a silver wrist cuff with heads of what Ivor believes are the Twelve Apostles, and a huge natural pearl—tear-drop shaped like the one Richard Burton gave to Elizabeth Taylor. Worth a fortune. All incredibly well preserved.”

Connie: “After all those centuries? How is that possible?”

Kate: “It’s down to the lead coffin, which was sealed with beeswax to keep air and moisture out. The method of burial was also what preserved the body so remarkably that the archaeologists first assumed the young woman been interred a couple of decades ago—not almost eight hundred years ago. It was quite a shock.”

Angela: “She was pregnant, close to delivery.” 

I saw Angela shudder. She was thinking about her own child.

Connie: “Tell me about the archaeological team. How many are there?”

Kate: “It’s a student dig from the University of East Anglia. They offer the experience twice a year. The students have all returned to college for their evaluations, so only the senior team is still onsite. The head archaeologist is Dr. Simon Sinclair. I’m told he has quite a reputation—gives talks on archaeology. In demand. His two deputies are Dr. Niall Nevin and Dr. Celia Whybrew. Celia is the niece of one of Lady Barbara’s childhood chums. I liked her a lot. The two student leaders are still here as well, both PhD candidates—Mark Lambe, tenth baronet Kniveton, and Tamzin Oliver.”

Connie: “What did you make of the team?”

Kate: “Angela—you were there. What did you think?”

Angela wiped a smear of olive oil from her upper lip. “Sinclair is a boor. Likes the ladies. And he likes to be in charge. Intimidates anyone who disagrees with him.”

Kate: “I agree, and I can’t imagine why a nice woman like Celia Whybrew doesn’t strike out on her own.”

Connie Berry: “What about Dr. Nevin?”

Angela: “Strange duck, that one. Very much in Dr. Sinclair’s shadow.”

Connie: “Do they all get along?”

Kate shot a look at Angela: “You mean the team as a whole? Tensions there, I’m afraid. Mark Lambe believes a mound near the excavations may be a plague pit.”

Connie: “You mean a common burial place for victims of the plague.”

Kate: “Exactly. Mark’s whole doctoral program rests on his theory, but so far Dr. Sinclair has refused to authorize excavations on the mound—or to sign off on his thesis topic. And I know how devastating that would be. My son, Eric, is working on his thesis. I can’t even imagine how he’d feel if his topic was disallowed.”

Angela: “They’re afraid of Sinclair. I think he’s got something over them, although I can’t imagine what that might be. There’s just a weird vibe…” She trailed off, dipping another hunk of bread in the olive oil. “Trouble brewing there, if you ask me.”

Kate: “There is a kind of sadness about the whole thing. All those deaths. And the site is on an estate called Ravenswyck, owned by the packaging entrepreneur, Alex Belcourt. His beautiful young wife, Carrie, disappeared ten years ago. Simply left one day and was never heard from again. He’s built an exhibit, something like the Egyptian exhibit at Highclere Castle, in her honor.” 

Angela: “It’s quite remarkable. He’s actually recreated the village that once existed there—Edgmere Close. It was abandoned in 1349 when the plague wiped out all but a handful of the villagers.”

Connie: “So the medieval woman was killed in the plague?”

Kate: “Oh, no. Didn’t I say? She was murdered.”

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Connie Berry is the author of the Kate Hamilton Mysteries, set in the UK and featuring an American antiques dealer with a gift for solving crimes. Like her protagonist, Connie was raised by antiques dealers who instilled in her a passion for history, fine art, and travel. During college she studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany and St. Clare’s College, Oxford, where she fell under the spell of the British Isles. In 2019 Connie won the IPPY Gold Medal for Mystery and was a finalist for the Agatha Award’s Best Debut. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America and is on the board of the Guppies and her local Sisters in Crime chapter. Besides reading and writing mysteries, Connie loves history, foreign travel, cute animals, and all things British. She lives in Ohio with her husband and adorable Shih Tzu, Emmie.

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Category: Interviews, On Writing