Coastal Rhode Island forms the setting for a series of cosy mysteries by author Amy Saunders. Amy’s readers describe her characters as ‘a joy to meet’ and her books as fun and exciting.

Sit back, relax and let’s get to know the Belinda and Bennett stories a little better.

You can find Amy at AmySaundersAuthor.com.

And on Twitter @Amy_Saunders

And on Facebook.

Press play (above) to listen to the show, or read the transcript below. Remember you can also subscribe to the show on iTunes. And listen on Stitcher.

You can also click here to watch the interview on YouTube.

Transcript of Interview with Amy Saunders

Alexandra: Hello everyone I’m Alexandra Amor, and I’m here today with Amy Saunders. Hi Amy.

Amy: Hello.

Alexandra: So just by way of quick introduction, Amy Saunders is the author of the Belinda and Bennett mysteries, which is a cozy mystery series set in the fictional coastal town of Portside, Rhode Island. Since 2010 she’s also published three stand-alone mystery novels, and recently launched the first book in a new young adult series. Her love of mysteries started as a teen and finally led her to pursue novel writing.

Amy the first thing I wanted to ask you was, I think it was on your website you mentioned that you wrote your first mystery novel as a challenge in 2009. Can you tell us about that, and what was the challenge?

Amy: Well, I had always done short stories. So I don’t know, I thought I didn’t have the patience or the longevity to go through with the book. I get bored with things, and I had trouble following through with even short stories. I just kind of thought, “Well, I don’t think I can do that.”

But then actually because of NaNoWriMon, the novel writing in a month in November, that gave me the idea to try. I couldn’t actually do it in November, but I thought, “Well, let me just do it by myself in January and see what happens.” Because I had time. And my sister really encouraged me to do it. She was like, “I think you’ll like it. I think it’ll be good for you.” Because I talk a lot. So she was like, “I think novel writing will be perfect, because you talk incessantly”. I thought, “All right, let’s give this a roll.”

I just went for it on January 1st in 2009, and I wrote actually what became “The Jesters Apprentice” a couple of years later. And that was basically… Yeah, I was in love. I just decided, this is perfect. This is what I want to do, and I kind of set off on writing “Deadlocked”, which was my first stand-alone.

Alexandra: Oh okay. Okay, great. And so the Belinda and Bennett series, which has quite a few books in it.

Tell us a bit about the characters, Belinda and Bennett first of all.

Amy: Belinda is actually kind of a little bit like me. Not totally, she’s a little more tenacious, and a little less timid than I am. Bennett is kind of… He’s a little more serious, and a little more straight laced than I am.

I’ve always loved “Pride and Prejudice”, and I like how Elizabeth and Mr Darcy are kind of similar bu...