If you're a Downton Abbey fan, you'll appreciate this introduction to Clara Benson's English mysteries set in the '20s and '30s.

In the introduction I mention that I'm deep in revision territory on the next Freddie Lark mystery. Then I jump right into this interview and reading from the delightful Clara Benson.

Enjoy!

This week's mystery author

Clara Benson is the author of the Angela Marchmont mysteries and Freddy Pilkington-Soames Adventures – traditional English mysteries in authentic style set in the 1920s and 30s. 

One day she would like to drink cocktails and solve mysteries in a sequinned dress and evening gloves. In the meantime she lives in the north of England with her family and doesn’t do any of those things.

To learn more about Clara Benson and all her mystery novels go to ClaraBenson.com.

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

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

Excerpt from A Case of Blackmail in Belgravia

Chapter Two

Elsewhere, Freddy Pilkington-Soames had had a most pleasant evening, having passed it in indulging in youthful high spirits at a fashionable new night-club near Regent Street. At two o’clock he and his friends reluctantly obeyed the order to vacate the premises, and emerged into the London night, preparing to head homewards and sleep the sleep of the just. Freddy was feeling quite delightfully fuzzy in the head, having that evening discovered a new type of cocktail containing champagne, Cointreau, Bourbon whisky, and a secret ingredient which he could not identify, but which was half-sweet and half-sour and rounded the whole thing off deliciously. The more he drank of it, the better it tasted, and since Freddy was a keen and scientific seeker of pleasure—indeed, could wax quite philosophical on the subject at times—he had judged it only right to experiment exhaustively in order to ascertain to his own satisfaction that no greater joy was to be had on that particular evening, at least. The result was that by the time he left the night-club, his brain and his finer motor abilities had mutually agreed to part company for a few hours. No matter, however; the world was a beautiful place, and Freddy felt not the misery of life’s travails as he tottered gently towards Oxford Street in search of a taxi, a beatific smile on his face. Had any malefactor chosen at that moment to jump out in front of him with a dagger or a pistol and demand monies,