Ghostly goings on in Devon

Submitted: 4th October 2018

There’s ghostly goings on in Devon…and William Ryan is the man to tell us all about them…..

What kind of ghosts are we talking about here?

A reluctant spy and his ghost-seeing lady sidekick uncover skulduggery and spookiness in a country house on an island cut off by bad weather. No one in their right mind would sell life insurance to this house party …

BookTrail the novel here

A House of Ghosts

The locations….

Well, the book is set on a fictional island off the North Devon coast, but it’s probably based on Burgh Island, a tidal island off the South Coast which Agatha Christie rather liked. It’s a bit of a mixture though – with the house, where most of the action is set, built on top of an ancient monastery’s crypt in which there is an ossuary, a lot of sarcophagi and, as it happens, hundreds of ghosts. There’s also a lighthouse, which I think every island needs in this kind of novel, and a surprising number of secret passageways and hidden doors.

Map from the book (c) William Ryan

BookTrail the novel here

The island was largely created in my head – but the house is based on a couple of country piles I know quite well, the crypt is borrowed from a church in Rome and the lighthouse from one in Ireland. I had to draw a map as I was going along, otherwise it would have got out of control.

The house in the book? (c) William Ryan

The style…

It’s a bit of a mash up – there is certainly a lot of Agatha Christie in there, a little bit of John Buchan, a dash of Nancy Mitford and some Alfred Hitchcock. I hope it’s a rattling good read – that’s definitely what I set out to achieve – but there’s also humour and a little bit of sadness, because of the World War one backdrop. Something for everyone, I think.

Otley Hall (c) William Ryan

Any stories you can tell us about the writing of this book?

It is a murder mystery, to an extent, and has been compared to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, probably because of the setting. Like Christie, I didn’t actually decide who the murderer was until the final chapter. At least, I thought I knew who it was – but it turned out to be someone else. So if anyone says they knew who the murderer was all along, they’re obviously much cleverer than I am.

Burgh Island …

BookTrail the novel here

Links to Devon..

I did live about a mile away from Burgh Island, as the crow flies, and my step mother’s family are from North Devon, where the book is theoretically set. At least it meant I didn’t have to research the train journey down from London too much.

If we wanted to visit your book?

Burgh Island is a great place to start with it’s amazing Art Deco Hotel, or Lundy Island off the North coast of Devon. Any island is good though – everybody likes islands, don’t they?

Thanks Mr Ryan Sir…Being extra polite, I made a quick exit…William has written a VERY atmospheric and chilling read!