Set in London, Norfolk’s Blakeney, and Suffolk’s Southwold, Orford and Aldeburgh, A Murderous Affair? is a scandalous, thrilling, and humorous tale written from a mistress’s perspective which recounts her relationship, the changes in social and sexual habits around her and so much more.
A Murderous Affair
The protagonist describes her relationship with the man she has fallen in love with, who cheats on her as well as his Tory MP wife, over twenty years in the eighties into the noughties. The mistress offers ridiculous, funny, painful anecdotes and vignettes as she recounts the start of their relationship and how it blossomed even as she was being betrayed. Along the way, she muses on the loneliness of being a mistress, what it is like to be the third person in a marriage and in turn what it feels like to be cheated on, as well as ageing and other musings about life in general.
As the years push her to the edge, does she casually and unwittingly take what she might think is her revenge, only to discover her lover or even his wife has been one step ahead of her…?
Our Opinion
A brilliant read, with a strong storyline that will keep the reader enthralled, amused, intrigued, and wondering until the final lines. The 80's full on 'warts and all' - Female First
Author Bio
Stacey Whatling worked as a London and Norwich based construction insurance broker for forty years before retiring to sew, drink coffee with friends and think of storylines. Daughter of two journalists, she heard many funny stories and incidents both from them and in her own career, as well as amongst her friends, some of which feature in her debut novel, A Murderous Affair? (Troubador Publishing).
The Story Behind - 'A Murderous Affair'
Stacey: “It’s wholly a fictional story but uses stories from life that I picked up, from years of listening to friends, some of whom have been in such relationships. I was amazed at how prevalent it was in the City back in the 80s, as women were trying to break into a man’s world. I witnessed some of the events, like the table collapsing amid a group of highly paid lawyers or the man jumping for the ship’s bow and falling into the sea, or the table cloth catching fire. All fairly bizarre.
I wanted to take a group of women who don’t get to read books about their lives when they were young, back to the 80s, to remember some of the daft things we all did, the mad media excesses of the time, the fashions, the sexual freedom of youth, the cynicism that comes with experience and age. The younger reader may just marvel at how life was, before this PC age.
And to see “the other woman” from another angle, that it’s a mistake to fall in love with another woman’s husband which causes pain yes, but for the mistress to suffer some of that pain too, to also be cheated upon. Writing from the mistress perspective, there is nothing about her, not even her name until well into the book. The story is wholly about the relationship with one man, whose presence takes over her life, puts everything on hold, so there is no marriage, no children, no grandchildren, just her looking out for and waiting for him.
The affair takes place against the background of public life and events in Westminster, the City and the Royal family and moves between London and East Anglia over the period 1982 – 2002, as the woman’s cynicism grows and eventually the man dies, murdered or not? That is the final question. However, the hope is that it makes you laugh, or at least smile with some of the antics along the way as well as enjoy the trip down Memory Lane.”
RELEASE DATE: 28/06/2024 ISBN: 9781805144076 Price: £10.99
We have 2 copies of A Murderous Affair to give away: CLICK HERE
Tagged in Book releases