The Circle

16

www.ChichesterMurderDetectives.com

Welcome to our website, created by Naomi Green and Zach Beale. Share in this unique project, the writing of a real crime e-book by two authors currently under investigation for murder. Read that again if you like. It is true. We are suspects in the Chichester arson attacks and also members of the writers' circle that is the focus of these crimes. We will give the inside account. You can read our work in progress, case notes, character studies and plot ideas essential to the creation of a book.

To learn more, left-click on any of the following:

• About ourselves

• Fires 1, 2 and 3

• Victims

• Suspects

• Latest developments

You chose Suspects. For legal reasons, their identities are encrypted. Not one of us has a decent alibi. You don't, when the murders take place at night. As if it's a beauty contest, I'll announce them in reverse order.

11. Yours truly

Well, it's not me.

10. Zed

He's my collaborator in this e-book and I've seen enough of him to satisfy myself he's not the arsonist. He was the only person to get unqualified encouragement from Blacker — 'a major work of the imagination. . the new Tolkien'.

9. The Chair

He was in custody when Fires 2 and 3 happened, so it's not him.

8. Greenfingers

My husband doesn't have the guts, and aside from that he had no quarrel with Blacker. He's not a serious writer.

7. Blondie

Though present at Blacker's talk, she submitted no work, and so received no criticism. Reveals almost nothing about herself except that she was commissioned to do a strip cartoon for the local rag. She doesn't hack it as a writer, or a possible killer.

6. Parcel Force

As a newcomer, he has to be regarded with suspicion, but wasn't present at Blacker's talk and apparently never met the man. Unlikely to have caused the fire at the boat house unless his version of events is a lie and a distraction. Brash, opportunistic and doesn't have the makings of a writer or an arsonist.

5. Archdeacon's Lady

A dark horse, obsessed by status, ready to faint from shock if anyone uses a four-letter word, but secretly lusting for the Chair. Nose put out of joint by Blacker rejecting her book of tips as old-fashioned. Capable of starting fires.

4. Nitpicker

Weird — and thinks he's wonderful. Treats the circle as a shooting party, picking off cliches like game birds. I've heard he does strange things on his computer. He'd be top of this list if he had a more obvious motive. But he offered no manuscript, so didn't get the rebuff from Blacker.

3. Passionella

Another of the Chair's groupies, and a tireless writer of steamy romances. No stranger to rejections, she had her hopes raised this time, then dashed when she revealed how many of her scripts have landed back on her doormat. Was Blacker's 'I'll have to consult a colleague' the last straw? All those years of disappointment have to find an outlet.

2. Schoolmistress

Does her damnedest to be loved by one and all, so was the first to reel in Parcel Force the evening he turned up, and that's always been the pattern. Wears her faults on her sleeve, drinks too much and smokes too many, and delights in parading her libido in her poems. Men fall for it every time. And now she visits us in our homes, trying to solve the mystery. Methinks she doth protest too much.

1. Welshman

An attention-seeker with a vindictive streak. Had the biggest putdown of all by Blacker, not even getting his self-serving trash discussed in front of us. For a man of Welshman's self-importance, that was below the belt. We don't know what was said when he finally got his script back, but it wasn't complimentary for sure. When the Chair was pulled in by the police, Welshman was all too eager to cast him as the arsonist. Then there's this insurance connection. It may amount to nothing, but I intend to find out.

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