Death Under a Little Sky

by Stig Abell

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Death Under a Little Sky is a debut crime novel (the first in a series) by British journalist Stig Abell and will appeal to anyone who loves the comfort of reading traditional mysteries. Set in the depths of the English countryside, it’s about a detective whose marriage has failed and who leaves the city to get back to nature and solitude. Naturally, things don’t quite work out that way. Though Covid isn’t mentioned, the book captures really nicely the atmosphere of those first months of the pandemic, when self-sufficiency was back in fashion, people stayed home and learned to do basic things, and let their hair grow long.

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The book, according to the author

What was the concept behind it, how many books will be in it?

The first one, Death Under a Little Sky, is out now and I’ve got a deal to write three more. So there will be four of them. The second one is pretty much written and being proof edited and I’ve actually finished the first draft of the third one. I don’t know if the publisher is happy or just bemused by me, because all I want to do is sit and write these books. I’m not worried about deadlines, I’m not thinking, ‘How am I going to get it done?’ All I want to do is sit and write.

The series is about a detective, Jake Jackson, who leaves an unnamed city, and goes and lives in Little Sky, in this beautiful desolate countryside with no internet or phone lines, and then gets drawn back into the world of crime. The idea is that there can be an endless number of possible scenarios that will confront him in this new world of his, each one representing a novel. But the principle is really: person leaves a messy marriage and personal tragedy and the city and connected life and goes and lives somewhere more sedate, more desolate, and then starts to find a new life, meets a woman, finds a new experience and, at the same time, is involved in solving crime.

And where is Little Sky?

It doesn’t exist. I didn’t grow up there and I’m not harking back to it. It’s a fantasy location. There’s the word utopia, which is a pun in Greek, it’s both a great place and no place. That’s what Little Sky is, effectively. I say at some point it’s in the middle of England, but I don’t really say anything more than that. I’m actually from the Midlands, so maybe there’s a connection there. Some people have read it and said it reminds them of the West Country, some of East Anglia. I’ve had someone tell me it reminds them of parts of Scotland. It’s just a rural location which is desolate and free from the internet.

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