#3 #Monday Meanders with #Jodie V. Baptie

Good Morning! It's Monday but not a manic Monday for me (I hope).

My #Monday Meanders series continues and for me it's rather nostalgic. I'm welcoming an author friend, Jodie V. Baptie, who is new to Crooked Cat Books. Jodie's novel The Forgotten won't be published by Crooked Cat Books till June but it's very exciting that she's here today to give us a really early taste of what her novel is all about!

The nostalgia aspect? Read on...

https://hiveminer.com/ Edinburgh 1970s sent on by Jodie V Baptie

Welcome to my blog, Jodi. #Monday Meanders is all about the locations of a novel so what can you tell us about the setting of The Forgotten...

The Forgotten is a crime fiction thriller set in and around Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland during the 1970s, a fascinating and somewhat overlooked post war era in Scotland. 
For much of this decade there was rising unemployment, social change, picket lines, crime and murder, an interesting setting for any crime novel. Poverty was rife in Scotland on a scale unimaginable today, with many families living in rat infested one bedroom tenement slums. Not forgetting the strikes and the three day week.

Glasgow-public domain via J V. Baptie

It wasn’t all bleak during the 1970s. For my main protagonist, Helen Carter, it’s a time of hope, opportunity and social freedom that earlier generations of women couldn’t have imagined – and Helen wants to live it. Throughout her life she has found herself at the pinnacle of change. She is degree educated from Glasgow University, she played football at a time when the Scottish Women’s Football Association was founded and she got to play in the first Women’s league. 

After university she found herself in dead end jobs, tiring of these she decided to follow her father’s footsteps into Glasgow City police as a WPC gaining a promotion afterwards.

https://urbanglasgow.co.uk/  Glasgow Cross Station. Demolished 1977. (image 1973) 

Glaswegian Helen is still learning Edinburgh but on a rare occasion she’s on a day off. You might find her shopping in Goldbergs, or meandering along Princes Street, or having a quiet drink in the White Cockade. If there’s a good gig on she’ll be at one of the many dance halls.

Nancy says: That definitely reminds me of living in Glasgow, which I did till 1975. I'm going to be looking out for Helen when she pops onto the printed page. 

It's probably too early for a final Blurb and Cover design but here's a gist of the novel:

They want revenge. They will never be forgotten.

Newly promoted into CID, acting Detective Constable Helen Carter has a lot on her hands. When a body is found in an abandoned cinema, no one in the team has seen anything like it before and when the business card of an ex-cop private detective is found, the case takes a chilling turn.

As the body count mounts can Helen find the killer while her own life is falling apart?

About Jodie

J.V. Baptie graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2017 with an MA in Creative Writing. When not writing, she is also an actress and has appeared in a variety of children’s show and stage plays. JV lives near Edinburgh where her novel is set.

JV has a short story collection on Amazon at the moment. It’s free on Kindle Unlimited, and all proceeds go to Pancreatic Cancer UK. The Forgotten will be released on June 13th 2018 and its follow up, The Departed, later on in 2018.  Follow me on Twitter @jvbaptie, or on my website at jvbaptie.com.

Fabulous! Thanks for coming today, Jodie, and the very best wishes for The Forgotten when it launches. Come back and update us later in the year!

Slainthe!