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Success for Warwick’s own budding murder mystery star

First-time novelist Catherine Hanley is celebrating getting her work into print after turning to experts at the University of Warwick’s CAPITAL Centre, which explores creativity and performance in teaching and learning.

Catherine, who works at the University’s Reinvention Centre, will finally see her book The Sins of the Father hit the shelves on May 29.

Snatching time between being a mum of two and working full time, Catherine took around five years to complete her book. She sent it off to publishing agents, who all told her that it had potential but needed more work.

Eventually she mentioned her manuscript to a colleague at the CAPITAL Centre, who suggested she took it along to a lunchtime Warwick Writing Programme session.

Catherine, who is about to have her third child, said: “I was quite apprehensive as I wasn't on the Writing Programme. But they were so welcoming and encouraging when I went to the lunchtime session. I met a couple of the tutors there and they offered to look at my work. They took it to pieces but their advice was spot on.”

Catherine spent six months reworking her book based on that advice and it was accepted by the first publisher she sent it to.T

The Sins of the Father is a medieval murder mystery book set in Conisbrough Castle in Yorkshire. It will be published by Quaestor2000, who specialise in historical fiction.

Catherine used to be an academic in Medieval Studies and based her book on a plot line she had written years earlier for a murder mystery event at Conisbrough Castle.

She said: “It didn’t get used and I came across it years later in a drawer. I just thought why not try and work it up into a book. I never dreamed it would get published and I am so grateful for the help and advice I got from the CAPITAL Centre. I didn’t think they would take me seriously, but they were so encouraging.”

The Sins of the Father is available at the University of Warwick bookshop and Amazon.co.uk.

Notes to editors
Pictures of Catherine Hanley are available. For more information, please contact Kelly Parkes-Harrison, Communications Officer, University of Warwick, 02476 150483, 07824 540863, k.e.parkes@warwick.ac.uk