Snowdon Shadows is a series of mystery novels set around Snowdonia in North Wales, and featuring Sparkle Anwyl, a young Welsh woman with a farming background. Initially, I wrote three draft novels in order: ‘Fates Maelstrom’, ‘Seeking A Knife’, and ‘Ruined Retreat’. But for various reasons, the plan changed.

Fevered Fuse

Originally, this page was a chronological explanation of how those three stories developed. However, Fevered Fuse is now the first Sparkle Anwyl novel and shows how my MC’s career began.

While working on Sparkle’s backstory, I wrote various short stories. Those became a collection with a framing story, created for NaNoWriMo 2018 and titled ‘Fevered Few’. I started with Goth Patrol, in which I explored how Sparkle’s first relationship leads her not only to her career but also to accepting her sexuality. Other key episodes followed, with this encounter rippling through her life and making her stand out from most of her work colleagues – and bringing her into conflict with a few of them.

The collection is now the novel, Fevered Fuse. The basic plot: A young woman, Sparkle Anwyl, struggles to make sense of her memories after an accident. Her past affects a police investigation into professional horse rustlers. Why?

If you don’t know what Sparke’s chosen career is, but want to discover, I am serialising Fevered Fuse on this website. The Chapter links are here.

Otherwise, read on for spoilers.

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Sparkle’s distinctive nature ties her to one colleague whom she meets in a key episode, just as she’s about to embark on her career with the Heddlu, as the Welsh police are called. V Kamatchi Pillai, aka Kama, becomes not only the officer who assists her but also her lover. As I delve deeper into Sparkle’s life and her lesbian relationship with Kama, I’m learning more about her and amending details in their unfolding journey.

Fates Maelstrom

Fates Maelstrom was intended to be the start of the ‘not so cosy’ series, and the first draft was written in spring 2012, and set on Dartmoor, in the West of England. The new version is set in the fictional Snowdonia village of Craig-o-Niwl – Crag of Mists – near where Sparkle’s maternal grandparents have a sheep farm. Like ‘Fevered Fuse’, the novel is told in 1^st POV by Sparkle. It takes place in 2017, a year after the end of that first outing.

The basic plot: Detective Sergeant Sparkle Anwyl must prove to Detective Inspector ‘Mal’ Jarrett that Twyla Locke didn’t murder her grandfather, prominent landowner Aubrey Locke. But Twyla faces prejudice because of her mixed blood, Locke family tradition, a mysterious double and declining health. Having convinced Mal that Twyla has been framed, Sparkle encounters Brogan Keyes, an American journalist, who offers his assistance. But his connections, especially his interest in the Lockes’ past, make him a suspect. Assisted by her partner Kama, now a D.I., Sparkle fights to unmask the real murderer while helping Twyla save her maternal family’s Romani community from eviction.

Sparkle & Kama’s relationship was tested in Fevered Fuse by another lesbian. A similar encounter complicates their investigations in Fates Maelstrom. Such entanglements will continue to creep in throughout the series, testing their commitment.

Here is an early description of the Snowdonia setting:

“Lined with low rock walls, the road snaked through a tunnel of trees and alongside a rocky riverbed. On the far bank, small fields of grass hugged the water and the distant forest of oaks and pine. Clinging to the hillsides like a mantle of mottled green, the trees climbed until they gave way to sparser vegetation – grass broken by the crags that were just glimpsed among the trees.

Mist shrouded the mountain peaks and tendrils wisped down into the valley. Isolated white farmhouses with dark stone outbuildings were joined by other buildings, as the village grew nearer. Rising vertically above the grey buildings was a cliff of greenery and the rock formation that gave the settlement its name, Craig-o-Niwl – Crag of Mists.”

This is the Welsh side of the river, but on the other side is a parkland setting that seems transplanted from an English village. In fact, when the English family bought the land encompassing the village and built their stately home on the opposite bank, they had intentionally copied much of what they had enjoyed across the border.

The cultural interactions are central to the plot of Fates Maelstrom. Romani gypsies, as opposed to Irish travellers, have become gradually accepted as a part of Welsh life, especially as musicians, whereas the relationship of the Welsh with the English has been troubled, not surprising when the oppressing power builds castles everywhere. So, both Twyla and Sparkle are at odds with the English landowners when they attempt to exert their authority. But how will the Romany girl cope with having a controversial drop of English blood herself?

Although I had already researched the Romani gypsies for the first draft, I knew that there could be a problem once I relocated the story to North Wales. Luckily, a friend resolved this potential problem by recommending “The Welsh Gypsies. Children of Abram Wood” by Eldra Jarman & A.O.H. Jarman, which offers a wealth of invaluable information.

In June 2014, I did a blog post on Twyla as the novel’s main POV character initially: https://rolandclarke.com/2014/06/02/my-main-character/. However, that was before I created the character of motorbike-riding Sparkle Anwyl, who feels that she is seen as an outsider by some colleagues, not because of her sex but because of her Goth appearance – and some thorny issues that hadn’t been resolved. Sparkle needs to prove herself, and Twyla’s case is a chance to apply her own brand of detection, with some assistance from suspicious American journalist Brogan Keyes.

Since then, I have done some interviews with the other main characters, starting with DC Sparkle Anwyl, although many of the facts are inaccurate or red herrings:   https://rolandclarke.com/2015/11/12/sparkle-anwyl-sleuth-or-sidekick/ .

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Seeking A Knife,

In Seeking A Knife, the third draft novel in the Snowdon Shadows series, Detective Sergeant Sparkle Anwyl & Detective Inspector Kama Pillai are still attached to the North Wales Police in Porthmadog on the Llŷn Peninsula. After a researcher’s death, Sparkle is tasked with tracking down a scam artist. But her investigation reopens a century-old cold case that exposes the intertwined histories of two local English families. Is a stolen antique naval dirk from the War of 1812 in North America the murder weapon? Or are the Memoirs written by Talcott Wendell, the naval officer who owned the knife, the secret behind the scholar’s death? But the Memoirs were sent by the dead researcher to Nita Palmour, a young Native American journalist, who has traced Talcott’s struggle to survive the War of 1812 and remain true to his beliefs. When Nita arrives in North Wales, Sparkle & Kama are preparing to confront a scam artist who knows about the knife. Two worlds and two eras are pulled together as their actions impact on those around them.

Most of Sparkle’s plotline and scenes have been written, but not in 1^st person POV. Nor have the events of Fevered Fuse or Fates Maelstrom impacted the story, as some plotlines are being developed. Nita Palmour’s plotline exists only as an outline, as does Talcott Wendell’s memoirs, both of which need to be worked into Sparkle’s 1^st Person POV. For Talcott’s memoirs of the War of 1812, I have been researching the period, and even found an excellent book, “Four Years On The Great Lakes 1813-1816. The Journal of Lieutenant David Wingfield, Royal Navy” by Don Bamford & Paul Carroll, which is becoming central to my research. My A to Z Challenge posts during April 2015 were themed ‘The War of 1812’.

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Ruined Retreat

The final Snowdon Shadows novel I’ve drafted, Ruined Retreat, arose from a conversation with some neighbours in our residential park in North Wales over my writing about a murder in a residential park, where the rivalry makes for victims aplenty.

In November 2017, for NaNoWriMo, I wrote the first draft of Ruined Retreat in which the body of a woman is found in the shadow of Dolbadarn Castle, gazing out across Snowdonia. DS Sparkle Anwyl is assigned to the case, and the woman is identified as a writer who lived in a Pwllheli residential park. When two more bodies are found at castle ruins in Snowdonia, and all three are shown to be unfortunate suicides, Sparkle disagrees. She suspects that someone is eliminating retired English ex-pats with artistic flair. Why? Are the victims connected? Why do they all choose to kill themselves at Welsh-built castles? The case takes a new twist when a body is found at a fourth castle, a Welsh victim, and at an English-built castle. Copycat or revenge?

When I wrote the draft, Sparkle’s lover and fellow crime fighter, Kama, didn’t exist, so I introduced a suitable suspect. Their mutual attraction leads them to develop a relationship as they investigate the crimes together. However, there is a link to a character in Fevered Fuse, so bringing Kama into the investigation won’t be hard… but there will be predictable complications.

Although Fevered Fuse is being serialised here, my primary aim is to finish a draft of Fates Maelstrom, which I can show beta-readers, and eventually get published. Then, Seeking A Knife should be next, but the plotline of Ruined Retreat may require less juggling around to complete.

Overall, I always need to do more research. Although Sparkle & Kama are both Welsh speakers,  I write in English as my Welsh is still limited to phrases like ‘Brysur fel morgrig’, which still feels relevant when you follow the link.

Meanwhile, I will plod on with the current draft of Fates Maelstrom, weaving along the Snowdonia lanes towards another ending.

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