A steamy romantic suspense novel, published 5th May 2020 by Totally Bound.
In a heady cocktail of passion and poison, who can you really trust?
When Lizzie Aspinall and her sister meet for cocktails in a high-rise bar, the last thing she’s expecting is to spend the night in the arms of the nameless man in room 423. As a one-night stand with a stranger turns into a steamy affair with a dedicated detective, Lizzie finds herself in the sights of a stalker.
Ben Finneran has spent ten years pursuing a ruthless serial killer who poisons victims at random before disappearing into the shadows. He wants to believe that the attraction he and Lizzie share is just physical, but when they find themselves falling for each other, is Ben unwittingly leading a murderer straight to her door?
Pursued by the past and threatened by the present, who can Lizzie and Ben really trust?
Available in paperback and ebook.
Amazon: https://mybook.to/themaninroom423
Totally Bound: https://www.totallybound.com/book/the-man-in-room-423
Catherine Curzon and Eleanor Harkstead began writing together in the spring of 2017 and swiftly discovered a shared love of sauce, well-dressed gents and a uniquely British sort of romance. They drink gallons of tea, spend hours discussing the importance of good tailoring and are never at a loss for a double entendre.
They are the authors of numerous short stories and two novel series, the de Chastelaine Chronicles, and the Captivating Captains, published by Totally Bound and Pride. Their novel The Ghost Garden was shortlisted for the 2020 Romantic Novel Awards.
Find out more at www.curzonharkstead.co.uk
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Interview
Your two most recent novels are romantic suspenses. What’s more important, do you think - the romance or the suspense? Or are they equally vital to your novels?
Eleanor: You can’t have a romantic suspense without either ingredient! I think romantic suspenses need an about-equal balance of both romance and suspense, but there are moments in the story that are partly or entirely romance, and other moments where the romance takes a back seat and it’s all about the suspense.
Catherine: I enjoy the -edge-of-the-seat element of creating suspense and keeping that sense of menace bubbling under, but the romance is just as vital to balancing it. It also means we can create a couple that readers will hopefully fall for, which makes seeing them in peril all the more nail biting!
The Colour of Mermaids is set in Brighton, and The Man in Room 423 is set in Manchester. Do you think those two different cities made their individual marks on the novels?
Eleanor: I think they did, as well as the time of year. The Man in Room 423 is set just before Christmas in a rainy, chilly Manchester, whereas The Colour of Mermaids is set in Brighton in the summer. Brighton is known as the “city by the sea” so a summertime setting for it works really well, with something sinister behind the benign surface of sunny days and the blue sea. It’s nice to have the contrast of Manchester as the setting for our novel that follows on from The Colour of Mermaids.
Catherine: Definitely. The Man in Room 423 is steeped in the architecture and culture of Manchester. It’s one of England’s most beloved cities for a reason and to me, it’s almost a character in itself. That’s true for Brighton as well, which threads through The Colour of Mermaids with all the twists and turns of the Brighton Lanes themselves. Both of the cities are a unique combination of old and new in their own way and they seemed to fit the respective narratives perfectly.
You have written romantic comedies which seem very different from romantic suspense. Even so, do you think there are parallels between them?
Eleanor: Yes, in some ways they are very different! But I suppose both kinds of writing need timing and surprise. And of course all novels need setting and character, whether it’s a romcom or a romantic suspense.
Catherine: There are parallels for sure. Whether it’s keeping the pace right or building the atmosphere - light or dark - and maintaining the pitch, the method is the same though the results are different. It’s like writing music really, the notes might be the same, but the way you use them changes the melody.
You have written novels with contemporary settings as well as historicals. Do you have a favourite era for setting your fiction in?
Eleanor: I think it depends on the story and the characters we’ve come up with. Some characters can only exist in a particular era, and some stories can only happen at a particular time period. When we write contemporaries, our characters text each other, and people read the comments on online newspaper articles and scroll through social media. Those aspects of modern life need to be present in a contemporary or else it’s a rather jarring read.
Catherine: I like both. I write historical nonfiction too so I’m very used to spending time in the past, with all its particular foibles, but really people are alike all over and that goes for eras too. So long as the characters and the stories are there, they’ll tell you which era they belong in.
Do your characters ever surprise you as you write, or do you “know” them as soon as they pop into your imagination?
Eleanor: I think both - I know them to a degree, but I get to know them better as I write, at which point you might feel them tugging in a different direction from the one you originally intended them to go in.
Catherine: I have a very clear idea of my characters when I start writing but I’m willing and happy for them to surprise me. And they frequently do!
Can you remember the very first story you ever wrote?
Eleanor: When I was about five or six, I wrote a story about a skeleton who lived in a wardrobe, and his friends who consisted of a witch and a ghost. I remember lying in bed thinking about the characters then it occurred to me that I could write it down, and as I did, I wondered if that was how books were made.
Catherine: Yes. It was a comic strip of Marie Antoinette’s headless ghost when I was about five. My grandad used to tell me historical stories, and I’ve got him to thank for my career really, because his stories of the Georgians stuck with me and led me into writing. I was fascinated by Marie Antoinette as a child and remember drawing the comic strip very vividly. It had a cameo appearance by Dick Turpin!
Other Books By The Authors
The Man in Room 143
By Catherine Curzon and Eleanor Harkstead
Review by Heidi Lynn’s Book Reviews
First, I want to thank both Catherine Curzon and Eleanor Harkstead for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.
Catherine Curzon and Eleanor Harkstead both teamed up to bring you The Man in Room 423. This is a short read that has a very unique storyline that starts out one way and ends up another. This is my first time reading both authors and I can say they make a good team.
I loved the beginning of the book where we meet the two main characters. Both do something totally out of their comfort zone. I will be blunt and say there are a lot of sex scenes in this book. Very exciting sex scenes I may add. However, for a while I thought it overpowered the book.
The other portion of the book deals with a mystery, stalker, football player, investigation, etc.
There was a revelation in The Man in Room 423 that took me by surprise. I think the readers will agree. It was something I didn’t see coming.
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