“Whether a character in your novel is full of choler, bile, phlegm, blood or plain old buffalo chips, the fire of life is in there, too, as long as that character lives.” —James Alexander Thom
The most important character to feature in everyone of this series is private detective Jane Hetherington and I’ll be writing plenty about her elsewhere. Jane’s not the only character to make a regular appearance in the books. There are lots of others who appear frequently and have their own adventures.
I hope you enjoy meeting them and sharing their various escapades.
Let’s meet them:
Hugh Hetherington
Hugh is Jane’s late husband. He is two years older than Jane and dies aged sixty-four of pancreatic cancer, even though, as Jane tells the oncologist who broke the news to them,
“But he hardly drinks!”
In various flashbacks of their time together, Hugh appears somewhere in every one of the novels. We’re there when he meets Jane for the first time and we see him on his deathbed.
He is an accountant who eventually becomes senior partner of his firm. He specialises in agricultural after he and Jane (when still a young couple) move from London to the market town of Failsham in the farming county of Hoven. (More about both Failsham and Hoven in other blogs.)
The man Jane fell in love with, and remained true to for almost forty years, has an irreverent take on life – call it a gallows’ humour if you will – but he’s every bit as sensible and loyal as Jane. She misses him desperately and knows she will never be able to replace him. She opens her agency as a way of filling the hole left by his death, reflecting that the death of the man to whom she has been joined at the hip for four decades, is a vast and impossible void to fill.
Adele
Although Jane and Hugh wanted more children, in the end they had only one – their daughter, Adele. When the novels open, Adele is thirty-seven years of age and living in the United States with her husband Lee Smithson, and their three-year-old daughter Amy.
Mother and daughter are close and although the two communicate frequently by e-mail and telephone, Jane misses her like crazy. The two visit each other when they can.
Charity Parsons
Jane’s twenty-four year-old next door neighbour. Charity lives in End Cottage, Cuckoo Tree Lane, Failsham, Hoven, in the last of a terrace of work-men’s cottages. In spite of the age difference between them, Jane and Charity are the best of friends and often gossip over the fence which separates Charity’s cottage from the pink thatched cottage which is Jane’s home; although more often they gossip over a pot of tea in the kitchen of one or other of them.
Now and then, Charity helps Jane investigate some of her cases.
Despite her youth, Charity’s parents are both dead, and she is raising her kid-brother, Jack, almost single-handedly. She and Jack look out for each other, and Jane looks out for them. Charity is a girl forced to grow up too quickly and assume a parental role, when other young women of her age would have been out having fun. Charity isn’t one to complain though – her take on life is to accept the hand that you’ve been dealt and get on with things – except when it comes to her love life. Here even she can’t be stoical!
As the series progresses Charity’s personal life turns and twists more than one of Jane’s detecting adventures, but we’ll be there throughout, sharing it with her, as will Jane, who’ll provide a much-needed shoulder to cry on.
Jack Parsons
Charity’s younger brother. He’s coming up to fourteen. Jack is like a grandson to Jane, and sometimes he refers to her as his surrogate granny. Fate has played a cruel trick on young Jack, robbing him of both his parents at such a young age, something Jane and his sister are acutely aware of. Missing a father figure, he is devastated when his sister splits up with her boyfriend, Johnny, the two having formed a strong bond. Because of this, Jack and Johnny keep in touch and Jack yearns for the couple to reunite.
Despite these setbacks, Jack has a cheery disposition. He’s a sensible enough boy for Jane to let him act as an assistant detective now and then, something he greatly enjoys! In a future novel, he will solve a detecting adventure of his own.
During the series, Jack falls for a girl in his class at school, called Polly – his first love!
The Prodigal Son
Can’t say too much about this character, but I can say that his feckless, devil-may-care approach to life conceals an unhappy young man, scarred by childhood trauma. As the series progresses this character is forced to reassess his priorities in life, and put aside childish things.
Unfortunately, by the time he realises he must make amends, it may already be too late.
The Dawson-Jones
Felix and Mirabella Dawson-Jones are two of Jane’s closest friends in Failsham. Mirabella Dawson-Jones is the rector of Failsham. Felix serves as a councillor on the local district council.
They are parents to Susannah and Miles. Susannah is a single mother, and she and her daughter Penny live with Felix and Mirabella.
Cuckoo Tree Lane, where Jane lives, leads into Rectory Lane on which can be found the rectory which is home to Mirabella and Felix. Jane is a member of Mirabella’s congregation, as was Hugh, and he lies in the churchyard beside the rectory. Jane visits both Hugh and the rectory frequently.
Mirabella’s a larger than life woman, both in personality and size. Despite being busy with her duties as the rector, nothing is too much trouble for her. Felix is retired, and when not busy with his duties as a member of the local council, spends his days playing golf and trying not to be outdone by his wife. He may appear to be a bit under the thumb, but he usually comes up trumps in the end.
Despite their squabbling, they get on very well.
Both lend invaluable support to Jane and sometimes help her with her cases.
Ant Dillard
Jane sits as a part-time lay-magistrate (and a few detecting adventures follow from this), as does Ant Dillard. He can sometimes be a rather formal man, but he’s a good friend to Jane and as the chair of the magistrates’ bench, and with a son in the police force, he’s someone who can provide Jane with invaluable information on occasions.
Stanley Marshman, AKA Stanman
Stanley Marshman, always known as Stanman, was Jane’s first love. They enjoyed a teenage romance, which she felt sure would survive the test of time. It didn’t. After having lost touch for the best part of four decades, during which time they both married other people, Jane finally contacts him again after Hugh’s death. This feels as natural for her to do as opening her detective agency did.
He’s delighted to hear from her again, and the two fall into an easy friendship, something they were never able to achieve when young lovers.
Through their new friendship, we learn more about Jane and the life events which have shaped her. We also get to know Stan, and touch upon the daily struggles he endures with his beloved wife, Elsie, now unfortunately in the grip of dementia.
For added entertainment, Stanman is a successful writer of comic poetry, some of which are in the novels
Meet the Family
As well as Jane’s friends and neighbours, Jane’s late parents (Doug and Edith) occasionally feature, as does her sister, Jill.
Hugh’s parents are also regular characters, particularly his eccentric mother Hetty, and his two sisters: Ginny and Felicity, also known as Flick.
When we first meet Ginny she’s a young mother. When we next meet her, she and her husband, Trevor, have both retired after becoming successful property developers.
The contrast between the two sisters couldn’t be greater, whilst Ginny is grounded and stable, Felicity is neither. Flick is the opposite of her brother and sister in both temperament and lifestyle. She’s something of a flighty hedonist and has made decisions which neither Jane nor Hugh agree with, but they have both stood by her throughout her life and Jane still remains close to her.
This just leaves the various offspring of Ginny and Felicity, Jane’s nephew and nieces and Adele’s cousins. They appear from time to time at various stages of their lives.
The series is available from all Amazon sites (e-book & paperback).
To read inside or link through:
https://www.amazon.com/author/ninajonbooks
http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B007N33HUC
The most important character to feature in everyone of this series is private detective Jane Hetherington and I’ll be writing plenty about her elsewhere. Jane’s not the only character to make a regular appearance in the books. There are lots of others who appear frequently and have their own adventures.
I hope you enjoy meeting them and sharing their various escapades.
Let’s meet them:
Hugh Hetherington
Hugh is Jane’s late husband. He is two years older than Jane and dies aged sixty-four of pancreatic cancer, even though, as Jane tells the oncologist who broke the news to them,
“But he hardly drinks!”
In various flashbacks of their time together, Hugh appears somewhere in every one of the novels. We’re there when he meets Jane for the first time and we see him on his deathbed.
He is an accountant who eventually becomes senior partner of his firm. He specialises in agricultural after he and Jane (when still a young couple) move from London to the market town of Failsham in the farming county of Hoven. (More about both Failsham and Hoven in other blogs.)
The man Jane fell in love with, and remained true to for almost forty years, has an irreverent take on life – call it a gallows’ humour if you will – but he’s every bit as sensible and loyal as Jane. She misses him desperately and knows she will never be able to replace him. She opens her agency as a way of filling the hole left by his death, reflecting that the death of the man to whom she has been joined at the hip for four decades, is a vast and impossible void to fill.
Adele
Although Jane and Hugh wanted more children, in the end they had only one – their daughter, Adele. When the novels open, Adele is thirty-seven years of age and living in the United States with her husband Lee Smithson, and their three-year-old daughter Amy.
Mother and daughter are close and although the two communicate frequently by e-mail and telephone, Jane misses her like crazy. The two visit each other when they can.
Charity Parsons
Jane’s twenty-four year-old next door neighbour. Charity lives in End Cottage, Cuckoo Tree Lane, Failsham, Hoven, in the last of a terrace of work-men’s cottages. In spite of the age difference between them, Jane and Charity are the best of friends and often gossip over the fence which separates Charity’s cottage from the pink thatched cottage which is Jane’s home; although more often they gossip over a pot of tea in the kitchen of one or other of them.
Now and then, Charity helps Jane investigate some of her cases.
Despite her youth, Charity’s parents are both dead, and she is raising her kid-brother, Jack, almost single-handedly. She and Jack look out for each other, and Jane looks out for them. Charity is a girl forced to grow up too quickly and assume a parental role, when other young women of her age would have been out having fun. Charity isn’t one to complain though – her take on life is to accept the hand that you’ve been dealt and get on with things – except when it comes to her love life. Here even she can’t be stoical!
As the series progresses Charity’s personal life turns and twists more than one of Jane’s detecting adventures, but we’ll be there throughout, sharing it with her, as will Jane, who’ll provide a much-needed shoulder to cry on.
Jack Parsons
Charity’s younger brother. He’s coming up to fourteen. Jack is like a grandson to Jane, and sometimes he refers to her as his surrogate granny. Fate has played a cruel trick on young Jack, robbing him of both his parents at such a young age, something Jane and his sister are acutely aware of. Missing a father figure, he is devastated when his sister splits up with her boyfriend, Johnny, the two having formed a strong bond. Because of this, Jack and Johnny keep in touch and Jack yearns for the couple to reunite.
Despite these setbacks, Jack has a cheery disposition. He’s a sensible enough boy for Jane to let him act as an assistant detective now and then, something he greatly enjoys! In a future novel, he will solve a detecting adventure of his own.
During the series, Jack falls for a girl in his class at school, called Polly – his first love!
The Prodigal Son
Can’t say too much about this character, but I can say that his feckless, devil-may-care approach to life conceals an unhappy young man, scarred by childhood trauma. As the series progresses this character is forced to reassess his priorities in life, and put aside childish things.
Unfortunately, by the time he realises he must make amends, it may already be too late.
The Dawson-Jones
Felix and Mirabella Dawson-Jones are two of Jane’s closest friends in Failsham. Mirabella Dawson-Jones is the rector of Failsham. Felix serves as a councillor on the local district council.
They are parents to Susannah and Miles. Susannah is a single mother, and she and her daughter Penny live with Felix and Mirabella.
Cuckoo Tree Lane, where Jane lives, leads into Rectory Lane on which can be found the rectory which is home to Mirabella and Felix. Jane is a member of Mirabella’s congregation, as was Hugh, and he lies in the churchyard beside the rectory. Jane visits both Hugh and the rectory frequently.
Mirabella’s a larger than life woman, both in personality and size. Despite being busy with her duties as the rector, nothing is too much trouble for her. Felix is retired, and when not busy with his duties as a member of the local council, spends his days playing golf and trying not to be outdone by his wife. He may appear to be a bit under the thumb, but he usually comes up trumps in the end.
Despite their squabbling, they get on very well.
Both lend invaluable support to Jane and sometimes help her with her cases.
Ant Dillard
Jane sits as a part-time lay-magistrate (and a few detecting adventures follow from this), as does Ant Dillard. He can sometimes be a rather formal man, but he’s a good friend to Jane and as the chair of the magistrates’ bench, and with a son in the police force, he’s someone who can provide Jane with invaluable information on occasions.
Stanley Marshman, AKA Stanman
Stanley Marshman, always known as Stanman, was Jane’s first love. They enjoyed a teenage romance, which she felt sure would survive the test of time. It didn’t. After having lost touch for the best part of four decades, during which time they both married other people, Jane finally contacts him again after Hugh’s death. This feels as natural for her to do as opening her detective agency did.
He’s delighted to hear from her again, and the two fall into an easy friendship, something they were never able to achieve when young lovers.
Through their new friendship, we learn more about Jane and the life events which have shaped her. We also get to know Stan, and touch upon the daily struggles he endures with his beloved wife, Elsie, now unfortunately in the grip of dementia.
For added entertainment, Stanman is a successful writer of comic poetry, some of which are in the novels
Meet the Family
As well as Jane’s friends and neighbours, Jane’s late parents (Doug and Edith) occasionally feature, as does her sister, Jill.
Hugh’s parents are also regular characters, particularly his eccentric mother Hetty, and his two sisters: Ginny and Felicity, also known as Flick.
When we first meet Ginny she’s a young mother. When we next meet her, she and her husband, Trevor, have both retired after becoming successful property developers.
The contrast between the two sisters couldn’t be greater, whilst Ginny is grounded and stable, Felicity is neither. Flick is the opposite of her brother and sister in both temperament and lifestyle. She’s something of a flighty hedonist and has made decisions which neither Jane nor Hugh agree with, but they have both stood by her throughout her life and Jane still remains close to her.
This just leaves the various offspring of Ginny and Felicity, Jane’s nephew and nieces and Adele’s cousins. They appear from time to time at various stages of their lives.
The series is available from all Amazon sites (e-book & paperback).
To read inside or link through:
https://www.amazon.com/author/ninajonbooks
http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B007N33HUC