Back Story: Ticket to Ride
By Winona Kent
The inspiration for this book actually came from the novel I wrote just before it – Lost Time. Normally, my main character, Jason Davey, can be found at the Blue Devil Club in London’s Soho, where he has a permanent gig with his jazz combo. But in Lost Time, Jason has taken a leave of absence from his Blue Devil residency, and is rehearsing for a tour of England with his mum’s old folky-pop band, Figgis Green, while he solves the mystery of a young woman who went missing in the 1970s.
I had so many notes, and so much wonderful research left over from Lost Time, that I thought it would be a great idea to write a novel about the actual tour. So in Ticket to Ride, Jason and the Figs are on the road, travelling around England, while he tries to get to the bottom of who his maternal grandfather really is—and deals with a series of seemingly-unrelated mishaps.
It's only after Jason is attacked and nearly killed in Cambridge, and a fire alarm results in a very personal theft from his mother’s hotel room, that it becomes clear they’re being targeted by someone with a very serious grudge.
To assist Jason, I decided to bring back a character I’d created in 2012, in my novel Cold Play. The story introduced Jason as an entertainer on board a cruise ship in Alaska. He was very active on Twitter, and he’d attracted a follower named Jilly, who identified herself as his “guardian angel”. Indeed, in the novel, she ended up saving Jason’s life. After which, he never heard from her again.
In Jason’s world, six years have passed between what happened in Cold Play, and what now happens in Ticket to Ride. Since I was dealing with all sorts of paranormal and “other-worldly” events—ghosts, gargoyles, fortune tellers and unexplained incidents—I thought it might be fun to give Jilly another chance to watch over Jason and, possibly, to help save his life one more time. I also updated Jason’s social media presence—he’s moved on from Twitter and is now posting his daily tour diary entries on Instagram, which is where Jilly ultimately connects with him.
As for the actual mysteries that Jason has to solve in Ticket to Ride…my own research into my own family tree has resulted in the discovery of some rather interesting characters. Jason shares my passion for family tree research…and his own investigation turns up some fairly surprising—and shocking—results.
By the way, Brian Richardson (my publisher) and I have
created a rather clever Figgis Green website which gives you the look and feel
of a real touring band to go along with Ticket to Ride, the novel.
Please do drop by and visit:
Winona Kent is an award-winning author who was born in London, England and grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, where she completed her BA in English at the University of Regina. After moving to Vancouver, she graduated from UBC with an MFA in Creative Writing. More recently, she received her diploma in Writing for Screen and TV from Vancouver Film School.
Winona’s writing breakthrough came many years ago when she won First Prize in the Flare Magazine Fiction Contest with her short story about an all-night radio newsman, Tower of Power.
Her spy novel Skywatcher was a finalist in the Seal Books First Novel Competition and was published in 1989. This was followed by a sequel, The Cilla Rose Affair, and her first mystery, Cold Play, set aboard a cruise ship in Alaska.
After three time-travel romances (Persistence of Memory, In Loving Memory and Marianne’s Memory), Winona returned to mysteries with Disturbing the Peace, a novella, in 2017 and the novel Notes on a Missing G-String in 2019, both featuring the character she first introduced in Cold Play, professional jazz musician / amateur sleuth Jason Davey.
The third book in Winona’s Jason Davey Mystery series, Lost Time, was published in 2020.
Ticket to Ride is the fourth book in Winona’s Jason Davey Mysteries.
Winona has been a temporary secretary, a travel agent, a screenwriter and the Managing Editor of a literary magazine. She’s currently the BC/YK/NWT rep for the Crime Writers of Canada and is also an active member of Sisters n Crime – Canada West. She recently retired from her full-time admin job at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, and is now happily embracing life as a full-time author.
You can visit her website at http://www.winonakent.com and connect with her on Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.
In Lost Time, the third book in Winona’s Jason Davey Mystery series, professional musician / amateur sleuth Jason Davey was rehearsing for Figgis Green’s 50th Anniversary Tour of England. Now they’re on
the road in Ms. Kent’s fourth book in the series, Ticket To Ride.
But when a fortune-teller in Sheffield warns them of impending danger, the band is suddenly plagued by a series of seemingly-unrelated mishaps.
After Jason is attacked and nearly killed in Cambridge, and a fire alarm results in a very personal theft from Mandy’s hotel room, it becomes clear they’re being targeted by someone with a serious grudge.
And when Figgis Green plays a gig at a private estate in Tunbridge Wells, that person finally makes their deadly intentions known.
Jason must rely on his instincts, his Instagram “guardian angel,” and a wartime ghost who might possibly share his DNA, in order to survive.
Book Information
Release Date: March 26, 2022
Publisher: Blue Devil Books
Soft Cover: 978-1777329433; 230 pages; $15.70; E-Book, $3.93
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