The mystery of the body in the Brighton beach hut

SussexWorld

Sunday Times bestseller Dorothy Koomson delivers a gripping seaside thriller in short story format, the tale of a Brighton beach hut and its deadly secrets.

Transcript

00:00Good morning. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers.

00:06Lovely this morning to speak to Dorothy Coombson.

00:08Now, Dorothy, you've done a terrible thing in a Bryson beach hut.

00:11You've placed a dead body there for your latest book, haven't you?

00:14Beach Hut 5.1.12.

00:17Tell me that process.

00:18What made you think that a beach hut was a good place for a body?

00:22Well, why not a beach hut?

00:24I haven't, I have to say, I haven't placed a dead body there.

00:28Somebody else did in my story and it's fiction.

00:31It wasn't me.

00:32I decided when walking on the seafront, I mean, I used to walk along the seafront past the beach huts.

00:40And I'm always fascinated by beach huts.

00:42And I thought, do you know what?

00:44What if there's a dead body behind one of those doors?

00:46One of those lovely, brightly coloured doors.

00:49What if there's a body behind it?

00:51And then why would it get there?

00:53It's the ultimate closed door mystery, isn't it, I guess?

00:56Absolutely.

00:58Especially because the basis of the story is that the body has been there for two or three months,

01:05but the owner of the beach hut hasn't actually been in the beach hut for five or six months.

01:10So she is, Sim, the main character, she's very surprised to find there's a beach hut, a body in her beach hut,

01:18but also how it got in there without having access to the locks or having broken, physically broken into the beach hut.

01:30It sounds very intriguing.

01:31But this is not just any beach hut.

01:33This is a Brighton beach hut.

01:35Now, you are a Brighton resident and Brighton means a lot to you, doesn't it?

01:38As a writer, it's just someone to be able to do.

01:42Yeah, I've lived here for nearly 20 years.

01:43What makes Brighton a good place for setting crime, for just being?

01:48For setting crime in my fiction.

01:50I have to keep pointing this out because it sounds like I'm a criminal and I'm not.

01:55Yes, I've lived in Brighton for nearly 20 years and I've set a lot of my books here.

02:02And obviously, this is just like the latest one where something very nefarious has happened

02:09and trying to work out who has done it.

02:12And yes, Brighton seems to be a great place to set crime fiction.

02:17Absolutely.

02:18And a great place to live too, isn't it?

02:20A wonderful place to live.

02:21I love Brighton, especially, I even love it in the winter.

02:25When it's not as sunny, but in the summer, when you walk along the seafront

02:29and all the beach hut doors are open and everyone's there sort of having a good time,

02:34it's just one of the most amazing places to be.

02:37It sounds a fantastic place and it sounds a fantastic book too.

02:41And lovely to speak to the entirely innocent of any crime, Dorothy.

02:44Thank you very much indeed.

02:46Thank you so much.

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