Guest Author: Karen Charlton

Researching a two hundred year old mystery


If the truth be told, most people who look into their family roots are not just hoping to discover where their ancestors came from but what they might have got up to. Nobody really believes that they will stumble across a forgotten ‘family pile’ or an unclaimed inheritance, but the prospect of a bit of mystery or gossip and the odd skeleton in the cupboard, does add spice to the search.


My husband and I had always shared a mutual interest in genealogy.  For me, an aspiring historical novelist, what we discovered during our family history research was like winning the jackpot. 


When we shook our family tree, a convict fell out and I quickly realised that the perfect plot for a historical novel had just landed in my lap.  


I’d wanted to write a book since I was eight years old and used to scribble down stories in old exercise books. Unfortunately, real life got in the way of literary ambition.  Work commitments and raising a family took a large chunk out of my time and I just never got around to writing that bestseller. 


In August 2004, when we made our amazing discovery, I was chatting on a genealogy message board with another forum member.  He directed us to an online document which suggested that hubby’s four x great-grandfather was a convicted felon, sentenced to transportation to New South Wales, Australia.


We were stunned. Transported? If so, what had James Charlton done?  


It took years of painstaking research at The National Archives in Kew and the local libraries in Northumberland to uncover the truth.  What started as a hobby quickly became a quest. 


James Charlton had been convicted of stealing over £1,157 from Kirkley Hall in 1810. He had allegedly been involved with the biggest heist Northumberland had ever known. The mystery of the burglary at Kirkley Hall had never been properly solved.   Even by Regency standards James’ conviction was dodgy and there was a public outcry amongst the influential and literate middle-classes following his imprisonment.


Bit by bit, the story came together.  By January 2009, I had enough information to start writing the novel – and then the real hard work began. It was bought by Knox Robinson Publishing and will be published on 8th December 2011.


We are absolutely delighted.  Two hundred years after James’ conviction, the real story of the notorious Kirkley Hall robbery will finally be told.

Catching the Eagle
by Karen Charlton
(Based on a true story)


Easter Monday, 1809: Kirkley Hall manor house is mysteriously burgled. When suspicion falls on Jamie Charlton, he and his family face a desperate battle to save him from the gallows.


When £1,157 rent money is stolen from Kirkley Hall, it is the biggest robbery Northumberland has ever known. The owner sends for Stephen Lavender, a principal officer with the Bow Street Magistrates’ Court in London, to investigate the crime.  Suspicion soon falls on impoverished farm labourer, Jamie Charlton, and the unpopular steward, Michael Aynsley.


Jamie Charlton is a loving family man but he is hot-tempered and careless.  As the case grows against him, it seems that only his young brother, William, can save him from an impending miscarriage of justice.  


But William is struggling with demons of his own. Desperate to break free from the tangled web of family ties which bind him to their small community, he is alarmed to find that he is falling in love with Jamie’s wife. 


Set beneath the impenetrable gaze of a stray golden eagle whose fate seems to mirror that of Jamie's, Catching the Eagle, the first novel in the Regency Reivers Series, is a fictionalised account of a trial that devastated a family and divided a community.


‘Catching the Eagle’ is available to pre-order from amazon, Knox Robinson Publishing, The Book Depository and selected Waterstones’ branches in the UK.



Road to success pointed north
The Karen Charlton story


Karen Charlton was born in Sheffield and grew up in Leeds.  She completed an English degree at Hull University.  After a few years of roaming between various jobs in Harrogate, Ripon and Scarborough she finally settled in Teesside.
She completed a post graduate teaching certificate at Durham University. Since then, she has combined a teaching job at Grangefield Secondary School in Stockton, with her writing and raising her own pair of ‘little villains’.
Apart from her interest in genealogy, Karen enjoys reading, the theatre and a weekly trip to the village pub quiz.
Catching the Eagle is based on the true story of her family's notorious ancestor, Jamie Charlton.  


Karen Charlton:  Redcar, Cleveland
Karencharlton1@gmail.com
www.karencharlton.com

In My Mailbox

IMM (In My Mailbox) is a weekly meme hosted and created by Kristi at The Story Siren. 

This is a way to share books we received for review, bought, and borrowed from friends or library.

Received for review

"Wicked Wives" is based on the true story of the 1938 Philadelphia murder scandals in which seventeen wives were arrested for murdering their husbands. Mastermind conspirator Giorgio DiSipio, a stunning lothario and local tailor who preys upon disenchanted and unfaithful wives, convinces twelve of them to kill their spouses for insurance money. The murder conspiracy is very successful until one lone assistant D.A., Tom Rossi, uncovers the plot and brings the perpetrators to justice. "Wicked Wives" is a story made for Hollywood, combining murder, corruption, treachery, love, lust and phenomenal detail as it vividly captures Depression-era Philadelphia.

My story about Tip attempts to convey to the readers about how the love of a dog can be so entertaining. Watching him provided a distraction from the seriousness of my husband's illness and sitting with him watching TV gave me the opportunity to spend time writing about Tip as he went about his merry way. I've never attempted to write a book, but when Tip came into my life

After three heartbreaking miscarriages, Tom and Jenny Callahan are happily anticipating the birth of their sixth child. Their neighbor, however, is secretly hatching a sinister plot which will find Jenny and her unborn baby fighting for their lives.

Seventeen year old Pride is a tracker—a werewolf with a hunger for blood. Taught to trick and to lure, she is the perfect killing machine. 

Kept leashed in the cellar by a master who is as ruthless as he is powerful, Pride dreams of freedom, of living a normal life, but escape from the compound is near impossible and disobedience comes with a price.

When she learns her master intends to breed her she knows she has to run.

Pride soon learns if she is to survive in the wild, she must trust in the boy who promises her freedom, the same boy she was sent to hunt.

With life and death hanging in the balance the two find themselves on the run from the Paranormal Task Force—officers who shoot first and ask questions later—as well as her master’s handlers.

Can Pride flee the man who has held her captive since birth and find sanctuary in the arms of a boy who has captured her heart? Or will her master find her first?

Book Review: Zor by J.B.

Zor: Philosophy, Spirituality, and Science

Author: J.B.

Paperback: 268 pages

Publisher: CreateSpace (November 9, 2010)

Amazon Link

Note: I received this book free from the author, J.B. The review posted below is based on my personal thoughts while reading the book.

Ratings:

★ ★ ★ ★

My thoughts:

Zor, is a thought-provoking book that will make you stop and ponder about the meaning of love, friends, marriage... life in general. The book tells the story of a successful business man, Jonathan Brewster. He has almost everything in life but at the end of the day, he gets lonely. He feels that his life is getting boring day by day. Even being considered having a successful life, he feels empty inside. He loves his wife but it seems everything is routinary in his marriage. Meeting Zor is like meeting a genie in a bottle. They easily became friends and with the help of Zor, he eventually realizes that a successful man can also commit mistakes.

    

Once in a while, I read books like this. You know, reading about life lessons. I have met a lot of successful men and women in my life, even though they have all the goods things in life, I know deep inside something more is missing. The discussion here seems real, like two people you know talking about life. Though I must admit that I didn't get some of the discussion, they are too deep for me to understand. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, it was an easy read, a good book to read when having a "me" time.

About the book and author:

Having grown up in rural New Hampshire, I was fortunate to attend the cultural melting pot of Boston University in the early 70's. As president of the senior class I graduated with both a major in Business Administration and a concentration in Philosophy/Religious Studies.

Since graduation I have spent over 30 years trying to balance corporate success with the "summer of love"; tempering capitalism with peace, love, and understanding. To that end I offer my new novel, "Zor".

"Zor" explores the relationship between philosophy, spirituality, and science by asking one simple question; where do you turn when life's core beliefs become suspect?

That is the dilemma confronting Jonathan Brewster, a middle aged money manager from Boston, whose "chance" meeting with a Haitian dwarf named Zor, spirals out of control. Forced to defend his life in a series of intense debates concerning negative ch'i, emotional addictions, neuron networks, placebos, vipassana meditation, the collective unconscious, laws of attraction, sub-atomic entanglement, Nietzche, metta, God, and happiness; John is reluctantly drawn to a new reality.

Rising above his crisis of conscience he restructures his life for the greater good, only to be challenged by the ultimate betrayal.

Currently living seaside, in a picturesque New England community with my wife and son, I am convinced the movement that captured our nation in the late 60's is still very much alive. Zor says it best, "no one can save the world, but anyone can change it. Let's change the world together."