I am delighted to be welcoming Isabella Muir and the blog tour for her book, A Notable Omission to Novel Kicks today. 

A 1970s debate on equality is overshadowed by a deadly secret…

Spring 1970. Sussex University is hosting a debate about equality for women. But when one of the debating group goes missing, attention turns away from social injustice to something more sinister.

It seems every one of the group has something to hide, and when a second tragedy occurs, two of the delegates – amateur sleuth Janie Juke, and reporter Libby Frobisher – are prepared to make themselves unpopular to flush out the truth. Who is lying and why?

Alongside the police investigation, Janie and Libby are determined to prise answers from the tight-lipped group, as they find themselves in a race against time to stop another victim being targeted.

In A Notable Omission we meet Janie at the start of a new decade. When we left Janie at the end of The Invisible Case she was enjoying her new found skills and success as an amateur sleuth. Here we meet her a few months later, stealing a few days away from being a wife and mother, attending a local conference on women’s liberation to do some soul-searching…

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A Notable Omission is the fourth novel in the Janie Juke series, crimes and mysteries set during 1969 and 1970. Here Isabella Muir provides some insight into what attracted her to this particular historical period…

Delving into the past

When I first conjured up Janie Juke I knew that her story had to be set in the 1960s.  It’s an era I have always loved.  My older brother and sister both grew up during the sixties, so I’m lucky to have first-hand memories of all kinds of wild events.  My sister was at the Rolling Stones concert on Hastings Pier in 1964 when tickets probably cost a few shillings.  My brother was a real mod, with a scooter, and the ‘mod’ uniform of a Parka jacket, with fur-lined hood.  He didn’t take part in the crazy event in 1964, when 5,000 mods and rockers planned to storm Hastings sea front to create the ‘Second Battle of Hastings’ and the police had to fly in extra officers to control the crowds, but he may well have inevitably watched from the sidelines.

I remember sitting gazing at my sister when she put on her makeup before a night out.  She aimed for that ‘bare-faced’ sixties look with just a touch of face powder.  All the focus was on the eyes, with white or sometimes bright blue eyeshadow and thick black mascara and eye-liner, trying to emulate the sixties model, Twiggy.  She would spend hours back-combing her hair into a bouffant style and then use oceans of hair spray to keep it just perfect.

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