Created: Sep 29, 2025 08:07 AM<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Murder in paradise: Rider McDowell, an American writer, has set his crime novel series in Bermuda (Photograph supplied)<\/p>\n
An American writer has released two books set in Bermuda for what he hoped would be the start of a murder-mystery trilogy.<\/p>\n
The first two volumes of The Sun Sets in Bermuda are available at several select bookstores, including Brown & Co and at LF Wade International Airport.<\/p>\n
Rider McDowell, the author, said the stories had the qualities of classic hard-boiled detective novels with the addition of dry humour and a tropical twist.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing more fun than a bit of a murder mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series follows the exploits of Sir Basil Cross-Knight, a Bermudian-born Scotland Yard homicide detective who returns to the island after inheriting a beach club.<\/p>\n
The first book, Lend Me a Hand, follows Sir Basil working with police to investigate the case of a mutilated body found on his property.<\/p>\n
The next instalment, Dark Paintings, charges him with investigating killings targeting the subjects of a famous portrait series.<\/p>\n
Mr McDowell, from New Jersey, said that he used to visit Bermuda with family as a boy and \u201cloved it\u201d every time.<\/p>\n
He held off returning until he was a married man, explaining: \u201cIt\u2019s such a perfect place and I thought to myself, \u2018This would be the perfect place for a murder mystery\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr McDowell said that he grafted many real-life Bermudian sites and cultural references into his novels, while turning to other landmarks as inspiration.<\/p>\n
Sir Basil\u2019s \u201crundown and potentially haunted\u201d inherited inn, he explained, was the fictional Coral Cove Club overlooking the very real Elbow Beach.<\/p>\n
Mr McDowell added that parts of his stories drew on personal experiences.<\/p>\n
He said that he used to work as an investigative journalist and wrote about several crimes, including a series on the infamous Zodiac Killer of the San Francisco Bay area.<\/p>\n
Mr McDowell said that many aspects of the fictional crimes had been inspired by the cases he covered.<\/p>\n
He added that the main character\u2019s love of investigation mirrored his renewed passion in writing novels.<\/p>\n
Mr McDowell said: \u201cWhen I graduated high school, I didn\u2019t go to college \u2014 instead I wrote my first book, called Wimbledon, and it became a bestseller when I was 23.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfterwards, I went to work for a business and then later wrote plays and screenplays.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that although he wrote two mystery books and three children\u2019s books, he took a break from novels until starting The Sun Sets in Bermuda.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI hadn\u2019t done it for so long that I forgot how much I loved it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve written so many things, from plays to movies to articles and I\u2019ve found it\u2019s fun to pull from what I know.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I visit here, I find more things to write about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Created: Sep 29, 2025 08:07 AM Murder in paradise: Rider McDowell, an American writer, has set his crime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[692,223,88,111135,695],"class_list":{"0":"post-190484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-book","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-entertainment-general","12":"tag-mystery"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}