All Posts

I wanted to share a quick update on the next Clara Hart mystery, The Drowned Parish. I’m deep into the book now, and this one has become one of the most atmospheric stories I’ve written in Clara’s world. The setting is a Somerset village called Hartwell, already living in the shadow of disappearance. The valley is being cleared for a new reservoir. Homes are being emptied. Families are leaving. Even the churchyard is being disturbed before the water comes.

The Coroner's Inquest Is Coming — May 5, 2026 Book 2 in the Clara Hart mystery series is almost here, and this one does not hold back. The Coroner's Inquest picks up where Murder at Ashgrove Hall left off and takes Clara somewhere darker. Official records that don't add up. Buried secrets with powerful people sitting on top of them. A case that was never supposed to be reopened.

The Coroner's Inquest Is Coming — May 5, 2026 Book 2 in the Clara Hart mystery series is almost here, and this one does not hold back. The Coroner's Inquest picks up where Murder at Ashgrove Hall left off and takes Clara somewhere darker. Official records that don't add up. Buried secrets with powerful people sitting on top of them. A case that was never supposed to be reopened.

There is something irresistible about a locked door, a whispered suspicion, and a truth that refuses to stay buried. Welcome to my corner of the world. My name is Allen Lockridge, and I am very glad you’re here. This website is the official home of my fiction, my books, and the stories I hope will linger with readers long after the final page. I’ve always been drawn to mysteries that do more than surprise. The ones I love most create an atmosphere you can step into. They carr

Why write mystery? For me, the answer is simple: because no other genre feels quite so rich with tension. Historical mystery allows a writer to work with more than crime alone. It brings in setting, class, expectation, restraint, reputation, and silence. People in earlier eras often lived closer to formality, and that formality creates a fascinating pressure. What cannot be said openly becomes more dangerous. What must be hidden becomes more meaningful. A glance, a letter, a

Launching a first author website feels a little like opening the front door to a house you’ve spent a long time building in private. Until now, much of this work has existed behind the scenes — in notebooks, drafts, revisions, research, quiet decisions, false starts, better starts, and the slow shaping of a fictional world I hoped readers would want to enter. Now that Murder at Ashgrove Hall has arrived, this website becomes the place where that world meets the people it was