Val Culley: HOME

Hello and welcome to my website.

I’m Val Culley, a big fan of classic crime fiction, particularly novels and short stories written during the Golden Age of the genre in the 1920s and 1930s.

For a long time, I have enjoyed the work of the four Queens of Crime – Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham – but more recently, I have become an avid reader of other classic detective novelists, including writers such as Gladys Mitchell, Patricia Wentworth, Cyril Hare, and J Jefferson Farjeon.

On this website, I write about the books I have enjoyed the most and can recommend to other readers, so please look at the reviews posted on my blog.

I am also the author of three detective novels and some short stories. My first book, Death in the High City, celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2024. It was the first detective novel written in English to be set in the city of Bergamo in Lombardy.

The novel came out in Kindle format in May 2014 and a paperback version was released in July 2014. It has since sold copies in the UK, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, America, Australia, Canada, and Mexico.

To mark its tenth anniversary, East Wind Publishing issued a new edition of the mystery with a front cover showing Bergamo’s historic Via Colleoni at night, a street in the Città Alta, Bergamo’s upper town, that is a key location in the novel. The novel features protagonists Kate Butler, a freelance journalist, and Steve Bartorelli, a retired Detective Chief Inspector, who is of partly Italian descent.

A sequel to Death in the High City was published in 2017, also featuring the detective duo Butler and Bartorelli. The Shooting in Sorrento is set in the beautiful seaside resort of Sorrento in Campania in southern Italy.

My third novel, The Body Parts in the Library, published in 2020, features a different detective duo, the Library Ladies, Sallie Parker, and Jo Pudsey, and is set in an English village.

I have always been a huge advocate of libraries, having once worked part-time in a library myself.

As well as enjoying writing cosy crime stories, I am fascinated by Italy and all things Italian and write about my favourite destinations for magazines and websites. Please explore my website, check out my books and short stories, see examples of my travel writing, and look at my blog, where I review crime novels I have enjoyed.

Thank you for visiting,

Val

Contact me at val.culley@gmail.com

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MY WEBSITES

I love a good crime novel set in Italy and so in 2014 I started Crime Scene Italy to feature the books by my favourite writers, Italian and other nationalities, that are set in an Italian location. Visit www.crimesceneitaly.com

My fascination with Italian history, culture and traditions gave me the idea for my website Italy On This Day, which every day of the year recounts a fascinating story about a person or event that has shaped the history of Italy. Visit www.italyonthisday.com

Check out my destination websites - www.bestofbergamo.com, www.bestofsorrento.com and www.bestofpadua.co.uk

To see my unique selection of high quality, good value Italian hotels, visit www.bestofitalyhotels.blogspot.com

THE SHOOTING IN SORRENTO

The Shooting in Sorrento, a crime novel set in the southern Italy resort, is now available from Amazon.

The second Butler and Bartorelli mystery by Val Culley, it is the sequel to Death in the High City, which was set in the beautiful city of Bergamo in Lombardy.

The book - written for readers who prefer the 'cosy crime' genre - features journalist Kate Butler and her partner, Steve Bartorelli, who is a retired Detective Chief Inspector.

They are in Sorrento for the wedding of the daughter of one of Steve’s Italian cousins.

When tragedy strikes an English family staying at their hotel, Kate feels she has to help.

She joins forces with another visitor to Sorrento to investigate after it becomes clear the Italian police aren’t looking for suspects beyond the English family.

The Shooting in Sorrento is available as a paperback or a Kindle ebook.

DEATH IN THE HIGH CITY

Set in the magical city of Bergamo in northern Italy, Death in the High City introduces detective duo Butler and Bartorelli.

Kate Butler, a freelance journalist, arrives in Bergamo to try to get some answers about the unexplained death of her cousin, Sophie, who has been living in the city while doing research for a biography of the Bergamo-born opera composer Gaetano Donizetti.

After her own life is threatened, Kate is joined by her partner, Steve Bartorelli, a recently retired Detective Chief Inspector of Italian descent, who helps her solve the crime.

Death in the High City, believed to be the first British crime novel in which Bergamo provides the backdrop, is available from Amazon as a Kindle e-book or a paperback

THE BODY PARTS IN THE LIBRARY

The first Library Ladies Mystery, featuring a new detective duo, Sallie Parker and Jo Pudsey, is now available for sale on Amazon.

Set in an English country village, The Body Parts in the Library is a new cosy crime novel written by Val Culley, the author of Death in the High City and The Shooting in Sorrento.

Sallie and Jo are both Library Assistants who have fallen victim to cost-cutting redundancies. A group of volunteers have taken over the running of the village library where they used to work and when one of them is the victim of a prank, the Library Ladies are immediately suspected and find themselves shunned by most of the village.

Determined to clear their names, they try to find out who was really responsible for the prank. But after more bizarre events, a grim discovery in the library leaves villagers in a state of shock, prompting the Library Ladies to conduct their own investigation to make sure the real culprit is exposed and life in the peaceful village of Upper Mickle can return to normal.

The Body Parts in the Library is available on Amazon Kindle or as a paperback.

Val Culley

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