Morwenna is in her sixties. She lives in Seal Bay, Cornwall, in number 4, Harbour Cottages, with a splendid view of the ocean. Her ex, handsome fisherman Ruan Pascoe, lives across the road at number nine, but that’s a whole different story.
Morwenna works at the library in the mornings, and in her family business, the Proper Ansom Tearoom, in the afternoon. The library is haunted by Lady Elizabeth Pengellen, a ghost who full-time librarian Louise is convinced helps Morwenna solve crimes, although feisty Morwenna thinks she does it with the help of her family, friendly police officer Jane Choy and her cat Brenda.
She is often seen riding her electric bicycle; she goes wild swimming with the SWANS, and is very much at the heart of the Seal Bay community. Her romance with suave London surgeon Barnaby is progressing slowly. He’s a lovely man, but is he the right one? Morwenna cannot seem to forget Ruan, who always seems to turn up when she needs him.
In the third novel in the series, The Cream Tea Killer, Morwenna investigates the death of a dear friend. It appears to be an accident. But things are not at all what they seem…
Lamorna, Morwenna’s mother, is in her eighties. She adores men but seems to have no luck in love. In Bloodshed on the Boards, she fell for actor Daniel Kitto, and that ended badly. But she is a fiercely loyal Cornishwoman who defends her family and, despite complaining, isn’t afraid to do her stint in the family tearoom. She is very close to Elowen, and probably a bad influence.
Tamsin, in her late twenties, is Morwenna and Ruan’s daughter. As well as being a single mother, she runs the tearoom. She is just as feisty as her mother and grandmother. Tamsin wants nothing more than to be a good mother to Elowen. Since a romance in Foul Play at Seal Bay, Tamsin hasn’t had a boyfriend, although she and her friend Becca enjoy an occasional wild night on the town while Elowen has a sleepover with her grandmother.
Elowen, Morwenna’s granddaughter, is six years old and a handful, a ‘little heller.’ At this point in the series, no-one knows who her father is, although when Tamsin came back from a holiday pregnant, the new baby was welcomed without question. Elowen says,
‘Billy in my class said he’d heard that my mummy went to the carry out on holiday and she came back with me in her belly.’
Morwenna said, ‘She went to the Caribbean on holiday and came back with you in her belly.’ She ruffled Elowen’s hair. ‘That’s OK.’
Elowen is loved and yet, despite her experiences in Foul Play at Seal Bay, Morwenna and her family are firm about how they raise her. She desperately wants a dog, but isn’t allowed one until she proves herself grown up enough, and that means consistent good behaviour.
