'The different threads in my life gradually combined in a new way' 

When serving as a Baptist prison chaplain, Karen Haden saw first hand the power of stories. After illness struck, she took up writing – and now the former Spurgeon’s College Open Learning student introduces her first historical crime novel. Baptists may recognise some of the characters...
 

Are you looking for an exciting read?          
                  
Why not follow ambitious young Alexander Baxby into a tangled world of 1600s religion and politics as he vows to the solve the mystery of a suspicious death?

Historical characters you may recognise – such as early English Baptist leaders John Smyth and Thomas Helwys - appear in the fictional story, partly inspired by their amazing courage at a time when it was illegal for independent believers like ourselves to meet together in England.
 
While leading a weekly Bible group in the women’s prison, I saw how participants connected with stories. Whether from the Welsh valleys, Zimbabwe or Iran, whether in full health or living with mental illness, addictions, disabilities or serious disease, whether graduates or unable to read, those with strong faith and others wanting an afternoon away from the wing, all related to the stories and characters, and wanted to talk about their own experiences as a result. The same was true when prison officers joined the group (when accompanying young offenders), or even a male bishop on one occasion.

Even more noticeable was the effect on Sundays when those who had previously been imprisoned themselves, returned with outside groups to lead the services. Their testimonies and stories carried more weight, as those who knew what it was like to be “dealt a poor hand” in life. One wrote his autobiography which also had a profound effect on several.

Meeting one woman, arrested on drug charges, greatly affected me. She lived in the same block of flats as one of my uncles in Portsmouth. If my father had not found faith and prosperity, through a Congregational Church youth club and a dockyard apprenticeship scheme, could I have been in her shoes?

When illness struck me later, I was disappointed to leave the prison, Spurgeon’s course and Baptist church activities, but slowly began to believe that I could tell stories instead, and learn to write – a big step for a former STEM girl and engineering graduate!

The different threads in my life gradually combined in a new way to create the first story about Alexander Baxby - an ambitious young man from humble origins who is caught between conflicting loyalties. I took a couple of longer breaks between consultancy contracts – one by choice and the other when I broke my ankle – and was very grateful for support and encouragement from many others, including former Baptist college tutors.
 
Paying in Blood is the first in a series of three mysteries, woven around the lives of the first English Baptists. Book two will cover the period of exile in Amsterdam, and Book three when Thomas Helwys and others return to England to petition King James for religious tolerance.
 

Paying in Blood by Karen Haden is free via Kindle Unlimited and to buy on Amazon. Author proceeds will be given to causes meeting needs akin to those in the book 

Connect with Karen on Instagram: @kjhaden and X (formerly Twitter): @kjhaden17,
                              
She also writes a blog: KarenHaden.blogspot.com