A Great Dunmow based author has released her latest novel.

Katherine Pathak’s book, Lawful Death, is the third instalment in her Imogen and Hugh Croft mysteries series. It explores the impact of a fatal shooting during a burglary on the rural Essex community in which the events take place.

Pathak’s lead protagonists – Imogen and Hugh Croft – live with their children in a fictional hamlet called Cooper’s End, which lies between Maldon and Mundon and is close to the banks of the River Blackwater.

Her two previous novels, Aoife’s Chariot and The Only Survivor both feature Essex in their storylines, but Lawful Death is the first of her books to be based purely in the county.

“East Essex provides the perfect backdrop for the mystery thrillers because the landscape is so beautifully atmospheric and steeped in history,” said Pathak, who gave up her career as a history teacher in order to write full-time and she has not regretted it.

She said the writing allows her the flexibility to carry out her duties as a mum to her two young children, Shona, eight, and Jamie, six.

She finds herself with more free time now, despite her quite prolific novel writing – producing three lengthy books in the space of just a year. She adds: “I had been thinking about writing for a long time and forming plots in my head. Now I have started to record my ideas properly, I find that I have several years’ worth of material which I am keen to get down on paper.”

Pathak uses her background as a teacher in order to ensure her books are thoroughly researched and accurate. She has created her own publishing enterprise, The Garansay Press, and her father, Robert Currie, who lives in Felsted, provides her with valuable advice on historical and geographical accuracy.

“Although the internet is an excellent tool for research, I find that discussing things with my dad first really helps me to understand them better and, in turn, makes the book more believable and true to life,” she said.

“For a few years in the mid-80s, we had a sailing boat which was moored in Maldon in winter and Maylandsea in the summer. This childhood experience has been a strong influence on the plot of my latest book, but I had to rely on my dad to help me to recollect the more technical details.”

Pathak is currently working on the fourth novel in the series, The Woman Who Vanished, which is set on the east Essex coast and in Suffolk.

To find out more, visit her author page at amazon.co.uk/author/katherinepathak or follow her on Twitter @KatherinePathak