My guest today is Peter Rowlands, author of A Knock at the Door, which was published in October 2023. It’s available to purchase in paperbook or as an ebook.
A Knock at the Door is described as ‘part mystery thriller, part detective story, and part romance’. It’s had rave reviews from readers with comments such as ‘refreshingly different’, ‘a totally new take on a mystery’ and ‘a real page-turning, edge of your seat mystery story’.
Intrigued? Then you can read an excerpt from the book below.
About the Book
A brain-teasing mystery that grabs you right from the start – and then delivers
A bedraggled woman turns up on Rory Cavenham’s doorstep in the middle of a storm, convinced that the year is 1972, but claiming to have lost her memory.
Despite his own troubled past, Rory is drawn to her; but she’s fearful of authority and frightened of mysterious pursuers, and insists on keeping a low profile as she adjusts to modern life.
Determined to help her, Rory finds links to two strong but compromised women, but the truth behind their interlocking stories remains elusive. Meanwhile, the pursuers turn out to be all too real, and the pace builds as the story lunges towards its remarkable and redemptive climax.
Find A Knock at the Door on Goodreads
Excerpt from A Knock at the Door by Peter Rowlands
Had I been wise last night to invite this unknown woman into my house and give her refuge from the storm? She seemed harmless enough, but her loss of memory was baffling, and I felt out of my depth.
I switched on the television, hoping to catch the latest news about the flooding, and left her there while I cleared away the breakfast things. When I returned she looked up at me in consternation.
“What on earth’s going on?” she demanded unhappily.
“What do you mean?” I sat down.
“That’s not my world.” She pointed at the television screen, where a group of young people were protesting outside a glass-fronted building. “To me that looks like a film set – something out of science fiction.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Everything’s different. The clothes, the cars, the buildings, everything. Are you telling me that’s real?”
I listened to the commentary for a moment, then said, “Yes, it’s real. It’s a news report from somewhere in London.”
She stared at it in bewilderment. “How can it be?”
I grabbed the remote control and switched the television off.
There was a long silence. Finally she said, “The TV isn’t the only thing that’s wrong. There are other things, too.”
“What things?”
“You keep saying things that don’t make sense. You asked me if I have a phone. Why would I carry a telephone around with me?”
“You’d be considered odd if you didn’t have one.”
“I don’t understand.”
I reached into my pocket. “This is mine. You saw it yesterday.”
“But it’s tiny, and so thin.” She looked down at it. “It lights up. That’s a phone?”
“It certainly is.” I sat back. “This is such a bizarre conversation. You’re telling me you don’t know about stuff that everybody in the world knows about.”
“Everybody except me, apparently.”
“Have you really, really, really never seen a mobile phone before?”
She seemed to have no answer to that. After a moment I asked, “Do you think someone has kept you captive somehow, and prevented you from knowing what’s happening in the outside world?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. My life is like a giant blur.” She glanced around, and after a moment added, “I like this room. Apart from that giant TV, it seems pretty normal to me.”
“That’s probably because Max didn’t change anything for about thirty years.”
“Who is this Max that you keep talking about?”
“This is his house. I’m looking after it for him.”
She glanced around. “It has a familiar feel to it.”
“It’s typical of its day, but it’s pretty dated now.”
“Not to me.”
Neither of us spoke for a moment, then on a whim I said, “As far as you’re concerned, what year is this?”
Without hesitation she answered, “Nineteen seventy-two.”
* * *
“Actually it’s twenty twenty-two.” I waited.
She stared at me for a long moment, her expression alternating between irritation and total disbelief. Finally she said, “You’re joking, aren’t you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“You’re seriously telling me I’ve jumped fifty years forward in time?”
“This is definitely twenty twenty-two, but what you’re saying is impossible. You might as well tell me you believe the earth is flat, or you’ve seen the Loch Ness monster.”
“No, no, no, you have to be kidding me. Why are you saying this?”
The latest copy of the local free advertising magazine was lying on the dresser. I reached over and handed it to her. The date was clearly indicated on the cover. She examined it closely, then looked up and said, “This must be some kind of trick.”
“I promise you it isn’t.”
“But this can’t be right! It’s nineteen seventy-two!”
“I’m afraid not.”
Abruptly she stood up. “This is ridiculous! Why are you telling me the impossible is true?”
I’d bought a copy of The Times when I was last in the village shop. I said, “Wait a second,” and went through to the office to fetch it.
She snatched it from me and ran her eyes over the front page for a moment, then flicked through some of the other pages. She looked at me again. “What’s going on here? I don’t understand this.”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
Angrily she said, “You think I’m making this up?”
“No, I can see that you believe it. I’m wondering what to make of it.”
“Now you’re being patronising.”
“I don’t want to mislead you, that’s all. It would be patronising if I pretended to accept what you’re saying just to humour you.”
She looked sharply at me. “So you’re saying that in this amazing future, such a thing has never happened before? Never once in the whole history of the world, until now?”
“Not that I know of.”
There was a long silence. A gust of wind threw a scattering of raindrops against the windows.
About the Author
Peter Rowlands is the author of ten mystery thrillers, including three stand-lone novels (A Knock at the Door is one of them) and seven novels in the Mike Stanhope Mysteries series.
Peter has had career of writing and editing, chiefly in the field of trucking, transport, logistics and information technology. He co-founded and edited a magazine covering the processes behind home shopping delivery. He draws on these experiences in his books.
Peter was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and studied English at Cambridge University. He has lived nearly all his adult life in London, and is now based in Fulham, west London, close to the river Thames at Putney bridge.
Connect with Peter
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