My detective novel, Accounting for Murder: Double Entry, which will be published very soon, is set in Cardiff. The hero, Frank, is a Lancastrian who lives in Llandaff, between the Cathedral and the City. His investigation takes him to Aberystwyth and London, several times, but Cardiff, where I lived and worked for many years, is the real centre of the story. Although my hero is an Englishman, he knows he belongs in that city, and its personality influences him as it does the book.
As this story is set in the present, forget mythical images of Wales: sheep and coalmines. Cardiff is a modern, cosmopolitan City. There are black and Asian characters. The hero’s brother-in-law is of Italian origins. Modern technology plays its part in their lives, just as it does in the story. Frank’s teenage children are always willing to advise him on social media and anything else he has not kept up-to-date with. And things he has.
Cardiff has beautiful old buildings and also some great modern developments, such as the Millennium Stadium, now officially known as the Principality Stadium, and the Marina.
Here is a picture of Llandaff Cathedral, from a watercolour by an old friend of mine, the late George Dolman. If you want to see the many aspects of Cardiff’s modern face, go and visit it. You may be surprised.