British transplant Hannah Dennison now lives in Portland and writes two "cozy" mystery series' set in the British countryside. (Submitted photo)

When Hannah Dennison moved to Los Angeles from her native Britain in 1993 to try her hand at Hollywood screenwriting, she intended to stay for only two years. While her screenwriting dreams didn’t pan out, 24 years later, she’s happily living in Portland and busy writing not one, but two popular series: the Honeychurch Hall and Vicky Hill mysteries.

Both series are “cozies” — a crime fiction subgenre that downplays sex and violence and is typically set in a very small (often rural) community. They each feature a cast of quirky and eccentric characters, and both are set in Devon (in Southwest England), where Dennison lived for years.

“I really love the West country,” she said. “I think it’s a little bit behind the rest of the country, like 30 years, and very much has a small-town feel.”

Dennison didn’t specifically set out to write a cozy mystery with her first novel, “A Vicky Hill Exclusive!” which was published in 2008. Rather, she was following the mantra “write what you know,” using the familiar environment of Devon and basing the main character on many aspects of herself as a young adult.

Vicky is a young reporter who is stuck writing the obituary column at a small local paper in a sleepy Devonshire town but dreams of landing a front-page scoop. Her parents are criminals on the run for armed robbery, which creates a certain amount of awkwardness for Vicky when her reporting morphs into crime-solving and inevitably brings her into frequent contact with the police.

Like Vicky, Dennison had a job writing obituaries in Devon before she moved to the United States, but the obvious similarities stop there. Her day job never led her to solve crimes, and her parents were reasonably law-abiding (as far as she knows).

When Dennison visits Sunriver Books & Music on Saturday, she will discuss her ninth novel and the latest in the Honeychurch line, “Murderous Mayhem at Honeychurch Hall.”

The newer Honeychurch Hall series was launched in 2014, and while sharing a Devonshire setting with the Vicky Hill series, has been described by some fans as more of a contemporary “Downton Abbey.”

Set in a crumbling historic country estate, it explores the 
dynamic between former celebrity antique dealer and amateur sleuth Kat Stanford, and her elderly 
romance writer mother, Iris. Also on display are the class differences between the titled owners of Honeychurch Hall, who have passed the property down through their family for several hundred years, and the staff who have worked for them for generations.

“The class system is very much in place in Britain,” Dennison noted. “That’s one of the reasons I really love America — it’s not class-conscious in the same way.”

The author based the character of Iris on her mother, who Dennison says decided to reinvent herself at 75 after the death of her husband, by purchasing a wing of a large country house in Devon. However, Dennison says the character of Kat is based more on her daughter than on herself.

Despite the similar settings for the two series’, Dennison says she hasn’t had trouble so far maintaining the different tone of each line and distinctly different voices for her main characters.

“Vicky was so much a part of me when I was younger, and the tone of those books is more youthful,” Dennison explained. “I find those easier to write and to find stories for.”

But after four Honeychurch Hall novels, Dennison is starting to face what every author of a series dreads: She is finding it challenging to come up with new plots — especially within the strict confines of the “cozy” formula. She’s running out of plausible new ways to kill people and has to keep track of what methods she’s used.

“I’m starting to panic a bit because the world is so small, and I’m running out of characters,” Dennison confessed. “Anyone new I introduce is obviously either going to be killed or be the killer, which pretty much takes all the mystery out of it,” she said laughing.

With that in mind, Dennison said she may only write one more book in the Honeychurch Hall series. But fans of her writing don’t need to worry, as she has written an outline and proposal for a new series, and is dabbling in romantic suspense.

Dennison hopes to write 59 books like her mentor and friend Carolyn Hart.

“She writes in all genres, and ultimately, I would love to be able to do the same,” Dennison said. However she pointed out one potential obstacle:

“I think I’ll be dead before I have time to write 59 books, given that I am only on my 10th.”

What: Hannah Dennison discusses “Murderous Mayhem at Honeychurch Hall”

When: 5 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Sunriver Books & Music, 57100 Beaver Drive, Building 25-C, Sunriver

Cost: Free (registration 
requested)

Contact: sunriverbooks.com or 541-593-2525