Imagine the scene.

You're a crime writer, planning a series of novels set in Dorset. What is the one location you absolutely cannot overlook?

Tyneham, of course.

If you've never heard of Tyneham, let me fill you in. It's a village between Wareham and Lulworth. In 1943, it had a population of 225.

But by then, the second world war was in full flow, and the Ministry of Defence decided it had a better use for the village. It's in the middle of a swathe of land that's been owned by the MoD and used for exercises since 1916, so you can see how their thinking went.

The powers that be needed somewhere with buildings, somewhere they could run exercises that involved training soldiers how to fight in an built-up environment. All in preparation for D-Day.

Nowadays, the MoD gets around this by building dummy streets and villages at its existing bases. It creates locations, a bit like film sets, that it can destroy and rebuild, without impacting on the local civilian population.

But in 1943, the MoD didn't work like that. And the British population was significantly more willing to make the kind of sacrifice that the people of Tyneham did.

(Can you imagine it now? The authorities knock on your door and tell you you've got to get out so they can fire guns at your home. Would you say yes? I doubt it.)

But fortunately for the British government, the people of Tyneham were more obedient than I am, and so they evacuated the village and were distributed around nearby towns and villages. They were promised their homes back, that after a period of time they would be able to return. The last person to leave even left a note on the church door saying as much:

Please treat the church and houses with care; we have given up our homes where many of us lived for generations to help win the war to keep men free. We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly.

But they never returned.

All of which means that, in an eerily quiet spot in Dorset, not too far from the sea, you can find a completely abandoned village.

Some of the buildings are intact, others are shells of their former selves. The church, interestingly, has been perfectly preserved. And the whole thing serves as a snapshot of a long-forgotten way of life, a real-life museum of Dorset's history.

And, as I may have mentioned, the perfect place to dump a body.

I always knew that Tyneham would feature in the Dorset Crime series. And I wanted to wait for the book that brought the DCI Mackie investigation to a conclusion, which was book nine in the series.

One of the wonderful things about Tyneham is that, despite it being a tourist destination, the MoD has not attempted to make money from it. It would be a bit rich I suppose, given that those houses belonged to the community. But there's no entrance fee and no barrier to entry, as long as the firing ranges aren't closed for exercises.

On weekdays for much of the year, you can't get near Tyneham. The Lulworth ranges surrounding it are closed to cars and walkers to protect the public. But in the height of summer, and every weekend throughout the year, you can just drive along the B3070 out of Lulworth, take a right turn onto a narrow lane, and find yourself in Tyneham.

There's a car park, but that's as official as it gets. And the lack of restrictions (other than people inconveniently firing guns at you on weekdays) is why I was able to visit Tyneham at a time when most visitor attractions were closed.

I took my first research trip to Tyneham in the spring of 2021. At that time, Corfe Castle was still closed due to Covid restrictions, as were all the pubs and hotels in the county. Dorset was quiet, and Tyneham quieter still.

I had the place to myself. It allowed me to imagine what the village would feel like if the police shut it down as a crime scene. If the only sign of occupation was CSI vans and squad cars.

It also meant I could have a good old poke around the abandoned buildings. Some of them are fenced off for safety, and while I wasn't foolish enough to attempt exploring those, I was able to get an uninterrupted view of them and capture some video footage with only birdsong as a backing track.

I wandered the village, lamented the fact that the church and schoolhouse (both full of exhibits) were locked, and walked the path down to Worbarrow Bay. There, I climbed up Worbarrow Trout and barely made it back down in one piece. My boots had doubled in size thanks to the clay that had stuck to them, and everything was suddenly very sticky.

Initially, I was planning to have the body spotted in one of the fenced-off houses by a small child visiting with his family. I figured that, with his eye level being lower than everyone else's, he might spot something the adults didn't.

But I changed my mind on a later research trip. In the summer of 2022, I was staying near Durdle Door, where some other key scenes in The Ghost Village Murders take place, and I'd arranged to meet my friend Maria (who created the Dorset Murder Map) at Tyneham.

There was something magical about the deserted village in the evening. The low sun brought an extra layer of tranquillity, and I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that, provided the road is open, anyone has access to Tyneham at any time of day.

I began to imagine teenagers using the village as a place to gather. A couple sneaking off to get some time alone... and then finding a body.

Once the body has been found and the village sealed off, the fun begins. And Tyneham turned out to be the perfect location for a murder mystery with more than the usual amount of intrigue.

Yes, there are forensics, and the struggle to examine a body that's been left in the middle of an abandoned building that could crumble at any moment. No, there's no CCTV (of course). But there are also lots of scenes with people sneaking about in the woods, moving evidence from one place to another, and generally using the abandoned village to conceal all kinds of dodgy goings-on.

All of which is why I loved writing about Tyneham. And why I wholeheartedly recommend a visit.

Just make sure you don't go when there's any chance of being in the line of fire.