For fans of British mystery, Riverwalk Gallery and Arts Center is the place to stop in and have a cup of tea on Sunday.

At 2 p.m., Riverwalk will host a reading, signing and reception for two local authors: Marni Graff, author of the Nora Tierney Mysteries series, and Dennis Sinar, author of a collection of short stories: “Not Born Here: Stories from Marsden, N.C.”

Graff said the two were paired because he’s a former physician and she’s a former nurse, but from there, the two writers’ paths diverge. Sinar’s work is a “witty, colorful preservation of local flavor,” while Graff’s books hold ‘”Complex characters harbor dark secrets of the soul and vagaries of the human heart,” according to reviewers on Amazon.com.

“I think his point is the greater our differences, the more we are all the same even though we have geographical differences and backgrounds,” Marni said of Sinar’s work.

Graff’s point: murder mystery — British murder mystery. She’s not from England, but her love for that country had her setting her first series in three locations: Oxford, the Lake District and Bath, all of which had to be researched thoroughly, and visited, in order for Graff to write about them accurately.

And for Graff, accuracy counts a lot in police procedurals: She recently returned from the Writer’s Police Academy, a four-day event where writers get lessons in everything from search and seizure and real forensic evidence collection — as opposed to the kind seen on TV — to shooting firearms and securing a building like a member of a SWAT team. Classes are taught by police, SBI, bomb-squad and Secret Service agents — all retired, now sharing the knowledge accrued over their careers with writers who want to write about procedure accurately. Guest speakers included bestselling authors Michael Connelly, Lisa Gardner and Alifair Burke.

“All day long, you are signed up, doing courses, taking classes, riding in police cars, learning how to shoot guns,” Graff said. “I filled up a notebook that I had brought with me.”

Graff said she’s always written — poetry, short stories and more. Though she had a full career as a nurse, she said she always fit in time for writing, even acting as a medical consultant for New York-based soap operas in the 1980s and 1990s.

“Whenever there was a medical scene, I would be called in. Nobody was sick, nobody ever threw up on my shoes. It was the best nursing job I ever had,” she laughed.

Originally from Long Island, N.Y., Graff made her way down south after a 30-year nursing career. In retirement, she could dedicate her time to her writing and was looking for an isolated, waterfront place to do it. She found it in Hyde County.

Now, she not only spends time writing, but encouraging those around her to do the same at the Writers Read meetings in Belhaven, a group that meets monthly to read and discuss their written work. Graff is self-published, her printing done through her membership with an authors’ cooperative.

She may have traded one fulltime job for another, but this one increases her quality of life.

“My goal was to be able to write and to tell my stories and to have fun doing it,” Graff said. “I get to write fulltime now and I’m very happy about that.”

Riverwalk Gallery and Arts Center is located at 139 W. Main St., Washington. The public is welcome to Sunday’s event.