I’m always grateful when authors agree to sit “In the Hot Seat” and answer questions. Today, we’re lucky enough to host Rhys Bowen. Rhys is the author of three mystery series. She’s appearing at The Poisoned Pen on Tuesday, August 9 at 7 PM on her book tour for Crowned and Dangerous.

Her first series was set in Wales, and featured Constable Evan Evans. She’s gone on to be nominated or win numerous awards, including Agatha, Anthony, Macavity and Lefty Awards for her other series. One features Molly Murphy, an Irish immigrant in New York City in the early 20th century. The Royal Spyness mysteries feature Lady Georgiana. Rhys is now on tour for the latest adventure of Lady Georgie, Crowned and Dangerous. Thank you, Rhys.

Would you tell us when and why you first started writing?

I’ve always written. I gather I wrote my first poem when I was four, and never stopped. Although I’ve always been a huge mystery fan, I first started writing mysteries when I read Tony Hillerman and his fantastic feel for place. I thought “I’d like to do that” and created my Constable Evans series.

Would you introduce us to Lady Georgiana Rannoch & Darcy O’Mara?

Lady Georgie is related to the royal family, currently 35th in line to the throne, but penniless. Her branch of the family has no money so she’s out in the world, fending for herself. Her education has not equipped her to make her own living and some of her attempts are disastrous. However she has not only survived through nine books, she has thrived and won the heart of the dashing and mysterious Darcy O’Mara. We don’t know much about him. He is the son of an Irish peer, but he disappears on mysterious assignments. There is a hint that he is a spy for the British government. When we last left them they were eloping to Scotland.

Tell us about Crowned and Dangerous, without spoilers.

As I just mentioned Georgie and Darcy were eloping. But the course of true love is destined never to run smooth, is it? Held up by a blizzard the read the morning newspaper and see that Darcy’s father has been arrested. Darcy goes home to Ireland and finds that his father is accused of killing the mysterious American who has bought the family castle and racing stables. What’s more it seems conclusive that he is guilty. Darcy won’t let Georgie marry the son of a murderer, but Georgie is not willing to give up so easily. (I realize these are all spoilers but I can’t tell you anything about the book without them, except that it takes place in Ireland and involves a mysterious and horrible American millionaire and an equally mysterious but quite delightful princess!)

Do you have any hints you can share about the next Molly Murphy book?

I haven’t written it yet, but it will be a Christmas book that comes out in 2017. Its working title is The Ghost of Christmas Past and it is about an old crime coming back to haunt a Christmas celebration.

Before we move away from your series, any hints about movies, TV?

Two things ongoing: the book, Her Royal Spyness is still with a British movie company and they still hope to make it into a movie.

And CBS has optioned my Constable Evans series for television. It would be so interesting if that comes to pass.

Now, I have some unrelated questions. Who is your favorite literary hero or heroine? Your favorite villain or antihero?

The one that comes immediately to mind is Elizabeth Bennett. I’m a big Jane Austen fan. The other one would be Frodo Baggins, as he’s such an unlikely hero. He is everyman, called to take on a task that is way beyond his abilities.

Villain, thinking of the Lord of the Rings, which is one of my all-time favorite books, I think Saruman is the perfect villain. Obviously Sauron is the arch-villain but he is evil personified. Saruman started out good and pride made him into what he becomes. I am more interested in a villain who has struggled, suffered and one can understand rather than pure evil.

You have homes in several locations. Pick one. Where do you take friends when they come to visit?

I divide my time between the Bay Area and Phoenix. Both are lovely locations with plenty of places to take friends. Obviously I have more choice when I’m in Marin County. I take them on the ferry to San Francisco, we tour the wine country to the North, we go out to the Point Reyes national seashore, we lunch in Sausalito with views of the city across the Bay, we hike on Mount Tamalpais… I could keep them busy for weeks!

Other than author, what’s the most interesting job you ever had?

I’ve been a professional author almost all of my adult life but right out of college I worked in BBC drama. Talk about a fabulous job! I got to work with top British actors, the pace was leisurely in those days, the budgets were huge and we all had such a good time. Sometimes we’d finishing recording at midnight, go out for a late snack and drink and then when I came in the next morning there would be a huge bouquet of flowers on my desk.

Neil Gaiman said, “Trust your obsession.” Did you ever have an obsession that you had to turn into a story? What was it?

Hard question! I’ve just been staring at the bookcase full of my books (yes, I take up not one but two bookcases with all my published work). I suppose the closest I come is The Edge of Dreams, last year’s Molly Murphy novel. I studied dream psychology at university and have always been fascinated with the meaning and interpretation of dreams. So in that book Freud’s treatise on the interpretation of dreams has just been published and the idea that dreams are windows into the sub conscious is new. This knowledge helps unlock the dreams of a troubled girl and solves a crime. Fun to write.

What was on your TBR pile this summer?

Unfortunately I’m reading for a competition so most of my reading is compulsory. I will certainly find time to read Louise Penny’s new one when it comes out soon. On my TBR pile is my friend Nicole Mones’s Night in Shanghai,and  a fun little book called Vivien’s Heavenly Ice Cream Shop.

Thank you, Rhys.

Thank YOU, Lesa.

****

Signed copies of Rhys Bowen’s Crowned and Dangerous are available through the Web Store, along with copies of her other books. https://bit.ly/29BQzli

Have you heard of the hot science fiction thriller, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch? We now have signed copies in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2agsAen And, it’s a pick for the SciFi, Fantasy, Horror Club.

If you’d like to read about Dark Matter, and read an interview with Crouch, check out Shelf Awareness for Readers. https://bit.ly/2aR661y

August 2 is release date for Elaine Viets’ Brain Storm, the first Angela Richman, Death Investigator book. It’s one of The Poisoned Pen’s Book of the Month Club picks for August.

There’s also an unusual story behind it. Some followers of Viets’ may know a little of the background. This courageous woman was kind enough to take the time to answer questions for one of the “In the Hot Seat” interviews. Thank you, Elaine.

Elaine, would you introduce yourself to our readers?

Brain Storm is my 30th mystery and my fourth series. I’m best known for writing the traditional, humorous Dead-End Job mysteries, set in South Florida, where I live. The Art of Murder, my 15th Dead-End Job mystery, is just out in hardcover from Penguin. I’ve also written 10 cozy Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper mysteries, and four Francesca Vierling newspaper mysteries. Francesca was my first series, and it was dark. Brain Storm is a return to my dark side. I’m married to writer Don Crinklaw, and we live in Fort Lauderdale with two cats, Harry and Mystery.

Would you tell us about the character of Angela Richman, Death Investigator?

Angela is a death investigator for mythical Chouteau County, Missouri, home of the one percent and the people who serve them. The major town is Chouteau Forest. It’s similar to the rich part of St. Louis County. I was a newspaper reporter in St. Louis and knew a lot of insider details about that area. The Forest likes to hire its own, and Angela is the daughter of servants and lives on the Du Pres estate, so she’s both an insider and an outsider: She belongs, but not really.

At a crime, the death investigator is in charge of the body, and works for the medical examiner. The police handle the crime scene. Many people would be horrified by the sights and smells of death, but Angela believes that the dead are trying to tell us what happened and it’s her job to listen to them, and perform this last service for them. Angela is also a survivor. After a grueling death investigation for a teenage girl killed in a car crash, Angela suffers a series of migraines. She goes to the hospital, where she’s misdiagnosed by a respected neurologist as “too young and fit to have a stroke.” He sends her back home, where she has a series of strokes, including a hemorrhagic stroke, and needs brain surgery. Angela will spend some three months in the hospital recovering and re-learning simple skills, including walking.

Can you summarize Brain Storm without spoilers?

Death Investigator Angela Richman is misdiagnosed by Dr. Porter Gravois, a wealthy Chouteau Forest insider. Angela has six strokes, and needs brain surgery. She’s saved by a brilliant outsider, surgeon Dr. Jeb Travis Tritt. She wakes up from a coma, drug-addled and hallucinating. The doctor who misdiagnosed her is murdered. He and Dr. Tritt were bitter enemies. Tritt is arrested while Angela is in the hospital. Bald, crippled and crazy, Angela fights to save the man who saved her. I lived this story.

Elaine, please tell us about your interest in strokes and brain trauma.

In April, 2007, I had a series of blinding headaches, which I thought were migraines. After four days, I had trouble talking and doing everyday tasks, such as tying a bow in my robe belt. I couldn’t figure out which end of a fork to use to scramble a breakfast egg. If you know my cooking skills, this sounds like a fair description, but I seriously could not figure out that fork. I was determined to ignore these symptoms and drive 40 miles to give a speech, but my husband took away my car keys and called my primary doctor, who sent me to the ER. The neurologist on call said I was “too young and fit to have a stroke” and sent me home. I was supposed to report that Wednesday for a PET scan, but Wednesday never happened. Instead, I had six strokes, including a hemorrhagic stroke, and brain surgery. I was in a coma for a week and spent more than three months in the hospital. I used a walker for six months and a cane for two years. I’ve made a nearly complete recovery, but that took more than four years.  

Moving off topic, your character Helen Hawthorne has worked a series of jobs. Other than author, what’s the most interesting job you ever had?

Really enjoyed volunteering for the Bonnet House, a Fort Lauderdale museum, for my new hardcover, “The Art of Murder.” Bonnet House is the whimsical 1920s mansion-turned-museum owned by artists Frederic Clay Bartlett and his wife, Evelyn Lilly Bartlett. Unlike many rich people, the Bartletts had mastered the art of living, and Bonnet House and its grounds are filled with life and color ““ exotic orchids grow in the trees and swans swim in the pond. Some of Evelyn’s pet Brazilian squirrel monkeys still roam the grounds. They escaped from a bar. (Hey, it’s Florida.) And speaking of bars, Frederic built Evelyn her own Bamboo Bar for her birthday. This was a little bijou building where the clock was always set at 5 p.m.

Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? Your favorite antihero or villain?

Miss Marple. She’s too easily dismissed as a fluffy old woman, but Miss Marple is shrewd and relentless. She once said, “I am Nemesis” and meant it. Favorite villain is Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis.

You live in Florida, so I’m sure, over the years, you’ve had visitors. Where do you like to take them?

To the ocean, which is eternally beautiful, and favorite restaurants by the water. Butterfly World and now, Bonnet House. Florida is ruled by the water, and I can see the Intracoastal Waterway and the ocean from my condo.

Neil Gaiman said, “Trust your obsession.” Did you ever have an obsession that you had to turn into a story? What was it?

“Brain Storm.” It took me eight years to get the courage to write this novel based on my personal experience. I had to relive one of the worst times in my life. I battled reoccurring nightmares and panic attacks, plus my own anger at the hospital billing office that cheated me and at the doctor who misdiagnosed me and stole four years of my life. That man will never be brought to justice ““ though he does die in my book. To get the death investigator details right, I went back to college ““ St. Louis University ““ and took the Medicolegal Death Investigators Training course for forensic professionals.

And, last, what’s been on your TBR pile this summer?

So many books. Looking forward to Ann Cleeves’s Dead Water, in her Shetland series. Charlaine Harris’s Night Shift, the third Midnight, Texas novel. Marcia Talley’s Daughter of Ashes and Frances Brody’s Murder on a Summer’s Day. Also books by Jeff Abbott, Brendan DuBois, William Kent Krueger, Alison Gaylin, David Ellis, PJ Parrish. I could keep going, but we’re running out of room.

Thank you, Elaine, for your time. Readers who are interested in Brain Storm might want to check out our Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

I love Atlas Obscura. It’s a web site, https://www.atlasobscura.com, and soon will be a book. It has such fascinating articles. Today, I’m linking to one called “The Scandalous Zines of Renaissance England”. https://bit.ly/2aCgrR2

The article is all about broadsides, what they call the Facebook and Twitter of their day. Brutal murders. Bloody ballads. Witchcraft. According to the article, “Many of the pamphlets distributed along with broadsides contained longer, juicy stories with gratuitous, gory scenes.” Sounds as if broadsides would provide perfect material for a crime fiction writer.

Just a short post today with a few reminders. Linda Castillo and Linda Fairstein made back-to-back appearances at The Poisoned Pen. If you would like to see the events, check out the Livestream links.

Here’s Linda Castillo’s for her Among the Wicked book tour. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/5722751

And, here’s Linda Fairstein’s program for the Killer Look tour. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/5619399

Don’t forget that you can buy either book, signed, through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com

What’s on the agenda for this coming week? While there are no events at the store, I do have a couple interviews coming up on the blog. Stop back during the week to read an interview with Elaine Viets, author of Brain Storm, one of our featured books for August. She’s a courageous woman. Rhys Bowen, author of Crowned and Dangerous, took time to answer questions as well. So, you’ll want to watch for that interview later in the week.

Stop back often. I try to keep you in the loop.

Patrick Rothfuss, Pierce Brown, Sam Sykes, V.E. Schwab, Duane Swierczynski. Recognize these names? They’ve all appeared at The Poisoned Pen, and some of them appeared in the last few months. They were also on a panel called Nerd Trivia Challenge – Author Edition at San Diego’s Comic-Con. Here’s the whole list of authors on it: Patrick Rothfuss
(THE KINGKILLER CHRONICLE), Pierce Brown (RED RISING), Romina Russell (ZODIAC), Chuck Wendig (INVASIVE), Sam Sykes (THE CITY STAINED RED), Cecil Castelucci (STAR WARS: MOVING TARGET), V. E. Schwab (A GATHERING OF SHADOWS), Camilla D’Errico (POP MANGA, POP PAINTING, POP MANGA COLORING BOOK), and Duane Swierczynski (REVOLVER). Moderated by Brandon T. Snider (WHAT WOULD CAPTAIN KIRK DO?)

I have a video from Penguin Random House, which I have permission to share. It’s lengthy, but, if you’re a fan of these authors, it’s worth watching.

https://bit.ly/2ajVF3X

And, don’t forget to check for your favorite authors at the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com

I asked one of my favorite debut authors to suggest some titles for “Every Summer Has a Story”, although by now Glen Erik Hamilton has two books out. Glen Erik Hamilton’s debut PAST CRIMES has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Barry, Macavity, and won the Strand Critics Awards for Best First Novel.  His follow-up in the Van Shaw series, HARD COLD WINTER, was published in March by William Morrow (US) and Faber & Faber (UK).  A native of Seattle, Glen now lives in California but frequently returns to his hometown to soak up the rain.  Follow him on Facebook and Twitter @GlenErikH.  glenerikhamilton.com   Thank you, Glen.

*****

An intricate and creepily effective chiller about a small-town shopkeeper who tries to help an handsome stranger and his children, and quickly finds herself uncertain of whom to trust, and why she’s now being stalked at all hours…   An Anthony Award winner and Edgar nominee.

Ingrid Thoft — BRUTALITY

Tough P.I. Fina Ludlow becomes enmeshed in a lawsuit between a collegiate soccer star and her university, which may have gone from rough play on the field to much rougher attacks in Fina’s home turf of Boston.   A Shamus Award nominee this year.

Rebecca Schurm — UNBECOMING

A wonderful character study of a woman running away — far away — from her past mistakes, and keeping a step ahead of pursuers.  But her flight may take her full circle, forcing her to confront both her bad (?) decisions and her future prospects.  An Edgar Award nominee.

Johnny Shaw — BIG MARIA

Digging up a fortune in buried gold?  Great!  When that gold is buried in the middle of a massive and very active artillery range?  Ummm…  Shaw specializes in fringe characters who are only occasionally as clever as they try to be, and their wild and very funny schemes make for terrific yarns.  An Anthony and Spotted Owl Award winner.

Linda Fairstein, author of Killer Look, just appeared at The Poisoned Pen. Before becoming a full-time writer, Fairstein was a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

I don’t have the photos yet from Linda’s appearance. I do have a video, though, in which she discusses three writing skills she learned while practicing law. (Used with permission from Penguin Random House, Videracy.)

If you’d like to order a signed copy of Killer Look, the eighteenth book in the series, you can order it through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2acN9pz

Joseph Finder and Peter Spiegelman were recent guests at The Poisoned Pen.

Here are the two authors in that mysterious room where authors meet ahead of time to sign stock.

As a member of a number of audiences at the Pen, I can say it’s always fun to see the authors come from the front of the store to the speaking area.

The authors even had joint moderators for the event, Barbara Peters, the store owner, and Patrick Millikin.

And, of course, they signed books afterward for the audience.

If you would like to see the event, it’s up on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/5619381

And, of course you can purchase signed copies of Finder’s Guilty Minds and Spiegelman’s Dr. Knox through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com