Fiction Review

Most of you might not recognize Kaye Wilkinson Barley, but she’s well-known at some of the mystery conventions as a photographer. Kaye is the author of three books, Carousels of Paris, a novel called Whimsey, and a book about one of her Corgis, My Name is Harley. All three of those books can be ordered through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3c6zQ8o

Kaye describes herself, saying, “I live with my husband of almost 34 years, Don, in the North Carolina mountains along with one little princess of a pup—Annabelle, who is a fluffy Welsh Corgi….I’m a voracious reader and lover of books, a long-time blogger, an indie author, an amateur photographer, dabbler in mixed media collages, and fiddler of fiber arts.”

Check the Web Store for the books Kaye is reading, her “Distractions”. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Distractions.

When have we needed them more?

Being a retired person, sheltering at home isn’t all that unusual for me.  

Home is my favorite place to be.  Normally.

But these are not normal times, are they?

And, there’s no pretending they are.  

Not by trying to ignore the news, not by cooking and baking and eating, not even with a good book.

So even though I’m in my “Happy Place,” it’s very different.

I’m finding myself resisting going to bed at night.  When I go to bed everything I don’t want to think about weasels its way into my mind, so I’m living on very little sleep.  Four or five hours.  And wake up from odd dreams.  Exhausting dreams.  

Distractions here at home in Meat Camp, NC are including a lot of baking.  Blueberry muffins, quiche, and I’m dying to try a new vanilla bean scone recipe.  I’m cooking big hearty meals – spaghetti, chili, huge ribeye steaks with baked potatoes smothered in butter and sour cream.  Calories and carbs be damned. 

There’s a jigsaw puzzle taking up permanent residence on the dining table.

Photos are being turned into collages.

Annabelle is being asked to pose in never ending photo sessions.

Facebook is a lifeline – a blessing and a curse.

The books that I’m spending a lot of time with are art and photo books.  

One of those is Gail Albert Halaban’s “Paris Views” which is one of a series the photographer has done, referred to as “voyeuristic portraits.” 

 “Through Halaban’s lens, the viewer is welcomed into the private worlds of ordinary people. The photographs in “Paris Views” explore the conventions and tensions of urban lifestyles, the blurring between reality and fantasy, feelings of isolation in the city and the intimacies of home and daily life.”  Her others include, so far, New York and Italy.  

Art books where I can enjoy the work of favorite artists like Hopper, Sargent, Monet.  Photographers Ansel Adams, Lange, Cartier-Bresson, Atget.

I have a rather large collection of coffee table type books relating to places we’ve traveled.  I have never met a book about architectural design, homes and gardens that I can resist.

These, along with books of essays and poetry, have been my main reading escape.

The only novels that have been able to hold my interest these past few weeks are novels of substance.  One, “Escaping Dreamland” an ARC by Charlie Lovett, tapped all the right needs.  “Guided by twelve tattered books and an unidentified but tantalizing fragment of a story, Robert Parrish journeys into the history of the books that changed his life, hoping they can help him once again. His odyssey takes him to 1906 Manhattan, a time of steamboats, boot blacks, and Fifth Avenue mansions, but every discovery he makes only leads to more questions.

Robert’s quest intertwines with the stories of three young people trying to define their places in the world at the dawn of a new and exciting century. Magda, Gene, and Tom not only write the children’s books that Robert will one day love, together they explore the vibrant city on their doorstep, from the Polo Grounds to Coney Island’s Dreamland, drawing the reader into the Gilded Age as their own friendships deepen.”

And I’m re-reading some old favorites.  Right now it’s Laurie King’s two book series featuring Stuyvesant & Grey (I keep hoping for more). 

The books are heavy in detail and the characters’ personal philosophies with some weighty themes including the too wide gulf between the rich and poor. Those things are, for me, a plus. The characters Stuyvesant & Grey are two of the most unique, complex characters I’ve had the pleasure of “meeting.”  

Read more about them at Laurie’s webpage:  https://laurierking.com/books/stuyvesant-grey/ 

Apart from these distractions, I’m spending a great deal of time hoping for healing.  And wondering what our new “normal” will be.  There’s a lot, in my opinion, that just wasn’t so great about our old normal, and I hope we come out of this with some revised thinking.  Queue John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

*****

Kaye Wilkinson Barley’s latest book is Carousels of Paris. This unique book features the history and photographs of some of Paris’ beautiful carousels. The collection invites readers to travel along with the two photographers, Kaye and her husband, Don Barley, as they uncover the history and magic of carousels.

Barley’s debut novel, Whimsey, is fun, lively, and sparkles with artists, humor and romance. It’s southern humor and southern women at their best, reminiscent of Sarah Addison Allen’s books.

You can order Kaye Wilkinson Barley’s books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3c6zQ8o

She blogs at Meanderings and Muses, https://www.meanderingsandmuses.com/ and you can find her author’s site at https://kayewilkinsonbarley.com/

Steven F. Havill’s Less Than a Moment is the twenty-fourth mystery in the Posadas County series. Readers will want to catch up with the ongoing characters in this series set in a border community in southwestern New Mexico. You can find Less Than a Moment, and Havill’s other books, in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3c0QzK8

Roz Shea recently reviewed Less Than a Moment for Bookreporter.com. She said, “The Posadas County that Havill has created is so tangible, you feel that if you walked down its streets, you would be greeted by old friends.” You can read her entire review here. https://bit.ly/2wt1ehC

At Kevin’s Corner, Kevin Tipple says, “This is a series where characters age, relationships evolve over time, and always present is the stark beauty of Posadas County, New Mexico. That aspect, a distinct and deep appreciation of setting, is always raised to a level that is its own constant presence in the series. The setting is a character in its own right.”

Here’s the summary of the latest Posadas County mystery, Less Than a Moment.

In less than a moment, unexplained intentions, then murder, upend life in Posadas County, New Mexico

Posadas County, sitting along New Mexico’s southern border, has enjoyed a surge in visitors, jobs, and prosperity since rancher Miles Waddell used much of his inherited half billion to create an internationally renowned astronomy complex atop Torrance Mesa. Passion, not profit, drives Waddell. Yet benefits include a narrow gauge train linking the village of Posadas to NightZone. It’s a boon to employees and for nature lovers, hikers, and birders as well as star gazers.

A ripple of unease is felt across the county with the arrival of developer—no, speculator—Kyle Thompson. Why did he and his wife quietly purchase a large scrubby acreage to the north of NightZone? Any light pollution would jeopardize Waddell’s success. “Lights are like cancer cells. One comes, others follow.”

Unease grows with a drive-by shoot-up at the Posadas Register, its 25 shots wounding a reporter and the paper’s editor. Sheriff Bob Torrez and Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman see a connection to NightZone…and worse, a connection with Torrez’s own nephew. Why?

And then murder strikes…

I hope Dana Stabenow, award-winning author and advocate for women writers, needs no introduction to readers here. She is the author of the bestselling Kate Shugak series, which includes Less than a Treason, Midnight Come Again, The Singing of the Dead, and Bad Blood. She has won the Edgar Award and the Nero Award, and in 2007 she was named Alaska Artist of the Year in the Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Humanities.

Stabenow is a friend of The Poisoned Pen, appearing at the bookstore when she’s in town, sometimes hosting events. She was quick to answer with her list of suggested books for Distractions. Her choices, and her own books, are available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Thank you, Dana.

*****

Hello, everyone out there in self-quarantine! A sentence I didn’t ever see myself writing. Wouldn’t we all rather be somewhere else in some other time? Fortunately, there are books to take us there and then, and if you follow this blog you’re a reader. Me, too, and I’ve got your back.

1. The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M T Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

An elf walks into a goblin city…

Elf historian Spurge is sent on a diplomatic mission to the goblin court, a gift in hand for the goblin leader, allegedly extending the hand of peace to these erstwhile hereditary enemies. But that is no gift and Spurge is no diplomat, subjecting his poor host, the goblin historian Werfel, to a series of slights, snubs, and downright insults in trying to grope his way forward to some kind of detente.

Of course, no one in power on either side is telling them what is really going on, and I’m not going to, either, but I will say that I have never enjoyed an illustrated novel more in all my reading life. Some of the chapters are entirely drawn, no words at all. The textual chapters come from multiple viewpoints, including letters from Clivers, the repeatedly de-digited elf spymaster, and of course the narratives of Spurge and Werfel themselves. The illustrations are the star, though. Part-steampunk, part-Rackham, with maybe a little Tolkien for spice, and invariably hilarious, they build a world you can believe in and dive into, and teach a few lessons about first impressions and tolerance while they’re at it. Bravo!

2. Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

Recommended to me by John Charles of the Poisoned Pen Bookstore, and I in turn recommend it to any fan of romance novels. The author has her tongue firmly in cheek for the scenes with the guys, but the work-in-progress relationship between Thea and Gavin feels real and poignant.

3. How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid

Val McDermid is always a reliably good read but this is one of her best. Multiple strong narrators and multiple bizarre but believable plot lines deftly handled to a mostly satisfying conclusion (I really wanted Paula to get Conway into the interview room), and if she wants to end the series here she leaves the two main characters in this 11-book series in a good place.

4. Alone in the Wild by Kelley Armstrong

The best one in the series since the first one. The first chapter, when Casey deals with the baby, is terrifyingly hilarious. Hilariously terrifying? Armstrong is really thinking hard about what happens when people retreat into the wilderness for whatever reason, and what happens after that, and we finally get to meet the other groups out there and get a better handle on the hostiles. Good read.

*****

Now, for Dana Stabenow’s own books –

No Fixed Line is the twenty-second in Stabenow’s Kate Shugak series. There are signed copies of it available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2F9m0Bq

It is New Year’s Eve, nearly six weeks into an off-and-on blizzard that has locked Alaska down, effectively cutting it off from the outside world. But now there are reports of a plane down in the Quilak mountains. With the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board—responsible for investigating aviation incidents) unable to reach the crash site, ex-Trooper Jim Chopin is pulled out of retirement to try to identify the aircraft, collect the corpses, and determine why no flight has been reported missing. But Jim discovers survivors: two children who don’t speak a word of English. Meanwhile, PI Kate Shugak receives an unexpected and unwelcome accusation from beyond the grave, a charge that could change the face of the Park forever.

*****

You can also find signed copies of Stabenow’s first historical mystery in the Eye of Isis series, Death of an Eye.

Alexandria, 47BCE: Cleopatra shares the throne with her brother Ptolemy under the auspices of Julius Caesar, by whom Cleopatra is heavily pregnant with child. A shipment of new coin meant to reset the shaky Egyptian economy has been stolen, the Queen’s Eye has been murdered and Queen Cleopatra turns to childhood friend Tetisheri to find the missing shipment and bring the murderer to justice.

*****

Dana Stabenow’s website is www.danastabenow.com. Please check it out, and look for her update on Storyknife Writers Retreat.

It’s not every author whose latest book is reviewed in The Wall Street Journal. Sulari Gentill is the author of After She Wrote Him, now available from Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press. You can order a copy, along with Gentill’s other books, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2N5KsYB

We’re proud to share the review from The Wall Street Journal.

“In Sulari Gentill’s clever metafiction, a pair of writers, each perhaps a figment of the other’s imagination, write each other into tricky situations.

Fiction authors are sometimes asked: “Do your characters ever take control of the stories you’re writing?” Sulari Gentill’s “After She Wrote Him” (Poisoned Pen, 233 pages, $16.99) pushes that question even further. “What if you wrote of someone writing of you?” asks this book at the outset. “In the end, which of you would be real?”

Madeleine “Maddie” d’Leon, a 30-year-old lawyer-turned-author living in Australia, is the creator of a series of mysteries about a “working-class, feminist” housemaid “who solves crimes by looking at what people throw away.” Maddie wants to create a different protagonist for her next mystery: a wealthy “literary” novelist who pens “the kind of worthy, incomprehensible stuff that wins awards.” Her new character is the “intriguing” and “brooding” Edward McGinnity, and he soon takes on a life of his own. As Maddie tells her agent: “I can see him so clearly. It’s like he exists, like I’m being allowed to watch.”

Edward, in Maddie’s telling, is also writing a book—one involving a crime writer named Madeleine d’Leon. “It’s an exploration of an author’s relationship with her protagonist,” he tells his artist friend Willow Meriwether, “an examination of the tenuous line between belief and reality, imagination and self, and what happens when that line is crossed.” (“I’m not sure what that means,” Willow replies, “but it does sound award-winning.”)

What we have, then, in “After She Wrote Him,” is a tale of two writers, each a figment of the other’s imagination. In Ms. Gentill’s clever construction, both characters inhabit a world in which reality and make-believe blur and blend.

This meta-fiction becomes a whodunit when, at a gallery opening for Edward’s friend Willow, a waspish critic is knocked down a flight of stairs and killed. Who might have murdered him? Willow, whose show he’d just trashed in a review? Edward, who is in unrequited love with the married Willow?

As Edward (thanks to his quick temper and intemperate behavior) becomes the police’s main suspect, Maddie is appalled at the situation she has created for her handsome and vulnerable hero. She barely hears her real-life husband’s complaints—as written by Edward—that their marriage is suffering from her fictional obsession. She’s fallen madly in love with her protagonist, and the feeling is reciprocated.

“After She Wrote Him” careens toward a fateful culmination as Maddie and Edward write each other into personal limbos that, it seems, will prevent them from saving one another. Readers are left to their own devices to escape from this infinity of mirrors.”

Today, we’re kicking off a new series of “Distractions”, just what we need right now. A number of authors have agreed to write posts, telling about their current distractions and what books have worked for them. You’ll want to check The Poisoned Pen’s Web Store for books the authors recommend, and for books by the authors themselves. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Laurie R. King was gracious enough to kick off the Distractions series. King is the award-winning, bestselling author of sixteen Mary Russell mysteries, five contemporary novels featuring Kate Martinelli, the Stuyvesant & Grey novels Touchstone and The Bones of Paris, and  acclaimed standalone novels  Folly and Lockdown. She lives in Northern California, where she is at work on her next Mary Russell mystery.

Thank you, Laurie.

*****

I’m currently reading no fewer than seven books for a pair of online interviews. All are excellent, and all are mysteries, and all will make rich ground for conversations. But seven mysteries means that when I want to retreat and merely be entertained—all right, when I want to escape, be it from crime, from craft, or from coronavirus—I wander into a neighboring genre: sci fi. And these days, I’d like a laugh while I’m there.

Ben Aaronovitch is my go-to guy for a pleasure read. Police procedurals crossed with fantasy, his books make me snort out my coffee in laughter, make me ache with sadness, make me curious about London’s history. And yes, make me jealous because of the effortlessness of his craft. Start with Midnight Riot (Rivers of London in the UK) and in no time, you’ll find yourself in False Values.  

John Scalzi writes like Heinlein stripped of the right-wing politics and casual misogyny: classic sci fi for the 21st century. His Old Man’s War series is as solid a  science fiction read as a reader can ask for, but he can also be just as funny as Aaronovitch—Android’s Dream is a delight in absurdity, Redshirts a deft exploration of cliche without whimsy, and Fuzzy Nation is clever and just plain sly. It’s a pleasure to be living at a time when Scalzi is producing all these great books.

Then there’s Jodi Taylor. Her Chronicles of St Mary’s series is silly and absurd and profound and breathtaking and scary, sometimes all at once. Starting with Just One Damned Thing After Another, her time-traveling, disaster-prone academics keep me afloat through these disaster-prone times. 

*****

Then, there’s Laurie R. King herself. You can find her books here in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2yDn27l Today, I’d like to highlight two of them.

You can order signed copies of Beginnings, a Kate Martinelli novella.

INSPECTOR KATE MARTINELLI has worked the SFPD’s Homicide Detail for nearly thirty years. She knows all about how a cop builds a case bit by bit to create a clear story from the scattered pieces of evidence. Until the day her fifteen-year-old daughter, Nora, happens to ask about an aunt she’d never met. Kate’s kid sister died in the 1980s, a wild young woman who lost control of a car and hit a tree, end of story … except it isn’t. Because once Kate begins to look, seeking to reassure Nora that it was only a senseless accident and not the suicide a small town’s gossip made it, she starts to find pieces that don’t fit the picture. Holes in the evidence. Mismatched fragments that change the story Kate has told herself all these years-the story that for her, was the beginning of everything.

What did happen in Diamond Lake that night? Was it an accident, or a hushed-up suicide? Or was her sister’s death something darker yet?

*****

You might want to reserve a signed copy of Laurie R. King’s 16th Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes novel. Riviera Gold is scheduled for a June release.

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes turn the Riviera upside down to crack their most captivating case yet in the New York Times bestselling series that Lee Child called “the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.”

It’s summertime on the Riviera, and the Jazz Age has come to France’s once-sleepy beaches. From their music-filled terraces, American expatriates gaze along the coastline at the lights of Monte Carlo, where fortunes are won, lost, stolen, and sometimes hidden away. When Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes arrive, they find their partnership pulled between youthful pleasures and old sins, hot sun and cool jazz, new affections and enduring loyalties.

Russell falls into easy friendship with an enthralling American couple, Sara and Gerald Murphy, whose golden life on the Riviera has begun to attract famous writers and artists—and some of the scoundrels linked with Monte Carlo’s underworld. The Murphy set will go on to inspire everyone from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Pablo Picasso, but in this summer of 1925, their importance for Russell lies in one of their circle’s recent additions: the Holmeses’ former housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson, who hasn’t been seen since she fled England under a cloud of false murder accusations.

When a beautiful young man is found dead in Mrs. Hudson’s front room, she becomes the prime suspect in yet another murder. Russell is certain of Mrs. Hudson’s innocence; Holmes is not. But the old woman’s colorful past has been a source of tension between them before, and now the dangerous players who control Monte Carlo’s gilded casinos may stop at nothing to keep the pair away from what Mrs. Hudson’s youthful history could bring to light.

The Riviera is a place where treasure can be false, where love can destroy, and where life, as Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes will discover, can be cheap—even when it is made of solid gold.

*****

My thanks to Laurie R. King. Please come back on Wednesday for the next in the “Distractions” series.

N. K. Jemisin’s latest novel, The City We Became is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. Fans will want to snap up signed copies of this book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2JD5JsR

How much do you know about N. K. Jemisin? N. K. Jemisin is the first author in history to win three consecutive Best Novel Hugo Awards, all for her Broken Earth trilogy. Her work has also won the Nebula, Locus, and Goodreads Choice Awards. She has been a reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, and an instructor for the Clarion and Clarion West writing workshops. In her spare time she is a gamer and gardener, and she is also single-handedly responsible for saving the world from King Ozzymandias, her dangerously intelligent ginger cat, and his phenomenally destructive sidekick Magpie.

You might want to check out the description of The City We Became.

Five New Yorkers must come together to defend their city from an ancient evil in this stunning new novel by Hugo Award-winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.

Every great city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got six.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs in the halls of power, threatening to destroy the city and her six newborn avatars unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.

Kate Ellis, author of the Wesley Peterson mysteries, had an interesting newsletter this week. It focused on Devon and textile mills, and her descriptions seemed to work perfectly with the Agatha Christie and English country house focus this week. Here’s what she had to say in her newsletter.

“As I live in the north of England I’m familiar with textile mills and their archaeology. I’m also fortunate enough to live near a large cotton mill lovingly restored by the National Trust and visiting the property has given me an insight into the noise and atmosphere of a working mill. I’ve watched the large water wheel go round and thought “˜what if a body was to get caught up in that?’ Many crime novels, I find, are triggered by the question “˜what if?’

“You might wonder what all this has to do with the beautiful county in the south west of England where my Wesley Peterson novels are set, but Devon also has an impressive industrial history. The cloth trade thrived there until the nineteenth century and the fine houses built by many wealthy cloth merchants can still be seen in the county’s historic towns. Woollen mills, however, eventually fell into decline although some survive today as heritage attractions (rather like Petherham Mill in The Burial Circle) ““ although without my fictional mill’s murderous history. I couldn’t resist including a supernatural element in the story because of the Victorian interest in spiritualism and contacting the “˜other side’. This fascination with death became quite an obsession and ostentatious mourning was made fashionable by Queen Victoria herself who spent many years grieving for her late husband, Prince Albert. In the nineteenth century people saw death as a constant companion and if you walk around any old churchyard (I love visiting historic churches) you will see elaborate memorials to the dear departed. One thing, however, we would definitely find macabre today is the fashion for photographing the dead, alone or posed with living relatives. Of course I was very tempted to include this in The Burial Circle (with an added twist of course) ““ and I can resist everything except temptation, as a great man once said!

“Queen Victoria’s reign saw the rise of the Burial Club. As a crime writer, the very name “˜Burial Club’ whetted my curiosity and my research told me that they were set up for poor families who feared they wouldn’t be able to give their loved ones a decent funeral at a time when death rates (particularly for children) were high. For a weekly payment the club covered funeral expenses, regardless of how long the person had been a member, relieving people of the fear of seeing their loved ones buried in a pauper’s grave. However, human nature being what it is, the system was sometimes abused. Knowing a sick child was unlikely to survive for long, some people enrolled them in several clubs at once, all of which would pay out with no questions asked. One man was said to have put his child in nineteen clubs, thus making a large profit when the unfortunate infant died. This gave rise to the suspicion that people were enrolled in clubs before being murdered. Perhaps my imaginary “˜secret’ burial circle in Petherham might not be so far fetched after all.”

It’s not always easy for The Poisoned Pen to get Kate Ellis’ books from England. Check the Web Store for availability. https://store.poisonedpen.com

Today’s post seems particularly appropriate to follow yesterday’s blog about the 100th anniversary of the publication of Agatha Christie’s first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Connie Berry is our guest author today. She’s the author of the two Kate Hamilton mysteries, A Dream of Death and A Legacy of Murder. They are both country house mysteries available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2w8VlGd You’ll also want to check the Web Store for the English country house mysteries that she lists. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

That’s exactly what she’s going to talk about today – English country house murders. Thank you, Connie.

AN ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE MURDER

by Connie Berry

One of the best things about these troubling days of social separation is more time to read, and what could provide a better escape from reality than an old-fashioned English country house murder mystery? An isolated setting; a limited number of guests (each with his or her own demons); a colorful cast of suspicious characters below stairs; a gentleman detective (often with a bumbling sidekick); a complex plot, usually involving the placement of bedrooms; and a body—what more could we ask for? Well, how about locked doors, hidden rooms, secret passages, and the ghosts of the past?

Generations of escape-fiction fans have turned to mysteries set in the great country houses of England. The first modern detective novel, The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868), was set in a country house in Yorkshire.

Called the finest detective story ever written by Dorothy Sayers and G. K. Chesterton, The Moonstone introduced a number of elements that have become classics of the genre—the private detective, a plethora of red herrings and false suspects, a reconstruction of the crime, and a final twist.

Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair At Styles, was set in an English country house, and she went on to write at least ten more with similar settings.

Other classic mystery writers joined the party—Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, P. D. James, Georgette Heyer, Patricia Wentworth, Josephine Tey, Martha Grimes, and Elizabeth Peters, to name a few. Interest in the English country house setting was magnified by post-WW2 nostalgia. By 1955, one county house was demolished every five days in Britain, victims of death duties and the financial demands of a way of life no longer sustainable.

Here is a short list of my favorite country house mysteries—all readily available as e-books and audible recordings as well as traditional print versions:

The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christine
The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne
The Body In The Library by Agatha Christie
Clouds Of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers
Tied Up In Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Crime At Black Dudley by Margery Allingham
The Stately Home Murder by Catherine Aird
Curious Affair Of The Third Dog by Patricia Moyes
An English Murder by Cyril Hare
A Fatal Winter by G. M. Malliet
The Intrigue At Highbury by Carrie Bebris
Murder at Madingly Grange by Caroline Graham
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
The Twelve Clues Of Christmas by Rhys Bowen
Murder On A Mystery Tour by Marian Babson

But how about writing a mystery set in an English country house? April could be the new NaNoRiMo. After all, Shakespeare is reputed to have written both King Lear and Macbeth in 1602, during a self-imposed exile from the London plague.

 Here are a few possible scenarios from history to spark your imagination:

1. The cash-strapped aristocrat who can’t say no to a ridiculously extravagant guest

Setting: Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire, country seat of Sir Henry Lee, Master of the Armory during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Background: Every summer the queen would leave her London palaces and embark on a “progression” through the countryside with a mile-long train of carriages, carts, and courtiers—three hundred souls to house, feed, and entertain.

In 1602 when Sir Henry Lee learned of the queen’s intention to grace him with her presence, he wrote to Sir Robert Cecil, complaining the visit would bankrupt him. Would regicide save the day?

2. An attempt to impress that goes horribly wrong

Setting: Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, the county home of Robert Dudley, 1st East of Leicester and Elizabeth’s reputed favorite. 

Background: In 1575 Dudley welcomed the queen with an extravagant pageant that included music, masques, dancing, elaborate banquets, a fireworks display, and a volley of cannonballs that went awry, setting fire to several houses in a nearby village. Imagine one of Kenilworth’s footmen, intent on revenge.

3. The country house host who turns out to be halfway ’round the twist

Setting: Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland, inherited in the eighteenth century by Captain Frances Blake Delaval, who threw house parties famous for gambling, scandalous behavior, and practical jokes.

Background: Guests at Delaval Hall might be undressing in their assigned bedroom when mechanical hoists would raise the bedroom walls, exposing them to their hosts. In one room, a four-poster bed could be lowered into a tank of water. In another, guests would wake to find the room upside down, with chairs and tables stuck to the ceiling. Is humiliation a motive for murder—or a red herring?

4. A spy for the WW2 Axis powers, intent on bumping off Winston Churchill

Setting: Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire, the same country house where Queen Elizabeth I was an unwelcome guest more than three hundred years earlier.

Background: Churchill’s family home, Chartwell, was set on a hill south of London, an easy target for German aircraft; and his country retreat, Chequers, had an entrance road clearly visible by moonlight. Ditchley Park, surrounded by foliage and lacking a visible entrance road, was an ideal alternative when the moon was high. What would happen if a German spy insinuated himself into the household? Who would notice and save the world as we know it?

As you might have guessed, history is my favorite backdrop for murder, and there’s never a shortage of background material. Myths, legends, history’s mysteries, and real-life scandals—all can be found in the iconic English country house.

I write the Kate Hamilton Mysteries, set in the modern-day UK and featuring American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton and Detective Inspector Tom Mallory of the Suffolk Constabulary.

 Book One, A Dream of Death, is set in a country house hotel in the Scottish Hebrides, famous for its connection with Bonnie Prince Charlie. Book Two, A Legacy of Murder, features Finchley Hall, a crumbling stately home in Suffolk, famous for the unearthing in 1810 of an Anglo-Saxon treasure trove known as The Finchley Hoard.

Book Three, to be published in the spring of 2021, centers around Hapthorn Lodge, home to a reclusive widow who decides to sell her husband’s collection of art and antiques. I’m not sure where Book Four will take Kate and Tom, but one day I know they’ll visit his Uncle Nigel, owner of Fouroaks, a country house in the wilds of Devon.

*****

Look for Connie Berry’s mysteries, and your favorite English country house mysteries, in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

While HarperCollins provided the above information, and additional information below, The Poisoned Pen is the place you should look for Agatha Christie novels. What better time for an Agatha Christie fix than right now? They’re familiar, somewhat comforting mysteries, perfect to read while staying home. Check the Web Store for Agatha Christie books. Now might be a good time to introduce them to a teen in your family as well. https://bit.ly/3bK6uMU

“New research has revealed that an estimated 32 million Americans have read an Agatha Christie book and in 2019 alone over 900,000 people bought an Agatha Christie book in the US.  Additionally, Agatha Christie is the introduction to mysteries for 3 out of every 10 readers in the nation.

The research was commissioned by HarperCollins to mark the centenary of Christie being in print and was conducted by an independent research agency. It included 4,500 nationally representative fiction readers in the UK, US and Australia.

Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist in history. With over one billion books sold in English and another billion in over 100 languages, her popularity has never waned; last year her English language sales exceeded two million copies.”

“2020 marks 100 years since Christie’s debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, a Hercule Poirot mystery, was first published.  The story was serialised in The Times’ (London) weekly edition from February to June 1920 and later published as a novel in America in October 1920.  The book was the result of a challenge between Agatha and her older sister, who bet that Agatha couldn’t write a detective novel.  While she was working in a dispensary during World War I, Agatha came up with the idea for the story using her knowledge of poisons.

After that, she conquered the publishing world for more than 50 years, releasing works that defined the genre including And Then There Were None, the world’s best-selling crime novel.”

The centenary year will see celebrations across the book world and beyond, culminating in the release of 20^th Century Studios’ highly anticipated film adaptation of Death on the Nile directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as Poirot.

Do you know the plot summary of Death on the Nile? Here’s the description as it appears in the Web Store.

DIRECTED BY AND STARRING KENNETH BRANAGH

Following the success of Murder on the Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh returns to direct and star in this adaptation of the classic Hercule Poirot mystery for the big screen, also starring Gal Gadot.

Beloved detective Hercule Poirot embarks on a journey to Egypt in one of Agatha Christie’s most famous mysteries, Death on the Nile.

The tranquility of a cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything . . . until she lost her life.

Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: “I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.” Yet in this exotic setting nothing is ever quite what it seems.

*****

Thank you to HarperCollins for some of the above information. They also provided the following “Surprising Facts About Agatha Christie”.

Agatha Christie’s personal life was just as interesting as her professional work. During World War I, she worked firstly as a VAD nurse, and then as a qualified dispenser in the pharmacy at Torquay’s wartime hospital, where she acquired her knowledge of poisons. It was during this time that she devised the plot for her first detective story ““ a result of a bet from her elder sister Madge, who said she could never do it – and where she created Hercule Poirot, inspired by the Belgian refugees in her home town.

In 1922, she spent 10 months travelling the world with her first husband Archie, on a research mission for the British Empire exhibition. During this Grand Tour, she learnt to surf in South Africa and Hawaii, and is credited with being the first Western woman to stand up on a surfboard.

She was also an amateur archaeologist. Over two decades, she attended digs in the Middle East and North Africa with her second husband Max Mallowan, living on the excavation sites where aside from writing her novels, she photographed the artefacts and cleaned them using her own face cream.

STATS

• Over 2 billion books published, with as many published in foreign languages as in English.
• Outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare.
• Her books continue to sell 4,000,000 copies every year.
• A writing career spanning six decades, with 66 crime novels, 6 non-crime novels and over 150 short stories.
• The most successful female playwright of all time, holding a world record as the only female playwright to have three plays running simultaneously in London’s West End.
• Wrote around 25 plays, of which the most famous, The Mousetrap, is the longest running play in the world, having debuted in 1952.
• Since first publication, her books have been published in over 100 languages, making her the most translated writer of all time. Currently she is published in 57 languages and in over 100 countries.
• Her work includes Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and the genre-defining And Then There Were None.
• Created Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, two of the most famous detectives of all time.
• Received a DBE in 1971.

It’s not too late to pull out your calender and plan to attend The Poisoned Pen’s upcoming virtual author events, live on Facebook. A number of authors are scheduled to appear to discuss their new books. Check the Web Store to order or pre-order copies of those books, many of them signed. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Matthew Quick, author of Hour of the Assassin, kicks it off at 6 PM MST on Wednesday, April 1. The first half of April features a full slate of authors. Check out the list below, and the varying times of the events. Hope you can join Barbara Peters and Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen.

Check out our Virtual Events!