Thursday, October 4, 2018

Charles Todd--A Forgotten Place

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Two of the highlights in my year are the releases of two new Charles Todd novels, one featuring Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge in the winter, and one featuring WWI battlefield nurse Bess Crawford in the fall. Which means--There is a new Bess Crawford book, A FORGOTTEN PLACE !!!


And it's fabulous!! For those of you who don't know, "Charles Todd" is the mother/son writing team of Charles and Caroline Todd. I have been fans of the Todds since long before I met them, and now, even though they are dear friends and fellow Anglophiles and I have some idea how their writing process works, their books never cease to amaze me. A FORGOTTEN PLACE  is no exception.

The Todds have been kind enough to answer some questions for us today, but first, here's a snippet about the book to put our discussion in context:


The Armistice has been signed, and WWI is finally over. A battlefield nurse now attending war wounded amputees, Bess Crawford watches the despair Captain Williams feels for his wounded men.  The Captain worries that peace will do what war couldn’t—take their lives by suicide. For these men, there are no parades, no cheers. When they are sent home at last, their injuries prevent them from returning to the mines where they once made their living.  When the Captain’s letters become increasing depressed, Bess requests leave and goes to that bleak coal mining village to help. But she arrives too late. His men dead, Captain Williams has left the valley and Bess fears he too will find a way to end his own life. 

Finally, Bess tracks him to an isolated, storm-battered Welsh peninsula; a harsh and forgotten place where secrets and death go hand in hand. Once there, Bess realizes she is stranded—and in mortal danger. A rising death toll and the hostility of a village in possession of a lethal secret shut her in, as winter storms cut her off from any escape.

 In a place with no Constable, with the Captain and his wary sister-in-law her only allies, Bess is in a race against time to stop a murderer driven to kill again and again. And she must take care not to put the Captain and his brother’s widow at risk even as the villagers themselves begin to take the law into their own hands. The sense of urgency heightens as Bess fears the next person in a killer’s sights is Simon Brandon, searching for Bess and unaware of his danger. Meanwhile, not a soul in England knows where she is…

DEBS: I don't want to make this book sound depressing, because it's absolutely not, just gripping and moving. But I cried all the way through the opening scenes, where Bess is working with the injured soldiers in the clinic. How do you two explore these wrenching circumstances without feeling overwhelmed by the suffering of the characters?

CAROLINE:  Sometimes it’s awfully hard to write about real pain, something that affects real people. When the fighting ended in the last Bess, A CASUALTY OF WAR, and through her own tears, Bess saw that the doctor standing beside her was crying too, I realized that I was also crying.  But that’s how some people met the sudden quiet when the guns fell silent—the relief was too powerful for words. It was the hopelessness of shattered men that moved us at the beginning of A FORGOTTEN PLACE, because it had happened in real life. And here it becomes Bess’s motivation for all that follows.   

CHARLES:  Caroline’s right—it’s not easy to write a lot of scenes.  But my experience is, you have to know what your characters are going through.  If you don’t,  if you can’t feel for them and with them, it comes across all wrong. If Bess hadn’t felt deeply about what those wounded men had lost, she wouldn’t have cared enough to go to Wales. And the reader must feel that pain along with her, if they’re to respect her decision to help when no one else would. 

DEBS
: How do you come across such interesting settings? The part of Wales where most of the story takes place--the "forgotten place" is somewhere I'd never even heard of. But it was fascinating, and sounds so beautiful. Is it still that isolated now?

CAROLINE:  It’s a national park now, protected and still rather isolated. We took a trip to southern Wales, expecting to see castle ruins, picturesque headlands, and even the coal valleys, which are green once more.  It was an area we hadn’t really explored, and we were excited about that. But we didn’t anticipate writing about it.  To our surprise, a short story, THE TROPHY, which appeared in Alfred Hitchcock and then this Bess came from the trip. Once we saw that bay, so pristine in the sunlight, and heard stories about the storms and what had once happened there, we knew we’d found the right setting for PLACE.

CHARLES:  As you know so well in your own books, you can walk around a corner or turn down a country lane, and there’s the perfect setting, sometimes when you least expect it.  It just draws you in, and you begin to see things there.  A place to find a body, characters with their secrets, a village past that can be woven into the motive for murder.  And the more you investigate, the more potential you find. It’s why you go to England and why we do as well. There’s nothing like walking the ground.  It just catches the imagination.

DEBS; Which brings me to my next question. This book had a very different feel to me than the previous Bess books. Bess is usually, like Ian Rutledge, moving about a good deal, often back and forth between England and France, to London, to Somerset, even to Paris. But this book feels very confined, almost claustrophobic, with Bess being stranded in this remote part of Wales. Was that deliberate, or something that just grew out of the story? It's a great device for increasing tension.

CAROLINE:  We never know until we get there just where Bess’s story is going to take her. The question in Paris was, without her usual support team, could she manage to find a spy on her own?  And she discovered some really interesting new people to help her. When we started PLACE, we knew we’d go to the coal mines, because that’s where the men under Captain Williams had come from.  Then we realized that his story—and therefore Bess’s—couldn’t be finished there.  It held too many memories for him.  But that isolated village on the bay, where both he and Bess were strangers, put them at odds with people desperate to protect a way of life that was all they’d known.  And there was no one to help Bess as matters escalated.  It tested Rachel, it tested Hugh, and it tested Bess, all in different ways because they had to draw on their own strengths if they were to survive. The claustrophobia in the setting echoed their own sense of isolation. 

CHARLES:  Some of the best stories come out of what makes people tick. That’s why we call our books psychological suspense rather than historical mysteries. You’re looking at people who see their world in danger of being changed forever by a stranger, and some are willing to go to any lengths to protect what they have. The question is, where can you put your trust, when you don’t know who is a threat and who isn’t?  And that was the dilemma Bess faced in a place she couldn’t escape and yet couldn’t make sense of.

DEBS: And of course, everyone wants a hint of what's next for Bess. And Simon!
CAROLINE and CHARLES:  Well, the war is over now, and Bess will be sent to France to evaluate a situation for one of the Matrons high up in the hierarchy of the Queen Alexandra’s. What appears to be a rather straightforward mission is anything but, and while the Allied powers are trying to hammer out the Treaty of Versailles that will bring the war to an official end, Bess begins to look at her future for the first time.  After all, by Victorian standards, where girls married at eighteen, Bess would be considered a spinster! Does she want to continue in nursing in a civilian hospital? Stay in London at Mrs. Hennessey’s?  Go home to her parents in Somerset?  What she begins to realize, as she once more deals with life and death, is that her own life has been on hold for four years, and now it is she, not the Queen Alexandra’s, who must choose where it will go from here.  And Simon has some decisions to make as well…


DEBS: Oh, I can't wait! And as I've been lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the THE BLACK ASCOT, the Rutledge book coming out in February,  I will just have to read it again. It's that good.

Charles and Caroline will be stopping in to chat and answer questions about Bess and their writing, so please say hello!


Charles and Caroline Todd are a mother-and-son writing team who live on the east coast of the United States. Caroline has a BA in English Literature and History, and a Masters in International Relations. Charles has a BA in Communication Studies with an emphasis on Business Management, and a culinary arts degree that means he can boil more than water.




84 comments:

  1. Oh, a new Bess Crawford book is always a delight! Congratulations on the new book, Charles and Caroline. It does sound quite different from the usual situations Bess finds herself in and I am looking forward to reading it.

    I think one of the strengths of Bess’s stories is that you allow the reader to experience what the characters are going through as the story unfolds.
    I wonder if the idea you have at the beginning of a new book always works out, or do you sometimes find yourselves having to abandon an idea and start over again?

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    1. We've never had to abandon an idea, but so often our characters will show us a new way of looking at a situation. And we listen. That's why we sort of give them their head. Sounds odd, maybe, but if you force them into YOUR view of the story, they are more a puppet than a person.

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  2. Congratulations, Charles and Caroline! A new Charles Todd book is always reason for me to celebrate, and my copy of "A Forgotten Place" is on the top of my TBR stack. I particularly enjoy the Bess Crawford books because they raise so many social issues that reach beyond the mystery of the plot. Bess is trying to find her place in a society that is quickly shifting, particularly on the role of women. As a nursing sister she is already more independent than many women of her age and class. Now that the war is over, I can't imagine her going demurely back home to manage the church fete and arrange flowers. I'll be excited to see where you take her.

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    1. So will we! We always look forward to her views. And you're right, she's not going to be dull! But at war's end, the women did go home as men came back. I'm with you--how will Bess address this? And what will her parents say about it? They gave her permission to train as a nurse. Will they accept her new life?

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    2. This is such an interesting point. Bess has already led a much wider life than most young women of her time, even before the war, having lived in India as a child. But while she's independent, she's not rebellious. She never wants to worry or disappoint her parents. This may present her quite the dilemma.

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    3. I think one important aspect of her future prospects is that her parents trust her and respect her choices. True, she doesn't want to disappoint them, but they don't want to disappoint her, either. They have given her a huge amount of freedom so far. It think it would be hard for them to justify reining her in now.

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  3. A new Bess book is cause to celebrate! I wondered about your partnership (and amazing output!) -- how did you initially decide to write together?

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    1. It's funny, but we sort of tried writing to see if we actually could. Took us two years to get it right, to learn how to get along together and put the book first. I think we were both too stubborn to quit, once we got started. And I'm glad we were! It has been the greatest trip in the world.

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    2. Charles here--I just want to add that I was never stubborn! No, just giving Caroline a hard time. To anyone out there who wants to write, I'll say this. It's a lot more work than you ever expected. But that's because it's a craft and every craft has to be learned. But the reward for learning and staying with it means a better book. That's worth working for.

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    3. You two are too funny! I think you must have realized what a good idea it was once you got started and reread what you were coming up with.

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  4. I want to comment on the cover of A FORGOTTEN PLACE. We've been so lucky with our covers--the art department at Morrow works with us to get them right. And here is Bess standing where we stood as we looked down into that bay. You can just see the blue of the water below. I think I took forty or fifty pictures of that scene as the light changed, it was that amazing. And the cover caught this.

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    1. Caroline, I've kept the book out on my desk even after I finished, so that I could look at the cover. It's a mini-painting! The Morrow art department always does a great job on your covers but this one is spectacular.

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  5. This sounds wonderful. WWI in general is less written about than WWII, and I think that period between wars is also kind of a literary "black hole" (except for maybe the Depression years). Where do you find the research material?

    Mary/Liz

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    1. We have been to the Imperial War Museum in London, and our own WW1 museum in Kansas City. We've collected every first hand account of the war that we could find. Even the poetry of the period. We've talked to people who had family in the war. We've explored trenches and tanks and gone up in open cockpit biplanes of the era, and collectors have allowed us to handle weapons. And we go to England to do our research about time and place. We found we had to be very careful of later books on the war, because they have access to knowledge people at the time never knew. The same is true of WW2. I remember my Dad watching documentaries about the war afterward, because much of what was happening at the time had to be censored. But WW1 changed the Twentieth Century, and it is still affecting us today, so it has relevance even now. We're glad we decided to use it as a backdrop to mystery.

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    2. Charles here again--it's important to us to get it right. We sort of owe that to the war and the people who served and died during it. And to the characters in our books. If we can't nail something down, we don't put it in. But ideas come from all sorts of things. In one of the Rutledge books, a sniper's mask at the Kansas City museum became a part of the story and worked beautifully to throw people off the track of the real killer. And some trench art figured largely in another Rutledge. This makes the writing real to us.

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  6. Charles and Caroline, congratulations! I too am in awe of your output--right now I've read a tiny sliver of A Forgotten Place, don't want to gobble it up, so am trying to pace myself.

    How do you decompress after immersing yourselves in the research and writing of such emotionally rich scenes? Because the details that you weave together--the physical wounds, the medical staff's workload--it builds that world again so that we readers are able to experience the emotional toll with which your characters struggle.

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    1. Sorry, Flora, I had to go out and come back again! How do we decompress? That's a good question. Sometimes we write short stories about the war, sort of a way to move from Rutledge to Bess or vice versa. Charles likes to go fishing. I'll work in the garden. Travel helps as well, and I just love to travel. Charles has that bug too. And we READ. That's the one thing we miss most about writing, the time to sit down with someone else's book and just relax and enjoy. Charles likes to cook. Both of us love movies. And we both love music. So there are ways to let go. And you are right, it is very important to decompress. Otherwise the next book will suffer because we're still feeling the impact of the one before.

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  7. Great! My admiration for Charles and Caroline is boundless… I love every single Rutledge and every single Bess and it almost brings me to tears to think that I actually know you, too. I cannot wait to read this, and I just want to tell you… Oh, the joy you bring to your readers!

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    1. Thank you! Talked to Hallie earlier. Always great to catch up with everyone! And congratulations to you, I hear nothing but great things about TRUST ME! Well deserved, too!

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  8. Tell us more about the multi-layered meaning of the title! Xxx

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    1. The trouble with forgotten places is that no one would think to look there for Bess when she's supposed to be in Somerset! And the villagers prefer things to stay as they are, a place no one wants to bother with. They're so cut off--no doctor, post, constable, a road that's ridiculous, hardly more than a cattle track. And so the setting became a character too--the bay, the headland, The Worm. That often happens when a setting takes on a life of its own. The effect it had on people like Rachel and Ellen and even Hugh, was fascinating to watch too. And we were so aware of Bess's dilemma--she's hoping for the cavalry to come, but she knows she's really on her own. In some ways it's even a locked room mystery. What's going to happen to her if she can't get away...

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    2. Rachel and Hugh are such sympathetic and well-formed characters. I was rooting for them almost as much as for Bess.

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    3. We liked them too. Rachel and her sheep and her loom--we'd seen some really beautiful weaving while we were in Wales, and it just seemed to fit her to come up with such lovely pieces. She did the rest. And Hugh, as he changed with time, first stubborn and only thinking about his own plight, then struggling to help his men and regain his image of himself as a man. Nobody has mentioned the Welsh singing, but we heard a lot of that, and it is different and powerful, and part of the Welsh spirit. If you've never heard a Welsh choir of men sing, you're in for such a treat! They don't sing different keys of the same melody. Each voice sings the melody in his own key, and the way they blend is stunning.

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    4. Remember I had a weaver in Dreaming of the Bones? I even took a weaving class!

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    5. I think Wales, itself, is something of a forgotten place. There are plenty of books set in England, with Cornwall, Yorkshire, and London getting the lion's share of attention. Scotland and Ireland get tons of ink as well. Wales? Not so much, yet it has a rich and complex history too. Glad you mentioned the singing. They also have a strong harp tradition that is different from Ireland's in many ways.

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    6. As a big fan of Dylan Thomas, I can't agree more! The few films like The Englishman and the classic How Green Was My Valley from the novel by Richard Llewellyn showed the mystique and wonder of Wales! THe music is wonderful as well. It was so nice to work that into A Forgotten Place!

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  9. I'm reading this book right now and it's amazing! I had to google to see that land and it's stunningly beautiful, like something out of a fairy tale. I'm looking forward to seeing you both at Magna cum Murder.

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    1. And Magna is just around the corner! We're glad you googled it because it is even more amazing when you stand there on the headland and watch the water, listening to the quiet hiss as gentle waves lap at the land. You'd never think anything bad could happen in such a beautiful place. But the locals described some of the storms, and how that placid bay becomes raging water, dark and threatening, while the wind sweeps over the headland and even the sheep take shelter. We were so lucky to wind up there. And only miles away are two bustling ports, Swansea and Cardiff, but you'd never know it on the headland.

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    2. I Googled it, too, Cathy, as I was reading because the descriptions were so fascinating.

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    3. Isn't Google wonderful? I've followed you too, Debs! Even when I think I know the location, you give it such life that I go back and look. That's what makes books so wonderful, you can travel the world with them, and never have to stand in line at TSA! Or come home with a suitcase full of laundry to do. :-)

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    4. Said like a true world traveler:-)

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    5. Magna Cum Murder is a special event for us and all who attend. We look forward to seeing Peter Lovesey and you!

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    6. We're excited too, and look forward to seeing everybody. And Peter is such fun. it's going to be a terrific weekend!

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  10. Caroline is a human plot machine! I've never met anyone else with such an ability to generate story ideas. So, while I never worry that Caroline and Charles will run out of plots for more Bess and Rutledge books, I do wonder if the flow of new ideas and inspirations makes it hard to keep the work in progress on track.

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    1. I just love "possibilities" as I call them, and it keeps the imagination flowing. I don't think it affects the work in progress, but sometimes in the middle of a book you think, okay, where now?? And the best way we've found to get started again is to go back several pages or chapters and review. That seems to work really well. But the funny thing is, when you are close to finishing say, a Bess, little niggling thoughts about Rutledge start popping up. Or vice versa. I've learned to trust those, and I make a note about them. And once that book is started, sometimes they fit and sometimes they don't. Sometimes the plot is already off in a different direction. But that's all to the good!

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    2. Charles Kuralt said you never know what is around the bend! So many ideas come from the most unusual places. As authors we never stop thinking and looking for things we can use... one day.

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    3. So true. That's what keeps a book or a series fresh. That ...one day. Nothing is ever wasted.

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  11. Caroline and Charles, I have another question about Bess and Simon. I think you mean to tell Simon's story at some point--there are parts of his life and background that shadowy unknowns. If, and I know this is a big if, the relationship between Bess and Simon ever become more than friends, would class be an issue? Simon is an enlisted man, not an officer, and that was a big barrier.

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    1. It certainly is. And the Colonel Sahib might think of Simon as the son he never had, but how would he look upon Simon as a son-in-law? I think Bess's mother knows far more about Simon than she's ever told Bess. She's hinted at that several times. Bess has even said that she thought Simon would die for her mother, and she was a little jealous at first. And Bess's father must know a little, because he once tried to persuade Simon to go to Sandhurst and train as an officer. Simon refused. He was a rebellious teen when he arrived in India, so there's something there. I'm not saying he's the long lost son of a Duke, nothing like that. But he wouldn't have fit so well into the Crawford household if he wasn't more than just a man of the ranks. We'll learn the truth when Bess and Melinda and Simon go back to India. He's a very private man, and a very proud one. And Bess is a very good judge of character, so if she fell for Simon she would fight for him!

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    2. Charles here. That's going to be interesting to deal with. I like Simon a lot, he's a man's man, he's been a fine soldier, and some of the exploits we've given to him were based on real events. The thing is, will he indicate to Bess that he cares? Or will he respect her family too much to come right out and say something? Working all this out is going to fascinating. If it comes to a love scene, Caroline can write that. Women are better at it, I think.

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    3. Oh really?! I'll remind you of that! :-)

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    4. I love Bess and Simon but I don’t see that they could ever become romantically involved. To me, Simon is the big brother that Bess never had.

      And I’m very happy that I get to read a new Bess book. When I read them, I become oblivious to my own surroundings, and look up with surprise at my living room!

      I have yet to get started on the Ian books but that will happen soon.

      DebRo

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    5. DebRo, although you could pick up any book and enjoy, I would definitely recommend starting from the beginning of the series. I'm always a little shocked to realize how little time has passed in Ian's world since the first book. And Bess's timeline is catching up to Ian's, so that's very interesting. Their lives increasingly overlap--it would be such fun to see them solve a little bit of a case together. Or maybe a short story, Caroline and Charles?

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    6. DebRo, he really is. But could he also be something more? They are going to have to find what their relationship is now.
      I think Debs is right, you'll enjoy Rutledge. He's different from Bess--the Scotland Yard inspector who has come back from the war and is trying to pick up the pieces. Start with A FINE SUMMER'S DAY and then move on to A TEST OF WILLS. Before the war--and after the war.
      Charles and I have talked about Bess and Rutledge working together. It could happen, but it would have to be just the right plot. I can see a situation where he needs someone on the inside, someone he could trust. But woe betide him if something happens to Bess! Simon and the Colonel Sahib and Melinda Crawford would have his head! :-)

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    7. I see some binge-reading in the near future!

      DebRo

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    8. It might be hard for you to see Bess with Simon romantically, Deb Ro, but I can't imagine either Bess or Simon with anyone else. Any other romantic relationship they might have would force a lessening of the bond between them, and I think that would be a very difficult thing to do.

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    9. Gigi, my thoughts exactly. You can tell how real the characters seem to us!

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  12. Which reminds me of something! Most of the places where Rutledge or Bess go for a meal have long since vanished. A few of the hotels are still there, often under new management. Simpson's in the Strand is still there. Since your books are contemporary London and Scotland Yard, you find some of the neatest places for your characters to dine. I thought for the longest time that this was an English thing, but after spending a few days in your part of the world, I discovered that you have a knack for finding great food and great ambiance in which to eat it. And we've discovered some great places to meet at Conventions. Of course in WW1 there were so many shortages. The English could be excused for not offering much in the way of culinary art. But I think they get a bum rap when it comes to food. I've had wonderful meals there. And so obviously have you.

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  13. Caroline, some of the places I've written about are gone! Time moves on, even if books do not. But I do have a lot of fun finding real places for the characters to dine, or drink (the Scotch Malt Whisky Society!) or meet for coffee or tea. Of course in real life, Gemma and Duncan would probably be taking the kids to Nando's for chicken dinners:-)

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  14. I thought - wait - the war is over! That made me realize I'm behind by two books! (Now three.) No one send me any emails: I'm going to spend the afternoon catching up with Bess.

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    1. Ut-oh! You're going to have a busy afternoon! But I love it when I discover that I'm a book or so behind, because that means I can enjoy a binge. Otherwise, like many other fans, I'm usually hounding my favorite authors TO HURRY UP! Even if I finish theirs on pub day. You have heard me say that a few times! Debs can vouch for that about Gemma and Duncan too.

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    2. I only seem to fall behind on my friends' books!

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    3. Anxiously awaiting Duncan and Gemma too! And Ian as well.

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    4. THe Black Ascot is worth waiting for--or so everyone who has read this latest Rutledge has told us. The reviews will be in later in the year or early in the next year, and we can't wait to read them. Right now the pub date is Feb. 6

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  15. The book sounds intriguing and a perfect read for a rainy, gray Seattle afternoon! Is there a character from either the Bess or Ian books that you'd like to feature in his or her own series? Or maybe a completely new character? Or is two series enough? ;)

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    1. We actually written two stand alones with completely separate characters, THE MURDER STONE story didn't lend itself to a series, but the other, THE WALNUT TREE was a Christmas novella about the opening days of the war, with a dash of romance in it because it fit the plot. We've been asked to bring that character back, but haven't had the time so far. As for someone in the present two series, we've been tempted to write about Melinda Crawford. And we wrote a short story featuring Hamish, a mystery that takes place before the war, while he was living in Scotland--THE PIPER. It's an e-book. I expect we may write more about him one of these days. He's an interesting person in his own right. As for rainy, gray Seattle afternoons, after all the wet weather we've had here on the East Coast, I'm with you--a good book is the only solution, although cup of hot chocolate wouldn't go amiss...

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    2. A cup of hot chocolate is a requirement!

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    3. Love the Melinda Crawford character. Would make a whole series in just her exploits!

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    4. Another Melinda Crawford fan! She's wonderful, and you're right, her life would be fascinating.

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  16. Congratulations on the new Bess book, Caroline and Charles. I've had to lightly read over some of this piece and comments, as I have the first Bess book waiting for me to read this winter. I've started the Ian Rutledge books and love them. It's so hard to catch up, but I will. I have to say that you, Caroline, and you, Charles, are two of my favorite people in the mystery/crime community, always so nice to everyone and always so interesting to listen to. It is such a pleasure to run into you at Bouchercon.

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    1. That's why we love conventions! It's a chance to see old friends and make new ones. Are you going to Dallas? We've already signed up. I'm glad you're enjoying Rutledge, and I think you'll find Bess interesting too. So far I don't think we've given any spoilers! They are such different characters--Bess sees a mystery from the inside, from her own personal experience. Rutledge sees it from the outside, a policeman called to the scene. So we get to explore both kinds of detecting. That's really neat. If you can call murder neat. :-)

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  17. I love how atmospheric these books are, like a bit of time travel right into the past!

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    1. I love the settings we've used--each one is really an interesting place. And we got to know each one as it is today and as it might have been in Bess's time. Or Rutledge's. Sort of the best of both worlds! It's fascinating to travel back into the past this way. It's one of the reasons we both love PBS so much.

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  18. This book sounds fabulous! I resisted reading historical mysteries for a long time, maybe because as you mentioned it's difficult to read about real pain. But I have gotten into them within the past few years and have found some I've really enjoyed. I'm looking forward to checking out this series too.

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    1. We hope you'll love Bess. She's such a great character to work with. She tries to heal, whether it's wounds or the problems she's helping solve, and I think that's her strength. She's very human--she gets mad, she will stand her ground when she has to, and she fights for what she believes is right. And she'll admit it when she's wrong.

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    2. Absolutely wonderful series! Dive right in.

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    3. Thanks, Rick! We happen to agree! :-)

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  19. So lovely to see you here, Caroline and Charles. Congrats on the new book. I'm just thrilled to be reunited with Bess. Does it feel like that when you sit down to write - that you're visiting an old friend?

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    1. Absolutely! I've even dreamed about Bess or Rutledge. When we start a new book, it's exciting to be back with her. And we feel the same way starting a new Rutledge. They are such a part of our lives now! And we're really pleased with A FORGOTTEN PLACE--and we thank all of you for your good wishes! We enjoy sharing her with readers. So--December 1, and we'll have Chapter One up on the computer.

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  20. I anxiously await both characters books. I then have to save them for my next trip. It is so hard to see it on my Kindle and not just dive in. Usually when I do I don't stop until I'm finished. Thankfully I have a trip to Spain next week and I know what I'll be reading on the flight!

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    1. THat's a long flight, perfect for a good book. We are a book-in-my-hand type, but for travel, the Kindle comes out. We have hard copies of the books on Kindle, so the best of both worlds. Haven't been to Spain in a while, but have always enjoyed the country. Safe travels and happy reading.

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  21. Caroline and Charles, welcome to Jungle Reds! Caroline, I earned my BA in History too. Charles, did you work in the business world as a manager before starting a career as a novelist? I studied abroad at Oxford and studied the history of country houses in England. I was so fortunate to read ARCs for both A Forgotten Place and The Black Ascot. I loved them. I had the opportunity to visit Wales (Wye Valley) and we visited Goodrich castle, Raglan Castle and Chepstow Castle. I think there was a pub near Tintern Abbey. I was surprised by how green it was! I think A Forgotten Place is both a historical mystery and a psychological suspense novel.

    I wrote 5 star review for A Forgotten Place. Fans of Bess Crawford will love this novel.

    Diana

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    1. Thank you, Diana! I did my BA with English Lit and History as my majors, then went to grad school for an MA in Southeast Asian Studies. Quite a jump, that, but just as fascinating. I remember the Wye Valley well--beautiful area to explore. I'm drawn to the great abbey ruins as well.
      CHARLES: Yes, I had a career in business before we started to write, and that has worked out very well. I agree with Caroline, I envy you studying the country houses at Oxford. My camera takes panoramas, and where we could take photos in a country house, I always use that. Great for research later. Thank you for that review!

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  22. T'm taking a short break for dinner before the next round of storms comes up. See you in a bit!

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  23. We are fed, the zoo is fed, the storm appears to have missed us--and here I am again, eager to talk about books! It has been such a fun day--we always enjoy Jungle Red and all its many fans.

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  24. Charles: I second that. Our thanks to Debs for inviting us here to talk about A FORGOTTEN PLACE and the next Rutledge, THE BLACK ASCOT, with all of you.

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  25. Charles and Caroline: Good night, everybody! Thank you for stopping by to say hello!

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