Do Old Habits Die Hard?

 RHYS BOWEN:  Like many of you I belong to several Facebook groups: historical novels, Friends and Fiction, book clubs etc.  And I’m struck by something that surprises me. When I read comments on a post that says “what is the best book you’ve read this year?” the answers are not all newish books. One person answered Prince of Tides. Several mentioned Rosamund Pilcher.  This makes me wonder if these people maybe don’t read any more but want to be part of the conversation? Or they go to the library and choose random books?  Or… have a really large TBR stack???

I have to admit that I do reread old favorites and they are still favorites, but most of what I read has come out in the past couple of years. I always seem to have a book to blurb that hasn’t even been published yet, then there are all my friends’ books, plus new books by my go-to authors. 

I also realise, as I write this, that I don’t use libraries any more.  It’s so easy to click on Kindle and there is the book, ready to read. It’s a shame because I used to adore libraries. When I had small kids the library was my magic portal. I’d find my next Tony Hillerman or Mary Stewart and couldn’t wait to get home to start reading  (confession, I sometimes started in the car outside the library). I also stumbled across books I hadn’t known about. That cover looks interesting… give it a try. 

During my early writing years libraries were also my go-to for reference. Anything that I couldn’t find on the shelves I asked the reference librarian and together we sleuthed out the answer. In an early adult novel I wanted to know when elastic was invented. My hero was undressing the heroine! Could he just pull down her underwear or did he have to untie it? We searched and found that yes, elastic has been invented but it was only being used for the sides of boots at the time!

Now I do all my research online. For my Molly books with Clare we access the archives of the New York Times. It’s all so easy but I do miss my library visits. 

So what about you, Reds and Reddies? Do you still visit your local library regularly? And is your reading mostly from newish books?

HALLIE EPHRON: I do visit my library VERY regularly. I volunteer in the library bookstore which is stuffed with books donated by library patrons and sold for a few bucks a pop (or during “bag” sale week, $10 a bag). It generates a nice extra-income stream for the library.

But I can’t go in looking for a particular book. (The newly published ones that I find in book reviews I download onto my Kindle, sadly skipping the library or the bookstore.) I surrender to the complete serendipity of what’s there and what catches my eye. Often another shopper or volunteer or librarian steers me to whatever I end up taking home. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: As a kid I was always always in the library, the one at school or the one in town. But now my connection with fabulous and life changing libraries mostly comes from doing events for them or appearing at them.   I am devoted and in love with libraries, as you can see in ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS, where some of the key scenes take place in libraries and with librarians.

My reading now, though, is almost always of new books..and most often, books that have not been published yet but are in the galley-for-a-blurb stage. Or for an author I am interviewing for one of my shows.

In fact, the weird thing about my reading is that I hardly ever get to “choose” a book to read anymore–they are mostly all homework! Assigned reading for a blurb or event or interview. I do love it–because it often requires me to read a book I might not have chosen on my own, and that can be wonderful.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am very embarrassed to admit that I do not use my local library–and I love libraries!! I was hoping when our main, and also nearest me, library branch opened a new facility more than twenty years ago that it would be a pleasant place to take my laptop for some good writing time, but unlike some other wonderful area libraries, they really didn't provide that. And now that library has been undergoing massive renovation for the last couple of years, so I'm crossing fingers that it will be a more welcoming place when it's finished.

As for taking out library books, I get zero points on that score, too. I love to browse in libraries, but I always have so many things I have to read, and when I used to check out books I could never find time to return them. I have aspirations to improve when our branch opens again! 

LUCY BURDETTE: But Debs, you should not feel bad that you don’t take books out of the library because you buy them like mad, and read them too!! (I’m in your camp:)

I spend a good bit of time in my hometown libraries for events, both mine and the Friends of Library etc. The renovated Madison CT library has wonderful places to work, and I go there when I’ve dropped Lottie off at the groomer and don’t want to waste time driving. They also have an amazing children’s area, which our grandkids love when they come to visit. Key West is more crowded–I’m afraid I’d end up chatting the day away!

As for what to read next, I’m on dozens of book recommendation lists (including Jungle Reds), and I listen to a few pals who read like mad and have similar tastes. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I still use my regional library, Portland Public, and approach it as Hallie does, looking for a new and interesting title I hadn’t heard of. Their new novel shelves are invaluable. My first priority is for blurbs or if I’m doing an author interview, then I try to keep up with friends, and THEN I try to keep abreast of what’s new and selling. Hank’s list of what she’s reading is invaluable for this last purpose!

However, sometimes I want to settle in with something I know I’ll love, and that’s when I re-read Rosemary Pilcher and Lois McMaster Bujold. In addition, I’m one of those folks who likes to re-read at least the last book in a series when a new one comes out - and if the author, ahem, takes her time between books like I do, I may re-read all of her prior novels featuring the same cast of characters!

JENN McKINLAY: My library is my area of temporary refuge. When I can’t concentrate at home, I go to my local library where I have a specific study carrel where I sit to get my writing done. I love it. As for books, I browse the shelves to see what’s popular and I check out books I’m not certain I want to buy.

RHYS: Well, Jenn, you know all about magical libraries. I suppose all libraries are magical in. a way. They are portals to so many worlds. In fact the book I've just turned in, next year's stand-alone novel, takes place in a fabulous library in a British stately home. Imagine owning a library with every antique book you could think of.  You wouldn't want to sell those books, would you? But my character might have to, unless.... It's calle THE LANGUAGE OF LOST BIRDS.

So what about you, Reddies? Do you still use libraries? And do you read mainly new books or revisit classics or old favorites?

Which Places do we Love?

 RHYS BOWEN: As you now know, my new book, THE CASTLE IN THE GLEN  is set in Scotland. I’d been wanting to set a story there for some time but couldn’t find any story idea that would fit until now. So I was delighted to send my heroine, Emma, up to the Isle of Skye to experience that atmospheric scenery as she tries to solve an old murder case. 

Scotland is one of those places that draws people…that mix of wild scenery, mists, storms, Celtic heritage and traditions and a wee bit of magic thrown in. We love to think about storm kelpies, shape shifters and small towns that only appear once every hundred years. When you set a story in such a place you start with a degree of expectation and even a sense of danger. Perfect for a mystery.

Thinking about this it’s interesting to me that some settings seem to resonate with readers more than others. Two of my books that have sold the most copies are the Tuscan Child, The Venice Sketchbook. There is something about Tuscany and Venice that draws people. We get a clear picture of hilltop towns, of canals and bridges. And of course they come with all the history and romance too. When you open a book about Tuscany you expect history, romance, sweeping vistas. If I set a book in Cleveland Ohio, I’d have to work hard to take my reader there.

Other places that seem to have instant appeal are Paris, of course. So many books with Paris in the title (yes, I’m guilty too). And look at Jenn’s Paris is Always a Good Idea, which I’m loving on TV!!! Then there is  the English countryside. Set a book in the Cotswolds or Cornwall and people will want to read it.  The other one is Nantucket. How many books have I seen recently with titles like The Nantucket Summer, the Nantucket Heartbreak. Now I’ve been to Nantucket and it is charming but there are so many charming villages up and down that coast. Why not the Gloucester Summer, the Kennebunkport Romance? I suppose Nantucket is an island, which makes it more appealing.

So I’d like your take on this: how important is setting to you? Is deciding on setting one of the things you do first? Or do you create your characters and then decide where to put them? Have you ever wished you’d set a book somewhere else? Why do you think certain places seem to draw in readers more than others? 

LUCY BURDETTE: I adored the Isle of Skye in your new book Rhys, but then all of your standalone titles have had wonderful settings. But think about Ann Cleeves for a minute. I suspect her best-selling series is the Shetland books, though I don’t know that for a fact. I like the backdrops in Vera and Two Rivers, but Shetland really stands out. You might remember that I took my family there a few years back because of Ann’s mysteries. It’s just as spectacular as she describes it, both in words and in the TV series. Kent Kreuger is also a master at setting–mostly the boundary waters of Minnesota. He’s able to use the setting to magnify the darkness of the books–this happens with Icelandic authors too.

Key West is different because it isn’t dark, at least on the surface. The contrast makes it an amazing place to set books. You don’t expect crime in such a beautiful place! Lots of my readers have been there once and the books allow them to travel back to a place they love. That’s how I feel about Paris!

HALLIE EPHRON: Scotland! Key West! Miss Marple’s St. Mary Meade! Philip Marlowe, Easy Rawlins, Harry Bosch, none of them could be rooted anywhere but Los Angeles. 

When I was writing my first novel I mistakenly thought that setting was “window dressing” - you needed characters to be rooted. But there’s so much more to it than that.So many great mystery novels, in particular, are particularly great because of the setting. (Hoping to one day to hang out with Cara Black in Paris on one of her tours of Aimée LeDuc’s hangouts.) Rhys, you totally ace it with THE CASTLE IN THE GLEN. *AND* we get to visit it in two timelines!!

JENN McKINLAY: Thank you for taking me vicariously to the Isle of Skye, Rhys! It’s on my list but this was so much easier than actually booking a flight. 

Setting is huge for me as an author. I like to write about places I want to visit because…research trip! As a reader, I definitely enjoy a well written setting but I’m more open to different places because I don’t have to write about them – if that makes sense.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I had the joy of taking myself to the Berkshires (in my imagination and memory)  for MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER, and it is fascinating how my lived experiences there for so many summers came back in the loveliest ways–and sometimes,  the scariest. And when you are actually there, you see and hear and experience things that make it so authentic. The turn of a phrase, or someone’s nickname, or how the windows fog up when you go inside.  

SO funny–the opposite works, too. When I wrote ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS, Tessa had to go to Des Moines. (too long to explain) I had never been to Des Moines, so I researched  like mad and it turned out that the Des Moines Public Library (and its surroundings) became the setting for several crucial scenes. So of course I went there on book tour, and I laughed for a solid hour. Because it looked exactly like how I had written it in the book! It was SO funny! I kept  thinking: My book is REAL!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Setting is SO important! One of my early influences was Tony Hillerman; there’s nothing in his books - character, crime, economy, dangers - that doesn’t flow out of the setting. Yes, there are times I wish I had written a series that took place somewhere other than the chilly Adirondack piedmont, usually when one of you are taking a research trip to the French Riviera or the English countryside!

There’s an interesting example of setting in Lee Child’s ONE SHOT. The midwestern city where the action takes place is never named, but Lee got the small details and the vibe so right multiple readers over the years have sworn it takes place in Columbus, or Cincinnati, or Omaha, or Kansas City, etc, etc. A lesson in how the particulars and the feel of a place make the setting for the reader, not the street names and locations.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: You couldn't have picked a more atmospheric setting than the Isle of Skye, Rhys! And what a fabulous place to "have" to do research!

I'm a sucker for setting, both as a reader and a writer. Setting has almost always been the first trigger for my books, a place that tickled my imagination, sometimes one already familiar and sometimes one I've wanted an excuse to visit. And I have to admit I'm most likely to pick up a book by an unfamiliar author if the setting appeals. Now, why we are attracted to certain places more than others is its own mystery…

RHYS: Now it's your turn. How important is setting to you? Are there some settings that instantly draw you to a book?

You Say Tomato, I Say Yes!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Do any of you grow tomatoes?

Should the tomatoes be ready now?

We planted them, just as we usually do, not as many as in previous years, but whatever. And we usually plant Sun Golds, which are those little orange cherry tomatoes, which are so sweet and so delicious and I adore them. And grew like mad.

But we couldn’t find them this year, and I reminded myself that everything doesn’t have to be exactly the same every year, so go with the flow.


So we got another kind, I forget the name, and I have to say this is a different experience.

First of all, this plant, this particular plant, was never happy. It is in a perfect tomato place, many plants have thrived here before, but this one, I could tell from moment one, was not enthusiastic.

It produced two little tomatoes, bigger than a cherry tomato but not as big as a big tomato, and they were growing nicely, even as the leaves were giving up the ghost.

They tried to grow, but yeah, they were not happy. See all the yellow leaves? And it had just the right amount of water and sun.

It tried, it really did, but I could hear the death rattle. I picked one of the tomatoes, the redder one, while it was still too green, after the rabbits got the other one. 

We put it on the windowsill to ripen, and here it is. Next to a peach. You can see the size. ::shaking head:: It did the best it could.

As for our other tomatoes, they look like Roma tomatoes, that Italian tomato shape. They are still super tiny. Should they be so super tiny still?

Even the grocery store, Whole Foods, does not have those fabulous tomatoes that I long for every year.   Why? Even the heirlooms are not tasty.

One of my favorite things in the world is tomato toast. It is toast, with tomatoes on it. No mayonnaise, no butter, no anything. Just toast and tomatoes. The tomato juice sinks into the toast, and it is ambrosial.

But the better the tomato, the better the tomato toast, and so far we are at 80% good.

What’s your tomato situation, Reds and Readers? Are you as fond of them as I am?

((PS: AND THE WINNER of HER PERFECT LIFE IN gulp, mass markeet paperback is : DEE! Email me your address at hank@hankphillippiryan.com)

Books On The Path to Extinction?

 Did you enter the JUNGLE RED GIVEAWAY?  Winner announced below!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  It’s topical not only because the trade paperback of  ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS comes out tomorrow--see how cool?-- but there's a whole sea change about paperbacks right now that's pretty interesting.

There used to be two kinds of paperbacks: a trade, which is about the size of a hardcover book, and the mass market, the kind you could fit in your back pocket or in your purse or in the glove compartment. If you took in it your beach bag and got sand in it, or if it got dropped into the bathtub, you really didn’t care. They were kind of… disposable. 

All of my books have come out first in hardcover and e-book and audio, and then additionally  in trade paperback size, and then a year after the initial publication of the hardcover, in mass market paperback. (See? ARC, hardcover, trade PB, MMPB, and audio CD.)

But no more. No more mass market paperbacks. Done and over, and extinct. So they say.

So weird! You could buy them, though, in grocery stores and drugstores, too, and they were perfect impulse buys. I completely remember gasping with delight when I saw my books in the CVS, and in Star Market. It just made them seem like real books. And like I was a real author.

But after you read them, then what? I just found my battered mass market of In Cold Blood-- you can see I’d tried to use tape to keep the cover on, and failed.  But I do love this book, and it is a permanent fixture around here. 

It’s hard to donate paperbacks, because they are so battered so easily. And it’s hard to throw them away because, well, they’re books. And how could I throw away this shelf in my house:

or this one:

or this one?

ANYWAY. It’s not going to matter anymore, because as I said, they’re not going to make them anymore. 

 Tell me what you’ve heard are the reasons, but I heard that during the pandemic the paper costs went way up, and the administrative cost to make them and ship them from China went way up, and they were not cost-effective, and people were using Kindle instead.

So as a result, the big distributors decided they weren’t going to distribute them anymore. And as a result of that the publishers decided they weren’t going to print them anymore.

What do you think about that? Will it change your life? Will it change your reading? Will it change your buying habits? Do you have any mass market paperbacks that you will never part with?

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m sure it’s a business decision on the part of publishers. Pumping out an ebook costs so much less (no paper, no printing, no shipping and warehousing…) And I get it – over time I’ve become much more likely to download an ebook than buy a hard copy. Still I miss that mass market size – a book I could tuck in my pocket and then leave behind in my hotel room for the next lucky visitor. Buy in the airport and finish by wheels-down.

LUCY BURDETTE: I have a fondness for mass market paperbacks because my first eight books came out in that format. However, I understand this is a totally financial decision. I’ve learned to step back when the publishing gurus say something is gone because before you know it, it will be back again! Personally, I find them hard to read because the type is so small. But I get it that books have gotten so expensive that it’s hard for people to fit hard covers and big paperbacks into the budget.

RHYS BOWEN:  My early books came out as MM paperbacks a year after the hardcover but switched to trade paperbacks around ten years ago.. I think mm paperbacks fell out of favor because the type is too small for older readers, also because it’s harder to hold them open without their falling to  pieces. Personally I choose e-books over trade paperbacks. And if I’m buying it’s the hardcover. Not that much more expensive and looks better on the shelf. 

My Lake Union books come out in all formats on the same day. Strange but true. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: My books have only been trade and hardcover for a long time, but the early ones were hardcover and then mass market. But I think e-books now fill the mass market budget category and I suppose it makes sense for the publishers to discontinue the format. I’ve held on to some mass markets over the years, many of them out of print and irreplaceable, but when I’ve tried to read them the pages are yellowed and the print is too small. Maybe they will now be valuable to collectors?

Personally, I read in all formats, hardcover, trade, e-books, audio books, but I especially love trade paper. Still easy to carry around, but I don’t have to worry about leaving my Kindle–or worse, my iPad–somewhere!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: So many paperbacks! I still have them on shelves, in the attic, in boxes in the back of closets. I just can’t seem to make myself throw them away. 

I agree that the “affordable, and I don’t want to invest in a ‘good’ book” market’s been taken over by ebooks, but they will never replace the joy of spending hours in Owl Used Books lovingly going over each and every title to come up with five for one dollar. Not to mention the thrill of finding something interesting left behind by a traveller at a B and B, hotel room, or airport lounge. Ah, well. Tempus fugit, I guess.

JENN McKINLAY: Mass Market Paperbacks were all I read in high school and college because the price was right and the portability unbeatable. Alas, that print is so dinky, I much prefer trade or hardcover now. I was a heavy e-book reader for a decade but I’m so burnt out from screens that I just want a book to read. 

HANK: AND if YOU want a book to read:  BREAKING NEWS:  the winner of the very first Jungle Red Quarterly Giveaway is Diane W!    Diane@W**********.com       Diane, email me at hank@hankphillippiryan.com and send me your address–and SEVEN books will come your way!

And to all who entered–we are so thrilled! And we hope you enjoy our personal newsletters!

Now, Reds and Readers, what do you think about mass market paperbacks? Are there any that you will never give up? Will this decision change your life? (And one lucky commenter will get a MMPB of my thriller HER PERFECT LIFE! See? It's now a collector's item!)

Would You Live in a Castle?:

 RHYS BOWEN: My new baby book, THE CASTLE IN THE GLEN,  is now two days old. I’ve had some lovely feedback already including a review that says “Rhys Bowen knocks it out of the park again.” Not bad, huh?

This story centers around a castle on a lake shore on the island of Skye off the West Coast of Scotland.  A young writer is sent there when she agrees to complete the final novel of a very famous writer, now suffering from dementia. But is the fictitious murder really fiction? The more she digs into the story, the more she finds real clues and a family who might do anything to keep her from finding out more.

Atmospheric. Suspenseful. Romantic. These are three adjectives that have described the book by those who have read it.

So the story is about a family who has lived in a grim castle on a remote shore for many generations. This made me think: who would want to live in a place like this? Would the dark, oppressive atmosphere of such a building not shape your outlook on life? 

It's based on a real castle, or actually several real castles that families in Scotland still live in: They are grim and cold and dark and gloomy. this makes me wonder who would want to live there?

On social media I sometimes see some pictures of various houses and am asked which one I would choose (and thus reveal my true personality).  A cottage, a mansion, a lakeshore cabin, a mountain retreat, or a modern home on the sea shore. I find it hard to decide: I love being at the coast, watching the waves and smelling the salt air, but I also sense that coastside living is dangerous with climate change (ever practical as usual). I love the mountains but would I want to find myself snowed in? Avalanches? Lakeside cabin? Again beautiful setting but remote… what about bears and if I needed to get to a hospital emergency room? You see, my true personality is being revealed. Practical. Sensible. So I’d probably choose the cottage because the mansion would be too much to clean and heat. And the cottage would be in an English village which would suit me just fine.

To tell the truth I woud happiy live in my sister-in-law's manor house in Cornwall. Or in any cottage in Cornwall for that matter!

What about you, Reds. Which would you choose? And would you ever live in a real castle like the one on the island of Skye?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Absolutely no on the castle, Rhys. Ditto mansions. It may be fun to watch those restoration shows where people do up crumbling villas, but I've never had any desire to do that in real life. I am cottage all the way. In an English village, of course, so maybe we could go in together and do a time share!

But I have also always been fascinated by tiny living spaces. I have no idea why, as I live in a fairly big rambling house. My latest obsession is the Kris Atomic YouTube channel, where a couple give up their London life to live on a 70 foot narrowboat. I would do that, in an alternate universe.

RHYS: I'm obsessed with tiny houses. I'd like to see if I could live in one.

LUCY BURDETTE: I’ll do the cottage too, but not as a timeshare–I want to be in the village at the same time as you guys! Debs, when Hayley Snow and her hub were renovating a little houseboat, I had the most fun searching around online, including Pinterest, to find exactly the right features. The litter box was always going to be a problem…

Rhys, the new book is wonderful, but you sure did make that castle sound grim. And ditto for the little writer’s cottage! It was lovely to visit Skye and I am always in awe of your plot twists!

DEBS: Okay, we’ll just buy the whole village!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I have dreams,  and I can describe them completely, about living in a very very modern glass-walled house in the mountains on a lake. (Hey, it’s a dream, and that’s how it is.) I’m not sure what that means, but the house is amazing, so gorgeous, and I could draw every bit of it. Where did it come from? No idea, I have never been anywhere like that. So–talk  about a dream house, there it literally is!

Living on a houseboat or narrowboat? Or in a tiny house?  Yikes, no. Living in the Jungle Red village? In a heartbeat. What would we call it? Redlands?

HALLIE EPHRON: No castles for me, either. I’d be thinking about the house in the Sherlock Holmes story, The Speckled Band. Or more specifically, the snake’s head that descends from its fake bell-pull by the bed. Not a glass-walled house, either, thank you very much. 

But I love taking a “trip” to Rhys’s castle and letting my imagination run wild, just not a sleepover. Writers have fertile imaginations.

JENN McKINLAY: I’ll take the castle! When I traveled in Ireland, we stayed in Ballyseede Castle near Tralee and I loved, loved, loved it. Castle life is definitely for me – so long as it’s fully staffed and I don’t have to pay the bills. Otherwise, move me into a cottage in Redlands forthwith!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’ll take the castle as well, Jenn, or an English Country House, and since we’re dreaming, I’m imagining I have SO much money I can pay for all the heating, upkeep, and a small staff consisting of a butler, housekeeper, cook, laundress, gardener, two garden assistants, two maids. I’m not fancy, I don’t need footmen or a chauffeur. 

I feel I’ve read about a group of either friends or relations who bought up a bunch of wonderful old houses in a French village and brought them back to life. Maybe that could be our JRW settlement! Terre Rouge if it’s in France, and if in England or Scotland, Redstow, because -stow (I looked this up!) means a gathering place in Old English!

RHYS: Leave it to Julia to come up with the perfect solution... of course we need staff to take care of the big house. But the idea of a Reds commune sounds so appealing to me. Restow, in the Cotswolds, right?

Or maybe Chateau Rouge and we'll take a floor or a wing each?

It's lovely to dream, isn't it?

But what about you, dear Reddies? What is your dream home? Are you living in it?  I have to say that I'd find it hard to beat my view right now...

Oh, and a request... If you read my new book and enjoy it, please do leave a review on Amazon or Audible. Reviews matter so much . And do let me know too. I love hearing from all of you.

Golden Age Gateway to a Lifetime of Crime Fiction

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Earlier this summer, The New York Times published Sadie Stein's list of her "10 best escapist" mystery novels from the Golden Age (generally the period between the two world wars), capable of getting a reader hooked on the mystery genre.


I was pleased by how many I'd read, but surprised by how many I HADN'T read. Even authors I'd never heard of.

I was expecting the list to include "greats" like Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, John Dickson Carr, Earl Stanley Gardner... . But I was surprised by some of the authors whose work I've never read.

So, my dears, what do you think of this list? Have you read the books on the list, and what would you add, maybe one that got you started reading crime novels?

Here's Ms. Stein's list…

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie (1926)
A mystery featuring her delicious creation, Hercule Poirot, six years after she introduced him to the world in “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” in 1920. Ms. Stein calls it "a master class in red herrings, misdirection and unreliable narration, and it ends with perhaps the greatest twist of all time."

Fer-de-Lance
by Rex Stout (1934)
This is the first novel featuring the massively massive Nero Wolfe with his sidekick (Archie) who channels a Fred Astaire vibe. Wolfe never leaves his office, never mind his chair. Loves orchids and veal cordon bleu, and "gets" women not at all.

The Franchise Affair
by Josephine Tey (1948)
Stein calls this one an "unsettling and acid-tinged nail-biter." In it, an elderly woman and her daughter are accused of kidnapping a teenage orphan, but their defense counsel (Robert Blair) is convinced they are innocent. Based on a real 18th-century case, the novel was and remains as controversial.

The Case of the Lame Canary
by Erle Stanley Gardner (1937)
The 11th novel featuring defense attorney Perry Mason (and published long before the TV show featuring him and the lovely Della Street began), the intrigue begins when a gorgeous broad brings the eponymous injured bird to his office.

The Duke of York’s Steps
by Henry Wade (1929)
In Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Poole's second outing, a banker is found murdered near London’s Duke of York monument. It's known for its great final twist.

Fear Stalks the Village
by Ethel Lina White (1932)
Into an idyllic village comes a series of poison-pen letters. Joan Brook, companion to Lady d’Arcy, receives one. So many suspects, from the vicar to a lady novelist. Paranoia abounds.

The Blank Wall
by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (1947)
At home in Connecticut while her husband fights in the Pacific, Lucia Holley tries to keep her teenage daughter safe from a creepy older man. Murder and blackmail on the home front, with Mom trying to keep everyone safe.

A Man Lay Dead
by Ngaio Marsh (1934)
A frivolous weekend party at an English country house with games that turn all too real. Enter handsome Roderick “Rory” Alleyn, intent on identifying the killer who planted an antique dagger in a guest’s back.

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
by Dorothy L. Sayers (1928)
Wealthy amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey solves another (his fourth) murder. An elderly general is found dead in his armchair at his "club" and his sister is found dead at home. Who inherits? Subtle insights into the fallout from the Great War, even for those most cosseted by British society.

The Tiger in the Smoke
by Margery Allingham (1952)
In gentleman detective Albert Campion's 14th case set in postwar London, his supposedly widowed cousin needs him to investigate whether her husband really died on D-Day.

The Hollow Man
by John Dickson Carr (1935) A great locked-room mystery featuring Dr. Gideon Fell (supposedly modeled on G.K. Chesterton.) A body, three Transylvanian brothers, faked deaths, live burials, and a magician keep the reader juggling clues.

RHYS BOWEN: I am also surprised to see names I never knew about! I have read every Christie, Sayers, Marsh and most Allingham but this is a Josephine Tey I’d never heard of before.

I’m trying to remember which was my first Christie. I think it was The Body in the Library.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I just read The Hollow Man for an article on locked room mysteries I wrote, and whoa, it is….dated. But seminal, so there’s that.

Wade, White, and Holding? NO idea! That’s so perplexing. I thought I was tuned in. I think I’ve read the rest, wait, no, not that particular Allingham, which I have to say is SUCH a good idea. And some of the others sound terrific.

My first Christie was Orient Express, still completely fabulous, and definitely got me hooked on the whole genre, but Ackroyd is the best. Got to agree. And oh, I was in LOVE with Roderick Alleyn. And Peter Wimsey.

LUCY BURDETTE: I believe I’ve only read the first two and wouldn’t want to take a quiz on their contents! My gateway drugs were Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins and the Hardy boys and Cherry Ames.

JENN McKINLAY: I’ve read five – Christie, Tey, Gardner, March and Sayers–but that was decades ago when I worked as a page at my local library in high school and my grandmother was addicted to mysteries so we read everything we could get our hands on by those authors.

I’ve never heard of Wade, White, or Holding, but I am absolutely tracking down a copy of White’s Fear Stalks the Village. It sounds fabulous!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've read the Christie, the Marsh, the Sayers, the Allingham, and the Tey. I remember that while I loved some of Tey's other books (Brat Farrar!!) I didn't particularly like The Franchise Affair but I could not tell you the plot. Three of the authors, Wade, White, and Holding, I'd never even heard of! I I might have to look up Wade's The Duke of York's Steps! 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: As you may recall, I became a mystery writer after trying my hand at my then-reading favorite, science fiction, so I'm late catching up to the founding fathers and mothers. I'm still much more conversant with SF's Golden Age!

I've dipped in and out of several of these authors, but I clearly have a lot more to go. I'm surprised nothing by Mary Roberts Rinehart is included; she was a major American crime writer from the 'teens through the early forties, and she's credited with the (now old) term, "the butler did it!"

Hallie: So, Readers... what about you? Were there any "Golden Age" mystery writers whose work introduced (and hooked you) on the genre? Whose book would you add to this list??

PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA airs on Hallmark Plus TODAY!!!

Jenn McKinlay: At long last, the release of the adaptation of my book Paris is Always a Good Idea is here. I wish I could find the words to tell you what this means to me, but I've tried for months and I can't. It's just beyond my comprehension that this actually happened. Last summer there were some rumblings of an option, but those happen all the time so I didn't pay any attention. 

Then in the fall, the rumblings became actual conversations. Promising but only 1% of all books published get optioned and only 1% of all options make it to the screen so, again, I ignored it. Then the option contract came and I signed it. I figured that would be the end of it, but a week later, I was informed that the project had been greenlit. My book was going to be a streaming series for the Hallmark+ channel, starring the Queen of Hallmark, Lacey Chabert.

Yeah, I still didn't believe it. Then a big check landed and I thought: This might actually happen.

After that, things moved very quickly with Zoom meetings with the screenwriters and producer, a set visit in Spain (OMG!), and lots of press--so much press. I've done more interviews for this show than I have for all of my books combined. I don't mind a bit, but I also won't be sad for that portion of things to pass. It was fun, but I'm ready to go hide in my office now. 

ON SET IN BILBOA, SPAIN

Right now, before I watch the actual show, the highlight of this entire experience for me was the set visit to see the magic happen. Spoiler: it is not magic. It is a lot of hard work by very talented, very dedicated people, giving me a new appreciation for every show or film I watch. 

This wasn’t new information for me as I did a one time stint as an extra on a TV pilot (Moloney back in 1996). We were on set from 6 AM to 11 PM, and it was so incredibly boring (remember this is before cell phones so there was nothing, and I mean nothing, to do). If ever you watch it, I am in the police station scene, sitting at a desk when Peter Strauss walks by, eating pasta out of a plastic container. We did that scene so many times that the words “back to one” still make me a little stabby.

I had forgotten all of this when I went to visit the set. As I watched the super talented Rebecca Hanssen (of Baldur’s Gate and Witcher fame) do her scene over and over with the same dedication and presence, I wasn’t bored at all but rather incredibly impressed with her and every member of the cast and crew working to make what would be 30 seconds of the show the best it could be, especially given the stretch of cold rainy weather they were dealing with. It was so inspiring and, yes, it looked more fun than the revisions and edits I do all alone with a bag of Hersey kisses and a bottomless pot of coffee riding shotgun.

Amazingly, the set for Paris is Always a Good Idea during this filming stretch was in a castle outside of Bilbao, Spain. A castle, y’all! Full disclosure, I wavered about taking this trip because my cat was critically ill, it’s thirteen hours of flying (one way) to Madrid, and I’d have to rent a car and drive or fly again to get to Bilbao in northern Spain. But I kept thinking…if not now, when?

There’s no guarantee that another book of mine will ever be picked up for film. The social media messages I’d exchanged with the cast and the meetings I’d had with the screenwriter and the producer were all so positive that I was able to let go of my Imposter Syndrome (mostly). I hired my Hooligans — one as translator (he’s bilingual) and the other as navigator and photographer (he’s a film school grad) and off we went.

After touring castle Torre Loizaga with the charming owner Patricio and chatting with various crew, I met the delightful director Ed Bazalgette. As a creative who exists in her own bubble, it was quite a moment for me to have Ed express what he loved about the story, the characters, and the book’s messages about grief, love, and choosing happiness. Actresses Lacey Chabert and Barbara Niven also took the time to tell me how much they enjoyed playing their characters and loved the depth of the story. Lacey and I did several interviews and I can testify that, yes, she is the nicest actress in Hollywood. There’s just no way to express how these fellow creatives made me feel seen and understood in ways I never have before. Wow, just wow.

You see, at the time I wrote it, Paris is Always a Good Idea was the book of my heart, coming from a place of grief and loss. Because it was released five months into the pandemic, I never felt like it got the shot it deserved to reach its widest audience. The cast and crew don’t know it, but their kindness and enthusiasm for the story—from the point of view of creative professionals—healed a lot of wounds for me as I realized that this adaptation, the same but also different from the book, would allow my story to reach the audience I’d always hoped it would find. Those moments made the entire trip one hundred percent worth it.

I suppose the takeaway here is to live by the age old advice…order the dessert, buy the shoes, take the trip because…if not now, when? 

And today I'm looking forward to watching the adaptation and seeing my story be told through the eyes of other story tellers. From the scripts I've read and the clips I've seen, they've done an amazing job and I am delighted and so very grateful. Here's to dreams coming true!

What about you, Reds and Readers, how do you feel about book to film/tv adaptations? Do any stand out as particularly good or bad?