No Spoilers, Please!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I always seem to come late to the TV party. I don't mean the latest streaming sensation (although I'm usually late to those, too) but the long-running mainstream American TV series that have been cultural touchstones over the decades. 

Star Trek, for instance, I only started to watch when it was in syndication, when I was in college, but the adventures of Captain Kirk and the Enterprise playing in the background got me through many long study sessions.

Then, when my daughter was born I had to spend a couple of weeks in the hospital, and I discovered Mork and Mindy. The series would have ended a couple of years before that, but I'd never seen an episode, and Robin Williams' brilliant goofiness was just the thing I needed to look forward to at the end of those long days.

I  missed the entire George Clooney era on ER, which must have been at least the first five seasons, although I later became a devoted fan and never missed an episode. (I did a panel with the fabulous Eriq La Salle at Bouchercon last year! I was totally tongue-tied!)

Streaming comes into the catch-up equation now, of course, with multiple seasons of old shows now airing on the services. Until last fall, I knew nothing about Suits other than that Meghan Markle, now Duchess of Sussex, had been in it. But when it popped up on Netflix, we got hooked and watched all nine seasons over a couple of months.

And that brings us to the latest binge, Grey's Anatomy. With all the fuss surrounding Bridgerton, I knew that Shonda Rhimes (Bridgerton's creator and producer) was producer, showrunner, and writer for Grey's Anatomy, but I had never seen an episode. I also knew the show was hugely popular and had won or been nominated for every major television award, but that was pretty much it.

Enter streaming, and we are now almost through season 5. I don't know that I'll make it all the way through, what is it now, 20 seasons? But for the time being, this is my evening 45 minutes of comfort TV. Grey has aged extremely well, I think, partly because it was groundbreaking in its day for its color-blind casting and strong character development, and partly because the hospital world exists a bit outside of time. The characters in the early seasons may have Blackberries rather than smart phones, but nothing much else has changed. 

Here's a quote from Shonda Rhimes about her concept for the series that I particularly loved and I think it it still feels so resonant: "I wanted to create a world in which you felt as if you were watching very real women. Most of the women I saw on TV didn't seem like people I actually knew. They felt like ideas of what women are. They never got to be nasty or competitive or hungry or angry. They were often just the loving wife or the nice friend. But who gets to be the bitch? Who gets to be the three-dimensional woman?"

But the big problem with coming late to such a long running show is avoiding spoilers! If I want to look up a cast member or an episode, I have to do it half-blindfolded, or I'll learn what happens to characters in episodes I haven't seen!

Reds and readers, have you come late to shows that had previously passed you by? 

Oh, and the best thing about these late discoveries, other than the ability to binge? NO commercials!!!

I've Got A Beef

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Everyone feel nice and warm after yesterday's trip down our childhood memory lanes? Good, because it's been a while since I had a good old beef session on this blog, and I've been saving up annoyances to share with you all, in the hopes that misery loves company. 

 

1. Fuel oil. Oh, my God. Okay, I know the rise in price has been caused by 8 or 9 or 10 different commercial, international and weather events that are vastly beyond my or my oil delivery guy's power to affect. Most of you don't have to interact with the fuel oil industry; only 10% of American homes are heated that way. But 75% of Maine houses rely on that big ol' oil truck pulling up to get 'er done. And you can just imagine how fast my drafty, 200-year-old house goes through the black gold. Texas tea. Etc.

In fact, the thing that really has me cheesed off is my furnace repair guy, Rick. A little over three years ago, the old oil tanks - a joined pair that held 500 gallons - had finally had it and needed to be replaced. I talked over whether to get another 500 gallon behemoth, or the more usual (and cheaper) 275 gallon version. "People used to fill up in the summer and take advantage of the lower price," Rick said, "but oil's been pretty stable year round for a long time now." So I went with the smaller tank. Why didn't you warn me about 7% inflation, Rick???

 

2.Burdocks. Why is it the plants I select, pay for, carefully set in the soil and mulch die before the end of the season, but those G-- D--- burdocks are taking over my property. Actually, that's not true; they aren't everywhere; they only cluster in areas where my dogs like to run back and forth repeatedly, so the impossible-to-remove burrs get stuck in their ears, muzzles, tails, legs, and in one memorable case, up where the sun don't shine. Yes, my daughter and I had to perform a burr-ectomy on Rockie's butt. There hasn't been a spot of green on my property for months (except for the Christmas tree I still haven't loaded up to take to the town dump) but those burdocks poke their dead dried heads above the frozen snow like a horde of zombies in The Walking Dead.

 

3.Is it "Keev" or "Key-yev?" Okay, this may be very niche. We're all worried about the situation in Ukraine, I'm sure, and I've been hearing quite a bit about it on NPR which is where I get most of my news (and entertainment. And weather forecasts. And tote bags.) Anyway, I've noticed  a new pronunciation creeping in: reporters who refer to the capital city of the country as "Keev."

Say what? Let me tell you, on the NPR classical station, when the announcers talk about Mussgorsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, they say "The Great Gates of Key-yev." Is it Key-yev? Is it Keev? I'm really hoping it's not the latter, because I only managed to stop saying "THE Ukraine" a few years ago. I still get confused with Siam and Thailand and Ceylon and Sri Lanka. I'm all set with Istanbul, though, thanks.

4. Bridgerton. Whyyyy do I have to wait almost a month for the second season of Bridgerton?!? Ted Lasso's not going to be out until the latter half of 2022, and I don't think they've even hinted at a drop date for the next season of Only Murders in the Building. In fact, my relationship with all our streaming services seems to be: wait with impatient longing to get a show I'm dying to see, binge it down within a week, and then wait a year or longer for the next season. (Side grouse: when did six episodes become a season? I remember when you got twenty-two new episodes a year with TV shows! Now get off my lawn.)

We have, paid for by different family members, HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Hulu. And between the lot, there's only one show a month I'm every actually interested in. Verily, the Golden Age of TV has feet of clay.

 

5.Ham. You probably do not have an issue with ham, dear reader, and until recently, I didn't either. I love ham. So twelve days ago, when I found a local store was selling spiral cut ham for $0.99 per pound, I grabbed one. I rooted around and got the smallest one I could find - about eleven pounds. It didn't look too big. And it smelled so good in the oven. Tasted like heaven!

But the only people eating this ham are me, and my young friend and temporary lodger Samantha. The meals have gone like this:

1st night: Ham, baked potatoes, green peas. Happiness.

2nd day: Ham sandwiches. Yummy.

2nd night: More ham. At least it's easy.

3rd day: Ham sandwich with fried egg to add a kick.

3rd night: Pasta with ham.

4th day: Ham on leftover cornbread.

4th night: Scalloped potatoes with ham.

5th day: Ham and despair. 

And so on. Dear readers, I still have almost half a ham left! I may be forced to learn how to grind and pot meat just to do something with the rest of it. I just wanted sliced ham and a sandwich the next day, and instead I've entered some sort of Sisyphean existence where every day I roll a ham up a tall hill and every morning it's back at the bottom of the fridge, as large as ever.

But I have faith; someday, I'll be down to the bone, and then it will finally be time for homemade bean soup. Of course, it's a big bone, so it will have to be a very big pot of soup...

Dear readers, what's been driving you bonkers lately?

The Westminster Intrigue--Tracy Grant

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We are inclined to think that our own era had the most scandalous scandals, the most outrageous behavior, but Tracy Grant, who writes wonderful Regency mystery/suspense novels, has a story for us today that could compete with any reality TV sensation. (Although of course if you watched any of Bridgerton, you have an idea what those lads and lasses could get up to!) Here's Tracy to tell us more!

TRACY GRANT: When I finish writing a book, I always find it interesting to look back at the influences that have shaped it. I write historical mysteries, so historical events always shape my books, and favorite classics such as Jane Austen and Shakespeare often influence me, but the influence of both were particularly strong in The Westminster Intrigue, my latest historical mystery about married ex-spies Malcolm and Mélanie Rannoch. The Westminster Intrigue released in May, but the inspiration goes back to the summer after I graduated from college, when my mom, Joan Grant, and I sought refuge from a heat wave in Ashland, Oregon, in the Southern Oregon University library. We were already co-writing our second Regency-set book, and when we stumbled on the divorce trial of George IV (the former prince regent) and his estranged wife Queen Caroline in a collection of Regency letters we were browsing, we knew it had to be the focus of a book. We started plotting our third book, Frivolous Pretence, that night.

 Years later when I began my historical mystery series about Malcolm and Mélanie Rannoch (who spied for opposite sides in the Napoleonic wars), I knew at least one of the Rannochs' investigations would take place against the background of the royal divorce trial. But first Mélanie and Malcolm had to navigate the intrigues of the Congress of Vienna, the Battle of Waterloo, and post-Waterloo Paris and London (with a side trip to Italy). I didn't get to the royal divorce trial until their latest adventure (by which time my own daughter was nine and writing her own stories). It was exciting to revisit the historical events I had explored with my mom decades ago.

George and Caroline's marriage was a disaster from the first (from the moment they met it seems). Their one child, Princess Charlotte (who died tragically in childbirth in 1817), was born almost exactly nine months after the wedding night. The royal couple soon separated. George returned to Maria Fitzherbert (whom he had married years before, secretly and without royal consent, which made the marriage legally invalid) and then took other mistresses. Caroline would later quip that she had once committed adultery, but it was "with the husband of Mrs. Fitzherbert." Eventually Caroline went to live in Italy. George sent commissioners to gather evidence against her. When he became king on the death of his father, George III, in late January of 1820, he was determined to divorce his wife and prevent her from being crowned queen. The divorce trial took the form of a "bill of pains and penalties" in the House of Lords (if it had passed it would have gone to the House of Commons) charging Caroline with "a most unbecoming and disgusting intimacy" with her courier, Bartolomeo Bergami (also called Pergami).

The trial was the talk of London, with the Whigs backing the queen and the Tories, the governing party, supporting the king. The evidence was decidedly bawdy—dirty linen literally being aired in public, with testimony about bedsheets and debates about if Caroline and Bergami had been seen lying down or sitting up (leading one of the characters in The Westminster Intrigue to say one can do quite as much in either position). Public opinion was on the queen's side, with petitions from groups all over the country, demonstrations in the streets, and insults hurled at peers as they drove to Parliament. Emily Cowper, sister of William Lamb (later Lord Melbourne) said in one letter that she regretted having a crown on the crest on her carriage. Reactionaries like my fictional Hubert Mallinson feared popular revolt. Malcolm and Mélanie Rannoch, needless to say, are firmly on the queen's side. Malcolm, as an MP, is in the midst of the political turmoil, as is my ongoing character Julien St. Juste (now Mallinson), who is now in the House of Lords.

The Westminster Intrigue also features my first opera singer character, Danielle Darnault, whose missing memoirs are potential blackmail fodder that could be used to influence the trial. Danielle's memoirs were inspired by the real-life memoirs of Harriette Wilson, who attempted (later in the 1820s) to blackmail a number of her lovers by offering to keep them out of her memoirs if they paid enough. Her lovers included the Duke of Wellington and Radical politician Henry Brougham who served as Queen Caroline's attorney-general. Both Brougham and Wellington are entangled with Danielle Darnault in The Westminster Intrigue.

While Danielle's memoirs were inspired by Harriette Wilson, Danielle's career and wonderful vocal range were inspired by the real-life Angelica Catalani, who sang Susanna in the English premiere of Le nozze di Figaro in 1812. I love opera (my nonwriting job is at the Merola Opera Program) and have had several scenes set at the opera in my books, but this is the first time I've written an opera singer.

Captain James Blayney, whose murder is the focus of the investigation in The Westminster Intrigue, is attempting to sell Danielle Daranult's memoirs, making a number of key figures at Queen Caroline's trial (both real and fictional) suspects. Jamie Blayney's character fell into place for me when I thought of him as similar to George Wickham in Pride and Prejudice, with his relationship with Lord Pendarves, one of the suspects, having echoes of Wickham's relationship with Darcy. Jamie Blayney's entanglements with Pendarves's sisters owe something to Wickham and Georgiana Darcy but also more than a bit to Edmund's sex and power games with Goneril and Regan in King Lear (at which point I decided Jamie needed a brother, so we have an Edgar parallel too).

 By the end of The Westminster Intrigue, we are just at the point where Henry Brougham (who has spent the book dealing with the threat of Danielle Darnault's memoirs) is about to begin his defense of Queen Caroline. So there is plenty of fodder for Malcolm and Mélanie's next adventure…

 Authors, what historical events or literary influences have shaped your writing? In the case of literary influences, are you aware of them as you plot or only in retrospect? Readers, what historical events have you particularly loved to see dramatized? What events (from historical to present day) would you like to see the focus of a mystery? What parallels to literary classics do you see in your favorite mysteries?

DEBS: Funny story: my first ever attempt at a novel, co-written with a neighbor when I was in college, was a Regency romance. We didn't get very far--we had a plot but our writing styles did not mesh! And I'm sure it wouldn't have been nearly as good as Tracy's books! 

More about The Westminster Intrigue: Autumn 1820. From Mayfair to Covent Garden to Seven Dials, London is in an uproar over George IV’s (the former prince regent) attempts to divorce his wife Queen Caroline. And nowhere is the crisis more intense than in Westminster where the royal divorce is playing out in the House of Lords.

In this tense atmosphere, former spies Malcolm and Mélanie Rannoch go on an undercover mission in a brothel that leads to a brawl–and the murder of the man they were tracking. The victim, Captain James Blayney, was selling the memoirs of a notorious courtesan, whose lovers may include Napoleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington, and key noblemen involved in the royal divorce trial. The missing memoirs may also hold crucial information about the Elsinore League, the powerful organization the Rannochs have been battling for years.

As revelations mount, Malcolm and Mélanie uncover the secrets of some of the most powerful people in Europe. The future of the British monarchy hangs in the balance. But as the Rannochs unravel the clues in the memoirs, they realize that the consequences for the royal family may be nothing compared to the consequences for their own…

Teresa (Tracy) Grant studied British history at Stanford University and received the Firestone Award for Excellence in Research for her honors thesis on shifting conceptions of honor in late fifteenth century England. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her young daughter and three cats. In addition to writing, Tracy works for the Merola Opera Program, a professional training program for opera singers, pianists, and stage directors. Her real life heroine is her daughter Mélanie, who is very cooperative about Mummy’s writing. Tracy is currently at work on her next book chronicling the adventures of Malcolm and Suzanne Rannoch.

DEBS: What is it that is so fascinating about Regency England? In my case, I know my interest was fueled by reading Georgette Heyer novels when I was in my late teens and early twenties. What about you, REDS and readers? Jane Austen? Georgette Heyer? (Or Bridgerton!)