Touring the Isle of Man with Marcia Talley, Kate Charles, and Alan Bradley

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Ever wished you could pack yourself into someone's suitcase for a visit to a fascinating place? Well, here's your chance! Mystery writers (and two of my very best friends and writing buddies) Marcia Talley and Kate Charles take us along on their visit to the Isle of Man with Alan Bradley, author of the wonderful Flavia de Luce books, which I adore. As do Kate and Marcia!

KATE and MARCIA: When we first met Alan Bradley, best-selling author of the Flavia de Luce series, he and his wife, Shirley, were moving from Malta to the Isle of Man where they’d bought a house, a “fixer-upper” overlooking the harbor at Peel. They’d fallen in love with the island – situated in the Irish Sea halfway between England and Ireland – and after listening to their descriptions, we became enchanted, too. “You must come and visit some time,” Alan said.

Douglas Harbour

Three years later, to our surprise and delight, Alan made it happen. 

MARCIA: On Monday, August 14, after an all-night flight from the US, I landed at Manchester Airport where Kate and her husband, Rory, met my plane and whisked me off to Liverpool for the twenty-minute flight to the Isle of Man. We landed at the airport just south of Douglas, the capital, where I picked up the rental car and managed to drive everyone and their luggage to the self-catering flat we’d reserved on Hutchinson Square. 

Hutchinson Square

 

KATE: Marcia’s been visiting me in the UK every year for nearly 25 years, so driving on the “wrong” side of the road with a standard transmission on the “wrong” side of the car isn’t (theoretically) a problem. All went well until she nosed halfway into a parking space on a downhill street and realized it wasn’t at all apparent how to shift into reverse. Time to consult the book in the glove compartment! Nothing in the index under “gears” or “shift” or “transmission”, thank you very much.  By the time Rory located the information under “manual transmission” Marcia had already stumbled over the magic button and managed to park the car.

(DEBS:) That happened to me once with a hired car in England. Terrifying! I finally discovered that you had to pull up on the rubber ring on the gear shift. Who knew?

MARCIA: We later learned that Hutchinson Square – now a quiet enclave of terraced gardens and public art – had been used as an internment camp during World War II. 

KATE: By then we were starving, so after checking in with Alan by phone – we’re here! – we strolled down to the Esplanade for a fine pasta dinner at The Italian Job in the Villa Marina Arcade.

MARCIA: Early the following morning, after warding off the attempts of a persistent seagull to share my breakfast pastry, I got behind the wheel again and braved the narrow lanes and twisty, country roads – famed for the annual fast and extremely dangerous TTmotorcycle races – as we headed off across the island to Peel to meet Alan and Shirley for coffee at their delightful seafront house. We were joined there by radio personality Bob Harrison. Bob – a local institution, it soon became clear – would be our escort, tour guide and interviewer for the next several days.  

Bob Harrison

KATE: At lunch time, we were craving some of the seafood that the Isle of Man is famous for. Bob recommended the Little Fish Café on the quayside in Douglas, where Marcia got to compare the local oysters to those from the Chesapeake Bay, while I feasted on a scrumptious lobster roll and Rory went for the catch of the day.  

Marcia, Kate, and Rory Chase, Kate's lovely husband.

 After lunch, Bob accompanied us to RadioManx, a former radar tracking station high on a hill overlooking the harbour. We were featured on “Women Today”

in a lively hour-long interview with hosts Beth Espey and Michelle Jamieson.

MARCIA: That evening, in spite of a relentless drizzle, Alan, Kate and I drew a standing-room-only crowd at Waterstone’s bookshop in Douglas. Bob is an experienced interviewer who’d read our books, asked thought-provoking questions and managed a lively Q&A with an enthusiastic audience. The bookshop staff couldn’t have been more supportive! They kept the shop – and the coffee bar! – open late for the event.

The following day, Alan and Bob had arranged a surprise. Researching my book Dark Passage, I’d done a lot of reading on the history of magic and illusion.  Magic shows were big in 19^th century England, and theaters had been designed to facilitate them, including the Gaiety in Douglas. 

We were given a VIP private tour of the theatre, which has recently been fully restored to its 1899 splendor.  Of special interest were the intricate mechanisms under the stage – the coffin trap, the Corsican Brothers trap – and the ropes, lifts and pulleys that made the stage magic happen.

KATE: The theatre’s manager told us that sailors stuck in the harbour for the winter were often hired as builders, so a lot of what we saw looked like we were aboard a ship.

Wednesday evening, another standing-room-only crowd – and a fire in the fireplace! – greeted us at DalbyChurch, on the wet and wild west side of the Isle of Man. The church is famous on the island for offering hospitality, including wonderful home-made cakes, and they did us proud. For the price of admission (£5, benefiting the Dalby Restoration Fund and the Family and Mobile Library), another enthusiastic audience was treated to three authors in conversation, sandwiches, tea, and all the cake they could eat!  Once again, Bob MC’d the event. The BridgeBookshop from Port Erin provided the books.

MARCIA: You’re probably wondering by now if we had any time to play tourist. On Thursday Alan had planned a little down time. We met him for lunch in Peel, prowled around the shops (two second-hand book shops!) and spent some time touring the Cathedral.

KATE: A former parish church, the Cathedral at Peel is the seat of the Diocese of Sodor and Man. We took advantage of its most recent addition with a contemplative stroll around the new labyrinth, a replica of the medieval labyrinth at the Chartres Cathedral in France carved by Balinese stone mason Ongky Wijana. 

 

Later that afternoon, back at Alan and Shirley’s home, we were privileged to ‘ride’ (or at least pose for photos with) Gladys, Flavia de Luce’s intrepid bicycle.

Marcia and Gladys!

 MARCIA: Dinner that night was a special treat for all of us, especially me. I spent a good part of my growing up years in China and in Taiwan – and dinner at Mrs. Yang’s in Douglas was the best Chinese food I’ve had since Taipei. 

Yum!

It was worth the whole price of my airline ticket!

KATE: On Friday, we were back on the road, dodging speeding motorbikes as we crossed the extinct volcano at the heart of the island to catch up with the Mobile Library on its route north to Andreas/Jurby. The librarian in charge, Sandra Henderson, made us feel welcome as we greeted patrons (and their dogs!). 

Kate and Rory in the mobile library.

MARCIA: We’d planned to have lunch at a nearby pub, but around noon, just as we were getting hungry, we smelled smoke. James, the mobile van driver, ran down the road and around the corner and came back to report that, “Lunch is off the menu.”

KATE: The pub was on fire! Sandra recommended a diversion to the canteen at the RAF airbase near Jurby, where they were hosting a 1940s-style weekend. This was an added bonus for me – if I’d known it was happening, I would have packed my vintage 1940s dress and joined in with the fun. 

That said, the War itself wasn’t much fun for the many airmen stationed there. Following lunch, we paid a sobering visit to Jurbychurchyard, where a number of US and Canadian pilots were buried after their planes crashed short of the runway.

MARCIA: I could have spent several weeks exploring the wonderful Isle of Man, but we had to rush off to catch our plane.

KATE:  I know! So many things yet to explore. The three steam railways, for example. The castle! The Great Laxey Wheel! We visited two churches – including one at Maughold where there’s an ancient collection of Celtic Crosses – but there’s so much more we missed.

MARCIA:  We’ll have to go back some day. In the meantime, thanks to Alan, Shirley, Bob, Sandra and all the wonderful citizens of the Isle of Man who made our visit so special.

KATE: I’ll second that.

DEBS: I'll third that!! Seriously, next time I'm coming along. Thank you, thank you, Kate and Marcia, for the whirlwind tour. I almost feel I've been to the Isle of Man, and now I certainly want to visit! You two are the best ever tour guides (and Marcia is much better at driving on the "wrong" side of the road than I am...) and I am green with envy. 

Kate and Marcia will be dropping in to chat, so here's your chance to find out more about their fabulous visit!

Alan Bradley is the NYTimes best-selling author of the Flavia de Luce mystery series.  Look for The Grave's a Fine and Silent Place in January 2018.

http://alanbradleyauthor.com

Acclaimed as the Queen of Clerical Crime, Kate Charles is the author of more than a dozen crime novels. The latest, False Tongues, is fourth in the Callie Anson series.

http://www.katecharles.com

Marcia Talley is the Anthony and Agatha-award winning author of Footprints to Murder and fourteen previous novels featuring survivor and sleuth, Hannah Ives.

www.marciatalley.com

REDS ALERT! Kait is the winner of Laura DiSilverio's THAT LAST WEEKEND. You can contact her at ldisilverio AT gmail DOT com

Marcia Talley--Daughter of Ashes

DEBORAH CROMBIE: This has been a great week on JRW for me. So many good books! And to top it off, my friend and colleague, Marcia Talley, has a new Hannah Ives mystery out this month. 

I’ve just read it and liked it so much that I invited her to Jungle Red to talk about it.  Marcia’s books usually keep Hannah sleuthing in and around Annapolis Maryland (where Marcia also lives), but Daughter of Ashes is set in a bucolic seaside community on the eastern shore of Maryland.  The book opens with Hannah and her husband buying a vacation cottage, a real fixer-upper.  During the course of renovations, they make a horrific discovery – I hope I’m not giving anything away here -- the mummified body of an infant hidden in the chimney. Here's Marcia to tell us more:

MARCIA TALLEY:  Don’t worry about spoilers, Debs.  My publisher gave that fact away on the jacket flap, and so did the reviewer for Publishers Weekly.   But, yes, that’s the event that sets the whole plot in motion.  The idea for this book had been simmering on the back burner of my brain for some time, actually.  Do you remember ages ago,  back in 1995, I believe, you and I attended a workshop at St Hilda’s College in Oxford, UK called Making Crime Pay?  The workshop was taught by Kate Charles and Susan Moody.  In one exercise, we were given two index cards, each with a snippet of a news story on it -- like those fillers you see at the bottom of a newspaper column – and we had to combine them into a single story. I drew one  about a baby found in a chimney and another about a young motorcyclist getting run off the road. I had to figure out the connection between those two events.

DEBS: And you do so brilliantly here, Marcia. But has it really been twenty years??? How is that possible??

MT:  Yes, and thank you.  You wrote a mystery about a baby’s body being found in a wall, too, didn’t you, Debs?  When we passed those index cards around, did you get the article about the baby, too?

DEBS:  That was Water Like a Stone, the 10th (I had to count) Kincaid/James novel, set around narrowboats and the Shropshire Union Canal in Cheshire. I didn't get the article about the baby at that workshop. Years later, I saw a little sidebar in the Dallas Morning News about a couple who were renovating a house in west Texas and found the mummified body of an infant about a year old in the wall. Obviously great minds think alike... So how did you get from 1995 to 2015?

MT:  Twenty years went by, and then a couple of other things happened that resurrected that baby in  the chimney. To begin with, my husband and I bought a cottage in the Bahamas.  We’d made an offer on another cottage but the deal fell through because of some barely legal real estate shenanigans.  So – at least as far as I was concerned -- a real estate agent had to die.  I was chewing on how best to accomplish that while attending a writers’ retreat in Charlotte, NC, sponsored by Sisters in Crime.  One of the other attendees was author Sarah Shaber who told me about an ongoing scandal in Franklin County, NC, involving the discovery and destruction of historic records dating back to the 1840s.  My heroine, Hannah Ives, is a former records manager so it seemed obvious to me that she’d want to get involved in helping prevent a tragedy like that.  What was in those records, she’d wonder – just like the folks in Franklin County – that somebody with either money or influence or both didn’t want made public.

And then, there’s always my addiction to those makeover shows on HGTV like The Property Brothers.  I had such fun writing scenes like one, when I needed to call Hannah back to the house:

“You’re needed at the cottage,” my husband said.  “Rusty’s got the tile laid in the bathroom, but it seems we have a decision to make about the grout.”

“What’s to decide?” I asked.  “Grout is grout.”

“You might think so, my dear, but I’m holding a color chart in my hands right now.  There’s white, of course, but we’ve also got pure white, antique white, linen white …”

“Darling,” I interrupted, “White is white.  Pick one.”

“Then there’s canvas, cinnamon, and silver,” Paul continued as if I hadn’t spoken.  “Mauve, rose, wheat, cocoa, cayenne, smoke, cadet blue and something called Navajo.”

“Navajo?  What kind of a color is Navajo?”

“Kind of a warm beige.  But you can see why I need you here.”

“Paul …” I began, thinking about the mountains of refuse we still had to dispose of in the courthouse basement.

“I’m leaning toward evergreen myself, maybe black,” he continued.

I had to laugh.  “I’m sure.  But you’re right, we’re going to have to live with the grout for a long time.  Tell Rusty I’ll be home in about twenty minutes.”

DEBS:  (I LOVE The Property Brothers. I can't let myself watch it or I won't do anything else as long as there's a new episode coming on.) So, Rusty is the guy on the motorcycle.

MT:  Exactly.  The contractor’s son who actually discovers the baby’s body.  What was it about the discovery that put his life in danger?  Not surprisingly, dark secrets from Maryland’s past ooze out.

DEBS: PW gave the book a great review, calling it a “tale of love, greed, racism, politics, and power.”

MT:  They did, and the former librarian in me had to laugh when the reviewer added, “Fascinating information on how to search historical records is a bonus.” 

DEBS: Well, I loved the book. I think it’s one of your best, and that's saying a lot.  And I’ve been

meaning to ask where did the title come from?

MT: It’s from a poem by Carl Sandburg about the aftermath of war.

… Oh daughter of ashes and mother of blood, 


Child of the hair let down, and tears, 


Child of the cross in the south 


And the star in the north …

Out of the storm let us have one star.

DEBS: Oooh, that's lovely. Gives me goosebumps. And I see how beautifully that relates to the plot.

MT:  Shhhh … no spoilers!

DEBS:  My lips are sealed.

Readers will have to find out for themselves. Marcia will be dropping in today to chat  AND WILL GIVE A BOOK TO A LUCKY COMMENTER so please stop by and say "hi."  And I'm hoping she'll tell us if that cottage in the photo is actually in Maryland.

Because I might have to move to Maryland if it is...

REDS ALERT! Katie Baer is the winner of Charles Todd's A PATTERN OF LIES! Katie, email me at deborahcrombie.com with your email address and we'll get a book on the way to  you! 

And be sure to come back tomorrow when I'll be filling  you in on the Laz-Y-Jet Spa!

Martin Edwards--The Golden Age of Murder

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I had a huge treat when I was in London this past February. I was invited to the annual Detection Club dinner by my friend Kate Charles, who is a member.  The dinner was held at the Garrick Club in the West End, a most august institution, and was hosted by the current president of the Detection Club, Simon Brett. It was a "pinch yourself" occasion--so many brilliant writers, such fabulous atmosphere (and food), and such a wonderful slice of London history!

I caught up with a good many old friends that evening, but a special pleasure was visiting with writer Martin Edwards. Martin is from Cheshire (I always imagine that Martin sounds a bit like Duncan--or vice versa), and writes terrific English mysteries, one series set in Liverpool and another in the Lake District. But Martin is also a very accomplished writer of non-fiction, and when he told me about his latest project I knew he had to visit us on Jungle Red.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF MURDER is THE book on Golden Age mysteries. It's getting rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Here's a snippet from the starred review in Publisher's Weekly: “A comprehensive and well-written narrative that combines biography with literary criticism... Along the way, he dispels numerous myths about Golden Age detective fiction: for example, that it was ‘an essentially British form of escapism... an effete counterpart to the tough and realistic crime fiction produced in the United States’...The trenchant analysis is coupled with revelations about the private lives of these very public authors, offering new information for casual fans and students of the genre alike.” 

Here's Martin to tell us more.


MARTIN EDWARDS:

Detective fiction from the “Golden Age” between the wars is enjoying a renaissance. The British Library’s Crime Classics series, for which I’m Series Consultant, has sold over a quarter of a million copies in paperback alone in rapid time. To everyone’s surprise – including mine, to be honest - Mystery in White, by the long-forgotten J. Jefferson Farjeon, was a surprise number one best-seller last Christmas. It even outsold Gone Girl!

So I’d like to think that the time is ripe for publication of my study of the genre between the wars, The Golden Age of Murder. The sub-title is: “The mystery of the writers who invented the modern detective story.” And they really were a very mysterious lot. Agatha Christie’s eleven-day disappearance is merely the best-known of the various puzzles surrounding her brilliant contemporaries such as Anthony Berkeley and Dorothy L. Sayers.

The narrative hook of The Golden Age of Murder is the story of the founding of the Detection Club in 1930 as the first ever social network of crime writers. It was a select band, with only twenty-six founder members. They prided themselves on the quality of their writing as well as on their facility for creating ingenious and unusual plots. The more I delved into the back stories of these authors, and their complex relationships, the more fascinated I became. Early reaction to The Golden Age of Murder suggests that many other people feel the same way.

The lives of the writers, and discussion about their books, which included many long-forgotten gems, are two of the four elements of The Golden Age of Murder. The third is the remarkable range of real life crimes which inspired so many detective classics. Some of the cases are well-known, but others are not. Among those which fascinated me was the still-unexplained death at sea of Frank Vosper, a famous actor and playwright; the people who were on board with him shortly before he disappeared overboard included a beauty queen, a gay bullfighter, and Ernest Hemingway...

The fourth ingredient of the book is the remarkable period of history during which so many classic mysteries were written. This was an age when people slowly recovered from the devastating consequences of one war, only to find themselves threatened by the prospect of another. The received wisdom is that classic mysteries tell us little or nothing about the times in which they were written. I disagree – in fact, my belief is that, if you read between the lines of the best books, you learn a very great deal about “the age of anxiety” as well as about the writers and their lives.

Above all, people love a good mystery, and there are plenty of Golden Age detective stories that have stood the test of time. Now so many books that were once almost impossible to find are available and affordable, supply is meeting a demand that, I suspect, has long existed. The wheel of fashion has turned in favour of Golden Age mysteries, at long last. And I couldn't be more delighted.

DEBS: This is a gorgeous book, a must-have for anyone who loves detective fiction!! And it's un-put-down-able from page one. Harper Collins is very kindly offering to give a copy to a lucky commenter (too difficult for Martin to ship from the U.K.) so get your name in the hat.

And then share you favorite Golden Age mystery! 

Martin Edwards was born at Knutsford, Cheshire and educated in Northwich and at Balliol College, Oxford University, taking a first class honours degree in law. He trained as a solicitor in Leeds and moved to Liverpool on qualifying. He published his first legal article at the age of 25 and his first book, about legal aspects of buying a business computer at 27, before a career as an equity partner of a law firm, where he is now a consultant. He is married to Helena with two children (Jonathan and Catherine) and lives in Lymm. A member of the Murder Squad (see the Links section) collective of crime writers, Martin is Vice Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association. In 2007 he was appointed the Archivist of the Crime Writers Association and in 2011 he was appointed the Archivist of the Detection Club.

Martin is recognised internationally as an expert on Golden Age detective fiction, and is the author of The Golden Age of Murder, a ground-breaking study of classic detective fiction written between the wars, published by Harper Collins in the UK and US.Len Deighton has described it as "illuminating and entertaining" and said it "provides a new way of looking at old favourites." American critic Sarah Weinman called it "this most delightful and necessary book" and British novelist Ann Cleeves described it as "a wonderful non-fcition book". The Times calls it "a richly rewarding study of the genre," while Mark Lawson described it in The Guardian as "an excellent work of detection...superbly compendious and entertaining."

REDS ALERT!!! Here are the winners of copies of Mark Pryor's Hugo Marston books. Instead of choosing three winners, Mark is sending a book to everyone who said they'd like to make Hugo's acquaintance!  So Mary Sutton, Susan b., Gail in Sequin, Deb Romano, Joan Emerson, and Diane Hale, could you send me your mailing addresses at deb at deborahcrombie dot com?  Hooray, Mark! You are so generous, and officially a JRW favorite!!!