A KILLING OF INNOCENTS--OUT IN PAPERBACK for Valentine's Day!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! And I have another good reason to celebrate--A KILLING OF INNOCENTS is out in paperback today!

I thought this was the perfect opportunity to wish a Happy Valentine's Day to my own favorite fictional detecting couple, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Detective Inspector Gemma James.

I could never have imagined, nineteen (and counting) books ago, that my two single characters were starting a romantic journey together.

In that first book, A SHARE IN DEATH, we meet the newly minted professional partners. They were both divorced, Gemma juggling single motherhood with the demands of the job, Duncan dealing with the bitterness of a decade-long estrangement from his ex-wife. Neither of them was looking for a relationship.

But cupid had other plans (and who was I to argue?) Since then, over the course of the series, Duncan and Gemma have navigated love and loss, friendship, separations, and life-altering decisions. Now, in A KILLING OF INNOCENTS, we find them married, with a blended family, in a home they love. Partners, in every sense of the word. 

Readers, do you have a favorite detecting couple? I think my first must have been Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, and then, be still my heart, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. I was hooked on crime and romance! I hope my detectives have done their predecessors justice!

Here's more on A KILLING OF INNOCENTS: New York Times bestseller Deborah Crombie returns with a “gripping police procedural” (Washington Post) featuring Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James as they race to solve the shocking murder of a young woman before panic spreads across London.

On a rainy November evening, trainee doctor Sasha Johnson hurries through the evening crowd in London's historic Russell Square. Out of the darkness, someone jostles her as they brush past. A moment later, Sasha stumbles, then collapses. When Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his sergeant, Doug Cullen, are called to the scene, they discover that she's been stabbed. 

Kincaid immediately calls in his detective wife, Gemma James, who has recently been assigned to a task force on knife crimes. But Sasha Johnson doesn’t fit the profile of the task force’s typical knife crime victim. Sasha had her secrets, though, and some of them lead the detectives uncomfortably close to home. Kincaid, Gemma, and their colleagues must put everything on the line to find the killer stalking the dark streets of Bloomsbury.

Available in paperback wherever books are sold!

BUY NOW!

A Pictoral Visit to Key West

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have been saving up a fun show-and-tell from my visit to Key West almost two weeks ago. One of the best things about touring for A KILLING OF INNOCENTS has been the opportunity to see three out of my six Jungle Red blog sisters. I got to see Rhys in Phoenix (where we didn't take nearly enough photos) and in Key West I saw Hallie as well as Lucy. How lucky for me that Hallie was there teaching a writing class!

On the Saturday I arrived, Lucy, John, and I had a nice catch up over glasses of wine, then watched the sunset from Mallory Square.  This photo is sunrise, but you get the drift. Key West really is a little slice of paradise.

We had a nice visit with Lucy's friend Ron, the tarot reader who's the inspiration for Lorenzo in her Haley Snow books, and the now-retired Catman!

The next morning started with some delicious Cuban coffee, and a few Key West feathered friends.

And then it was time for brunch! Lucy took me to Blue Heaven, a Key West gem, where I had a fabulous avocado omelet and this amazing piece of pie! There was a gin cocktail in there, too, that was was so good I had to go back and get the ingredients, and there was even a little jazz band playing. It was just a perfect day.

Afterwards there was walking and shopping, in the course of which I found my terrific (and much needed) hat, and a plush chicken for Wren.

Naps all around, then dinner with Hallie! Several of us tackled whole deep-fried fish--that was an adventure!

Monday, we began with the much anticipated visit to the Hemingway House, which I enjoyed even more than the first time. Here's one of the Hemingway cats.

They are not the last bit fussed by all the people and cameras. I came away very inspired and even had to order a copy of Hemingway's letters.

Afterwards, we had a jolly lunch at a place called Moon Dog with Hallie and our friend Pat Kennedy. (Lots of food here, you're thinking, but what are vacations for if not eating?) A little more walking and shopping, then it was time for my library event.

Look at this lovely crowd!

Barb Ross interviewed me, and had such insightful questions that I suspect she made me sound a lot smarter than I actually am.

And here we are, your three Reds and Barb, all happy to be together.

For our last group lunch on Tuesday, we picked up Cuban sandwiches from this hole-in-the-wall place. It doesn't look very prepossessing, but I'm still dreaming about those sandwiches. 

You can see that our Lucy Burdette really is the very best tour guide and hostess and I can see how people get so hooked on Key West. I hated to leave, but at least I can visit anytime in my imagination. All I need is one of Lucy's Hayley Snow books!

READERS: do your travel plans revolve around food?

What We're Writing--Debs is Blogging

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It's What We're Writing Week and I have been blogging, here, there, and everywhere, because it's almost time for the launch of A KILLING OF INNOCENTS next Tuesday, February 7th (Hank and I share a book birthday, yay!) 

I am so excited! This my first book launch in three years and four months (yes, I know you are all counting!) And today I'm on way to Phoenix for my first live book event, ditto. On Saturday at 2 p.m. MST I'll be at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale chatting with our very own Rhys Bowen. (You can join us on the Pen's Facebook page or YouTube channel, and you can order signed books!)

Next week I'll be in Houston on February 9th at Murder by the Book, chatting with my pal Celeste Connolly (a.k.a. S.C. Perkins.) You can order signed copies from MBTB as well.

For Dallas/Fort Worth area readers, I'll be doing a panel at the Dallas Literary Festival March 4th and books will be available. More information soon here. 

February 27th I'll be in Key West for the Friends of the Key West Library Speaker Series, chatting with the lovely Barb Ross, and I'll get to see Roberta AND Hallie! You can bet much fun will be had. 

For a special Jungle Red preview today, I thought I'd share just a smidgen of illustrator Laura Maestro's wonderful map. I think every map Laura creates is more fun than the last and she's outdone herself with A Killing of Innocents. Just look at the Staffordshire dogs! And Toby, rehearsing in his mouse head for the Nutcracker, and the adorable border terrier, Wallace. And Sid, of course.

And one more treat--here's a link to an audio sample of Gerard Doyle narrating the book. I got goosebumps just hearing the first few seconds.

I hope to see some of you in person or online! Readers and reviewers and my dear Jungle Reds have been so supportive of this book and so patient with me. I appreciate it more than I can say, and I hope to see some of you in person or online. 

Dear readers, are you getting out for live events again, or taking advantage or the virtual ones? Or both?

P.S. The only bad thing about all of this is that I'm missing my darling granddaughter Wren's 7th birthday today! How did time go so fast??

On a rainy November evening, trainee doctor Sasha Johnson hurries through the evening crowd in London's historic Russell Square. Out of the darkness, someone jostles her as they brush past. A moment later, Sasha stumbles, then collapses. When Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his sergeant, Doug Cullen, are called to the scene, they discover that she's been stabbed.

Kincaid immediately calls in his detective wife, Gemma James, who has recently been assigned to a task force on knife crimes which are on the rise. Along with her partner, detective sergeant Melody Talbot, Gemma aids the investigation. But Sasha Johnson doesn’t fit the profile of the task force’s typical knife crime victim. Single, successful, career-driven, she has no history of abusive relationships or any connection to gangs. Sasha had her secrets, though, and some of them lead the detectives uncomfortably close to home.

As the team unravels the victim's tangled connections, another murder raises the stakes. Kincaid, Gemma, and their colleagues must put even friendships on the line to find the killer stalking the dark streets of Bloomsbury. 

What We're Writing--Debs in London at Last

DEBORAH CROMBIE: You'll never guess where I am!! Check it out!

After THREE years almost to the day, three years of online research and writing with Google Street View, this was a quick shot grabbed from the cab window this morning!

I can hardly believe I'm finally in London again. It's a shock to see all the scenes that are so familiar from movies and TV suddenly right in front of you--the Thames, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge--but absolutely REAL.

My daughter and I arrived on Tuesday morning and have literally gone non-stop since. Chelsea, Little Venice, Bloomsbury, Soho, Covent Garden, the City of London (ow, my feet!) She goes home on Sunday and I'll be spending the next two weeks here writing and researching the next book.

We've had absolutely gorgeous weather and I've been taking advantage, getting in as much on the ground research as possible. Little Venice was on my list of "places of interest" for the next book and it lived up to expectations--here's a favorite shot of the Grand Union Canal from yesterday's outing.

Today we are seeing the Beatrix Potter exhibition at the V&A (doesn't that look fabulous?), then having afternoon tea at the Shard (!), then dinner at a Chelsea restaurant that has long been on my wish list. It's been a challenge to walk off all the food we've eaten, I can tell you. 

Tomorrow, Portobello Market!

Meanwhile, A KILLING OF INNOCENTS  is all buttoned up, proofs finished, map finished, cover finalized. Planning for the February 7th launch is underway!

You can pre-order HERE!

(The photo on the cover is of the Bloomsbury Tavern and we walked right past it today! Unfortunately there is construction all around so we couldn't get a current pic.)

REDs and readers, where have you visited that has completely lived up to expectations?

What We're Writing--Debs on Book Stages

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm halfway through the copy edit for A KILLING OF INNOCENTS, Kincaid/James #19, and it's so exciting. Copy edits are hard, but also weirdly fun. You've had a few weeks break from the book so this is your chance to get a fresh perspective, an idea of how the book is going to read as a finished novel. It's also your opportunity to correct any nagging little nitpicks, adjust dialogue, and fix continuity problems.

And in my case, at least, deal with way too many commas and all the hyphens in the wrong places! My extra commas aren't grammatically incorrect, they just slow the flow of the sentences and can be done without. As for the hyphens, I am hopeless! I never met a compound word I couldn't get wrong!

In What We're Writing Week we REDS are always talking (or moaning) about our different deadlines and where we are in the various stages of the writing/publishing process, and it occurred to me that our readers might not be clear on what exactly this entails, so here's a little mini-tutorial.

Stage 1--Writing the book, with as many drafts as necessary. (Some authors write a really quick first draft, then spend months revising and refining. Some of us write really SLOW first drafts and revise as we go.

Stage 2--Send the manuscript to your editor, who will then make suggestions big (as in 'Cut 100 pages!') and small. Often the editor will give the big overall suggestions to the author in an editorial letter. My editor still edits on the printed page with comments in the margins.

Stage 3--Revise the manuscript according to the editor's suggestions, adding any changes you feel necessary. This is usually a pretty quick (and sometimes very fraught) process. It took me three and a half weeks to turn around A KILLING OF INNOCENTS, for example.

Stage 4--The editor sends the manuscript to a copy editor. (Most publishing houses use freelance copy editors.) The copy editor reads the manuscript for style, punctuation, spelling, continuity, and accurate references, then the manuscript is sent back to the author for review. The copy editor does not usually make big changes to the plot. In the old pre-digital days the copy edit was done on paper, and it was a nightmare. The author had to make changes in the margins, slotting in extra pages if any changes in text were more than a sentence or two. These days it's much easier for both parties! Here's an example. The copy editor's changes are in orange, mine are in red.

The copy edit is another time crunch--I have two weeks to do this one.

Stage 5--The publisher sends the bound copy edited manuscript (or a digital Net galley) out to advance readers and reviewers. That's why the ARC (advanced reader's copy) or what we used to call the galley always has an error disclaimer. It is NOT the finished book!

Stage 6--The book is typeset and loose pages are sent to the author as "page proofs." Here you are strictly reading for typesetting errors. Any other changes are highly discouraged and very expensive! Another tight timeline, usually ten days to two weeks.

Stage 7--Finally, a finished book!! The author usually receives a box of finished books a couple of weeks before publication, hence all those unboxing videos you see on social media. No matter how many books you've written, there's nothing quite like holding that first finished copy in your hand. I can't wait to see this one!

A KILLING OF INNOCENTS will be out February 7th, 2023, and is available for pre-order here!

Lots of other fun stuff going on here, too. I've been working with Laura Maestro, the illustrator who does my endpaper maps, and she's finished her first draft of the map for A KILLING OF INNOCENTS. It is wonderful, as usual, and I cannot wait to share it with you!

And I'm sketching out the plot for Kincaid/James #20. In fact, the next time What We're Writing rolls around, I'll be in LONDON for the first time since November 2019, researching!!! I am beyond excited!

Now here's a copy editing question for you readers--do you know what a zimmer frame is? My lovely copy editor thinks I should change zimmer frame to walker, or substitute cane, because American readers won't understand the reference. (Zimmer is actually a brand of walker, but is used ubiquitously in the UK, like hoover for vacuum.) I really like to stick to British usage in my books but don't want to confuse people unnecessarily. What do you think? Is that a term too far?

What We're Writing--Debs Confronts the Doorstop

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have news!! I finally got to type the two most satisfying words in the English language, at least for me: THE END

A KILLING OF INNOCENTS, Kincaid/James #19, is finally, finally finished!! Trumpets, please!

That's the good news. 

The bad news is that the finished manuscript is 550 pages long, about 126,00 words, so yes, I confess that I'm Red A from Hallie's Behind the Scenes at the Sausage Factory post on Monday. That is a doorstop of a book.

My wonderful and very patient editor was happy with the family thread and the crime (relief on both fronts!), but thinks the book needs to be 100 to 150 pages shorter. That's a lot of pages and a pretty daunting prospect, especially on a really tight production schedule. 

I confess that I am (obviously) an over-writer. I put in too much detail, and I am perpetually guilty of telling not showing, one of the cardinal writing sins. And I love putting in directions, which makes my editor want to tear her hair out. Readers don't really want to know where your character turned left or right and which street leads to into what street, or which bus they take. I realize this is my way of putting myself into a scene, but it should definitely be a case of less is more. 

So how do you go about cutting that many pages? You snip a sentence here, a paragraph there, an entire scene if it's not advancing the plot, and all those little tweaks add up. Or at least that's the idea! I'm down 70 pages now, at a bit more than halfway through the book, and I promise you won't miss them.

Readers, do you think about length when you choose a book? Do you have preferences, depending of the type of book? I might expect, for instance, a fantasy novel to be longer than a mystery, or a multiple viewpoint story to be longer than one told from first person. I want a book to be long enough to be satisfying, but not so long that I think I need a vacation to read it--unless I actually have a vacation to read it in!

A KILLING OF INNOCENTS is available for pre-order from all your favorite booksellers.

What We're Writing--Debs Finds Her Way

DEBORAH CROMBIE: The last time I was up on our What We're Writing week, I said that by the time my next turn rolled around, A KILLING OF INNOCENTS would be finished!

Oh, oops, well, maybe not quite finished... but almost! Only a few days and two chapters to go, the climax and the resolution.

Resolution, now there's a nice word, and for a while I wondered if I would get there. I'd be the first to admit that I wandered and wobbled through the middle of this book, horribly frustrated by not being able to spend time in London doing essential research, much of  which is just walking the city.  A first visit gives me a general feel for a location.  Subsequent trips let me imprint the specifics, moving the characters through their daily lives in the setting. That's when you find all the fun little tidbits; the best coffee shop, the park with the interesting history, the house where a favorite writer lived. It's where the book comes to life.

For this book, I had a couple of weeks in November of 2019. And THAT. WAS.  IT.

But, eventually, I figured things out, and the first thanks in my acknowledgements will go to--Google Street View! I couldn't have done it without you, Google!

Back in the day, before we were smart, I was wedded to my A-Z.

That's pronounced A to Zed, by the way, and it is the definitive London street map book. I even had this mini version that went with me everywhere. Armed with my AZ and my tattered London Bus Route map, I could pretty much conquer London.

But, thankfully for me, technology has moved on, and virtual reality turned out to be my new best friend. I walked my way around Bloomsbury and Soho with cursor and arrows and zoom. Some of the locations were already familiar, of course, but after a while the lines between what was real and what I'd only done or seen virtually started to blur. (Is that madness, or writing fiction?)

Take this little snippet here, where Duncan is following a clue in Soho:

When he reached Old Compton Street, he was glad to see that I Camisa and Son was just as he remembered it. The deli was busy, and as he waited he breathed in the distinctive aroma of the place. Old cheeses. Cured meats. Coffee, fresh bread. And always the undertone of spices, some familiar—basil, fennel, oregano—some elusive. The place had been here a long time, long enough for the scents to seep into the very fabric of it. He wondered if there was even a ‘son’ anymore.

But whoever was in charge, it was an efficient operation, and when his turn came at the counter, his order was filled quickly. With his ham, mortadella, mozzarella, and tomato on focaccia stowed safely in a paper bag and his coffee in a paper cup, he walked back into Old Compton Street. There he hesitated, his face tilted up to the sun. He’d meant to take his lunch back to Holborn, but the day was still fine and he had a better idea.

He rounded the corner into Wardour Street and was soon seated on a bench in St. Anne’s churchyard, watching the pigeons as he ate and trying not to drip roasted tomato on his best suit trousers.

It was only when he’d finished his sandwich and brushed the crumbs from his lap that he checked his messages. He’d missed a text from Gemma. 

I have actually sat on a bench in St. Anne's churchyard. And the deli, I Camisa and Son, is a real place, but I've never been there. It came up on a list of Best Sandwiches in London, it was in exactly the right spot, and Duncan needed lunch. I figured it looked like the wonderful Mr. Christian's deli in Notting Hill, and smelled like Valvona and Crolla, the famous Italian deli just around the corner from where I used to live in Edinburgh.

And now, just reading that, I'm starving. I Camisa and Son is definitely on my list next trip.

Dear REDS, when you are writing, do you sometimes lose track of which things are real and which things you've made up? 

Readers, I'm sure we've all done that with books we love. On my very first visit to London, walking down Piccadilly, I said, "Oh, look, there's Lord Peter's flat!" And I almost expected to hear the notes from the piano drifting from the building. 

What fictional setting has lived up to your expectations in real life?

A KILLING OF INNOCENTS will be released February 7th, 2023.

YAY!

You can preorder from Amazon here.

And from B&N here. 

Links to Indies will be coming soon!

What We're Writing--Debs and the Tortoise

DEBORAH CROMBIE: The REDs are such a busy, productive bunch--some of us are turning out two, three, or FOUR books a year! Honestly, this just boggles my mind, and I suffer from a constant case of underachiever syndrome. 

I wrote my first four books in a year each, but then as the books got longer and more complicated, I got...slower. Enter the latest, Kincaid/James #19, and with the lack of research trips combined with all the general pandemic worry and muddle, my progress has been GLACIAL. 

HOWEVER, the end is now in sight!!!!!!!!!!! Like the tortoise, I will get there, and in just a few more weeks. Excuse my messy desk, but that pile of pages is starting to look like a book! 

I have a COVER, too! And as the book is up for pre-order here and here, I'm going to share it with you!

I think it's fabulous. It's exactly what I imagined for this book, and I especially love that the image is the Bloomsbury Tavern, one of the oldest pubs in London. The Bloomsbury was once the ominous final watering hole en route to the hangman's noose at Marble Arch. Isn't that perfect for a crime novel?  

And of course it is in Bloomsbury where much of A KILLING OF INNOCENTS  is set.

But this was not arrived at instantly, I can tell you. Covers are very much a collaborative effort. I wanted a book that said Bloomsbury. My photographer friend in London even spent an afternoon shooting locations in the area for me, but nothing quite worked. I especially liked the idea of using a pub, but every place he checked had big Covid-restriction signs in the windows, and all the passersby were masked. Not photogenic at all!

But eventually, between my agent, my editor, the publisher's art department, and me (spending many hours on Google Images,) we came up with the image above. 

I want to walk right in that open door.

So of course I had to set a scene in the Bloomsbury, but I'm only going to share a couple of sentences, because otherwise it is a SPOILER. Even in this little snippet, I've substituted pronouns for the proper names. This far along in a story, anything can be a spoiler!

He set a quick pace down New Oxford Street, and when she spotted the triangular, ornately embellished red brick building with its green spire, she guessed where they were going. “The Bloomsbury Tavern.”

“Can’t get much more un-trendy than this,” he said as they reached it. “And the beer is better.” 

Welcoming light spilled from the pub’s distinctive leaded windows, and when he opened the door they were met with a wave of warmth and the comforting smell of chips frying.

Readers, do you like authors to have a "brand" with their cover designs? My first five books were with the same publisher, but the cover design and concept of each one were completely different. The next three books, different publisher, same problem--and one of the covers looks like an historical novel. Such a shame as it's one of my favorite books in the series, AND JUSTICE THERE IS NONE. (The same art work did show up a year or so later on another author's Victorian-set novel!)

After that, my first few covers with William Morrow were fun because we used my photos. But, then, with NO MARK UPON HER, we moved to a "bigger book" (as they say in the publishing business) design. 

I think it's great that the covers have remained consistent since then, and hopefully when you see a new Crombie book it shouts KINCAID/JAMES!

What do you think, REDs and readers? Does it look like a Gemma and Duncan novel? And do you notice if an author's covers have a certain style?

What We're Writing--Debs on Decor

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We've been having some fun conversations about building character this week. As writers, we use dialogue and appearance, clothing and mannerisms, but describing a character's environment can also give us clues to a character's makeup. It can also be a lot of fun--and take us down research rabbit holes!

For example, the character in the scene below from A KILLING OF INNOCENTS belongs to a profession from which you'd expect a fair amount of tidiness and reasonably good hygiene, but I imagined that his private life might be quite different, not to mention odd.  I thought he would collect something unexpected and this is what occurred to me:

Kincaid found the light switch and a ceiling fixture threw the room into sharp relief. It took him a moment to sort the visual jumble of too much furniture in too little space, all of it seemingly brown and assembled from flat packs. Two sofas faced each other with a long coffee table squeezed in between. There were piles of newspapers on both, leaving only one clear space where the owner apparently sat. More newspapers were spread across the coffee table, splattered with yellow stains from an empty takeaway container—curry, from the smell.

This, Kincaid had taken in in a glance. It was the rest of the room that held his attention. Cheap book cases filled every available wall space. Their shelves were crammed, not with books, but with pair after pair of china dogs. Two tables on the other side of the room were similarly filled. One dog lay face up on the coffee table, its black painted eyes staring blindly at the ceiling.

“Good god,” breathed Sidana, stepping forward to stand beside him. “What is all this rubbish?”

But Kincaid had moved to the nearest bookcases and was examining the figurines more closely. The paint had faded on many of the dogs. Some were chipped, or cracked and re-glued. The small faces had distinct personalities—even within a pair, there were minute differences. Most were King Charles spaniels, the most common type, but at the end of one shelf Kincaid spied a pair of Dalmatians, rather crudely executed.

Shaking his head, Kincaid turned back to Sidana. “Not rubbish, I don’t think. We have a friend who’s an antiques dealer. I’ve seen similar dogs on his stall once or twice. These are Staffordshire, and I don’t think they’re reproductions. If I’m right, some of them”—he gestured towards the Dalamatians— “are worth a small fortune.”

I knew something about Staffordshire dogs, which were popular in English homes in the first half of the 20th century, but had no idea they were such a thing now! They are indeed very collectible and there are pages and pages of them on Pinterest and Etsy.

But they are also just a bit weird, especially those with the muzzle baskets--they look like little Hannibal Lecters! Perfect for my character!

And then we have something completely different, as Kincaid interviews the first character's neighbor :

He supposed he’d been expecting fussy, or at least cluttered, after the chaos of the downstairs flat. But when he’d knocked, and greeted Wallace the terrier, he was met by something very different indeed.

Light from the street-facing windows filled a sitting room that seemed airy despite its small size. The white walls held a series of bright, contemporary paintings, giving the space a gallery-like feel, and the furniture had been kept neutral so that it didn’t distract from the art. The ceiling was higher than the lower flat, and the kitchen had been opened up to the living area.... 

Kincaid saw that the glass-topped coffee table already held a teapot, two cups, and a plate of biscuits. The teapot and mugs were a deep glossy blue and looked hand thrown. As Kincaid took his cup, he noticed a rather incongruous stack of the Radio Times on the other end of the coffee table.

                                                                        In the Blue Light by Winston Branch

I could see this flat and its paintings so clearly in my imagination, but here's the fun part. I'd decided that this flat's owner was a retired appraiser for the famous auction house Christie's, and when I took a little look at Christie's website, what popped up in their catalogue but absolutely gorgeous paintings by an artist named Winston Branch. I'd never heard of Branch, or seen his work, but his painting were exactly what I'd visualized when I was describing the room.

                                                                                        Sunrise on Bodega Bay by Winston Branch

I love it when art imitates life. I did attribute the paintings to Branch, later in the scene.

Readers, do these little excerpts tell you something about these two characters? 

P.S. For the spoiler-averse, I've snipped out the characters' names.

 

What We're Writing--Debs Tromping on Literary London

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've been fascinated for years by the idea of literary Bloomsbury. This part of London near the British Museum is famous for its literary associations with the "Bloomsbury Set", a group of English writers, intellectuals, philosophers, and artists, which included Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Lytton Strachey, E.M. Forster, and John Maynard Keynes, among others. Many of the group lived near 51 Gordon Square. Charles Dickens lived for a time in Doughty Street, and Charles Darwin in Gower Street. This was all heady stuff for me and these associations influenced my decision to move Duncan Kincaid to the police station in Holborn, right in the heart of Bloombury. 

But Bloomsbury had surprises for me! In the book-in-progress, I put two of my characters in a flat in Guilford Street, the location chosen one night when I was walking in London in the rain. Imagine my delight when I discovered just recently that in the 1920s both Virginia Woolf and Dorothy Sayers had lived literally around the corner from my fictional characters in Mecklenburg Square (although not at the same time.) 

We usually see photos of both writers--especially Sayers--when they were older, but I like to think of them as they might have looked in the Mecklenburg Square period, when they were both establishing  independent and creative lives. Here's Sayers as a young woman.

The Mecklenburg Square connection drove me back to Sayers' biographies, which I hadn't read in decades, and I'd forgotten that she had a couple of passionate affairs and an illegitimate child. It was only when she found herself pregnant that she learned her lover was already married, and it was her lover's wife who arranged for her to bear her child in secret. Now that's the stuff of fiction! In Gaudy Night Sayers used her own first floor flat in Mecklenburg Square as Harriet Vane's home.

And then I discovered that Sayers later lived for many years at 24 Great James Street, which is right behind Holborn Police Station. How did I not know this before?

When I can go to London again, I'm going to be walking in Sayers' footsteps!

But in the meantime, here's a little snippet that introduces the flat in Guilford Street, which is not nearly as elegant as the one in the photo above.

 

Melody settled into the back of the panda car beside Kincaid. He was on his mobile again, now talking to someone that she assumed was his team’s case manager. “Who’s available as FLO?” he asked, then nodded as he listened. “McGillivray? Good. Tell her to stand by until we get an address for the family.”

Of course, they would need a family liaison officer to inform the next of kin, Melody thought, and she didn’t envy whoever had caught the rota on that job. Dealing with bereaved relatives had never been her strong suit, and she’d often envied the easy way Gemma seemed to connect with the families they interviewed.

As Kincaid continued organizing his team, Melody realized that her feet felt like blocks of ice. She hadn’t been prepared for standing in puddles in the park and her ankle boots were soaked. Beside her, Kincaid’s coat gave off the distinctive aroma of wet wool as it steamed in the blast from the car’s heater. She thought of Gemma, going home to a warm, dry house, and wondered if she’d been a bit hasty in asking to tag along on this interview when she could be home and dry as well. But the rain-blurred streets zipped by and in moments the car was pulling to a stop, just as Kincaid ended his call.

Glancing out, Melody saw the bulk of Great Ormond Street Hospital rising on the south side of the street. On the north side was a rather grim-looking building in dark brick, its color indistinguishable in the gloom. Kincaid scrolled through his mobile, apparently checking the address. Nodding as if satisfied, he said, “Let’s see if Doug is here yet,” and tapped out a text.

Melody realized this was the first time she’d been alone with Kincaid since the weekend in Gloucestershire when she’d made such a disastrous hash of her life, and felt herself coloring with sudden awkwardness. Kincaid, however, seemed oblivious, and when his mobile pinged with a reply, he put it away and leaned forward to speak to the driver. “If you could wait, I don’t think we’ll be long. And then we’ll need a run to the station.” To Melody, he added, “Doug says he’ll buzz us in.”

Melody followed him as he slid out of the car and crossed the street, picking her way around the rivulets running in the gutters.

The fanlight-topped black door buzzed open as they reached it, and they stepped into a dingy hallway with a scuffed linoleum floor. The door to the ground floor flat opened, framing Doug Cullen. His eyes widened as he took in Melody. “What are you—” He shook his head. “Never mind. You’d better come in.”

He stepped back to allow them into a sitting room. The place was furnished in student chic—including the rice-paper globe covering the hanging ceiling bulb—but looked clean and relatively tidy. A rolling rack filled with women’s clothing had been positioned in front of the window, providing a curtain of sorts. There were a couple of squashy armchairs and a futon covered with layers of Kantha throw blankets and some sequined pillows. The flat smelled faintly of curry.

A high, shallow shelf above the futon held a row of the oddest dolls Melody had ever seen. They had distinctly individual clay faces, some with hats, some with molded hair, and they were dressed in random scraps of colorful cloth. Melody had the uncomfortable feeling that they were watching her.

REDS and readers, do you enjoy walking in literary footsteps? What famous writers' homes have you visited?

What We're Writing--Debs Does Geography

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Having been tortured all week by visions of glorious Cornwall, Venice, and Scotland, I thought I'd take you to...rainy London on a dark November evening. (What was I thinking when I chose this setting??) Instead of looking at gorgeous photos of Scottish moors, I've been pouring over Google Maps.

I have an ongoing "discussion" with my wonderful editor about including descriptions of how my characters get from one place to another in my scenes. She says "Cut it out with the sat-nav!" (Although a little less politely than that!) But I like to feel the location, to know how places relate to each other, to sense the transition between them. In this little snippet from Kincaid/James #19, Kincaid is going from Holborn Police Station in Bloomsbury, central London, to Westbourne Grove/Notting Hill.  And we get a glimpse of a new character, Detective Constable Lucy McGillivray (the hardest name to type, ever...)

“Where are you from, Constable?” Kincaid asked McGillivray as the car sped north and then west through the wet streets.

“Perthshire, sir.” She pronounced it “Pairth-shire,” with a roll of the first R.  But we moved here when I was fifteen, so I’ve considered myself a Londoner for a good while now. I did my training here as well.”

“Have you had much experience with death notifications?”

“I did my share in uniform, sir, accidents and sudden deaths, but this will be my first in a murder case.”

“Well, much the same, I’m afraid, except that we have to ask questions afterwards.” Kincaid had never become inured to it, and he lapsed into silence, the acrid coffee he’d drunk at the station churning in his gut now. There was, he thought, no worse task than breaking the news to a parent of the death of a child.

His mind wandered back over the details of the evening. Had Sasha Johnson, junior doctor, simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time? But his gut told him no. Random attacks were usually more frenzied, and this had seemed calculated in its ferocity. One blow. Who had the expertise for that? Or had the killer merely been lucky?

He shook himself back to the present. They were entering the Harrow Road now. Soon they would reach the eastern fringes of Notting Hill. The road was lined with a comfortable mix of shops and flats, most of the buildings only three stories high. When they turned left into Elgin Road, he pulled up a map on his mobile phone and asked the driver to slow. Leaning forwards, he said, “It looks like it’s across from the Union Tavern. See if you can pull into Woodfield Road, and we’ll cross back over.” There were double yellows either side of Elgin Road, so no place for the car to stop directly in front of the Johnsons’ building. He was glad the rain had let up a bit.

Although he knew the area relatively well, he was still surprised when he caught his first glimpse of the flats where Sasha Johnson’s parents lived. The three-story block fit snugly into the angle where the road met the Grand Union Canal. The arrow-shaped roof sat atop the building like an over-sized white cap, the triangle’s apex pointing at the pub across the road. The walls of the structure were curved to fit into the angle as well, and the rear of the building was an odd bulbous shape. 

“What a strange building,” said McGillivray. “The rooms will be awkward. Nice views of the canal, though.”

The Grand Union Canal curved gently through this part of London, passing Kensal Green Cemetery and the northern edge of Notting Hill, until it reached this part of Westbourne Grove, where it flirted with the Westway before becoming the Regent’s Canal. The fortunate inhabitants of the flats with canal views would look out at colorful narrowboats moored below.

When their driver had indeed found a place to stop the car in Woodfield Road, Kincaid asked him to wait as he and McGillivray got out. The pub was still open, so it had not yet gone eleven. Kincaid hoped that the Johnsons would be up. Light spilled from the pub, and a glimpse in the windows revealed a cheerful interior, the tables still packed with diners and drinkers. He and Gemma had brought the children here back in the summer, for a Sunday lunch on the pub’s long terrace overlooking the canal. 

No one but the most inveterate smokers would be sitting out there tonight, he thought as he turned up his collar against the persistent drizzle.

Followed by McGillivray, Kincaid crossed the road on a break in the traffic and opened the wrought-iron gate set into the wall surrounding the flats. The tiny courtyard was neat, with a few potted shrubs and a couple of chained bicycles. The building’s main door was well lit and, after searching for the flat number in the labeled buttons, he pressed the buzzer.

 

 The building is real, as is the pub, the very welcoming Union Tavern, which I discovered quite by accident on one of my rambles through London last November. I'd started walking east from Portobello Road as it grew dark, and I wandered happily for a couple of hours. But eventually I realized that I was damp and cold and hungry--and that I had no idea where I was. When I saw the pub in the distance I was so relieved. (London pubs are ports in the storm--with bathrooms.) Then I realized I had been walking adjacent to the canal, and when I saw this wonderful building I knew it had to go in the book somewhere.

Now, even though I can't travel, and am missing what I thought would be my last research/writing trip for this book, I'm loving being there in my my imagination. With maps.

So, REDS and readers, do you like following along with the locations in a book? And do you prefer real maps to GPS? (I LOVE maps, although I was certainly thankful for the GPS that led me to the Union Tavern!)