The Case of the Empty Safe

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Usually we do a big introduction here, but there's no introduction big enough, no words ground enough, no fanfare loud enough to do this justice.

All Rise!

Reds and Readers, I present to you the fabulous inimitable iconic life-changingly brilliant Laurie R. King.

The Case of the Empty Safe

    by Laurie R. King

Diamonds and rubies and emeralds, nestled into a weight of gold and silver and sparkling enamel: the “Irish Crown Jewels” were slabs of ceremonial bling showy enough for a modern rapper.

 Presented to Ireland by William IV as a sign that their Order of St Patrick would henceforth be the equal of the English and Scottish Orders of Garter and Thistle, the Regalia—Star, Badge, and Collars—were worn for high formal occasions such as investitures. 

They were kept in a modern safe in an impregnable castle—a safe with only two keys, both in the hands of the senior Irish herald and chief genealogist, Arthur Vicars. Who, in June, 1907, was thrilled by the upcoming visit of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, the high point of which (so far as Vicars was concerned) would be a grand ceremonial investiture, of which he was in charge. Four days before the King’s arrival, Vicars—a busy man—handed his key and a ceremonial collar to an assistant, telling him to lock it in the safe with the other spectacular bits of Regalia.

Plenty of Bling!

But when the man went to turn the key, he found the lock already open. The Jewels were gone.

They were never recovered.

No arrest was ever made.

117 years later, a woman who makes her living writing unlikely mystery stories went looking for a nice, entertaining crime. Her protagonist, Mary Russell, had long ago mentioned a charming but criminal uncle—a rogue, rather than a hard villain—and considering the state of the world, the writer decided that a black sheep was just the ideal company for what looked to be a difficult year.

Now, the writer could have invented a crime out of whole cloth—we writers do lie for a living, after all—but there was something about this particular bit of early 20th century history that had caught her imagination. And the crime was definitely something that a gifted con-man might have got himself involved with.

Besides, I didn’t have to get on a plane to do the research, since I’d been to Ireland a couple of times before.

Hence: Mary Russell meets the Theft of the Irish Crown Jewels. The 1907 true-life crime had everything: mystery, money, outraged royals, shocking scandal, the famous and the infamous. It was in Russell’s past (the series is currently in 1925) but not necessarily in the past of her husband and partner, Sherlock Holmes. The main problem was, researching the details led me into a story that was so wild, with so many bizarre twists, that I began to wonder if my own fictional elements would get lost amidst the magnificent complexity.

However, after eighteen books, I trust my characters to stand up for themselves, so in I dove.

Sir Arthur Vicars

Arthur Vicars is where it all begins. The Ulster King of Arms was an unlikely source of thrill: a not-quite-aristocratic member of the gentry, he was a man dedicated to being important—in a society where ancestors define one’s standing, the genealogist is king. However, deciding fates and rubbing shoulders with literal kings makes a person less concerned with the mundane tasks of the actual job.

 For example, when when that shiny new safe was bought to go in the stoutest strongroom in Ireland, built in the newly renovated genealogical offices, Vicars didn’t bother to check that it would fit through the door. Since that left him with the option of admitting error or demolishing the strongroom, he chose a third option: quietly tuck it into the library instead, a room used by anyone who wanted to research their family ties.

And being a man given over to self-importance, Vicars’ friends—or perhaps that should be “friends”—found it easy to manipulate him. Especially since he had no head for alcohol. One wild evening sherry party the previous winter (had he taken two glasses of wine, or three?) found him waking in his office the next morning with bits of the Regalia draped around his neck like costume jewelry. 

Another time, a piece disappeared entirely, to be returned in the post a few days later. Har, har—what a joke to play on old Vicars!

Among those rather dubious friends were actual aristocrats, politicians, and society figures.

Such as Lord Haddo, who was probably responsible for those jokes with the Regalia, and whose father, ironically, was the Duke whose investiture was interrupted. And Francis Bennett-Goldney, mayor of Canterbury (later discovered to be a compulsive kleptomaniac.) 

Then there was the handsome young staff officer and shining star of the London salons, who bore the famous surname of Shackleton, being the explorer’s younger brother.

The Charming Captain

Rich ground for a crime writer, I’m sure you will agree. And that’s before I even got to the rumors that JP Morgan had been involved. Or the fact that Arthur Vicars was shot by the IRA a few years later and his house set afire. Or that Vicars’ half-brother was a wealthy eccentric with a passion for gardens, Bulgarian orphans, and Irish wolfhounds.

And to top this all off, Francis Shackleton, who had charmed Vicars into appointing him his right-hand man in the Office of Arms, who paid half the rent for the Dublin house they shared although he only spent a week or two there each year, who operated at the top of London society the rest of the time…was arrested a few years after the Jewels theft, when the huge Mexican land fraud he had created came to light.

A fraud that he never actually stood trial for.

As I dug away, uncovering one colorful character and situation after another, there remained one key, glaring question: why had the crime not been solved? From the beginning, even the local Dublin police knew it had to have been an inside job. There were a limited number of suspects. Scotland Yard was there within a few days, lest anyone worry that the locals were being paid off. Arthur Conan Doyle (a distant relation of Arthur Vicars) offered his help. A Viceregal Commission was brought together to interview witnesses and lodge a report.

But not a single diamond ever surfaced. Not one arrest was made.

The only person who paid a price was Arthur Vicars—and he only lost his beloved position because of his irresponsibility, not because anyone thought he had actually stolen the things himself.

And there, of course, lay the key. That circle of shady friends who sipped sherry and played jokes on their host? Within days, it became known that many of them had certain… reputations.

And although most of the time, no one cared if a person was quietly homosexual, Europe had recently seen two enormous international scandals that rattled governments and ruined lives, and England’s relationship with Ireland was already shaky.

Vicars himself blamed Francis Shackleton from the outset, and yet, investigating officers walked cautiously around the socialite with the important friends and the celebrated brother. The Viceregal Commission was held behind closed doors, out of concern for what Shackleton might say. And when the explorer’s brother did eventually sit down in front of the Commission and openly threaten to tell all?

Then thanked him for his help. They closed the investigation and presented the King with the blandest of results. Scotland Yard’s report disappeared entirely.

But I’m a mystery writer. I happen to also be a compulsive researcher, but primarily, I’m looking for a story. And so I examine my rich field of possibilities, and I see who was standing over to one side, and who might have a reason to stay quiet, and I say…

Well, that would be spoiling things, wouldn’t it?

Knave of Diamonds is out June 10.


HANK: Standing ovation, standing ovation! And I absolutely cannot wait to read this! Reds and readers? 

What do you think of this tale?

HOW does Laurie do it?

(And are you a Mary Russell fan? Why? I dare you to say no :-)

Laurie R. King is the bestselling author of nineteen Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes novels, five Kate Martinellis, two Stuyvesant-Greys, five standalones, novellas, anthologies, and a new series featuring SFPD Inspector Raquel Laing. She has won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Lambda, Wolfe, Macavity, Creasey Dagger, and Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, has an honorary doctorate, and is both a Baker Street Irregular and an MWA Grand Master. If you go to https://laurierking.com, you’ll find her newsletter, links to her social media, an excerpt of Knave of Diamonds, and pages of book club kits and other Fun Stuff.

Knave of Diamonds

Mary Russell adored her black-sheep Uncle Jake, but she's assumed that his ne’er-do-well ways brought him to a bad end somewhere—until he presents himself at her Sussex door. Yes, Jake is back, and with a tricky problem for his clever niece. Namely, the 1907 theft of the Irish Crown Jewels that shook a government, enraged a King, and baffled the police. Her husband, Sherlock Holmes, was somehow involved—and yet Jake expects Russell to slip away without telling Holmes.

Conflicting loyalties and international secrets, blatant lies and blithe deceptions: sounds like another case for Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.

Laurie King: Sherlock Holmes and the Easter Eggs

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have been a huge fan of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell novels since the publication of the very first in the series, THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE, so I'm thrilled to be introducing the latest Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes adventure, #18,  THE LANTERN'S DANCE! 

Here, Laurie gives us a behind the scenes look at the choices she made as she was plotting--and I'd love to read every one of these potential stories.

Sherlock Holmes and the Easter Eggs*

Laurie R. King

 

I sometimes wonder if I write as an excuse for research. In part, it’s the travel—when you’re writing a book about Japan or Transylvania or the Riviera, you have to go there, right? Smell the air, taste the food? And in part, it’s being what my daughter calls a recovering academic, a person whose grad school career was diverted into a life of fiction rather than a life of theological minutiae.

But honestly, what’s not to love about diving into the historical background of your characters?

One of those characters is Sherlock Holmes, and after decades of pastiches, film versions, and fan-fiction, you’d think people had discovered or invented absolutely everything about him. And it’s true, in the course of a career battling everyone from Jack the Ripper to Nazis to Martians (yes, I’m afraid so), Holmes has gone everywhere.

Except perhaps his own past.

Yes, says the writer’s brain: let’s go there!

And let’s structure the book with glimpses of the past, so we can shape a story that’s like a zoetrope, with a series of images that comes to life as the wheel spins: The Lantern’s Dance.

But where to start? Well, one of the few things Arthur Conan Doyle tells us about his detective, in a story that introduces Sherlock Holmes’ previously unknown brother, Mycroft (“The Greek Interpreter”) is that their grandmother came from a famous family of artists. As Holmes says to Dr. Watson:

“My ancestors were country squires, who appear to have led much the same life as is natural to their class. But, none the less, my turn that way is in my veins, and may have come with my grandmother, who was the sister of Vernet, the French artist. Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.”

“But how do you know that it is hereditary?” [asks Watson]

“Because my brother Mycroft possesses it in a larger degree than I do.”

Naturally, if I wanted to write a story exploring the personal history of Sherlock Holmes, I needed to know something about the Vernets. And naturally, for a writer like me with a taste for academic research, the waters of the investigation pool quickly grew very deep indeed.

I shall not burden you with the… shall we say, challenge of the Vernet genealogies and family histories, no two of which agreed on dates, relationships, or even the sex of a child. Nor will I tell you my personal feelings about a family that cannot stick to an identity, but drops names, randomly switches around their first and middle names, or even adopts one that they like better. I will merely say that there’s good reason why we didn’t create a family tree for The Lantern’s Dance’s book club guide.

But—let’s start small, and first try to decide which “Vernet, the French artist” Holmes was talking about. That is a fairly simple problem, for if we work back from the birth date of the elder Holmes brother (1854, though some sources say 1847), it would suggest a grandmother’s birth date somewhere between 1785 and 1815. The Vernet artist who matches those dates as a brother would be Horace (1789-1863.)

(Horace, Self Portrait, 1835)

Therefore, if we’re interested in playing with the links between the Holmes family and the Vernets in The Lantern’s Dance, the artist we want to start with is Horace.

The problem is, even this one single Vernet carries with him such a huge wagon-load of fascinating facts and potential story lines that I could have written half a dozen books, each following a different side-track.

Such as Horace Vernet’s childhood traumas. As a three-year-old during the Revolution, little Horace was rushed through a hail of bullets in the Tuileries. Soon after, his aunt was put to the guillotine by a colleague of Horace’s artist father, Carle, by name of Jacques-Louis David. What if, all these years later, Sherlock Holmes were to uncover some secret rivalry between David and the Vernets, that…

No. Too convoluted, too thinly linked with Horace—and in any case, I don’t want to spend large portions of this book buried amidst the horrors of the French Revolution.

But what about Horace Vernet’s time in a later unrest, the 1848 revolution? His paintings were burned, he was forced to retreat to a small apartment in the Institut de France, he conveniently found a change of patrons…

No: pas de révolution!

How about some nice espionage instead? Ah yes, that’s more like it.

Without giving away plot-spoilers, Horace Vernet does indeed enter our story, during his 1839 sketching trip to Egypt and Palestine. His companions include a young man with a daguerreotype camera—only invented that year—and a nephew by the name of Charles Burton. Burton is an Army officer fluent in Arabic, 26 years old, who happens to be free to accompany his famous uncle, providing the skills both to translate and to guard this remarkable new machine capable of recording clear and detailed images of such places as Acre and Cairo. Vernet’s reputation preceeded him, clearing the way for the artist and his companions to move among the important officials and leaders of the area.

(Horace Vernet: Arabs Traveling in the Desert)

Hmm, says the writer’s brain: access plus communication skills plus a plausible reason for poking around equals a superb opportunity for sending back reports and images to the French military.

So what if….?

But along that track, too, lies a plot that is not what I need.

There is another generation of artists already in this book. I need the Vernets for their art, not their opportunities for espionage.

Reluctantly, grudgingly, I scoop up whole pages of a first draft involving 19^th century spycraft (Horace even went to Russia! I could write about the Czar!) and drop them into the “Cuts” file.

Instead, the Egyptian sketching expedition takes on a different role, with Horace’s travels made to serve a rather different purpose in the plot. Don’t worry, espionage remains—I couldn’t resist that temptation—but in a far more covert manner than the original thought.

The spying, the travel, the references to specific Vernet paintings all become Easter Eggs, little spots of colorful treasure that not everyone will see, but which nestle into the story and await discovery. A game, between a writer and her readers.

But still, I am curious. If I were to go back and re-make those decisions that went into The Lantern’s Dance, if I were to pick up one of the discarded possibilities that my research teased me with, which do you think that should be? The French Revolution? Artistic spies in North Africa? Some side task required by Czar Nicholas, perhaps?

Let me know what you’d like in the comments. After all, that’s what short stories are for!

* Easter Egg: a bit of hidden treasure, or an inside joke among game-players.

 

Laurie R. King is the bestselling author of 30 novels and other works, including the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes novels. She has won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Lambda, Wolfe, Macavity, Creasey dagger, and Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, has an honorary doctorate, and is a Baker Street Irregular and a Mystery Writers of American Grand Master. She is celebrating thirty years of Russell & Holmes with a series of all-day Beekeeper’s Apprentice events (see her events page) and her new book, out on February 13, is The Lantern’s Dance.

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, hoping for a respite in the French countryside, are instead caught up in a case that turns both bewildering and intensely personal.

“Deftly interlacing present and past, King offers further fascinating insights into Holmes’s family while also delivering an intriguing mystery.”—The Washington Post

After their recent adventures in Transylvania, Russell and Holmes look forward to spending time with Holmes’ son, the famous artist Damian Adler, and his family. But when they arrive at Damian’s house, they discover that the Adlers have fled from a mysterious threat.

Holmes rushes after Damian while Russell, slowed down by a recent injury, stays behind to search the empty house. In Damian’s studio, she discovers four crates packed with memorabilia related to Holmes’ granduncle, the artist Horace Vernet. It’s an odd mix of treasures and clutter, including a tarnished silver lamp with a rotating shade: an antique yet sophisticated form of zoetrope, fitted with strips of paper whose images dance with the lantern’s spin.

In the same crate is an old journal written in a nearly impenetrable code. Intrigued, Russell sets about deciphering the intricate cryptograph, slowly realizing that each entry is built around an image—the first of which is a child, bundled into a carriage by an abductor, watching her mother recede from view.

Russell is troubled, then entranced, but each entry she decodes brings more questions. Who is the young Indian woman who created this elaborate puzzle? What does she have to do with Damian, or the Vernets—or the threat hovering over the house?

The secrets of the past appear to be reaching into the present. And it seems increasingly urgent that Russell figure out how the journal and lantern are related to Damian—and possibly to Sherlock Holmes himself.

Could there be things about his own history that even the master detective does not perceive?

DEBS: Horace was quite the dandy, wasn't he? What fun!

And we have more fun for you today--2 GIVEAWAYS!!

#1

Comment here on the BLOG to be entered to win a signed copy of THE LANTERN'S DANCE!!

#2

And comment over on our REDS & READERS Facebook group to be entered to win a copy of ECHOES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, a fabulous collection of Sherlock-themed short stories edited by Laurie and Leslie Klinger. Hank, Hallie, and I all have stories in this anthology and it is such fun!! 

If you haven't joined our REDS & READERS FB group, here's the link.

You can learn more about Laurie and THE LANTERN'S DANCE here:

Web site: https://laurierking.com

Events: https://laurierking.com/events/

The Lantern’s Dance: https://laurierking.com/books/the-lanterns-dance/

Echoing Sherlock and in great company

HALLIE EPHRON: This week the most lovely package arrived: my very own leather-bound limited first-edition copy of ECHOES OF SHERLOCK, an anthology of stories inspired by the Holmes canon, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger.

It's gorgeous, and signature sheets from all the authors are bound into it. Mysterious Bookshop has done a spectacular job. 

Publisher's Weekly named it a TOP 10 MYSTERY pick for the fall.

The hardback edition is available October 4, and it can be ordered now.  
Amazon/Kindle  
Barnes&Noble/Nook
The book has stories in it by three Reds, and today we're treating you to a taste of each.

• "Understudy in Scarlet" by me (about a movie actress who once played Irene Adler is now cast as Mrs. Hudson)

  It's not an open casting call, Angela Cassano realizes as she takes in the emptiness of director Glenn Lancaster's outer office. The gloomy space, on the second floor over storefronts on Santa Monica in Beverly Hills, has rough stucco walls painted off-white. The furnishings are chrome and ebony and black leather, and the stale air smells faintly of cigar. Her appointment was at two. At three she's still waiting for Lancaster to emerge from his inner sanctum. "They want you," her agent had said when he called, sounding as surprised as she was that a remake of A Scandal in Bohemia was afoot...

• "The Adventure of the Dancing Women by Hank Phillippi Ryan (in which Annabelle Holmes follows a trail of pictogram emails to a missing fiancee)

"It's the end of literacy as we know it," I complained. I leaned back in my swivel chair, plonked my black boots on my desk, and glimpsed the last of the Wednesday sunrise, wisps of pale lavender, still visible behind the coppery foliage of our towns famous beeches. This morning, however, I was lured from our front window and the glorious autumn by the curious email that had pinged onto my computer. I studied it, perplexed. I recognized the sender, but there was no subject line, nor were there words in the message section. The page showed only a colorful jumble of tiny graphic symbols.

• "The Case of the Speckled Trout" by Deborah Crombie (featuring Holmes's cheeky goddaughter)

My name is Sherry Watson. It's a crap name, Sherry, I know. But what can you do? It's not like I had a say in the matter. My parents, to give them credit, were trying to do the right thing--a sentimental gesture I wondered if they were sorry for after.

Deb and Hank were at the official launch party at Bouchercon in New Orleans ... I was not (sigh.) That's Les Klinger to the left of Deb, and   in front of him is Laurie King. Catriona McPherson rear left and Meg Gardiner front right. Off camera about a half-dozen other wonderful authors of short stories in the collection. 



Here's a list of the other authors whose wonderful stories appear in the book:

Tasha Alexander
Dana Cameron
John Connelly
Cory Doctorow
Meg Gardiner
William Kent Krueger
Tony Lee & Bevis Musson
Jonathan Maberry
Catriona McPherson
Denise Mina
David Morrell
Hank Phillippi Ryan
Michael Scott
 
Every year, hundreds of Holmes-inspired books and stories and TV scripts and movies are created, and the canon goes on inspiring. I, for one, can't wait to see what fresh hell the BBC's Sherlock gets up to this season.

How do you explain the lasting influence, and for the writers out there, how do the stories inspire you?

Hallie recommends... summer crime

HALLIE EPHRON: It's REDS ON WRITING week again... and I get to lead off.

A few months ago, just after I turned in the first draft of You'll Never Know, Dear (I'm deep into revising it now), I got a auspiciously timed request from the Boston Globe to put together a list of crime novels for summer reading. Reading other people's books is a great way NOT to obsess about the hot mess that you just turned in.

Since I no longer write a regular book review column, this required some quick research and reaching out to publishers for books. In the course of about six weeks I powered through about thirty books to find summer reads to recommend. The photo shows the tip of the iceberg.

Here's my list. There's something for everyone in here...
 

“Charcoal Joe’’ Walter Mosley (Doubleday)

Flush with cash but bereft of his main squeeze, Easy Rawlins is on the prowl again as he tries to keep a young black physics prodigy from going down for murder and ends up hip-deep in ill-gotten gains.

“Collecting the Dead’’ Spencer Kope (Minotaur)

A heart-thumping yarn from a real-life crime analyst, this features an FBI tracker with preternatural ability to “see the hidden.” He hunts down a serial killer who leaves a frowny face near each of his victims.

“Guilty Minds” by Joseph Finder (Dutton)

Nick Heller, the quintessential PI with a heart of gold, debunks scurrilous lies about the Supreme Court’s chief justice, then tries to rescue the woman who made those claims. Suspenseful, surprising, and humane.

“The Murder of Mary Russell: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes’’ Laurie R. King (Bantam)

The very title stirs dread in the hearts of fans of Sherlock Holmes’s young wife in this pastiche series. Mrs. Hudson stars (her nefarious past catches up with her), and she manages to surprise Holmes.

“Murder on the Quai’’ Cara Black (Soho)

The Berlin wall is crumbling, and in a series prequel, Parisian medical student Aimêe Leduc finds her mêtier, detecting. She investigates the murders of old men and tries to find her mother, a reputed terrorist.

“Orphan X” by Greg Hurwitz (Minotaur)

In this perfect fix for paranoid adrenaline junkies, an orphan (a perverted version of young King Arthur) is recruited and trained as a professional assassin for the government. Soon he’s surrounded by assassins.

 “The Second Life of Nick Mason’’ Steve Hamilton (Putnam)

After serving five years of a 25-year term in maximum security, Nick strikes a Faustian bargain with a criminal mastermind. He’s out of prison, living in luxury, falling in love, but dancing to the devil’s tune.

 “Wilde Lake’’ Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Family secrets rain down like a plague of locusts on “Lu” Brant, Maryland’s first woman state’s attorney. The young widow and mother of twins prosecutes a case that strikes close to home, threatening to taint her revered father’s reputation.

“Where All the Light Tends” to Go by David Joy (Putnam)

The son of a man who places a pocket bible on the chest of every person he murders realizes he’s in danger of becoming his father. This deeply noir finalist for the Edgar Award best first novel is set in Appalachia.

“You Will Know Me” by Megan Abbott (Hachette)

Overcoming a freak accident that mutilated her foot, Devon Knox becomes a gymnastics prodigy. Her parents double down to protect her when her coach is murdered. Abbott is brilliant at dissecting the power of adolescent girls.

BONUS: Here are two more that they wouldn't allow me to pick because of the obvious conflict of interest, the REDS own:

“Crowned and Dangerous” by Rhys Bowen (Berkeley)

Lady Georgie is about to elope with Darcy! Throwing caution to the wind, nothing can deter… until the news that her future father-in-law has been arrested for murder.

 

“Air Time” by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Back in print! TV reporter Charlotte McNally enters the world of high fashion, only to discover that the purses are fake but the danger is real. She goes undercover to bring the couture counterfeiters to justice and struggles to answer a life-changing question from a certain handsome professor.

What are you reading this summer?

You Can Take the Writer Out of Mysteries…. Laura S. Anderson

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Picture it — Anne Bolelyn gives King Henry VIII the son he so desperately wants, who grows up to be England's king — instead of Queen Elizabeth. This intriguing "what if" is the basis of novelist Laura S. Anderson's alternative historical fiction trilogy about Anne Boleyn's son.

I remember tossing The Boleyn King, the first in the series, in my bag for an eighteen-hour flight from New York City to Honolulu. Well, in all that time, I barely looked up from the page — finishing just before we started our descent to Hawaii. Yes, it was that enthralling.

Here's the official description of the The Boleyn King:

Just seventeen years old, Henry IX, known as William, is a king bound by the restraints of the regency yet anxious to prove himself. With the French threatening battle and the Catholics sowing the seeds of rebellion at home, William trusts only three people: his older sister Elizabeth; his best friend and loyal counselor, Dominic; and Minuette, a young orphan raised as a royal ward by William’s mother, Anne Boleyn.
 
Against a tide of secrets, betrayal, and murder, William finds himself fighting for the very soul of his kingdom. Then, when he and Dominic both fall in love with Minuette, romantic obsession looms over a new generation of Tudors. One among them will pay the price for a king’s desire, as a shocking twist of fate changes England’s fortunes forever.

And I'm going to let Laura describe herself, since she does it so winningly:

Laura Andersen has one husband, four children, and a

college degree in English that she puts to non-profitable use by reading everything she can lay her hands on. Books, shoes, and travel are her fiscal downfalls, which she justifies because all three ‘take you places.’ She loves the ocean (but not sand), forests (but not camping), good food (but not cooking), and shopping (there is no downside.) Historical fiction offers her all the pleasure of visiting the past without the inconvenience of no electricity or indoor plumbing. After more than thirty years spent west of the Rocky Mountains, she now lives in Massachusetts with her family.

And now, I'm honored to introduce novelist Laura S. Anderson on mysteries, secrets, dead bodies, and more….

LAURA S. ANDERSON: Once upon a time there was a woman whose secret dream was to write. After years of writing silently in the background, rarely speaking of her dream, her friends dared her to do it. Finish a novel, they said, and when it’s finished we’ll read it in book club. She took the dare, and ten months later her first novel was complete.

      Clearly I work well under the threat of public humiliation.

     That first novel (and the second) was a historical mystery. From the time I could read by myself, I devoured the Bobbsey Twins and Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. When I was eleven, I discovered Agatha Christie. And in my best college class ever, I took a senior seminar on The Mystery Novel. Everything from Ellery Queen to Dostoyevsky, as well as an introduction to several of my enduringly favorite authors: Ellis Peters and Dorothy L. Sayers. I distinctly remember reading A Morbid Taste for Bones, featuring Peters’ medieval Brother Cadfael and thinking, “I didn’t know you could do this!” Mix history and mystery . . . who knew?

    

Passion, however, doesn’t always equal skill. Those first novels—like most first novels—were not received to rapturous acclaim in the publishing world. I wrote other books, ones without an overt mystery, and finally landed on the publishing path. While receiving a long string of rejections for a YA time travel novel, I sent my agent the third manuscript I’d written, an alternate history featuring the imaginary son of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. “I love it!” she said. “Make it a trilogy.”

     With no idea how to do it, I tore apart that long novel and set about creating a new coherent plot on which to center the first book. And that’s where my love of mysteries came to my rescue.

     I love every aspect of mystery novels: characters under pressure, communities fracturing from the weight of wickedness, the search for truth, the guiding principle that every single life matters and murder destroys more than just that single life.

     Then there’s structure. Mystery novels center on the answering of questions—who, what, why. I adore questions. Present me with a blank page and no structure and my mind revolts. Give my mind a starting place and it begins to spin a web of hurts, pains, desires, fears, possibilities.

     So what happens when a mystery lover is writing a non-mystery novel?

     Secrets. Lots and lots of secrets. Of which, thank goodness, the Tudors possess plenty.

     Also bodies.

     In my case, in need of a new plot structure on which to build the first book in a trilogy, I began with a body: a young woman at the bottom of a staircase with a broken neck. Did she fall or was she pushed? Why did she seek an audience with the king just before her death? Why is she carrying a scandalous broadsheet directed at Queen Anne Boleyn’s past sins? And who fathered the inconvenient child she is carrying?

     While working on the second book for Ballantine (The Boleyn

Deceit), I got a new editor: Kate Miciak. It was a name I knew, as the past or present editor of such mystery writers as Laurie R. King, Elizabeth George, Alan Bradley, Charles Todd (and now Susan Elia MacNeal.) In our first conversation, I told her that my fondest writing dream is to be able to write a good mystery novel.

     She told me I have it in me. So I continue to practice. I imagine my detective and my setting. I force my mind to construct twisty plots and wonder when I’ll be able to keep them from collapsing under their own weight. I use elements of mysteries in my alternate historicals (the first novel in my new trilogy features Queen Elizabeth I’s intelligencer, Francis Walsingham, and the young woman he persuades to spy for England.)

     And I continue to devour my favorite novels: mysteries of every sort. Cozy and procedural. Contemporary and historical. Devastated communities and committed investigators and—the final, essential ingredient for the best mysteries—hope. Hope that evil is an aberration and goodness a state to be continuously sought.

  
What do you think of the idea of alternative histories? Novelists switching genres? Defining genres?

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