The Westminster Intrigue--Tracy Grant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Tracy Grant's Magnificent Historical Mysteries

DEBS: Today Jungle Red chats with one of my favorite novelists, Tracy Grant.

Fans may be familiar with Tracy's wonderful Regency suspense (is that a category?) novels featuring Charles and Melanie Fraser, but now, writing as Teresa Grant, she brings us Vienna Waltz. Europe's elite have gathered at the glittering Congress of Vienna - princes, ambassadors, the Russian tsar - all negotiating the fate of the Continent by day and pursuing pleasure by night. Until Princess Tatiana, the most beautiful and talked about woman in Vienna, is found murdered. Young diplomatic wife Suzanne Rannoch discovers her husband, Malcolm, who is rumored to be among Tatiana's conquests, kneeling over the princess's body. An intricate dance in the search for the truth ensues. No one's secrets are safe and the future of Europe may hang in the balance.

I just had to repeat the first line of the glowing review of Vienna Waltz from Publishers Weekly: "A murdered Russian princess creates a diplomatic imbroglio in this magnificent mystery set in the midst of the glittering palaces and ballrooms of the Congress of Vienna."

How often have you seen PW use the word "magnificent?" High praise, indeed, and very well deserved. Of course, you might guess that I loved the book, since my quote was featured on the cover. I feel very privileged!

And the cover! It is, I think, one of the most beautiful book covers I've ever seen. Did you have input into the design?

TRACY: Thanks, Deb! I love the cover. My editor asked me for my cover ideas early on, and I sent suggestions and images. I suggested a woman (I described Suzanne and actually the cover model looks quite a bit like her), which seems to be the classic look for historical fiction these days. I said I thought it was important to make sure her dress looked elegant and regal, to suggest the sumptuousness of the Congress of Vienna and the world of Continental royalty, instead of looking too Jane Austen-y and British. The cover design by Kristine Mills-Noble and the illustration by Judy York are beyond anything I imagined. The cover is so beautiful and the dress has a lavish, over-the-top elegance, which perfectly captures the mood of the Congress of Vienna.

DEBS: You're a fellow Anglophile. What led you to your interest in England, and to the Regency era in particular?

TRACY: My mom loved British history and literature. When I was six, my parents took me to the Laurence Olivier-Greer Garson Pride and Prejudice. I loved it and immediately wanted to read the book (or rather have it read to me). My mom said I'm not sure you I'll like it, but we can try. I thought it was wonderful. To me, at that age, it was a story about girls (older than me but young enough that I could identify with them) dealing with their sisters and parents, growing up, falling in love. Every time I reread Pride & Prejudice I get different things from it, but I was totally hooked at the age of six.

A family trip to England and Scotland the next year helped cement my love of British history. We'd been watching the Elizabeth R series on PBS, and we went to a lot of the locations, as well as to country and London houses right out of a Jane Austen novel. My mom and I went on to read all of Jane Austen and then my mom discovered Georgette Heyer's Regency-set novels and introduced me to them.

Even when I was reading on my own, we still tended to read the same books and talk about them, including Anthony Trollope's Palliser series and British golden age mysteries by Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh. I was always particularly drawn to the Regency/Napoleonic era, I think because of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. My mom and I began to plot a Regency romance together when I was thirteen. We worked on it off on and on for several years.

I went on to college at Stanford where I majored in history (specializing in the late fifteenth century for a never-published historical fantasy series I was working on, though I learned a huge amount about historical research that's been invaluable in researching the Regency era). The summer between my sophomore and junior years in college, my mom and I went back to our Regency romance in a very focused way. We sold it (to our own amazement) the next winter. That book, The Widow's Gambit, was published in May 1988, just before I graduated. Though my books are now ore mystery focused, I continue to be fascinated by the
Regency/Napoleonic era and to find new stories to tell in it. I'm having a lot of fun writing Continental set stories now, but I still write about British characters, and I look forward to getting back to writing books set in Britain eventually.

DEBS: You've not only changed your name, writing as Teresa Grant in Vienna Waltz, but you've changed the names of characters you've written about in previous books! Charles and Melanie Fraser became Suzanne and Malcolm Rannoch. How hard was that for you, and why the metamorphosis?

TRACY: It hasn't been as hard as I would have thought. My new publisher, Kensington, wanted me to have a more historical sounding name. I chose Teresa, because Tracy can be a nickname for it, so I can still be Tracy when I interact with readers. Vienna Waltz, as you say, is the story of Charles and Melanie Fraser's adventures at the Congress of Vienna.

Their time at the Congress is referred to in Secrets of a Lady, and in Beneath a Silent Moon there's mention of a murder Charles investigated in Vienna. But my new publisher also wanted them to have new names when they launched my books, so they are called Malcolm and Suzanne Rannoch (Malcolm and Suzanne are Charles and Melanie's middle names).

They're still the same people, just as I'm still the same person. I wrote the book using their real names so I could keep the characters and chronology consistent. Readers who first met the characters as Charles and Melanie have told me they mentally substitute the original names when they read about Malcolm and Suzanne. But I've heard from readers who met the characters through Vienna Waltz who say they find it hard to imagine them being called anything but Malcolm and Suzanne and mentally substitute those names when they read about Charles and Melanie in the earlier books. I like to think that Charles and Mel lead such adventurous lives it's no wonder some of their adventures are chronicled under aliases :-)

DEBS: And, oh, the clothes! What fun you must have had researching the women's gorgeous gowns and costumes. Even the men's clothes were so much sexier than today's.

Tracy: So true! There are so many things I love about the Regency/Napoleonic era--the fact that it's an era on the cusp of change, the political turmoil, the dawn of the romantic era--but the clothes are definitely part of it. I did indeed have so much fun researching the clothes for Vienna Waltz. The gowns, the jewels, the shawls and reticules, the men's coats and waistcoats and breeches, the uniforms. There are several scenes where Malcolm and Suzanne discuss the mystery while dressing for a ball or the theater or undressing after an evening engagement.

My friend and fellow writer Isobel Carr was a big help with getting all the layers of underclothing right for an early scene where Malcolm helps Suzanne undress (and yes, they're discussing suspects rather than doing anything more amorous). I got to make up lavish gowns for Suzanne and the other female characters (I even changed the description of one of
Suzanne's dress to sound like the gown on the cover), and I also worked in references to real gowns some of the historical characters are known to have worn.

And then there's the Carrousel, a re-creation of a medieval pageant that's a major event in the book. There's quite a bit of documentation about the costumes worn by the knights (of whom Malcolm is one) and the gowns of the belles d'amour (of whom Suzanne is one). I even worked in an exchange where Malcolm, who read history at Balliol, points out to Suzanne that real knights dressed in these clothes would have been cut to ribbons at Agincourt.

DEBS: What's next for Suzanne and Malcolm?

TRACY: I'm currently finishing up revisions on their next adventure, Imperial Scandal, which will be out in April 2012. It begins in Brussels a few days before the battle of Waterloo.

Malcolm slips away from an embassy ball for a secret meeting and finds himself in an ambush the leaves two people dead, including a decorous army wife who seemingly had no business being there. Malcolm and Suzanne are drawn into an investigation that involves a spy ring, double agents, and secret love affairs that could shatter the fragile relationship between Britain and her Dutch-Belgian allies. Once again the murder mystery is intertwined with real historical events. The investigation takes an unexpected turn at the Duchess of Richmond's ball where the waltzing is interrupted by news that the army is about to march against the French, and the story goes through the battle of Waterloo itself. Malcolm unearths clues on the battlefield where he's pressed into delivering messages for Wellington, while Suzanne continues the investigation in Brussels, where she's nursing the wounded.

I'm just starting the following book in the series, set in Paris after Waterloo during the White Terror, when restored Ultra Royalists turned on Bonapartists. It opens with a tavern brawl and the death of a former British agent who knows all too many secrets. I'm really looking forward to writing about Paris and also returning to several of the historical characters from Vienna Waltz.


DEBS: I can't wait! And I must say that I, too, loved Georgette Heyer, but your characters are ever so much sexier:-) Danger, intrigue, complex characters with dark secrets in their pasts, and an evocation of the period that seems so real you can almost believe you're there.

Jewels, indeed.

Oh, and if you ever get around to writing the fantasy series, I'd like that, too!