Rhys on Leaving Clues.

 RHYS BOWEN: I have been extra busy recently, firstly with the edits for my next stand alone, then helping Clare plot the next Molly book, then come up with a story suggestion for next year's stand alone while at the same time writing the twentieth Royal Spyness book.

One of the things I'm passionate about is playing fair with the reader. That means dropping subtle and appropriate clues. I've noticed that not all writers do this. Agatha Christie, for all her brilliance, did not always play fair.  Poirot says "I happen to know that she was once wardress of a prison."  Okay. We didn't know that! And the books in which the first person narrator is the killer. I have to say in Roger Ackroyd she was pretty good about leaving subtle hints, but in another, which I won't name in case it's a spoiler for those who haven't read it, the narrator says near the end that he's been getting funny black turns when he doesn't quite know what he's doing.  We did not know that before!

So what kind of clues do you appreciate? Which authors do them well?

This Royal Spyness book, that I am calling TO CROWN IT ALL, takes place at the coronation of King George and Queen Elizabeth in 1937. a group of Georgie's friends and relatives are staying at her house before the coronation, plus a German man who has escorted Mummy from Germany. Oh, and there's a village fair going on outside the house. So it's quite a challenge to drop clues without being over obvious.  I'm not normally the spent match type of cluemaker. It's usually what somebody says, or doesn't say, or reacts to a statement by someone else. 

But this time I am using fingerprints. But what if they show the wrong person? What if one of Georgie's family actually seems to be the main suspect? 

It's quite a complicated plot: one thread involving Mummy, another involving security for the coronation and the crown jewels and yet another involving poor Georgie:  here are a few tell-tale lines about that plot. Georgie has been worrying about what to wear to the coronation. Since her husband has is only Mr. O'Mara she can't wear her peeress's robes if she's to sit with him. And she has no fabulous outfits. 

Then this happens:

At that very moment I heard a telephone ringing in the front foyer. I froze.  Mrs. Holbrook appeared, looking scared. “You’re wanted on the telephone, my lady,” she said in an awed voice. “It’s the palace.”

                      I couldn’t stop my heart from racing as I went down the hallway. Was it good news or bad? What if the secretary said he was sorry but could do nothing for my mother. What then? Then I would go over and bring her back myself, I decided. It didn’t matter what Darcy or anybody said. She was my mother.

                      “Hello?” I said into the receiver, hearing my voice shake a little.

                      “Lady Georgiana?”  It was a woman’s voice, a brisk efficient sort of voice.

                      “Yes,” I said. “This is she.”

                      “I’m sorry to disturb you but this is Lady Pierpoint, telephoning on behalf of Her Majesty. We’ve had a last minute set back for the coronation ceremony. Do you happen to know Lady Veronica Featherstone-Smythe? Lord Blanchley’s daughter?”

                      “I believe we’ve met,” I said, hesitantly, wondering what on earth this had to do with me.

                      “Horse mad, of course. Rode in a point to point and broke her ankle, stupid girl.”

                      I was still completely in the dark.

                      “She was to be one of the maids of honor for the queen at the ceremony,” Lady Pierpoint went on. “ Naturally carrying a train is quite out of the question and her majesty suggested that you would be a most suitable replacement.”

                      “Me?” The word came out as a squeak.  “You want me to carry the queen’s train?”

                      “My dear, you are an obvious selection. Closely related to his majesty and both their majesties report being extremely fond of you. You were mentioned at the very start but it was considered that the words maids of honor should primarily include unmarried girls. 

But given the circumstance and the late hour it was decided you would fit the bill perfectly.”

                      I was glad she couldn’t see me blushing. “Golly,” I said. “Well, I’d be honored.”

                      “Splendid. I’ll tell their majesties.  We shall need you up in London right away for a dress fitting.  I think you’re about the same size as Lady Veronica, which is most fortunate, but small alterations will need to be made.  Then you will be required to attend several rehearsals, the first at the palace, learning the correct way to walk with the train, then in the abbey knowing the procedure of where to stand. You are free to come when summoned, I presume?”

                      “Yes, yes of course,” I said.

                      “Jolly good. Well done. Then I look forward to meeting you. Good evening.”

                      I put down the telephone and stared at the marble staircase, curving upward into darkness. What had I just agreed to? Carrying a train up steps, through the vast nave of the abbey with the whole world watching. Not dropping it, tripping up, tripping someone else. Oh golly, I said.

                      A wave of panic swept over me. I tried to remember her name. Lady Point to point?  I had to stop myself from calling the palace and telling them that I had changed my mind. But the king and queen had asked for me.  And it was a huge honor. I could hardly turn them down, could I?

Poor Georgie. You know she tends to be accident prone. Nothing could go wrong, could it?

And while we're on the subject of Royal Spyness books, then next one, FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE is published in just six days from now. I'll be holding a launch event at the POISONED PEN IN SCOTTSDALE with two other Jungle Reds, Julia, whose book is out the same day, and Jenn, whose book was out a couple of weeks ago.  It's November 18th.  Who will come to support us?

Rhys and Lucy Celebrate Pub Days!

RHYS BOWEN: Hooray, hooray, it's publication day! Champagne all around! Raising a glass to our readers!

It’s always a time for celebration when one of the Reds has a new book out. And today it’s a double celebration because we have two new books—I am excited to launch my new stand-alone THE PARIS ASSIGNMENT, into the world, and Lucy is equally excited for the pub day of her latest in the Hayley Snow Key West series, called  The Clue in the Crumbs. And so we decided to have a little chat about them.  (and this is a photo of the last book launch we did together. What fun that was!)

So congrats, Lucy! And hooray that Hayley is back with us. It’s interesting that we share a pub date, you with a light and fun cozy and me with probably the darkest book I’ve ever written. I think we’re showing the full scope of Jungle Reds! Is this lucky number 13 in the series? Did you ever think it would go on this long? Are you finding it more fun to write now that you know the characters and the setting so well? Or is it harder to come up with new and fresh ideas?  I know these are a lot of questions at once. 

LUCY BURDETTE: Huge congrats to you too, Rhys! It’s an honor to share a launch date with you. I couldn’t even guess what number published book this is for you! I love writing a long series, because the further I get into it, the better I know the characters. Honestly, it feels like the long-term psychotherapy I used to do in my other career as a clinical psychologist—uncovering layers and layers. I don’t ever get bored with my setting because Key West is such a many-layered town, with many visitors and a rich history. The longer I live there, the more I understand about the place, and the more I can show readers.

 But now here’s a question for you, since THE PARIS ASSIGNMENT is a stand-alone. You have so much experience with both long-running series and single titles. Isn’t it harder to think up a whole new set of characters and an entirely new setting? How do you feel about leaving Madeline and her son Oliver behind when you’ve invested so much in them (and put them through multiple wringers!)?

RHYS: I think it's book 55! And It’s definitely more work to write a stand-alone because I have to begin by researching a whole different world and getting to know a new set of characters. As you know with your series, when you begin a new book it’s like going back to a family reunion. You know the characters. You know how they will react to certain incidents. The challenge is to make each new story fresh and interesting. When I write a stand-alone I do enjoy getting to interact with a new set of characters, putting them through the wringer and then walking away. Although I have to tell you I get emails all the time asking when there is going to be a sequel to any of my stand-alones.

So, about your new book: I loved the Scone Sisters in the last book and I’m so glad you brought them back. Did you have that in mind when you introduced them last year? Did they come to you before you went to Scotland? When you were writing A SCONE OF CONTENTION did you know you wanted to use them again?

LUCY: Thanks for that Rhys, I love those characters too! I’m not too good at planning ahead.  I knew I wanted to include the town of Peebles, Scotland after we visited it in 2019 during the Solstice celebration. When Hayley Snow went to the home of Violet and Bettina after the shocking loss of Violet’s son, she had no idea what she would find there, and neither did I! But the sisters really popped as I wrote about them, and they got along like a house afire with Miss Gloria. Miss Gloria is a very popular character in this series, and I loved imagining highlighting the three older women in another book. Since they had won a contest with their cinnamon scone back in Scotland, a baking show seemed like the logical solution.

But since we’ve mentioned setting a couple of times, I have to ask you about the research that goes into a book like THE PARIS ASSIGNMENT. It’s a very complicated plot that swings through England and France and finally Australia, and covers some horrific events that happened over the course of World War II and beyond. How do you research a huge project like this one and decide what to cover and what to leave out? I can remember in one of the blogs you wrote for JRW that you wrote out stories in two separate timelines and actually spread the pages out in a hallway so you figure out how to weave them together. How did you manage the structure of this big sweeping story?

RHYS:  I didn’t have to spread the pages on the hall floor for this one as it’s all a sequential story going from 1930 to 1947. But I did have to do lots of research. I started when we rented a house on the Seine River near Fontainebleau and I saw the chateau and the forest and thought what a great setting it would make. Covid intervened and I had to wait until last year to go back and choose my houses in the Marais, take a river trip to see what the locks feel like and check out the museum of the resistance. In the meantime, I read the autobiographies of several real women who were spies/couriers in Nazi occupied France. I read the training manual for exactly what their training entailed (I would have quit the first day) and realized how incredibly brave they were. They knew the survival rate was twenty five percent and yet they signed on.

And part of the book takes place in Australia. I didn’t have to research that much as I lived there, was married there, my parents moved there and I used to spend a good portion of each year there until my mom passed away. I love the feel and openness of the Australian countryside so it was lovely to revisit it in the book.

So are you having a launch party, Lucy? Any events our friends should know about?

LUCY: : Yes! Big double book launch tomorrow night for A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS and THE INGREDIENTS OF HAPPINESS! This will be at RJ Julia Bookseller on Main St. in Madison CT. Call 203-245-3959 to reserve a seat. (Cake! Wine! Books!) How about you?

RHYS: I did a virtual event at the Poisoned Pen last night. There are signed books if you’d like one. And a live event coming up at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA on August 19. I’ve also done/am doing numerous interviews/podcasts/chats etc. I post them on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/rhysbowenauthor

So thank you to all of you who are our loyal readers. We appreciate you so much! If you like this latest one do please post a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or wherever else grabs you.  It really helps get the word out. 

Deborah Crombie's A Bitter Feast is here!

LUCY BURDETTE: Today our dear Deborah Crombie's book A BITTER FEAST is on sale everywhere! We couldn't be more excited! Rather than wax on about how much we loved this book and this author, I'll get right to questions for Deb:

I know well how hard writing is and especially writing a complicated police procedural with long running characters. But I kept thinking about how much fun you must have had with the background of the story – inventing the food and the gardens and the dogs and describing Melody’s parents’ country home. And at the lunch, the table settings, the local produce, the gin cocktails…

Do you mind starting with the lunch menu? That special luncheon was so divine! I really hoped that the murder wouldn’t ruin the meal before the guests got a chance to enjoy it. Roasted lamb with white beans and fennel, local smoked trout pate, pickled veggies with seeded flat bread—you had me absolutely drooling. Even the salad was stunning with pears, blue cheese and a drizzle of caramel. 

 But now inquiring minds need to know, did you actually cook this menu? And how did you choose it?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I wish I had cooked all of those things! I’m hungry just reading your list.

I’ve made leg of lamb, although not in a smoker, and fennel and white beans, although not together with the lamb. And I’ve experimented quite a bit with the fermented veggies. (As for the gin cocktails, I think I can claim to be an expert!)

The main inspiration for Viv’s menu was a dinner given by a local McKinney chef, Robert Lyford.  It was my first trip to the Round Top Antiques week down in Brenham, Texas, and Robert was the featured chef for an outdoor dinner at a place called Rancho Pillow.  The guests were seated at one long table, set much like the tables in the book. We were served pickled vegetables and spicy pimento cheese with crispbread, then Robert’s main course was “pork and beans” served in camping tins.  And the deserts were in little jars, as are Viv’s in the book. All the food was amazing. So that part of the menu is totally down to Rob, except that I switched pork to lamb because the Cotswolds is sheep country. The pears and blue cheese were based on a recipe in our local foodie magazine, Edible. Yum! The smoked trout I just threw in because I love smoked trout spread, and if fit with the local foods.

LUCY: You had wonderful descriptions of your character Viv deciding she’d be a chef and then what it was like in the world of the kitchen, the sexism, the hard work, the pressure of seeking a Michelin star—even the tattoos the chefs got to celebrate. Here’s a snippet from p. 270: “It was so tenuous and indefinable, the synergy of the kitchen. When everything worked, it was an almost liquid thing—one station flowed smoothly into another and the communication on the line was seamless.” (Of course, everything is not working!)

Tell us about the research you did to get this right?

DEB: I had lots of help and advice, not just from Rob Lyford, but from my chef friend in Phoenix, Sean Currid, and chef Nik Chappell at the Slaughters Manor House in Lower Slaughter. Both Sean and Nik gave me restaurant kitchen tours and answered lots of questions. And then I read and read and read. Chefs’ bios and memoirs, books about professional cooking and about the restaurant world. I also ate a lot! Research was my excuse to go to a lot of restaurants in London and the Cotswolds that I would normally have considered out of my budget. Now I have to figure out a way to justify those meals on the next trip.

LUCY: I’ve been thinking a lot about your chef characters and remembered an interview I did on the blog with psychologist Scott Haas about his book, THE BACK OF THE HOUSE. I asked him if he ever felt like a psychologist to the chefs, and he said:

“There is a profound superficiality to the way some chefs regard the depth of their emotional lives--an avoidance, a calcification, part of why they cook instead of developing intimacy.  Cooking is much easier than working on relationships.  Certainly the chef told me extremely personal things, but this is not an introspective profession. On the contrary.”

Did you find this to be true as you were talking with chefs? I can imagine this description fitting at least one of your characters…

DEB: The chefs I spoke to seemed to make a great effort to lead balanced lives, and they guard their days off ferociously. But, yes, I think you can safely say that the chefs in my book have a hard time maintaining a work/life balance. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have much of a story!

LUCY: You make a wonderful comparison between the work of a gardener and a chef—how in both professions, people work so hard to achieve something that is fleeting, such as a wonderful meal or a perfectly weeded garden. And that brings us to gardens. We can picture the roses and the hedges and can imagine the landscape architect at work. Will you tell us about your interest in this and how your gardens compare?

DEB: This book let me indulge both my passions. I am an enthusiastic if not particularly good gardener (the same could probably be said of my cooking…) and I have an obsession with English roses. I’ve also been fascinated for as long as I can remember with English gardens, and with Arts and Crafts gardens in particular.  A wonderful book on the restoration of the Gertrude Jekyll garden at a Surrey house called Upton Grey inspired the gardens at Beck House.  I even drew diagrams of all the beds and plantings.  Although my own garden is tiny in scale compared to something like Beck House, I do use a lot of native perennials in a natural way—a very Arts and Crafts design template.

LUCY: You were spinning so many plates with your plots and subplots and it surely must’ve been difficult to decide which characters to bring forward and which new ones to introduce. With a series that has run to 18 books, can you tell us more about that process?

DEB: I’m usually thinking a book ahead about what characters will lead the next story. In A Bitter Feast, I knew I wanted all four of my main characters, Doug and Melody as well as Duncan and Gemma, to be working the same case in the same place, and the setting followed from that. But because there is such a big cast of continuing characters in the series, my biggest problem in planning a book is deciding who to leave out, rather than who to put in.  And sometimes the characters don’t cooperate.

LUCY: You’ve mentioned that you go to England most years to do research for your books. What did you do and see while planning A BITTER FEAST? (Now we’re all dying to visit the Cotswolds.) Do you know what you’re looking for before you go? And where are we headed next?

DEB: I visited the Cotswolds on my very first trip to England with my parents, in the late seventies, and I had never been back, although I had for a long time thought the area would make a great setting for a novel. I made three trips for this book. The first was sort of a fact-finding mission, trying to find the perfect village (or villages) for the story. On that visit, I decided on the Slaughters, which I’d seen all those years ago with my folks. I’m sure we even stayed at Lords of the Manor in Upper Slaughter, when it had just opened as a country house hotel.

On the second and third trips I stayed in both Lower and Upper Slaughter, and I do think I could work for the Slaughters tourist bureau! The landscape and the villages in this part of England are just breathtakingly beautiful.  I’m quite downcast now at not having an excuse to go back—but maybe I will think of one. Beck House and the Lamb are, after all, still there.

The next book, however, is set in London, in Bloomsbury and Soho, and I’ll be off for three weeks writing and researching in London right after Bouchercon! And as usual, I can’t wait!

LUCY: Readers, do you know that all 7 of the Jungle Reds will be at Bouchercon in Dallas in a couple of weeks? Two of our Reds are Guests of Honor--Debs and Hank! Don't miss the annual Jungle Red game show on Thursday the 31st at 2:30. 

And I have the honor of interviewing Debs on Thursday morning at 9:30. What questions would you like me to ask???

And most important, you can buy A BITTER FEAST wherever books are sold...

Celebrating DEATH ON THE MENU with a Hemingway Contest!

LUCY BURDETTE: Death on the Menu is in bookstores today! Finally! (And it's also the book birthday for Rhys's FOUR FUNERALS AND MAYBE A WEDDING--Hurray--she'll be telling you more about that tomorrow.) To celebrate, I declare this Hemingway copycat contest day. 

What does that mean? I'll tell you...but a little background first. Sometimes I go in directions I never imagine when I’m writing, and end up adding a subplot that I certainly didn't plan. For example, in DEATH ON THE MENU, food critic Hayley Snow is checking out a suspect and discovers that he is a Hemingway wannabe. 

And then while googling and studying up on Hemingway, I learned that there actually was a contest for "Really Bad Hemingway" in which contestants submitted a page of bad Hemingway-esque writing and prizes were awarded. So then of course I had to write a page that this character had supposedly written.

Here’s how it went, starting with Hayley chatting with her suspect:

“Fun fact: did you know there is a contest for bad imitations of Hemingway’s writing?”

I shook my head.

“You should Google it—there are some snippets posted online and they’re a hoot. I entered a couple of years ago and got an honorable mention.”

“You entered a bad Hemingway contest? Do tell!”

He laughed. “Of course I have it memorized for moments like this. I called it ‘A Farewell to Harm,’ and it went like so:

He had hired the guide again after one too many women gone wrong. ‘You drink too much,’ the woman said. ‘You stink of beer and fish.’
The man and the guide had been at sea for hours, and reeled in two marlin. Both of them were big as Spanish bulls and that strong too; heaving silver bodies, that glinted in the sunlight and left the man and the guide breathless.
‘Let’s have a drink,’ the fishing guide said, though he knew the man’s history. ‘One drink won’t hurt you.’
‘OK, but only if it’s rum and beer. And only if you pour the rum slowly so the foam resembles the beach at low tide.’
‘Not until five. The tide won’t run out until five PM,’ the fishing guide said. ‘That’s when you see the foam.’”

By the end of Rusty’s recitation, I was laughing too hard to speak. 

So I thought it would be fun to have a contest right here, among all you clever Red readers. Put on your Hemingway fishing caps and post your best Hemingway-like paragraph in the comments. We have a great prize package for the winner including Lucy Burdette's DEATH ON THE MENU, a hardcover copy of Deborah Crombie‘s GARDEN OF LAMENTATIONS, a copy of Hank Ryan’s SAY NO MORE, Ingrid Thoft's LOYALTY, a paperback copy of Jenn McKinlay's DEATH IN THE STACKS, and a copy of Hallie's YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR. We will announce the contest winner later in the week.  

On your marks, pencils and keyboards ready, go!

And ps, please come to Brookline Booksmith on Wednesday at 7 pm to hear about both new books and meet five Reds at once!

Or come to RJ Julia at 7 pm on Thursday the 9th in Madison CT, where Rhys and I will chat and sign books and eat cake!

About the book: Lucy Burdette, Death on the Menu from Crooked Lane Books

Food critic Hayley Snow is thrilled to be working at a three-day international conference at the Harry S. Truman Little White House. But things get off to a bad start when Hemingway’s Nobel prize gold medal (which belongs to Cuba and is on display for this weekend only) disappears. And they only get worse when a body is discovered in the storeroom. Hayley must spring into action before the killer adds another victim to his menu. 

“There’s a lot to love about this series—deft plotting, likable characters, and an ending that always satisfies. But one of the things I love the best is how the author transports her readers to Key West with every page, describing real landmarks and restaurants with such realism that I feel I’m actually there. Magical and delicious fun!”—Suspense Magazine

"Fascinating details about the Truman Little White House, Cuban American history and relations, Cuban food, and Hemingway’s years in Key West are woven through this atmospheric cozy."—Booklist

“Burdette’s loving descriptions of food and the appended recipes are an added fillip for readers who enjoy some history and romance with their mysteries.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Tightly plotted, with plenty of island-style red herrings and mouth-watering food-prep descriptions, DEATH ON THE MENU is also full of friends helping friends, and the sweetness of love.” –Kingdom Books 

You can buy the book wherever books are sold.