FATAL FIRST EDITION -- Jenn's Release Day!

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JENN McKINLAY: How much do I love this cover? Let me count the ways... 

As ever, Heathcliff the dog is featured and now Zelda the cat is as well. Maybe that's how you can determine the longevity of a cozy series. How many of the amateur sleuth's pets are on the cover? 

The artist Julia Green is always amazing and when I told the art department that the opening of the book is a murder on a train and that a train set with the dog would be cool...well, they delivered. I mean look at that cover. It's fabulous!

This book is my homage to Patricia Highsmith's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN mashed up with Agatha Christie's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. This mysteries really make you want to try train travel, don't they? 

But truly the entire plot came about when I decided it would be fun to have my characters meet up with the characters of my plot group buddy Kate Carlisle, author of the NYT bestselling Bibliophile Mysteries. Her amateur sleuth Brooklyn Wainwright is a professional bookbinder and it just felt like my librarian Lindsey Norris needed to meet Brooklyn. Of course, I spent months teasing Kate that I was going to kill off her characters (I could never, I adore Brooklyn) but when it was time to submit the manuscript, I sent Kate the relevant pages and she approved the cameo. Not gonna lie, it was a blast to write another person's characters, especially since I'm a super fan as well as a friend of Kate's.

Hey, here's a thought the Reds should all scramble books and write each other's mysteries...aaaaand, they all just keeled over in horror! LOL.

But seriously, what do you think about cameos of characters from other author's series, Reds and Readers? Yay or Nay? 

ABOUT FATAL FIRST EDITION

People are dying to get their hands on a rare, valuable book in the newest Library Lover’s Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Plot and the Pendulum. Briar Creek Library director Lindsey Norris and her husband, Sully, are at a popular library conference in Chicago to hear book restoration specialist Brooklyn Wainwright give a keynote address. After the lecture, Lindsey looks under her seat and finds a tote bag containing a first edition of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, inscribed to Alfred Hitchcock. Brooklyn determines the novel is one of a kind and quite valuable, so Lindsey and Sully return the book to the conference director, not wanting to stir up any trouble. But just hours after the pair boards the train back to Connecticut, rumors that the Highsmith novel has gone missing buzz amongst the passengers, and they soon find the conference director murdered in his private compartment. And worse—the murderer planted the book in Lindsey and Sully’s room next door, making them prime suspects. Now, they must uncover the murderer and bring them to the end of their line, before they find themselves booked for a crime they didn’t commit. Featuring a cameo by a beloved character from the New York Times bestselling author Kate Carlisle’s Bibliophile series!

The Golden Spike

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Today, May 10th, marked the 154th anniversary of the driving of the Golden Spike, the symbolic completion of America's first transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific RR had been building westward from San Francisco while the Union Pacific RR had been laying track westward from Omaha. 

They met in Promontory Summit, in what is now the state of Utah, where Leland Stanford - Gold rusher, robber baron, founder of his namesake university and railroad owner who served as both Governor and Senator to California - used a silver maul to drive a golden spike into a laurel tie as the symbolic "last spike" uniting the east and west coasts of the United States. He missed, which didn't actually spoil the celebrations around the country. (The spike was immediately removed, the laurel replaced with an ordinary rail tie, and the whole thing hammered together rather more expertly, probably by one of the Chinese workers who had completed the final track section.)

It was probably the country's first "mass media" event. Reporters followed the track laying  - in modern parlance, we might say they were embedded - and newspapers were kept up-to-date by telegraph offices close by. The Civil War, which had ended just four years before, had left the country exhausted, broke and bitter; this, in contrast, was a feel-good story everyone could get behind. Western Union allegedly attached wires to the ceremonial silver maul, so they could flash the news around the world the instant the blow fell. Considering that, maybe it's not surprising Stanford's aim was  little off.

Ironically - or perhaps not, this is America, after all - a new line laid further south made Promontory Summit obsolete for all main line trains in just 34 years. The whole historic rail section there was taken apart in 1943, the iron needed for the war effort. In a nice note, the Promontory residents held a ceremonial "undriving" of the actual iron last spike, and then erected a modest monument to the event. The famous event wasn't forgotten, though, and in 1957 Congress created the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Promontory, Utah. Rails were re-laid, and a single golden-colored tie was set on the original spot where the two lines were finally united.

Here's where I confess I know some of this and have an interest because my dad was a HUGE train guy. If you have a train guy in your life, you know what I mean. He always wanted to visit the Golden Spike National Historic Site and never did, so I've now added it to my own bucket list.

Rail workers Wong Fook, Lee Chao & Ging Cui in 1919

One final historical correction of interest: the original accounts and early memorials of the Golden Spike ceremony completely left out the more than 12,000 Chinese laborers - some 80% of the entire work force - who had laid track for over six years to reach Promontory Summit. On the 145th anniversary of the celebration, Chinese-American photographer Corky Lee gathered over 200 Asian-Americans, including descendants of railroad workers, to recreate the now-antique trains meeting face to face - this time, with the people who actually made it happen front and center. 

Dear readers, do you have a quirky historical event of interest? And do you have a Train Guy in your life?

Family on a Train

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:   How are you handling time? To me, time now all runs together, things move faster than usual, or soooo muuuuch slooower….I have no idea what day it is half the time, either.

But I did just turn in a short story that takes place entirely on an overnight train trip from Chicago to Boston. And yes, I really did this once (without the drama that occurs in the short story) and it took 23 hours. It was kinda glorious.  Once.

And  today--dispatches from abroad. To make sure we remember there’s a whole world involved in  our lives. The wonderful Jennifer Alderson is remembering trains too…and and how her son’s love of trains determined her novel’s setting.

And now, let Jennifer take us..away.

Serendipitous Travel

By Jennifer S. Alderson

Researching locations is one of my favorite parts of writing. Since most of us won’t be traveling abroad anytime soon, I want to share a bit about a research trip to Bavaria I took last summer, and more specifically, how my son’s love of trains ultimately determined one of the main settings in my novel.

My soon-to-be-published novel, The Vermeer Deception, is an art history mystery about WWII-looted art that is set in Bavaria, Germany. When I told my Dutch husband that I was thinking about visiting Munich to research a few locations for my next book, I was shocked to learn that he had never been! From our home in Amsterdam, it is only a ten-hour trip by car. Since summer was fast approaching, we decided to turn my research trip into a week-long family vacation.

My eight-year-old son is obsessed with public transportation of all kinds – as most boys his age are! When we were researching places to visit along our route, he saw photos of Heidelberg’s mountain railway (the Bergbahn) and his choice was made. We added Heidelberg to our list of places to visit without really looking at what the city had to offer, and moved on.

I had already written the final chapters of the book, but wasn’t certain where the scenes should take place. During the drive to Munich, we explored several villages, castles, and cities along our route. Three we stopped at specifically because I thought they would be the perfect location for my novel’s climactic ending. It’s a good thing we did visit them because I was completely wrong!

Nassau was too spread out, Frankfurt too busy, and Walldorf too flat. On our drive home, I was beginning to feel like Goldilocks. None of the locations really worked as setting for the dramatic ending I had originally envisioned, so I resigned myself to rewriting it.

Heidelberg was our last stop before returning to Amsterdam. It is a beautiful, old university town located along the Nektar River and surrounded by thick, green forests. We spent a wonderful day exploring the Altstadt (old town) and riding the Bergbahn – definitely the highlight of the trip for my son!

For those who have not seen one, it is a railway that uses a system of cables and rack-and-pinion technology to pull the train cars straight up the mountain.

The Heidelberg railway is 1.5 kilometers long, making it the longest of its kind in Germany. It takes you from the heart of Altstadt, to the beautiful Heidelberg Castle, then up to the top of the Königstuhl – a small mountain the city is built into. On the way up, we had gorgeous views of the valley, river, castle, and town below. And from the top, it felt as if you could see all of Bavaria. It was truly breathtaking!

Best of all, I found the ideal location for the final scenes of my novel. The old city, castle, and even the Bergbahn play crucial roles in the last chapters of The Vermeer Deception.

Thanks to serendipity – or my son, depending on how you want to interpret these events – I found the perfect location for my mystery’s exciting conclusion, my husband got to see Munich, and my son was able to experience the thrill of climbing the Königstuhl by railway. It was a win-win for all of us.

I do hope readers enjoy traveling to Bavaria with me while reading The Vermeer Deception!

What about you, Reds and Readers? Do you have a fun, silly, or serendipitous travel experience to share?

HANK: And how do you feel about trains?

And doesn't this book have everything? 

What is the element that fascinates you the most?

 I wish I could win it... but YOU can!

Comment below to be entered to win 1 of 2 digital ARC copies of The Vermeer Deception! The international giveaway ends on Friday, April 3.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer S. Alderson was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle, and currently lives in Amsterdam. Her love of travel, art, and culture inspires her award-winning mystery series—the Zelda Richardson Mysteries and Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mysteries—and standalone stories.

After traveling extensively around Asia, Oceania, and Central America, she moved to Darwin, Australia, before settling in the Netherlands. Her background in journalism, multimedia development, and art history enriches her novels. When not writing, she can be found in a museum, biking around Amsterdam, or enjoying a coffee along the canal while planning her next research trip.

Website: http://www.jennifersalderson.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jenniferSAldersonauthor

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JSAauthor

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/JennifeSAlderson

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jennifer-s-alderson

The Vermeer Deception: An Art Mystery

An art historian finds – then loses – a portrait by Johannes Vermeer in this thrilling art mystery set in Munich, Heidelberg, and Amsterdam.

When Zelda Richardson investigates a new lead about a missing portrait by Johannes Vermeer, no one expects her to actually find the painting in a retired art dealer’s home in Munich, Germany. Not her parents visiting from America; her boss, private detective Vincent de Graaf; or the rightful owner of the Nazi-looted artwork.

However, Zelda’s jubilation turns to horror when she arrives to pick up the portrait and finds the art dealer dead and several frames smoldering in his fireplace.

Was the Vermeer a fake and its ‘discovery’ a cruel joke played on a Nazi victim? The Munich police, Zelda’s family, and Vincent certainly think so.

Yet the art dealer’s best friend believes he was murdered and the real Vermeer stolen by an underground network of art looters, one established during World War II and still active today. The problem is, no one believes him – except Zelda.

Zelda soon finds herself in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with immoral art collectors, corrupt dealers, and an all-to-real killer who wants her to stop searching.

Can Zelda uncover the truth about the Vermeer before she is painted out of the picture permanently?

The Vermeer Deception is Book 4 in the Zelda Richardson Mystery Series. The novels in this series can be read in any order.

Available as eBook and paperback at all fine retailers on April 4, 2020. You can preorder the eBook now on Amazon: http://getbook.at/TheVermeerDeception