The Safest Way to Travel During a Global Pandemic by VM Burns

Jenn McKinlay: I am desperate to travel! Like seriously so tired of my zip code - I'm cuckoo banana balls desperate. Luckily, today we have VM Burns in the house to help all of us who suffer the travel itch we can not scratch. Take it away, Valerie.

VM Burns: Publishing is slow…very slow. Books that are destined for bookstore and library shelves have to be submitted to the publisher months, sometimes over a year in advance. Little did I know when I first sat down to write, A Tourist’s Guide to Murder, the 6^th book in my Mystery Bookshop mystery series, that the world would be in the middle of a global pandemic when the book released. Who could have foreseen that? Nevertheless, I’m going to call it fate, that thing that led me to write about traveling to England. During a time when travel is halted and most people are sheltering in place, many of us need a vacation, an escape.

Genre fiction (eg. mystery, romance, science fiction and fantasy), was long ago labeled “escapist fiction.” That label wasn’t intended as a compliment. In fact, on the fiction hierarchy, literary fiction is at the top of the scale. Whereas genre fiction (sometimes referred to as commercial or popular fiction), falls slightly above bathroom graffiti. Apparently, escaping from reality isn’t considered a good thing in the circles of fiction’s upper echelon. Yet, after all that’s happened in the past year, I can’t think of anything I’d like to do more than escape.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have made a couple of trips to England in the past, but there’s never enough time to see everything. I’ve been talking about making a return trip for at least six years. However, I’ve yet to make it past the shores of the United States. My dreams of visiting the birthplace of Agatha Christie and the home where she escaped for a well-deserved rest after finishing a book started long before international borders were closed and traveling became a life-or-death gamble due to COVID-19. After a decade of working from home and sheltering in place (okay, eleven months but it feels longer), I’m ready for an excursion. Traveling abroad and escaping on a tour is all I can think about. There’s something about being told that you can’t do something that makes you really want to do it. But, alas traveling isn’t safe at the moment. However, thanks to the Internet (and a pressing book deadline), I managed to travel across the British countryside all from the safety of home and you can too.

Readers familiar with the Mystery Bookshop Mystery Series know that Samantha Washington and her late husband, Leon, dreamed of one day quitting their jobs to pursue their shared dream of owning a bookshop that specialized in mysteries. After Leon’s death, Sam did it. She quit her job and bought the building they’d fantasized about owning, and opened Market Street Mysteries. However, owning a mystery bookshop was only one of Sam’s dreams. She also dreamed of writing British historic cozy mysteries. With a lot of help from her family and friends, Sam managed to fulfill both of those dreams. And, in A Tourist’s Guide to Murder, she’s heading to England to research her next mystery.

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In researching this book, I followed a real mystery lover’s tour with only minor deviations. I traveled to London and then across Devon and Dartmoor, through the Cotswolds and Oxford, and all the way to Agatha Christie’s home in Torquay. I followed locations where the women murdered by London’s infamous serial killer, Jack the Ripper, were found. as well as locations that inspired fictional tales from mystery writers like Dick Francis, Dorothy Sayers, P.D. James, and of course, the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. Thanks to the Internet, pictures, video tours, rereading my favorite Agatha Christie novels and intensive television reconnaissance (that’s what I’m calling it, don’t judge) by watching Miss Marple, Midsomer Murders, and Lord Peter Wimsey, I was able to immerse myself into the mystery lovers’ tour nearly as much as Sam, Nana Jo, and ‘the girls’ (Dorothy, Ruby Mae, and Irma) from the retirement village.

If you’re as tired of sheltering in place as I am, then pick up a book and make your escape. If you’re up for a puzzle, consider a mystery. Follow the clues, sift through the red herrings and make your escape. With luck, you’ll be able to explore the world and figure out whodunit without leaving the comfort of home.

Reds and Readers, what mysteries in other locations are you reading to escape? 

Also, if you could pick one place to research mysteries in Great Britain, where would it be? 

More about VM Burns: 

A Tourist’s Guide to Murder releases on January 26, 2021.

V.M. Burns was born and raise in the Midwestern United States. In addition to the Mystery Bookshop Mystery Series, she is the author of the RJ Franklin Mystery Series, and the Dog Club Mystery Series. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Dog Writers Association of America, Thriller Writers International, Crime Writers of Color, and Sisters in Crime. She currently resides in East Tennessee with her two poodles. Readers can visit her website at http://www.vmburns.com

Agatha nominated author of THE MYSTERY BOOKSHOP MYSTERY SERIES,The RJ  FRANKLIN MYSTERY SERIES, and The DOG CLUB MYSTERY SERIES

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