Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Victoria Thompson! Writes: Victoria Thompson writes historical mystery, notably the Gaslight Mystery Series, which has been nominated for an Edgar Award and 6 times for an Agatha Award. The 25th book in that series is MURDER ON MADISON SQUARE! If you enjoy complicated mysteries with a lot of human interest and a really slow-burn romance, this series is for you! About: Victoria spends long hours at her computer thinking of creative ways to murder people at the turn of the last century in New York City. In her spare time, she watches true crime shows on TV and matches wits with her scary-smart grandchildren. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: My ideal reader for MURDER ON MADISON SQUARE would: Love being misled Enjoy witty dialogue Revel in watching characters develop over the long haul Crave learning obscure historical facts Be determined to guess the killer but not mind if they are fooled! What to expect if we’re compatible: Falling in love…
1–What is the title of your latest release? MAGIC, LIES, AND DEADLY PIES 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? ML&DP is about a vigilante baker who kills bad men with good pies. In TV terms, it’s Pushing Daisies meets Dexter. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The book is set in a fictional Massachusetts college town because I wanted a cozy and politically progressive place to for my murder girl to set down roots. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely! Why would I not when murder and pie is on the menu?? 5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? Whimsical, fashionable, and murdery 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? That titles are incredibly hard to come up with!! ML&DP started life as PIES BEFORE GUYS but I had to come up with a bunch of alternative options when the publisher wanted to change it. (And I still mostly just call it ‘the murder pie book’!) 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? Draft first, then edit. I’m an outliner, so the actual drafting can go pretty quick if…
1–What is the title of your latest release? THE BANGALORE DETECTIVES CLUB 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? If you’re interested in historical mysteries with feisty women protagonists, this is the book for you! 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I grew up and live in Bangalore, India, which is my favorite city. I’ve lived in many parts of the world, but always chose to return here. My academic research (in my day job as an ecologist and university professor) is also focused on Bangalore, and I have fifteen years of research to draw on, plus my own family’s rich personal experience. With such a wealth of information, there was nowhere else I would have located the book! 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely. Kaveri is such a mold-breaker. She lives in colonial India, in a time and place when ‘good’ women were expected to conform to societal norms and expectations that kept them in their place, i.e. mostly within the home. But she’s a budding mathematician who loves swimming and driving cars, gets involved in solving a murder, and blazes her own path. What’s not to…
Tell me about your choice of setting for this Kate Hamilton mystery series. (setting, history, characters) THE SHADOW OF MEMORY is set in the fictional village of Long Barston in Suffolk as well as the Suffolk coastline, site of a holiday camp where Kate’s friend Vivian Bunn spent her girlhood summers. Near the camp is Netherfield Sanatorium, a derelict Victorian mental hospital being converted into deluxe flats and townhouses. The developer and board of directors have asked Kate and her colleague Ivor Tweedy to appraise a fine collection of antiques that once filled the institution, including a painting attributed to the fifteenth-century Netherlandish painter Jan Van Eyck. But is the painting what it seems to be? And could there be a connection between the hospital and the mysterious deaths of a doctor and his wife? Why Suffolk? I fell in love with the British Isles when I was a student at St. Clare’s College, Oxford. Writing a book means spending a lot of time in the setting you’ve chosen, and Suffolk is one of England’s hidden gems—England the way you picture it in your mind. The “Suffolk Pink” cottages with their thatched roofs and the ancient villages with their cobbled…
PIPER’S PURGATORY evolved from an old recollection. Really old. A million years ago—back when I was in high school. Creative Writing was my favorite class. Our teacher was innovative and kept all the students engaged. I wrote an 8-page short story called WIDOW’S TALE in that high school course. Flash forward many years, and that short story evolved into a 300-page romantic suspense novel that finalized at the RWA’s Golden Heart awards. But, let’s get back to that class. It was high school. I was young. Too young to appreciate the classics. We were assigned to read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. And wow, love it, I did! But, this class was more than just about reading a classic. To help us fully grasp the characters, our teacher turned the class into Purgatory, and we held a trial on whether Heathcliff should head north or south. This wasn’t a philosophical or an inspirational class. The assignment was to dissect Heathcliff and delve deep into his motivations. Each student played a character in the book and took turns questioning the poor student who portrayed Heathcliff. I was Joseph, the old servant. It wasn’t a reach for me to portray an…