Is Ella Shane based on any historical figure? Having the story set in 1900, did you do any research on the time period? Are you a history buff?
I like to describe Ella as part Beverly Sills, part Anne of Green Gables and part Errol Flynn. She’s brilliantly talented yet approachable like Sills, an orphan made good like Anne, and a swashbuckler like Flynn. Probably the closest real-life figure to Ella is Lillian Russell, a singer and actress who owned her own theatre company in the late 19th century. BUT — she didn’t play trouser roles, and Miss Russell’s personal life (four marriages and a very public affair with Diamond Jim Brady!) was the exact opposite of respectable Ella’s. I’ve been a history buff since I learned to read, and the Victorian Era is one of my favorite periods. When I started working on the series, it was tremendously fun to research the details – and the outfits!
In A FATAL OVERTURE, Ella Shane’s love interest is described as “long-distance love, Gil Saint Aubyn”. Does Ella have support from friends, family, or friendly investigators to be part of her “Scooby gang” as she plays the role of amateur sleuth?
Absolutely! Ella’s at the center, but never alone. Her cousin and manager, former boxer Tommy Hurley, is her best friend, protector, and partner in crime. Around them is a colorful cast, from reporter Hetty MacNaughten and fellow singer Marie de l’Artois, to parish priest Father Michael and Knickerbocker aristocrat Cabot Bridgewater. The fun part is that almost everyone has a role in the solution, even the Duke’s mother and aunts, whose surprise visit kicks off the book.
Do you have the solution and guilty party picked out at the start of your writing process? Or does the solution and murderer become clear to you as you write your book?
Usually, I’m a semi-pantser: I get the beginning, end and a few key scenes early, and then carefully knit it all together. But for A FATAL OVERTURE, I was already well into the planning when I decided to change the killer in the main plot. It all came to me when I was dozing on the train to work one night, and I’m sure people thought I was crazy because I popped up, yelling: “THAT’S IT!” But it’s a heckuva twist, and it’s worth it!
As an author who has written several cozy mystery series, what is it about cozy mysteries, as opposed to thrillers, that appeal to you?
The characters and the escape. My “day job” is as a radio news anchor. All my adult life, I’ve been talking about the worst things people can do to each other. There was no way on earth I wanted to write about that on my own time. More, I’m just not comfortable writing graphic sex or violence. At the end of the day, though, what I love most about cozies is the sensibility: something terrible happened, but we’re going to ride along with an interesting and loveable cast to find the perpetrator, and order will be restored without anything TOO horrible happening to people we like.
If you could pick one of your books – from any series – to recommend to somebody who has never read any of your books, which one would you recommend? And why?
As much as I think everyone should just jump in and read the whole Ella series, and as proud as I am of A FATAL OVERTURE – the best Ella yet! – I have to say some readers will probably find my new contemporary cozy more accessible. LIVE, LOCAL, AND DEAD (out now from Crooked Lane) features New York DJ Jaye Jordan, who moves to Vermont to take over a small radio station when her husband survives cancer, but their marriage doesn’t…only to have a talk show host turn up dead in a snowman in front of the station. Jaye, a snarky and scruffy single mom, is just a very relatable character, if far less ladylike than Ella!
A few authors I’ve previously interviewed have told me that the types of books they enjoy reading are not the same types they enjoy reading. Is that true for you? What are some of your favorite books? Favorite authors?
Actually, I read just about everything! Classic mysteries, cozies, hard-boiled PI’s, and a wide spectrum of nonfiction all end up in my library bag. As a historical fiction buff, I’ll just put in a word here for Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series. Sharply written, tightly plotted, and immaculately accurate, they’re the gold standard. When I’m stressed (say at book launch time!) I actually read a lot of history. Alison Weir and Lucy Worsley are my go-to’s for a time travel escape.
What are you currently working on?
Since the pandemic, I’ve started writing short stories, and I’m always noodling about a new one. For long projects, the next Ella Shane Mystery is ready to go, and I’m currently playing with an entirely different idea. Think The Princess Diaries only starring a fortyish single mom who has to solve the murder of the previous ruler. I’m not sure where it’ll go – but it’s fun!
A FATAL OVERTURE by Kathleen Marple Kalb
During the first winter of the twentieth century, Gilded Age trouser diva Ella Shane refuses to dim the lights on her dazzling show business career for marriage—even to a dashing British duke. But the versatile mezzo-soprano may have to put it all on the line once murder takes centerstage . . .
New York City, 1900. Renowned opera singer and theatre company owner Ella may have both much to gain and much to lose by getting engaged to her courtly long-distance love, Gil Saint Auburn. But there’s little time for romance or resolutions with Gil’s aristocratic mother and aunts visiting Greenwich Village—especially when the ladies discover a dead man in the bathtub of their hotel suite.
The victim’s disturbing background and subsequent demise at the elegant Waverly Place Hotel leave the group puzzled beyond the obvious certainty of an unnatural death. Adding to the confusion and mounting fear, danger explodes through Ella’s close-knit circle after a friend makes a stunning confession and Gil becomes a fresh target for violence.
Now, with a London tour run fast approaching, prenuptial worries weighing heavily on her heart, and an intricate Joan of Arc aria to rehearse, can Ella decide what she’s willing to sacrifice before confronting a relentless criminal bent on watching her entire life go up in smoke?
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Historical | Mystery Woman Sleuth [Kensington, On Sale: March 29, 2022, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781496727251 / eISBN: 9781496727312]
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About Kathleen Marple Kalb
Kathleen Marple Kalb lives with her family in Cheshire, Connecticut. She is a weekend morning anchor at New York’s 1010WINS Radio, capping a career she began as a teenage DJ in rural Western Pennsylvania. She’s currently working on the next Ella Shane historical mystery.
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