Your novel, THE UNQUIET DEAD, is set during the Gilded Age. What is it about that time period that has inspired you? Will you write novels set in other time periods?
When I first decided to write A DEADLY FORTUNE, the first book in the Amelia Matthew series (THE UNQUIET DEAD being the second), there was never any question but that I would set it in the Gilded Age. The Victorian/Gilded Age is far and away my favorite time period to read, so it made sense that I gravitated there for writing as well. I think there’s something so evocative about that time period. It’s far enough in the past to feel somewhat exotic, but it’s also comfortably modern in a lot of ways. The people and their motivations feel recognizable to readers. I have ideas for novels set in other time periods, so I’m sure I’ll get around to them eventually. I have part of a WWII book drafted, and a few notes for a book set in the Civil War-era western US.
I love stories with paranormal elements, or about different types of extrasensory perception. What made you decide to give your female protagonist the ability to communicate with the dead?
I also love those stories! I’m a huge fan of paranormal novels. When I started thinking about what I wanted to write, I essentially listed elements that I love to read and thought about how to mash them together. So – Gilded Age, mystery, female protagonist, found family, etc. Mediums and spiritualists were big in that era, so when considering what sort of paranormal element to include, communicating with the dead seemed like a natural fit.
With a female protagonist and characters who are immigrants in your novel. How deeply do you get into the inequities of the time period?
The various inequities of the period – whether class, race, or gender-based – are central to the whole premise of the book. The Gilded Age was a time of enormous social divisions, and I really wanted to explore those.
In your book’s description, there’s the suggestion that – even though Amelia and her allies work to clear the supposed murderer – there is some doubt that crops up. Do you maintain a sense of doubt for the reader about the accused young man’s innocence throughout the book, like in the classic film Anatomy of a Murder? Or is the doubt just a fleeting thought by the main characters?
Without giving too much away, the question of guilt or innocence is very much up in the air. The main characters are initially swept into the investigation because they’re doing a favor for a friend, who believes wholeheartedly in the boy’s innocence. They start out assuming he is likely correct, but as the evidence starts to point in the other direction, they have to question their assumptions. By that point, however, they can’t really walk away.
Is there any dash of romance in this story?
Oh yes. I love a good romantic subplot.
What kind of books do you like to read? Favorite books or authors?
I read a little bit of everything. I love historical fiction, obviously – I’m a huge Deanna Raybourn fan, and I’m insanely jealous of Lyndsay Faye for having written the Timothy Wilde trilogy. I’m also an eager reader of science fiction and fantasy. I adore Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries. And I’m waiting very impatiently for the next book in J.S. Dewes’s fantastic Divide series.
What are you currently working on?
I’m dividing my time between outlining what I hope will be the third book in this series (fingers crossed!) and the WWII book I mentioned earlier. It’s a mystery about a young woman who comes to Washington DC to visit her twin sister, only to find out her sister has vanished. My main character winds up assuming her sister’s identity in order to try to find out what happened to her.
THE UNQUIET DEAD by Stacie Murphy
The new Gilded Age mystery featuring the uniquely talented Amelia Matthew—who has the ability to communicate with the dead—as she uses her special talents to solve the murder of a young girl whose death has scandalized New York City.
Three months after her harrowing experience on Blackwell’s Island, Amelia is settling back into her work at the nightclub and doing her best to come to terms with her new ability to commune with the spirit world. The last thing she wants to do is hunt another killer through the streets of Gilded Age New York. But when she and her brother Jonas discover the body—and spirit—of a young girl whose recent kidnapping electrified the city, Amelia’s resolve wavers. It breaks entirely when a fifteen-year-old boy—the son of one of the club’s Black waiters and his Irish immigrant wife—is accused of the crime.
Amelia and Jonas have to find the real murderer, and they have to do it quickly: in five days, the boy will be transferred to the brutal Sing Sing prison to await trial. For such a notorious suspect, it’s as good as a death sentence. With the city in an uproar and an ambitious reporter watching their every move, they race to uncover the truth. But as the evidence increasingly points to the boy’s guilt, Amelia and Jonas are forced to wonder: are they saving an innocent, or working to free a killer?
Mystery Paranormal | Mystery Historical | Mystery Woman Sleuth [Pegasus Crime, On Sale: April 5, 2022, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781643138930 / ]
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About Stacie Murphy
Stacie Murphy began writing A Deadly Fortune in March of 2017 as a way to force herself to stay off Twitter in the evenings. (It didn’t work). The novel was a 2018 Pitch Wars selection, mentored by Carolyne Topdjian. Stacie lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and daughter.
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