Though I’d read many of Agatha Christie’s mysteries decades ago, I began rereading them when Covid disrupted our lives. Murder was more comforting than the world around us. After deciding to focus my 9th mystery on an amateur production of Christie’s play, THE MOUSETRAP, I delved into Christie’s life and career and educated myself about play production. Below I describe five books I used as resources, all of them fascinating reads. But first, a little about my book, A PARFAIT CRIME, and its relation to Christie’s play. THE MOUSETRAP, the longest running stage production in the world, opened in 1952 in London and is still drawing audiences. It’s also a staple of community theaters, like the one in A PARFAIT CRIME. I’ve seen the play twice and remember its scary moments and its stunning ending. To avoid spoiling that experience for anyone who hasn’t yet seen it, I reveal the minimum about the plot and nothing about Christie’s culprit in the scenes where my characters rehearse. ​​The book begins as café manager Val joins her grandfather in rehearsals, replacing cast member Jane, who died in an arson fire. Sweet Jane was known for the parfaits she served. After skeletal remains are found…

I love mysteries with a quirky convention or fan festival as part of the story. In your new book BAKE OFFED, you have the “Maryland Mystery Fan Fest”. What was your inspiration? BAKE OFFED takes place at a fictional mystery fan fest. The book was inspired by the dozens of actual mystery fan conventions I’ve attended. I was at one of them, Left Coast Crime, in March of 2020 when Covid shut down the gathering on its first day. At that time, I was plotting my 8th Five-Ingredient Mystery. Realizing it might be a long time before I would once again meet mystery writers and fans in person, I created a fictional mystery festival. Like most such gatherings, the one in my book includes panels, book signings, and a charity auction for book lovers. But it also has a few features not usually seen at a real mystery convention–a Deadly Desserts bake-off and a murder, which the fest attendees are eager to solve.   As is the case with many mysteries, the murder victim in BAKE OFFED seems to be disliked by many, and so there are multiple plausible suspects. Do you have the murderer determined before you write the book, or does the guilty party change as…