Poppy Redfern and the Fatal Flyers by Tessa Arlen

 

First Line: "Miss Redfern? For heaven's sake, where is she?"

 

In late autumn of 1942, Poppy Redfern is immersed in her new job as scriptwriter for the Crown Film Unit. The primary function of the CFU is to keep British morale high, so when Poppy learns that she's part of the team going to film the Attagirls, a group of female civilians who work for the Air Transport Auxiliary flying planes from factories to countless airfields, she can't wait to get there.

 

Poppy is thrilled to meet and talk with these amazing women, and when two of the very best of them die in what are deemed "accidents," she and her American fighter pilot boyfriend, Griff, believe that someone is targeting the Attagirls, and they want to find the person responsible before the killer strikes again.

 

~

 

Having really enjoyed the first book in this series, Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders, I couldn't wait to read this one. I wasn't disappointed. Author Tessa Arlen put me right in the middle of not only a film crew but also an amazing group of women who flew for the Air Transport Auxiliary. I've read about them, and I am so pleased that a great deal of World War II women's history is finally coming to light. These women flew planes in all sorts of conditions-- new, repaired, damaged-- in all sorts of weather to all parts of Britain as well as France and Belgium. The planes they flew had no weapons so they couldn't defend themselves, and they were not allowed to use the radios. (Heaven forbid. They're women and might start chattering away. The Royal Air Force was really a dinosaur in its attitudes.) Many of these women had far broader flying experience than their male counterparts in the RAF, but when they landed their planes at RAF fields most of the time they were allotted no sleeping, bathing, or toilet facilities. However, they weren't in it for the perks; they loved what they did. (Read Arlen's notes at the back of the book.)

 

Poppy's job as scriptwriter gives her carte blanche to interview the Attagirls multiple times which really helps in her investigation. My liking for Poppy continues to grow. She's brave, intelligent, and resourceful, and her behavior around her American fighter pilot boyfriend can make me smile.  

The mystery is a good one, too. In fact, I am happy to report that I was only partially correct about the solution, and-- due to the number of mysteries I read-- I always like when that happens. Anyone who is even remotely familiar with Agatha Christie's work will do a double-take just like I did when they come across a certain sentence. (Don't worry, I'm going to let you find it for yourselves.)

Poppy's job in the Crown Film Unit has the potential to take her to all sorts of places, and I certainly look forward to joining her in all of her adventures. Now comes the wait for book number three.

 

Poppy Redfern and the Fatal Flyers by Tessa Arlen

eISBN: 9781984805836

Berkley Prime Crime © 2020

eBook, 320 pages

 

Historical Mystery, #2 Woman of World War II mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

December 2020 New Mystery Releases!

 

2020 is the only year I've ever wanted to fly by. Sometimes it felt as though time were moving glacially slow and at others, it was supersonic.

There have been many changes in all our lives this year, many of them unwelcome, but I know if we just buckle down and do what's right for us all, we'll make our way out of the tunnel and be back in the high life again. (Sorry, that song's an earworm this afternoon.)

The following list contains my picks of the  best new crime fiction being released throughout the month of December. The books are grouped by release date, and the covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon.

Let's see if any of my picks have made it to your own personal Must Read lists!

=== December 1 ===

 

 

Title: The Opium Prince

Author: Jasmine Aimaq

Standalone thriller set in Afghanistan

384 pages

 

Synopsis: "Afghanistan, 1970s. Born to an American mother and a late Afghan war hero, Daniel Sajadi has spent his life navigating a complex identity. After years in Los Angeles, he is returning home to Kabul at the helm of a US foreign aid agency dedicated to eradicating the poppy fields that feed the world’s opiate addiction.
   
But on the drive out of Kabul for an anniversary trip with his wife, Daniel accidentally hits and kills a young Kochi girl named Telaya. He is let off with a nominal fine, in part because nomad tribes are ignored in the eyes of the law, but also because a mysterious witness named Taj Maleki intercedes on his behalf. Wracked with guilt and visions of Telaya, Daniel begins to unravel, running from his crumbling marriage and escalating threats from Taj, who turns out to be a powerful opium khan willing to go to extremes to save his poppies.
 
This groundbreaking literary thriller reveals the invisible lines between criminal enterprises and political regimes—and one man’s search for meaning at the heart of a violent revolution." 

Title: Murder Is a Must

Author: Marty Wingate

Series: #2 in the First Edition Library cozy series set in Bath, England.

336 pages

Synopsis: "Hayley Burke, curator of Lady Fowling's collection of first edition mysteries, is settling into her position at the First Edition Library in Middlebank House. She's even made progress with Lady Fowling's former secretary, the ornery Miss Woolgar. The women are busily preparing for an exhibition that will showcase Lady Fowling's life and letters. Hayley knows the exhibition is a huge undertaking and decides, against her better judgement, to hire Oona Atherton, her former boss from the Jane Austen Centre to help with the planning.
 

Oona is known for being difficult, but all seems to be going swimmingly until she and Hayley uncover a one-page letter that alludes to a priceless edition of MURDER MUST ADVERTISE signed by several Golden Age of Mystery authors. Oona feels this book could be the focal point of the exhibition and becomes obsessed with finding it.
 

When they find clues that appear to point to the book being somewhere in the First Edition Library, Oona is certain she's unraveled the mystery and texts Hayley the good news, but upon arriving back at Middlebank, Hayley finds her old boss dead at the bottom of the stairs. Did her discovery of the rare book get her killed or was it some angry shadow from her past? Hayley must read between the lines to catch a malicious murderer."

 

 

Title: Poppy Redfern and the Fatal Flyers

Author: Tessa Arlen

Series: #2 in the historical Woman of World War II series set in England.

320 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "It is the late autumn of 1942. Our indomitable heroine Poppy Redfern is thoroughly immersed in her new job as a scriptwriter at the London Crown Film Unit, which produces short films featuring British civilians who perform acts of valor and heroism in wartime. After weeks of typing copy and sharpening pencils, Poppy is thrilled to receive her first solo script project: a fifteen-minute film about the Air Transport Auxiliary, known as Attagirls, a group of female civilians who have been trained to pilot planes from factories to military airfields all over Britain.

Poppy could not be more excited to spend time with these amazing ladies, but she never expects to see one of the best pilots die in what is being labeled an accident. When another Attagirl meets a similar fate, Poppy and her American fighter-pilot boyfriend, Griff, believe foul play may be at work. They soon realize that a murderer with a desire for revenge is dead set on grounding the Attagirls for good. . . ."

 

 

Title: Accra Noir

Edited by Nana-Ama Danquah

Short Story Anthology set in Ghana.

256 pages

 

Synopsis: "Accra is one of the most well-known cities on the African continent. It's the capital of Ghana, which in 1957 became the first sub-Saharan (read: black) nation to gain its independence from colonialism. But the city, in all its globalism, predates the nation. Prior to becoming a sovereign land, the area now known as Ghana was the Gold Coast colony. In 1877, when the British took possession of the colony, Accra was installed as its capital. For nearly a century, in addition to being a political and financial center, the city was a major trade hub. People came from Europe and other African nations to trade everything from gold and salt to guns and slaves...

One thing that people, too easily seduced by the city's charm and history and beauty, forget about Accra is that it is a major metropolis. Accra is New York; it is Los Angeles; it is Shanghai, Mexico City, Santiago, Caracas, and Cape Town. It is an urban area, with poverty, desperation, and the inevitable result of a marriage between the two: crime...

The stories that you will read in this collection highlight all things Accra, everything that the city was and is--the remaining vestiges of colonialism, the pride of independence, the nexus of indigenous tribes and other groups from all over the world, the tension between modernity and traditionalism, the symbolism and storytelling both obvious and coded, the moral high ground, the duplicity and deceit, the most basic human failings laid bare alongside fear and love and pain and the corrupting desire to have the very things you are not meant to have."

 

 

Title: Premeditated Mortar

Author: Kate Carlisle

Series: #8 in the Fixer-Upper cozy series set in California.

304 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "Shannon Hammer is about to embark on one of the biggest projects of her career. Her best friend Jane Hennessey has purchased one wing of the Gables, formerly the old state insane asylum, located on a bucolic hillside two miles northeast of Lighthouse Cove. Jane plans to turn her section into a small luxury hotel complete with twenty ocean-view rooms, a spa, and a restaurant.

Shannon is raring to get started on the enormous project and is shocked when a group of unruly protesters shows up at the groundbreaking ceremony and wreaks havoc. She’s even more freaked-out when someone pushes her into a pit of bricks in a closed-off room of the asylum. Despite her close call, Shannon wants nothing more than to get back to work . . . until she finds a body not far from where she was pushed. Now Shannon is determined to get to the bottom of the goings-on at the Gables even if it kills her. . . ."

 

 

=== December 3 ===

 

 

Title: The Fatal Flying Affair

Author: T.E. Kinsey

Series: #8 in the Lady Hardcastle historical series set at the turn of the twentieth century in England.

315 pages

 

Synopsis: "August 1911. Emily Hardcastle and her inimitable lady’s maid Florence Armstrong are enjoying a fine summer until Harry, Lady H’s brother, turns up out of the blue with a mystery for them to solve.

A routine parachute test at a local aeroplane factory has gone horribly wrong—with pilot Dickie Dupree plummeting to his death. Harry is certain there is more to this ‘tragic accident’ than meets the eye, having discovered that someone at the airfield is leaking top secret intelligence to foreign rivals.

In between strolls to the Dog & Duck and planning for the annual village show, the daring duo dust off the Crime Board and go undercover at Bristol Aviation. With international powers investing heavily in aeronautics, the stakes are high—sky high—and the suspects soon mount up.

Can Lady Hardcastle find the culprit before someone else falls down dead?"

 

 

=== December 8 ===

 

 

Title: Snowdrift

Author: Helene Tursten

Series: #3 in the Embla Nyström police procedural series set in Sweden.

384 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "One winter night, 28-year-old Detective Inspector Embla Nyström receives a phone call that sends her reeling. It’s been fourteen years since her best friend disappeared from a nightclub in Gothenburg, but Embla recognizes her voice before the call abruptly disconnects. Embla is thrilled to learn Lollo is still alive, but before she can dive into the case, she gets another phone call—this time from a relative. A man has been found shot dead in one of the guest houses he and his wife manage in rural Sweden. Could she come take a look?

When Embla arrives on the scene, she receives another shock. The dead man is Milo Stavic, a well-known gang member and one of the last people seen with Lollo. And, as Embla soon learns, the same night that Milo was shot in the guest house, his brother Luca was also killed. Why, after all these years, is someone targeting the Stavic brothers, and where is the third brother? With help from a handsome local detective and his police dog in training, Embla launches an investigation into the three Stavic brothers, hoping it will bring her closer to finally finding Lollo and putting an end to her terrible nightmares." 

Title: Cold Wind

Author: Paige Shelton

Series: #2 in the Alaska Wild amateur sleuth series set in Alaska.

304 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "Beth Rivers is still in Alaska. The unidentified man who kidnapped her in her home of St. Louis hasn’t been found yet, so she’s not ready to go back.

But as October comes to a close, Benedict is feeling more and more like her new home. Beth has been working on herself: She’s managed to get back to writing, and she’s enjoying these beautiful months between summer and winter in Alaska.

Then, everything in Benedict changes after a mudslide exposes a world that had been hidden for years. Two mud-covered, silent girls appear, and a secret trapper’s house is found in the woods. The biggest surprise, though, is a dead and frozen woman’s body in the trapper’s shed. No one knows who she is, but the man who runs the mercantile, Randy, seems to be in the middle of all the mysteries.

Unable to escape her journalistic roots, Beth is determined to answer the questions that keep arising: Are the mysterious girls and the frozen body connected? Can Randy possibly be involved? And―most importantly―can she solve this mystery before the cold wind sweeping over the town and the townspeople descends for good?" 

=== December 10 ===

Title: Winterkill

Author: Ragnar Jónasson

Series: #6 in the Ari Thor/Dark Iceland police procedural series set in Iceland.

276 pages

 

Synopsis: "When the body of a nineteen-year-old girl is found on the main street of Siglufjörður, Police Inspector Ari Thór battles a violent Icelandic storm in an increasingly dangerous hunt for her killer … The chilling, claustrophobic finale to the international bestselling Dark Iceland series.

Easter weekend is approaching, and snow is gently falling in Siglufjörður, the northernmost town in Iceland, as crowds of tourists arrive to visit the majestic ski slopes.

Ari Thór Arason is now a police inspector, but he’s separated from his girlfriend, who lives in Sweden with their three-year-old son. A family reunion is planned for the holiday, but a violent blizzard is threatening and there is an unsettling chill in the air.

Three days before Easter, a nineteen-year-old local girl falls to her death from the balcony of a house on the main street. A perplexing entry in her diary suggests that this may not be an accident, and when an old man in a local nursing home writes ‘She was murdered’ again and again on the wall of his room, there is every suggestion that something more sinister lies at the heart of her death…

As the extreme weather closes in, cutting the power and access to Siglufjörður, Ari Thór must piece together the puzzle to reveal a horrible truth … one that will leave no one unscathed." 

=== December 29 ===

Title: Absence of Alice

Author: Sherry Harris

Series: #9 in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale cozy series set in Massachusetts.

288 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "Sarah's latest client, Alice Krandle, is sure she has a fortune in antiques on her hands. She's already gotten a generous offer for the whole lot before her garage sale has even begun, but she thinks she can earn more with Sarah's expert help. The problem is that while Sarah's sorting through items from decades past, her landlady, Stella, faces a clear and present danger.

Stella's kidnapper has contacted Sarah with a set of instructions, and "Don't call the police" is at the top of the list. But they didn't say anything about Sarah's friend Harriet--who happens to be a former F.B.I. hostage negotiator..." 

Title: A Wicked Yarn

Author: Emmie Caldwell

Series: #1 in Craft Fair Knitters cozy series.

304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Mother's Day should be a cinch for the good folks of the Crandalsburg Craft Fair, and knitting enthusiast Lia Geiger has a good feeling about this year's yield. But things quickly get knotty when Lia's daughter announces she's quit her job and Lia finds herself tangled up in the murder of her best friend's ex-husband. While Belinda's alibi quickly gets her off the hook, nasty rumors spread throughout Crandalsburg that shroud the entire fair in suspicion.

Could the vendors be responsible for the murder of a man hell-bent on unraveling the fair just days before his death? Lia and her crafty group of Ninth Street Knitters must put down their needles to gather clues and save the crafting community they've grown to love."

This is a rather eclectic list of mysteries, isn't it? There should definitely be something for everyone on it, and I like the fact that it contains a nice mix of my favorite authors as well as brand-new ones. 

Did any of the books tickle your fancy? Which ones? Inquiring minds would love to know!

Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders by Tessa Arlen

First Line: "Incoming air raid."

It's the summer of 1942 and Poppy Redfern's family home and farmland have been requisitioned by the War Office as a new airfield for the American Air Force. Wanting to do her bit for the war effort, too, Poppy trains as an Air Raid Warden in London, and now she's back in Little Buffenden.

Many of the villagers are worried about all the wild Americans on their doorstep, so Poppy often finds herself patrolling the streets at night attempting to ease her neighbors' fears as she tells them to fasten their blackout curtains.

When two young, popular women who were dating American servicemen are found strangled, the villagers know without a doubt that an American has to be the killer. Poppy isn't so sure. With the help of an American pilot, she sets out to do some investigating of her own and is surprised by the secrets and grudges she unearths.

I love a good historical mystery, and I am so thankful for writers like Jacqueline Winspear and Susan Elia MacNeal for their series featuring women in war. Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders, Tessa Arlen's first Woman of World War II mystery, is an excellent addition.

From the opening scenes in London where Poppy was trained during almost nightly air raids, I was hooked. From London, readers move to the village homefront during the war. Fear, shortages, ration books, distrust of any stranger, Arlen brings the setting to life as Poppy walks the streets of Little Buffenden in the light of day and the pitch black of night. Poppy is an excellent protagonist. She's not quite village and not quite gentry, so she can move about in both worlds-- although she does have to outwit her overprotective grandparents when it comes to her investigating.

The mystery in Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders although good, isn't all that strong. It was very easy for me to deduce the killer's identity, for instance. No, this first book in a series is more about setting the stage and having readers get a feel for the time period and to become acquainted with the characters, and in this, it succeeds. So much so that I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.

Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders by Tessa Arlen

eISBN: 9781984805812

Berkley Prime Crime © 2019

eBook, 320 pages

Historical Mystery, #1 Woman of World War II mystery

Rating: A-

Source: Net Galley


 

Cozy Con 2018: Part Two

I'm going to exercise a little poetic license and deviate from the actual order of the panels for The Poisoned Pen's CozyCon 2018. I'm going to post them in the order in which host Barbara Peters wanted them. Peters had to contend with an author whose flight was late, and I don't so I can follow her original plan. And just in case you missed Part One, you can catch up with the rest of us.

Right now it's time to get this show on the road, so here's the panel with historical mystery writers C.S. Harris, Tessa Arlen, and Ann Parker!

L to R: Barbara Peters, C.S. Harris

"Originally, I was a reader of romance, which will surprise all of you since I started The Poisoned Pen," host Barbara Peters said. "I cut my reading teeth on the Oz books, Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, whatever. My mother was the more serious mystery reader. She loved P.I. stories, so I was also brought up on Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald. I read Robert Parker in real time, but I find that historical mysteries are my passion.

"One of the reasons why I enjoy Poisoned Pen Press and all the other presses is that they publish books that I like to read. I publish books that I like to read, and these three authors write books that I particularly like to read.

"Candace's latest book was reviewed on Shelf Awareness today. They called it 'a blend of Elizabeth George and Georgette Heyer, Why Kill the Innocent will appeal to mystery and Regency readers with its intricate plotting and historical detail,'" Peters continued. "This is the thirteenth Sebastian St. Cyr mystery, and in reading it you will get a history lesson about the totally dysfunctional family of George III. George IV, the heir, had a daughter from one of the worst marriages in recorded history, and she's the focus of part of the plot of this book, right?"

C.S. Harris

"Yes. Princess Charlotte," Candace replied. "I knew the general outline of the family, but I was appalled when I read more and learned what the Prince Regent put his wife through.

"He sent his mistress to the dock to meet his bride's ship. Caroline, his bride-to-be, knew that Lady Jersey was his mistress, and the Prince Regent sat Lady Jersey prominently at the wedding feast. Lady Jersey was invited along on the honeymoon. He had given Caroline pearl bracelets as wedding gifts, and he took them back and gave them to Lady Jersey who made a point of wearing them around Caroline because the Prince Regent had appointed her one of Caroline's ladies-in-waiting. It's really hard to imagine that he could've been any crueler to her unless he would've locked her up.

"The Prince Regent was a narcissist, a pathological liar, and he was very vindictive," Candace told us. "He was incredibly mean to his daughter. I don't think he had the capacity to love anyone other than himself. As his daughter Caroline grew up, the crowds loved her and would cheer as she rode down the street. This made her father hate her because those same crowds would boo and hiss whenever he went by, so he tried to keep her out of the public eye. Despite this, Caroline grew to be a very likable woman.

Available Now!

"She died in childbirth, and that made everyone scramble to get married because, although George III had had all these children, Caroline was the only one who was legitimate. By the time Caroline died, they were all in their forties, so it was too late, and that's how England wound up with Queen Victoria."

"So that's the household in which the mystery takes place. We'll get back to that, but you can see that it was a setting that was just ripe for disaster!" Barbara said. "So, Ann Parker, there you are-- it's good to see you!

"For you, this is a pivotal book because Inez Stannert, whom we first met during the silver rush in Leadville, Colorado, has decided that her life needs a reboot, and she's gone off to San Francisco, which is a rough town. There's a lot going on."

"Yes," Ann replied. "San Francisco in 1881 had the Barbary Coast, it had Chinatown, and in addition to the Barbary Coast waterfront, there was another in the Mission Canal District that I became very intrigued with. It was also a rough part of town. Inez and I began to tiptoe through the town to see what was there and what was of interest. Inez was looking for business opportunities; she's a savvy woman. It was an interesting period for businesswomen in San Francisco."

Ann Parker

"Inez was part owner of a saloon in Leadville with her husband, and they're now divorced," Barbara said. "She's also invested in a couple of bordellos in Leadville with her partner, Flo, who's a madam. So, for her day and age, Inez is an adventurous venture capitalist."

"It just so happens that this is an exciting time for women entrepreneurs in San Francisco," Ann said. "Women owning and running millinery shops, laundries, stationery shops, and boarding houses-- proper and not-so-proper. A lot of them needed capital to grow their business. There actually was a woman in San Francisco who was well-known for giving loans and helping women to build their businesses. Right now her first name is POOF! gone, but they used to call her Mammy Pleasance. Does this ring a bell for anyone? But there is a history of women funding women, which is pretty cool."

Available Now!

"Needless to say, a body floats up, her past comes back to haunt her-- both literally and figuratively-- from Leadville, so it's a very interesting book with lots going on," Barbara said. "And it's a kind of pivot for her to see where we're going. Because Leadville was becoming like Cabot Cove a little bit so San Francisco really opens up possibilities."

"Oh, yes!" Ann replied. "There's San Francisco, and across the bay there's Berkeley. The University of California existed during this time frame-- and accepted women."

Barbara moved on to the third writer on the panel. "So, Tessa, this is your fourth book for Lady Montfort. You've jumped from the Edwardian Era right into World War I."

"Yes," Tessa replied. "In fact, in the third book, I did a little countdown. When the mystery was solved, the boys were going off to war. I left it at that, but then I decided I wanted Lady Montfort to be involved in the war on the home front. I'd just finished reading Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That, and I thought, 'Oh, this is what I want to do.' So it starts in the summer when England is struggling to bring in the harvest without men and women are stepping up to run the Land Army as well as run hospitals and keep everything going.

"Clementine [LadyMontfort] is up in Scotland visiting a friend who's in a very special hospital called Craiglockhart which is taking care of the growing number of soldiers struggling with what they called then 'shellshock' and what we know today as PTSD. The Battle of the Somme ran throughout the summer months, and the casualties were horrendous.

Tessa Arlen

"So Clementine visits Oscar and decides that the Dower House can be turned into a rehab center, which not only had to be funded by her husband but had to get approval through the War Office.

"Everything is going well at the hospital. The doctor has many types of therapy, and he's worked hard to educate the nearby villagers because they all believed these men are cowards and malingerers. Then a young war hero who's not only suffering from shellshock but amnesia as well is found murdered in the hospital's vegetable garden. Since the War Office is about to arrive for its quarterly inspection, with this murder, it looks as though the hospital is completely out of control."

"And Mrs. Jackson, the formidable housekeeper is in charge of the hospital," Barbara remarked. "Many of your readers will already be familiar with country houses being turned into hospitals after watching the second season of Downton Abbey.

"Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson have a Holmes-Watson... no, they don't because they're really quite equal. There's not that disparity between them."

"They're intellectually equal, but socially they're not equal at all," Arlen observed. "But they do have a huge respect and liking for each other."

Available Now!

"Candace, let's get back to Why Kill the Innocent," Barbara said. "You've told us about Princess Charlotte and her terrible situation. When a body is discovered, who is it, and why is it of such importance to St. Cyr?"

"The victim is Princess Charlotte's music teacher and a minor composer and was based on a real person named Mary Guest who did teach Charlotte. But she wasn't murdered!" Candace replied. "St. Cyr gets involved because his wife literally trips over the body."

"Sebastian has evolved quite a bit since the series began," Barbara said.

"Yes," Candace replied. "When he returned to London from fighting Napoleon, he was quite damaged-- PTSD-- and then he learned secrets about his own family that he found very hard to accept. Yes, he's definitely coming back from the edge."

"St. Cyr's family is wildly dysfunctional and so is his wife's family," Barbara commented. "You almost have to wonder if there were any normal families among the British upper crust during the Napoleonic Era!"

"I think it was a combination of money and power... and people who were marrying, not for love, but for alliances," Candace said. "Parents had very little to do with their children who were spoiled by nannies."

L to R: Tessa Arlen, Ann Parker

"Ann, let's get back to you," Barbara said. "Inez has come to San Francisco, and she's not alone."

"That's true!" Ann chuckled. "She's brought her ward with her, Antonia, who is a young girl Inez met in Leadville in the previous book. By book's end, Antonia has no family, so Inez takes her under her wing.

"It's interesting how these things bubble up from the unconscious," Ann remarked. "I had no intention of this happening, but I'm glad it did. It's wonderful to get to know Antonia, and I'm finding it's a lot of fun pairing her with Inez. Antonia is such an independent, strong-willed child. She's almost like Inez in miniature. It will be interesting to see where this goes."

"Inez came from such a solid, affluent background, but she made one terrible mistake," Barbara said.

"But he's such a charmer!" Ann laughed.

"Yes, he's a gambler," Barbara said. "It's just so interesting to see Inez, who comes from such a solid upbringing, make this one mistake, and she's led a very unconventional life ever since." 

"Yes, her family disowned her, and the only person who keeps in touch is her sister," Ann said. "How does a person live their life after making one terrible mistake?"

"Lady Montfort, on the other hand, made a spectacular marriage," Barbara said to Tessa.

"Yes, and now Clementine's broken the rules by investigating murders," Tessa said. "She investigates upstairs, and Mrs. Jackson-- who at first didn't want anything to do with this-- investigates downstairs. By this fourth book, Mrs. Jackson is completely on board."

C.S. Harris

Looking at C.S. Harris, Barbara said, "You left us with a cliffhanger, you rat! Do you plan these things out, or do they just happen?"

Candace laughed. "I know how it's going to turn out! Laura Joh Rowland, who's a good friend of mine, told me that she made a mistake with her Sano Ichiro series. She planned it as a one-off, and she said that, if she had it all to do again, she'd plan out the series. So... that's what I did. I sat down and planned things out, like Sebastian's personality and his family. I thought I'd have this all done by book six, but I'm writing book fifteen right now!"

"I like the fact that the series is moving in such small increments of time," Barbara said.

"Yes, thirteen books, and it's only been three years."

"I tell everyone it was a twenty-year war and only ended with Waterloo," Barbara said.

"Fourteen is Who Slays the Wicked," Harris told us. "The blurb will be out soon, so I'm not giving anything away by telling you that Lord Ashworth is the victim."

"Good! At least one of these bastards gets killed!" Barbara exclaimed. (Does she get emotionally involved with any of her favorite series? Nah. Not a bit!)

Ann is interested with the Palace Hotel and a printing co-operative, so she's thinking about an opera singer, that co-operative, and maybe a body in a trunk for her next book, although she's going to have to talk with her editor (Barbara) first. "Oscar Wilde actually visited Leadville," Barbara told us, "and Ann has been trying to think of a reason for Inez to go back there so she can meet Wilde."

"I'm going to wait a book or two on that," Ann said.

Tessa, on the other hand, is thinking about writing something new. "It's a very different protagonist," Tessa said. "She's very young, a little socially awkward, but she's quite independently-minded. She becomes infatuated with an American fighter pilot who's stationed on an airfield that's on her grandfather's land. This takes place during World War II, and the dialogue is so much easier! Her name is Poppy Redfern, and she lives in a very remote village which is horrified at having all these Americans on their doorstep. I'm married to an American, so it's very easy for me to write this!"

Thus endeth Part Two. Come back next Monday for the third and final part which features Paige Shelton, Kate Carlisle, and Jenn McKinlay!

CozyCon 2017 at The Poisoned Pen!

As long as The Poisoned Pen has had CozyCons, I've been there, so I left bright and early on Saturday, April 22, and drove across town to my favorite bookstore to make sure that I'd have the best seat in the house. A lot happened, and I have a lot of photos, so I'm not going to waste time setting the scene. Let's get right down to it!

The folks at The Poisoned Pen like to have a little something for everyone at these CozyCons (which Barbara Peters would have preferred to call "Malice in the West" but Malice Domestic is a tad protective), and you can see this by the lineup of authors for this year's event. The fans flocking in got to see, listen, and chat with: Tessa Arlen, C.S. Harris, Renee Patrick, Megan Miranda, Jennifer McMahon, Francine Mathews, Paige Shelton, Hannah Dennison, and Jenn McKinlay. You can see by the cover collage above that those authors represent some mighty fine reading, and there were so many of them that they were brought on in shifts! Let's bring on the first shift: Historical Mysteries....

L to R: Arlen, Harris, Peters, Rosemarie & Vince Keenan (Renee Patrick)

I'm going to warn you now that this was a three-hour event, and even though I wrote as fast as I could, you're only going to get the highlights. Fortunately, there are plenty of highlights.

The Keenans AKA Renee Patrick

The first question asked of the historical panel was about the names they write under. Rosemarie and Vince Keenan are a husband and wife team who write their Lillian Frost and Edith Head mysteries under the name of Renee Patrick. As Vince said, "We were afraid that a book with two authors' names would make people think that it's twice as good." The name they write under is Rosemarie's confirmation name (Renee) and Vince's middle name (Patrick), and we all agreed that "Renee Patrick" does sound like a 1940s Hollywood starlet, which is roughly the time frame in which their series takes place.

L to R: Arlen, Harris

C.S. Harris had written seven historical romances under her real name, Candice Proctor, before writing her Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries, and her publisher was concerned that her romance readers would be upset when faced with her historical mysteries, hence the name change. Barbara Peters not only remarked that she "adores" the Sebastian St. Cyr series, she also thinks of it as "Jane Austen Dark."

On the other hand, Tessa Arlen writes her Lady Montfort series under her own name, and she and Hannah Dennison (on a different panel) are the only two who are "authentically English." She went on to tell us that her most recent book, A Death By Any Other Name, takes place in the days leading up to World War I and is all about the cutthroat business of rose growing and the Edwardian moneyed classes. When host Barbara Peters mentioned that Lady Montfort's secret weapon is her housekeeper, Mrs. Jackson, the conversation led to a short discussion of the fact that, back in those days, cooks and housekeepers were awarded the honorary title of "Mrs." even if they were unmarried (like the single Edith Jackson).

Candice told us that her books are set a century earlier than Arlen's and that in writing she found it difficult to get all the servants out of the way long enough to have someone murdered! Her most recent Sebastian St. Cyr mystery is Where the Dead Lie, and she and Barbara both advised us to read the series in order.

"One of the things I love about Tessa's series is that Lady Montford is happily married," said Barbara, looking at Arlen expectantly. 

"Yes, she is," Arlen said with finality.

"Well, don't just drop it!" Peters laughed, so Arlen picked up the thread once again.

"Her husband decided to see her talent in solving crime as her keen interest in life, and he thinks she'd make a good criminal lawyer if only women were allowed to be so," Arlen said.

Peters giving book recommendations.

Talk then jumped a few decades to the Keenans' Lillian Frost and Edith Head mysteries set in Hollywood in the late 1930s. 

"Edith Head worked all the time, so she needed someone to do the investigating, and that led us to Lillian Frost," Vince Keenan said. "We were quite happy to use the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin formula. We also knew that most books set in Hollywood at this time tended to be dark."

"Your new book Dangerous to Know takes place in Hollywood during the lead-in to World War II," Barbara said.

"Yes," Vince said. "At this time Hollywood was the world capital of classical music because so many composers, conductors, and musicians were among the first to leave Europe."

"There are a lot of interesting people in this book," Peters said. "Marlene Dietrich, Dorothy Lamour...."

"And a lot of interesting things going on as well. We had no idea that George Burns and Jack Benny were brought up on smuggling charges in 1938. It was such a big deal that it took Europe out of the headlines for weeks," Vince said. "And then the whole thing just disappeared. Too quickly. One of the things we love about writing this series is that Edith Head knew everyone. We could have anyone show up, and it would be plausible." (And those cameo appearances are one of the fun things about this series!)

"Next year is 1939, the greatest year in the history of movies," Peters observed.

"Yes! The book we're writing now has Lillian being the social secretary of an eccentric millionaire," Vince said. "Edith Head may always be working, but Lillian pulls her weight by meeting all these important people."

C.S. Harris with a fan.

Tessa Arlen's next book will be Death of an Unsung Hero, which takes place in 1916 in a rehabilitation center for shell shock victims.

C.S. Harris's next book, the thirteenth Sebastian St. Cyr mystery, will be Why Kill the Innocent.

The third Lillian Frost and Edith Head mystery will be Script for Scandal, which takes place in 1939. Edith Head will be working on a B-movie which will give the Keenans the chance to show readers what a costume designer actually does. (The couple are currently arguing over the casting of their fictional movie!) 

Then it was time to take a break, head for the refreshment table, and head to the authors for book signing and chat!

L to R: Jennifer McMahon, Megan Miranda, Barbara Peters, Francine Mathews

Jennifer McMahon, Megan Miranda, and Francine Mathews were on the second Contemporary Suspense panel. Barbara Peters started the discussion by saying that "trust no one" is currently a very vibrant subgenre, one in which it seems that "everyone we know and love will try to kill us."

Megan Miranda, author of The Perfect Stranger, told us that she likes "the idea of writing about someone who moves to a new place for a fresh start, knowing that they can present any side of themselves that they choose to." On the other hand, Jennifer McMahon likes to write books-- like her latest Burntown-- in which she confronts her own fears. 

Francine Mathews, author of Death in a Mood Indigo, said, "My Merry Folger books really don't fit in the Trust No One category. Folger is a police officer who lives in a safe and loving environment. As she investigates crimes, her assumptions are constantly challenged. In writing this series, I also wanted to tap into the long history of Nantucket Island with its thousands of incoming tourists." 

Francine Mathews

You should've heard the gasps of delighted shock when Barbara Peters told the crowd that Francine also writes the Jane Austen mysteries under the name Stephanie Barron! Then there was a humorous interlude when Peters continually tried to bring up the Merry Folger book that's due out in June when Mathews didn't want to talk about it. After one such attempt, Mathews exclaimed, "You really can't trust anyone!" which made us all laugh.

Peters went on to say that she thinks one of the reasons why "Trust No One" is so popular is because, due to social media, privacy is becoming a thing of the past. 

"No one reads fiction anymore expecting to know the ending," Mathews said. "They're always looking for the hidden narrative."

Mathews wrote her very first book-- the first Merry Folger book Death in the Off-Season-- as a bet with her husband. That was twenty-seven books ago, and a lot has changed. In 1992, she was a CIA analyst who didn't like wearing stockings and longed for the life of Jane Austen. 

Francine said, "Last year Soho approached me, wanting to bring out the four Merry Folger mysteries I'd written in the '90s, and they also wanted a new one. But twenty-five years had passed. I told them, 'Okay... if you let me rewrite those four before writing number five.'

"I sucked as a writer twenty-five years ago! And it's unbelievable how much crime solving has changed in that length of time. Rewriting those books was a very humbling experience that I don't recommend to anyone-- but I certainly benefitted from it." 

"Jennifer, your books are all standalones, aren't they?" Barbara asked.

"Yes, they're creepy psychological thrillers mostly set in Vermont," Jennifer McMahon replied. "Strange things have a habit of making me want to use them in my books. I read something about a telephone that Edison invented which was to be used to speak with the dead. There's a lot of wackadoodle stuff out there. If I don't scare myself while I'm writing, I know I'm not doing a good job."

L to R: McMahon, Miranda

She went on to say, "I've never liked those big-headed characters at Disneyland. One of the first jobs I had was wearing a bunny suit, and you wouldn't believe how trusting those kids were with me! No-- I don't like those big-headed characters. You never know who's in there. Bunny suit... trusting kids... I could've been anyone!"

"We really need to have you come back for Halloween," Barbara quipped.

"When I was young, we'd go every summer to a family place in the woods in the Poconos," Megan Miranda said. "On one trip I had to sleep alone in the living room, and it really creeped me out. In the wee hours, I woke up to the sounds of my aunt barricading the hallway, and I thought, 'But I'm on the other side!' I don't know if it's because of that, but I've always been a worst case scenario type of person, and I think you can see it in my books-- like my latest, The Perfect Stranger." 

Francine Mathews (L) chatting with a fan.

Francine told us something that happened to her which gives a bit of insight to what can happen while working with publishers. "I was told that Random House wanted another book in the Merry Folger series. It had to be called Death on Nantucket. They wanted a lighthouse on the cover... and can it be published under the name Stephanie Barron?" They got their way on two out of three. The book is being published under the name Francine Mathews, just like the other Merry Folger books.

Next up for Jennifer is "a scary haunted house book that takes place in the woods. And it has a bog, too!"

Megan told us, "In January 2018, I have a new Young Adult book coming out, and my newest psychological suspense novel which is set in Maine will be out in the summer of 2018." (All of her Young Adult books are published under the name Megan Miranda.)

Mathews told us that she's currently wrapping up a book on Jennie Churchill, Winston Churchill's mother (who is fascinating in her own right).


After another short break, it was time for the third shift: the Cozy authors.

L to R: Paige Shelton, Hannah Dennison, Jenn McKinlay, The Poisoned Pen's John Charles

Before the official start of the last panel, Barbara Peters made an announcement that warmed the cockles of my heart. In September, The Poisoned Pen-- in conjunction with Soho Press-- will have a one-day conference. All the final details have yet to be ironed out, but Craig Johnson will be the luncheon speaker. I told Denis that I'd keep an eye out for those final details so he could see about requesting the day off to join me. I'm really looking forward to it!

When Paige, Hannah, and Jenn got comfy in front of an appreciative audience, John Charles asked them a bit about their road to becoming published.

L to R: Shelton, Dennison. Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

"I decided I was going to be a writer in 1997," Paige Shelton said, "and I was going to be published by the year 2000. My first book was published in 2010. If you're writing-- don't give up!"

Hannah Dennison said, "When I was fifteen, I wrote an article about relationships when I hadn't even had a boyfriend yet, and I sent it to a women's magazine. I wrote obituaries for a local newspaper. I helped someone with a screenplay, and when I moved to California, I decided that that's what I wanted to do: screenplays. I didn't get anywhere with those. Then I tried my hand at mysteries. I've been writing for thirty years now."

Jenn McKinlay can always make us laugh. She started out by telling us, "I really didn't want a day job!" Once the laughter died down, she said, "When I was seven years old, I found my mother's old red portable typewriter, and I became the family court reporter-- which could come in handy when you need some bargaining chips with siblings!"

Jenn McKinlay

John Charles asked the authors about the settings for their series.

"The Library Lovers series is set in Connecticut because that's where I trained as a librarian," Jenn said. "The Hat Shop series is set in London because I wanted a vacation, and the Cupcake Bakery series is set in Scottsdale because I live here." 

Hannah said, "The Honeychurch Hall books are set in Devon where I grew up. It's a quiet place that tends to be fifty years behind the times. After the first book was published, I was told that there actually is a place in England called Honeychurch."

Paige said, "When I was setting out to write the Farmers Market series, I needed a place that could have a year-round farmers market, so I went to South Carolina and chose it for the setting. My family is from the area in Missouri where my Country Cooking School series is set. My Dangerous Type series is set in Utah where I lived for twenty-seven years. As for my Scottish Bookshop series, I wanted to go to Scotland and be able to write it off on my taxes!"

Hannah Dennison

Hannah described her latest, Murderous Mayhem at Honeychurch Hall, as "Downton Abbey meets Midsomer Murder." The main character's mother writes erotic romances. She doesn't believe in computers, and she never makes a copy of her manuscript. The manuscript is posted to her publisher, but it goes missing. When it's found at the local post office, there are six pages missing. There's also an English Civil War angle.

Dennison actually wrote those six missing pages, which will be published in a special e-version because she "thought of it too late for it to be published in the back of the print version." She had us in stitches when she said, "I think I missed my calling as a writer of erotica. I got quite hot writing those pages!"

John Charles wanted to know: Why multiple series?

Hannah: "When I first started, I didn't intend to write series, but I do like having a story arc. And I absolutely have to have [what writers call] a Bible, because readers will remember every tiny detail!"

Paige: "It's really nice to visit with the characters you've created, but following through with all the series commitments makes it difficult to write anything else."

Jenn: "I have a comment to make about readers remembering every detail. In one of my Cupcake Bakery books, I said that Angie's middle name was Marie. In another book, I said it was Lucia. Lots of people noticed. I think I'll get myself out of it by saying she's Italian, and her full name is Angie Marie Lucia DeLaura!"

John Charles then asked if they had any advice for newbie writers.

Paige: "Don't give up!"

Hannah: "Write every day-- even if it's only for fifteen minutes!"

Jenn: "Join writers groups, go to conferences. Don't be afraid of showing your writing to others!" 

What's next for these authors' fans to read?

Hannah told us that the fifth Honeychurch Hall mystery will have a love triangle for Kat, and the featured antique will be a World War I pocket bear. "I also have a proposal for a new series about two sisters who inherit a hotel on the Isle of Scilly." Speculation then ran rampant (a good word for someone who missed her calling as a writer of erotica) that this new series could be called "The Scilly Sisters."

Paige said the third Dangerous Type mystery will be out this coming winter, with the third Scottish Bookshop book following in the spring. "And the fourth Scottish Bookshop mystery takes place at Loch Ness."

"I was asked by my publisher to write a romantic comedy," Jenn said, "so About a Dog will be released on May 17." After the applause died down, she continued. "The second book in the series, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, will be released in September, followed by the next Library Lovers in November which is called Death in the Stacks. It was while I was writing Death in the Stacks that I was told the publisher had decided to end the Hat Shop series. [groans from the audience] Since I was feeling a bit vindictive, the Hat Shop characters are going to show up in Death in the Stacks-- and the cupcake folks will be, too!" 

But wait! There's more!

Jenn's third romantic comedy, Every Dog Has Its Day, will be out in January, "and then I'm out of contract. I may go with a different publisher."

This led to a short discussion about the changes in publishing. Jenn told us that she'd heard that Audible is looking to publish original fiction, since the audiobook market is a rapidly growing percentage of sales.

Barbara Peters, Editor-in-Chief at Poisoned Pen Press, told us that mass market paperbacks are the one form of print books that took the hit from eBook sales. "There have had to be a lot of changes," she said. "When Penguin merged with Random House, two completely different philosophies clashed. Penguin's was to have two or three books from hundreds of authors, while Random House's belief has been lots of books from a handful of authors."

Jenn McKinlay had been visiting her publisher in New York City when she saw a woman crying on her way out of the building. "When I asked why she was crying, I was told that Penguin had had secretaries, but Random House did not, so all the Penguin secretaries had been let go."

The three-hour event ended on a positive note; however, when Jenn told us of libraries-- like one in Mesa, Arizona-- having what they call Maker Space, which is an area in the library where people can find things like 3D printers, sewing machines, and have the capability of checking out rakes, hoes, or seeds. Barbara said, "That sounds like a type of vocational school at your local library."

In this day and age, you have to be flexible and inventive in order to survive.

Now it's time to stop talking and share a few more photos before ending this marathon post! Click on any of the photos if you'd like to see them in their original sizes. They'll automatically open in a new window for you.

Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

The CozyCon authors were the first to use The Poisoned Pen's new Authors' Green Room.

L to R: Mathews, Miranda & McMahon. Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

Jenn McKinlay (with John Charles) making us all laugh. Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

You had to know that I couldn't get out of there without buying something!

I hope you all enjoyed this peek into The Poisoned Pen's CozyCon. Hopefully you can attend one yourself one day!