B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 43

The Barry Best

The editor of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, George Easter, announced the winners of the organization's annual Barry Awards (named in honor of reviewer Barry Gardner) for best works being published in the field of crime fiction each year, during Opening Ceremonies at Bouchercon in San Diego. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!

Best Mystery or Crime Novel: Desert Star, Michael Connelly (Little,Brown)

Also nominated:

The Accomplice, Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
The Dark Flood, Deon Meyer (Atlantic Monthly)
Shifty’s Boys, Chris Offutt (Grove Press)
Secret Identity, Alex Segura (Flatiron Books)
City On Fire, Don Winslow (William Morrow)

Best Debut Mystery or Crime Novel: The Maid, Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Also nominated:

Before You Knew My Name, Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/Emilybestler)
Don’t Know Tough, Eli Cranor (Soho Crime)
Shutter, Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)
Blood Sugar, Sascha Rothchild (Putnam)
Dirt Creek, Hayley Scrivenor (Flatiron)

Best Thriller: Killers Of A Certain Age, Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)

Also nominated:

In The Blood, Jack Carr (Atria/Emily Bester)
Winter Work, Dan Fesperman (Knopf)
Sierra Six, Mark Greaney (Berkley)
Bad Actors, Mick Herron (Soho Crime)
Goering’s Gold, Richard O’rawe (Melville House)

Don Sandstrom Award for Lifetime Achievement in Mystery Fandom: "Mystery" Mike Bursaw
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Shamus Superiority

[image error]At this weekend's Bouchercon Conference, the Private Eye Writers of America announced the winners for the 2023 Shamus Awards. The annual awards celebrate crime fiction that features as a main character a person paid for investigative work but not employed for that work by a unit of government. These include traditionally licensed private investigators; lawyers and reporters who do their own investigations; and others who function as hired private agents. Congratulations to all this year's winners and finalists!

BEST PI HARDCOVER: The Wheel of Doll by Jonathan Ames (Mulholland Books)

The Big Bundle by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
The Goodbye Coast by Joe Ide (Mulholland Books)
Holmes Coming by Kenneth Johnson (Blackstone Publishing)
The Blackmail by M. Ravenel (Chikara Press)

BEST ORIGINAL PI PAPERBACK: Dead-Bang Fall by J.R. Sanders (Level Best Books)

Quarry’s Blood by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
DoubleBlind by Libby Fischer Hellmann (The Red Herrings Press)
Canary in a Coal Mine by Charles Salzberg (Down & Out Books)
Hush Hush by Gabriel Valjan (Historia/Level Best Books)

BEST FIRST PI NOVEL: The Goldenacre by Philip Miller (Soho Crime) 

Big Fat F@!k-up by Lawrence Allan (M.S. Wooten Press) 
Pay Dirt Road by Samantha Jayne Allen (Minotaur Books)
Foote by Tom Bredehoft (West Virginia University Press)
What Meets the Eye by Alex Kenna (Crooked Lane Books)

BEST  PI SHORT STORY: “Charlie’s Medicine” by Libby Cudmore (Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon/Down & Out Books)

“No Place for a Dame" by Lori Armstrong (Edgar & Shamus Go Golden/Down & Out Books)
“A Jelly of Intrigue” by O’Neil De Noux (Edgar & Shamus Go Golden/Down & Out Books)
“The Pearl of Antilles” by Caroline Garcia-Aguilera (Edgar & Shamus Go Golden/Down & Out Books)
“Bad Actor” by Elliot Sweeney (Nov/Dec 2022, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)


          

Anthony Accolades

The winners of the 2023 Anthony Awards were handed out last night at the annual Bouchercon conference, this year held in San Diego, California. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

Best Hardcover:   Like a Sister, by Kellye Garrett (Mulholland)

Also nominated:

The Devil Takes You Home, by Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland)
The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)
A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)
Secret Identity, by Alex Segura (Flatiron)

Best Paperback/E-book/Audiobook: The Quarry Girls, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer)

Also nominated:

Real Bad Things, by Kelly J. Ford (Thomas & Mercer)
Dead Drop, by James L’Etoile (Level Best)
Hush Hush, by Gabriel Valjan (Historia)
In the Dark We Forget, by Sandra S.G. Wong (HarperCollins)

Best First Novel: The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Also nominated:

Don’t Know Tough, by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime)
Shutter, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)
The Bangalore Detectives Club, by Harini Nagendra (Pegasus)
Devil’s Chew Toy, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane)

Best Historical: Anywhere You Run, by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow)

Also nominated:

The Lindbergh Nanny, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
In Place of Fear, by Catriona McPherson (Mobius)
Danger on the Atlantic, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington)
Under a Veiled Moon, by Karen Odden (Crooked Lane)
Lavender House, by Lev A.C. Rosen (Forge)

Best Humorous: Scot in a Trap, by Catriona McPherson (Severn House)

Also nominated:

Bayou Book Thief, by Ellen Byron (Berkley)
Death by Bubble Tea, by Jennifer J. Chow (Berkley)
A Streetcar Named Murder, by T.G. Herren (Crooked Lane)
Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking, by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane)

Best Short Story: “Beauty and the Beyotch,” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, February 2022)

Also nominated:

“Still Crazy After All These Years,” by E.A Aymar (from Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, edited by Josh Pachter; Down & Out)
“The Impediment,” by Bruce Robert Coffin (from Deadly Nightshade: Best New England Crime Stories 2022, edited by Christine Bagley, Susan Oleksiw, and Leslie Wheeler; Crime Spell)
“The Estate Sale,” by Curtis Ippolito (Vautrin Magazine, Summer 2022)
“C.O.D.,” by Gabriel Valjan (from Low Down Dirty Vote, Volume 3: The Color of My Vote, edited by Mysti Berry; Berry Contest)

Best Critical/Non-fiction: The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)

Also nominated:

The Alaska Blonde: Sex, Secrets, and the Hollywood Story That Shocked America, by James T. Bartlett (Terrirory)
American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper, by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur)
Promophobia: Taking the Mystery Out of Promoting Crime Fiction, edited by Diane Vallere (Sisters in Crime)
Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free, by Sarah Weinman (Ecco)
Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)

Best Children’s/Young Adult: Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade, by Nancy Springer (Wednesday)

Also nominated:

In Myrtle Peril, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers)
Daybreak on Raven Island, by Fleur Bradley (Viking Books for Young Readers)
#Shedeservedit, by Greg Herren (Bold Strokes Press)
The New Girl, by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Sourcebooks Fire)
Vanish Me, by Lee Matthew Goldberg (Wise Wolf)

Best Anthology: Crime Hits Home: A Collection of Short Stories from Crime Fiction’s Top Authors, edited by S.J. Rozan (Hanover Square Press)

Also nominated:

Low Down Dirty Vote, Volume 3: The Color of My Vote, edited by Mysti Berry (Berry Contest)
Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon, edited by Libby Cudmore and Art Taylor (Down & Out)
Land of 1,000 Thrills: Bouchercon Anthology 2022, edited by Greg Herren (Down & Out)
Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, edited by Josh Pachter (Down & Out)

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Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Old Sleuth's Freaky Female Detectives

The dime novel detective "Old Sleuth" was the creation of Harlan Halsey, a former director of the Brooklyn Education Board, and said to be the first character to use the word "sleuth" to denote a detective. In fact, the owners of the "Old Sleuth" copyright sued over the use of the word "sleuth," claiming exclusive ownership of the term, but they lost (thankfully, for us today). Halsey's original detective, who first appeared in 1872 in the six-cent weekly Fireside Companion, wasn't elderly at all but a young man with almost superhuman abilities who liked to disguise himself as an older, bearded man.



In the 1880s and 1890s, the character Old Sleuth became popular enough to warrant a separate publication of his own, and George Munro began publishing Old Sleuth Library. These series of dime novels (actually they sold for five cents a copy) claimed to be "A Series of the Most Thrilling Detective Stories Ever Published," containing "twice as much reading materials as any other five-cent library." There were 101 issues before the series was bought by a succession of other companies. Several of these issues featured female detectives front and center.



In Old Sleuth's Freaky Female Detectives, published 1990 by Popular Press, the editors (Garyn G Roberts, Gary Hoppenstand and Ray B. Browne) explain the term "freaky" for these female dime novel detectives: freakish as in the usage of the day, as in someone who had unusual talents—knife throwers, trick gun marksmen—people who were both normal and abnormal. These women sleuths used an androgynous, masculine type of heroism in the stories, but at the end embrace their feminity and end their detective careers to get married. As the editors note, "So they [female detectives] were doubly talented; no man of the time could assume the double roles women played as detective hero—hero and weakling, masterful and subservient—or had to. Men did not have to be freaky—women did."



The stories included are:



1) Lady Kate, The Dashing Female Detective

2) The Great Bond Robbery or Tracked by a Female Detective

3) Madge The Society Detective: A Strange Guest Among The Four Hundred



Both the "Lady Kate" and "Robbery" works feature a protagonist named Kate who attempt to prove the innocence of a man wrongly accused of a crime. They use disguises and end up "physically clobbering male villains left and right," thereby saving the lives and reputations of the accused men before promptly marrying the men they rescued. In the third story, "Madge" more closely resembles modern female detectives and uses her powers of deduction. Madge is described as "one of the most brilliant and clever detectives in the great metropolis" and takes on work for the money as much as the thrill. These female detective stories were popular on their own for a time, but by the end of the Great Depression, the dime novel female sleuth had virtually disappeared.

          

Mystery Melange

The recipients of this year’s Silver Falchion Awards were handed out during the recent Killer Nashville convention in Tennessee. There were some two dozen categories of contestants, but the main crime fiction-related winners included Best Cozy: Murder in Third Position, by Lori Robbins; Best Historical: Murder at the Galliano Club, by Carmen Amato; Best Investigator: Dead Drop, by James L'Etoile; Best Mystery: The Bone Records, by Rich Zahradnik; Best Thriller: One of Us Is Dead, by Jeneva Rose. In addition, the winner of the Claymore Award for best unpublished manuscript was Francois Roberge – The Fixer by Les Edgerton.

The winners were announced for the 2023 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Founded in 1982 at San Jose State University in California, the competition challenges entrants to compose opening sentences to the worst of all possible novels. Of interest to crime fiction fans is the Grand Panjandrum's Special Award, which went to Daniel Bradford of Lexington, KY: "It was a sunny day in Los Angeles, hot and bright, and I was in my office, playing Mahjong against myself and losing, when she walked in, 120 pounds of dynamite, a blonde with legs that began at her ankles and ended in trouble." Julian Calvin of Atlanta, Georgia, won the Crime & Detective category for her offering, "The tall, slender seductress had Tom Pauley wrapped around her little finger, and she had James McGee hanging from a necklace, but the police were still waiting for the lab results to determine whose body parts she had used to make her earrings and that stunning tennis bracelet." You can read all the category winners and "dishonorable mentions" here.

Noir at the Bar returns Sept 24 at the Mandrake Bar in Los Angeles. Host Eric Beetner will be joined by authors Halley Sutton, Lawrence Allan, Amulya Malladi, Pamela Samuels Young, Howard Kaplan, Ilyn Welch, and more as they read from their work.

Crime Reads featured Karen Pierce, author of a new cookbook that looks at Agatha Christie's characters and their relationship to food (with recipes!).





This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Queen's Hawker" by Rena J. Worley.

In the Q&A roundup, bestselling author Kathy Reichs spoke with The Globe and Mail about writing while working full time, forensic science and how her Temperance Brennan series might end; and crime writer Steve Cavanagh chatted with the Irish Examiner about his latest novel, Kill For Me, Kill For You, and the nature of revenge.

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Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

A trailer was released for The Marsh King's Daughter, based on Karen Dionne's 2017 novel of the same name. The film stars Daisy Ridley playing Helena Pelletier, a woman who has long buried her past experience with her father, Jacob Holbrook, the notorious "Marsh King" (Ben Mendelsohn)—who kidnapped and held her mother and herself captive in the woods for twelve years in total isolation. When he reappears in her life decades later, presenting a very real threat, Helena must confront him in order to protect her family.

A trailer also dropped for Cat Person, based on Kristen Roupenian's viral 2017 short story. The adaptation follows a college student named Margot (played by Emilia Jones) as she meets an older man named Robert (Nicholas Braun). The two get together, things go badly, and the seemingly nice Robert quickly reveals he has a much uglier side. The film also stars Geraldine Viswanathan, Hope Davis, Fred Melamed, Liza Koshy, Michael Gandolfini, and Isabella Rossellini. Cat Person debuts in theatres on October 26.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

The BBC announced a new, four-part crime drama, In The Jetty, starring Jenna Coleman. Coleman plays rookie detective Ember Manning who must work out how a fire in a Lancashire holiday home connects to a podcast journalist investigating a missing persons cold case and an illicit "love" triangle between a man in his twenties and two underage girls. But as Ember gets close to the truth, it threatens to destroy her life—forcing her to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about her past, present and the town she’s always called home.

The BBC also commissioned Virdee, a new detective series based on AA Dhand’s best-selling crime novels and starring Sacha Dhawan (Doctor Who). The series introduces Detective Harry Virdee (Dhawan), a Bradford cop disowned by his Sikh family for marrying Saima, who is Muslim. Harry struggles with the abandonment, constantly attempting to reunite with his family. With his personal life in chaos, he must hunt down a killer targeting the Asian community. When the murderer kidnaps a local MP’s daughter in Bradford and holds the entire city to ransom, Harry realizes that he is going to need the help of his brother-in-law Riaz, a drug kingpin who runs the largest cartel in the county. Pulled together in an alliance that could ruin them both, Harry must make a choice: save himself and his family or save his city.

Disney+ has set the cast for the UK psychological drama, Playdate, adapted from Alex Dahl’s bestselling novel of the same name. The series, directed by Eva Husson, stars Denise Gough, Holliday Grainger, Ambika Mod, Jim Sturgess, Bronagh Waugh, and Michael Workeye. The story centers on Elisa, whose world is turned upside down when her young daughter Lucia is kidnapped at a sleepover. Who is the mystery woman who took Lucia, and what secrets does she know about Elisa?

A new teaser-trailer was released for Bosch: Legacy Season 2, based on the novels by Michael Connelly, which returns to Amazon Freevee on October 20. The drama series’ second season finds Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) working alongside Honey "Money" Chandler (Mimi Rogers) to track down a masked assailant who kidnapped his daughter, Maddie (Madison Lintz), before time runs out. But as the FBI scrutinizes the murder of businessman Carl Rogers (from Season 1) , Bosch and Chandler are placed under suspicion. Season 2 will see the return of Detective Robert "Crate" Moore (Gregory Scott Cummins), and Detective "Barrel" Johnson (Troy Evans), who join Bosch, Chandler, Maurice "Mo" Bassi (Stephen A. Chang), and Detective Reina Vasquez (Denise Sanchez) in the search to find Maddie.





PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Karin Slaughter stopped by Good Morning America to discuss her new Will Trent thriller, After That Night.

The Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with Verónica Gutiérrez, a former community organizer, civil rights attorney, and corporate executive turned crime writer. Her latest book is As You Look.

On Crime Time FM, Paul Burke reviewed the latest titles in crime fiction and one wild card pick; and authors Amanda Cassidy and Caro Ramsey discussed their new novels.

Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast republished an episode from 2021 that was originally released in two parts but is now all together as one. It features the mystery short story "Harvey and the Redhead" written by Debra H. Goldstein and read by actors Ariel Linn and Sean Hopper.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured Nancy Bush and her latest crime novel, The Camp.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed catching up on 2023 releases on their TBR ("To Be Read") piles.

The Pick Your Poison podcast delved into why people are intentionally poisoning themselves with frog poison.

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Quote of the Week

          

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Nocturne by Ed McBain

Ed McBain (1926-2005) was the pen name of Salvatore Albert Lombino, who later legally changed his name to Evan Hunter in 1952. The prolific output of McBain/Hunter included over 110 novels, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide, as well as numerous short stories and collections and a few plays and screenplays. He was the first American author to receive the Diamond Dagger, the highest award given by the British Crime Writers Association. He was also a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and an Edgar Award recipient for his 2002 novel Money, Money, Money.  

 

His greatest success came with his 87th Precinct series, which began in 1956 with Cop Hater, made into a film in 1958. The series also served as the basis for a television show in the early 1960s, starring Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, Norman Fell, Ron Harper, and Gregory Walcott. The 87th Precinct books are set in New York City (going under the alias of Isola in the books) and pioneered many of the elements of police procedurals today such as using multiple plot lines and viewpoints and an ensemble cast.



The synopsis for Nocturne from 1997 (87th Precinct installment #48): In Isola, the hours between midnight and dawn are usually a quiet time. But for 87th Precinct detectives Carella and Hawes, the murder of an old woman makes the wee hours anything but peaceful—especially when they learn she was one of the greatest concert pianists of the century long vanished. Meanwhile 88th Precinct cop Fat Ollie Weeks has his own early morning nightmare: he's on the trail of three prep school boys and a crack dealer who spent the evening carving up a hooker.



This is a McBain procedural romp on one hand, with the usual cast of characters, as well as members of the 88th precinct chasing down the killers (as Publishers Weekly noted, "McBain serves up his usual mix of urban insights, terrible jokes, sex, violence and dialogue that crackles from every page"). There are the touches of whimsy, such as the recurring in-joke involving references to The Birds, "that movie that Alfred Hitchcock wrote," prompting corrections from Detective Steve Carella that "I don't think Hitchcock actually WROTE that..." (Ed McBain, as Evan Hunter, actually did write the screenplay for The Birds.) But there is also more explicit violence and graphic sexual language than is usual even in these gritty novels. Still, it's a good introduction to the 87th and McBain's procedural prowess, although Kirkus Reviews opined that in this exuberant installment, "the whole 87th gets upstaged by the 88th."

          

Mystery Melange

 

Scottish author Claire Wilson has won the inaugural Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers Prize for her debut novel, Five by Five. The prize, launched in 2022, aims to discover new writers from underrepresented backgrounds in publishing and focuses on a different genre each year, with the first year dedicated to crime fiction. Wilson, who works as an intelligence analyst in a Scottish prison, impressed the judges with her thriller which follows a protagonist on the trail of a corrupt prison officer who might be her lover. Wilson will receive a publishing contract with Penguin Michael Joseph, worth at least £10,000, and representation by the DHH Literary Agency. All shortlisted writers will also receive one-to-one editorial feedback and guidance from an editor or agent.

Noir at the Bar heads to Cleveland at the Music Box Supper Club on August 31 with drinks, dinner, and readings by crime fiction authors J.D. Belcher, Angela Crook, Miesha Wilson Headen, Dana McSwain, Susan Petrone, D.M. Pulley, Michael Ruhlman, Thrity Umrigar, and Abby L Vandiver. Following the readings, there will be a large book market so you can meet the authors, purchase their latest books, and get them signed.

In what is good news for the Irish Book Awards, An Post has extended its sponsorship for two more years. Now in its 18th year, the An Post Irish Book Awards celebrate and promote Irish writing to the widest range of readers possible, in various categories including the Irish Independent Crime Fiction Novel of the Year. A shortlist for the 2023 awards will be announced on October 19, with winners revealed on November 22 at The Convention Centre Dublin. The 2022 Crime Fiction Novel winner was Breaking Point by Edel Coffey.

Black Spring Press has announced the Black Spring Crime Series, which will be curated by Luca Veste (author of books including The Game and The Bone Keeper) and will comprise an initial run of 10 novels over the next 10 months. The first book in the series is A Crime in the Land of 7,000 Islands by serving FBI agent Zephaniah Sole, published in June, and the second will be The Scotsman by Rob McClure, out in September. Three more as-yet-unannounced books will be published by the end of 2023. Veste said of the series, which has been endorsed by Lee Child, Mark Billingham, Ian Rankin, and Val McDermid: "This is an incredibly exciting time to be involved with an independent press such as Black Spring. The vision we have is to release excellent novels that cover the wide variety we see in crime fiction. From police procedurals, to thrillers, to historical crimes, it is a privilege to be bringing these novels to a wider audience."

Mystery Readers Journal editor, Janet Rudolph, reported that due to an overwhelming number of articles, author essays, and reviews for the Animals in Mysteries theme, they are dividing the material into two issues (Volume 39: 3 & 4), the first of which will be out in October. This means that anyone who didn't send an article initially still has time to contribute to the second issue by sending in a submission by October 15. Mystery Fanfare has more information.

Harlem World profiled Rudolph John Chauncey Fisher (1897–1934), a physician and radiologist. But he also had a successful writing career, penning journal articles, short stories, and The Conjure Man Dies, dating from 1932, the first novel with a black detective as well as the first detective novel with only black characters (although Pauline Hopkins and John E. Bruce had serialized novels in journals prior).

From the truth is stranger than fiction department, a bizarre case in Australia has enthralled people all across the globe—involving mushroom poisoning, a series of deaths, a tearful interview and now reports of a past mystery illness.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "The Crowbar" by Tom Barlow.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with author Charlene Bell Dietz about her new historical mystery, The Flapper, the Impostor, and the Stalker; Writers Who Kill's E. B. Davis interviewed Barbara Ross about Hidden Beneath, the eleventh book in the Maine Clambake mystery series; and the Irish Times interviewed Andrea Carter about her legal background, writing advice, and why the Inishowen peninsula is so special.

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Author R&R with Heather Dixon

After spending over a decade in the marketing and advertising industry as a copywriter, Heather Dixon began a freelance career writing for businesses, as well as writing content for top parenting sites such as Red Tricycle and Pregnant Chicken. Her writing has appeared in a number of established sites, including Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, Motherly, SavvyMom and others. She has appeared on CBC radio and in print in the Globe and Mail. She lives just outside of Toronto, Ontario with her husband, her three young daughters and her Bouvier, Zoey.

Her debut crime novel, Burlington, asks, "What happens to the mean girls when they grow up?" In Burlington, they become a clique of alpha moms at the gates of their children's posh elementary school that Mae Roberts only stumbles into when they decide to accept the new mom in their fancy suburban neighborhood. And everything seems peachy keen until Mae begins slipping more deeper into a world of odd dinner parties, secrets, and rumors of suicide attempts. It's only when one of the Riverpark moms disappears, and then another, that Mae must decide what's more important—fitting in or uncovering the truth. A fresh take on belonging, obsession, and schoolyard politics, Burlington is a suspenseful debut novel that explores the exclusive world of wealthy mothers and demonstrates how privilege can come at a devastating price.

Heather Dixon stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching the novel:

 

My debut novel could probably be best categorized as book club fiction with elements of suspense. It’s called Burlington and it’s about a mother who moves to a new neighborhood in search of a better life. Only, once there, she gets caught up in the drama and the lives of the rich and beautiful school moms. I’ve been told it definitely gives off Big Little Lies vibes, which is great because I love Liane Moriarty.

When it comes to research, my main way to prepare for writing a novel is to read books that I think might be in the same genre or cover similar themes. I know some writers can’t read similar books when drafting, but I find it inspiring. In this case, I read both thriller books and domestic suspense novels to help me get a feel for the plotting and pacing. I wanted to make sure I was writing a page-turning novel, so I went right to the source and read all I could.

Then, after getting through the first draft, I usually go online to find all the little details I might not know about the setting. For Burlington, I searched things like what kind of trees grow in Vermont, what their local newspaper is called, what the homes look like. I also love using Google Earth to get in close and get real pictures of specific things. My book is contemporary fiction, so it was fairly simple for me to find answers to my questions, because I didn’t need to know what trees grew in Vermont 30 or 40 years ago, for example.

The other thing I’ve found extremely helpful is to reach out to professionals and ask questions. For another book I was writing, I needed to know if a spouse could legally take all of their joint savings out of a certain account without needing approval from the other spouse. I asked to speak to a financial advisor who was more than willing to answer all my questions. In fact, I think he kind of wanted to be a character in the book! For Burlington, I knew of someone who used to live in Vermont, so I reached out to her to ask specific questions about the area. I sometimes worried about bothering people, but I’ve found that most people don’t mind answering questions at all, especially when it’s for a book.

For a while, I tried to stick with the “write what you know” advice, but I find that quite limiting. With a combination of both internet research, real images to look at, and help from experts or people living in the area, I’ve found you can paint a real and detailed picture, which is so important. Even if you don’t end up going into detail on the page about what kind of tree someone is walking past, I think it’s important for yourself to have the entire picture before you can start crafting the world around your characters.

 

You can learn more about Heather and her writing via her website and also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Burlington is now available via all major booksellers.