Manon Wogahn

Joining us today is bestselling author Tess Gerritsen, whose highly-anticipated sequel to The Spy Coast is out now. In The Summer Guests, a young girl goes missing, and it’s up to a group of retired CIA operatives to investigate.

I found The Summer Guests properly mysterious and a little eerie, but with enough levity to make it easy to read and enjoy. For those reasons, plus Tess’s skilled storytelling, I think you will enjoy it, too.

Connect with Tess on Bluesky, Facebook, and her website. Grab a copy of The Summer Guests here.

Hi, Tess! Thanks so much for joining. The Summer Guests is the second installment in your Martini Club series, which follows a group of ex-CIA operatives investigating a missing teen in the seaside village of Purity, Maine. How did you come up with the characters of retired spy Maggie Bird and her friends? What is challenging—or exciting—about crafting a mystery with multiple investigators, as opposed to just one?

When I wrote The Spy Coast, I was inspired by the real-life detail that quite a few retired spies live in my small town in Maine. I wondered what their lives are like in retirement, and what secrets they could tell. I’d look at gray-haired people in the grocery store or post office, and try to imagine what their lives were like when they were younger. And that’s what launched the first book, in which I explore the past life of one spy in particular, Maggie Bird. When a dead spy turns up in her driveway, Maggie recognizes it as a threat from her past. To deal with it, she turns to old friends in town who have similar skills. That’s how my characters Ben, Declan, Ingrid, and Lloyd were created.

In many ways, they created themselves, which is how characters usually come to me. They start speaking in my head, revealing their personalities, and they bloom on the page. They’re all sharp and capable, but with their quirks. Ben is a bit of a thug. Declan is the diplomat. Ingrid is the brainy one. Lloyd is the lovable analyst. One of the major themes in this series is what it’s like to grow older, to feel ignored and overlooked while you’re still fully capable of handling a crisis. These characters have gray hair and wrinkles, but they’re still ready for adventure, and they represent for me the possibilities of what life still holds in store as we grow older.

Mysteries with retiree sleuths are having a moment—what do you love about an older protagonist? How do you use the age and experience of Maggie and her friends in the context of a thriller?

I didn’t think about that particular trend when I wrote this. It was much more of a personal book for me, because I’m growing older, and I live in a town where a lot of retirees live. I look around and see incredibly brilliant and well-accomplished neighbors, and those are the characters I wanted to write about, people who might be overlooked just because they’re older, in a world where wisdom and experience are shrugged off as unimportant. Current events provide a painful example. Young tech-bros now seem to be in charge of our federal agencies, and these “whiz kids” are heedlessly laying off older people who have the institutional wisdom to keep those agencies functioning.

While book one in the series, The Spy Coast, has an international edge, The Summer Guests takes place entirely in the small town of Purity. How does setting influence your writing process? Do you find a more limited location easier or more challenging to write?

I chose a local setting for The Summer Guests after I learned that a small branch of the CIA’s MKULTRA program was active here in Maine back in the 50’s–70’s. For those who are unfamiliar with MKULTRA, the program involved the testing of experimental psychoactive drugs such as LSD and it led to the tragic death of at least one person. (We may never know if there were other deaths.)

Setting the story in a small Maine town allowed me to explore the background of my non-CIA character, police chief Jo Thibodeau, who has an uneasy relationship with the local spies. And it also brings to the forefront the very real conflicts in Maine between the locals and people “from away.”

You have enjoyed a long career, with over twenty published novels and film and TV projects (like TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles, based on your popular series of the same name). What have you learned over your career? Can you offer any tips or wisdom for budding writers and aspiring authors?

Write what moves you emotionally, and concentrate on the emotional arc your characters take, rather than spending all your time on the mechanics of the plot. When I write a crime scene, I’m not focused on the blood and guts or violence, but on what my sleuths are feeling. Likewise, when I wrote about spies in The Spy Coast, I didn’t focus on the gunplay or the derring-do, but on the emotional impact of living in the world of espionage—the paranoia of not knowing who your friends are, the stress of never being able to tell the truth.

When I was planning the third in the Martini Club series, and I was asked “what is your book about?” I didn’t say it was about an aging assassin or an old vow of revenge; instead, I said it was about the emotional journey that my character Ingrid goes on when her old lover walks back into her life—and her marriage comes under threat. The word I’d use to describe that book is “longing,” for things that could have been.

Lastly, what are you currently working on? Do you have more Martini Club thrillers in the works, and/or anything else you’re excited to share?

I’m writing the third book in the Martini Club series, titled The Shadow Friends. When one of the speakers at the local global security conference is poisoned with Polonium, my circle of spies is thrust into the center of the investigation. Complicating matters is the reappearance of Ingrid’s former lover (and fellow spy), who is convinced the killer is the same assassin they encountered in a previous operation. Their hunt for the killer sends Ingrid on an international mission, with her worried husband Lloyd in pursuit.

Thanks so much to Tess for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

Sara Gran joins the Cluesletter to talk about her latest release, Little Mysteries: Nine Miniature Puzzles to Confuse, Enthrall, and Delight. This collection was a joy to read: twisty, inventive, and profound. It has a bit of everything, from minute mysteries to a choose-your-adventure and more.

If you’re looking for something adventurous and whimsical that leads to, perhaps, some deeper understanding of the self, look no further. (Especially if you believe, as I do, that a mystery can be so much more than a simple whodunnit.)

Connect with Sara on Instagram, Substack, TikTok, and her website. Purchase a copy of Little Mysteries here.

Welcome, Sara! Thanks so much for joining. Little Mysteries is a collection of nine miniature mysteries “to confuse, enthrall, and delight.” Can you start out with some history behind this book? What inspired you to write a collection of mystery puzzles?

Thank you for having me, Manon! The origin of the book was actually a series of stories I wrote and just sent to a small group of friends about ten years ago. That then expanded to my larger newsletter list, which was still not so big at the time. There was no thought of publishing them—publishing short stories in literary magazines is a huge effort with a low reward—until after eight or so years I realized I had enough for a collection. Once I put them all together, a few themes emerged, which inspired a few more stories.

The mystery short story is eternally fascinating to me. It’s such a strong part of the genre, and yet I know mystery readers (and authors) who don’t usually engage with them. What do you love—or find challenging—about writing short fiction?

I find short fiction very challenging! I write other forms of fiction as well, and with short stories I always run into the same ridiculous problems: What is this? Is it done? Too much? Too little? Focusing on the genre elements made it all work for me. There’s a mystery, there’s a solution, bang, that’s it.

Similarly, after introducing your detective, Claire DeWitt, in her eponymous series, what did you enjoy about putting her into short mysteries? Was there anything surprising or different about writing her character in this different format?

A big difference is that the books are all first person, and some of the stories are third person, or from a different POV all together. So, seeing the character through different eyes was a big change.

The book’s publisher, Dreamland Books, is your new small press. Can you share some insight into your decision to start your own imprint? What is your vision for Dreamland, now and in the future?

Starting my own press was always a dream for me. I’ve always been interested in books as material objects as much as books as literature. So the whole thing feels like a real privilege (and it is—although you can do this for very little money, I’ve spent a lot). One of the great joys of this project is that I can be as weird as I feel like, so next I’ll be publishing some fiction in unusual formats—one piece in the form of a transcribed conversation and a novella in the form of text messages. I’m also working on some nonfiction pieces that would be too long for an essay and too short for a book from a regular press. Another great joy is the opportunity to publish some of my older favorite books that are in the public domain, so I’ll be doing that later this year too, including an edition of Freud’s Studies on Hysteria.

Lastly, what are you currently working on and looking forward to? Do you have more short stories or novels in the works, and/or anything else you’re excited to share?

I have a few things I’m working on—one that I’m very excited about is a print version of a novel that was previously published as a podcast for Audible called Marigold. I’m hoping to release it in 2026.

Thanks so much to Sara for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

Today, we welcome C.L. Miller to the Cluesletter to talk with us about her latest mystery, The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea.

I enjoyed this cozy whodunnit set on board an antiques cruise sailing to Jordan—it’s a clever installment in this series starring an antiques specialist-turned-detective. Fans of Antiques Roadshow will find a lot to love in these books!

Connect with Cara on Instagram, Goodreads, and her website. Grab a copy of The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea from your retailer of choice here.

Hi, Cara! Thanks so much for joining. Your Antique Hunter’s series follows Freya, an antiques specialist, in pursuit of stolen antiques and dangerous criminals. What do you love about Freya’s character? Which of her qualities make her an excellent detective?

Hello, and thank you for having me. I love Freya’s journey of finding a new direction in life, coming out of her shell and starting over again once her daughter has left home for university. I grew up in the antiques world, my mother was an expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow and wrote over 140 books on the subject, so Freya’s knowledge of antiques and the qualities someone would need to be an antique hunter came from a very authentic place. In the antiques world, we call it ‘the eye’ when you have an instinct about an item. Perhaps there is something not quite right about it that makes you take a closer look, and it might be then that you discover that the item is a fake. This can also help when tracking down a murderer!

The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea is the second in the series, and unlike the first, it’s set largely in one location: an antiques cruise sailing toward Jordan, on which a shady art trafficking ring is doing business. How did you prepare to write this globe-trotting mystery? Did you find a smaller setting more or less challenging to write?

I think both settings, and indeed each book we write, have their own set of challenges but I loved being immersed in the cruise ship setting. For this book I got to go on a brilliant research trip to Petra in Jordan with my family—a place I have always longed to visit—and I also went on a short cruise from Los Angeles down to Mexico, which my kids still consider one of their best holidays! I love worldbuilding, so the setting of Death on the Red Sea was a joy to write and it was fun to change it up in a series, as I think it keeps things interesting for the author and the reader. 

Antiques are in your blood, having begun as an editorial assistant for your mother, Judith Miller, on publications like The Miller’s Antique Price Guide. What have you enjoyed most about writing on a subject so close to home?

I love getting to put antiques that I collect or find fascinating into my books and letting readers discover some interesting pieces. Quite a few items from my own mid-century modern collection have found their way into the books! In Death on the Red Sea, we look at costume jewelry and shipwrecked ceramics amongst other things. I also like highlighting the art and antique underworld with topics such as cultural repatriation and trafficking—it’s a world you don’t see on the genteel Antiques Roadshow.

For the writers in the crowd, what have you learned about writing mysteries so far? What do you find most—or perhaps least!—enjoyable about plotting a mystery novel?

I am not a plotter—I wish I was—but murder mystery novels by their very nature are very plot driven, so by about draft three I have a spreadsheet to keep all the clues, motives, and suspects straight in mind while I edit. I love the challenge of setting out a mystery, but it can take a lot of editing to get everything to fit together and for the right antiques to be showcased.

Lastly, what’s next for you? Are you working on more antiques mysteries, and/or is there anything else you’re excited to share?

My third book in the series, The Antique Hunter’s Murder in the Castle, set in a Scotland castle in the snow with a focus on Scottish antiques, has just been handed into my editors and will be with readers in 2026.

Thanks so much to Cara for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

Today’s interview is thrilling—literally! Megan Collins joins us to chat about her latest release, Cross My Heart, which stars a heart transplant patient who becomes romantically obsessed with her donor’s husband. (Is it too on-the-nose to label it heart-pounding?)

I am not kidding when I tell you all I read this book in under twenty-four hours. It’s so addicting, between the prose and the premise and all the crazy, messed-up hazards of love and obsession.

Dare I call it the perfect choice for an anti-Valentine’s Day read? 👀

Connect with Megan on Instagram, Goodreads, and her website. Grab a copy of Cross My Heart from your retailer of choice here.

Hi, Megan! Thanks for joining the Cluesletter. Cross My Heart follows Rosie, a heart transplant patient who becomes romantically obsessed with her donor’s husband, bestselling thriller novelist Morgan Thorne. Between this new obsession and her questionable dating history, Rosie is presented as an unreliable narrator (but, if you’re like me, you’ll root for her anyway!). What do you love—or even hate—about Rosie’s character?

Thanks for having me! Rosie is actually my favorite protagonist I’ve ever written. I love that she is so open-hearted, generous, and empathetic toward other people.With that said, I often describe her as a really good person with some really bad habits. She tends to go a little overboard when it comes to love, molding her personality to the person she’s with or wants to be with, to the point where she loses a bit of herself in the process.

As a heart transplant recipient who knows that her health is very precarious, she’s also laser-focused on finding a romantic partner, before it’s too late for her. That makes her do some fairly questionable things, like—oh, I don’t know—sort of stalk the husband of her heart donor, convinced that since he already loves the heart that’s in her body, he’s destined to love her too.

I was so enthralled by the fine line Cross My Heart draws between love and obsession, and the danger those emotions can provoke. What do you love about these two themes, especially in the context of a thriller novel?

I think the search for love is something we can all relate to, but I often feel our society puts so much pressure on that search. The media, the billion-dollar wedding industry and the hundreds of dating apps available at the click of a button often send the message that finding a partner is the most important thing, and getting married is one of the most important achievements you can have. And if you’re someone who, like Rosie, is watching everyone close to you find their person while you’re still facing heartbreak after heartbreak, it can turn that search for love into something a little darker.

With this book, I wanted to write about how toxic our culture’s obsession with finding The One can actually be, and how it can drive people to behave in unhealthy ways themselves.

You’ve penned four other thrillers—including Thicker Than Water and The Family Plot. How would you compare Cross My Heart to your past projects? Was the writing process any different, and/or how did it change or challenge you as a writer?

While my other books have focused on dysfunctional families (or families who think they’re perfectly functional until something happens to reveal the disturbing secrets beneath the surface), Cross My Heart is my first book in which a romantic relationship takes center stage. Of course, it being a thriller, things turn dark pretty quickly, and this book definitely has the biggest twists of all the ones I’ve written to date. That was exciting to tackle, but also intimidating, and in fact, I had the idea for this book for a long time but held off on writing it because I wasn’t sure I had the ability to execute those massive moments. Now, whenever anyone tells me they didn’t see [redacted] coming, or their jaw dropped when [redacted], I’m reminded that I did, at least for some readers, succeed in what I set out to do, and in that way, I shouldn’t put those mental roadblocks up for myself.

Sylvia Plath said, “The greatest enemy to creativity is self-doubt,” which is a quote that’s always resonated with me but which I feel even more acutely after writing this book and seeing readers’ responses. Now I know that if I’m creative enough to come up with the idea—and if I believe in the idea—then I can figure out how to get it out of my head and onto the page. It might take me a long time, and a lot of trial and error, but that’s just part of the process.

As an instructor of creative writing, what’s the best writing tip you can offer—especially for writing twisty, suspenseful thrillers?

It sounds very simple, but my biggest tip is to read! Thrillers (and all stories, really) have such a specific rhythm to them, and the more you consume, the more you’ll sharpen your skills with pacing, tension, and suspense.

I also encourage people to write about their obsessions. For example, I adore wedding dresses and Taylor Swift, and not only do I have several Taylor Swift references peppered into my book (which made the drafting days fun!), but Rosie manages a wedding dress shop, and the experience she has with that work greatly impacts her worldview and journey and keeps her constantly reminded of how many people are finding The One and how she, so far, has not.

Lastly, what are you currently working on? Do you have more thrillers in the works, and/or anything else you’re excited to share?

I can’t talk about anything officially or specifically yet, but I promise I’m hard at work on another thriller that will be as dark, twisty, and wild as I can make it! Other than that, I’m excited to start my second year of teaching the Ultimate Novel Writing Course through Jericho Writers, which is an online course open to all writers worldwide who want a year of mentorship, resources, and community as they work toward drafting and/or revising a novel. Applications for this year’s course are open until February 16!

Thanks so much to Megan for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

Our first featured author of the year is V.J. Randle. Victoria reached out to me with an offer to send a PR box of her Scottish murder mystery, aptly titled Cold Secrets, which she has been serializing weekly on her Substack. Naturally, I began reading it immediately, and was hooked before my copy came in the mail!

In the interview below, Victoria and I chat about the novel’s characters, its unconventional publishing path, and more.

Connect with Victoria on Substack, Instagram, TikTok, and more. Grab a copy of Cold Secrets here—or start reading it now on her Substack!

Welcome, Victoria! Thanks so much for joining. Set in the wintry Scottish Highlands, Cold Secrets follows Robert Begg and a crew of friends as they work to solve a decades-old murder case. What do you love about Robert as an investigator, as well as his friends that comprise this group of sleuths?

Such a pleasure to be here—thank you for having me.

Robert is such an unlikely sleuth, which is why I love him! He’s the sort of guy who’s happy to be running his bar (The Pine Needle) and quietly reading his hiking books. He’s certainly not looking for any drama when Londoner Mirabella Rowley disrupts his New Year’s Eve party, claiming his recently deceased father has something to do with a decades’ old murder . . .

He eventually investigates the case out of a sense of duty towards his community and friends, as opposed to any sort of ego. I enjoyed creating a younger-millennial sleuth with the money worries and anxieties that can go with being in your late twenties.

His friends Eilidh, Justine, and Hammy remind me of the warm and brilliant people you find living in the North-East of Scotland (Findrussie is a fictional village set in the Highlands, but I’ve drawn a lot from Moray, Speyside, which is my home). It’s lovely to explore friendships between people of different generations. Each of their unique traits certainly helps solve the crime!

A large part of the investigation relies on local knowledge, which is why the “Pine Needle” team is uniquely placed to move from clue to clue. I love mysteries which expose the secrets kept by small, unassuming communities. It’s been compared to Only Murders in the Building and The Marlowe Murder Club—both of which I’m very pleased with!

After penning (and shelving it) a few years ago, Cold Secrets gained readership on Substack, after you began serializing it in September 2024—and now, it’s published! What prompted you to serialize the book, and what have you learned during this process?

Well, this a bit of a sad story (and, strangely, pertinent to Robert’s situation at the opening of the book).

Having shelved Cold Secrets because my publisher, Bloodhound Books, wanted to focus on my other series (The Hellenic Mysteries), I’d accepted the fact this book was destined for the Google Drive-aether. However, in August, my father very suddenly passed away. I found myself unable to work on my work-in-progress in the aftermath, but I still wanted to do something useful.

Cold Secrets had already been edited years ago, and I’d also commissioned some lovely artwork for it; both these endeavours were going to waste. So, I tentatively (and, if I’m honest, somewhat impulsively) posted the first two chapters on Substack.

I’d never considered it fully before, but, of course, the mystery genre lends itself very well to serialisation. Within the first week, I had around 250 subscribers. This kept growing to the 650 readers I have today.

The wonderful thing about a platform like Substack is you can see how invested your readers are in your story. It’s powerful encouragement to know people are opening your email and reading a chapter each week! The feedback was also lovely: Unlike when I’d released my previous novels, there was more scope for meaningful conversations with readers.

I would never have considered publishing Cold Secrets without the backing of a publisher if it weren’t for the serialisation process. However—with a dedicated readership, some wonderful pre-publication reviews, and a certainty that Findrussie’s mystery already had people hooked—it seemed silly not to turn it into a “proper” book!

The chapters on Substack actually function per se as a marketing tool. When approaching book bloggers, booktokers, bookstagrammers etc., I can direct them to the released chapters and they can decide whether they like them or not (thankfully, they have!).

I know some authors serialise their fiction as they write it, however, this seems like an extremely stressful thing to do. I’ve noted how important it is to publish consistently (even to the minute!), so the pressure of releasing an unfinished work every week would be overwhelming for me. My advice to anyone considering the serialisation route is to have your manuscript ready-for-publication before doing anything else.

Your other series, the Hellenic Mysteries, are set in present-day Greece and draw on your experience as an educator of Latin and Greek. Can you share a bit about those books? How would you compare writing the Hellenic Mysteries with a murder mystery like Cold Secrets?

The first in the series, The Athenian Murders, follows police officer Michail Mikras, his partner Katerina, and detective Sofia as they investigate a string of murders seemingly inspired by the Greek myths. This is more of a whydunit, rather than a whodunit, and readers enjoy how knowledge of mythology ultimately helps Michail and his colleagues solve the case. If you like mythology and mystery, then there’s a good chance this will be up your street.

The Saturn House Killings, the second book in the series, takes place on the island of Aegina. The same team investigates a body found on the beach of an exclusive luxury resort. There’s very much an eat-the-rich theme present, which lots of readers have enjoyed. Michail Mikras has actually been compared to the detective Monk from the television series!

Unlike the Hellenic Mysteries, Cold Secrets isn’t told from the point of view of law enforcers. This actually gave me a lot more freedom as a storyteller. When you’re writing from the perspective of the police, you must ensure certain procedural elements are correct, otherwise, readers will rightly begin to pick holes in the plot’s credibility. With Cold Secrets, it was easier to build a traditional whodunit without the constraints of procedure, placing the reader right at the heart of the mystery with Robert and his team.

Cold Secrets is just a segment of your other content on Substack—what else do you like to discuss on the platform? Why do you, as an author, love using Substack to communicate with your audience?

As I’m sure is the case for all authors, random (and, I like to think, interesting) thoughts are always popping into my head and it’s good to noodle them out! My Substack, Myriatid, publishes articles about my borderline fetish for notebooks, the Renaissance, the symbology of owls, cultural commentary  . . . you name it!

It’s a great place to connect with people over shared interests. Book promotion is essential, but it does seem a bit tiresome to be constantly talking about my books and reviews, et cetera. Substack allows me to write about unrelated topics and connect with readers over these.

Lastly, what’s on your horizon? What are you currently working on and looking forward to?

I have a few projects on the go. I’m currently finishing a standalone murder mystery set in a luxury hotel in the Highlands (no surprises there!). I’m also excited to get started on the sequel to Cold Secrets—readers seem to love these characters and I’d like to spend more time with them.

Thanks so much to Victoria for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

Today’s featured author is Amelia Diane Coombs, whose mystery debut Drop Dead Sisters is a chaotic—but ultimately loving—exploration of what happens when three sisters and their dysfunctional family mix with a dead body.

I loved this quirky, outdoorsy murder mystery, so I was thrilled to chat with Amelia about sister sleuths, writing mystery, and more.

Connect with Amelia on Instagram, her website, and her newsletter. Grab a copy of Drop Dead Sisters here.

Hi Amelia, thanks so much for joining! Drop Dead Sisters follows Remi Finch and her two sisters as they reunite on a family camping vacation—only to test their tenuous relationship by finding a dead body. What do you love about this trio of sisters? What makes them—or perhaps doesn’t make them—a great detective team?

Thanks so much for having me! All three Finch sisters are so close to my heart, in part because I have two older sisters myself. I think the dynamic between siblings is a fascinating one, especially as siblings come back together as adults. So much has changed on a personal growth level, while the family unit tends to remain fairly static; it’s a situation that’s rife for tension. And that’s before you throw a dead body into the mix. 

I loved the dysfunctional Finch family that added a nice touch of chaos to an already chaotic mystery. Can you share a bit about how you put together your cast of characters? And/or, why do you think family and murder work so well together?

Sure thing! Early on in the process, I knew I wanted the extended family to be a bit kooky, if only to further show how isolated Remi feels in comparison. I thought the perfect foil to Remi’s more anxious nature would be parents who are loving—but inherently invalidating—of her anxiety. I grew up in Northern California, in somewhat of a rural area, and drew inspiration from the crunchier, “hippy” personalities I’ve met over the years. The rest of the family fell together pretty easily after that.

Murder and family go well together because everyone has a family, whether it be the people who raised them or a found family. It’s universal. Whereas murder isn’t. (Or I sure hope it’s not!) And family isn’t just universal, but it’s also great for, as I mentioned in another answer, naturally occurring tension. The interpersonal relationships are what draw the reader in, not the dead body. There’s just so much to dig into with family that can help carry a murder mystery forward, while also helping the story remain grounded.

After previously penning four young adult novels, what have you learned when making your adult debut with Drop Dead Sisters? Specifically, what did you find most enjoyable and most interesting about writing a murder mystery?

Honestly, writing my YAs and Drop Dead Sisters wasn’t as wildly different as I was worried it’d be, in terms of shifting age groups. The bigger hurdle was learning more about the mystery genre and its conventions. I’m a huge true crime fan and read a lot of mysteries and thrillers—so I had that as a solid foundation—but actually writing a mystery was (and still is!) much harder than contemporary. Layering in clues and information, without giving away your hand, can be tricky. But I love puzzles, which is basically what writing a book is: one big word puzzle.

The most enjoyable part, for me, is the ability to have fun and push the envelope. I love writing more grounded, contemporary stories, but Drop Dead Sisters gave me an opportunity to ask myself, “Okay, but what if this happened? And how ridiculously funny would it be if this happened as a result?” Personally, I love dark humor and comedy of errors, and it’s been so fun to explore that part of my creativity.

One of Remi’s most prominent traits is her anxiety, which naturally kicks into high gear once she discovers the murder. I found her anxiety both humorous and serious, adding some relatable levity while also being a source of insecurity, frustration, and derision from her family. How did you build that side of Remi’s character? Why do you think incorporating mental health themes into any story, especially a mystery, is important?

Remi’s anxiety is based on my own experiences and struggles with anxiety, so it was the easiest element of the book for me to write. I’ve always included mental health themes in all my books, and I knew that I wanted to carry that through-line into my adult debut, no matter what it ended up being.

But the way mental health plays with mystery is super interesting, especially anxiety. Remi’s instincts in the book are almost always right—but she doesn’t trust herself due to her anxiety disorder. And at times, she even blames herself for what happens surrounding the inciting incident. Solving a mystery is all about listening to your instincts and trusting your gut, and to me, it’s fascinating to have a character who deeply struggles doing just that. As the author, at least, it made for a fun and rewarding character arc.

Lastly, what are you currently working on? Can you tease some info about book two in the Finch Sisters series, Sisters Before Misters, and/or anything else you’re looking forward to?

Right now, I’m working on wrapping up my first pass of edits on Sisters Before Misters! I’m not sure how much I can share, but the sequel takes place a year later in Seattle, on Halloween, when a character goes missing under strange and possibly violent circumstances.

Thanks so much to Amelia for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

Today’s interview is a three-for-one deal: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White (a.k.a. Team W) join the Cluesletter to chat about their latest collaboration, The Author’s Guide to Murder.

Fans of zany, laugh-out-loud murder mysteries will find something to love in this deadly adventure set in the Scottish Highlands. I would know—I thoroughly enjoyed it!

In the interview to follow, Team W and I discuss the characters, writing a mystery, and how they collaborate on projects.

Connect with Team W on Instagram collectively, and individually: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White. Grab a copy of The Author’s Guide to Murder here.

Welcome, Beatriz, Lauren, and Karen! The Author’s Guide to Murder is a quirky, heartwarming murder mystery set in a remote Scottish castle. Authors Cassie, Emma, and Kat are pretending to be best friends writing a book together. But when the host of their writing retreat is found dead, they might just have to solve the crime—if only to clear their own names. How did you craft these characters? Did you take inspiration from anyone in particular, and/or do any of you perhaps feel connected to one character over the others?

Part of the origin story behind this book starts with a question we’re asked often while on book tour: Are you really best friends, or were you put together by your publisher, like the Spice Girls? The answer is yes and no, respectively, but it got us thinking. What if we wrote about three women writers who are put together by their shared editor to write a book together . . . but they secretly hate each other? 

We had to give our characters three separate identities—not just different personalities, but distinct backgrounds and writing genres. They also couldn’t be anything like the actual members of Team W to avoid the obvious comparisons. That’s not to say that we didn’t gather bits and pieces of other authors to create Cassie, Emma and Kat, but all sources shall remain secret, of course. And because we created all the characters together, we feel connected to each of them equally—you might say we’ve arranged joint custody!

I’m afraid I have to ask the obvious question: With the three of you working on one novel, how did you organize your input? What tips do you have for maintaining balance on a collaborative writing project?

We always get together at the beginning to plot out and outline our collaborations. We don’t outline our individual books, but it would be very difficult not to have some sort of map for the three of us so that we end up in the same place. Then we retreat to our respective corners of the country and begin writing round-robin. The outline, although detailed, is also left open enough so that each author has room to develop her character within the guardrails of the plot. And if we ever get stuck, we have the other two Ws to bounce ideas back and forth. After we type The End, we meet up again to do the final edits and clean up—and then we break out the prosecco when we email the manuscript to our editor.

It’s easy to maintain balance because our books are always arranged around three viewpoint characters, each of whom get equal page time and are equally important to the plot. We plot the book together and no one knows which character she’ll be writing until after we’ve outlined, which means we’re fully invested in all of the characters. Of course, life always intrudes, but part of being a good working team means we’re honest with each other about what we can do and what we can’t at any given time. We take turns picking up the slack, knowing that it all evens out in the end.

While primarily a mystery, The Author’s Guide to Murder is also a satire on the literary world, a feel-good story about female friendships, and an homage to the Scottish Highlands (and, of course, the romance novels it has inspired). Other than the mystery itself, what were your favorite parts of the book to write?

Is “all of it” a wrong answer? Because in all seriousness, this book was a joy to write for all three of us. We had so much fun with the Scottish setting that we might have gone a little overboard at times, but we think our readers will enjoy the gleeful spirit in which we went over the top. We also relished writing about female friendship for the chance to explore our own experiences of discovering and nurturing our “found family” in each other, while navigating the complexities of the publishing world. Just like Cassie, Emma and Kat, we know the importance of having someone who’s always got your back. (And who also knows where the bodies have been buried.).

Your past collaborations were all historical novels with multiple timelines. What elements of writing a contemporary mystery challenged you, and/or what did you find the most rewarding? How did you approach plotting the crime in the novel?

This was the first time we had all three characters interacting together on the same page, so that we were writing each other’s characters in our scenes. But because we had created and developed Cassie, Emma and Kat together, all three of us had a thorough understanding of their experiences and their motivations, and we trusted each other to bring those characters to life on the page. It wasn’t so much of a challenge as it was a new way to exercise our writing muscles.

As for the plotting, we took inspiration from the world of the cozy mystery—think Murder, She Wrote and Father Brown. While none of us had experience writing in this genre, at least one W is a devoted fan of Golden Age mysteries and their many variations . . . and we had so much fun putting our own spin on the tropes that this might not be our last glimpse of Callie, Emma, and Kat!

Lastly, what are you currently working on? Can we expect more books (perhaps more mysteries) from you three, and/or what are each of you looking forward to?

We’ve started outlining the next collaboration, but it’s still early stages so we can’t really say more about that. Individually, we are all working on individual books. Karen will have two new books out next year, Lauren has a historical true crime mystery out in March, and Beatriz has another Winthrop Island novel hitting bookstores in late summer.

Thanks so much to Beatriz, Lauren, and Karen for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

I’m so pleased to welcome Kerry McGee, co-founder of Literary Adventure Society. Kerry and her team produce immersive literary mystery boxes—like “Loveday Brooke in the Mystery of the Black Bag,” featured in the 2024 Cluesletter Holiday Catalogue. 👀

I invited Kerry for an interview because I was genuinely so interested in LAS and their boxes—I mean, how do you adapt, produce, and craft a mystery experience? In the interview to follow, Kerry shares their process, company history, and plenty more.

Connect with Kerry and Literary Adventure Society on Instagram, TikTok, and their website. Plus, keep a keen eye out for “Loveday Brooke in the Mystery of the Black Bag” in the 2024 Cluesletter Holiday Catalogue! (Link here!)

Kerry, thanks so much for joining the Cluesletter! Literary Adventure Society (LAS) was founded in 2020—can you share a bit of backstory to you and to this endeavor? How, and why, did you start the company?

In addition to being an owner at LAS, I’m also the Artistic Director of a classical theatre company (We Happy Few Productions). I’d written two mystery play adaptations that we were going to produce in rep in the fall of 2020, but then the COVID pandemic hit and all the theaters closed. Our company was still interested in making art together, and we were interested in creating at-home entertainment that could rival a night out at the theatre. So, we created our experience boxes: a fully produced audio play that came with elements to set the scene at home. We encouraged people to gather with their family and/or pods and share a night-in at the theatre. They were a huge success, and we continued to expand and refine the boxes. When live theatre returned, I helped launch Literary Adventure Society as a new home for our at-home mysteries.

While still very theatrical, we’ve worked hard to heighten the immersive and play-along aspects as well. The whole idea is to feel like you’ve stepped into the book or story: you can set the scene, follow the story-line, interact with objects that the detectives do, and try your hand at solving the crime.

Your boxes feature Sherlock Holmes and Loveday Brooke, both nineteenth century literary detectives. How do you incorporate these characters and their famous mysteries into your experiences? (I’m of course most curious about Loveday Brooke, created by Catherine Louisa Pirkis in 1893. Why Loveday—how did you discover her, and what do you love about her as a character?)

Loveday Brooke is probably one of the coolest detectives out there. She is considered to be one of (if not THE) first female detective written by a woman author in 1893. Which means that she is a huge part of the development of the mystery novel, and yet so few of us have ever heard of her. My husband found an article about early lady detectives and sent it to me. I read all the stories I could find, and Loveday was my favorite. Even among her contemporaries, Loveday was singular: she was a detective by trade, not as a hobby. It was a way to support herself and she was good at it. Which put her way ahead of her time in 1893. So many people have told me that after playing our Loveday Brooke box, they’ve gone on to read her original stories. I’m so excited that our mysteries are a gateway for people to explore literature!

I’ve had a lot of fun adapting Loveday and Sherlock stories for our mystery experiences. These stories predated the fair play rules that the Golden Age of Mystery set forth, so I’ve gotten to think backwards, working clues in earlier than they appear in the original stories. Additionally, I’ve wanted the physical clues to be integral to the mystery-solving—so sometimes I have to find different avenues for our literary detectives to get to their conclusions, all while still keeping as much of the original story intact as possible. It’s a really fun writing challenge.

Each box includes clues, souvenirs, world-building elements, and goodies like a candle and loose-leaf tea, all accompanied by a professionally-acted audio mystery. How do you decide what to include in the box? What’s involved in the creation process?

We wanted to use all five senses to transport someone into the story. The audio play provided the narrative and the ambient sounds of the world. The candle scent brings you into the environment (the Sherlock candle scent is leather and tobacco—we wanted it to smell like 221B!), the tea and drink recipes appeal to the sense of taste, and the clues and newspapers provide visual and tactile clues. Everything is designed to be either a clue or something to aid in the world-building aspect of these boxes.

Plus we wanted to include a souvenir or two to remember the experience. I think about when I finish a book that I love: I want to find a way to keep it alive for a little bit longer. We thought even after the mystery was done, someone could still light the candle or frame the postcard, and linger for a little bit longer in the world of the story.

I absolutely love the collaborative nature of these experiences. What do you love about solving mysteries as a group activity? What do you hope audiences get out of the experience?

I’m very interested in activities and forms of entertainment that bring people together. I love theatre, but more often than not, you spend your evening sitting in a dark room. Despite other people being there, it’s still a very solitary experience. I wanted people to be able to talk with each other, and theorize, and comment, and collaborate, and gossip, and catch up with each other: all while also still being entertained. And it was really important to find a mostly-analog way to do that too. I love screens as much as anyone else, but it’s really nice to take a break from them. I’ve talked to people who have hosted mystery nights with their friends and had a blast, and people that have done these with their kids and grandparents. I love the idea that our mystery boxes are bringing people and families together in a shared experience.

Lastly, are you working on anything exciting for Literary Adventure Society? What are you currently looking forward to?

I have so much in development! My husband and I are creating a live Sherlock mystery experience that we can perform with a crowd. He does the voice of Sherlock for our audio plays and will play the detective in our live event. We have one coming up in Washington, DC on November 22 [link here!]. I’m creating outlines as we speak for a new Loveday and Sherlock mystery, and I’m hot on the trail of another almost-forgotten detective that I want to create a mystery experience for. It’s a dream to be able to spend so much of my time rooting around in the world of mystery and detective fiction.

Thanks so much to Kerry for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

Today’s interview is with Sydney Leigh, who has had not one but two releases this year, kicking off two different series. Instagoner: A Bark and Blog Mystery is her latest, and we talk about it (and more) in the interview to follow.

Connect with Sydney on Instagram and her website. Grab a copy of Instagoner here, and Peril in Pink here.

Hi, Sydney! In your latest release, Instagoner, lifestyle blogger Emily Dalle gets thrown into detective work after a controversial talk show host shows up dead. To help, she turns to her online audience for tips. What do you love about Emily’s character? What traits of hers make her an excellent cozy sleuth?

Hi Manon! Thank you so much for having me on today. I’m thrilled to be here, talking about Instagoner. Emily is such a fun character to write. She feels like a real person to me and when I’m not working on a book featuring her, I think about her (which is great since I have a contract for two more books!). Emily is curious, loyal, and straightforward. She shares her day-to-day life with her audience so she is self-aware and open with her feelings. One of my favorite things about Emily is her relationship with her ride-or-die best friend, Fitz. He can read her like a book and serves as a great sidekick for all her (mis)adventures.

You also had another mystery—your debut!—come out earlier this year. Peril in Pink stars B&B owner Jess Byrne, who investigates a murder on her property. How did writing this book compare with Instagoner? Can you share a bit about your mystery plotting and writing process for both books?

I’m a wannabe plotter. There it is, I’ve said it. With each book I start out with the best intentions to have a master plan, a brilliant outline that I will follow from start to finish. But, so far, that hasn’t happened. The days I set out to plot a book I usually end up doing things like baking cookies, going for extra long walks with my dog, and (attempting to) stand on my head (in my defense, I’ve always wanted to learn how to do a handstand). Eventually, I get to the point where I recognize it isn’t happening and I start to write the book. Pantsing (writing by the seat-of-your-pants) requires a tremendous amount of re-writing and editing, but for me, it’s what’s worked so far.

There’s a quote that resonates with me: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” — E. L. Doctorow. 

With two new books out just this year, what have you learned about the writing and publishing process so far? What advice has been most helpful to you, and what would you tell other writers (or your past self)?

Hmm . . . that’s a stumper. I’d say you need to remember that things take time. A lot of the process is out of your control. But the thing you can always do? Keep writing. 

What have you learned so far about building readership and an online community? 

Thank you so much, Manon! I’m a people person. I love to connect with others, online and in person. Writing is a solitary activity but publishing isn’t. I’ve made some great friends who understand the ups and downs of the industry.

Also? Bookstagrammers are my superheroes. They are champions of books and their love of reading is infectious. Whenever I’m not sure what to read for my next book, I’ll scroll through Instagram and search some of my favorite book lovers accounts to see what to read next. They often inspire me to pick up a book I haven’t heard of and dig in.

Lastly, what’s on your horizon? Can we expect more books in either of your series, and/or what are you currently working on and looking forward to?I finished the first draft of the follow-up book to Instagoner. It needs a lot of revising but it’s a start. While I let that simmer, I’ve switched to a different book which I’m VERY excited about. New characters, new setting. I can’t share too much about that one yet, but hopefully in the not-too-distant future . . .

Thanks so much to Sydney for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.