Q&A with Lori Rader-Day

Lori Rader-Day, author of The Day I Died, The Black Hour, and Little Pretty Things, is the recipient of the 2016 Mary Higgins Clark Award and the 2015 Anthony Award for Best First Novel. Kerry Hammond caught up with Lori to ask her some questions about her writing and her books.

Prior to publishing your debut mystery, The Black Hour (which won the Anthony Award in 2015 for Best First Novel), you had several successful short stories under your belt. But getting a book deal for a full-length novel must have been a dream come true. Do you remember where you were when you got the news that it would be published?

Pretty sure I was at work! All my good news came during working hours, so my co-worker would often get the news first. I had to share immediately, of course, and then I might think to call my husband or email my best friend.

Your books always delve into the human psyche and what motivates people to do what they do. Are there lines you draw to places where you won't take your characters, or will you take them anywhere as long as it advances the story?

I would never make a point of view character harm an animal. I’m probably very unlikely to have a character harm a child. I get how some writers won’t “censor” themselves or set limits on themselves, but I don’t think I would want to read a book like that, so why pretend that I would ever write one? It would have to be a very compelling reason to make me change my mind.

In your most recent book, The Day I Died, Anna Winger is an expert on handwriting analysis. What kind of research did you have to do on this topic to write her character successfully?

For research on Anna’s work, I read a few nonfiction books on handwriting analysis and then felt my way a bit when I actually show her analyzing. My audience isn’t professional handwriting analysts, or people who want to learn it, so I didn’t spend much time on being instructive there. I was much more worried about getting right some of the aspects of domestic violence that the book covers. I was also worried about the police work. It’s not a procedural, but I didn’t want anything to be distractingly wrong. I had a friend who works in a small-town Indiana sheriff’s office read the book to make sure I hadn’t written anything too outlandish from that perspective. 

Most writers are also voracious readers. Whose books would we find on your bookshelf?

I love Tana French, Megan Abbott, Catriona McPherson, James Ziskin, Charles Todd, Inger Ash Wolfe, Clare O’Donohue, Lisa Lutz, William Kent Krueger, Jennifer Kincheloe, and of course Agatha Christie, Shirley Jackson, and Josephine Tey. I could go on for days.

In addition to your writing, you teach creative writing courses and workshops. What one suggestion would you give to anyone who wants to be a writer?    

Join the association for the type of writing you do. For mystery writers, join Mystery Writers of American and Sisters in Crime. Yes, now, even before you have a book done. You will get a lot of help along the way if you join now—so much help that you’re likely to get published faster, and you’ll have fans when you do. If you can’t afford memberships right now, then find or start a writers group. Writing isn’t a lone act or at least it doesn’t have to be.

Lori’s short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Time Out Chicago, Good Housekeeping, and others. She lives in Chicago, where she teaches mystery writing at StoryStudio Chicago and is the president of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter. 

Q&A with Elaine Viets

Sharon Long recently interviewed Elaine Viets, award-wining author of 29 mysteries in three bestselling series.  Elaine answered graciously questions about Brain Storm, the first Angela Richman Death Investigator mystery published by Thomas & Mercer.  

A major part of Brain Storm is Angela’s stroke and recovery which I know you personally went through.  How difficult was it writing about that?  Did you find it cathartic?

Brain Storm was extremely difficult for me to write. It took more than seven years before I had the nerve to tackle the subject, and then I did it only because my agent, David Hendin, said it was time. He was right, but while I wrote this novel, I had to struggle relive bad memories and nightmares from a very low time in my life. I’m glad I wrote the book, though. Every writer has what she calls the book of her heart and Brain Storm is mine. It’s about my strokes and brain surgery, but it’s not what my grandfather would call an “organ recital” – a recounting of my ailments. Brain Storm is also an entertaining mystery and a look into the hospital world, as well as the death investigator profession. Death investigators are sort of like paralegals for the medical examiner. At a crime scene or unexplained death, the DI is in charge of the body and the police handle the rest of the scene.   

Angela Richman is a death investigator and I you know you went through that training yourself.  Was that before you started writing?   Can you tell me more about that experience?

Back in 1997 when I first started writing mysteries, I took the Medicolegal Death Investigators Training Course for forensic professionals. To write the Angela Richman, death investigator series, I wanted to update my knowledge. I’d already written the first draft of Brain Storm when I took the two-credit college course again given by St. Louis University’s School of Medicine and I’m glad I did. So much had changed during the intervening years: there were many scientific advances, including improved techniques for using DNA, and other investigative tools.  Janet Rudolph, founder of Mystery Readers International, says the Angela Richman series is the only mystery series featuring a working death investigator.

Brain Storm is your first medical novel and I know many readers have read your cozy books.  Was this easier or harder to write?

Easier. I started writing hardboiled novels with my first series, the Francesca Vierling newspaper mysteries. When Random House bought Bantam Dell, that division was wiped out and I switched to traditional mysteries with Penguin in New York. After the Dead-End Job mysteries took off, Penguin asked me to try a cozy series, the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper mysteries. That was supposed to be a two or three book series, but it lasted ten books. Writing the darker Angela Richman, death investigator mysteries was like coming home. Right now, I enjoy the dark side.

What is the best thing that has happened to you as a result of writing Brain Storm?

Switching genres was risky, and I was delighted that so many readers told me they liked the new series and took the time to post reviews on Amazon and other sites. Several readers said Brain Storm gave them insights into what it was like when their family members or friends had a stroke. I was especially touched by a woman who said Brain Storm comforted her when her neighbor, who I believe was nearly a hundred years old, passed away after a stroke. The reader said Brain Storm made her feel that her friend and neighbor hadn’t suffered.

What authors have inspired you?

Mark Twain. I’m a Missouri woman and a former newspaper reporter, and I share his fascination with the water. Twain was ahead of his time when it came to social justice and civil rights, and his work is still hilarious. I also love Agatha Christie. Many people think she’s old fashioned, but Dame Agatha did some incredible character descriptions. I like Miss Marple best, the under-rated spinster who said “I am Nemesis.”

What is the best mystery you read last year?

That’s a tough one. I’ve read so many good mysteries, it’s hard to narrow it down to one. I really enjoyed Night Shift, the latest Midnight, Texas, mystery by Charlaine Harris, and Ann Cleeves’ Thin Air, which is part of her Shetland mysteries. I’m a big fan of PJ Parrish, William Kent Krueger, Jeff Abbott, and David Ellis. I could fill the rest of this page with names. We’re in another golden age of mystery writing and there are so many choices.

When will the next Angela Richman book come out?  What is it about?

Fire and Ashes, the second Death Investigator mystery, will be published in July 2017. Angela Richman investigates a deadly fire in the exclusive, gated enclave of Olympia Forest Estates. The DI watches a mansion go up in a fiery blaze. Seventy-year-old Luther Delor, who owns a sleazy, profitable chain of payday loan stores, dies in the fire. The drunken, bed-hopping rhinestone cowboy scandalized the community when he left his wife for a twenty-year-old Mexican-American manicurist, Kendra Salvato. She’s accused of killing him and setting other fires in Chouteau County, Mo. Kendra is being railroaded to death row as a gold-digging killer. The Forest burns with prejudice and betrayal, and Angela has to fight it with forensic facts.

Meanwhile, I’ll be publishing an Angela novella called Ice Blond, to bridge the gap between novels. Ice Blond is about Juliet, a beautiful, rich sixteen-year-old girl who disappears after a holiday party and is found frozen in a creek. She’d sneaked out of her house to date a mechanic’s son, and the Forest wants the boy arrested for her murder. But there are other people who wanted Juliet dead, including a friend’s jealous mother, who believes her own daughter should be queen of the local ball, and a boy from her school who’s in love with her and hates that she’s dating someone from the wrong side of the tracks. The forensic investigation reveals a surprising twist to the girl’s death.

To find out more about my latest books, sign up for my free e-newsletter at eviets@aol.com And check out the monthly book giveaways on my Website at www.elaineviets.com 

Catriona McPherson's 2016 Reading Challenge

Catriona McPherson is here today to talk about how she did on her 2016 reading challenge to celebrate the release of her latest in the Dandy Gilver series. Over the years, Catriona has been a frequent guest here on Mystery Playground from telling how to make Bloody Scottish drinks or telling stories out of school about secret beds. Don't forget to check out her giveaway at the end of the post. 

It’s lovely to be back at Mystery Playground. Thanks for having me.

I think this is the first time I've swung from your monkey bars at this time of year , as we all say "Welp, there goes another one” so it seems fitting to take a look back at the year in books. 

Yolo County (yes, really) Libraries issue a reading challenge every year. I think it's for kids, judging by the fact that the books along the bottom include Black Beauty (never read it) and The Secret Garden (love it with a burning passion). But there’s no reason adults can't play along.

Here’s my final-ish score card.

I read dozens of books published this year, but I've picked out A Kind of Justice by Renee James. It's the story of a transgender Chicago hairstylist, Bobbi Logan, who's in the frame for the murder of a transphobic attacker. It's set in 2008 and while Bobbi tries to stay out jail she's also trying to save her business and her home as the great recession begins to chew up everything in its path.  It's a brilliant look at the recent past as well as a gripping tale and a heroine you want for your BFF from page 1.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is my finish in a day. In fact, I finished it in a bath. It was the most perfect reading experience of the year. I left the madness of the Harrogate Crimewriting Festival, drove to an idyllic B&B in the Yorkshire countryside, bought this gorgeous edition of Albee’s script in a gloriously disordered second-hand bookshop I passed on a long walk, and read it lying in a huge bubblebath, with a cup of tea and more shortbread than was strictly necessary.

I’ve been meaning to read Dickens for three years now. It was my resolution last year and I blew it. This year I finally broke my Dickens’ duck, and did it deliberately with Martin Chuzzlewit. No one ever recommends poor old Chuzzles and I reckoned if I could get through one of his less stellar works, I could probably go on and read the lot. All I can say is if this is Dickens phoning it in, I give up in a huff.

The Man on The Washing Machine by Sue Cox was recommended by my local bookseller if you'll let me argue that Don & Jen Longmuir of Scene of the Crime's books (Ontario) are local to me (California) because they’re at Malice and Left Coast and Bouchercon most years AND that they "recommended" it by putting it face up on the table. What I’m saying is that “Oooh, pretty” is a perfectly legitimate way to choose books and this is a great jacket.

Another great jacket belongs to Doorway to Murder by Carol Pouliot and I'm claiming it as the book I should have read in school, because it's about time travel and, if I was the king of everything, time-travel would be real. I love it. Cannot resist a time-travel tale. That’s why even though I had promised myself I'd say no to all blurb requests before my head exploded, I couldn't resist this one.

No fudging for the next item. Well, that’s not true. The book chosen for me by a spouse … BFF is Sarah Hilary’s Someone Elses's Skin and it was chosen for me by Erin Mitchell, the BFF of all mystery writers and readers when you get right down to it. I stand by my modifications.

Excellent Women was published before I was born, by the excellent woman Barbara Pym. I'm reading it right now as I slog to the bitter end of the work in progress, because it’s a. not a mystery b. hilarious and c. as soothing as an afternoon in a hammock on an island. If you like Jane Austen for her waspishness rather than the bonnets, Pym might well be your afternoon in a hammock too.

I got myself in a tangle trying to work out if reading an ARC and then being given the final book afterwards was reading a book I already owned or not. But in either case, Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon is a good'un. 

It took me a while to fudge the category of book that intimidates me. I’m too much of a philistine to be intimidated instead of just bored by most intimidating boring books. But Martin Edwards' terrific The Golden Age fits the bill in the best possible way. I can sit and make things up till the sun goes down, but Martin researched and assembled and checked and re-checked and then made readable decades of history about dozens of writers, their books and their lives. I take my hat off to him (and I recommend this as a present for any mystery fan).

Two categories are a complete bust. I didn't read any banned books or any I'd previously abandoned. Ulysses could scoop both categories I started it today, because that’s a banned book I abandoned with, well, abandon once before. I considered it, but my philistinism rode to the rescue and I abandoned the plan. 

As for the final item on the checklist?

I don't think I've read a book I’ve already read before, but this week I’m launching (in the US) a book I’ve already launched before (in the UK). The Reek of Red Herrings (Dandy Gilver No. 9) hits the bookshops tomorrow. Today is the last chance to take part in a pre-order gift and giveaway I’ve been running. If you order the book by midnight tonight, I will send you a free short story set in Dandy’s house at Christmas time and I’ll enter your name in a draw to receive a bundle of all eleven books in the series. Details are here.

Happy Holidays and Happy Reading, everyone.

Come on back tomorrow to read our review of Catriona's new book, The Reek of the Red Herrings.