Fresh Interview | E.L. Tettensor's MASTER OF PLAGUES Now Unleashed

For today's Fresh Interview, Features Editor Pasha Carlisle caught up with the brilliant E.L. Tettensor to discuss the newly released Nicolas Lenoir novel, MASTER OF PLAGUES.

Pasha: Welcome, E.L.! For readers who are new to the Nicolas Lenoir series, a quick way to capture it is “Sherlock Holmes meets the X-Files”. In each of those dark and riveting detective series, there is a unique relationship between the main detective and his partner. What are some compelling aspects of Inspector Lenoir’s relationship with his partner, Sergeant Bran Kody?

E.L.: Poor Kody. He puts up with a lot. Lenoir is spare with his praise and quick with the verbal lash, and he has incredibly high expectations of his junior partner. He does respect Kody, though, and sees great potential in him. If you caught him on a good day, after a few glasses of wine, Lenoir would probably admit that he feels a certain responsibility to groom Kody, to help him become the best hound he can be. But Lenoir isn’t exactly the mentoring type, so he imparts his wisdom and experience in the only way he knows how: by taking every opportunity to point out flaws in Kody’s logic. A lesser man would have quit a long time ago, but Kody is ambitious and determined, and if making inspector someday means taking his lumps from Lenoir, he’ll do it. Besides, underneath his wounded pride, he knows he is learning a lot and winning Lenoir’s respect bit by bit.

As with Sherlock and X-Files, the relationship between the two detectives is really the beating heart of the series, so when it’s thrown into crisis, as it is in MASTER OF PLAGUES, it really ratchets up the tension.

Pasha: Speaking of tension, in MASTER OF PLAGUES, Inspector Lenoir must find a cure for a deliberately unleashed disease that is ravaging his city. Is the disease in the story tied to any true-life epidemics?

E.L.: It doesn’t draw upon a specific epidemic, but it definitely has its roots in the real world – in a disease that’s all over the news. In what has to be one of the eeriest coincidences of my life, I based the disease in MASTER OF PLAGUES on the Ebola virus. Imagine my surprise when, around the time I was turning in the manuscript in early 2014, an Ebola outbreak in West Africa hit the news. I mean, what are the odds? There hasn’t been a significant Ebola outbreak in years – to the point where researching it was harder than it should have been – and now all of a sudden, at the precise moment I’m wrapping up the book, the biggest outbreak in history strikes West Africa? I’m still a little freaked out by it.

Pasha: How bizarre! Could you tell us a bit about your inspiration for the Adali—the group of healers that Lenoir must turn to for help in MASTER OF PLAGUES?

E.L.: The Adali are sort of a composite of a lot of different African influences. Physically, they resemble the peoples of the Horn of Africa – the Tigre, Saho, Afar, and so on. The word “Adali” (singular Adal) actually comes from the Kingdom of Adal, a medieval sultanate on the Horn of Africa. Culturally, they are most like the pastoralists of Somalia, South Sudan, northern Kenya, etc., where cattle is the basis of their economy. As for their healing and magic, it’s similar to the juju of West Africa, or the muti of southern Africa, in that it combines both “good” and “bad” magic.

Pasha: Through your novels, readers get to experience all of Inspector Lenoir’s escapades, but we want to know about yours, too. You are quite the world traveler—did you go on any exciting adventures last year?

E.L.: So, you’re probably sensing a pattern here – the Adali based on African peoples, Ebola virus… I live in Africa and have worked all over the continent for years. My job has actually sent me pretty much everywhere, except South America. These days, I am “randomly searched” at pretty much every Western airport I pass through, presumably because my passport contains stamps from Pakistan, Kenya, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Dubai, and a host of other places that individually are fine, but collectively throw up red flags to our TSA friends. Lately, though, I’ve been staying closer to home, which is Burundi. My last trip was to Rwanda to do some hiking and see the mountain gorillas, after which we went on safari in the Serengeti and then lounged on the beach in Zanzibar. It was all going great until the bed bugs. Oh, well – I’m used to it!

Pasha: So, among all those other fantastic adventures, what is next for you and Inspector Lenoir? Should we expect to see more of him soon, or do you have other projects in store for us?

E.L.: Next up for me is THE BLOODFORGED, which comes out September 29th. It’s the sequel to THE BLOODBOUND, a series I write as Erin Lindsey. After that it’s THE BLOODSWORN, and then – who knows?

Pasha: Thank you so much for joining us today. We have one last question for you: What books are you most excited to read in 2015?

E.L.: Ugh, I am so behind on my reading! There are so many books I meant to read in 2014 and just didn’t manage to get to. This year, I’m focusing on going back to some older titles that have been strongly recommended to me. I’m tucked into THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY by Guy Gavriel Kay at the moment; that should take a while. Then I’d like to check out the Kushiel’s Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey and the Farseer novels by Robin Hobb.

Fresh Fiction thanks E.L. Tettensor for being our guest. Readers, unleash the mystery and adventure: Purchase your copy of MASTER OF PLAGUES today!

About MASTER OF PLAGUES

Unraveling a deadly mystery takes time—and his is running out…

Having barely escaped the clutches of the Darkwalker, Inspector Nicolas Lenoir throws himself into his work with a determination he hasn’t known in years. But his legendary skills are about to be put to the test. A horrific disease is ravaging the city—and all signs point to it having been deliberately unleashed.

With a mass murderer on the loose, a rising body count, and every hound in the city on quarantine duty, the streets of Kennian are descending into mayhem, while Lenoir and his partner, Sergeant Bran Kody, are running out of time to catch a killer and find a cure.

Only one ray of hope exists: the nomadic Adali, famed for their arcane healing skills, claim to have a cure. But dark magic comes at a price, one even the dying may be unwilling to pay. All that’s left to Lenoir is a desperate gamble. And when the ashes settle, the city of Kennian will be changed forever...

"Once again, Tettensor has crafted a masterful blend of the detective novel and the supernatural as MASTER OF PLAGUES shows readers that sometimes the darkness that lies within the hearts of man is the greatest of all evils." ~Fresh Fiction reviewer Debbie Wiley.

Read our full review here.

About the Author

E.L. Tettensor likes her stories the way she likes her chocolate: dark, exotic, and with a hint of bitterness. She has visited more than fifty countries on five continents, and brought a little something back from each to press inside the pages of her books. She is also the author of the Bloodbound series, writing as Erin Lindsey. She lives with her husband in Bujumbura, Burundi.