1--What is the title of your latest release?
A DEATH IN DENMARK
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Meet Gabriel Præst, an ex-Copenhagen cop (who dresses with panache), jazz aficionado, and relentless pursuer of truth as he explores Denmark’s Nazi-collaborator past and anti-Muslim present in a page-turning Nordic murder mystery with a cosmopolitan vibe.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
It was the pandemic. I was missing my favorite city in the world, Copenhagen, where I had lived for over a decade before moving to California in 2016. I wanted to visit the city and decided to take Gabriel Præst’s to all my favorite places as he investigated a hairy case.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
ABSOLUTELY!! Gabriel loves good food and wine. Dresses well. Has an excellent sense of humor. AND he plays the blues and jazz.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Kind. Moral. Fun.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
A lot about Denmark’s World War II history. Here are a few nuggets:
- King Christian X did not wear the Star of David in solidarity with the Danish Jews after the Nazi occupation but did threaten to do so if the Gestapo made it law
- Danish Jews rescued by fishing boats to Sweden had to pay exorbitant amounts of money for their passage
- The politicians who collaborated with the Nazis while they occupied Denmark were not part of the resistant, the communists were and after the Nazis left, the communists didn’t come to power, the collaborating politicians did
- All the names of Danish Nazi collaborators have not been released (and probably never will) due to a law enacted by the Danish government to keep them secret
- Danish construction companies that built bunkers in the Danish West Coast and prison camps all over Europe for the Nazis are still in existence and thriving
- Danes may have saved Danish Jews, but they turned away European Jews who were fleeing persecution by the Nazis prior to their occupation of Denmark, almost all of those Jews were murdered
- Danish resistance was active in the latter part of the occupation and many good people lost their lives to free their country from the Nazis
- And so much more. I could write a whole book about it…oh wait, I did do that
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit almost all the time. I edit when I write, when I edit, when I sleep, when I eat…I edit until I’m sick of it, not because I’m happy with the end product.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
What I tell people is duck confit (but it’s foie gras, I’m sorry)
9--Describe your writing space/office!
Nothing consistent. It’s my office, which is a regular office with a MASSIVE screen. These days it’s also my favorite wine bar in downtown LA, Garçons de Café. Sometimes it’s the living room. Other times a café. When I was traveling a lot, it used to be airplanes.
10--Who is an author you admire?
The list is ENDLESS. I have a BIG crush on Jo Nesbø, even though I don’t love all the Harry Hole books. I have a MASSIVE crush on Robert B. Parker (who doesn’t?) I have always admired Chitra Divakaruni who constantly reinvents herself as a writer. I wish I could write like Carl Hiaasen because I am laughing out loud when I read him (a writer who comes up with Potussies, short for POTUS Pussies is one I want to be). I’ll read anything Adam Grant and Brené Brown write.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Several. I have two careers. In one I’m a marketing executive for a biotechnology company and in the other I’m an author. I owe a lot to Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg and Playing Big by Tara Mohr. These books changed me and gave me the courage to become bigger than I thought I could be. As a child, it was Enid Blyton books that made me want to become a writer and after I read Catch-22 I knew that if I worked very, very, very hard, I would become a passable writer.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
The first book or this book? The first book was many years ago in 2001. My husband and I lived in Utah then. We were in San Francisco, staying with my brother-in-law. I was five months pregnant. I was driving to Cupertino for a work meeting in my blue VW Bug on 280 when my agent called. I picked up the phone because I thought it was my gynecologist with test results. Once I told her I was driving, she said she wouldn’t talk to me until I pulled over. I did pull over. My life has never been the same.
A DEATH IN DENMARK in many ways was harder to sell than my first book. When I told my agent I wrote a mystery, I thought she’d ask me to go take a hike. She read it and said she’s never sold a mystery series but here goes nothing. We collected a lot of rejects, as one does. Then comes the day of the end of the auction. We have an offer from one house. We’re waiting on another. My agent, Rayhané Sanders goes into labor. Rayhané is not just my agent but a very good friend. I’m nervous about the baby and her. I’m scared about the book. She’s texting me between contractions, “did you hear from them.” It was nuts. And then Lyssa Keusch from William Morrow made us an offer. And thank god she did. Lyssa is the best editor I have worked with. She’s absolutely amazing and I want a long working career with her.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Changes from time to time. These days I’m reading a lot of non-fiction. Just started Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
There isn’t one. I have a long list. Off the top of my head: Casablanca, Indiscreet, The Grass is Green, Dune (the new one and the old one), The General’s Daughter, The Thomas Crown Affair, Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner (the old one) …
15--What is your favorite season?
Summer!
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I don’t. It’s a problem. I’m working through it.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Will Trent is a complete delight. The Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor is a book you must read. Re-Thinking by Adam Grant is podcast that makes you think and feel.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
French…no Indian…no Creole…no…I can’t make up my mind. I like food.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I paint. I read. I cook. I drink wine.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
The next Gabriel Præst novel of course. This time Gabriel is looking into one of the most insidious cases of money laundering, one that is still being unraveled in courts and for which Denmark’s largest bank is responsible for.
The First Gabriel Præst Novel
Everyone in Denmark knew that Yousef Ahmed, a refugee from Iraq, brutally murdered the right-wing politician Sanne Melgaard. So, when part-time blues musician, frustrated home renovator, and full-time private detective Gabriel Præst agrees to investigate the matter because his ex—the one who got away—asked him to, he knew it was a no-win case.
But as Gabriel starts to ask questions, his face meets with the fists of Russian gangsters; the Danish prime minister asks him for a favor; and he starts to realize that something may be rotten in the state of Denmark.
Wondering if Yousef was framed to heighten the local anti-Muslim sentiment, Gabriel follows a trail back in time to World War II when anti-Semitism was raging in Europe during the German occupation of Denmark. Fearing a nationalistic mindset has resurfaced, Gabriel rolls up the sleeves of his well-cut suit and gets to work. From the cobblestone streets of Copenhagen to the historic Strassen of Berlin where the sounds of the steel-toed boots of marching Nazis still linger, Gabriel finds that some very powerful Danes don’t want him digging into the case—as the secrets he unearths could shake the foundations of Danish identity.
Mystery Private Eye [William Morrow Paperbacks, On Sale: March 28, 2023, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063235519 / eISBN: 9780063235526]
Amulya Malladi was born and raised in India. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India and received a master's degree in journalism from The University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA. After living in the United States for several years, Amulya now lives in Copenhagen, Denmark with her husband and two sons.
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