1--What is the title of your latest release?
PUBLIC ANCHOVY #1
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A modern “dark and stormy night” whodunnit that winks at a lot of classic mystery tropes. Oh, and there’s pizza and cats.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
My series is set in a very thinly-veiled version of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, a resort town with an interesting history as a mob hideout and millionaire’s playground. Playing off of that, I chose a real location for the main location in Public Anchovy #1—a turn-of-the-century lakeside mansion called Black Point that was built by a beer baron. I lightly fictionalized it, transforming it into the isolated “Bluff Point.”
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Absolutely! Delilah O’Leary amps up some of my own personality traits, which is both good and bad. She’s very type A, but also funny and brave. Plus, since she’s a chef, whenever she’s around, there’s always good food. I would love to get together with her and the entire staff of her restaurant for “family meal,” the simple, homey staff meal that’s often dished up before or after service.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
While others might choose the word “perfectionist,” I prefer to think of her as funny, loyal, and hardworking.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned that I’m not a panster—i.e. I’m not good at just winging it as I write. In the past, I’ve always spent a fair amount of time plotting before I started to write. For this book, I foolishly thought, “Well, Mindy, you’ve already written two novels about these characters. Let’s see what happens if you just start writing…” The answer is that you’ll have a nervous breakdown and end up cutting about 15,000 words of nonsense. Never again.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
For a long time, my process was to write about 1,000 words a day. Then when I’d sit down the next day, I’d edit the previous day’s output and do the next 1,000. For the fourth book in the series, I experimented with setting a slightly higher word goal and not doing the real-time editing. I just finished that manuscript and haven’t gone back through it yet, so the jury’s still out on whether this method will be faster or better in the long run.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Fancy cocktails. Give me a pretty glass with a bunch of fussy garnishes, and I’m a happy camper.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I write in our guest bedroom/home gym. The major wall art is a c. 2000-era classroom map of the continental United States that shows regional precipitation totals and a large painting of a sea turtle I bought from an untalented but kindly street artist for way too much money. My oldest child is going off to college next year. I’ll miss her terribly, but I’m looking forward to moving into her room. It gets better light and I don’t have to worry about my husband coming in to use the rowing machine while I’m trying to work.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Jesse Sutanto. Her book Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers has great characters and some of the funniest descriptions I’ve ever read. She’s also got a great social media presence. She’s generous with writing advice, good at subtle, delightful self-promotion, and she keeps it real when she talks about the challenges of making a life as a writer.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat. It was one of the first “real” books I read on my own in first or second grade. I still remember my delight when Nate, the child detective, uncovers the solution to the mystery. The clues hide in plain sight—the ultimate fair play mystery. After that, I wrote in my diary that I wanted to be either a writer or a detective or a ballerina when I grew up. Maybe someday, I’ll write a series about a crime-solving ballerina so I can hit the trifecta.
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.
My agent told me I got the offer from St. Martin’s on March 10, 2020. Then three days later, the entire country shut down. So, yeah. Weird timing for my personal good news to hit.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
My favorite books are traditional mysteries set in the UK. My favorite reads of the past year were the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman and Murder in Postscript by Mary Winters. Very different time periods, but both British and very “voicey” in the way the story is told. I’m an Anglophile in the most literal sense—my husband is British, and I love him.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
The Princess Bride. It never gets old. I love humor that plays with genre conventions.
15--What is your favorite season?
Spring, specifically late spring. School is almost done for the year. You’re making your summer vacation plans. Trees and flowers are at their most glorious. The weather in my part of Virginia is lovely. I love the anticipation of summer. When I meet someone who says they love the fall, I’m like, “But have you met Spring?”
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
There’s a French bakery in my town that makes the most decadent cakes. I usually get an almond cake with a praline crisp layer, chocolate mousse filling, and a ganache glaze. I changed it up this year and got a pistachio honeycomb cake with raspberry glaze. Typically, I don’t eat a ton of sugar, but I will destroy half a cake on my birthday and wash it down with some kind of ridiculously lavish cocktail. One year, my husband baked me a carrot cake from scratch instead of buying the French bakery cake. What a monster, am I right?
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
If you haven’t yet seen Only Murders in the Building, what are you waiting for? This season featured Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep, and they both sing! I also highly recommend the audiobook of Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders. It’s a contemporary mystery set in the world of publishing, but within that is a traditional English village whodunnit. The editor has to figure out the clues within a book that she’s edited. Well written and oh-so-clever. The audio narrators are top shelf.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Any kind of mush. I like soups, stews, curries, puddings, and mousses. If my teeth ever fall out, I’m all set.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Tend to our insatiable beast of a garden or hang out with my wonderful, hilarious, smart, thoughtful friends. I am blessed with abundance in friendships and in plants.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
Look out for book four in the Deep Dish Mysteries, Sleep in Heavenly Pizza, coming your way in 2024.
Deep Dish Mysteries #3
Public Anchovy #1 is the third book in Mindy Quigley's delectable Deep Dish Mystery series, set in a Wisconsin pizzeria.
While Geneva Bay’s upper crust gets ready to party down at a Prohibition-themed fundraiser, pizza chef Delilah O’Leary is focused on seeing her struggling restaurant through the winter slow season. The temperature outside is plummeting, but Delilah’s love life might finally be heating up, as hunky police detective Calvin Capone seems poised to (finally) make a move.
But Delilah’s hopes of perfecting a new “free-from” pizza recipe for a charity bash are dashed when a dead body crashes the party. Soon, Capone, Delilah, and her entire staff are trapped in an isolated mansion and embroiled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
To catch an increasingly-desperate killer, Delilah will have to top all of her previous crime-solving accomplishments, and a few pizzas, too.
Mystery Cozy [St. Martin's Paperbacks, On Sale: December 26, 2024, Mass Market Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781250792471 / eISBN: 9781250792488]
Mindy Quigley has won a number of awards for her short stories, including the 2013 Bloody Scotland prize and the 2018 Lightbringer award. Her work as the coordinator of a pastoral services program at the Duke University Medical Center provided the inspiration for her bestselling Reverend Lindsay Harding mystery series. She’s writing a new mystery series for St. Martin’s Press, which will debut in August 2022.
Before she started writing fiction, she worked in project management roles with university research centers, including the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic and the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland.
She lives in Virginia with her history professor husband, their two children, and their miniature Schnauzer.
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