1--What is the title of your latest release?
My latest release is A COLLECTION OF LIES, the fifth in the Kate Hamilton Mystery series.
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Kate Hamilton and DI Tom Mallory are honeymooning in Devon where a local history museum had hired them to trace the provenance of a bloodstained dress said to belong to a murderous Victorian lacemaker. Exactly Kate’s kind of mystery—until the donor of the dress, a man who lives as a Victorian gentleman, is found dead in a pool of blood. As Kate and Tom race to find the murderer, they learn that old secrets can be deadly—and this killer isn’t going to come quietly.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Kate and Tom are on their honeymoon, so I asked myself where they would go. Neither of them are beach people, and since the entire series is set in the British Isles, I had lots of amazing spots to choose from. Would they choose the Scottish Highlands? A picturesque village on the Cornwall coast? The lush, green Irish countryside? I decided on Devon, specifically the national park known as Dartmoor with its old oak forests, hidden valleys, windswept moors, and weathered granite cairns. Dartmoor is a magical place of myths, legends, ancient history, and wild, stark beauty—the perfect setting for old secrets and shocking murders. Plus, I got to spend time there myself (twice!) researching the book. My husband and I rented a charming self-catering cottage in a tiny village with an excellent pub and miles and miles of walking trails. Just right for getting in the mood.
4--Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life?
Oh, absolutely! Kate and I share a similar upbringing. Since we both grew up in the antiques trade and share a Scottish/Norwegian heritage, we’d have plenty to talk about. But we’re also different enough to make our friendship interesting. Kate is much braver than I am, so I would probably follow her into all sorts of intriguing and possibly dangerous adventures. What would I contribute? Well, maybe the wisdom of age (ha!) or the ability to get her out of seemingly impossible situations. I am the author, after all. She’s safe with me—at least she has been so far.
5--What are three words that describe your sleuth?
Kate is smart-as-a-whip, brave to a fault, and incurably curious—which often gets her into trouble.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned so much writing this book—the lost art of lacemaking, the lives of ordinary women in Victorian times, the running of a small museum, British politics, bogs and mires. But the most important and most interesting thing I learned while writing this book was about the culture of the Romanichals, sometimes called “English Gypsies,” a term they are proud to bear. In the face of centuries of suspicion, hostility, and persecution, they have retained their culture and value their history and traditional way of life.
Knowing I needed a sensitivity reader, I was extremely fortunate to find Dr. Thomas Acton, OBE, professor emeritus of Romani studies at the University of Greenwich. I couldn’t have found anyone more qualified. Dr. Acton, a Romanichal himself, is a patron of the Roma Support Group in London; a member of the committees of the Gypsy Council, the Advisory Council for the Education of Romanies and Travellers, and the Churches Network for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma. He is also a board member of the Gypsy Lore Society and secretary of his local Gypsy Support Group. Dr. Acton read and commented on my entire manuscript. Without his encouragement, gentle corrections, and generous sharing of information, I could not have written the book.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I dream of one day writing an entire manuscript before beginning revisions. That’s the recommended method, but I just can’t make myself do it. I hate bad writing— especially my own. Since first drafts are always messy and horrible (at least mine are), I just can’t bring myself to push ahead to the next chapter until I feel pretty good about what I’ve already written. For that reason, I always begin my writing day by revising my previous day’s work and sometime rereading the whole thing from Chapter One. It’s not the most efficient system, but it works for me.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
This is going to sound strange, but the one thing I simply can’t resist is white layer cake with buttercream frosting and plenty of roses—the kind that leaves you feeling slightly sick. I know, I know…
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I work in a combination office//laundry room. My desk fits into one of the corners, facing two intersecting walls. On the wall to my right hangs a print by the Swedish artist Karl Larssen, photographs of my parents, and a framed Peanuts cartoon presented to me years ago by one of my ex-students.
On the wall to my left hangs my “wall of women,” photographs of women who’ve played an important role in my life, plus framed photos of my family (my husband and two sons) and a copy of the Mystery Writers’ Oath, still sworn to by members of the famous Detection Club:
“Do you promise that your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them and not placing reliance on nor making uses of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence, or Act of God?”
On the desk itself, besides my computer and monitor, are reference books I’m currently using, and a ceramic pen-and-pencil-holder made by my oldest son in his high school ceramics class. More bookshelves, drawers, and filing cabinets flank the desk on either side, so I have no excuse not to be organized. And the best part is I always get my laundry done.
10--Who is an author you admire?
There are so many wonderful authors out there, and I admire them for different reasons. I admire Neil Gaiman for his unforgettable characters; Anthony Horowitz for his storytelling; Ann Cleeves for her strong, relatable protagonists; Jodi Taylor for her humor; Agatha Christie for her plots; P.G. Wodehouse for his dry British wit; Deborah Crombie for creating characters that grow and change; Lucy Foley for the sheer beauty of her language and stunning metaphors. I admire Edith Maxwell for her work ethic and consistent quality. And this only scratches the surface—I could also name G. M. Malliet, Sujata Massey, Ruth Ware, Tana French, Elly Griffiths, Charles Todd, Vaseem Khan, Christopher Fowler. And I still love and read the Golden Agers of Crime. As you can see, I have wonderful taste.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Besides the Bible? I’d have to say Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which I first read in high school. That’s when I discovered that literature was my thing, especially British literature. I went on to get a B.A. and an M.A. in British literature. But with all the giants to choose from—Shakespeare, Bunyan, Milton, Wordsworth, Dickens, Keats, Shelley, Byron, Hardy, the Brontes, Louis Carroll, Daphne du Maurier—no author has had a greater impact on me than Jane Austen. She described her own writing as being done with a fine brush on a “little bit (not two inches wide) of ivory.” I’m always drawn to stories with a limited cast of characters in a closed setting, like the murderous English villages Agatha Christie wrote about. Toward the end of her life, Austen advised her teenage niece Anna, a budding author, this way:
“You are now collecting your people delightfully, getting them exactly into such a spot as is the delight of my life. Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on…”
I agree.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)
When I retired from teaching in 2016, I decided if I was ever going to be an author, it was “now or never.” I’d been working for several years on the novel that would eventually become my debut, A Dream of Death, but I knew it wasn’t ready for querying. Published authors I respected had given me advice I hadn’t really taken to heart, so I decided it was time to take them seriously. That summer and autumn I completed a massive rewrite that included switching from third person to first person and multiples POVs to a single POV, eliminating several characters, adding characters, removing whole storylines, and adding others, and changing the setting from an island in Lake Champlain to a fictional island off the west coast of Scotland. In February of 2018, my new draft in hand, I attended a writers’ conference in Florida. There I met my editor. She loved the story and offered me a two-book contract. Suddenly (after almost a decade) I was an author!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
As you can tell from my list of favorite authors, I read British crime fiction almost exclusively. Actually, these days I often listen to audio books when I’m doing boring tasks or tasks that take little mental effort—getting dressed, driving, cooking, doing dishes, walking the dog, grocery shopping. A great narrator adds a lot to a great book.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
I’m not a big movie-goer, but I love TV movies, so I’d have to say the BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. I watch the whole thing at least once every year. Of all the attempts to dramatize Austen’s most famous novel, that version, in my opinion, comes closest to recreating her intention and feel.
I also love the 1996 TV movie, Emma, starring Kate Beckinsale and the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, and Alan Rickman. Perfect casting! I still tear-up every time I watch those final scenes.
15--What is your favorite season?
Autumn, hands down. I was born in Wisconsin, so I’m a cold-weather girl. Heat and humidity make me want to sit under a fan and drink icy beverages. So when summer hits central Ohio, my husband and I take off for our lake cottage in northern Wisconsin. We spent a couple of weeks there at Christmastime as well. I don’t mind winter, and I like spring, but the cool, crisp days of autumn are my favorite. A warm sweater; leaves turning red and gold; a bountiful harvest of apples, cranberries, and pumpkins; and a fire in the fireplace on a cold night are my ideas of perfection. For me, autumn also gives me a counter-intuitive sense of new beginnings, probably a memory of my school days when September meant shopping for new shoes and school supplies.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Obviously, with white cake with buttercream frosting and lots of roses! Good thing birthdays come only once a year.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I just finished watching Season 1 of an amazing mini-series from Australia called Total Control. After standing up to a killer, an indigenous woman, Alex Irving, is recruited by Australia’s embattled female Prime Minister for a seat in the Senate. But when the party that celebrated her reneges on the promises they made to help her indigenous community, Alex embarks on a course of action that sends the political establishment into meltdown. I can’t wait to watch Seasons 2 and 3 on Amazon Prime.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I love just about everything that doesn’t involve raw fish, organ meats, or insects.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
In our free time, my husband and I travel. Every year we spend time in the UK—that’s a given. Last October we drove around southern Germany and Austria, a part of the world I’ve loved since spending a college semester at the University of Freiburg in the Black Forest. We enjoyed several nostalgia days revisiting that beautiful city, which hasn’t changed much since I was there. Staying at country inns gave me a chance to resurrect my German. This spring we’re heading to South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana with some of my cousins to commemorate our Norwegian grandfather’s surviving a shipwreck there in 1902. On the beach in Kleinmond, a small coastal town along the Cape of Good Hope, there’s a monument to those who lost their lives that day. A local journalist who learned of our visit has arranged for us to meet descendants of the family who helped the survivors make it to shore. After that we’re taking Rovos Rail to Johannesburg and then flying north to Victoria Falls and two wildlife camps where I hope to get lots of photographs!
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I’m currently working on a new Kate book plus a historical that’s still under wraps. We’ll see what happens.
Kate Hamilton Mystery #5
In USA Today bestselling author Connie Berry’s fifth Kate Hamilton mystery, American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton follows bloodstained clues to discover the truth about the murder of a modern-day Victorian gentleman.
As Kate Hamilton and her new husband, DI Tom Mallory, honeymoon in Devon, a local history museum asks them to trace the provenance of a bloodstained dress said to belong to a Victorian lacemaker accused of murder. If genuine, the dress and its puzzling connections to a nineteenth-century Romani family who camped on Dartmoor will be the centerpiece of a new historic crimes exhibit—exactly Kate’s kind of mystery. But matters turn deadly when a shot is fired during a fundraising gala, injuring the man who donated the dress.
The injured donor, Gideon Littlejohn, is a cyber-security expert who lives and dresses as a Victorian gentleman, but everyone believes the real target of the attack to be another attendee—a controversial politician intent on rooting out local corruption. This belief is overturned when Gideon is found dead in a pool of blood. But then the politician receives a death threat.
Who was the real target? Who would want to kill both a man with an obsession for history and a tough-on-crime politician? When asked to assist in the investigation, Kate races to discover the truth as it becomes clear the killer isn’t going to come quietly.
Mystery [Crooked Lane Books, On Sale: June 18, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781639106660 / eISBN: 9781639106677]
Connie Berry writes the USA Today best-selling Kate Hamilton Mystery series, set in the UK and featuring an American antiques dealer with a gift for solving crimes. Connie grew up in the world of fine antiques. Her parents, unrepentant antiques fanatics, instilled in her a passion for history, fine art, foreign travel, and all things British. She graduated from DePauw University and earned her master’s degree in English at The Ohio State University. She also studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany and St. Clare’s College in Oxford, England. Her debut novel, A Dream of Death, won the IPPY Gold for Mystery and was a finalist for the Agatha Award. Her latest, The Shadow of Memory, is a finalist for the 2023 Edgar Awards. Connie is a member of SinC, MWA, CWA. She’s on the board of her local writers’ group and on the Steering Committee for Guppies. She lives in Ohio and northern Wisconsin with her husband and adorable dog, Emmie.
No comments posted.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy