Book Title: MRS. CHRISTIE AT THE MYSTERY GUILD LIBRARY
Character Name: Tory Van Dyne
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
Well, let’s just say my family is unconventional. In fact, until that rainy late-September evening when a woman claiming to be the Queen of Crime first materialized in the Mystery Guild Library’s Agatha Christie Room, I’d been working very hard at living a life shielded from the eccentricities of my Old New York (which is code for “old money) family, including a grandfather given to penning naughty limericks and a great-aunt who has spells when she imagines herself to be a fish; my socialite/actor cousin Nicola, popularly known as one of the three Belles of Broadway and prone to dancing half-naked in public fountains; and my own particular brand of crazy (about which, I’d always felt, the least said the better). I lived instead a quiet life. A safe, sane, sensible life. Until that rainy late-September evening…
What is your greatest talent?
By inclination and necessity, I am a very good book conservator. You see, after my father ran through his own much-diminished trust fund, he went completely off the rails, siphoning the capital from mine into an infamous Ponzi scheme (yes, that one), where it poofed away like water on a hot griddle. To this day, I bless him for his cluelessness. It was the making of me. I had been terrible in the role of trust fund kid, which I could never quite get the hang of, but I am quite good at my work, which I love.
Significant other?
It’s complicated (isn’t it always?). I am fighting what I guess you would call a crush on a certain NYPD Detective Sebastian Mendez-Cruz, despite the man’s penchant for truly ugly brown suits. Tall, with that perfect slim ratio of shoulder to hips. Hair the glossy black of a raven’s wing. A high, intelligent forehead. Dark eyes fringed with eyelashes so thick they make me jealous. A, noble, slightly aquiline nose, and a mouth—oh my god, that mouth.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
I joke about my particular brand of crazy, but in reality, it’s no joke. Seven years ago, I went through a trauma that resulted in my determination to live a safe, sane sensible life. And there is nothing safe, sane or sensible about being in love. So I avoid it at all costs. And there are costs…
Where do you live?
I live in one of the dozen or so remaining Greek Revival redbrick, marble-trimmed town houses in what is known as “The Row” overlooking Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park. The house hosts the Mystery Guild Library on the first two floors and Yours Truly on the two floors above.
Do you have any enemies?
Good lord. I hope not. But maybe…
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I love love love (as cousin Nic would say) New York City’s Greenwich Village. Because it is exactly that—a village. A walkable neighborhood of unassuming brick row houses, small cafés, bistros, basement comedy clubs and quirky vintage clothing shops, not to mention New York University. For me, the Village is safe and familiar and usually blessedly uncrowded.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
No children, no pets. But never say never…
What do you do for a living?
I am a book conservator at the aforementioned Mystery Guild Library, where, in my basement laboratory I painstakingly patch broken hinges, repair torn pages, reline flapping spines and restore covers. I have by this point a good number of clients of my own, mostly private collectors, but I am honored, for instance, to resew the library’s first edition of Agatha Christie’s A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED for free. For me the work is my tribute to the Queen of Crime.
Greatest disappointment?
I suppose it is my failure to get over that trauma I mentioned earlier. The doctors said I was “one of the lucky ones.” I didn’t consider myself lucky. Yes, I survived. Yes, I was still alive. But I lived in a fog of fear and grief and guilt. Or at least I did until my friend Mrs. Christie arrived, with her bracing blend of understanding and sheer good sense.
Greatest source of joy?
My found family of fellow sleuths – including my best friend, Guild librarian Adrian Gooding, who believes in exactly nothing, not even the Keto diet; an eleven-year-old Irish computer whiz named Mairead (“rhymes with parade”); and, of course, Mrs. Christie herself. Because, whoever or whatever she is, she really knows her stuff when it comes to murder.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
It used to be mainly work. But I have to admit that, at the moment, tracking down a killer with my peeps is fun. Or it was until things got really scary…
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
See avoiding love, above.
What keeps you awake at night?
See avoiding love, above.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
Trying to make sure that my cousin Nic is not the next target of a certain killer.
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
I am perfectly aware that, in the main, I live a good life. I love my work. I love my friends. I love love love my cousin Nic and spend a great deal of time giving her hugs and telling her, “Everything is going to be all right.” But I can’t help sometimes wishing somebody would do the same for me.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
See catching a killer and avoiding love, above. That being said, with the help of Mrs. Christie (whoever and whatever she is), I’m getting there…
Book conservator Tory Van Dyne and a woman claiming to be Agatha Christie on holiday from the Great Beyond join forces to catch a killer in this spirited mystery from Amanda Chapman.
Tory Van Dyne is the most down-to-earth member of a decidedly eccentric old-money New York family. For one thing, as book conservator at Manhattan’s Mystery Guild Library, she actually has a job. Plus, she’s left up-town society behind for a quiet life downtown. So she’s not thrilled when she discovers a woman in the library’s Christie Room who calmly introduces herself as Agatha Christie, politely requests a cocktail, and announces she’s there to help solve a murder— that has not yet happened.
But as soon as Tory determines that this is just a fairly nutty Christie fangirl, her socialite/actress cousin Nicola gets caught up in the suspicious death of her less-than-lovable talent agent. Nic, as always, looks to Tory for help. Tory, in turn, looks to Mrs. Christie. The woman, whoever or whatever she is, clearly knows her stuff when it comes to crime.
Aided by an unlikely band of fellow sleuths —including a snarky librarian, an eleven-year-old computer whiz, and an NYPD detective with terrible taste in suits—Tory and the woman claiming to be her very much deceased literary idol begin to unravel the twists and turns of a murderer’s devious mind. Because, in the immortal words of Miss Jane Marple, “murder is never simple.”
Mystery Amateur Sleuth | Mystery Cozy [Berkley, On Sale: August 26, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593818817 / eISBN: 9780593818831]
Amanda Chapman is a lifelong mystery lover and wordsmith. An enthusiastic fan of traditional mysteries and of New York City, she found herself wondering, “What if someone recreated Agatha Christie’s personal library—even to the furnishings and architecture—in New York City? What would happen in that space?” And thus MRS. CHRISTIE AT THE MYSTERY GUILD LIBRARY—the first in a new series—was born.
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