Thomas Wolfe famously said, “You can’t go home again.” Except, you can. All it took was Peg Cochran’s historical mystery series, Murder, She Reported.
Like the heroine in a time travel novel, I was whisked back to Manhattan and fell in love with the city all over again. I spent all my summers in Manhattan and part of my early twenties. Gritty summer days strolling past the antique shops on Lexington, stopping for coffee at Chock Ful O’ Nuts, rushing to my evening acting classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Meeting friends at the clock in Grand Central Station, meandering through the leafy paths in Central Park.
The city was a treasure chest; the possibilities were endless. I can still taste the delicate cucumber sandwiches at Schraffts, the blinis at The Russian Tea Room and the frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity.
It takes a special talent to recreate a time and place (1930s Manhattan) and Peg Cochran has it. I was so happy to have the chance to interview her and find out more about this engaging series.
The Murder She Reported series picks up the Manhattan vibe and I wonder how you came to choose that terrific setting.
Both my parents grew up in NYC and were in their teens during the late 1930s. I loved hearing their stories about that time period and their life in the city. My grandparents also came to New York as immigrants and told stories about their experiences. I’d lived in NYC myself for ten years and worked there for another twenty and I loved the city and its history.
Are there any elements that make Manhattan the ideal spot for a mystery series?
I think you could set a mystery anywhere but Manhattan, with its contrasting mixture of upper and lower classes, varied immigrant population and rich and poor neighborhoods lent itself to numerous conflicts and tensions that were ripe for a mystery.
How did you create the character of Elizabeth Adams? She's a complex character, a skilled reporter, a talented amateur sleuth and above all, resilient. You make it clear that she's found her footing in a tough, competitive field. At a time when most women didn't enter the world of work.
Elizabeth evolved as I worked on plotting the first book in the series. I think her bout with polio gave her the resilience to decide she wanted more than the life other girls of the time were pursuing. She enjoyed partying and nice restaurants as much as the next girl but she knew that wouldn’t be enough. She fell in love with photography and had the determination to go after a career in it. She was also lucky to find a champion in Ralph Kaminsky, albeit a curmudgeonly one. I also wanted her to be aware of how fortunate she was to be able to afford to pursue her passion.
You've written several cozy series, what drew you to 1930s New York?
When I’m writing a book, part of the pleasure is immersing myself in the setting and what better place to lose yourself than New York? While a lot of authors choose to write about the “roaring 20s” I found the 1930s more interesting. The live-and-let-live attitude of the 20s had changed and many things that had been acceptable suddenly weren’t any longer. The country was beginning to pull out of the depression and war was hovering on the horizon. New York was such a mixture of glitz and glamor on the one hand, and poverty and corruption on the other. There was so much fodder for interesting stories.
What is the most challenging thing about creating historical fiction?
I’d say the research is one of the most challenging but also the most rewarding. I spent hours tracking down a floor plan of the Waldorf Hotel in order to find out where the ladies room was situated on the ballroom floor. I was determined to keep things as accurate as I possibly could. I tried to capture the feeling of the time period - how people dressed, how they talked, what they ate, their mindset. And I have to admit I enjoyed looking at photographs from the time period –the advertisements, the fashion spreads in magazines, especially the gowns and the hats!
Does Elizabeth's character change in the course of the series?
I think Elizabeth becomes more sensitive to and appreciative of her privilege as she’s exposed to the other side of life. She also learns from the new worlds she’s seeing for the first time. And I think her confidence in her role at the newspaper grows as well as her confidence in the decision she’s made to forge a different life for herself.
Where can readers catch up with you? Any book signings or conferences planned? Plans for a new series?
I don’t have any plans for conferences or book signings at the moment. Right now, I am working on the 11th book in my Cranberry Cove series and I have finished the draft of a manuscript for a potential new series.
Looking forward to the new Cranberry Cove release. Thanks so much for joining us.
Peg grew up in a New Jersey suburb about 25 miles outside of New York City. After college, she moved to the City where she managed an art gallery owned by the son of the artist Henri Matisse. When her first daughter, Francesca, arrived, the new family moved back to the New Jersey suburbs where her second daughter, Annabelle, was born. After her husband died, Peg remarried and her new husband took a job in Grand Rapids, MI where they now live (on exile from NJ, she likes to joke). Peg managed to segue from the art world to marketing and is now the manager of marketing communications for a company that provides services to seniors. Her greatest love though has always been writing-particularly mysteries! She has two cozy mystery series debuting from Berkley Prime Crime-the Gourmet De-Lite series set in Connecticut and featuring Gigi Fitzgerald who provides gourmet diet meals to a select group of clients, and the Sweet Nothings Vintage Lingerie series, written as Meg London, set in Paris, TN with Emma Taylor who finds murder and mayhem in this quiet country town. As for pets - she has a schizophrenic cat (really) named Frazzle and a Westhighland White Terrier, Reggie, who is desperately in need of losing a few pounds. But you know what they say: If your dog is overweight, it means YOU aren't getting enough exercise! When she's not writing, Peg can usually be found cooking, which she loves. When asked to bring a dish to a potluck she invariably opts to bring dessert - partly because she loves making sweet dishes and partly because she and her husband always manage to be late so there's no point in putting them in charge of the appetizer
Mary Kennedy is a licensed psychologist and the author of the Talk Radio Mysteries and the Dream Club Mysteries. She’s written nearly fifty novels and has four million copies in print. Her first thirty-five books were young adult novels published by Scholastic nationwide and in several countries. She lives in the northeast with an eccentric cat. She’s tried unsuccessfully to psychoanalyze him but she remains optimistic.
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