Someone once asked me how I began plotting a story and what my starting point was. My answer was that it was different for every book. In the case of A LADY’S GUIDE TO MISCHIEF AND MURDER, it started with a country house party and how a murderer could really put a damper on all the fun activities. For A DAUGHTER’S GUIDE TO MOTHERS AND MURDER it started with a horrible murder that fascinated me, but was much too horrible for my books. But what if the horrible murder is what everyone thought happened, but everyone was wrong? Thus, Frances and George investigated their first cold case.
But sometimes, it’s about finding the body. For A CHRISTMAS GUIDE TO FAMILY AND MURDER I planned to use an image I had I mind for some time of George and Frances finding a body buried in a snowbank. I imagined them out in the woods looking for mistletoe or a yule log and finding a body instead.
But you know what they say about plans.
I ran into a stumbling block immediately when I came up against reality in the form of the weather. December of 1900, the month in which the story occurs, was documented as one of the mildest late 19thor early 20th century Decembers on record. The Guardian newspaper wrote that “Christmas has come to us almost in the garb of summer.” There were no widespread snowfalls and nowhere was the snow deep enough to bury a body. I really didn’t want to let go of the image of a body in the snowbank, but short of sending them to another country, what was I supposed to do?
What I did was to continue reading about the weather. Generally, historical research is fascinating, but sometimes you find yourself reading weather reports. Fascinating or not, it was definitely helpful because while there was little to no snow that month, there was precipitation in abundance. A gale, fierce enough to be called The Great Storm, blasted Britain, causing severe flooding, blocked roads, downed telephone wires, and at least two shipwrecks. The coasts were hit the worst. This actually happened the week after Christmas, but I was willing to take artistic license and move the storm up a week.
The question was, how to work with this? First, I’d have to move my characters closer to the coast. Perhaps lured away from London with the promise of snow. And with that promise, maybe the killer hoped the body would be covered and not found for days or longer. The village police and the men of the household would have been called upon to clear the roads, help reset the telephone lines, and rescue any flood victims. Once the body is found, it’s up to the ladies of the family, and maybe even the children, to solve this Christmas crime.
Dianne Freeman is the author of the USA Today bestselling Countess of Harleigh Mystery series. She is an Agatha Award and Lefty Award finalist, as well as a nominee for the prestigious Mary Higgins Clark Award from Mystery Writers of America. She spent thirty years working in corporate accounting and finance and now writes full-time. Born and raised in Michigan, she and her husband now live the endless summer, splitting their time between Michigan and Arizona.
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