Miranda James | An Antebellum Kind of Murder

I’m not entirely certain where my fascination with old houses – mansions, really
– began. The house I grew up in was built for my parents and me, and I was about
eighteen months old when we moved into it. Our house was small: two bedrooms,
one bathroom, kitchen, den, and living room with an attached carport. Nothing
antebellum or mansion-like about it, but I loved growing up there.

Most likely, the fascination started with Nancy Drew – the same way my love of
mysteries did. Nancy’s adventures thrilled me, and several of them take place in
old houses, some of them antebellum mansions. The Hidden Staircase, The Sign of
the Twisted Candles, and The Secret in the Old Attic feature settings that fit
the bill. (Three of my favorite books in the series, by the way!) Every old
dwelling has secrets to tell, and Nancy always managed to winkle them out.

I imagined what it would be like to live in a house that had multiple stories,
features like turrets or secret rooms or hidden passages, and a long connection
to the past. (I have always wanted a turret of my own but sadly I don’t think
I’ll ever have one.)

Nancy got me started and later, when I discovered romantic suspense novels, many
of those were set in mysterious castles or Elizabethan manors or Victorian
mansions. I read as many as I could find, and one of my all-time favorites,
Barbara Michaels (aka Elizabeth Peters) wrote some wonderful books in which the
houses were as important as the human characters in the story.

When I created the Ducote Sisters, who first appeared in OUT OF CIRCULATION, the fourth Cat in the Stacks book, I made them owners of an antebellum mansion, Riverhill. An important scene in the book takes place at Riverhill, and I loved writing it. When the time came for the sisters to appear in their own series, I decided that each book would involve a grand old mansion of some sort. That holds true with FIXING TO DIE, the fourth book in the series. This time the setting is a house named Cliffwood, situated in Natchez, Mississippi – known as one of the most haunted towns in America.

Cliffwood is reputed to be haunted, like other antebellum mansions in Natchez,
but Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce think human hands are at work making mischief.
Will they be able to uncover the truth and unmask the villain? Or will they end
up believing in ghosts before it’s all over?