Becky Masterman describes Brigid Quinn, the 59-year old protagonist of her debut novel, Rage Against the Dying, as a cross between Bruce Willis and Sarah Jessica Parker. It turns out people are interested in female characters over the age of 30, in spite of what one agent to whom Becky Masterman initially sent… Read more »
Posts By: Nancie Clare
Next up: Becky Masterman
Her Rage Against the Dying has received nominations for “Best First Mystery” awards from the genre’s top organizations. Talk about last laughs: when Ms. Masterman first submitted her novel (with the then title One Tough Broad) an agent rejected it, saying “no one was interested in a woman who’s over 30.” Well, plenty of people… Read more »
Episode 13: Julia Keller
Later next month, just in time for a good Labor Day read, Summer of the Dead—the third in Julia Keller’s series about Raythune County, West Virginia prosecuting attorney Bell Elkins—will be released. If you haven’t read Ms. Keller’s previous two works A Killing in the Hills and Bitter River, I suggest you start reading… Read more »
Almost Heaven: Bell Elkins, Julia Keller’s West Virginia Prosecutor, Is Back
Coming early next week, SoM talks to Pulitzer Prize winning writer Julia Keller about Summer of the Dead, the third book in her series about the Raythune County prosecutor, Belfa Elkins. Photo of Julia Keller ©Mike Zajakowski
The Pause that Refreshes
Speaking of Mysteries is taking a short break to catch up on its reading and to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday. In the next few weeks we plan to have interviews with Pulitzer Prize winning author Julia Keller (A Killing in the Hills, Bitter River) to talk about Summer of the Dead, the third… Read more »
Episode 12: Paul Doiron
Toto, I don’t think we’re in Cabot Cove anymore. For the most part, popular culture associates the intersection of mysteries and the state of Maine with Murder She Wrote. You know, the circa ‘80s episodic TV series that featured the quite brilliant Angela Lansbury as a bicycle-riding, Miss Marple-esque mystery writer in a fictional Maine… Read more »
Paul Doiron: Our Maine Man
Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch is back in The Bone Orchard, the next installment in the series. Former editor in chief of Down East: The Magazine of Maine and registered Maine guide specializing in fly fishing (who has also been nominated for Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and Thriller Award, as well as winner of… Read more »
Episode 11: Megan Abbott
“The suburbs are filled with secrets.” –Megan Abbott Read any of Megan Abbott’s last three books and you’ll find there is no darker heart than that of a teenage girl. I think she’s invented a genre: teenage girl suburban noir. Reading one of Megan’s novels is a little like looking at the American… Read more »
Episode 10: Alan Furst
The author of Midnight in Europe talks to SoM about everything from good and evil to romantics and two-lane blacktop roads in France. Book tour for Midnight in Europe photo: © Rainer Hosch
Our Diagnosis for the Summer? Megan Abbott’s “The Fever”
Stay tuned to Speaking of Mysteries on Monday June 16 for an interview with Megan Abbott the day before The Fever is released. Also on the interview agenda: news on the film adaptation of Dare Me and being writer in residence at Ole Miss. Photo © Drew Reilly