I'll use this blog to discuss the journey of my writing process, connect with those who share my passion for reading, and have a little fun along the way.
A few weeks ago I attended Malice Domestic 37—a gathering of authors, readers, and lovers of stories of mystery and suspense. My daughter and I have April birthdays and this is the second year in a row that we’ve met at Malice to celebrate our birthdays together.
While my completed novel is NOT a mystery per se, there is an air of mystery surrounding the strange and sudden disappearance of an enslaved woman that my protagonist, Aubrey, vows to solve. Set in Pre-Revolutionary War times in coastal North Carolina, my work is best described as a work of historical fiction.
I was therefore intrigued by the number of panels devoted to historical research at MD37 as well as the number of authors and books that incorporated history and historical figures into their novels. One such panel, Making History: Our Agatha Best Historical Fiction Nominees, featured the following authors and historical moments:
• Mally Becker, whose book, The Paris Mistress, is a Revolutionary War mystery set in Paris during Benjamin Franklin’s tenure there as ambassador.
• Mariah Fredericks writes mysteries set in 1910 in New York. She talked about her latest book, The Wharton Plot, in which Edith Wharton investigates the murder of a fellow author.
• Susan Elia MacNeal who writes the Maggie Hope Series of novels set during World War II, mainly in London. She talked about the newest in the series, The Last Hope.
• John Copenhaver is the author of Hall of Mirriors, which is set in the 1950s, the age of Joseph McCarthy and the Lavender Scare.
• Amanda Flower won the 2025 Agatha Award for her historical mystery, To Slip the Bonds of Earth, part of a series of mysteries with the sister of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Katharine, as her protagonist.
Other panels with an historical focus were Including Real Characters and Events into Historical Mysteries; Though She Be Little, She is Fierce: Women in Historical Mysteries; Historical Research: How Much is Too Much?; and Murder in Wartime: WWII & Post-War Mysteries.
The Murder in Wartime panel was led by Stephen Eoannou, a Buffalo, NY native whose book, After Pearl, is set in 1942 and has a down-on-his-luck has-been detective, Nicky the Weasel, solving a mystery involving art theft. As soon as the name Nicky the Weasel was mentioned, I knew I had to run to the book store to purchase the book! It was a fun read, and I’m looking forward to more sleuthing adventures from Nicky.
With so much emphasis on historical settings, facts, and characters (fictional and real), it gives me hope for my own work as I continue the querying process. One agent, although quick to say that my book was “not the right fit” for her, did commend me on my historicity having found a little known piece of history to use as the inciting incident for my story.
