Author R&R with Raemi A. Ray

Raemi A. Ray is a Boston-based mystery author who enjoys taking inspiration from current New England events when writing about the region. She has a JD with a background in intellectual property and lives in Massachusetts with her two house demons, Otto and DolphLundgren. When not writing or working her much more boring job, she spends her time traveling, or wishing she were traveling.

A Chain of Pearls, Raemi’s debut mystery and the first in her Martha’s Vineyard Murders series, centers around the mysterious death of a famous journalist and the cover-up that implicates important Martha’s Vineyard residents. When London-based lawyer Kyra Gibson arrives on the idyllic island to settle her estranged father’s affairs, she ends up partnering with world-weary detective, Tarek Collins, as they uncover a web of intrigue and corruption involving a powerful senator, a dubious energy company, and a brutal murder.

Raemi stops into In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the series:

 

Thank you for having me. This is such a cool question and I’m sure everyone approaches it a little differently. I can speak to my personal experience and process, which unsurprisingly starts with college.

I wasn’t particularly studious in college (or before, to be honest). I chose classes where participation and attendance were not a part of the grade. This worked great for about three years until I had to declare a major. I went with the subject I’d already accumulated the most credits in: Medieval European History. Seriously. It wasn’t ever a conscious decision. Most of those classes required some sort of research paper instead of a test. There weren’t any prerequisites or labs, and I liked the stories. The political intrigue, backstabbing, the royal escapades, wars, it was way better than the dry fiction they’d had us reading in British Literature (still cannot stomach Alexander Pope, but adult me does like Chaucer) and, most importantly, I didn’t have to attend lectures. I did have to spend a lot of time in dingy, dusty library basements, though.

This was before Google Books and other private research databases scanned in the collections of academic libraries. I didn’t have the ease of the internet at my fingertips and I had to do research in person. My university’s special collections were stored in these creepy humidity-controlled basements, always with spotty lighting, some with movable stacks on rails that I swear were bespelled to squash snoozing students. In the theology school’s collections (where most of my source material happened to be) I’d have to request what I needed from a bored-out-of-his-mind (read: stoned) freshman, put on these weird gloves, and read through original manuscripts. Fun fact, I had to leave my notebook and pencil in a separate room and walk back and forth. Note-taking became my cardio.

In retrospect, I realize that it’d have been easier just to go to class and take a multiple-choice exam, but I think that experience is where I got my taste for figuring things out on my own.

Nowadays, my research occurs about ninety percent from the comfort of my reading and writing chair, but the other ten percent is going to the places I’m writing about. The Martha’s Vineyard Murders series takes place on a fictional version of the real-life island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. I’ve been traveling there for years and truly love it. When I decided to write a mystery, I knew that the location was half the hurdle. All the greatest mysteries have such an immense yet specific sense of place: Rebecca and Manderley, The Dublin Murder Squad and Ireland, Chandler’s Los Angeles, Sherlock’s London. These books wouldn’t be the same without these settings.  

I conceptualized the Martha’s Vineyard Murders (then titled “My Mystery Book”) in the spring of 2021. The World was still under travel restrictions and I didn’t have the option of traveling to a remote place to study it for my story. (I’d originally wanted to put the book on the isle of Skye.) I knew that to keep it authentic, I had to go with what I knew. Lucky for me, there were a few places conducive to a mystery series that I knew like I knew my own name: Boston and Martha’s Vineyard. Of course having this basis of knowledge, didn’t mean I didn’t have to make frequent trips, draw dozens of maps, stalk Facebook groups, or consume local news articles like I was planning to run for a selectperson seat, but it gave me something to start with and I think that first step is the hardest one.

The first two books in the series, A Chain of Pearls and The Wraith’s Return include quite a bit about boats and sailing. Prior to the MVM series, my knowledge of watercraft was limited to Disney Land’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I had to teach myself the lingo, the parts, how it all works, and quite a bit about marinas and harbors generally. Luckily, I know a few boaters who were happy to chat with me, and of course the internet is a goldmine. Now, I’d probably be considered a sailing expert, which is ironic since I get seasick looking at boats, but I need to understand something thoroughly in order to determine what to include and what information is too niche and can be left off the page.

Another part of writing the MVM series is that there is just so much death. I’m happy to say I don’t have first-hand experience with being murdered, or finding any corpses, so I’ve had to learn quite a bit about human anatomy, and how people actually die from the injuries they sustain. I’m confident I’m on an FBI watch list with what I’ve been researching over the past few years. My search history is a terrifying place, and I tend to go down rabbit holes when I’m learning of unique ways of torturing and killing my characters. Much to my surprise, I find that I often lean on my background in Medieval history. Those guys were no joke when it came to creative (horrible) ways of killing people.

I think the biggest challenge for me with regards to research is learning those innate things people do that I don’t have experience with. These aren’t things that one can look up, but are common behaviors. For example, where do men keep their wallets? Their phones? How does it feel to lift a child? What does it take to host Thanksgiving dinner? Do doctors really carry doctor bags? What does an accountant really do? Thankfully, I have friends who have lived these experiences and they’re kind enough to share with me. Probably, the funniest thing I do, is I have a group text with my male friends, where I can ask “guy questions,” like the wallet thing, how they pack a suitcase (packing cubes and the ‘roll method’ seems to be a winner there), pretty much anything about professional sports. They’re very, very supportive.  

That all said, the result of my research, how I internalize and apply the information I’ve gathered is such a subjective process and I’m sure I’ve made errors. Writing in the mystery genre, I probably have more leeway with creative license and the plots can be a bit more fantastical. Making it just believable enough is what I think my readers will engage with. They can see themselves in the same position as my main characters.

 

You can learn more about Raemi Ray via her website and follow her on Instagram and Facebook. The books in the "Martha’s Vineyard Murders Series" are available now via Tule Publishing and all major booksellers.

Mystery Melange

In the Short Mystery Fiction Society forums, Rob Lopresti posted news via Ira Matetsky of the Wolfe Pack that the Nero Award, presented each year to an author for the best American Mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories, was won by Ariel Lawhon for her novel, The Frozen River. The Black Orchid Novella Award, presented jointly by The Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to celebrate the novella format popularized by Stout, went to T. M. Bradshaw for her novella titled "Double Take." It will be published in the July 2025 issue of AHMM. Honorable mentions for the Black Orchid Novella Award include Peter Hoppock's "Precipice"; Andrew Kass's "Deadline"; Jenny Ramaley's "Workplace Rules for a Fire-Breathing Dragon"; and Ella Rutledge's "Murder at the Y.T.D."

The winners of the UK Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2024 were revealed, with a Readers' Choice and Editors' Choice chosen from the shortlists for the categories of Book of the Year, Best Debut Novel, Best in Translation, Best Indie Novel, Best Crime Show, and Best Author. You can read all the winners here and check out all the titles on the shortlists here.

The six titles on AudioFile’s 2024 Best Mystery & Suspense Audiobooks list feature a new voice for a favorite long-running series as well as thrilling tales full of deception and intrigue. The selected titles include: The Briar Club by Kate Quinn, read by Saskia Maarleveld; The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny, read by Jean Brassard; A Nest of Vipers by Harini Nagendra, read by Soneela Nankani; The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, read by Julia Whelan; Shanghai by Joseph Kanon, read by Jonathan Davis; and You'll Never Find Me by Allison Brennan, read by Hilary Huber.

Alison Flood’s best crime and thrillers of 2024 picks for The Guardian include Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (Viper); Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra (Penguin); Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French (Simon & Schuster); Bonehead by Mo Hayder (Hodder & Stoughton); and We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (Penguin).

And if you're craving more "best of" lists for reading fodder (and gifts!), Jeff Pierce over at The Rap Sheet blog has more from BOLO Books blogger Kristopher Zgorski here, Boston-based critic Steve Donoghue here.

The extended deadline of December 15th is fast approaching for The William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant Program for Unpublished Writers. Interested applicants should submit all documents, including the first three chapters of your work in progress, by the deadline via the following link. The grant includes a $2,500 cash award and a comprehensive registration to Malice Domestic, including two nights' lodging at the convention hotel.

Mystery Readers Journal received so many submissions for the London Mysteries issue, that editor Janet Rudolph has divided it into two issues. She has space for more articles, reviews, and Author Author! essays that focus on Mysteries set in London, with a deadline of January 20, 2025. 

In the Q&A roundup, Suspense Magazine interviewed Charlaine Harris, author of series including the Aurora Teagarden mysteries, the Lily Bard mysteries, and the Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasies; and the magazine also spoke with Emma Kenny, a psychologist, TV presenter, writer and expert media commentator, about her book, The Serial Killer Next Door.

Author R&R with Lyn Squire

 

Lyn Squire was born in Cardiff, South Wales.  During a twenty-five-year career at the World Bank, he published over thirty articles and several books within his area of expertise, and was lead author for World Development Report, 1990, which introduced the metric – a dollar a day – that is still used to measure poverty worldwide. Lyn was also the founding president of the Global Development Network, an organization dedicated to supporting promising scholars from the developing world. He now devotes his time to writing. His debut novel, Immortalised to Death, published by Level Best Books in September 2023, introduced Dunston Burnett, a non-conventional amateur detective. It was a First Place Category Winner in the Mystery and Mayhem Division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards.  Dunston’s adventures continue in Fatally Inferior and The Séance of Murder, the second and third books in The Dunston Burnett Trilogy.  Lyn lives in Virginia with his wife and two dogs.

Dunston Burnett, a Victorian-era middle-aged, retired bookkeeper, is not cut out to be a detective, yet circumstances invariably conspire to place him at the center of singularly complex mysteries. In Fatally Inferior he must contend with the abduction of a member of Charles Darwin’s family, the missing person inexplicably spirited out of a locked-tight country house. A few days later, a ransom demand arrives at Down House, Darwin’s home in Kent, threatening that the hostage will be killed unless Darwin renounces his theory of evolution in The Times.  Meanwhile, a former maid at Down House dies, or so it seems, giving birth in London’s Shoreditch workhouse.  Believing her dead, her baby son is swiftly dispatched to a hell-hole orphanage in Hampshire. These apparently independent events converge in a vile act of vengeance: a hellish torture for the victim; the perfect revenge for the perpetrator. Will Dunston ever be able to expose the heart of this dark, confounding mystery?

Lyn Squire stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing and researching the book:

 

Researching the second book in a mystery series

Is researching the second book in a mystery series easier than researching the first?  To answer this question, I draw on my experience with Fatally Inferior, the second book in The Dunston Burnett Trilogy.  My answer is mixed.  In some areas, the second book requires less work; in others it can be more challenging and more demanding.

My first book, Immortalised to Death, is set in late nineteenth-century England.  For this book, I researched Victorian dress, furniture, architecture, vernacular, patterns of everyday behavior and so on, to provide period-authentic material for scene-setting and character portrayal.  This task is relatively straightforward, since information on most aspects of Victorian life is readily available on the internet.  Nonetheless, the effort takes time that would otherwise be available for writing.  My second book, Fatally Inferior, is also set in the Victorian era.  Much of the background research for book one was, therefore, of immediate use for book two, a huge labor-saving help. 

Another way in which a prior book can significantly reduce the research required for the current book is through characters that appear throughout the series.  For example, Dunston Burnett, my protagonist, is the glue that binds the three-book series together.  A diffident, middle-aged, retired bookkeeper (think of a latter-day Mr Pickwick), he is not cut out to be a detective yet circumstances invariably conspire to place him at the center of singularly complex mysteries.  He is fully described when he first enters the story in Immortalised to Death so his presence in book two did not entail the need for additional research.  While the character evolves throughout the series, the associated extra research was minimal.      

A second book, however, invariably introduces new locations and characters which naturally require fresh research.  For example, Down House, Charles Darwin’s home in Kent, is not mentioned in the first book, but it is the venue for several scenes in Fatally Inferior, and its layout is crucial to the execution of the crime at the center of the book’s plot.  Down House is open to visitors.  The ground floor is set out as in Darwin’s time with the great man’s study furnished exactly as it was when he was writing The Origin of Species.  Given the house’s key role in my story and the likelihood that many readers would be well acquainted with the house, I decided I had to visit it myself to make sure that my description stayed true to the original. 

This may sound like an unusually burdensome research demand.  But the house is only an hour and a half’s journey from Central London, and many authors visit more distant locations that figure prominently in their books.  Moreover, I had undertaken a similar research excursion for my first book.  Book two’s new location did entail extra research, but, I judged, no more than I had expended on book one for the same purpose.  The same point holds for new secondary characters like Charles Darwin himself.  Additional research is called for, but, again, no more than I devoted to the same task for book one.

Conjuring up a storyline for my second book, however, proved a much more challenging task than for the first.  The kernel of the idea for the storyline in Immortalised to Death, my first novel, was crystalized in my mind before I began researching the book in any detail.  This, I suspect, is the case for most authors embarking on their first book.  As a result, research for that book was focused and limited.  It is the exact opposite for the second book.

Immersed in drafting the first, I had not allocated time to conceptualizing what I would write about in the second, so that when I wrapped up book-one, there was nothing on hand for book-two.  Instead of having a sparkling gem ready to propel the new novel, my literary cupboard was bare, and I found myself casting about from scratch for a fresh idea that would prove a worthy follow-up.  This, I imagine, happens to many other authors writing a mystery series.

To find the right storyline for book-two, I expanded my research about events and people in the time and place where I set my stories (Victorian England), hoping that something would spark my imagination.  And eventually something did.  I was reading Janet Browne’s two-volume biography of Charles Darwin (Voyaging and The Power of Place, Princeton University Press, 1995 and 2002 respectively) when two aspects of his life jumped out at me.  I had found an intriguing pair of leads for a new story. 

One arose from the uproar that greeted the publication of The Origin of Species on November 24, 1859.  Darwin was immediately bombarded with scathing reviews in academic journals, blistering editorials in the leading newspapers and crude cartoons in the cheaper broadsheets.  This avalanche of disgust and hatred from believers in God’s creation of man, led me to imagine a more malicious assault on the scientist.  Was this an idea I could use in my new novel?  Indeed, it was.  I explored several possibilities, finally settling on the abduction of a Darwin family member and a threat that the kidnap-victim would die unless Darwin retracted his theory in a letter to The Times. 

The other had to do with the blood relationship between Darwin and his wife, Emma.  They were first cousins; they had a common grandfather in the person of Josiah Wedgewood.  In the nineteenth century, the offspring of marriages between such close relatives were thought to suffer loss of vigor and infertility.  This fear weighed heavily on both husband and wife, and brought to mind an image of a couple desperate for a grandchild only to be cruelly robbed of any hope of a happy old age spent in the blissful company of their children’s children by a vile act of revenge.  I was soon picturing a scene in which Emma Darwin is forced to witness the horrific death of the couple’s only grandchild. 

Charles Darwin makes only a few fleeting appearances in Fatally Inferior, but the furor created by his theory of evolution and the consequences of his marriage to his first cousin, motivate and structure my entire story.  After much effort, considerably more than I expended on the first book, I had the pegs on which to hang my story.

Looking back on my experience with the second book in The Dunston Burnett Trilogy and the amount of research that was required compared with the first book, the key take-away is this: The overall quantity of research and background reading may not change that much but its distribution across activities changes significantly.  In my, probably typical, case, the focus of research shifted dramatically from scene-setting and character portrayal, all adequately covered in writing the first book, to the new and challenging task of conceiving a fresh idea for the second book’s storyline and developing it into a full-blown successor novel. 

 

You can learn more about Lyn Squire and his writing by visiting his website and by following him on Facebook and Goodreads. Fatally Inferior is now available via Level Best Books and can be found in all major booksellers.

Mystery Melange

Winners of the Irish Book Awards were unveiled, including the Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year: A Stranger in the Family by Jane Casey (Hemlock Press). The other finalists in that category include Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh (Headline); Where They Lie by Claire Coughlan (Simon & Schuster); Someone in the Attic by Andrea Mara (Bantam, Transworld); Somebody Knows by Michelle McDonagh (Hachette Books Ireland); and When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips (Bantam, Transworld).

The Saltire Society presented the Scottish Book Awards last week, including the winner for Fiction Book of the Year, which went to What Doesn’t Kill Us by Ajay Close. The novel is a police procedural inspired by the real-life Yorkshire Ripper murders during the late 1970s and early '80s and the subsequent feminist arson campaign that targeted pornography stores. The judges called the novel, "Superb, evocative and enraging, with brilliant characterisation, humour, and a huge sense of tension from the ever-present threat of violence."

Joffe Books announced that the winner of the Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour 2024 is Rupa Mahadevan, for her addictive and atmospheric psychological thriller, The Goddess of Death. She receives a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, a £1,000 cash prize and a £25,000 audiobook deal from Audible for the first book. This is Britain’s biggest crime prize and was established in 2021 to actively seek out writers from communities that are underrepresented in crime fiction and support them in building sustainable careers, while simultaneously discovering brilliant new talent. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Since 2008, the annual CrimeFest conference has brought crime fiction writers and fans together in Bristol, UK, showcasing approximately 150 authors on some 50+ panels, interviews and events over a four day period each year, as well as presenting the CrimeFest Awards and offering an annual bursary for crime fiction authors of color. Sadly, CrimeFest co-hosts Donna Moore and Adrian Muller posted a notice that the next conference, which takes place from May 15th-18th, 2025, will be the final one. Although the statement didn't point to a specific reason per se, the event has been primarily supported by gate proceeds, donations, and volunteers, and run by a small dedicated staff with few corporate supporters aside from Specsavers. With all the good that CrimeFest has done for the crime fiction community, here's hoping some funding entity will step up to keep the conference going.

South Florida Sun Sentinel book critic, Oline Cogdill chose her best mystery book selections for 2024. Her 31 choices are split between general releases, debut novels, and compilations of short mystery and crime fiction. (HT to The Rap Sheet)

The "best" lists keep coming: New York Times thriller critic, Sarah Lyall, picked her list of the top 10 "Best Thrillers of 2024,"while critic Sarah Weinman chose her ten favorite Crime Novels of 2024. Plus, The Guardian's Laura Wilson compiled her own choices for "The best crime and thrillers of 2024."

The largest archive of Raymond Chandler’s unpublished works to come to auction will go under the hammer at Doyle tomorrow, December 6, including first editions, letters, poems, manuscripts, such as an extensive archive of Raymond Chandler's unpublished drafts of fantasy stories, the original typed manuscript for Chandler's only opera, and Chandler's Olivetti Studio 44 Typewriter (the current estimate for that one is $10-20,000, is you happen to have some spare change lying around). The items are from the Jean Vounder-Davis Collection of Raymond Chandler. Vounder-Davis (then Fracasse) was Chandler's personal secretary as well as fiancé and muse.

Writing for The Dial, Julia Webster Ayuso took a look at how forensic linguists are using grammar, syntax, and vocabulary to help crack cold cases.

In the Q&A roundup, novelist GC Brown chatted with Lisa Haselton about his new crime thriller, Sniff: Book 1 of The Sniff, Smoke, Shoot series; Haselton also spoke with mystery author Leonard H. Orr about his new family drama mystery, Entitled; and Catriona McPherson applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Scotzilla, about a wickedly funny cozy about a wedding that becomes a crime scene.

Author R&R with Marlene M. Bell

Marlene M. Bell has never met a sheep she didn’t like. As a personal touch for her readers, they often find these wooly creatures visiting her international romantic mysteries and children’s books as characters or subject matter. Marlene is an accomplished artist and photographer who takes pride in entertaining fans on multiple levels of her creativity. Marlene’s award-winning Annalisse series boasts Best Mystery honors for all installments including these: IP Best Regional Australia/New Zealand, Global Award Best Mystery, and Chanticleer’s International Mystery and Mayhem shortlist for Copper Waters, the fourth mystery in the series.

In Bell's latest mystery, A Hush at Midnight, former celebrity chef Laura Harris, once celebrated for her show-stopping pastries and irresistible desserts, is now making headlines for a far darker reason:  Laura has been accused of murder. How could this petite chef have brutally smothered beloved small-town matriarch and World War II ferry pilot veteran, Hattie Stenburg? Hattie wasn't just a pillar of the community, she was Laura's confidant and mentor. The shocking twist? Hattie’s Will included recent changes, bypassing next-of kin and leaving her entire fortune and historic estate to Laura. As Laura scrambles to clear her name, she uncovers sinister secrets lurking beneath the town’s idyllic surface. The real murderer is always one step ahead, leaving taunting clues and threatening Laura to leave Texas—or face deadly consequences. With time not a luxury, Laura must untangle the web of deceit before the killer makes her the next victim.

Marlene Bell stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the book:

 

Research for novels has become more of a science for me. After four installments to my Annalisse series, a children’s book, and my new release cozy mystery A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT, I quickly found techniques that didn’t work and gravitated more to those that gave me the true results. Fear of a reader calling a foul on misinformation or bad information in my books has kept me awake many nights. Bottom line: Even though my stories are fiction, the sights, sounds, and actual scenery of the places I write about have to be accurate in order for the reader experience to feel real to that person.

My process begins with a complete outline of my manuscript, scene by scene. I envision each character; where they are, what they’re thinking, and how to leave a cliffhanger at the end of the chapter. Backfilling the sensory information once the outline basics are complete.

When I began to write the first Annalisse novel in 2010, I had no clue where the story was going, nor did I care. My objective was to write a romance. A standalone book. That’s it. It wasn’t until my third draft and wandering subplots I couldn’t keep straight, that a talented developmental editor came to the book’s rescue. She quickly saw the issues and mended my ways. Without an outline as a guide, I couldn’t contain the random elements that did nothing but confuse the reader.

I outline using lined 3 x 5 cards, one card per scene. In a separate diary, I list each character by name and add their characteristics to keep them real and unlike other characters in the book. Also listed are their motivations—what they want from the Main in the book. In my mysteries, I also like to drop a Cast of Characters page in front of the first chapter so that the reader can use it as reference in case they forget a player. A Hush at Midnight has fewer characters than in previous books. The more characters, the harder it is for the reader to recall each one should they show up in the beginning and not again until the mid-point. The Cast of Characters idea was taken from the old Pocket crime books from the 1950s. I hear from readers all the time about that page. It’s an overwhelming success!

How do I make my book locations come to life? Perhaps it’s the generation I grew up in, but I’ve found the old-fashioned methods work best for me. In the age of the internet, I see too many people relying on search results from the giant engines that power the information age. Unfortunately, many top result rankings are paid for by the corporations or individuals who are putting out a narrative. One of their choosing and not always the truth. Sites like Wikipedia and the like are places I tend to steer from because the information is a compilation of information and ideas from others.

Because my books are spiked with sensory details, the best place to obtain images for countries I’ve never traveled to are from the photographers and sightseers who have been there. My favorite place to retrieve the visuals and imagine the landscape are through coffee table books published by photographers who have been on the ground. They explain how it feels to be in the space. Most of the books in the Annalisse series travel to places like Greece, Italy, and New Zealand. Without the visuals and descriptions found in expert’s own published works, I can’t imagine my novels having the realistic feel to them. Readers love to be taken away to places they’ve never been. The more details an author can share, the more their readers will return for the next book.

Many of the stories I write about are based on my own personal experiences. I depend upon the experts to guide me through narratives out of my realm of expertise, such as the next project I’m currently outlining. My husband is an expert in the electric field, and I’ll be relying heavily on his experience—to get it right.

 

You can learn more about Marlene Bell via her website, and follow her on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Goodreads. A Hush at Midnight is now available via all major booksellers.