Author R&R with Emily Hanlon

Emily Hanlon was raised in Texas, educated in Boston, and now lives in New York. She worked as a personal injury litigator for many years, first as a plaintiff’s attorney presenting the stories of injured clients, then changing sides and telling the stories of clients accused of causing those injuries. Finally ending up as an arbitrator, she publishes over fifty decisions a year that seek to unravel the truth behind those always contradictory versions. A life of listening to witnesses and sifting through facts has prepared her well for creating the complex entanglements of murder mysteries. Having converted late in life after watching the joy that faith brought to her husband and three sons, she, like her sleuths in the Martha and Marya mysteries, is a eucharistic minister, active in the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and a card-carrying Church Lady. Through her books, Emily shares her love of the Church and of a good “whodunit.” 

The Martha and Marya mystery series began with Who Am I to Judge in 2023 and A Cloud of Witnesses in 2024, with the latest release this fall, The Wagers of Sin. When an elderly billionaire businesswoman drops dead during her wedding to a much younger golden boy at the very moment of the “I dos,” her improbable bridesmaid, Marya Cook—the lavender-clad, Bible-quoting octogenarian sleuth known to the locals as the Purple Pest—cries, “Murder.” Marya’s sensible sidekick, Uber driver Martha Collins, sees her to-do list balloon as she juggles her sleuthing with police politics, money problems, and maybe…just maybe…romance.

Join Martha and Marya on a cruise to the Greek Isles and back to Pequot Bays, New York, waterfront home to the wealthy and those who serve them. They meet the rich victim’s hopeful heirs, shady servants, and of course, the frustrated fiancé, as Marya combines her eye for “the little things” with her own peculiar logic to sift through the multitude of murderous motives, means, and opportunities in search of the killer—gambling against the odds at high-stakes roulette…and murder. 

Emily Hanlon stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching her books:

One of the reasons I set my books in contemporary time is that I didn't want to do the extensive research necessary for historical fiction. I have had to do considerable research in my career as a lawyer, and I wanted the freedom to write fiction, not research facts. 

 But of course, some research is necessary. My mysteries start with the murder. How it is done informs everything else—who would die that way, and who would kill that way.  So, the most important research for me is the manner in which the murder is committed. Fortunately, I know an expert I can consult--my primary care doctor. He's come up with some unique ideas on how to kill someone at my annual examinations or in the emails I pepper him with while I am writing my books. He's been so influential that he has become a character in my most recent book. In the first two books, Marya Cook, my octogenarian sleuth known around town as the Purple Pest, would consult her "Dear Dr. Stokes," and inform the reader what he had told her about, say, a poison or the side effects of a medication. But for my third book, the real Dr. Stokes had come up with such a unique and effective method of murder, that I had the doctor, himself, make an appearance in the book to explain the deadly details directly to the reader. 

Early on, an editor (not my current editor/publisher) advised me to add a dog or a recipe to my story—that readers like that kind of thing.  I like dogs better than cooking, but I haven't had a dog since I was 12, so that required some research. Rather than undertaking comprehensive research about dog habits and behaviors, I contacted a dear friend who is a dog person. I would ask her basic questions like what would a dog do when they meet someone they don't like—say a murderer? Or what would a dog do if they came upon a pile of rocks with a dead body under it? And she was able to answer my questions. She owned a chocolate Lab named Quincy, and now, my assistant sleuth Martha Collins owns a chocolate Lab named Quincy. 

I also use the internet—a lot. I cannot imagine how authors wrote before computers. I even use it for little things. I recently learned that I have aphantasia—I can't visualize objects in my mind's eye like most people do. So, for example, if I want to describe a house in an expensive seaside community but can't picture what a typical rich person's house on the water would look like, I pull up a picture from the internet. 

 

You can learn more about Emily Hanlon via her website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram. The Wagers of Sin is now available via Chrism Press and all major bookstores.