RIP, Alan Bradley

The CBC reported that bestselling author Alan Bradley, author of the Flavia de Luce mystery series, has died at the age of 87 on the Isle of Man. The bestselling author was known for his vivid storytelling that captivated readers — and his later-in-life blockbuster success that inspired many.

Bradley, born in Toronto in 1938, worked as a television and radio engineer before he was offered a position at University of Saskatchewan and taught there for 25 years, becoming the Director of Television Engineering. In 1994, he retired and moved to Kelowna, B.C., with his wife, Shirley. Bradley then began writing full-time, publishing short stories for children and adults, the memoir, The Shoebox Bible, and the nonfiction book, Ms. Holmes of Baker Street, written with William A.S. Sarjeant, theorizing that Sherlock Holmes was a woman.

His literary career really took off in his late 60s, when an 11-year-old girl named Flavia de Luce first appeared on the page. Precocious and smart, Flavia was a minor character in a manuscript that captivated Bradley’s wife. Shirley encouraged him to develop Flavia further and she ultimately became the protagonist of the bestselling mystery series bearing her name. 

The first novel in the Flavia de Luce series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, was a hit right off the gate, winning several notable crime and mystery awards: the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award, the Dilys Winn Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Agatha Award, the Macavity Award, and the Barry Award.  There are now 11 books in the series, which has sold over six million copies and has been translated to 36 languages.

But when asked about his biggest accomplishment, Bradley said he was most honored by the impact he had on the lives of readers who were inspired by Flavia. As he told The Next Chapter in a 2024 interview, “I’ve just been absolutely flattened by letters and emails from girls of Flavia’s age who have said that they’ve decided to go into science...Now that the first book has been out for 16 years, I’m beginning to hear from girls who graduated, who are now very advanced in science. I think that’s a wonderful achievement, inspiring young people to go into the sciences.”

Author R&R with Lynn Slaughter

Lynn Slaughter is addicted to the arts, chocolate, and her husband’s cooking. After a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator, she returned to school to earn her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her novels have received numerous accolades, including a Moonbeam Silver Medal, two Agatha nominations, and a Silver Falchion Award. Lynn is excited about the recent release of her debut middle grade novel, an identity-swapping fantasy, The Big Switch: Varney and Cedric, as well as the release of Death in the End Zone, the sequel to Missed Cue.

In Death in the End Zone, homicide detective Caitlin O’Connor is faced with another puzzling case: the murder of two star football players whose bodies are discovered in a compromising position in the end zone of their high school’s football field. While Caitlin identifies several suspects who might have had reasons to want to harm the boys, no clearcut evidence points to the culprit. Meantime, Caitlin deals with her partner’s alcoholism at work, continuing fears of commitment in a new relationship at home, and her conflicted feelings about her widowed mother’s new relationship—all while worrying that she may get pulled off the case if she doesn’t figure out who killed the boys left in the end zone.

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

The Internet: An Amazing Resource for Writers

My latest release, Death in the End Zone, is set in New Haven, Connecticut. Since I grew up in Connecticut, I’m familiar with the city and have been there many times. But in writing a novel, it’s the little things, the specific details, that bring a setting, the characters, and key events to life. For this, I’ve found the internet to be an invaluable resource.

For example, Death in the End Zone centers around the investigation of the murder of two star football players whose bodies are discovered in the end zone of their high school’s football field. My protagonist, Caitlin O’Connor, returns to the scene of the crime and visits a practice with her partner. Since I know zilch about what goes on in a football practice, I turned to the internet. Would you believe that there are YouTube instructional videos on how to run efficient practices and what drills and exercises to use? That’s how I knew Caitlin would observe players doing strength and conditioning exercises like Monkey Rolls and the Bear Crawl.

To figure out where characters live and what their houses are like, real estate listings which often include photos of both the interior and exteriors of homes, as well as neighborhood descriptions, are incredibly helpful. For example, despite its liberal reputation, New Haven’s neighborhoods remain mostly segregated, which is how I learned that the Dixwell neighborhood was a popular one for middle class folks of color like the family of Elijah Williams, one of the young homicide victims. Reading about New Haven’s neighborhoods and crime hot spots is also how I figured out where the prostitutes and drug dealers Caitlin interviews might be hanging out.

I love researching where characters might go out to eat and what they’d eat, and restaurant websites are a goldmine. Many not only include their menus but photos of their interiors. I enjoyed sending my detective and her boyfriend to a romantic dinner at Tre Scalini’s, and having Caitlin make frequent runs to Zoi’s, a popular deli in the city. And learning about kid-friendly places is also how I decided that Caitlin would take her boyfriend’s young son Jack to Shake Shack for dinner.

One of the young men murdered had been the victim of an adult sexual abuser. Having worked with a number of young people who’ve been victimized by predators and having done a great deal of research for my earlier nonfiction book, Teen Rape, I was familiar with this  subject. But I wanted my character to have written about the pain he felt from being abused. I discovered poems and personal experience pieces posted on the internet by survivors that were agonizing to read but incredibly helpful.

When Caitlin’s mother’s boyfriend Peter is shot, I wanted him to be critically wounded but not fatally. This led me to extensive research on gunshot wounds, which is how Peter ended up with a punctured lung and a great deal of internal bleeding, but a decent chance of recovery after surgery.

Forensic investigators at the football field found evidence of wheelchair tracks, so Caitlin gets the idea that perhaps the killer rented a wheelchair to transport his victims to the end zone. Amazingly, I was able to find names and locations of pharmacies in the New Haven area that offer wheelchair rentals. When Caitlin discovers that the pharmacist at Switzer’s has records of renting a wheelchair to her key suspect and can identify him, she knows she is close to cracking the case.

I could go on and on, but I think it’s clear that I found my internet research a huge help. I admit that I love research, and it’s easy to get lost in the weeds and spend hours and hours checking into things that I don’t absolutely need to know for my story. But still, I know my novels benefit from all I’ve learned. Besides, exploring is endlessly fun!   

You can learn more about Lynn Slaughter and her writing via her website and follow her on Facebook and Goodreads.  Death in the End Zone is now available via all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Russell Wate

Russell lives in the UK, with his wife of 43 years Deborah, and their pride and joy are their eight grandchildren. He spent over thirty years as a police officer. Most of those years as a detective and most of those years as a senior homicide detective. He is best known internationally for his work on the murder of two 10 year old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. He is also well known for his work on developing in the UK and across the world, the police and the multi-agency response to the investigation of child deaths. He received an honor from the late Queen Elizabeth II for his work as a detective. He is academically a criminologist and his doctorate thesis was ‘Investigating child deaths the balanced approach between sensitivity and the investigative mindset.’ Today all of his professional work revolves around the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults, carrying out reviews into their tragic deaths.

Russell has written five books in the DCI McFarlane crime mystery series, including his latest, Getting Away with Murder. When celebrated British violinist Arthur Barrington is found dead in his Vienna hotel room, a room he was sharing with his own father, the Austrian police are left scrambling. Was it an accident? Did he somehow take his own life? Or did someone kill him? With Arthur being a British citizen, and not much to go on, the Austrian police call in the help of DCI Sandy McFarlane from the Foreign Office to help them investigate this young man’s death. As Sandy digs deeper, the investigation takes a dark turn, leading him not only through the streets of Vienna but also back to his home turf and the quaint country lanes of Stamford, England. Will he be able to patch together this twisted case? Or will this be the one that finally stumps the infamous detective?

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

Because I was/am a homicide detective writing about the investigation parts of my novels come to me as second nature. However, there are always new techniques being developed that I need to keep on top of and I am luckily able to do this as I still carry out reviews into mostly child but also adult domestic murders. The techniques that are changing most frequently are those digital ones. The speed of change of modern technology and use of AI is a constant challenge for me to make sure, what I really try to achieve in my fiction books, that of authenticity of the investigation. Working with those senior detectives on these murders helps me to do this.

Alfred Lord Tennyson the Victorian poet said, ‘It is better have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ He wrote those words about a close friend of his Arthur Hallam whom he met at Trinity College in Cambridge, England. Arthur died as a 22 year old in a hotel room in Vienna in 1833. I thought 22 year old’s are not meant to die and I wondered what really happened to him. So, I set the story in modern times to ensure I could use all of the investigative techniques that I knew.

Off to Vienna I then went to carry out my research, because for me the feeling of ‘Place,’ also being authentic is so important to me. I don’t in my novels make up imaginary places, they are all the real places and real streets and landmarks. People often comment to me that they went and visited a certain town or place after reading about them in my novels, which please me greatly.

A key piece of research that took longer for this novel was getting my head around the structure of the Austrian Police Service and the law and techniques there, as they are different to those in the UK. Internet research was a key part to this for me but also finding a connection there to test out certain ideas on what could and couldn’t be feasible.

I have been told that all of the research was worthwhile and while the books and this one are an easy and entertaining read, the intricacies of the investigation reviewers find are very interesting. For me this is what makes my novels different to others in the genre as I take the reader for a walk with me in a homicide detectives shoes.

 

You can learn more about Russell Wate via his website and follow him on LInkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. Getting Away with Murder is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Cranthorpe Millner. 

Author R&R with Michael Jacobs

Originally from Long Island, New York, Michael A. Jacobs moved to California to attend Occidental College. Upon graduating from Loyola University School of Law, he was employed as an associate attorney with a Los Angeles civil litigation firm. In 1975, he began his career with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. During his time in the DA’s Office, he spent a total of 25 years working in nearly every vertical trial unit including 13 years in the Homicide Division, which he supervised for three years. After leaving the Office in 2006, he commenced a private civil law practice in Orange County and began work on Trackrs (Task Force Review Aimed at Catching Killers, Rapists, and Serial Offenders). He is presently working on a second nonfiction book about his experience working in our criminal justice system.

His first book, TRACKRS: On the Cold Trail of a Serial Killer is the true account of the modern-day pursuit of a serial killer who terrorized Orange County, California in the late 1970s. The victims were young females living alone in apartments, who were sexually assaulted and brutally murdered. Beginning in October of 1995, Orange County deputy district attorneys Michael Jacobs and Mel Jensen focused on a review of other homicide cases that took place in three cities in Orange County and were strikingly similar. 

There had already been a conviction in one of the cases, with the defendant in state prison but always maintaining his innocence. Jacobs and Jensen doubted he was a serial killer and finally obtained a DNA profile after months of delay caused by the Orange County Sheriff's DNA Laboratory's refusal to process evidence from four of the crime scenes. Based on that updated evidence, a potential new suspect was named—a former United States Marine sergeant convicted in 1980 of the kidnapping and rape of a thirteen-year-old girl. On June 14, 1996, three detectives from the Costa Mesa and Tustin police departments traveled to Avenal State Prison to interview the suspect.

Michael stops by In Reference to Murder today to talk about writing the book:

The primary challenge in writing TRACKRS was to take a case, or, as in this situation, a series of cases, that were very fact intensive and then to write a book having it read like a fiction action thriller, as in creative nonfiction. Easier said than done.

TRACKRS is about six sexual assault murders that occurred in Orange County, California in the late 1970s. The cases were finally resolved and the actual perpetrator caught in 1996. An innocent man had been wrongly convicted of one of the murders in 1981. As a result of the renewed investigation, he was finally freed after serving nearly sixteen years in prison.

As one would expect in most cases about six serial killings, I had a wealth of information to utilize, all of which I deemed necessary. I not only had the contents of my original trial “murder book” but also had the complete jury trial transcript, law enforcement reports from six different agencies, the defendant’s complete Marine Corps records, transcripts of the defendant’s recorded statements, numerous interoffice memorandums and communications with government agencies and laboratories, as well as the new investigation reports done by the Orange County TRACKRS (Task Force Review Aimed at Catching Killers and Serial Offenders) project.

In addition to the documentation of the six cases, I also had a complete record of the defendant’s extensive legal history, the defendant’s complete “C” file from state prison as well as the reports and records from a prior rape and kidnapping (for which he had already been convicted) another rape that could not be charged because of the statute of limitations, and an assault with a deadly weapon on another inmate committed during a previous state prison commitment.

Because of this wealth of documentation and data, there were difficult decisions that needed to be made—especially with verbatim passages from the trial transcript. I found each chapter needed to be edited (I had a terrific editor) and this often involved shortening and sometimes deleting and rewriting entire passages. I still ended up with an over 500-page first draft but found it difficult to cut out anymore. What makes TRACKRS different from other of the true crime genre is its high degree of authenticity and “in the trenches” details which I believed a true crime reader would appreciate.

While searching out and compiling the necessary ingredients for TRACKRS, inevitably I was finding that much of my initial draft was reading too much like the police reports or coroner’s files I was relying upon. This seemed especially true when reading certain passages out loud. I knew that writing a story that read like creative nonfiction would be a challenge. I ended up relying to some extent upon the writings and style of four of my favorite authors.

John Grisham, Joseph Wambaugh, Vincent Bugliosi, and Martin Cruz Smith are writers I admire but never try to emulate. A common denominator of all four? They write “page turners.” That's what I wanted TRACKRS to be, but I knew I couldn’t copy their style of writing. I needed to develop my own. So, instead I observed how they would set a scene, how they would relate important circumstances, and how they would describe key characters in the story.

The only workable remedy for the issue of learning how to write creative nonfiction was rewriting, and a lot of it. I ended up writing 19 drafts of a 520-page manuscript before my editor and I were satisfied that TRACKRS was ready for publication.

Since the case of People vs. Parker was a death penalty case, under California law, relatives of the next of kin to the six victims were allowed to testify during the second stage of the trial: the Penalty Phase. Emotionally, this was the most difficult part of the trial to write about. The victims were all young and attractive females. They had been brutally murdered. Their relatives had a difficult time testifying, sometimes reading from notes, sometimes crying. At times I was certain there weren’t any dry eyes in the courtroom. I remember telling the trial judge before their testimony, “We’re in for two difficult days.” He replied, “I know. I know." Since I was there, from start to finish, writing and reading TRACKRS certainly brought those moments back to me. 

You can learn more about Michael Jacobs via his website and follow him on Facebook and Goodreads. TRACKRS is available via all major booksellers.