Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Writing Historical Mystery




What’s it like to set a mystery series in 1930s England?

Interesting.  Frustrating.  Wonderful.

After decades of reading Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple), Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey) and the unjustly forgotten and underrated Margery Allingham (Albert Campion), I decided to try my hand at writing something similar.  Besides that, my first three books were medieval, very serious, very lush and romantic, and I wanted to do something a bit lighter and more fun.

The 1920s and ’30s were the golden age of crime fiction and are still a great time to set a story.  There had just been a world war and another was looming black on the horizon.  Industry was becoming more and more mechanized.  Women were increasingly taking their place in business and in politics.  Everything was changing, change causes conflict and conflict is essential to a great story.  Jackpot!


Naturally, some of the most appealing aspects of writing about this era are the clothing, the modes of transportation and the social conventions.  These things are the “jewelry” of the historical novel.  I love to watch Masterpiece Mystery and “ooh” and “ah” over the men in eveningwear, the women in glorious formal gowns, the most astonishing hats ever, the grand touring cars, and the manor houses teeming with servants and seething with history and mystery.  I love that certain classes of people dressed for dinner every single night and family honor was something they were willing to die – or kill – for.


Of course, what draws a reader into the story world is the judicious use of accurate historical detail (just as the lack of same will quickly and firmly pull him out).  Thanks to the internet, it has become easier to give a novel those touches of authenticity that make the story seem real.
In researching my new series, The Drew Farthering Mysteries, I’ve found wonderful websites that detail such things as the hierarchy of domestic servants, the proper attire for any 1932 social function, and even the kinds of golf clubs and balls that would have been used.  I’ve been able to see how specific streets are laid out and where certain landmarks are, all without leaving my office.  And since 1932 is fixed in time, I don’t have to worry about the technology in my story becoming outmoded or emerging world events affecting my plot.



I do have to make sure I get all the details right.  My series is set mostly in Drew’s family manor, Farthering Place, and in the fictional English village of Farthering St. John.  Since I wanted Drew and his friends to be able to visit real places, I set them down in a spot about 70 miles southwest of London and five miles south of Winchester.  I created a fictional bank in a neighboring real town, but I made sure to put it in a real street that would have been likely to have such an institution.  As long as the places I create are described consistently and are believable in the real world, readers will accept them as real in the story world.



Fortunately for my research, talking pictures were really coming into their own in the early ’30s, and they afford one of the best ways to see and feel and absorb the era.  Keeping in mind that they were entertainment and, as such, not always a perfect reflection of real life, they’re a wealth of information about social customs as well as details about food, clothing, slang, work, play and just about anything else.  Just remember to add color to your descriptions.  In much the same way, books written in that time period, books that portray “modern” life, are also invaluable.  Reading Christie, Sayers and Allingham and a host of others has  helped give me a sense of what does and doesn’t belong in Drew Farthering’s 1932 world.

Once I know that, I can focus on helping Drew and his American sweetheart, Madeline, figure out what to do about the dead body in the greenhouse.

Jackpot!


What makes a historical novel really capture the period?  What will pull you out of a period piece the quickest?  What is your favorite historical?  Your favorite mystery?




DeAnna Julie Dodson has always been an avid reader and a lover of storytelling, whether on the page, the screen or the stage. This, along with her keen interest in history and her Christian faith, shows in her tales of love, forgiveness and triumph over adversity. She is the author of In Honor Bound, By Love Redeemed and To Grace Surrendered, a trilogy of medieval romances, as well as Letters in the Attic, The Key in the Attic, The Diary in the Attic and, coming up, The Legacy in the Attic, contemporary mysteries. Her new series of Drew Farthering Mysteries will debut in the Summer of 2013 with Rules of Murder from Bethany House.  A fifth-generation Texan, she makes her home north of Dallas with three spoiled cats.

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for asking! I am currently quite attached to two authors (or should I say three?).

    Jacqueline Winspear and Charles Todd.
    Both write mysteries set in the 1910s to 1930s, in the UK.

    Am I your perfect audience or what?
    I expect I'll move on to Rhys Bowen. The problem is I am limited to what I can get in audiobook from the library system and the occasional cheapie special on Kindle.



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  2. Yes, Deb! Woot!

    And, yes, those authors and Dolores Gordon-Smith are on my TBR list.

    I love audio books, too, because I can listen and sew. Unfortunately, our tiny little public library doesn't have many of them, and very few that interest me.

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  3. Hmmm... good questions. For me I think the deeper the POV of the main characters the easier it is to get into any time period.

    Those glaring factual errors will yank me out of a piece in a heartbeat... like the one that had a copperhead snake in the mountains of Colorado. Sigh.

    I don't know that I have a favorite mystery author... I don't think I read enough of them (romantic suspense isn't quite the same, is it?).

    As for favorite historical, yeah... you all know that answer, so I won't even repeat it. :)

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  4. No, I don't think romantic suspense is quite the same as mystery, though they do have some similarities.

    Yes, the glaring factual errors will really spoil a story for me, too.

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  5. Nice pot, DeAnna. I can't wait for Drew's debut this summer!

    I devoured Agatha Christies, and I love a good mystery. Now I need to write down those authors you and Deb mentioned.

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  6. Thanks, Susie!

    I especially recommend Allingham's Albert Campion books (though he's very minor in the rather meh "Crime at Black Dudley"). Her plots are like the gears of a fine watch.

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  7. I've watched the Campion series but it didn't grab me like some of them. Still... nobody does mystery like the British!

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  8. Awww, you didn't love Campion? I did. Lug? Really?

    :D

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  9. i love mystery books but haven't immersed myself with the "classics" as much as i'd like (so many books, so little time...)

    i like the time period you're talking about, but it is a lifestyle that is beyond my imagining - well, except for the bottom of the food chain servants. i might relate to them *heh*

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  10. Well, that's the nice thing about books. We can at least rub elbows with the rich and famous. ;)

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  11. Ugh, I meant nice POST not nice POT. What sort of blog are we running here?

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  12. My favourite mystery author at the moment is Maureen Jennings, author of the Murdoch Mysteries series.

    And soon I hope to add you to the list, as soon as I get my hands on your book(s).

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  13. Oh, and I love the images you used here. :)

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