BOOK TITLE: THE BODY IN THE  WARDROBE

AUTHOR: Katherine Hall Page

ON-SALE: April 26, 2016

ISBN: 9780062439505

FORMAT: Hardcover

PRICE: $25.99

BLURB: New novel from beloved mystery author Katherine Hall Page, who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Agatha Award at the 2016 Malice Domestic Convention!

SUMMARY: Minster’s wife, caterer, and part-time sleuth Faith Fairchild pairs up with Sophie Maxwell, last seen in Body in the Birches and now a newlywed living in historic Savannah, Georgia, where Sophie crosses paths with murder. Another delightful entry in the beloved mystery series, complete with delectable recipes.

 Attorney Sophie Maxwell has come to Savannah to be with her new husband, Will. But nothing throws cold water on a hot relationship faster than a dead body. Worse for Sophie, no one believes the body she knows she saw is real. Will is spending an awful lot of time in Atlanta on a case he claims is urgent, and she’s been tasked with house hunting for them with his former sweetheart, who Sophie can’t help but suspect wishes Sophie would return to her Yankee roots!

 Fortunately, Sophie has a good friend in Faith Fairchild. With teenage Amy being bullied by mean girls and husband Tom contemplating a major life change that will affect all the Fairchilds, Faith is eager for distraction in the form of some sleuthing. In between discussions of newlywed agita, surprising Savannah customs and, of course, fabulous low country food, Faith and Sophie will pair up to unmask a killer!

 
What inspired you to become a writer? Tell us about your journey to become an author?

 I don’t know any writers who are not readers—omnivorous readers—and I have been one since childhood. Yet, my first experience was listening to my parents read to me and when I think back, hearing their voices was the first step on this journey.

I did not intend to be a writer, although I did always think it was the best thing anyone could be. I first had a long career as an educator and would not change that for anything. I was finishing a graduation degree when our son was born and intended to go back to my work in education. Then my husband took a sabbatical, and we moved to Lyon, France for over a year. My two-year-old was in morning daycare and I realized I had a gift of time to finally write the book in my head—the kind of mystery novel I liked to read. Traditional ones with a good puzzle, plenty of suspense, believable but complicated plot, well-drawn characters, a sense of place—and a sense of humor to relieve the tension every once in a while.

Agatha Christie was my greatest inspiration, but so were Mary Stewart, Dorothy L. Sayers, Charlotte MacLeod, Patricia Moyes, Robert Barnard, Jane Langton, Virginia Rich and many, many others.

What kind of research did you do for your book?

The research for the Body in the Wardrobe was extremely pleasant as it took me from the harsh New England winters to sunny Savannah when a friend moved there a few years ago. I fell in love with the city and the entire area, so wanted to know more about its history. This kind of research informs a book, but doesn’t always end up in one. It’s great fun finding out about it all, though. And since food seems to play a major role always for my sleuth/minister’s wife/caterer, studying—and eating—Savannah’s cuisine was a particular joy!

What do you find so intriguing about writing mystery novels such as this? Any negatives or hardships in writing this style?

 I read all kinds of fiction and nonfiction—always have—but I must confess to a special fondness for mysteries. Something about trying to guess whodunit, perhaps. My older brother was a Sherlock Holmes fan and I read them early on, so was introduced to one of the best detectives ever.

The challenge in writing mystery fiction involves writing about a crime that has occurred, almost as if it were a news story, and giving the reader all the clues needed; but at the same time strewing those proverbial red herrings, so the culprit is not obvious. It is essentially writing on two parallel tracks. Playing fair is all important. If the murderer turns out to be someone mentioned only in passing that’s a cheat. The reader should be able to say at the end of one of my books that she or he should have guessed whodunit. This is what is so intriguing—and it’s not a hardship— but it is hard!

Are any of the events and/or people based on or inspired by real life?

Charlie, a lovely dog, is the only actual real life individual in this book. Everything else comes from, as Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time, put it-“dictation from my imagination”. I have only written one book, The Body in the Bookcase that drew on my actual life experience. It concerned a daytime home invasion. We were wiped out and yes, the first patrolman on the scene looked at the kitchen door smashed to smithereens and asked, “Was this like this when you left?”

Life, however, is a constant inspiration—real life and our hopes.

Any plans for sequels or other upcoming works that you can mention?

I am currently working on the 24th book in the series, The Body in the Casket. I’m at that lovely beginning stage where I write down thoughts, lists of characters aside from the ones that appear in all the books, timelines, and so forth. And I’m reveling in this particular research! The plot concerns a Broadway musical, specifically the producer. I’m reading biographies, autobiographies, books on stagecraft, and so forth. Since I write a series, early on I alternated the books from Aleford, the small town west of Boston where Faith Fairchild lives to what I call the “someplace else books”. These have been set in France, Norway, the coast of Maine, Manhattan, Vermont, and the current one is in Savannah. The Body in the Casket is an Aleford book and a bit of a traditional country house murder mystery, complete with bad weather and the electricity going out! I’m having a great time with it.

What is the most rewarding and most difficult thing about being a writer?

 

The most rewarding thing is readers. I don’t mean to be flippant, but the invisible connection between author and whoever is holding the book in hand turning the pages is an extraordinary one. And this is the thought I hold in my mind each day as I write. And that’s the difficult part—the actual writing. I hope I am my most severe critic—and I have also been very fortunate to have great editors. I know when a train of thought, or even a sentence, is wrong. Then it’s rewrite, rewrite. I start each workday by going back over what I have written the day before. It’s a kind of jumpstart. I print out each chapter and with pencil in hand go over it all again to make changes. So, I can’t tell you how many drafts I do. I love to write, and forget the time as I do so; but, as Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote in a small gem of a nonfiction work of hers, Writing is Work, it’s not easy.

I wrote four middle grade mysteries and a YA, so on occasion am delighted to speak to school groups. I tell the kids if they want to be writers, they have to like being alone and indoors a lot!

The Body in the Wardrobe is the 23rd in Katherine Hall Page’s Faith Fairchild series and her 30th book overall. She has published for middle grade and YA readers as well as a collection of short stories, Small Plates (2014), and a series cookbook, Have Faith in Your Kitchen (Orchises Press). She has been awarded Agathas for Best First, Best Novel, and Best SS and also was nominated for additional Agathas, an Edgar, Macavity, Mary Higgins Clark and the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance Literary Award for Crime Fiction. She is the recipient of Malice Domestic 28th’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in Maine and Massachusetts.

For more information:
https://m.harpercollins.com/9780062439505/the-body-in-the-wardrobe

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