Jess Montgomery's Kinshp series continues: THE HOLLOWS

HALLIE EPHRON: Last year Jess Montgomery's THE WIDOWS came out last year to much acclaim. Library Journal awarded it a starred review, and a tumult of rave reviews praised its gritty historical context, Appalachian setting, and strong female characters.

Good news for us: Now there's a sequel in what Jess Calls her Kinship Historical Mystery Series. THE HOLLOWS is just out, Jess is here to talk about it.

JESS MONTGOMERY:  I didn’t realize that it was the first title in a new series. I thought I’d written a standalone.

Let me back up a bit. I was inspired to write THE WIDOWS after I learned of Ohio’s true first female sheriff, who served in 1925 in the Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio. The real-life sheriff, Maude Collins, worked as jail matron for her husband, the sheriff, until he was killed in the line of duty. There was no mystery as to who murdered her husband.

But in true writerly fashion, I started wondering… what if there was a mystery? What if no one witnessed the murder, but the sheriff was found dead? What if his wife becomes sheriff, and investigates?

Those what-ifs led to three years of researching, brainstorming, writing and rewriting, and in the process, my first female sheriff in Ohio, Lily Ross, came into being in my imagination and on the page, which she shares with an unlikely ally, Marvena Whitcomb, a widow, union organizer, and childhood friend of Lily’s husband. Their sleuthing plays out against a backdrop of women’s rights, worker’s rights, union miners sparring with management, coal mining, and prohibition.

Honestly, by the time I finished their story in THE WIDOWS, I was tired! I thought I’d wrung out every bit of emotion and detail I could from their story. And creating it had wrung quite a bit of emotion out of me.

Then my brilliant agent sold THE WIDOWS—break out the champagne! —as one of two historical mysteries to be published by Minotaur. That meant the second mystery could be—but didn’t have to be—a sequel to THE WIDOWS.

So, I started the research for a mystery novel set in the 1960s, a novel idea that I’d had on a backburner of my imagination for quite a few years.

And a few weeks into that process, I had a conversation with my also-brilliant Minotaur Books editor.

I told her about what I was working on, which she found interesting, but…

But she had a what-if of her own.

What if, she suggested, I at least play with the idea of writing further books set in Lily’s and Marvena’s world, in the town of Kinship and in the county of Bronwyn.

My instant response was that I just couldn’t see Lily and Marvena continuing as sleuthing duos without it feeling forced.

Well, my editor said, you don’t have to do it that way. You’ve created a huge cast of characters, built a whole world around them. I want to know more about them, and I think readers will, too. Just think about it.

And so, I did. Truth be told, after hanging up from our chat her words kept echoing in my thoughts: you’ve created a huge cast of characters, built a whole world around them. And my thought in response was: I have?

Talk about being too close to your own work.

With my editor’s nudge, and some more ruminating, I realized that indeed, I did have a whole cast of characters and a story world to play with.

I further realized that in creating a county seat called “Kinship” I hadn’t just named a place—I’d created a setting that symbolizes community. Lily and Marvena both value community, but also their independence, and tension between the notion of serving community versus being true to individual identity and desires strums just under the surface of every scene.

Lily is at the heart of the community, I thought, and as such would need to be one of the main narrators in each Kinship Mystery Series novel.

But just as she and Marvena are dual narrators in the debut title, Lily and another Kinship character could be dual narrators in future novels.

Once I figured all of that out, I put that 1960s backburner standalone idea back on the, well, you know. The backburner. It’s still bubbling away, and I’m sure I’ll give it a stir another time.

I thought back over THE WIDOWS, re-read portions, and realized that there were plenty of secondary characters about whom I, too, wanted to know more. What about her, or her, or him, or…

The secondary character that quietly, shyly, yet insistently, kept raising her hand and whispering, “me, next!” was Hildy Cooper, Lily’s best friend from childhood, and a source of comfort and support in THE WIDOWS.

And so, in THE HOLLOWS, Lily and Hildy are dual narrators, sleuthing together (and sometimes apart), and again experiencing the tension of community expectations and strictures versus individual identities and opinions.

(For fans of Marvena in THE WIDOWS, don’t worry. She’s still in the story, though this time as a secondary character. Some characters, like Hildy, are shy, and others like Marvena… Well, let’s just say she’s not reticent about speaking her mind!)

Now, I look back at my original notion that THE WIDOWS was a standalone—and indeed, it can be read as such—and I must shake my head, just a bit, at myself. On the one hand, I understand why I needed some time, and gentle nudging from my editor, to see the full potential in what I originally created. I’d spent years laser-focused on the story of THE WIDOWS and had grown too close to my own creation. On the other hand, I’m so glad that I finally did understand the potential of The Kinship Mystery Series. It would have been such a missed creative opportunity for me if I hadn’t been open to that editorial suggestion. Rather than feeling like I ‘have’ to write more books in the series, I’m very excited that I ‘get’ to do so.

THE HOLLOWS isn’t just a sequel to THE WIDOWS, it’s the second in the series. As it turns out, I’m contracted for at least books three and four! And I now have ideas for plenty more after that, should I be so lucky.

But in the meantime, I’m celebrating the publication of THE HOLLOWS today! THE HOLLOWS is set in 1926, as Lily runs for election in her own right (rather than in a special appointment and election to fulfill her husband’s term). When an elderly, identified woman is found murdered by the train tracks in a remote part of Bronwyn County, Lily investigates, and soon her friend Hildy is also caught up in the case. Together, they discover a shocking event in their county’s history, even as they deal with the hurts and haunts of their own pasts. I hope you get a chance to read it!

HALLIE: I loved THE WIDOWS so much, and I can't wait to read THE HOLLOWS. I'm guessing the title has more than one meaning, just as the first book did. And I'm eager to go back to that time and that part of the world, and most of all those women.

Prohibition era. Appalachia. Mining. Scrupulous research. Conflict, of course. It all makes for a potent brew that's anything but a traditional mystery series set in "Kinship."

Jess's series got me thinking about the times and places we set mystery novels. St. Mary Meade, of course. Henning Mankell's Ystad. Gillian Fynn's Wind Gap. Louise Penny's Three Pines. And more... books in which the place is virtually a character. What are the settings that have stuck with you?