Theatre, gardening make the perfect backdrop for murder: Julia Henry

 

HALLIE EPHRON: I first met Julie Hennrikus years ago back when she was working behind the scenes in the Boston theater world. She's a theater insider who know theater from the business side. She, as we say here in Boston, is wicked smaht - and was the person who convinced me that social media was the real deal, and worthy of an author's time. (Thank you, Julie!)

She's still got one foot firmly planted in theater, but lucky for us, she's a very successful (thank you very much!) author of MANY books, writing as Julianne Holmes, J. A. Hennrikus, and Julia Henry.

Today we're celebrating the publication of her brand new #4 Garden Squad mystery: Wreathing Havoc. As a huge theatre fan, I was particularly intrigued to discover that this new book has a performing arts element.

JULIA HENRY/JULIE HENNRIKUS: First of all, thank you to the Jungle Reds for having me on the blog today! I’m so pleased to celebrate the release of Wreathing Havoc with you and your wonderful readers.

Wreathing Havoc is the fourth book in my Garden Squad series. It takes place in late November/early December, about six months after the first book in the series, Pruning the Dead. Since the series centers on gardening, a Thanksgiving book was going to be a tough fit. But I got creative in my garden plotting, adding wreath making and garden sculpture contests to the story. I also added fall fertilizing to Lilly’s agenda. It ends up, there are a lot of gardening opportunities in the fall.

A Thanksgiving book also gave me another opportunity--to add some theater to the mix. As a subplot, the Goosebush Theatre is producing a series of play readings, each featuring a renowned playwright's take on A Christmas Carol.

Why A Christmas Carol? First of all, everyone knows the story, so readers understand the story and will “get” the inside jokes about the changes the playwrights make. Secondly, so many theaters do A Christmas Carol that it makes sense that the theater company in Goosebush would as well. Lastly, it’s one of my favorite stories with themes that play well in the book.

Theater, in my opinion, is the perfect backdrop for a murder mystery. There’s a range of characters, both on stage and off. Emotions, tension and drama are part of the process. Because “the show must go on” is a truth, not an attempt at meeting a deadline, timelines are condensed and focussed. Shortcuts are made, feelings are hurt, and relationships are either strengthened or broken. A theater production is contained chaos, which makes for a great mystery setting.

There are over four hundred community theaters in New England, and they play an important role in the cultural life of many communities. The lovely part of theaters is that people stay involved for years and years, so the past plays into the present in interesting ways. Wreathing Havoc has now famous actors who got their start in Goosebush coming back with disastrous results.

In the Garden Squad series, Lilly Jayne’s friend Ernie is a community theater actor in town. While Lilly is a theater goer, she’s not a rabid fan. In fact, she lives in fear of having to tell Ernie that the play readings were good when they weren’t, especially since he’s taken over the role of producing them. What will she say? A friend of mine called it “humming the set”. When you don’t have anything nice to say about a play or performance, praise the set. With a play reading there’s no set, so there’s little wonder that Lilly’s nervous.

Mashing up theater and gardening--who knew it would be so much fun?

Readers, are you a theater fan? How would you enjoy a series of new versions of A Christmas Carol?

Julia Henry writes the Garden Squad series for Kensington. Wreathing Havoc is the fourth book in the series. She blogs with the Wicked Authors.