Connie Berry--When You Can't Go There

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Several of us in the last couple of weeks have said how much we enjoyed Connie Berry's new Kate Hamilton mystery, THE SHADOW OF MEMORY. 

I am a big fan of this series so when Connie mentioned in a comment that she hadn't been able to go to the UK to research this book, I asked her to tell us how she managed all the descriptive and authentic details in her novel. (As much as I've moaned about not being able to go to England, you know this is a big issue for me!)

Here's Connie to share what you do WHEN YOU CAN’T GO THERE:

Some people talk about their Covid puppies or their Covid babies. Authors talk about their Covid books. Just about every book released in 2021 and 2022, including my latest, The Shadow of Memory, was written without the benefit of in-person research. I was actually scheduled to fly to England when the travel ban fell in March of 2020. A second optimistically planned trip in October of 2020 was also canceled and a third in March of 2021.

In the meantime, I had a book to research.

One of the specific places I’d planned to explore was the Suffolk coastline with its sand-and-shingle beaches and faded Victorian seaside resorts. There, in a fictional village called Miracle-on-Sea, I’d placed Netherfield Sanatorium, a former private mental hospital. I’d been to the Suffolk coast many times, but never on a research trip. That makes a difference. You notice different things—not just the geography, architecture, climate, and history of a place, but the sense of it, the sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and mood. Meeting people who live there, hearing what they say and how they say it, helps you understand them—what makes them laugh, what makes them angry, how they view their lives and world events, and (not insignificantly) what they like to eat. Also, there are always specific questions that must be answered

So what do you do when you can’t go? You do the next best thing.

Here are four resources that helped me write The Shadow of Memory while locked down in my office, aka my laundry room, in Ohio:

1. Photographs & Videos

A wealth of visual images are available online, from YouTube videos and documentaries to travelogs to Google Maps. During Covid, one of my favorite resources turned out to be old films of people speaking in the various Suffolk dialects. Invaluable. Google Street View saved me from an embarrassing inaccuracy. Early in the planning stages for The Shadow of Memory, I’d pictured Netherfield Sanatorium on a cliff overlooking the sea and Deben estuary. Dramatic but impossible—and I should have known better. A topographical map reminded me that the heath and marshlands near the estuary are very near sea level. The best I could do was place the mid-Victorian sanatorium on a low promontory.

2. Personal Sources

Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to develop a number of invaluable sources: a detective inspector in the Suffolk Constabulary, a clergyman in the Church of England, the former Chief Operating Officer of the National Trust, a solicitor specializing in trusts and wills, an administrator in the Suffolk Coroner’s Office, a textiles curator at the Victoria & Albert museum. During Covid, they graciously answered all my questions. If you’re wondering how I developed these sources, the answer is simple: I asked. Most people are more than willing to help.

3. Newspapers

While I subscribe to The Telegraph, my favorite source for research is the British Newspaper Archive . Especially helpful are the local and regional papers, which combine national news with local events, social announcements, advice columns, and advertisements. I love the historical newspapers. Since my books include elements of the past, I can check things like obituaries in the 1960s and how crimes were reported in the Victorian era. I depend upon this resource even when I can travel.

4. Real Estate Websites

This one may seem strange, and one realtor in Peterborough, Cambridge, is still hoping I’ll chose a semi-detached house there, but real estate websites are perfect for sorting out the various ways English people live and the words they use to describe their living spaces. Americans would call the main room in a house, for example, the living room. In the UK, depending upon the type of house and the historical era, that same room might be called a reception room, a lounge, a parlor, or a drawing room. These sites can also tell you where in a city you’d find upscale properties and where you’d likely find Council estates. Just as in the U.S., interior and exterior photos are available, along with a wealth of other information. I needed a modest but modern house in Peterborough, for example, and found one for sale in a new housing estate on the south side of town, complete with a description and photos. It ended up in the book.

I’m glad the internet offers writers so much helpful information. Writing a book set in another country is harder without actually going there, but it’s not impossible.  I just hope I don’t have to do it again.

DEBS: I so agree with Connie about the importance of the sense impressions in conveying a setting. For those, I've had to rely on memory. But I've used many of Connie's resources, including real estate sites! I did not know, however, about the British Newspaper Archive!

And I'm not nearly as good as Connie at asking people to share their expertise--Connie will have to give me confidence lessons!

 

As Kate Hamilton contemplates her future with DI Tom Mallory, she is also helping her colleague Ivor Tweedy organize an auction in a village on the Suffolk coast. Netherfield Sanatorium, an abandoned Victorian insane asylum, is being converted into luxury flats, and Kate and Ivor have been asked to auction off a fine collection of antiques, including a 15th-century painting attributed to the Dutch master Jan Van Eyck. But when retired criminal inspector Will Parker is found dead, Kate suspects the halls of the sanatorium housed much more than priceless art.

 

Kate is surprised to learn that Will Parker was her friend Vivian Bunn’s first boyfriend. They met in 1963 at a seaside holiday camp when, along with three other teens, they explored an abandoned house where two years earlier a local doctor and his wife had died under bizarre circumstances. Now, when a second member of the childhood gang dies unexpectedly—and then a third—it becomes clear the teens discovered more in the house than they realized.

 

What was the deadly truth they unwittingly found? When Kate makes a shocking connection between a sixty-year-old murder and the long-buried secrets of the sanatorium, she understands that time is running out for Vivian—and anyone connected to her.

Connie Berry writes the Kate Hamilton Mysteries, set in the UK and featuring an American antiques dealer with a gift for solving crimes. She was raised by antiques dealers who instilled in her a passion for history, fine art, and travel. Her debut novel won an IPPY Gold and was an Agatha Award finalist. Connie is a member of MWA, CWA, and SinC. She loves history, foreign travel, cute animals, and all things British.

DEBS: Readers, have you learned new research skills in the last couple of years?