FATALITIES AND FLOOR PLANS by Maya Corrigan

Congrats to Sherry Brown, the winner of A PARFAIT CRIME!

LUCY BURDETTE: I love the way Maya Corrigan has studied the work of Agatha Christie and then figured out how to weave what she learned into her newest book--I bet you will find this fascinating as well! Welcome Maya!

MAYA CORRIGAN: Thank you, Lucy, for hosting me on Jungle Red Writers. I appreciate the chance to talk about my upcoming mystery, A PARFAIT CRIME, and about Agatha Christie. A community theater production of her long-running play, THE MOUSETRAP, is at the center of my 9th in my Five-Ingredient Mysteries. Set in a quaint Chesapeake Bay town, the series features café manager Val Deniston and her recipe columnist grandfather – a sleuthing duo that shares a Victorian house, a love of cooking and eating, and a talent for catching killers. A PARFAIT CRIME comes out on October 24th. Here’s a taste of what’s in the book.

At the site of a fatal blaze, Val’s boyfriend, a firefighter trainee, is shocked to learn the victim is known to him, a woman named Jane who belonged to the local Agatha Christie book club—and was rehearsing alongside Val’s grandfather for an upcoming Christie play being staged for charity. Just as shocking are the skeletal remains of a man found in the freezer. Who is he and who put him on ice? After Val is chosen to replace Jane in the play, the cast gathers at Granddad’s house to get to work—and enjoy his five-ingredient parfaits—but all anyone can focus on is the bizarre real-life mystery. When it’s revealed that Jane’s death was due to something other than smoke inhalation, Val and Granddad retrace the victim’s final days. As they dig into her past life, their inquiry leads them to a fancy new spa, where they discover that Jane wasn’t the only one who had a skeleton in the cooler...

Most mystery readers know that Agatha Christie has sold more books than any other fiction writer. She also holds the record for the most enduring play in London theater history. THE MOUSETRAP opened in 1952 and is still going strong. (photo credit Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)





Decades ago I had the chance to see the play twice in London. I remember its scary moments and stunning climax. After each performance, then and now, the audience is asked not to disclose the surprise ending to anyone. I’ve abided by that rule. A PARFAIT CRIME does NOT reveal whodunit in Christie’s mystery.

To prepare for writing my book, I read and reread Christie’s playscript. It begins with a long description of the one and only set: the sitting room at a guesthouse, where a snowstorm has marooned the characters with a murderer in their midst. Christie describes twelve pieces of furniture, some made of “good oak” and others looking “shabby and old-fashioned.” She also specifies what’s on the walls, the desk, and the table.

Christie was used to “stage setting” in her mysteries. Her early books include diagrams, complete with furniture, to help readers visualize the crime scene. Her first Poirot book, THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES (1920), contains sketches of the bedroom where the victim dies and the layout of nearby rooms where the household members and guests sleep. Illustrations of the crime scene and a floor plan also appear in THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD (1926), the blockbuster book that made Christie famous.








The first Miss Marple book, MURDER AT THE VICARAGE (1930), includes, not just sketches of the crime scene and the house plan, but also a map of the St. Mary Mead village. In later books Christie provides the seating plan of an airplane where an in-flight murder occurs. Her famous train mystery shows the layout of a sleeping car, with the characters’ names on the compartments they occupied the night of the murder. Besides orienting readers to the setting, Christie’s diagrams contain clues . . . and sometimes red herrings.

Though I’ve never put house plans or room sketches in my books, I’ve created them as a reference for myself. When I was writing the first Five-Ingredient Mystery, I looked up Victorian home plans and modified one to design the house that Val shares with her grandfather. For other books I sketched the layouts of places my sleuths visit, like the hotel where a mystery festival is held in BAKE OFFED (2022).

As Val and Granddad try to solve the murder in A PARFAIT CRIME, they don’t just attend rehearsals, they also go undercover at an upscale spa to trap a killer who has committed the perfect crime. Two sleuthing locations meant two floor plans—one of the 1950s motel that had been converted to a high-end spa and the other of the theater’s stage and backstage for the big “reveal scene.” Neither visual is in the book, but I couldn’t have written the mystery without those plans in front of me.

READERS: Have you read any mysteries with images of house plans or maps? If so, did they enhance the story or help you solve the mystery?

WRITERS: Do you create floor plans or diagrams as you write? Have you included any in your books?

I’ll give away a signed copy of A PARFAIT CRIME to one person who comments.

Maya (Mary Ann) Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring a café manager solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town with her live-wire grandfather, the Codger Cook. Each book has five suspects, five clues, and Granddad’s five-ingredient recipes. Before writing mysteries, Maya taught college courses in writing, literature, and detective fiction. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords. Visit her website, for recipes, fun food facts, and mystery history and trivia.

Blog: https://mysteryloverskitchen.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mayacorriganbooks/

A PARFAIT CRIME is available for preorder now as a paperback or ebook

Publication Date: October 24, 2023

Visit Kensington Books for Buy Links and to read an excerpt