Allison Montclair--Murder at the White Palace

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Such a treat today to have Allison Gordon, whose Sparks and Bainbridge series is one of my absolute favorites of the last few years! In the novels, Iris Sparks, a former intelligence operative, and Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a widow with a six-year-old son, open a marriage bureau in 1946 London, and it turns out that they have a talent for solving crimes as well as making matches. Allison, who you may know from previous posts is actually the always entertaining Alan Gordon, is here to tell us what they are up to in their latest adventure, MURDER AT THE WHITE PALACE.

"When The Underlying Story Meets The Standalone"

Allison Montclair 

 

  When I began writing the Sparks and Bainbridge series, I had the benefit of learning from writing another historical series, my Fools' Guild mysteries. I now had a veteran writer's perspective on creating backstories and needs for the characters to drive the books beyond the immediate needs of the body on their doorstep.

  So I made sure that I had enough to complicate the lives of Gwen Bainbridge and Iris Sparks to hopefully make the reader care about their lives. I was interested in writing about the traumatic impact of WWII on two British women in different economic and social situations. Gwen, the daughter of the aristocracy whose perfect marriage and life were shattered with the death of her husband, leading to her suicide attempt and commitment to a sanatarium and Iris, whose intellect and abilities propelled her from Cambridge into British Intelligence operations, where she was forced to do things that destroyed much of her life and her sense of self.

  The Right Sort Marriage Bureau, the setting for the series, was meant to reflect the healing process that was needed, both by the two women, but also symbolizing the recovery of London after the war.

  And I may have done too good a job, because once they were living full time inside my head, I needed to know what was going to happen with their lives as much as anyone.  But this is a mystery series, which meant that in order for me to write the underlying stories and progress for the two, I would have to keep having them jump into murder investigations. So the bodies started piling up. The first book starts in June, 1946, and it's been virtually Murder By The Month ever since.

  I like to call this Jessica Fletcher Syndrome, where you have to keep inventing plausible scenarios for your protagonist to be investigating. Yet I am trying to avoid repetition and cliches. It ain't easy. I learned this lesson early as a kid watching "Mannix," and realizing that reunions of old school chums is a situation fraught with danger.

  With the latest book, MURDER AT THE WHITE PALACE, I am tying up some storylines set up from the beginning. Gwen is finally free of the restrictions of the Court of Lunacy and her controlling in-laws, while Iris is ready to move forward with her relationship with her gangster boyfriend, Archie, planning on finally introducing him to her MP mother while going public with him at his nephew's wedding. The Right Sort is organizing a New Year's dance for their unmatched clients, and Archie has a night club undergoing renovation that may do the trick.

In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture—The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous—and never discussed—past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a genteel war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Looking to throw a New Year’s Eve soiree for their clients, Sparks and Bainbridge scout an empty building—only to find a body contained in the walls. What they initially assume is a victim of the recent Blitz is uncovered instead to be a murder victim—stabbed several times.

To make matters worse, the owner of the building is Sparks’ beau, Archie Spelling, who has ties to a variety of enterprises on the right and wrong sides of the law, and the main investigator for the police is her ex-fiancée. Gwen, too, is dealing with her own complicated love life, as she tentatively steps back into the dating pool for the first time since her husband’s death. Murder is not something they want to add to their plates, but the murderer may be closer to home than is comfortable, and they must do all they can to protect their clients, their business and themselves. 

Allison Montclair is the pseudonym of Alan Gordon. As Allison, she writes the Sparks and Bainbridge mysteries, beginning with THE RIGHT SORT OF MAN (The ALA Reading List Council’s Best Mystery of 2019). Set in 1946 London, the books detail the adventures and struggles of two women trying to run a licensed marriage bureau. The fifth book, THE LADY FROM BURMA, was released this past July. 

DEBS: Readers, does the Jessica Fletcher syndrome worry you when you read novels with amateur detectives?