RESEARCH REVELATIONS by Jenn McKinlay

JENN McKINLAY: After sixty books written, I have to say I’ve had to research a wide variety of topics from hoarding to driving in Ireland. But in A MERRY LITTLE MURDER PLOT (coming out on Oct 8th), I had to research the possibility of death by electrocution using a string of holiday lights…well…oh, wait, I can’t tell you anymore because it might spoil the book. Suffice to say, it is very possible. 

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Now tell me, Reds, what is the most interesting/oddball/alarming thing you learned while researching one of your books?

HALLIE EPHRON: How easy it is to kill with an overdose of Tylenol. It’s scary how little it takes. Also: dead bodies don’t bleed. If it’s bleeding it ain’t dead (yet). Also: It’s pretty easy to “accidentally” kill someone in an MRI lab (between the super-powerful magnets and the massive amounts of liquid nitrogen, easier than you want to know). It’s amazing that mystery writers can even sleep through the night.

RHYS BOWEN: as Hallie said, in real life too many people get away with murder. How easy it is to tell an elderly person he’s forgotten to take his pills so that he gets a double or triple dose. And if an autopsy is done you say “ he was getting so forgetful!”

 

My garden is full of oleander. While not as deadly as rumor would have it it looks like a bay leaf in a casserole.

The most interesting research I ever did was asking John to help me in a scene where Evan has to wrestle a gun away from a man on a steep mountainside. We tried to act it out and ended up in an interesting position entwined on the floor, much to the horror of one of our kids!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, so much fun! And if someone looked at my search history, they would really be perplexed. How long does it take to drown in salt water, what does someone look like when they’ve been asphyxiated. Can you make mac & cheese with bananas? Seriously, I cannot tell you why I looked that up.

 

There are always, always, wonderful things you find that you were not looking for. For instance, my character Jane Ryland is called Jane Elizabeth. Her idol is Nellie Bly, the reporter. Guess what Nellie Bly’s real name was? Elizabeth Jane. I just loved that, and I did not know it when I wrote it.  

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Just think what our collective search histories would look like! a veritable smorgasbord of murder methods! Jenn, I electrocuted someone in my very first book, and learned why it's not unreasonable that regular outlets are not allowed in bathrooms in the UK… Also for that first book I remember posing myself on the stairs as if I'd been pushed down them–ouch! And like Rhys, we've done our share of role-playing. The lengths we will go to for our plots!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I went down a rabbit hole while researching the 1930s scenes in OUT OF THE DEEP I CRY and wound up learning how to harness a horse team for plowing. I actually used some of, too, as Harry McNeil questions someone! 

Weirdest research was with the help of my dear late friend, Tim LaMar. Tim was my go-to guy for guns and violence. Despite being a gentle and very physically unimposing man, Tim knew his stuff, and he walked me through how to turn a sapling into an offensive weapon, and what hitting someone's head with a big rock sounded like. 

And I second the concern over our search histories! You can imagine the sorts of things I was Googling for when researching the upcoming book, which is about a Neo-Nazi militia. Please don't come for me, FBI!

LUCY BURDETTE: The searcher would find my history heavy on poisons as well! Lily of the Valley? Check! Some kind of poisonous nut that would work well in a pie crust? Check! I also loved my research for the golf lovers mysteries–I went to actual LPGA tournaments to talk with the players, and even bought a slot to play in the professional/amateur tournament. It took most of my (admittedly small) first advance, but I wouldn’t trade that memory for anything. John caddied for me and was paid $50 at the end:)

How about you, Readers, what bizarre information have you learned while reading or researching that you didn't know before?

Sunday Dinner: Spanish Stew

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: The good news, dear readers, is that Celia is recovering well from her knee replacement surgery! The bad news is you're getting a recipe from me today, and it's not accompanied by a delightful story of how I met a member of the royal family, or lived in the Far East, or emigrated to New York City. My life has been much, much duller than Celia's. Also, I didn't even think to take pictures when I made this, let alone an instructional video. Julia Child, I'm not.

Instead, I'm giving you a reasonable quick Spanish Stew, perfect for the rapidly cooling weather. If you're in the south, and NOT experiencing any cooling because your power is out, you have all our sympathy and best wishes. Some nights it's a home-made meal, some nights it's a cold sandwich. 

Spanish Stew

 

For the liquid portion:

1/2 cup olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic or 6 t pre-minced garlic (my fave for speed and simplicity)

1 large or 2 regular cans of tomatoes, with their juice

1 eggplant, peeled and diced

1 bay leaf 

1 t cayenne pepper, or less if you have white-person mouth like me.

1 t Kosher salt, or to taste

For the hefty stuff:

2 T olive oil

Chicken breast, cubed. I used 2 breasts for a smaller serving. You can go up from there, depending on how meaty you want this to be

Two large potatoes, sliced into half-moons. Is there a professional term for this cut? If there is I don't know it.

OPTIONAL: Chorizo or similar spicy sausage. Get the kind you can crumble, not the cured kind you slice.

Halved olives. I like Manzanillas for this dish, but you do you. If you don't want to fuss with cutting, get some pre-sliced ones.

1 t paprika

Garnish:

chopped fresh parsley

 

Directions:

In a large pot (I used my Dutch oven) heat the olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and simmer for a minute. Put the tomatoes with their juice in and smush them with your spoon. Don't fret about getting them small, there's a blender later on in this recipe. Add the diced eggplant, bay leaf, cayenne pepper and salt to taste. Remember, there will be salt in those canned tomatoes, and if you choose to add the sausage, you may need less cayenne. Simmer for 15 minutes to let the flavors blend.

In a generously sized skillet, heat 2 T oil. When it's sizzling, stir in chicken, potatoes and, if you like, crumbled chorizo. Sprinkle the chicken and potatoes with paprika. Saute on high, stirring frequently, until everything is browned. Remove from heat.

Back to the saucy stuff! Either pour the tomato-eggplant mix into a blender/Cuisinart or use your immersion blender. I finally got one for Christmas after seeing how much Celia uses hers, and it has changed my life. 10/10 would recommend. Take out the bay leaf, then blend until smooth and taste to adjust seasonings.

Into the large pot goes the now-blended saucy stuff, the meat and potatoes, the olives and the bay leaf. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are fork tender.

I served this with popping biscuits because that was what I had, but it would be best with a nice crusty bread and a hearty red, like a Malbec or a Rioja.

Dear readers, what are you having for dinner tonight? And have you been affected by Hurricane Helene?

Second Time Around

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Recently, when talking about TV and streaming shows we were watching, several Reds and readers mentioned A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES. Now, I was in a bit of a drought. Except for the Korean crime drama BEYOND EVIL, I wasn’t feeling it for a lot of shows. I would turn something on and then wind up spending half my time looking at my phone instead. 

 

But I decided to give ADOW a try. Another try, I should say. I’d watched the first two episodes quite some time ago, and my takeaway at the time was 1) Wow, that supposedly accomplished professor and scholar has no self-preservation skills whatsoever and 2) errors. I can’t remember what errors I noticed, because on the second go-round, I absolutely fell in love. I’ve been streaming three episodes a night since then.

 

Which got me thinking about the phenomenon of “the second time around.”

 

Why did I loathe mushrooms as a child, only to find them delicious when I had them in Italy in my twenties? Why did I wrinkle my nose at olives right up through my forties, and now toss them into everything? 

Sometimes, only appreciating something at the second (or third, or fourth) try makes sense. I read THE SCARLET LETTER when I was around thirteen, and no surprise, I got nothing out of it. I re-read it, on a flight of all places, in my early thirties and found it to be a stunning work. I needed to grow and learn before I could understand what Hawthorne was doing.

But what about sleeveless shirts? I avoided them up to my fifties, because I didn't want anyone to see the wobbly bits on my arms. Now those shirts make up 90% of my summer wardrobe. And let me assure you, my arms haven't gotten LESS wobbly. Was it the temperature fluctuations of menopause? Is my give-a-damn busted? It's a mystery.

How about you, Reds? Any flavors, fandoms - heck, relationships - that you only appreciated the second time around?

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Well, my big one: I broke up with my sweet to-be husband before I succumbed to his blandishments. He turned out to be an acquired taste, and thank goodness was extremely persistent. Lucky me because it’s horrifying who I could have ended up with.

 

LUCY BURDETTE: Hallie, my story is similar to yours. When my sweet hub John called to ask me out on a date, I turned him down but suggested we play friendly doubles tennis instead. After about six months of that, I realized that I’d made an error in judgment: he was a keeper, cute, funny, and smart. This time, I did the asking out!

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, my Jonathan story is the exact opposite, but that’s another blog. Second time around, food edition: Scrambled eggs, tuna salad. As I kid I couldn't even think about those things. Now I adore them. Why? What happened?

 

TV edition: The Wire. We started The Wire, right when it came on. I thought–huh? I don’t even understand it. A few months later, I thought–maybe I’m watching it wrong. We tried it again and it’s the best thing I’ve EVER seen.  Why? Well, I can tell you I realized that I was put off by the slang–I didn't understand it. But then I realized the writing was SO excellent that it would explain the very words that were not in my vocabulary in the very next sentence..so when I stopped worrying about it, I adored it.

 

JENN McKINLAY: It took me five tries before I could get into reading the first Harry Potter book. 5!!! I don’t know why I couldn’t get past the first few chapters - they weren’t bad - it was me. I was the problem. 

 

I, too, did not love olives until my forties and now I love them on most everything. I also love spicy food, which I never liked before moving to AZ and then it took me years to acquire a taste for it. As for shows, the only one that comes to mind that took me a while is The Family Guy. Didn’t get it the first time I watched it but it grew on me and I think it’s hilarious. 

 

Off topic, Hub and I just started watching HACKS on Max - it is FANTASTIC!!! I love that Jean Smart is crushing it in her seventies, but also the juxtaposition of a Boomer and a Gen Z makes for some pretty funny dialogue.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Julia, you are seriously tempting me to watch ADOW again. But even as much as Rick loves Teresa Palmer (a lot!) I'm not sure I could talk him into Round Two…

 

Love the second-chance hubbies theme here! You can count us in on that. Rick and I dated on and off for about six years, then in one of the "off" periods, I met my first husband. (Rick was the one who introduced us!) Off I went to Scotland, marriage and child following. Fast forward fourteen years, divorced, Rick called to wish me "happy birthday." And that was, yikes, thirty years ago! But there are things I wish the picky eater hubby would give another chance, like mushrooms, olives, chickpeas, tofu, etc., etc., etc.!

 

JULIA: How about you, dear readers? What food/book/husband did you learn to appreciate the second time around? 

Trends for Fall - No, not Clothing. Stories.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm doing a bit of research of genres and trends in popularity in books right now. It's easy, if you tend to read in one well represented genre (like mystery) to ignore the current fashions. You could find  mysteries in the 1930s, and today, and you'll still be able to read them in 2130 (not on paper, though. The text will be beamed into your eyeballs by your BrainPal©.)

But there are all sorts of genres and sub genres that go in and out of style. You don't see many puzzle mysteries, private eye or noir novels these days. Ditto gothics with the governess running away from the Looming Manor House while wearing a flowing robe (maybe they fell out of favor when we all stopped wearing robes over our PJs?)

 

 

In the late seventies, the Generational Historical Series was huge, kicked off by the success of the Kent Family Chronicles by John Jakes. This was followed in the eighties by another roaring success: the sex and shopping/boinkbuster book (in the US and UK, respectively.) Personally, I LOVED these books. Give me Jilly Cooper's RIDERS or Judith Krantz's PRINCESS DAISY  and I was in hog heaven for a week or more - because these books were looooong.

 

I thought the easiest place to put my finger on the pulse of the current reading public was to go through the USA Today Bestseller list, since it includes ebooks as well as physical novels. And, unlike the NY Times, I didn't have to be a subscriber to search through their weekly lists going back to 2020. 

I only did the last calendar year, however, because, well, like I said. Current. Right now. And dear readers, I have emerged with several pieces of hard won information. (Hard won because I sat at my computer for too long and my operative knee stiffened up like a mother. I had to walk around like Pegleg Pete to loosen things up.

Here's what I now know:

 

We may love mysteries, but the bestseller label goes to thrillers, particularly the sort that Hank writes. Smart choice, Hank!

 

Awards and bestseller status is still important; whenever they can book descriptions lead with NY Times Bestseller, Booker Prize, Pulitzer, etc.

The next best thing? Being in Someone’s Book Club – Reese, Oprah, Good Morning America, someone named Jenny?? 

Reviving a trend from the 19th century, fancy covers with spray painted and/or stenciled edges, end papers, maps, and always beautiful, intricate raised and embossed dust jackets or covers. These go with romance, fantasy, and the recently-dubbed Romantasy. I guess that means I write Romystery?

Limited editions of the above books are available for preorder, which strikes me as a smart way to get those all-important numbers up.

 

 

Cold weather is for mystery, warm weather is for fantasy/romance. You can see the chilly, solo-investigator covers melt as June approaches, and each week after the spring equinox the number of adorable summer-themed romances rises. Either this means the romance readers are out of school for the summer, or, nobody wants to read about dead people in Iceland once the temperature gets above 75F/24C.

 

I puzzled a bit about the obvious importance of beautiful covers - none of that is cheap for the publishers - until I realized another big trend. “Tik Tok Sensation,” “Viral Tik Tok series,” “BookTok sensation,” “taken Tik Tok by storm” and “viral Tik Tok phenomenon” were all liberally used to describe books/authors and series. So, basically, if the US Tik Tok ban goes through, the entire publishing industry will collapse.

Christmas books are start in October and are tapped out by December 16. Don;t come at me, I didn't make the rule.

There are a surprising number of bestsellers that are basically Reylo fanfic. 

Far, far more young writers appear on the USA Today list than on the NY Times Bestseller list, where the same names tend to dominate for years, if not decades. I added up a few weeks worth of NYT bestselling novelists once (yes, I do like weird research, thank you) and discovered their average age was in the late sixties. This includes perennial stars like Nora Roberts (70,) Jeffrey Deaver (74) and Danielle Steel (says 77 but you know, I kind of doubt that. Show us the birth certificate, Danielle.)

That streaming contract/ movie deal really does make people buy your book! Some novels that were on the list for more than one week include DUNE (1965,) THE PERFECT COUPLE (2018,) ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE (2014,) ROMANCING MR BRIDGERTON (2002,) DISCLAIMER (2015) and Fahrenheit 451 (1953.) So, like, if any of you know a script developer in Hollywood, please feel free to thrust one of my books into their hands.

Were you aware of these trends, dear readers? Which ones do you like? What genres do you wish you make a comeback?

Checking in, Checking out

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I may be the last person in America who uses checks.

Well, not, that’s not entirely true. I know Youngest had a checkbook exclusively for paying her Bangor landlord; she left it behind when she moved to The Hague, and she informs me the Dutch run a practically cashless society there. A cashless society! Imagine life without a penny jar.

Maybe I’m the last person in America with a penny jar?

It’s not that I only and ever pay with checks. I dutifully go online for my phone bill, my insurance, and my internet. But co-pay at the doctor’s office? Check. Electric bill? Check. (That’s because they screwed it up TWICE when I tried paying on line. Fool me once, etc.) Before I finished up my mortgage this spring? Check. (They make you pay EXTRA to do it electronically!) Also my fuel oil, because they make me pay a “convenience fee” to reimburse them online. B####, please.

 

I also never use checks at the grocery store or other retail establishments. Because I’m not a monster.

I just like writing out amounts and sending out paper bills. Out of all the organizational possibilities, paying bills like it’s 1943 works best to keep my finances on track and to make sure I’m paying on time. Sure, I can look at my balance on my credit union’s app, but it’s not the REAL balance. That’s written in pencil (payments in ink) in my register. Which I keep in a monogrammed leather checkbook cover.

No, I don’t have bills set up automatically, because I just don’t trust it. I am, in fact, actually 96 years old.

I also use checks for gifts to nephews and my adult kids, because I think it’s more fun to open a card and have a check fall out than it is to receive a pop-up notification from Venmo that someone’s put $50 in your account. I may be wrong about this; if you are a Youth, please tell me.

My weird antediluvian habits finally started paying off – literally – when interest rates took off in March ’22. I have an interest-bearing checking account (again, credit unions FTW) and I make a few pennies here and there (see jar, above) while waiting for my chimney sweep to deposit the check I wrote him for maintaining my wood stoves.

 

Yes, I always shake his hand for luck. Me = 96 years old.

 

How about you, dear readers? Cashless and frictionless or scratching out the accounts with a fountain pen?

Printing History

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I was looking at one of those “This Day In History” sites when this tidbit caught my book-loving attention:

September 25, 1639 – First printing press in America set up in Cambridge under the guarantee of Harvard College.

Wow, right?

First off, it goes to show what the Puritans valued. Nineteen years after establishing Plymouth Colony (eighteen years after half the original settlers died from malnutrition and disease!) they had a college and a printer. (In contrast, in was more than a century before Massachusetts began training up professional lawyers.)

 

The story itself is encompasses every hallmark of the Massachusetts colony in the 17^th century: death, remarriage, religious non-conformism, law suits, money, freedom of the press and the inherit contradictions of a community that made the individual conscience supreme – and then tried to control it. Also, as usual, it eventually winds up in Vermont, a “lawless backwater” populated by adventurers and Anglicans.

It begins with the Rev. Joseph Glover, who slipped into non-conformity (ie, against the Church of England) and decided to emigrate to the New World, bringing with him his family, men- and maidservants, and most importantly, a printing press, bought with his considerable funds and a kind of “friends of the Puritans” group. He also indentured a locksmith, Stephen Daye, to serve as the printer, and bought transportation for Daye’s family (and servants!)

Glover, alas, didn’t survive the trip, leaving Mrs. Elizabeth Glover the owner of the printing press and the indenture contract. Yes, dear readers, the first printing CEO in North America was a woman. Elizabeth, for reasons, ignored the house her late husband had had built in Boston, and instead purchased two existing homes in Cambridge, one for her household and the press, another for the Dayes.

A reproduction; no original copies survive.

The first product of the press, The Freeman’s Oath, was welcomed by the colony, although there were quite a few complaints about the quality of Daye’s work. Maybe don’t hire a locksmith as a printer? Later in 1639 he produced William Pierces’ Almanack and the next year, 1,700 copies of The Bay Psalm Book. Catechisms, sermons, schoolbooks, more almanacks – the Glover-Daye press was a hit.

 

 

Elizabeth Glover was also a hit with Henry Dunster, the President of Harvard. Hopefully, it was her good sense and affability, rather than her thriving business, multiple houses and eleven feather beds, that prompted him to propose in 1641. Her property, of course, became his, and her printing press was soon joined by a second imported from England.

The fact the college came to control the printing business was a lucky break – its reputation shielded the press, and no less than two legislative attempts to impose English-style licensing (where nothing was printed without the approval of an official censor) failed.

Elizabeth Glover passed away in 1643, followed not long after by several law suits as her sons from her first marriage tried to wrestle her property away from her second husband – and by extension, Harvard. They failed, but perhaps got some satisfaction when Dunster was kicked out of the college (and the colony) in 1654 for professing his belief in adult, rather than infant baptism. That individual conscience. What are you gonna do?

 

The Glover-Daye press itself continued to churn out reading material for the colony. Daye (briefly jailed for fraud and the object of more law suits) was replaced by professional printer Samuel Green, who spawned a whole family of printers across new England. One of his sons brought the physical press to New London, CT. in 1714, and from thence to New Hampshire and, eventually, Vermont, where it produced that colony’s first newspaper, The Vermont Gazette. The press was finally retired after 150 years of use – they built ‘em to last in those days. It can be seen (!) at the Vermont Historical Society in Montpelier. Road trip, anyone?