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Candlesticks, Trunk Calls and Three-Minute Warnings: Historical notes for “Close Call”
Here are some explanatory Historical Notes for the book “Close Call” from the new Golden Age Telephone Gossips mystery series. Unlucky Mummy In “Close Call“, I mention that the mummy case (also known…
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From Rosary Peas to Leather Writing Cases: Historical Notes for “A Cup Full of Poison”
From the moment I started thinking about the book that was to become “A Cup Full of Poison”, I knew that I wanted it to take place on Uncle Albert’s estate. More specifically,…
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Counterfeit, Crab Pots and Ciphers: Historical Notes for “A Case by the Seaside”
Note: Be forewarned that these notes contain spoilers from the second sentence. The idea for “A Case by the Seaside” came together after I began doing research about Cornwall as a possible location…
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Blue Damselflies, Green Gems and White Castles: Historical Notes for “Peril in the Alps”
The idea for this book came to me while I was idly researching interesting facts about Austria. I had visited the country several times, and knew that it was rich in both history…
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Elizabethan Mermaids, Victorian Sewers and Twentieth Century Escalators: Historical Notes for “A Matter of Dead Ends”
The idea for this book developed gradually. I’d heard about London’s lost rivers and London’s sewers, but it wasn’t until I began research in earnest that I discovered that London rests on a…
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Heron Pudding, Raccoon Coats, and Muskrat Holes: Historical Notes from “A Murder Before Christmas”
As always, I began “A Murder Before Christmas” with research. The fact I wanted to establish first, even before I thought about the plot, was whether there was snow in England in 1925.…
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Scarabs, Steam Boats and Secret Societies: Historical Notes for “Secret of the Scarab”
Researching the history behind Book 5 of the Lady Caroline Mysteries, “Secret of the Scarab”, was a lot of fun. I got to read travel guides to Egypt from the 1920s, track down…
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From American Dollar Princesses to German Fertilizer: Historical notes for “Trouble on a Country Lane”
Here is a peek into some of the historical research I did for “Trouble on a Country Lane”, presented in no particular order. As always, digging into the past was a very interesting…
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Waterskiing, a mountain of truth, yellow omnibuses and getting strangled by a scarf: Historical notes for “A Body in the Villa”
Arguably, one of the most enjoyable parts of writing a historical novel is the research that goes into figuring out how people lived about 100 years ago. I’m always surprised and delighted by…
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Telephones, villas for one lira and the plight of opera singers: Historical notes for “Death in the Garden”
When I set out to write the Lady Caroline mysteries, I had a clear goal in mind: I would set each book in a glamorous place in continental Europe, where the rich and…
