TSM: How did you get into writing novels?
KS: I was six years old when I first told my parents that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. My professional life took a few detours along the way, including time in a political consulting firm and as a professional performer. I loved acting and dancing; politics not so much.
I always knew I wanted to write books, though, so I was writing that whole time and assumed I would “eventually” become a novelist. But of course, “eventually” isn’t something that just happens on its own. Eventually, I decided I wanted to be writing more than I wanted any of the other things I was spending my creative energy on. Five years later, the book I started working on that day became my debut novel, The Body in the Garden, which came out in April 2020.
TSM: How do you reflect on the representation of women in mystery novels? How do you empower and expand on your female characters?
KS: I think mysteries get a bad reputation as books where women are just victims are plot devices. But one of the things I love about the genre, and about amateur sleuth mysteries in particular, is that it has such a strong tradition of intelligent, capable women with a lot of agency, all the way back to the Golden Age of detective fiction. Agatha Christie’s best-known sleuth might be Hercule Poirot, but she also gave us Miss Marple, Tuppence Beresford, Emily Trefusis, Frankie Derwent, and more.
I love historical mysteries in particular because they give you an opportunity to explore history from unexpected angles. I find that whenever I think “women probably weren’t doing X at that time,” a little bit of research often turns up a woman who did, in fact, do X—and often more than one. When I wondered if there were women owning and running speakeasies in the 1920s, I discovered not only was the answer yes, but there were enough of them doing it that there was a specific slang term to refer to them! A “whisper sister” was a female speakeasy owner.
And if a woman doing X bumps up against cultural norms, so much the better. I find that having characters navigate those tensions, whether to work with them or against them, is a great way to give them more depth and agency.
TSM: Your Nightingale Mysteries series is set in 1920s New York. What about this time period inspired you? What does the 1920s lend to your storytelling?
KS: I joke that I was drawn to the 1920s for the glamor and I stayed for the crime. It’s such an interesting decade to explore in the United States because there were so many huge changes happening: new expectations of women, the expanded presence of immigrants, the vast class differences, the rise of queer culture, the shift from rural life to cities, and of course Prohibition.
The cultural impact of Prohibition gives a crime writer so much to work with because anyone who went out for a drink was doing something illegal, but they were also just trying to have fun. That’s a great kind of tension to play with. Prohibition created speakeasy culture, which led to a lot of boundary-crossing that couldn’t exist anywhere else, such as the prominence of queer nightlife or people mixing across races and classes—but only at night! That’s more fantastic tension. And it led to the rise of organized crime in the U.S. because organized crime was suddenly profitable. All those elements combine to make such a fun sandbox for a writer to play in, especially if you’re trying to build a mystery.
TSM: In general, what draws you to historical fiction?
KS: I love the way historical fiction challenges us. We all come to it with preconceptions about who was there, what they were doing, what was happening during a specific time period. Most of those ideas are created by what we learn in history class or what “classic” literature survives from that time. A lot of people, for example, have an idea of the 1920s that was shaped by reading The Great Gatsby in high school. But those things tell only a very small part of the story.
TSM: In addition to a striking mystery, your newest novel The Last Note of Warning, to be released July 4, 2024, continues to tease a romance between Vivian and the lesbian bar owner Honor Huxley. What can you tell us, without spoiling of course, about LGBTQ+ stories in the Nightingale Mysteries series? Why was it important for you to add this layer to your series?
KS: Writing Vivian’s will-they-won’t-they romances with Honor and Leo has been so fun. It feels like such a privilege to be able to write queer love stories where the focus isn’t on the trauma of coming out or navigating discrimination. Those elements do pop up, but they’re part of the background culture of the world these characters live in. Instead, the challenges in their relationships come from the fact that all of them are well-intentioned people who frequently make bad decisions.
As a queer woman who grew up reading too many novels where the gay characters are the ones who die, it feels so meaningful to tell a story where the queer characters get to have the same messy, non-lethal love triangles that straight folks have enjoyed for centuries. Some things in the books are lethal—they are murder mysteries, after all. But not the love triangle.
And the 1920s is such a good time period to do this! Especially in cities, queer nightlife was thriving and became part of the popular culture. (One of my favorite songs from the era is “Masculine Women, Feminine Men” by the Savoy Havana Band.) That’s not to say there wasn’t still discrimination, or that being openly in a queer relationship wasn’t dangerous. It absolutely was. But if you were in the right spot, no one would blink an eye at you and your partner.
TSM: Your next addition to the Lily Adler series, A Scandal in Mayfair, will be released on August 6, 2024. As this series continues, how have you kept the story exciting for yourself as a writer?
KS: It’s hard to believe the fifth Lily Adler mystery is going to be out so soon! When this series first launched in April 2020, I had no idea whether there would be a book two, much less a book five. It’s been a joy to spend so much time in this world and with these characters, but once you get to book five, it does become a challenge to keep it feeling new and fresh.
I stay excited for each new book in the series by focusing on two things. The first is the characters: what is going on for them that spans the whole series, not just one book? What threads have I pulled at in previous books that I’d like to return to? When I read, I’m often as much or more interested in character as I am in plot, so I feel invested in seeing how my characters grow and change over multiple books (and I hope readers do too!).
The second is playing within the mystery genre itself. Crime fiction has over a century’s worth of tropes and expectations to play with, and I like choosing a new one to tackle for each book, such as an impossible crime or a Christmas murder. In A Scandal in Mayfair, I decided to try a plot with two parallel mysteries, and that was definitely a challenge.
TSM: How do your protagonists Lily Adler and Vivian Kelly compare with one another? How does writing each series differ?
KS: A reader once asked if I thought Lily and Vivian would get along if they ever met, and I’m not sure they would. They’re such different people!
Lily, whose books are set in Regency England, is reserved, intellectual, and thoughtful. She’s often hampered by the restrictions and rules of the society she lives in, but she still plays within those rules to get what she wants. She has a strong sense of right and wrong, and that’s reflected in her books, which tend to be more traditional whodunnits.
Vivian’s story, by contrast, is set in Jazz Age New York City. She’s impulsive, extroverted, and rebellious. She sees that the rules for women are changing in the 1920s but can’t always take advantage of those changes because of the limitations placed on poor and working-class people. She lives in a more morally gray world than the one Lily inhabits, and her books reflect that as well. Their endings are less tidy, and often who is a villain or a hero is a question without a straightforward answer.
Both women are determined and focused, as well as being incredibly loyal to the friends who make up their chosen family. They both tackle questions of guilt, justice, power, and oppression, and often come to very different conclusions. It’s been a fun challenge to look at the mystery genre from two their very different perspectives.
TSM: What have you been reading recently? Do you have any new inspirations?
KS: I’m in a local book club, and each month we pick a new book by a queer author across a wide variety of genres. Recent favorites have been We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds (YA dual-timeline historical fiction), The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (speculative fiction/sci-fi), and Open Throat by Henry Hoke (no idea how to categorize this one—fictional literary animal memoir?).
I find that reading many genres means I am constantly learning unexpected lessons about plotting, worldbuilding, character development, tension, and more. Things can get pretty self-referential and insular if you only read the same genre! But reading widely means that I never run out of fresh inspiration.
TSM: What can we look out for from you besides your new releases? Should we expect more from the Nightingale Mysteries and the Lily Adler series?
KS: The fourth (and final) Nightingale mystery will be coming out next summer. After that, I’ll be tackling a few different projects. They might be mystery-adjacent, but I’m interested in blending a few genres together and seeing what I come up with. I’m excited to try out something new!
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