The Chesterfield Clue follows a former school teacher and his wife who come into a large inheritance and purchase a vineyard in the Finger Lakes. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I had introduced Chesterfield, Carrie, their very vivid parents, and even the baroque French barrister Alaistre (“Swifty”) Treves-Alsace in THE CHESTERFIELD HOURS, a pure romantic comedy that earned a starred review from Kirkus and was ultimately named to their Best of 2012 and LOL lists.  With the supernatural provenance of the Ffoulkes Fortune, I saw a chance to move them up in the world, to a beautiful Finger Lakes wine estate, where I could essay a good old-fashioned country-house murder mystery.

Your characters are richly developed and complex, really allowing readers to get to know them. Do you incorporate any emotions or memories from your own life into your characters’ lives?

Well, I had a Shakespeare-loving mother of Welsh parentage, for a start.  The dad was a veteran, though not of the ferocious exploits of Captain Jack Chesterfield.  Beyond that, I fell in love with the idea of making Carrie a girl next door type, and her 50 yr. old mother Barbara a seductress of almost terrifying erotic power.  I also love writing master scenes for Swifty, and hope readers indulge me to their profitable enjoyment.  Finally, it was only with two Chesterfield novels completed that I realized something mysterious and unconscious about character creation.  Two “minor” characters — Jeanine the Gym Chick in THE CHESTERFIELD HOURS, and Deputy Dibberly in THE CHESTERFIELD CLUE — each became in the end sort of working-class, underdog heroes:  conceived to fill a function, they took on such life that they were fully in the arena at the climax.  Somehow I found justice in that, and wonderment.

When will book two be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?

A good question, as slow cooking works for me.  I do have a title, and a bit of scribbling.  It’s THE CHESTERFIELD NIECES, and those nieces will be quite a contrast and quite a handful together.  One will be rich and spoiled (Barbara’s), the other a daughter of Juanita’s brother Johnny, a border sheriff in Texas.  And she’s also, sharp readers of The Clue will surmise, cousin to the late Miguel.  At least one character from The Clue is going to get killed, and though it won’t be at the hands of either niece, their misadventures won’t be a bit of help in solving anything!

How do you balance story development with shocking plot twists? Or can they be the same thing?

It is always an organism with me, not schematic.  Characters come first, like Adam and Eve.  I have to clearly see and hear them or they are not there.  They have not only their own voices but their own drives, upon which they act for good or evil.  OK then.  For a shocking plot twist I will cite the decision, quite late in the game, to write a second murder.  The primary murder follows country-house tradition:  a wealthy, rather disagreeable older family member has cruelly treated many, and created motive all around.  A second murder, I felt, would really turn the screw and open up new dimensions, yet be almost traumatically painful.  I went on and wrote it, and feel right about it.  So that was a battlefield decision, more than halfway through, and so were some character creations made spontaneously:  Fauncebroke (“Fancy Boy”) Mountjoy IV, Hannes the winemaker, Mrs. DeChambeau.  They made their impact, and I like to think the two judges, one male one female, registered as distinct personalities with distinct bench styles.

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Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/08/14/old-fashioned-country-house-murder-mystery/