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Author News & Interviews

Author Talk: Marie Benedict, author of The Mitford Affair

Jan 20, 2023

Probing the torrid political climate in the lead-up to World War II and the ways that seemingly sensible people can be sucked into radical action, THE MITFORD AFFAIR follows novelist Nancy Mitford's valiant efforts to stop the Nazis from taking over Great Britain, and the complicated choices she must make between the personal and the political. In this interview, Marie Benedict talks about why she decided to take a certain degree of liberty with this true story and add more action to it; the kinds of sources she consulted in order to learn more about the Mitford sisters and their world; which sister she found the most challenging to write about and understand; and why she believes that loyalty must have its limits.

Interview: Matt Coyle, author of Doomed Legacy: A Rick Cahill Novel

Nov 17, 2022

It’s May 2023 in San Diego. Private investigator Rick Cahill has reached a pinnacle. He married Leah, and their daughter, 14-month-old Krista, is the center of his universe. He still hasn’t told Leah about his CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and its debilitating effects. He has developed skills performing corporate background verifications by computer --- a desk jockey. His main corporate contact runs afoul of sinister characters. Her homicide draws Rick back into traditional investigative mode, with the help of PI pal Moira MacFarlane. In this interview, Matt Coyle chats with Bookreporter.com’s Dean Murphy about what inspired the plot of DOOMED LEGACY, his next novel, and Rick’s complicated friendship with Moira.

Interview: Andrea Carter, author of The Body Falls: An Inishowen Mystery

Nov 3, 2022

At the close of 2021’s MURDER AT GREYSBRIDGE, Glendara’s top cop Tom Malloy had popped the question to solicitor (attorney) Benedicta “Ben” O’Keeffe, to the surprise of them both. Befuddled, Ben doesn’t answer yea or nay, needing time to ponder the proposal. Being a brilliant attorney, she serves a six-month stint at a Sarasota law firm, from October to April, Florida’s balmy dry season. In the newly released THE BODY FALLS, she returns to Ireland and hurricane-like rains the day before a charity fundraiser bike race is to begin. A body falls on friend Maeve’s jeep, which is not quite the return-home welcome that Ben had hoped to receive. In this interview, Andrea Carter chats with Bookreporter.com’s Dean Murphy (Ó Murchadha) about her career, future books, the Inishowen Peninsula, and the television adaptation of her novels.

Interview: Robert J. Lloyd, author of The Poison Machine: A Hunt & Hooke Novel

Oct 27, 2022

THE POISON MACHINE is the thrilling follow-up to Robert J. Lloyd’s debut novel, THE BLOODLESS BOY, which was a New York Times Best New Historical Novel of 2021. This time, early scientists Harry Hunt and Robert Hooke of the Royal Society stumble on a plot to kill the Queen of England. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, Lloyd explains how his approach to writing THE POISON MACHINE differed from THE BLOODLESS BOY, discusses his research for the sequel and the most unexpected discovery he made during the process, and previews the conclusion to his Hunt & Hooke trilogy.

Interview: Rita Zoey Chin, author of The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern

Oct 13, 2022

THE STRANGE INHERITANCE OF LEAH FERN, Rita Zoey Chin’s debut novel, is a luminous coming-of-age story about a fiercely lonely young woman's quest to uncover the truth behind her mother's disappearance. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, Chin talks about the differences between writing this book and her memoir, LET THE TORNADO COME IN; the aspects of the story that she couldn’t grasp at first and how she finally got a handle on them; the one piece of advice she would give to aspiring novelists; and what readers can expect from her second novel.