I'm thrilled to have my first historical mystery writer! Susanna Calkins' evocative mysteries feature Lucy Campion, a chambermaid who, amid the social chaos of the Plague and the Great Fire of London, manages to rise to the ranks of printer's apprentice -- an unusual job for a woman at the time. But whether she's a servant or an apprentice, her quick mind and sense of justice are always at the fore. And they often end up embroiling her in murders.

We talk about Susanna's extensive research, which include a mention that the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London is this September. We also talked about murder ballads, the inspiration for the first book in the series, A Murder at Rosamund's Gate, which I am giving away as part of the May Bundle Of Books, along with Tammy Kaehler's (signed) Dead Man's Switch and Amanda Flower's latest cozy, Crime and Poetry, and a $10 Amazon gift certificate.

I hunted around the Internet to find a good post to share on murder ballads, and the best one I could find was written by Susanna herself!

She also gives a shout out historical mystery writers whose work she loves: Anne Perry and Rhys Bowen. But most notably, she introduced me to the work of Sam Thomas, whose Midwife Mysteries are set 20 years before Susanna's books. His next book will involve the backstory of one of Susanna's characters -- a literary crossover not to be missed! (And much more to my taste than crossing Jane Austen with zombies. Not that anyone would do that...)

There are four books in Susanna's series, earning her a slew of nominations for Best Historical Mystery (Agatha, Lefty, Mary Higgins Clark, and the Macavity's Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award). For those wanting to know what order they should read in, here you go:

1 - A Murder at Rosamund's Gate

2 - From the Charred Remains

3 - The Masque of a Murderer

4 - A Death Along the River Fleet

Rather read than listen? Here's the transcript. Enjoy!

Transcript of Interview with Susanna Calkins

Welcome to Destination Mystery, a podcast for readers who love a good mystery. I'm Laura Brennan.

Laura Brennan: Today I have the pleasure of talking to Susanna Calkins. Her historical mysteries feature Lucy Campion, a young woman who rises from chambermaid to printer’s apprentice in the turmoil of 17th century England, surviving both the Plague and the Great Fire of London -- and using her observational skills and quick wits to find the answers to more than one suspicious death. Susanna’s books have been nominated for Macavity, Lefty, Mary Higgins Clark and Agatha awards, and her fourth novel, A Death Along the River Fleet, has just been released.

Susanna, thank you for joining me.

Susanna Calkins: Thanks for having me.

LB: So tell me, how did you get started writing fiction?

SC: Well, I started writing, I mean these books, these are my first ones, I started writing them when I was working on my research for my dissertation. And I started getting the ideas for these books while I was doing research for other things, for my academic work. And those ideas just kind of kept staying in my head and I thought, you know, I think I could write this. But further back, I mean, I did write stories all the time when I was pretty little and I was always writing. So I definitely was always interested in writing fiction, but I didn’t really put it, I didn’t make it work until much later in life.

LB: So I have two related questions. One is, why mysteries? So, why mysteries?

SC: I just really like mysteries. I really was one of those kids that did grow up on Nancy Drew and then really more Agatha Christie. I remember when I was 12, I would go home, you know, I would go to the library and I would read another Agatha Christie book. Because they were the kind you could read really fast. And I just really liked them. And then later on I discovered other mystery writers, but I was always, that was a kind story I like.