GUEST AUTHOR SUSAN CORY ON WHY ARCHITECTS MAKE GREAT AMATEUR SLEUTHS--AND CRAFTY KILLERS

Like her sleuth, Susan Cory is an architect practicing out of a turreted office. Like Iris, she has a brown belt in karate. She lives in Cambridge, MA with her architect husband and her bossy mutt, not a Basset hound. Learn more about Susan and her books at her website. 

Why Architects Make Great Amateur Sleuths—and Crafty Killers

The mystery world is littered with sleuths who are cops, P.I.s, countless lawyers, bookstore owners, caterers, ministers—practitioners of every profession but my own, architecture. Aren't we problem-solvers? Don't we find ourselves deeply enmeshed in other people's lives? Don't we passionately defend our beliefs? Clearly the architecture world has been ignored as a mystery setting, and architects have been neglected as sleuths and, yes, murderers.

In my graduate program alone at Harvard's GSD, I found a setting ripe for murder. Egos were flying, and critics would reduce sleep-deprived students to tears and screaming matches at final juries. Later, out in the real world, a tiny handful of architects would claim all the plum commissions, as a single architect each year would be awarded the Pritzker Prize, ratcheting them to Starchitect status.

Several years ago, I decided to remedy this oversight by writing the Iris Reid Mystery series. Iris designs houses in Cambridge, MA, while her loyal Basset hound, Sheba, sleeps nearby inside the fireplace hearth. Iris spends her days hunched over a drafting table in her turreted home office, or butting heads with sexist contractors at construction sites. She spends her nights with the sexy neighborhood chef. Her loyal friend, Ellie, has her back.

I started writing the first book, Conundrum, in my head while attending my own 20th GSD reunion, reconnecting with backstabbing, competitive classmates. (In fairness, there were plenty of nice, normal fellow students, but they aren't as much fun to write about as the prima donnas.) In this book, Iris also returns to her 20th Architecture School reunion, only to discover the body of her former GSD boyfriend at a neo-Modernist house she's designed. That did not happen to me.

In the second book, Facade, Iris agrees to teach a design studio at GSD. A charismatic Dutch starchitect, also teaching that semester, lures Iris into his world. When a local schoolgirl goes missing after visiting the man's office, Iris is his only alibi. But can she actually vouch for his innocence?

Façade, Book 2 in the Iris Reid series

Smart and gutsy architect, Iris Reid, is plunged into the dark world surrounding a missing Cambridge schoolgirl. One of the girl's last visits was to Xander DeWitt, Harvard's handsome guest starchitect, who denies that they ever met. Only Iris can provide an alibi that will allow DeWitt to keep his perfect life. But can she actually vouch for his innocence?

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

A SEARS KIT HOUSE SLEUTH

The Yates model Sears kit house

Heather Weidner has been a mystery fan since Scooby Doo and Nancy Drew. Her short stories appear in Virginia is for Mysteries and Virginia is for Mysteries Volume II. Learn more about her and her writing at her website/blog. 

Secret Lives and Private Eyes

Between 1908 and 1940, homeowners could shop and purchase houses through the Sears and Roebuck catalog. The parts, including hardware and varnishes, arrived by railroad and were ready for assembly on the owner’s lot.

All materials arrived precut and fitted with instructions. Some homeowners hired contractors, while others assembled their own homes. The boards, molding, and pipes usually had markings still visible in many of the homes today. It was a great marketing plan by Sears to sell the home to buyers who would also need furnishings, household items, and lawn gear offered by their stores.

By 1937, according to the Sears Archives, home sales had reached $3.5 million. There were over 447 home models to choose from, and in 1923, Sears added barns to its offerings. During its run, Sears sold over 70,000 of these ready-to-be-assembled homes.

Private investigator, Delanie Fitzgerald in Secret Lives and Private Eyes, lives in a Sears Catalog home. While there are several of these houses in Hopewell, Virginia in the Crescent Hills neighborhood, I took the liberty of moving one to Chesterfield County for my character’s residence.

Delanie lives in the Yates model, which according to original advertising, “was a mellow house, pleasantly flavored with English-cottage characteristics.” Its first floor has four rooms and a bath. It also has a second floor with three bedrooms and a bath. The bungalow is quirky and quaint and matches her style. This model was marketed as a complete home on the first floor level. Buyers could finish the second floor at their leisure. In 1938, the Yates model originally cost between $1,812 and $2,058.

When my husband and I first moved to Central Virginia, we toured nearby Hopewell. I fell in love with the catalog homes that have lasted well over seventy years. It was the perfect residence for my spunky sleuth.

References

http://www.virginia.org/Listings/HistoricSites/SearsCatalogHomes/

http://searsarchives.com

http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/kithome/rt-searskits.shtml

Secret Lives and Private Eyes

Business has been slow for PI, Delanie Fitzgerald, but her luck seems to change when a tell-all author hires her to find rock star Johnny Velvet. Could the singer whose life was purportedly cut short in a fiery car crash still be alive? And as if sifting through dead ends in a cold case isn’t bad enough, Chaz Wellington Smith, III, a loud-mouthed strip club owner, hires Delanie to uncover information on the mayor’s secret life. When the mayor is murdered, Chaz is the key suspect. Now Delanie must clear his name and figure out the connection between the two cases before another murder – probably her own – takes place.

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

DECORATING WITH JEANIE--GUEST AUTHOR E. F. WATKINS

Award-winning author E. F. Watkins specializes in paranormal mystery and suspense. She’s also a founding member of the Garden State Speculative Fiction Writers. Today she’s here to discuss decorating with us. Seem like an odd combination? Read on. Learn more about E. F. at her website and more about Dark Music here. -- AP

Quinn Matthews, the heroine/sleuth of my new paranormal mystery Dark Music, writes about architecture and interior design for a living. She buys the Victorian house of her dreams in a quiet New Jersey suburb, only to discover it is haunted. The ghosts awaken latent psychic abilities Quinn didn't know she possessed, turn her life upside down and even thwart her attempts to sell the place. The only way she can lay them to rest is to solve a 100-year-old crime—the murder of the house's first owner, whose love life was far from "Victorian"!

Buy Link

All of this should be enough to keep any single 30-something busy, but Quinn graciously has taken time out from both her journalistic career and her sideline as a psychic sleuth to offer a few tips on decorating a 19th-century house on a slim budget:

The basic care and feeding of a Victorian home can strain anyone's finances, before you even think of furnishing it to suit the period. Good antiques from more than 100 years ago don't come cheap! If you weren't lucky enough to find a stash of these in your attic, here are a few ways to “cheat” with style:

* Scour vintage shops for pieces from the 1940s, which often had a neo-Victorian look. You should be able to find plenty of solid wooden furniture with curves, carving, inlay and other ornate touches. The pieces may be a bit more simplified than high Victorian, but that just makes them easier to dust—and much cheaper!

* If you love the lines of a piece but not the finish, you can strip it and refinish it—which calls for some real skill and elbow grease—or you can just prime and paint it. For the "shabby chic" effect, paint it white or a light pastel shade, change the knobs to cut-glass or flowered ceramic, and maybe add an old-fashioned floral decal in a key spot.

* Want the effect of dramatic Victorian wall treatments without spending a lot on wallpaper? Get a deep wallpaper border in a style you like, apply it near the ceiling and paint the rest of the wall to coordinate. Rich shades like rose, rust and gold are true to the period, though you may want to go lighter if your rooms are small.

* Intact throw pillows from 100 years ago are hard to come by, so try 1940s barkcloth in a romantic floral. The full drapery panels can be pricey, but all you need for a pillow or two is a remnant. Center a partial landscape or big burst of flowers on a round or square pillow form, and trim it in satiny braid or fringe for a Victorian look.

    

* If you like to needlepoint or crochet, you can make your own pillow covers in Victorian styles. Sometimes you can find an old needlepointed pillow “front” among the linens in an antique shop—just use a sturdy, solid-colored cotton or velvet for the back. Tack an old, crocheted doily onto a plain or calico pillow to give it that turn-of-the-century look.

* Have any old photos of your ancestors from that period? Display them—or copies if the originals are too frail—in antique or antique-looking frames. They'll add a touch of your own, personal past to your decor.

* Found a battered old trunk in the basement or attic? Clean it up yourself, or let a professional restore it, then display it as a coffee table or a funky storage piece. Finally, be sure to hang onto any contents of the trunk—such as period clothing, keys, a scrapbook or a journal—that provide clues to the history of your house. They might come in handy, just in case it turns out to be haunted! (Trust me on this…)