Exclusive interview with author Francis Brody and a review of her mystery novel set after the Boer War
Rating: Three Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“Certain ideas were already in my head,” says Medal for Murder author Francis Brody. “I knew there would be a theatre production, with a ruthlessly ambitious director, and a young cast, likely to fall in love with each other. There would be a retired army officer, and a pawn shop robbery. The light bulb moment came when I decided on the setting, Harrogate.” Harrogate is where in 1928 Agatha Christie was found after a nationwide hunt after going missing.
Brody’s characters are exo-centric, loveable and exasperating all at the same time and Medal for Murder is a welcome addition to her Kate Shackelton mystery series. Brody’s description of Harrogate is vivid and the story is well-paced. The two story lines of the book play off each other. There is lots of action and it moves from locale to locale as Kate tries to solve the mysteries.
Kate Shackleton just gotten her second paid investigation, to find the stolen goods of a local pawn-shop. Kate and her associate, former police officer Jim Skyes, need to contact the people whose items were stolen from a pawn shop safe. Kate needs to travel to Harrogate to contact some people about the missing pieces. While there Kate goes to see a play by her friend Meriel Jamieson. It’s raining as Meriel and Kate leave the theater. Ducking in a doorway, they stumble upon a body with a knife in it. It’s Mr. Milner, the father of one of the actors in the show. Inspector Charles of Scotland Yard was about to leave for London when the call comes in about the murder. The inspector knows Kate from her last case, Dying in the Wool.
“I’ve worked in theatre so that part of the story came from my experience and imagination,” says Brody. “One of the best things about writing a historical mystery that is set not too far in the dim and distant past is that when I talk about the books someone in the audience will tell me a family story,” says Brody.
“It’s been a great pleasure to become part of the crime writing community, through joining the British Crime Writers’ Association, Mystery People, and the American Sisters in Crime,” says Brody. “I now attend conferences and conventions which are hugely enjoyable. In early May, I was at Malice Domestic in Bethesda, Maryland, chatting with readers and fellow authors.”
Brody wrote her first novel based on her mother’s family stories. “By the time I finished it, my mother did not have long to live,” says Brody. “She had read the manuscript but I wanted her to hold the book so had it printed locally. This was what I sent to my agent. She said that if I wrote it as a saga, it would be published. She was right.”
Brody’s books have have twice been nominated for the UK Dagger in the Library award, and writing as Frances McNeil, Brody has written sagas and scripts for radio, theatre and television. She is currently working on Kate Shackleton book six. Book five, Murder on a Summer’s Day, will be published in the UK in October. Brody lives in Leeds.
A Medal For Murder by Francis Brody. Hardback, 432 pages, St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin/Thomas Dunne Books (2/2013) ISBN: 9780312622404 $25.99
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