Maggie's Journey to 20th Century Historical Mysteries and Romance

It’s a delight to be here on the release day for my second Lady Adelaide Mystery, Who’s Sorry Now?

More about Addie later, but I thought I might start with…the start. Like so many romance authors, I began my career writing Regency historicals, because who can argue with Georgette Heyer? I wrote two series, the Courtesan Court and London List books, although technically George the IVth was on the throne in the third Courtesan Court although he hadn’t had his coronation. J

And then, I came across a photograph of my grandmother and her sisters, known collectively as “the beautiful Miller sisters.” She was the youngest of eight siblings, and the seventh sister (her poor brother), born in 1887 or 1889. The discrepancy results from all the sisters changing their birthdates in the family Bible, the minxes.

Seeing them in their Edwardian finery around the turn of the twentieth century inspired me to write the Ladies Unlaced series, all featuring young women anxious to embrace societal changes. Telephones! Cars! Jobs! Suffrage! All of the Miller sisters save for my grandmother were redheads; some never married, and those that did were either very late to do so, or wound up scandalously divorced. I believe they must have been forces to reckon with.

After a brief foray into the Victorian era (the Cotswold Confidential novels), I turned again to the twentieth century, only this time I decided to try a mystery—quite a challenge for a writer who loves research but does not plot.

At all.

Thus came Lady Adelaide Compton, a widowed marquess’ daughter in possession of seven automobiles. It would have been eight, but her late husband crashed it, along with his French mistress, into a stone wall. There’s a strong vein of romance in the series, because Addie is a pretty, rich widow—who wouldn’t want to be husband number 2? Well, except for Detective Inspector Devenand Hunter from Scotland Yard, an ambitious Anglo-Indian fully away of society’s constraints. Will Addie break him down? TBD.

I’ve discovered the 1920s were an absolute golden age of music. As a little girl, I saved my allowance to buy a 45 of Connie Francis’ Who’s Sorry Now, loving her voice. Who could imagine it was written in 1923? And who could imagine it would be the perfect title for a mystery set in 1925 amongst the Bright Young People in London, whose only goal was to have to no goal but lots of fun?  The more things change, the more they stay the same, with apologies to the French.

And here’s my grandmother, as a young mother during the Great War, and as a gay divorcee sometime in the late twenties or early thirties. I think she’d be tickled to know how she’s inspired me. Do you have favorite old family photographs?

Maggie Robinson is a former teacher, library clerk, and mother of four who woke up in the middle of the night, absolutely compelled to create the perfect man and use as many adjectives and adverbs as possible doing so.

A transplanted New Yorker, she lives with her not-quite perfect husband in Maine, where the cold winters are ideal for staying inside and writing historical mysteries and romances.

A two-time Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice nominee, her books have been translated into French, German, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, Thai, Dutch, and Italian. Maggie is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Romance Writers of America, and Maine Romance Writers.

You can find Maggie's website at www.maggierobinson.net. She's also on  Twitter @maggielrobinson  and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maggie.robinson.165