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Today I have a guest post from the author of The Crooked Medium’s Guide To Terror, Stephen Cox. Read on for his guest post & find out more about his book below.
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Six Questions Answered. The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror by Stephen Cox
Who are the heroines?
It’s a spooky late Victorian mystery where three outsider women face all sorts of danger and deception. Mrs Ashton is a flamboyant social-climbing spiritualist and has been in her time, a fraud and a thief. Braddie, her lover, is a blunt Northern working woman posing as her servant and bodyguard who is often proved right, too late. Maisie’s a slum kid, her mother dead and her Pa an alcoholic, a ferociously cunning teenage assistant. She wants to be a female detective. None of them has a straightforward relationship with polite society or the authorities.
It’s the sequel to the Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder but doesn’t spoil the mystery in the first book. True terror is a murderer you can’t stop.
Is it a detective story or a book around character?
Absolutely both, like many of the greats in the field.
Both books open with a mysterious death, resolved as much as these things are by the end. In both cases, Mrs Ashton is approached for spiritual insight into the death, and she investigates out of concern for the client, though her motives can be murkier as well.
Accurate history or Hollywood cosplay?
I sweat hard to make it accurate historically – I check things like what bicycles, pens, and buses there were – but it also has some fantastic elements, like Mrs Ashton’s gift of occasionally reading minds. I want it to feel grounded in the 1880s.
Sometimes I don’t mention something they’d be interested in talking about – like the death of Charles Darwin – which would divert from the story. And this world might unfold differently from ours.
How is having fantastic elements fair on the reader?
So far, most readers have no problem with this. My rule: if Mrs Ashton knows something, you do. If she’s bewildered, you know it. Strict fair play.
Cosy, horror, or just historical?
“Spooky Victorian mystery” is a deliberate choice. I read and watch cosy, at the tougher end so I am not allergic to the word.
Some readers who liked the first book are happy to say it is cosy and certainly a warm vibe, amateur women sleuths and some domestic scenes encourage that. People are kind enough to call it witty.
On the other hand, I don’t shy away from the awfulness of murder or the murky side of Victorian life. Nor do I glory in it. I certainly don’t just focus wholly on the ‘puzzle’ of the murder.
It certainly wouldn’t be on the Horror shelf. I don’t underplay the bloody bits but neither do I dwell on them.
Are the “detectives” strictly professional?
No! The central emotional relationship is the committed and complicated love between flighty and flirty show-off Mrs Ashton and the steadfast and reliable Braddie. We see the strengths and weaknesses of a love lived by their own rules, but which must be kept a secret. They’ve been together nine years or more. The relationship comes under strain in both books, not least as they have different views of the perfect life and Braddie has a lower tolerance of risk. Mrs Ashton enjoys arguments and Braddie is upset by, for example, always being the grownup about paying bills. I am fascinated by how the romantic life bit works in long term relationships, particularly for a mobile and uncertain life.
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ABOUT THE BOOK
True terror is a murderer you can’t stop.
London 1882. A carpenter is killed by a train – an eerie, brutal crime. Flamboyant medium Mrs Ashton and her sapphic partner Braddie seek justice for the widow.
A charismatic new medium takes London by storm. Dock-lass Maisie sees her frightening prophesy of vengeance. A noble family is devastated, but worse is to come.
Outgunned and bewildered, the three confront a deadly conspiracy. They risk losing everything.
A reckoning from beyond the grave.
Praise for Book 1: The Crooked Medium’s Guide To Murder: “witty, atmospheric and queer-hearted”, “humour, mystery and a wonderfully crooked sense of morality… delivered with charm.”
BUY THE BOOK: Author’s website | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Kobo
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My grandmother told me I read too much. I remember walking in the garden when I was small, telling myself stories. It was over thirty years of wanting to be a novelist before I tried… and succeeded.
The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder was much loved. It arose because I wanted to write about Britishness and specifically about Englishness; about our complex relationship with the past; I wanted leads who were morally grayer but still capable of kindness. Personally, it was time for a novel with queer leads. And these difficult times I needed to write something with some uplift. I always intended more than two books. The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror is spookier, and more dangerous. It throws all three women out of their comfort zone.
I spent nearly all my childhood in Bristol, and I’m now an adoptive Londoner. I live with my partner, and it’s lovely my two adult children come back from time to time. Our garden rages wild.
FOLLOW THE AUTHOR: Website | BlueSky | Facebook Author Page | Youtube | Newsletter | Mastodon