Interview: Kate Colquhoun, author of MURDER IN THE FIRST-CLASS CARRIAGE

Kate Colquhoun’s fantastic Murder in the First-Class Carriage is a meticulously researched telling of the death of Thomas Briggs, the first murder victim in the history of the British rail system. In 1864, Briggs disappeared from a first-class Victorian rail car, only to be discovered some time later, badly injured on the train tracks. Less than a day after being found, Briggs died, and the hunt for his killer began. Kate Colquhoun’s vivid account of the unprecedented crime, as well as the subsequent investigation, trial, and media explosion surrounding the event has received stellar reviews, and placed her on the short-list for the 2011 Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award for nonfiction. Today Kate joins us on the Winged Elephant to talk about the work that went into producing Murder in the First-Class Carriage. Welcome, Kate!

OP: In Murder in the First Class-Carriage, you describe not only an account of the first Victorian railway murder, but also the enormous degree of media attention that the investigation received. What drew you to this story, nearly one hundred and fifty years after the fact?

KC: I found myself reading some of those old accounts and just got hooked. It's something to do with how this one event opened a window onto the period of the early 1860s (the sensation-loving generation) and also onto the gritty industrial extremes of London—then the greatest city in the world. Because the story turned out to be more than the sum of its parts and because the cast of characters was as rich and varied as a Dickensian novel, they were believable and I cared about them.

OP: Although it is a work of nonfiction, the book still has the pace and drama of a novel. Did you find inspiration in traditional genre fiction—crime novels and thrillers—while working on Murder in the First Class-Carriage?

KC: Absolutely. I read nothing for pleasure but Victorian sensation novels and crime writing: both fiction and nonfiction. Obviously In Cold Blood remains the greatest nonfiction account of a brutal crime and it is masterfully well told. But novels like Caleb Carr's The Alienist were as useful to me for their renderings of pace and atmosphere as The Woman in White.

OP: Can you tell us a bit more about the research process? How long did you spend writing the book, and how difficult was it to access primary documents like police reports and trial transcripts?

KC: Fortunately police and Home Office files relating to several of the most high profile capital cases of the later nineteenth century have survived in the National Archives and, fortunately, these are located on my side of London. I could not have written the book without them. I'm not a novelist—I can't make things up. It is crucial to me only to include facts recorded at the time. That the Old Bailey Online has online transcripts of all capital case trials was an enormous help. The British Library and Brit Lib newspaper depository were equally important to my research. It's why I live in London—proximity!

OP: The race to identify the killer and catch him was eagerly followed by the public on both sides of the Atlantic. Now that Murder in the First-Class Carriage has been published in the United States, you are also a transatlantic sensation! Do you think the book holds the same interest for American and UK audiences?

KC: You'll have to ask American readers. I sure hope so. I do think that the story allowed me to create a snapshot of New York in August 1864—in the middle of the Civil War, hot, strained, still under construction, fast, mad and bustling—and of its emerging Police Department. The American advocate who represented the prisoner at the extradition hearing has to be one of the most exuberant characters I've researched. So that, for me at least, the American chapters were as involving as the ones closer to home.

OP: In 1864, the murder of Thomas Briggs provoked a widespread sense of intrigue, and an urgent need for closure. As you point out in the book though, no one could ever know the truth about what happened between Briggs and Müller on the night of July 9th. Were there any difficulties in writing this book, given the inherent uncertainty of the events it describes?

KC: I'd call them pressures rather than difficulties. I was constantly taking the book apart and 'restitching it' in the hope that the joins would not be apparent. There are clearly conventions in crime writing that have to be 'learned' and I did it the hard way, through trial and error. It was enormously fulfilling as a writer to be so stretched—consciously to employ narrative techniques in the retelling of history. I'm now a bit addicted.

Thanks for joining us, Kate. Murder in the First-Class Carriage is available now. For the latest updates from Kate Colquhoun, be sure to follow her on twitter, and check out this BBC video in which correspondent Nick Higham interviews her as they visit the documents and sites that formed the basis for her book.

Buzz is building for Eoin Colfer's PLUGGED!

If you're attending this year's BEA, stop by the Overlook booth Wednesday at 2 p.m. to get a signed galley copy of PLUGGED, Eoin Colfer's new adult thriller.

People are already getting excited for this new direction for Colfer, including Kirkus Reviews. Check out our first review for PLUGGED below!

KIRKUS REVIEWS April 15, 2011
PLUGGED Author: Colfer, Eoin
Colfer’s adult crime-fiction debut—after his bestselling Artemis Fowl YA series—introduces a big, brash, bawdy, balding anti-hero.

Transplanted from Ireland to the picaresque vale of Essex County, N.J., sharp-witted, hair-challenged, ex-professional soldier Dan McEvoy finds he must cope with a nonstop barrage of problematic issues, all with pain and suffering potential. Dan’s used to that, however. A gypsy once told him he had “an aura that looked like shark-infested water.” Consciousness raised, Dan does what he can to keep the sharks at bay. Now, down on his luck though ever hopeful, he is minding his own business as lead bouncer at Slotz—an acknowledged dive, but a man’s got to eat while he waits for a turn-around—when a drunken patron plants a kiss where he shouldn’t. Connie, the hostess whose anatomy has been transgressed, complains. Dan moves in and unwittingly begins a chain reaction that ends with the lead bouncer as the lead suspect in Connie’s murder. The word “ends” overstates the case, of course, since Dan is to trouble what bad boys like him are to a certain kind of woman. Consider tempestuous Detective Ronelle Deacon, for instance, who beds and cuffs Dan with equal vigor. Or the deluded widow Delano, in whose erotic fantasy Dan is a stand-in for her long-lost husband. Add to this a volatile mix of ill-intentioned baddies—a shady shyster, a mobster in search of misplaced booty and an intemperate ghost—who batter and bruise him from his toes to the follicles of his in-progress hair transplant, and it’s a near thing whether or not Dan will make it to the sequel undoubtedly scheduled.

It’s a considerable step from the world of YA to this novel’s extreme raunchiness, and some in the fan base—new readers as well—may view it with alarm. Others will find the goings-on funny enough to forgive anything.

First review in for THE CAMELOT CONSPIRACY!

The Camelot Conspiracy
E. Duke Vincent
Kirkus Reviews
May 2011, Overlook

An action novel from veteran TV writer and producer Vincent (Mafia Summer, 2005, etc.) about the Kennedy assassination.

With a cast of Mafia dons, politicians, the CIA, the FBI and a snake's nest of anti- and pro-Castro Cubans, the novel piles conspiracy atop conspiracy. It's 1959, and communist Castro has overthrown Batista. Eisenhower plans an invasion by anti-Castro elements. JFK gives the go-ahead but ruins the plan by seeking "plausible deniability." Next come plots, schemes and covert missions to assassinate Castro: by the Mafia, which wants its Havana casinos back; by anti-Castro elements who want their country back; and by the CIA, which wants a Soviet ally overthrown. Vincent relates the story in dozens of short, one-scene chapters covering everything from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion to the Cuban Missile Crisis. His knowledge of mobsters and bureaucrats, and the ugly underbelly of glitzy places like Las Vegas and Miami, lends an air of believability. The protagonist is Dante Amato, war hero turned mafioso with a CIA agent brother. Amato makes two forays into Cuba attempting to kill Castro, one accompanied by the beautiful Cuban refuge Marissa del Valle, a Bryn Mawr graduate willing to bed Fidel if the assignation presents an opportunity to poison him. Vincent does a fine job of moving the bull’s-eye from Castro to JFK, conjuring up the blood-lust resentment of mobster Sam Giancana, who delivered Chicago for the Kennedy campaign, only to be pursued even more fanatically by Robert Kennedy. Characterizations are generally superficial, with Dante realistically amoral rather than heroic, but the author makes intriguing use of historical characters, including E. Howard Hunt, CIA operative turned Watergate burglar.
Thrillers thrive on a conspiracy burning away like a fuse on a bomb. With this novel, Vincent strikes a fictional match and explodes the supposed cover-ups, machinations and disinformation surrounding the Kennedy assassination.

A wonderful reception for Susan Hill's SHADOWS IN THE STREET

Susan Hill's latest Simon Serralier mystery, SHADOWS IN THE STREET, went on sale in the U.S. last Thursday, and we're thrilled to see that others are loving her wonderful work as much as we are. Did you miss her review in the New York Times? See below for the full review and some other praise that has been rolling in for SHADOWS IN THE STREET.

"As every Trollope reader knows, English cathedral towns can be hotbeds of viciousness and vice. And so it is in Lafferton, where Susan Hill sets her thoughtful mysteries. As if it weren’t bad enough that flesh traffickers from Eastern Europe have been deploying a small army of underage prostitutes on the edge of town in THE SHADOWS IN THE STREET (Overlook, $24.95), the unpopular new dean of the cathedral, a “happy-clappy” Anglican evangelical, and his overbearing wife (“the Mrs. Proudie of St. Michael’s”) are hell-bent on saving the souls of these “Magdalenes,” whether they like it or not. Simon Serrailler, the brooding detective hero, doesn’t appear on the scene until a serial killer begins picking off some of the local working girls who’ve been displaced by the foreign competition. But his absence allows Hill to direct her elegant prose to other characters, especially Serrailler’s widowed sister, observed in depth as she struggles to live with her grief." -- The New York Times

“This is the fifth of Hill's exceptional series (after The Various Haunts of Men, The Pure in Heart, The Risk of Darkness, and The Vows of Silence). Her characters continue to be intelligent and engaging, and the perfect balance of drama, atmosphere, and suspense holds the reader to the very last page. Highly recommended for fans of thoughtful British mysteries, especially those written by P.D. James, Martha Grimes, and Tana French.” -- Library Journal (starred review)

“It is really the characters that are so strong in these novels and even the minor characters are brought to life... As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.” -- Canadian Bookworm Blog

“Hill continues to engage us with fresh characters and intriguing story lines.” -- MostlyFiction.com

"Right from its rain drenched opening lines, Shadows draws the reader into its bleak landscape. Hill is a master at creating atmosphere – the autumn chill hovering over the town seeps right into the story, and tightens its hold on the reader as the plot hurtles towards its climax… strong writing, taut pace and finely etched characters” -- BookPleasures.com

Missing Since August 6, 1930: The Man Who Never Returned

This is the original Missing Person poster for the Honorable Joseph F. Crater, gone missing on August 6, 1930. The story of Judge Crater is one of the most interesting unsolved cases in New York--the New York State Supreme Court Justice was last seen leaving a restaurant near Times Square, and simply disappeared.

80 years later, the case is still alive in the public consciousness (here's a quick primer for those who are unfamiliar with Judge Crater). Beloved Overlook author Peter Quinn has taken this story and woven together true crime and historical fiction in The Man Who Never Returned (coming August 5, 2010). Private investigator Fintan Dunne, the hero of The Hour of the Cat, is hired in 1955 to solve the crime.

Here's a picture of Peter Quinn holding one of the first copies of his new book fresh off the presses.

Early Praise for The Man Who Never Returned:

"Quinn delivers a satisfying solution to the real-life mystery of Joseph Crater... Quinn not only makes the existence of clues at such a late date plausible but also concocts an explanation that's both logical and surprising. The depth and complexity of the lead character is a big plus." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Freely mixing history, mystery, and novelistic license, Quinn offers a noirish tale... Quinn’s rich, insightful, evocative descriptions of New York, both in Crater’s time and in 1955, will certainly please fans of historical crime novels." --Booklist

"This hybrid of mystery and history builds a compelling case." --Kirkus

KNIFE MUSIC Needs a Cover!

David Carnoy's "scalpel-sharp medical thriller" KNIFE MUSIC will be published by Overlook this July. We need your help choosing a cover! Which of these 5 options appeals to you the most? Which would you grab off of a bookshelf?

Leave us a comment or visit us on Facebook to let us know!

R. J. Ellory's A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS: "A Gripping Mystery, Beautifully Written"

Julie Rose reviews R.J. Ellory's thriller A Quiet Belief in Angels in the current issue of Historical Novels Review: "A Quiet Belief in Angels follows narrator Joseph Vaughan, an author, who recounts the story of his life, from his time as a child in rural Georgia in the early 1940s to a hot, dark hotel room in 1960s New York City, where we learn that Joseph has just shot a man. Previously published in over 20 languages and a bestseller in the UK, A Quiet Belief in Angels is the first of Ellory’s books to be available in the US. In a series of flashbacks and flash forwards, Joseph tells the story of his life, wreathed in heartache and tragedy, defined by a series of child mutilations and murders in his own hometown. When he finally escapes Georgia and moves to New York City to chase his dream of becoming a writer, he finds that has not escaped, and that tragedy and death itself has followed him. Ellory renders mid-20th century America convincingly, with a good sense of place and time, through both description and realistic dialogue. That said, while the Georgia sections ring particularly true, the Manhattan passages suffer from too many historical details shoe-horned in. However, those quibbles are minor. This is a gripping mystery, beautifully written."