Nupur Tustin, author of Mystery in Marseille, the latest novel in the Sophie’s Adventures series, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to chat about the inspiration for her Sophie’s Adventures series.

Welcome, Nupur. I’ll turn the floor over to you –

I’ve always found the world of espionage exciting. Coded messages, disguises, travel, and danger combine to form an enthralling tale. That’s one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed the James Bond movies and Dorothy Gilman’s Mrs. Pollifax series.

But there’s another world where disguises and travel are common. The world of art recovery. Art detectives like Charley Hill and the FBI’s Robert Wittman—author of the book Priceless—find themselves infiltrating the world of shady dealers, collectors, and criminals to recover stolen masterpieces and artifacts.

And this is where my Sophie’s Adventure series finds its inspiration.

Like Dorothy Gilman’s Mrs. Pollifax, Sophie is an ordinary woman, albeit young. She’s the assistant of the Commandant of the Calais police. Her foray into undercover missions begins in The Pompadour Necklace when she chases a conman all the way from Calais to London to recover a stolen necklace.

That experience draws the attention of Scotland Yard’s Detective Superintendent Ben Norris whose undercover moniker is Uncle Arthur. And so Sophie, a woman who delights in disguises and wigs, is able to travel all over the world to recover stolen art with Uncle Arthur, who might pose as an art-loving tourist, a shady dealer or collector as the occasion demands.

Like most art detectives and indeed like any law enforcement agent who works undercover missions, Sophie has the remarkable gift of spontaneity, of being able to read a situation or a character and improvise on the fly.

That skill comes in handy in Marseille. After all, Sophie is on vacation, hardly expecting to encounter a stolen Matisse and a cunning thief.

In Marseille, even her tenuous connection with the Calais police is of no use. She has no jurisdiction in Marseille. But Sophie has no problem donning a disguise to get whatever information she needs out of her list of suspects.

Fortunately, there are costume stores aplenty in Marseille to supply her needs. That and her abundant supply of ingenuity and courage are all that’s needed for her to recover the small but valuable Matisse stolen from the Cantini.

If you enjoy armchair travel coupled with the excitement of a covert mission to outsmart a thief, you’ll love the Sophie’s Adventures series. The books can be read as standalones, so don’t hesitate to start at any point in the 3-book series. Mystery in Marseille is the latest addition to the series. Pick up your copy and dive in.

Thank you for sharing this with us, Nupur, and good luck with Mystery in Marseille, the latest book in the Sophie’s Adventures series.

Readers can learn more about Nupur Tustin by visiting the author’s website and her shop as well as her Facebook, Goodreads and Bookbub pages.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

 Amazon – Barnes & Noble    Kobo   Apple iBooks 

About Nupur Tustin: A former journalist with a Ph.D. in Communication, Nupur Tustin orchestrates murder in the historical Joseph Haydn Mystery series and paints intrigue in her contemporary Celine Skye Psychic Mystery series, based on the true  story of the unsolved Gardner Museum theft. Travel, disguises, and stolen art form the basis of undercover art sleuth Sophie’s adventures in the Sophie’s Adventure series.