Eliza Baker is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about The Case of the Christie Curse, the latest novel in the Detective Club mystery series.

Welcome, Eliza. Let’s get started, shall we?

Tell us about the novel that you live inside. Is it part of a series?

The books are called The Detection Club Mysteries. They revolve around the real-life Detection Club and its most famous members, including Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. The first adventure begins in London at the Club’s early gatherings, when tempers flare over Agatha’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. After that, we find ourselves on the Orient Express (it’s Agatha’s first trip aboard), at archaeological digs in Mesopotamia (where Agatha meets Max, who becomes her second and best husband), on the Isle of Skye for Agatha’s wedding banns, and even along the Nile for her honeymoon.

Each book is a self-contained mystery, but the larger story is about inheritance… of secrets, of reputations, of love, and of the past we cannot quite escape.

Does the writer control what happens in the story, or do you get a say too?

Officially? The writer controls everything.

Unofficially? I’ve wrestled the pen away more than once.

I’ve refused to faint when it was convenient. I’ve withheld forgiveness when it was premature. I’ve resorted to foot-fighting and jujitsu when necessary. And I’ve insisted on examining the body myself rather than standing back like some decorative lady with a handkerchief.

The author may arrange the clues. But I choose how to see them.

How did you evolve as the main character?

When I first stepped into these pages, I was cautious to the point of cruelty (just ask some reviewers). I trusted evidence, not people. But I had good reason. I grew up without a father. And my mother died in poverty when I was young. I survived by my wits on London streets before Captain Hall intervened and redirected my life. Actually, he caught me picking his pocket and gave me an ultimatum.

That sort of childhood doesn’t encourage softness.

Over the course of the series, I’ve had to learn that independence and isolation are not the same thing. I’ve had to learn that partnership is not weakness. Theo—more on him in a moment—has forced that lesson upon me in the most infuriating way possible.

I still trust facts over feelings. But I no longer distrust feelings outright.

That’s progress.

Do you have any other characters you like sharing the story with?

Yes.

Theo Sharp. Always Theo.

He’s my chess partner, a philosopher and a would-be-novelist. He’s also the son of an English earl who would prefer he inherit an estate rather than chase murderers across continents. He sees the world in metaphors and moral dilemmas. I see it in footprints and motive. Between us, we usually arrive at the truth.

I am also partial to Agatha herself. There is steel beneath her quiet composure and a sense of adventure. People underestimate her. They always regret it.

And Dorothy, who is sharp as a blade and loyal in ways that are sometimes inconvenient.

If I am honest, I like sharing the story because it means I am not alone in it.

What’s the place like where you find yourself in this story?

It changes with each book.

London drawing rooms thick with cigar smoke and literary rivalries.
A train corridor rattling through Europe in the dark.
A desert dig house where the wind carries sand through every crack.
Scottish moors where fog swallows sound.

But wherever we are, the atmosphere is always the same. Tension beneath civility. Someone lying. Someone afraid. Someone about to die—or already dead. The means, motive, and opportunity change, but human nature prevails, for better and worse. And my time at Scotland Yard made me a keen observer of human nature.

I notice who looks at whom. Who flinches. Who stands too still.

That is my home territory.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about you and the book?

Yes.

These stories aren’t merely murder mysteries. They’re about what we inherit, from names, debts, expectations, to secrets. Theo wrestles with a title he doesn’t want. Agatha wrestles with fame she didn’t foresee. I wrestle with a past I didn’t choose.

And yet, we choose who we become.

If you walk into our pages, don’t expect drawing-room puzzles alone— although you’ll get plenty of twists and turns and brain-teasing mysteries. Expect ambition, espionage, love that arrives inconveniently, and truths that cost something.

I’ll be there, observing.

And I promise you this, I don’t miss much.

Thank you for answering my questions, Eliza, and good luck to you and your author, Kelly Oliver, with The Case of the Christie Curse, the latest book in the Detective Club mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Eliza and her author, Kelly Oliver by visiting the author’s Amazon page and her Facebook, Bookbub, Instagram @kellyoliverbooks and Pinterest pages.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

 Amazon  Amazon CA  Amazon UK  Amazon AU   Amazon IN

About Kelly Oliver: Kelly Oliver is the award-winning and bestselling author of four mystery series: The Jessica James Mysteries, The Pet Detective Mysteries, The Fiona Figg Mysteries, and The Detection Club Mysteries.

Kelly is the Past President of Sisters in Crime National, current Education Coordinator for SinC Guppies, and a Distinguished Emerita Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.