Anne here, introducing Alison Stuart, a fellow Australian writer and a former President and lifetime member of RWAustralia.
After publishing a number of historicals in a variety of time periods and settings, Alison has recently branched into two new areas; Australian set historicals published by Harlequin Mira (Australia) and, as A.M. Stuart, two historical crime novels set in 1910 Singapore, published by Berkley USA.
Anne: Alison, after writing historical romance and historical novels, what drew you to writing historical crime?
Alison: Thank you so much for inviting me to join the wonderful Word Wenches, particularly as the answer to your question is one of your number. I will be eternally grateful to the wonderful Mary Jo Putney for sowing the seed… We were having a writerly chat over dinner and the topic of reading matter came up. Mary Jo asked me what I liked to read and my answer was ‘crime and mystery’… ‘So why don’t you write it?’ came the response. That got me thinking and I realized I had already been writing it in the guise of historical romance (both Lord Somerton’s Heir and Gather the Bones are probably as much mystery as romance) and it was fun so I should probably give it a proper go!
Anne: And why not? When I first met you, you were living in Singapore, so the choice of that location for the crime novels is very understandable. Was there anything you learned about Colonial Singapore of 1910 that surprised or fascinated you? Did it make it into the books or not?
Alison: I took my three years in Singapore (as a trailing spouse) to explore firstly my commitment to writing and also Singapore itself. I realized from a western historical fiction perspective, the only period of any interest is World War 2, but I was fascinated in the earlier period – the height of Empire – what drew people to the ‘Far East’? I’m not an apologist for colonization but I am fundamentally a historian and people are people of whatever time or race. I lighted on 1910 precisely because NOTHING HAPPENED of any significance except the opening of a bridge (which makes it into Book 1). This left me free to play with ‘Harriet’s World’ and anyone familiar with modern Singapore will know that recreating the Singapore of 1910 is a true world building project!
Anne: Being familiar with Singapore myself, and having travelled in the back-blocks of Malaysia when my parents lived there, I think you evoked the atmosphere very well.
Both novels feature the "team" of Harriet Gordon and Inspector Robert Curran. Tell us about them.
Alison: Harriet Gordon, widow (lost her husband and son to typhoid in India), failed (in her mind) suffragette, unpaid assistant at her brother’s school and shorthand typist is based on an advertisement I found in a 1905 edition of THE STRAITS TIMES… Mrs. Howell offered up her services as a shorthand typist with ‘absolute secrecy and confidentiality’. Irresistible!
Her partner in crime, Inspector Robert Curran of the Straits Settlements Police, had his genesis in a writing exercise during my time in Singapore. I suppose fundamentally I still love a good relationship in my books (and I also need a good hero to fall in love with myself).
Harriet and Robert’s relation is ‘complicated’. At the moment they are ‘just good friends’.
Anne: Could you share a snippet from one of the books, please?
Alison: I hope this isn’t too long… It’s the ‘when Curran met Harriet moment’ from SINGAPORE SAPPHIRE…
Curran turned toward the house, pacing the distance in easy strides. What had the boy called the place? Bukit Hantu? The haunted hill.
He made a mental note to ask one of the Malay constables how the place had acquired that name. The name on his notes just said Newbold—Mandalay.
He approached the steps leading up to the verandah. Beyond the wide expanse of warped and broken boards, the front door stood open but the bulk of his sergeant, Gursharan Singh, loomed out of the gloom, obscuring any view into the house.
“Who found the body?” he asked Singh.
“She did, sir.” His sergeant indicated a European woman who sat bolt upright in a rattan armchair on the verandah, her hands clutching a leather handbag. A fall of pink bougainvillea that climbed across the verandah and threatened to engulf the house had hidden her from sight.
The woman looked up at him from beneath a sensible pith helmet swathed in a net and he had an impression of a youngish woman, with brown hair, coiled, as was the fashion, at the nape of her neck. She wore a plain white, high-necked blouse fastened with a brooch at her throat and a skirt of an indeterminate dark color. A thoroughly respectable woman who seemed at odds with the decayed house.
Beneath a complexion far too unfashionably browned to have ever graced his aunt’s drawing room, she looked grey and drawn. Although he was yet to view the corpse, Curran knew it would be no sight for the fainthearted. It surprised him the woman had not succumbed to the vapors. Instead she sat waiting for him, pale but perfectly composed.
“What’s her name?”
“Gordon. Mrs. Harriet Gordon,” Singh said.
(Anne notes that at the time of posting Singapore Sapphire was still at a very special kindle price)
Anne: As Alison Stuart, you also have several novels set in early colonial Australia? Can you tell us a little about them?
Alison: I had felt for some time that the time was right for Australians to start telling our own stories in our own voices, and years of travelling the bush and the outback had provided me with a fund of experience and on a camping trip on the Snowy River, the ‘Maiden’s Creek’ stories were born. There are two books in the series (so far) which is set in a fictional gold mining town in Gippsland starting in the 1870s. The town may be fictional but I lean very heavily on the very real township of Walhalla which is a place very dear to my husband and I. In this series, the town itself is the continuation character and the stand alone stories follow the trials and tribulations of a different cast of characters – with a HEA! The first book is THE POSTMISTRESS and the second THE GOLDMINER’S SISTER.
Anne: You use (and advocate) Scrivener as a tool for writing. Why do you like it so much?
Alison: It appeals to my Capricorn desire for order and organization. I think the big mistake with Scrivener is to look on it as word processor when it is in fact a whole project management system. Particularly now I am writing series, it just makes my life so much easier being able to move from project to project with all the information I need on characters, locations etc. at my fingertips.
Anne: (Chuckling at the Capricorn desire for order and organization, as Alison and I share a birthday, and that does not at all describe my process. *g*)
Alison, what are you working on at the moment, and what excites you about it?
Alison: In this funny old year we are having, I am delighted to have signed two new contracts. The third ‘Harriet’ book, EVIL IN EMERALD, is my current WIP and I am looking forward to making a start on the third Maiden’s Creek book (as yet untitled) which will be bringing two characters from the previous two books together and MAYBE spinning them off into what, a life of crime detection… we’ll see!
Anne: Sounds exciting. Thanks so much for visiting us on WordWenches, Alison.
Alison will be giving away a signed print copy of SINGAPORE SAPPHIRE – Book 1 in the Harriet Gordon Mysteries to someone who leaves a comment or answers this question: Are you a reader of historical mysteries and what do you like about them?
Thank you so much for inviting me, Anne :-)
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Thursday, October 08, 2020 at 10:36 PM
I enjoy reading historical fiction and I also enjoy reading mysteries, so historical mysteries are a happy blend of two genres that I love.
Posted by: Sharon Seymour | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 02:28 AM
As do I, historical fiction is so much more understandable than the times we are experiencing today,
With a touch of mystery, and mysticism even better. And than back to rude reality.
Better than tranquilizers, Booze or weed? And cheaper too!
Posted by: Alyce | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 03:03 AM
Oh dear! ANOTHER new author to explore and probably to cherish! These books sound very exciting.
Thank you Ann and Alison for telling us about them.
Posted by: Sue McCormick | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 04:48 AM
I do enjoy mysteries, especially historical ones, because, well, I just enjoy stories set in the past. Would love to win one, but in the meantime I have ordered THE POSTMISTRESS. I find Australian history very interesting. and this book sounds like it is well researched.
Posted by: Mary T | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 04:51 AM
I love to read historical mysteries. I have read mysteries
since I was a teenager. I love to read historicals to be transported to a different time
and place. As I read I can see everything happening in my mind’s eye. I love the
Harriet Gordon mysteries because they take place in Singapore. A place I know nothing about.
I am just waiting for Robert and Harriet to become more than friends:). I also love the Amelia Peabody Mysteries that take place in Egypt.
Posted by: Judy Westmoreland | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 09:25 AM
It's nice to meet you, Alison! Thanks to you and Anne for the interview.
Yes, I do like historical mysteries (along with a slew of other types of books); it's a pleasure to get to know characters whose experiences in time and place are different from my own. Happy writing, Alison.
Posted by: Kareni | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 09:34 AM
Historical Mysteries are my first love when reading. Mysteries tend to show the grittier side of history than you find in other genres. If a writer has done her research, the history comes alive and the mystery is very satisfying.
Posted by: Pamela DG | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 10:49 AM
I'm reading more historical mysteries than I used to. It certainly helps to see all the great recommendations that are posted here each month. To me the mystery part is more like an adventure story. I've never tried to figure out the mystery component of any book - Grin. The relationship part of the books are very important because if It/they aren't believable than meh. Definitely the ending needs to be positive or I won't continue reading that author or series.
Posted by: Vicki L | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 12:45 PM
Alison, welcome to WordWenchLandia! It's lovely to "see" you here. I well remember that fine dinner (Brisbane, wasn't it?), and I'm glad my comment helped you in a direction you were clearly fated to follow. *G* SINGAPORE SAPPHIRE is waiting on my ereader and I'm looking forward to starting it. I've never been to Singapore, but I think it will be a wonderful setting for a mystery. I hope you visit us again in the future since you're writing different kinds of book!
Posted by: Mary Jo Putney | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 01:40 PM
I grew up reading historical fiction and biographies with my parents. Now I alternate between mystery and romance so historical mysteries and romances are a slam dunk! Stay safe and well.
Posted by: Sally Fortney | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 03:10 PM
Loved Singapore Sapphire and have ruby waiting for my on my Kindle.
Posted by: Deb Tait | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 03:27 PM
Hi Sharon... I agree - I need more from a historical than just a romance. I love throwing in a mystery for me and the readers to solve!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 06:46 PM
Hi Alyce...The word is books are doing very well this year and they do provide the perfect escape to a gentler time or a different place or just for a HEA or in the case of mysteries, justice is served.
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 06:48 PM
Hi Sue... I do hope you enjoy my Singapore set stories. It was such fun recreating a world that no longer exists ;-) Something a little different from the blood soaked lanes of England.
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 06:49 PM
Hi Mary... Oh, I'm so pleased you are giving THE POSTMISTRESS a try. There is actually a mystery in the second book of that series (even though it is a romance). It's fun writing historicals but much more fun with a mystery to solve!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 06:51 PM
Thank you, Judy. I know you are already a fan of Harriet and Curran :-) but even I don't know where their relationship is headed! Like you I am a HUGE Peabody fan - my husband and I went to a fancy dress party as Peabody and Emerson and would you believe our lovely Anne Gracie completely coincidentally came to the same party as the Crocodile on the Sandbank! Great minds think alike :-)
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 06:54 PM
Hi Kareni. One thing I like about historical mysteries (to read as well as write) is the lack of technology... no rushing off for a DNA match. For Curran and his team the height of modern policing is fingerprint matching! So the sleuths have to solve the problem using their own wits!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 06:56 PM
Hi Pamela... I absolutely agree! As I just said above, the challenge is solving a crime without modern technology - just relying on intuition and common sense. I am probably a bit guilty of resorting to 'police procedural' and Curran and his Detective Branch are fictional, but that is the joy of being a fiction writer and as long as readers get to the author note where I explain that, it is about the journey!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 06:58 PM
Hi Vicki. I agree. Crime fiction is like romance fiction, there is a reader expectation that the crime will be solved and the perpetrator brought to justice... that's why it is as popular a genre as romance. The reader is assured of a thrilling journey with a satisfying end. If the author fails in that one job, the reader is disappointed and dissatisfied. I hope I can bring you along for a ride with Harriet and Curran!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 07:01 PM
Hi Mary Jo... Yes, the credit is entirely yours (and yes it was Brisbane). It just took a little while because writing crime and mystery is VERY different from historical romance - to begin with it required this pantser to learn how to plot! I had a research trip to Singapore and Malaysia planned for December and now I'm like a bear with a sore head. Singapore will be the first place I will be travelling to WHEN we can travel again. It is my second home.
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 07:04 PM
Hi Sally. Like you, my love of historical fiction comes from my father who used to read to us every Sunday afternoon. I guess I cut my 'mystery' teeth on the Famous Five and Secret Seven and then I discovered the Ellis Peters Cadfael series which plunged me into love with historical mysteries. They are always my first choice - particularly audio books.
And thank you - mercifully my family is all safe and well but over 200 days in lockdown and it is beginning to grind a bit!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 07:06 PM
Whee... thank you so much, Deb! Hope you enjoy Book 2 :-)
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 07:07 PM
Absolutely! I enjoy so much learning history in such a painless and entertaining way. I love how historical fiction can give me a feel for the customs and outlook of particular time periods and locales. I particularly like getting to know the main characters and how they adapt to new situations.
Posted by: Pat Dupuy | Friday, October 09, 2020 at 10:47 PM
Alison, I've also found that it takes a bit of time to reboot the Muse when switching from genre (or subgenre) to another. Learning to plot is kind of major *G*, but obviously you figured it out pretty quickly!
Posted by: Mary Jo Putney | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 07:43 AM
A wonderful post, Alison and Anne! I too have visited Singapore and was rather disappointed at how little is left of the older buildings. I shall enjoy reading about how it used to be and your books sound intriguing!
Posted by: Christina Courtenay | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 07:43 AM
I'm with Sue McCormick, sighing that now I have another author I really want to read! I got hooked instantly by the Singapore Sapphire teaser. And I think almost all of us love historical mysteries and it's why we love the wenches' work! Thanks, Anne, for bringing Alison to us.
Posted by: Margaret | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 08:14 AM
Thanks so much for this post. I appreciate the introduction to a new to me author. The books all sound interesting and just like what I enjoy.
I hope everyone is taking care and staying well.
Posted by: Annette N | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 09:30 AM
Christina, when my parents lived in Penang (Malaysia) there were so many lovely old buildings, from the beautiful wooden houses in the traditional kampongs (villages) to lovely big old colonial era buildings. I'm almost reluctant to go back now, imagining how they've mostly been razed in favour of modern concrete things.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 12:39 PM
I love historical mysteries. I think what's most appealing about them is vicariously visiting a different time and place, and seeing what is either different or similar to our lives today. And I especially enjoy learning unexpected nuggets of history, that I probably would not have encountered otherwise. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Jane Nelson | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 02:23 PM
I agree, Pat and that's why I think it is so important... and a responsibility for historical fiction writers to get it correct! I have never forgiven one particular author for setting a book in my home town in 1837 and getting EVERYTHING wrong. What upset me were the reviewers thanking the author for introducing them to this hitherto unknown piece of past!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 08:36 PM
Hi Christina. It nearly all went in the 1970s - except for the efforts on one small group of conservationists who fought for the retention of the old buildings. I remember my first trip to Singapore in the 1990s and seeing whole neighbourhoods of shophouses being razed. I look at the pictures of the Police courts and South Bridge Road police headquarters and just weep. They were magnificent! But I think they've now realised the charm of the old buildings and I was heartened to hear the old Tanglin Barracks buildings which were for the hammer when we were there have been preserved. The bones are there but you do have to look hard!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 08:39 PM
Thank you, Margaret. I do hope you enjoy meeting Harriet and Curran!
The Wenches rock!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 08:40 PM
Thanks, Annette. Both Anne and I are still in a hard lockdown in Melbourne which after, effectively, 200 days is getting very wearing... but the important thing is we are safe and well and our families are too. We will get through this... meanwhile lots of books to read (and write!)
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 08:41 PM
Thanks, Jane. I think, particularly at the moment, it is good to escape into books and imagine yourself in another time and place. I admire Harriet for surviving the Singapore climate in a time without airconditioning... in long skirts and corsets and as for the clothes she had to play tennis! I couldn't bring myself to watch the tennis players when I lived in Singapore, let alone playing it myself!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 08:43 PM
Yes, sometimes it's better not to go back and just remember how things were!
Posted by: Christina Courtenay | Sunday, October 11, 2020 at 05:01 AM
That is great to hear, Alison - I'm glad they've seen sense even if it is a bit late!
Posted by: Christina Courtenay | Sunday, October 11, 2020 at 05:01 AM
I have loved all these historical stories. They are so different to the usual English Ton stories. Its nice to read a story with some meat in it. lol. I enjoyed the details of life in early australia, and life in Singapore was very interesting. So looking forward to #3 in the series.
Posted by: Roslyn Stillman | Sunday, October 11, 2020 at 05:07 PM
Thank you so much, Ros. I am having fun with book 3 of the Singapore stories (hint:Pirates of Penzance) and Book 3 of the Australian tales is calling to me!
Posted by: Alison Stuart | Sunday, October 11, 2020 at 06:13 PM
Anne here.
Thanks again, Alison for visiting the Word Wenches, and thank you to all those who've left a comment. Alison has made a random pick for her winner (she couldn't choose — said it was like choosing a favorite child!), and Sally F has been contacted.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Tuesday, October 13, 2020 at 02:47 PM