with Alan Beechey
We are delighted to welcome mystery author Alan Beechey to Omnimystery News today.
Alan is the author of the Oliver Swithin mysteries, the most recent of which is This Private Plot (Poisoned Pen Press; May 2014 hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook formats).
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Alan to talk about his books.
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Omnimystery News: When you started writing this series, did you know at first it would, indeed, become a series?
Photo provided courtesy of
Alan Beechey
Alan Beechey: An Embarrassment of Corpses, which became my first Oliver Swithin book, started out as a stand-alone — I had other, darker plans for the Oliver character. But by the end of the first draft, I realized there was more mileage in Oliver than just one book. Basically, I grew to like him. (And I positively fell in love with Effie, my female lead.) But his survival entailed some serious reworking of the plot. And it also gave me a fresh challenge, although I didn't see it at the time.
A murder mystery is based on the shattering of the world's number one taboo. A mystery author has the opportunity to depict humanity at its most extreme, spurred on by anger, greed, love, envy, jealousy, loss, and then, inevitably, guilt, forging a rich emotional connection with the reader. But in a series novel, the life-changing ordeals of its one-time victims, suspects, and culprits have to compete with events in the lives the regular cast, which are inevitably less momentous. (In a hard-boiled, the cop falls off the wagon; in a cozy, the cat falls off the davenport.) I've read disappointing books by authors who are well on in their series in which the continuing soap opera of the returning characters' lives dominates the narrative, and the mystery is almost an afterthought, thinly presented and swiftly solved. (This was even said of Dorothy L. Sayers's later mysteries.)
Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Nero Wolfe — these early sleuths didn't change much from story to story, which has often been a source of criticism. But I think these classic authors knew a thing or two about focus.
However, I have decided to let my characters move on, and hope that I'm somehow giving good mystery even if I get up to my twentieth Swithin book, in which Oliver wears his pants hitched up to his armpits and leaves his blinker on all the time. The latest book, This Private Plot, ends with a revelation that will make Oliver re-examine his entire life. But it comes after the murder is solved.
OMN: Into what genre would you place your books? And do you have any issue with how others may categorize your books?
AB: I'm cozy. I'm also humor. No, I've never had a problem with the subgenres of mystery, because they're essential signposts that let the reader know what to expect in terms of their personal taste. Although I do have a habit every now and again of stretching the traditional rules of the cozy and seeing if I can slip in a little onstage sex or a bit of blood. Mainly the sex.
When the ARC of This Private Plot went out to reviewers, my publisher – Poisoned Pen Press's Editor-in-Chief Barbara Peters — used the word "bawdy" twice in her cover note, but then went on to recommend the book as a Mother's Day gift.
OMN: Tell us something about This Private Plot that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.
AB: This Private Plot appeared within a week or so of Shakespeare's 450th birthday (and takes place in England's "Shakespeare country," including climactic scenes in the Bard's birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon). The mystery of Shakespeare's true identity is crucial to one of the main strands in the plot — I offer two solutions that I think are new and, despite being off the wall, entirely feasible. (And the story features an appearance on stage by Will himself). So I hope all those Shakespeare enthusiasts out there get to hear about it, although I should say it's still more of a romp than a scholarly treatise.
OMN: Are any of the characters in the books based on, or inspired by, people you know?
AB: The physical appearance of most of my characters is based on people I know. For example, Oliver's girlfriend, Effie, looks exactly like my girlfriend from my late teens, whose amazing curly hair always demanded immortalization. (The original, Julia, has agreed not to sue me.)
Only the second Swithin mystery, Murdering Ministers, takes some elements of its plot from real events, which I witnessed growing up in the English nonconformist church — and in all cases, what ended up in the book was a watered-down version of the reality. A couple of its characters also borrow more than their appearance from their prototypes.
Otherwise, plots and personalities are the result of my diseased imagination.
OMN: Describe your writing process for us.
AB: I'm a passionate believer in outlining, but more in the form of notes and diagrams and tables than a coherent synopsis. This is particularly important in a mystery, where structure, pace, the placement of clues, etc., are all as essential to the storytelling as choosing the right words.
I think an outline is like a car trip — you know where you're starting, you know where you're going, you know the basic route from A to B, but once you're on the road, you're open to finding the short cuts or the scenic byways, or picking up a hitchhiker or two. And occasionally you change your mind and end up at C.
But I don't ever recommend writing biographies, because then the temptation is to drop them wholesale into the final text, bringing the momentum of the story to a screeching halt for a pointless chunk of back-story. Character details should emerge as and when (and only if) they become necessary, preferably entwined with some plot advancement. Instead, I hold conversations with the characters while I'm walking the dog until I feel I know them well enough to insert them in the story.
OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories? Any particularly exciting or challenging topics?
AB: I took up fiction because I'm basically lazy. I didn't think fact-checking was necessary. If anyone were to challenge a piece of information, I thought I could simply retort "that's the way it is in my version of the world." (Or as Simon Brett once suggested, "Well done, you spotted it.") Little did I know …
So I remember years ago sitting down with toxicologist Luci Zahray at a Malice Domestic conference to make sure I'd got the effects of strychnine poisoning correct for Murdering Ministers. And Luci proceeded to go through all the various forms of strychnine by producing samples from her purse and passing them to me! (To thank Luci, I put her dog, Murray, into the book.)
For the new book, at the risk of giving anything away, let's say I had to research a bit of civil engineering. I found a professor in Environmental Management at the University of San Francisco, who also happens to be my brother-in-law. But the main topic — certainly the most extensive amount of research I've ever undertaken — was Shakespeare's life, which involved a special trip to Stratford and reading several volumes of biography. I even had to read Hamlet. Twice.
OMN: Tell us more about the settings for the books. How true are you to them?
AB: A sense of place is essential. In An Embarrassment of Corpses, London landmarks become part of a serial killer's pattern, and I couldn't afford to get any details wrong. The trouble was, even at the time of writing that first Swithin mystery , I'd already lived in New York for ten years, so trips home from New York included a slightly humiliating amount of basic sightseeing. (To my shame, I was forced to take photographs in Piccadilly Circus! Like some bloody tourist.) These days, Google Maps is indispensable.
I was so pleased when an early reviewer of This Private Plot complimented me on the realistic way I'd described its main location, a Cotswolds village called "Synne," because it's entirely fictional. (Although its general layout is based on a real Gloucestershire village called Guiting Power, which frankly sounds like a made-up name.) In the plot, Synne is almost a character in itself.
OMN: If you could travel anywhere in the world to research a setting — all expenses paid, of course — where would it be?
AB: Boring answer: London. Because that's where one of the murders takes place, but I couldn't afford to stay at a hotel in my home town these days unless all my expenses were paid. Plus I could visit my friends.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?
AB: My three sons, who are all now in double digits, take up a lot of my time, although their antics tend to feed my blog rather than my books.
I love music, and now that we can easily notate and play back music on the computer, I enjoy writing choral music, purely for my own fun. Since I'm a sub-standard lyricist, I've been setting existing texts, including a half-hour version of "The Walrus and the Carpenter," about thirty Christmas carols, and several Shakespeare songs. So there's usually a bit of musical lore floating around the books, such as a really, really bad pun on composers' names in This Private Plot that I've been waiting twenty years to work in somewhere.
OMN: Tell us more about how your books came to be titled.
AB: Most people think that the title of the first Swithin mystery, An Embarrassment of Corpses, is a variation on the phrase "an embarrassment of riches." But that's not how it happened.
I'd gone through half a dozen name changes before I hit on the brilliant and original idea that my titles should all be quotes from Macbeth (mainly because, by then, I'd already stumbled on a doozy for the second book). And so the manuscript of Swithin 1 went to the publisher under the dull name Mortal Consequences until (a) I found that using Macbeth quotes for titles was number three on a well-known list of clichés for mystery writers, and (b) I realized I hated it anyway. Hunting around in desperation, I recalled a quote from Malcolm Cowley, "an extravagance of corpses." I thought it would smack of chutzpah to copy it directly, because he was referring to the nine million dead in the First World War, and I'd bumped off a mere six victims. So I substituted "embarrassment" for "extravagance," which had the added bonus of a word that means shame, still the dominant influence on English social life, at least for my generation.
But I did stick with Macbeth for Swithin 2, Murdering Ministers, as the book features both murdering and ministers. Duh. This Private Plot is also Shakespeare (Henry VI part 2), and I like it because it works at least three different ways. (Spoilers.)
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author? And what might you say to aspiring writers?
AB: The best advice came from one of those "How to be published" books, which I read while I was still working on my first (unpublished) mystery: "What to do after you've mailed your first novel to an agent or publisher?" Answer: Start work immediately on the second novel. (And if I'd followed that advice, I'd be on that twentieth Swithin mystery by now.)
The harshest criticism? I've never been able to please one particular review magazine, which consistently complains that my plots are complex. I thought that was the point …
I do a few workshops on mystery writing every year, and the number one thing I want a participant to take away is that it's essential to know your voice and match it to the right theme or sub-genre. Are you cozy or noir? Funny or deadly serious? Henry James couldn't pen a hard-boiled, Ernest Hemingway couldn't author a furry. Write the way you like to write, not the way you think you're supposed to write. Writing a book is hard enough. There's no need to make it harder by stifling your natural style. I learned that one after attempting my first book, which is why it's unpublished. And unpublishable.
OMN: What kinds of feedback have you received from your readers?
AB: Oliver Swithin writes children's books, featuring a disgusting character called Finsbury the Ferret. And the most frequent comment I get from readers is why don't I write the books for real. (I have included a couple of brief extracts from Oliver's stories in the novels.) The reason I give is that I think it's more effective if we leave Finsbury's depravity to the readers' imagination.
Incidentally, the best response I ever had to my first book was from mystery doyenne Diane Plumley, who called it "the perfect mystery," both because of the many Lewis Carroll references and because there was a ferret in the book. It didn't hurt my initial sales that I'd managed, quite inadvertently, to tick all the boxes for a ferret enthusiast who happened to be, at the time, working in Manhattan's "Murder Ink" specialist bookstore. Diane became a dear friend, and I named a London suburb after her in the next book. (And I'm contractually obliged to make it clear that the objectionable British beast in Oliver's books is not the same breed or even species as the misunderstood American domesticated ferret.)
But I also want to mention June Costello. Shortly after Murdering Ministers appeared, I got a handwritten letter in the mail signed by June, postmarked in Connecticut. She said she'd never written to an author before, but she wanted me to keep producing the Swithin books, because she found Oliver lovable and the characters "such fun." There was no return address, and I've never been able to track her down to say thank you. But that one sweet letter has meant as much to me as any good review or award. Although I'm prepared to feel differently if I ever win one. (Coughs to disguise a grunt of "Agatha!")
OMN: Have any specific authors or books influenced how and what you write today?
AB: In the dedication of the new book, I credit my late mother with giving me a copy of The Mysterious Affair at Styles when I was twelve, which prompted a precocious frolic through several more Agathas, the Complete Sherlock Holmes, and much of Bond (although my parents were warned to hide my copy of The Spy Who Loved Me).
Hearing a BBC radio review of P.D. James's Death of an Expert Witness brought me back to the genre while I was at university. At that time, Penguin and Collins in the UK were keeping many classic series in print, and as well as all of Baroness James's works to date, I devoured much of Michael Innes, Julian Symons, Marjorie Allingham, James McClure, John Dickson Carr, H.R.F. Keating, Josephine Tey, G.K. Chesterton, and many others, which I'm sure is the only reason I didn't gain a first-class degree. (Ahem.)
These were my influences when I gave up writing bad screenplays with friends and started on a novel — strictly fairplay, old school, largely British-ish. I wrote what I loved to read, and what I thought I might be good at, partly because of a natural deviousness, partly because I'd learned from the masters.
But three authors in particular finally pushed me in the direction of humor, after foolishly resisting that facetious inner voice for so long: Edmund Crispin (the Gervase Fen series), Colin Watson (the Flaxborough chronicles), and the immortal P.G. Wodehouse, who by not being a mystery writer, is therefore the paradigm for all writers in all genres in terms of what a genius can do with the English language.
OMN: What do you read now for pleasure?
AB: I tend to read a lot of non-fiction, often prompted by hearing an author on NPR and wanting to find out more on some random topic. When I read fiction, it's still largely mystery, but now I'm trying to catch up with my contemporaries — last week a Rhys Bowen, this week a Laura Lippman and a Ruth Rendel, next week a Carl Hiaasen and another Michael Connolly. Amazon just published a very good list of a hundred top mysteries — I may use that to fill in some gaps in my reading.
OMN: Do you have any favorite literary characters?
AB: Crispin's Gervaise Fen. Sarah Caudwell's Hilary Tamar. Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May. Kathleen Taylor's Tori Bauer. Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next. Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe. James McClure's Kramer and Zondi. I could go on.
Not mystery, but I have to mention Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. And Alice.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any subject.
AB: Here are my five favorite movies that deal with some aspect of mystery fiction:
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) The best black comedy ever, sophisticated and wicked. Obi-Wan Kenobi plays eight characters, six of them murdered by the hero on his way to a dukedom — but then he's accused of the one murder he didn't commit. Don't let Sir Alec's star turn eclipse Dennis Price's performance, the silver screen's most delicious portrayal of an ice-blooded murderer.
A Shot in the Dark (1964) The second Pink Panther movie, although inserting Inspector Clouseau into the existing story — it had been a successful Broadway play without him — was a last-minute inspiration. This is where most of Clouseau's quirks and entourage first appeared. "I suspect everyone and I suspect . . . no one."
Murder By Death (1976) Neil Simon's hilarious parody of the whole genre — and a dream cast: Obi-Wan and Clouseau again, Professor McGonagall, a James Bond, Columbo, Farmer Hoggett, and the Bride of Frankenstein. Plus Truman Capote.
American Dreamer (1984) The most personal of the selection, but it's the one that got me writing, because I wanted Tom Conti's life in this movie. He's even called Alan. Jobeth Williams wins a writing contest, gets a concussion, and wakes up convinced she's the heroine of a thriller series. "I'm Rebecca Ryan and I can drink any man here under the table." Hijinks ensue.
Gosford Park (2001) A classic whodunit from the creator of "Downton Abbey," but it's not the plot, it's the characters again — and one of the best ever collections of actors, directed by cast-master Robert Altman.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a mystery author and thus I am also …"
AB: … impoverished.
OMN: What's next for you?
AB: Well, obviously follow my own advice and keep working on Swithin 4. But the publication of This Private Plot is also accompanied by the paperback release of the rest of the Swithin series. Thanks to Robert Rosenwald and Barbara Peters at Poisoned Pen Press, my complete works are available all at once, for the first time. I hope this is going to open up some new opportunities — teaching, writing, editing — to immerse myself even more in the world of mystery, a place I love.
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Alan Beechey was born in England and grew up in London. He moved to Manhattan in his twenties and now lives with his three sons and his rescue mutt, Leila, in Rye, New York.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at Beechey.com or find him on Facebook.
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This Private Plot
Alan Beechey
An Oliver Swithin Mystery
If a blackmail letter drives a man to suicide, is the sender guilty of murder? "Yes," says Oliver Swithin, author of bestselling Finsbury the Ferret children's stories and amateur sleuth, who is on holiday in an ancient village.
A midnight streak with his naked girlfriend—Scotland Yard's Effie Strongitham—abruptly ends in the discovery of a corpse. Retired radiobroadcaster Dennis Breedlove has hanged himself from the old gibbet. Evidence suggests blackmail may have driven this celebrity to suicide. Irresistibly intrigued, Oliver believes discovering the dead man's secret will lead to the identity of the blackmailer. But in Britain today, when shame is a ticket to fame, why suicide?
What if it wasn't?
When the mystery abruptly turns inside out, black-clad strangers attack Oliver in the night. The Vicar behaves strangely. So do the village's five unmarried Bennet sisters, a mysterious monk, the persistent, self-effacing Underwood Tooth, and Oliver's Uncle Tim, Effie's superior at the Yard and a part-time Shakespearean actor. Plus Oliver's aunt and his mother. Who else might play a role in This Private Plot? Two William Shakespeares?
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