with G. X. Chen
We are delighted to welcome mystery author G. X. Chen to Omnimystery News today.
Grace's new murder mystery is The Mystery of Moutai (CreateSpace; April 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had a chance to talk with Grace about her work.
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Omnimystery News: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in your books?
Photo provided courtesy of
G. X. Chen
G. X. Chen: None of the characters in my book are based on people I know, therefore none of the situations my characters find themselves in are based on real events, but most of the materials I used are from real life, i.e. a Chinese professor stated on her resume that a book award she received from communist government was equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize, etc.
OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing environment.
GXC: I have a full-time job so my time of writing is in a form of a block of time, maybe 1 to 2 hours, here and there. I bring a Microsoft Surface instead of an iPad when I travel so I can work on my book using a memory stick.
OMN: Your books are set in Boston, a city we lived in (actually in the suburbs) for 10 years. How true are you to the setting, and how important is Boston to your stories?
GXC: I always try to be true to their geographies and location environments because I think it'd make my stories more realistic. The setting has nothing to do with the characters and the plots. I can move the whole set to a different city and the outcome would be identical because human nature is the same everywhere.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?
GXC: I love to travel so you'd find my characters traveling to different places; and I'm a good cook and love to eat so you'd find me talking about local cuisines and my favorite dishes.
OMN: Tell us more about the book's title and cover.
GXC: I knew I wanted a part of Boston on the cover. I took the photo in the Public Garden and designed the cover myself. Originally, I wanted to name the book Murder in Chinatown; unfortunately, the book title has been taken, not once but multiple times. It took me quite a while to come up with the current title. Ended up it is very fitting and unique.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
GXC: I was ten years old when the Cultural Revolution started, which lasted more than ten years, therefore I had no choice from the beginning as what to read but read whatever I could find.
I'm a big fan of Agatha Christie; read all her books, still have a full collection at home. I am very much influenced by her.
OMN: And what do you read now for pleasure?
GXC: Mostly mysteries and whatever my daughter recommends.
OMN: Do you have any favorite series characters?
GXC: Herule Poirot — the Belgium detective is the most lovable character.
OMN: What's next for you?
GXC: I'm looking forward to visiting my daughter in Paris, where she has promised to take me to a Michelin starred restaurant for brunch. Can't wait!
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G.X. Chen is a freelance writer who loves reading, traveling and orchids. A graduate of Fudan University and University of New Mexico, she has taught literature at Fudan as well as the Shanghai Foreign Language Institute. She lives in Boston with her husband, Steve.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at GXChenTateAuthor.com or find her on Twitter.
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The Mystery of Moutai
G. X. Chen
A Murder Mystery
A teenager returns home from school to find a gruesome scene: the apartment he shares with his mother, Shao Mei, in Boston's Chinatown has been ransacked and she is dead. There is a bottle of Moutai — the most exotic and expensive Chinese liquor — left at the scene and traces of rat poison in one of the two shot glasses on the kitchen counter. This was evidently a homicide, but who could possibly be the killer?
Ann Lee and Fang Chen, close friends of the victim, team up with the Boston police to solve this mystifying crime: why would anyone want to murder a harmless middle-aged woman, one who worked as an unassuming mailroom clerk, with no money, no connections, and presumably, no enemies?
Realizing that important clues behind the motive may be buried deep in the victim's past, they travel to Beijing, where Shao Mei spent more than fifty years of her life. While there, surrounded by the antiquities of China's rich and complex history, they stumble unwittingly into a cobweb of mystery and danger. Fearing for their lives but determined to press on, they end up unearthing a scandal more deceptive and far-reaching than either could have imagined.
