with Jeanne Matthews
We are delighted to welcome author Jeanne Matthews to Omnimystery News today.
Jeanne's fifth mystery to feature anthropologist Dinah Pelerin is Where the Bones are Buried (Poisoned Pen Press; January 2015 hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook formats), and we recently had a chance to catch up with her to talk a little more about the series.
— ♦ —
Omnimystery News: Each of the books in this series is set in a different country. Do you take liberties with your settings, or do you try to stay true to the geography and history?
Photo provided courtesy of
Jeanne Matthews
Jeanne Matthews: Setting is a primary character and I try to portray it as accurately and vividly as I can. The geography, history, climate and mythology of the place combine to influence the attitudes and motivations of the people who live there. The politics and controversies provide the inspiration for many of my plots. My series sleuth, Dinah Pelerin, is a cultural anthropologist and wherever she travels, she brings with her both a natural and a professional curiosity. As the story develops, something happens — usually a murder — that forces her to discover what it is that truly matters to the locals. Her outsider's observations and anthropologist's insights lend an armchair-travel aspect to the books.
Dinah is part Native American, which gives her an automatic empathy with the indigenous peoples of the countries she visits. In Bones of Contention, she learns about the hardships suffered by the Aborigines in Australia and the bitterness and suspicions that linger. In Bet Your Bones, she is drawn into a conflict between a land developer and a group of Native Hawaiians, whose deep psychic connection to the land borders on the religious. In Bonereapers, she meets a sexy Sami policeman and learns about the Arctic dwelling Sami people and the environmental concerns swirling around the Svalbard "Doomsday" Seed Vault. And in Her Boyfriend's Bones, she is confronted with a forty-year-old murder mystery on the Greek island of Samos that stems from the brutal military junta of 1967. I visit all the places I write about and enjoy uncovering odd customs and little known facts that make the place unique.
In Dinah's most recent adventure, Where the Bones are Buried, she finds that being Native American in Germany confers celebrity status. Germans have long been fascinated by the American Wild West and, in particular, by American Indians. Many have formed der Indianer clubs and even in the modern metropolis of Berlin, these enthusiasts dress up like Indians, give themselves Indian names, and hold powwows. That's the kind of cultural oddity I love to explore in my writing. How did it begin? What's the explanation? With Dinah's Indian background, it presented me with a wonderful premise for the book.
OMN: What is it about Dinah Pelerin that appeals to you as a writer? And how has she evolved over the course of the series?
JM: I wanted a main character around whom to build a series, a complex character with a troubled past, but one who would reflect my interests and somewhat irreverent sense of humor. She had to love travel as much as I do, but unlike me, she would be footloose and free to come and go as she chooses. I christened this semi-alter ego Dinah Pelerin. Dinah is an old-fashioned Southern name. Like me, she hails from Georgia, and Pelerin means "pilgrim" in French. From the beginning, I planned to take her on a pilgrimage around the globe.
Dinah remained essentially unchanged through the first four books. She carries a sense of deep distrust, the result of growing up in an unreliable family prone to lies, betrayals, and multiple marriages and divorces. She has been leery of her own instincts and on guard against close ties. But sometimes change comes hurtling out of the blue like an asteroid. In Where the Bones Are Buried, she is blindsided by fresh betrayal. The fallout is far-reaching and complicated and, for the first time, she is compelled to trust someone else completely, not knowing whether it will end in relief, or yet another betrayal. Regardless what happens, she can never be the same.
OMN: How did Where the Bones are Buried come to be titled?
JM: Some people aspire to crime. Others have crime thrust upon them. Dinah counts herself in the second category. She has managed to keep her guilty secret from the authorities and from her straight-arrow boyfriend. But when her mother shows up in Berlin with a crazy scheme to blackmail a German citizen with a nefarious connection to one of her ex-husbands, Dinah's life threatens to come unraveled. The past is a dangerous place, a minefield of lies and misunderstandings. Too many people are trying to find out where the bones are buried and dig up the painful truth.
OMN: Tell us something about the book that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.
JM: The Germans are serious collectors of Native American artifacts, and so are the French. There have been a number of recent auctions of masks considered sacred relics by the Hopi and the Navajo. The tribes have appealed to the foreign governments, explaining that these katsinam masks embody the living spirits of their ancestors. Their requests for return of the masks continue to be denied and the U.S. Embassy has been unable to halt the sales. One of my subplots deals with the theft of a Hopi katsinam and also with the looting of archaeological and heritage sites in the war-torn Middle East. Plundered art is big business these days, enriching unscrupulous dealers and providing funding for terrorists. As a cultural anthropologist, Dinah regards the destruction of these links to the past as an unforgivable crime.
OMN: What's next for you?
JM: I'm going to leave Dinah in Berlin for a while to reflect on her changed circumstances and turn my attention to writing an historical mystery. I've become interested in the Fenians, a radical branch of the Irish Brotherhood. Following the American Civil War, they formed an army of Union veterans and invaded Canada. The plan was to hold that British colony hostage in order to force England to relinquish control of Ireland. The Canadians repelled the invasion, but later hired the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to infiltrate the Fenians and prevent a second invasion. At the time, the Pinkertons were using women detectives as spies. I have an idea for a just such a spy.
— ♦ —
Jeanne Matthews was born and raised in Georgia. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Journalism and has worked as a copywriter, a high school English and Drama teacher, and a paralegal. She currently lives in Renton, Washington with her husband, who is a law professor, and a West Highland terrier, who is a prima donna.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at JeanneMatthews.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
— ♦ —
Where the Bones are Buried
Jeanne Matthews
A Dinah Pelerin Mystery
