with Michael Murphy
We are delighted to welcome author Michael Murphy to Omnimystery News, courtesy of TLC Book Tours, which is coordinating his current book tour. We encourage you to visit all of the participating host sites; you can find his schedule here.
Michael's second series mystery is All That Glitters (Alibi; January 2015 ebook formats) in which Jake and Laura, the hard-boiled writer and the aspiring movie star, head for sun-drenched Los Angeles, where a cold-blooded murderer lurks behind the scenes.
Today Michael gives us more of the backstory to the series.
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Photo provided courtesy of
Michael Murphy
I've been writing most of my professional life, but I started my first novel fifteen years ago. I have to say, my most enjoyable experience in my writer's journey was the creation of my Jake and Laura mystery series set during the 1930s. The first novel, The Yankee Club, takes place in New York City and the second, All That Glitters, finds the two main characters in Hollywood during the naughtiest and bawdiest year in Tinsel Town history, up to that time, at least.
Authors for more than eighty years have painted vivid images of the devastation caused by The Great Depression. Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row come to mind. What could I add that these talented authors haven't already said? I wanted to paint a different picture of the 1930s and let to experience the glitz and glamour New York and Hollywood with fun characters and humorous plot lines.
When The Yankee Club opens in 1933, newly elected President Roosevelt is about to offer a new deal, inspiring hope in the twelve million Americans out of work. The Big Apple has over 100,000 speakeasies. Prohibition is about to sputter to and end; a noble, but failed experiment that led to a rise in gangsters.
In All That Glitters, Hollywood is about to enforce the Hays code, bringing an end to some of the adult storylines and naughty costumes of early thirties movies, ushering in decades in film of married couples with twin beds. During this time, studios struggle with the expense of transitioning to talking pictures and finding talent to replace actors who excelled in silent movies, an entirely different form of acting that talkies required.
Developing my series required me to create characters readers relate to and enjoy their personal and professional growth as the series unfolds. Both main characters grew up in a modest neighborhood Queens. In 1933, Jake Donovan is a former Pinkerton detective turned mystery author, much like his friend and mentor Dashiell Hammett. After years of struggling to make it on Broadway, Laura Wilson, whom Jake has loved since high school, has become a star. But history tells us Broadway struggled during the Depression, theaters closed and actors faced dwindling opportunities. When Hollywood came calling for new actors who could deliver dialogue, many bolted westward, and at the conclusion of The Yankee Club, that's what Laura does, with Jake at her side.
Writing historical fiction offers unique challenges, principally creating accurate and believable settings. I had to learn how people dressed during those days, what kind of cars they drove and what social events besides the Depression influenced their lives. And what about sex in the thirties? Perhaps my greatest challenge was a need to bring humor into the stories, but would my twenty-first century sense of humor translate into the realities of 1930s? Reviews to date for both novels suggest the answer to that question is yes.
As I mentioned above the series provides challenges that writing contemporary novels doesn't. However, I discovered an unexpected joy that made its way to the pages of my novels. Successful in their respective careers, Jake and Laura social circles include other writers and actors. To be historically accurate, they would no doubt encounter historical figures of that era. It was great fun to research, learn about and accurately present characters during this time. Cole Porter, Ethel Merman and William Powell to name a few, interact with Jake and Laura and are along for the ride in both novels.
The series continues. I'm currently putting the finishing touches on novel three, Wings in the Dark, coming, like the others, from Random House Alibi, in the summer of 2015.
In the series, time passes for the main characters. Readers get to see how Jake and Laura deal with the historical events taking place as country struggles to move forward during the 1930s. Hope you enjoy.
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Michael Murphy is a full-time writer and part-time urban chicken rancher. He lives in Arizona with his wife of more than forty years and the four children they adopted this past year. He's active in several local writers' groups and conducts novel-writing workshops at bookstores and libraries.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at MJMurphy.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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All That Glitters
Michael Murphy
A Jake and Laura Mystery
Just arrived from New York, Broadway actress Laura Wilson is slated to star in Hollywood's newest screwball comedy. At her side, of course, is Jake Donovan, under pressure to write his next mystery novel. But peace and quiet are not to be had when an all-too-real murder plot intrudes: After a glitzy party, the son of a studio honcho is discovered dead from a gunshot wound. And since Jake exchanged words with the hothead just hours before his death, the bestselling author becomes the LAPD's prime suspect.
In 1930s Tinseltown, anything goes. Proving his innocence won't be easy in a town where sex, seduction, and naked power run rampant. With gossip columnist Louella Parsons dead-set on publicizing the charges against him, Jake has no choice but to do what everyone else does in the City of Angels: act like someone else. Blackie Doyle, the tough-talking, fist-swinging, womanizing hero from Jake's novels wouldn't pull any punches until he exposed the real killer — nor will Jake, to keep the role of a lifetime from being his last.
