Off the Beaten Track: Mixed-Up Luggage Leads to Mystery and Mayhem

We’re delighted to welcome three guests this week. Mystery novelists Diane Vallere (http://www.dianevallere.com/), Kendel Lynn (http://kendellynn.com/), and Gigi Pandian (http://gigipandian.com/)are the three authors of OTHER PEOPLE’S BAGGAGE (http://henerypress.com/books/other-peoples-baggage/), a new collection of three interconnected mystery novellas (Henery Press, December 2012).

Diane is the author of PILLOW STALK: A Mad for Mod Mystery, which Library Journal called “a tremendously fun homage.” Kendel is the author of BOARD STIFF, an Elliott Lisbon mystery, which won the Zola Award for Mystery/Suspense, coming April 2013. Gigi is the author of ARTIFACT: A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery, named one of the Best Books of 2012 by Suspense Magazine.

Thanks for having us! It’s very fun to be here at Novel Adventurers, because the thing that connects our mystery novellas is travel. The three main characters of our mystery series are on their way out of town when a storm and resulting computer glitch swaps their luggage. We thought we’d each share an interesting tidbit about the settings in our travel-themed collection that planted the seed for our individual stories.

DIANE: Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

Because my Mad for Mod series features a character who has modeled her life, style, and business after Doris Day movies, when it came time to send her out of town, it was natural to send her to Carmel-by-the-Sea, the town where Doris Day resides. (Sorry the photo isn’t from the interior of her hotel; I was too afraid of looking like a tourist had she popped around a corner!) I’ve always thought a tourist town would make a good backdrop for a mystery, because it would be easy for criminals to go unnoticed. Once I decided to make this a prequel, I knew I could play around with the breakup that’s hinted at in Pillow Stalk, and lay the groundwork for the life Madison is about to begin in Dallas, Texas.

KENDEL: Little Oak, Texas

As a recent Texas transplant, the volume of shopping and restaurants in Dallas truly astounded me. It’s a dazzling mecca of glitzy shops, posh boutiques, and mega gallerias, plus a zillion eateries, from saucy BBQ joints and smoky steakhouses to buttery bistros and creamy guacamole on every patio. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m from LA, so that’s saying something. But drive just outside the metro area, in any direction, and flat lands stretch out for miles. Ranch fencing follows the landscape and round hay bales line up in rows. Always in the distance, a cluster of small houses sits tucked behind a copse of lonely trees. It’s calm and glorious and I always wondered what life might be like for those folks, living in the big state of Texas, yet in a land all their own. And naturally, I just assumed someone would end up dead.

GIGI: Edinburgh, Scotland

I spent some time in Scotland as a kid, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival made a big impression on me. The event is the largest performing arts festival in the world, because everyone is welcome to perform (as long as you can afford the venue and registration fees). Most of the shows are theater and comedy acts, but other performing arts are featured as well. Because the shows don’t go through a selection committee, the quality may vary; but lots of them are fantastic, and many famous actors have performed there in the past, including Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, and members of Monty Python. Edinburgh is such a mysterious city to begin with—it has an old castle looming above the center of the city and small medieval alleyways branching off the most modern of streets. With all the added crowds and commotion during the festival, I thought it would be a great backdrop for a locked-room mystery.

We came up with the idea for this collection of novellas after we’d been critique partners, reading each other’s draft mystery novels and learning that we liked each other’s work. It occurred to us that our characters would get along, and also that if a reader liked one of our mysteries, they’d probably like the other two. But since our characters are based in different cities, how could their lives intersect? When we realized they all had good reasons to have the same vintage suitcase, the rest fell into place. It was a lot of fun to weave the contents of their mixed-up suitcases into each of our stories.

Off the Beaten Track: Treasure Hunting in Scotland

Our guest guest this week is Gigi Pandian, the child of cultural anthropologists from New Mexico and the southern tip of India. After being dragged around the world during her childhood, she tried to escape her fate when she left a PhD program in favor of art school. But adventurous academic characters wouldn’t stay out of her head. Thus was born the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series. Gigi was awarded a Malice Domestic Grant for her debut mystery novel, Artifact, which was released August 28, 2012. Connect with Gigi online at http://gigipandian.com/.

One of my favorite things about traveling is learning the history of a place. There are some settings that are so evocative of their pasts that it’s impossible to visit them without feeling that pull to the past.

Dunnottar Castle in Scotland is one such place. The first time I visited the ruins, I knew the cliffs where they stood would be a fantastic place to set a mystery—especially a mystery involving history.

Those cliffs along the eastern coast of the Scottish Highlands inspired more than dramatic fiction. They were the perfect place to build the strategic fortress of Dunnottar. Not only is it a remote location at the edge of the sea, but the land mass is actually removed from the mainland. You have to climb down steep cliffs and climb back up again to reach the castle.

In the seventeenth century, the treasure of the Scottish Crown Jewels was hidden at Dunnottar Castle. Going back even further in history, fortifications have existed on the site since Pictish times. The name “Dun” is Pictish for fort.

I first visited Dunnottar castle as a teenager, traveling with my mom on one of her research trips to Scotland. The sweeping landscape made an immediate impression on me, and I knew I’d be back for another adventure. Being there felt like traveling to another century, so it didn’t take much to imagine national treasures being smuggled into the castle as it once existed.

I love archaeological mysteries, so when I began writing a mystery novel, I started with the idea of a Pictish archaeological dig on the cliffs near the castle ruins. As I wrote more, the idea behind the mystery became more complex. I found myself weaving in history that I’d learned from my father, who’s from India, about Scotland’s historical connection to India via the British Empire’s occupation of India.

In Artifact, historian Jaya Jones travels from San Francisco to the British Library in London and on to a Pictish archaeological dig in the Highlands of Scotland, piecing together the secrets of a lost Indian treasure hidden in a Scottish legend from the days of the British Raj.

The next book in the mystery series will take Jaya and friends on a journey from San Francisco to south India on another treasure hunt. The most fun part of writing this series is that it gives me yet another excuse to travel!

Off The Beaten Track: Inspired by Architectural Details (Don't Forget Your Walking Shoes)

Gigi Pandian is a mystery writer and photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was awarded a Malice Domestic Grant for her first mystery novel, Artifact, featuring treasure-hunting Indian-American historian Jaya Jones. You can learn more about Gigi and her writing at www.gigipandian.com and check out her mysterious photographs at www.gargoylegirl.com.

One of my favorite things in the San Francisco Bay Area is a favorite of mine in any city – walking around to check out the architectural details.

In San Francisco, it begins with the beckoning skyline as you approach the city. Once here, walking through colorful neighborhoods of restored Victorian houses and high-rise buildings from every era gives a taste of the city. Walking along the historic Barbary Coast trail in the downtown area provides a glimpse of the city's seedier history – for example, saloons that have been here since the Gold Rush, built from abandoned ships left behind by the crews in search of gold.

San Francisco doesn't have as many gargoyles on its buildings as I'd like, but it makes up for it with its character.

Of any city I've visited, New York City has the best walks for stopping every few feet for a new stunning architectural detail – like a dragon below a window, and this ornamental face above a doorway, shown in these photos. 

 There are so many gargoyles and other ornamental carvings on buildings in New York that there are tours set up specifically to view these architectural details.

In London, even the government's Parliament building is adorned with whimsical gargoyles. But in London, stepping off the beaten path leads to some of the most interesting stone carvings. A few feet from bustling streets, you can find yourself in a secluded Victorian cemetery full of beautiful hand-carved angels. It can feel like you're a thousand miles away from the crowded sidewalk you walked down to get there.

None of these cities needed to put these stunning details on their buildings and gravestones. But there's something compelling about adding beauty and mystery to our creations.

Here are three self-guided walking tours if you find yourself in any of these cities and would like a touch of mystery:

San Francisco's Barbary Coast: http://www.barbarycoasttrail.org/

New York City's "monster walks" in search of gargoyles: http://www.aardvarkelectric.com/gargoyle/walks.html

London's Victorian cemeteries: http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/london/cemeteries.shtml