Our guest this week
is Marilyn Levinson, who writes mysteries and novels for kids. Her debut
mystery, A
MURDERER AMONG US, was awarded a Best
Indie of 2011 by Suspense Magazine. She has since written a sequel entitled MURDER IN THE AIR. Her latest release, GIVING UP THE GHOST, is a mystery about an
English teacher who discovers she's sharing a cottage with a sexy, heart-throb ghost.
You can read an interview with Cameron,
the ghost, at: The Unpredictable Muse. Marilyn lives on Long Island with
her husband, Bernie, and their cat, Sammy. You can visit Marilyn at http://www.marilynlevinson.com/.
I
love to travel and see new sights. Every year, my husband and I take a trip abroad.
I am a former Spanish teacher, and in my younger days I’ve spent summers
studying in Mexico City and Valencia, Spain. Right now I’m writing a children’s
book that takes place on the Cote d’Azur. But when it comes to writing
mysteries, my setting is always Long Island, where I’ve lived most of my life.
Long
Island means Nassau and Suffolk to most people, but officially it also includes
Brooklyn, and Queens. I’ve lived in all four counties. I was born in Brooklyn
and lived there until my family moved to western Nassau County when I was
fourteen. After attending college university in Upstate NY, I lived in Queens
until I married. After that, each move has taken me further and further east on
Long Island. I sometimes wonder if my husband and I will end up living out on
Montauk by the time we’re in our eighties.
Various
Indian tribes once inhabited Long Island. Hauppauge, Quogue, Nissequogue, and
Patchogue are just a few of our towns and locales with Indian names. European
settlements date back to the 1600’s. For centuries, farming was a major
occupation, and many farms remain in eastern Suffolk. More recently, that area
has become famous for its many vineyards and wineries.
In
the early twentieth century, wealthy New Yorkers built mansions amid acres of
land, many of them facing the Long Island Sound and Connecticut. And so the
famous Gold Coast came into existence. The Hamptons and Fire Island have gained
larger than life stature. And there’s no ignoring the famous old whaling
villages of Cold Spring Harbor and Sag Harbor. But don’t believe for one moment
that everyone who lives on Long Island has money. There are many lower income
communities here as well. In my mysteries, I make use of them all.
My
characters in these books visit well-known places like The North Fork or the
Hamptons, but I created the towns and villages where they live. Chrissom Harbor
is the name of the village in GIVING UP THE GHOST. Of course it’s not on a map
of Long Island, but I imagine CH situated in the northern part of central
Suffolk County—somewhere in the vicinity of Rocky Point, Shoreham, and Wading
River. It’s an old fishing village, with a wonderful small, protected harbor
that attracts many summer boating people. Though upscale housing communities
are being built in the area, Main Street is lined with old shops and tackle
stores that need to enter the twenty-first century. High bluffs overlook the
Long Island Sound, with wooden staircases leading to the beach below.
Cameron
Leeds, my heart-throb ghost in GIVING UP THE GHOST, supposedly fell to his
death from the bluff beyond his cottage. After Gabbie moves into his cottage,
he convinces her to find out who murdered him. Gabbie discovers everyone in CH knows
everyone else’s business, including her own. Though many people are happy Cam
is dead, no one’s willing to give her any leads. Until she asks too many
questions, and the murderer tries to shut her up for good.
A
MURDERER AMONG US and MURDER IN THE AIR take place in an upscale, over-55 gated
community I named Twin Lakes. There are many senior communities on Long Island,
but none are built around two long lakes named after two Indian tribes.
In
my series featuring Lexie Driscoll, who leads a Golden Age of Mystery book
club, the setting varies from book to book. In MURDER A LA CHRISTIE, Lexie
finds herself living in Old Cadfield, a wealthy community in Nassau County.
While I had no specific village in mind, I drew from many beautiful villages
with some of the loveliest homes in America. And I did have one particularly
beautiful mansion and its gardens in mind as the setting for a spectacular fundraiser
that Lexie attends. More importantly, Old Cadfield is meant to be a modern day
setting similar to Agatha Christie’s manor houses and villages where people
think they know one another, yet everyone harbors a secret. Lexie, a free
spirit whose home was burned down by her second husband with him inside,
doesn’t feel comfortable living in Old Cadfield. She finds herself at odds with
her best friend and college roommate who defends Old Cadfield’s residents, even
though one of them might have committed murder.
Because
Long Island has so many interesting and varied facets, I plan to set future mysteries
here for years to come.
