Jeanne Matthews
Author Interview - Jeanne Matthews
Author of Devil by the Tail
It's 1867 and the country is recovering from the bloody Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln. Quinn Sinclair, the audacious young widow of a Union soldier, has been cheated out of her "widow's dower" and dispossessed by her family. In defiance of social mores, she joins forces with an unvarnished ex-Confederate prisoner of war named Garnick and they form a detective agency in Chicago, a boomtown notorious for gambling, prostitution, and corruption. Using the name "Mrs. Paschal" professionally, Quinn gets two cases on the same day -- one to help a man prove he didn't kill his wife, another to help a lawyer find reasonable doubt that his client killed her ex-lover's new bride. As the detectives investigate, they unearth facts that tie the cases together in disturbing ways. The unmasking of the murderer nearly costs Quinn her life.
Author Interview - Jeanne Matthews
Author I draw inspiration from: There are many, but I especially enjoy Margaret Atwood. I love her writing and try to adhere to her advice to writers, especially her caution to keep a firm grip on reality. It's easy to be overwhelmed by the business of creating, publishing, and promoting a book. One of her rules is "Don't sit down in the woods. If you're lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong and take the other road." That nugget of wisdom has given me a lot of comfort in times of trouble.
Author Interview - Jeanne Matthews | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: I share a chaise longue in the afternoons with a Norwich terrier named Jack Reacher. He naps and snores while I read.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: I'd like to be stuck in an elevator with John Dortmunder, the career criminal created by the late Donald Westlake, one of my favorite writers. Dortmunder has appeared in at least fourteen of Westlake's wildly funny caper novels including The Hot Rock, Dancing Aztecs, and Bank Shot. Stoop-shouldered, with a hangdog face and "hair-colored hair," Dortmunder invents the most fiendishly clever schemes, but his heists all fall apart in unpredictable and spectacular ways. He's depressed and although he can't be reformed, I'd like to cheer him up and maybe pick up a few ideas for my own villains.
Author Interview - Jeanne Matthews | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I was in the third grade and the teacher assigned the class to write an autobiography. At that stage of my career, I didn't have a lot to report but I tackled the project with enthusiasm. The result wasn't exactly literature, but my teacher said I had "flair." I looked the word up in the dictionary and decided it was the basis for becoming a writer.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: I prefer reading to listening. Devil by the Tail is in paperback and ebook.
The last book I read: The Coffin Trail, Martin Edwards
Author Interview - Jeanne Matthews | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: Mostly computer, although I'm constantly scribbling notes to myself and later trying to remember where and how that random thought should be integrated into the story.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: I think I could be best friends with almost any of the young barristers at the Chancery Bar in Sarah Caudwell's delightful book, Thus Was Adonis Murdered. But Julia Larwood, the witty, absent-minded, and incurably romantic barrister accused of murder while on holiday in Venice, is a woman who could make me laugh and cry at the same time, a woman whose flaws I could identify with. Lucky for Julia that she has so many "best friends" among the London barristers or she might have remained incarcerated in Italy for a long time. The same characters appear in several other books and I dearly wish I could be drinking wine and discussing murder with all of them at the Corkscrew.
Author Interview - Jeanne Matthews | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: writer with stars in her eyes still trying to become an author.
Favorite decade in fashion history: Having watched lots of movies set in the early 1930s, I'm dazzled by the ladies' clothes. Dietrich and Garbo and Claudette Colbert swanned about in the latest in French fashions. Myrna Loy wore many stunning gowns in her role as Nora Charles in the Thin Man movies.
Place I’d most like to travel: Morocco. I had booked a tour departing departing in March 2020 only to be foiled by the pandemic. I re-scheduled for September, but that, too, was canceled. I postponed until March of this year, but Morocco was still prohibiting all flights entering from Europe and once again the trip fizzled out. Hope springs eternal.
My signature drink: French 75
Favorite artist: Toulouse-Lautrec
Number one on my bucket list: I don't believe in bucket lists. Life is constantly changing and so are my lists. I would like to finish the sequel to Devil by the Tail and take my characters up to the Great Fire that devastated Chicago in 1871. And Paris...one always wants more of Paris.
Anything else you'd like to add: Only my sincere thanks for inviting me to be interviewed on your very interesting blog, Ashley. It's a pleasure to encounter someone who helps to support and promote writers so generously.
Find more from the author:
@JMmystery
Jeanne.Matthews3
Author Bio: Jeanne Matthews graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Journalism and has worked as a copywriter, an English and Drama teacher, and a paralegal. She is the author of the Dinah Pelerin international mystery series including Bones of Contention, Bet Your Bones, Bonereapers, Her Boyfriend's Bones, and Where the Bones Are Buried. Her most recent book, Devil by the Tail, is an historical mystery set in Chicago just after the Civil War. Jeanne currently resides in Washington State. For more information, visit her website www.jeannematthews.com.
