Murder at the Elms (A Gilded Newport Mystery)
Historical Cozy Mystery
11th in Series
Setting – Rhode Island
Kensington (August 22, 2023)
Hardcover : 304 pages
Synopsis
As the nineteenth century comes to a close, the illustrious Vanderbilt family dominates Newport, Rhode Island, high society. But when murder arrives, reporter Emma Cross learns that sometimes the actions of the cream of society can curdle one’s blood in the latest installment of this bestselling cozy historical mystery series . . .
1901: Back from their honeymoon in Italy, Emma and Derrick are adapting to married life as they return to their duties at their jointly owned newspaper, the Newport Messenger. The Elms, coal baron Edward Berwind’s newly completed Bellevue Avenue estate, is newsworthy for two reasons: A modern mansion for the new century, it is one of the first homes in America to be wired for electricity with no backup power system, generated by coal from Berwind’s own mines. And their servants—with a single exception—have all gone on strike to protest their working conditions. Summarily dismissing and replacing his staff with cool and callous efficiency, Berwind throws a grand party to showcase the marvels of his new “cottage.”
Emma and Derrick are invited to the fete, which culminates not only in a fabulous musicale but an unforeseen tragedy—a chambermaid is found dead in the coal tunnel. In short order, it is also discovered that a guest’s diamond necklace is missing and a laborer has disappeared.
Detective Jesse Whyte entreats Emma and Derrick to help with the investigation and determine whether the murdered maid and stolen necklace are connected. As the dark deeds cast a shadow over the blazing mansion, it’s up to Emma to shine a light on the culprit . . .
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Guest Post
Murder at The Elms is my eleventh Gilded Newport Mystery and my nineteenth historical mystery (I write another series, A Lady & Lady’s Maid Mysteries). So you might wonder, how does an author keep each book fresh? How does she come up with new ideas and avoid being repetitive?
Let’s address that last bit first. In cozy mysteries or historical cozies, in this case, a certain amount of repetitiveness is a good thing. For a series in general, the author creates a world surrounding the sleuth, peopled with friends, family, and yes, even adversaries. In many cozies, the setting is itself a character, and this is especially true for the Gilded Newport Mysteries. Readers want these stories to take place in Newport—and nowhere else. It’s a place they wish to spend time and where they’re comfortable. If my sleuth, Emma Cross, does go “off island” as the locals say, it’s only for short periods of time. The same can be said about major secondary characters who recur from book to book. They become like a family the reader enjoys spending time with.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t introduce different places in Newport and different characters depending on the plot. In this series, each initial murder takes place in one of the grand mansions, or “cottages,” in the exclusive Bellevue Avenue neighborhood or along the Ocean Drive. This gives me an opportunity to explore the architecture of the Gilded Age, along with the families who owned these properties, each of whom were quite distinctive.
The mansions of Newport include Italian palazzos and Italianate villas, French chateaux, English Gothic manor houses, neo-colonial structures, and, in the case of the book I’ve just finished up, Murder at Vinland, the house includes design elements modeled after Norse mythology. There is quite a range, and each style lends the house an atmosphere, whether bright and airy or shadowy and mysterious, which I incorporate into the stories.
Some of the wealthy people I’ve written about include:
Mamie Fish, who owned the neo-colonial mansion called Crossways. She was functionally illiterate, a gregarious practical jokester, a society leader, and staunchly American in her tastes. James Van Alen, on the other hand, was an anglophile in the extreme and had his house, Wakehurst, modeled exactly like the Elizabethan manor house, Wakehurst Place, in England. And The Elms, owned by Edward and Herminie Berwind, was modeled after an eighteenth-century French chateau near Paris. But what made The Elms so distinctive was the Berwinds’ insistence that it be “modern.” That meant it was run on electricity without another power source, such as gas, as a backup. It was considered one of the most modern houses in America at the time.
Before plotting a book, I research each the family made their fortune, what their roots were, how their peers viewed them, and how they viewed the world around them. I take circumstances from the lives of these people and incorporate them into the plot of each story.
For instance, Edward Berwind was a self-made man. This differed from, say, the Astor family, whose wealth had been in the family for generations, beginning in the fur trade before they diversified into New York’s lucrative real estate market. The Vanderbilts, considered “new money” in the 1890s, still boasted three generations of wealth, beginning with the first Cornelius who made his money first in local shipping, then in railroads. But Edward Berwind was the son of middle-class German immigrants, had a distinguished career in the navy, but didn’t make his fortune until he went into the coal industry with his brother.
That set him apart from other society gentlemen in more than just wealth. He was rougher around the edges, more stubborn, and less inclined to compromise. He boasted about never negotiating with his coal workers. If they didn’t like the working conditions or pay, they could work elsewhere. It wasn’t surprising then that when the entire house staff of The Elms walked out on strike because they were never allowed time off, Edward Berwind fired all of them and hired new workers. From there, I built my plot around a fictional servant, a housemaid, who refused to strike and ended up dead a week later.
Along with the differences in architecture and family characteristics, there are also the murder weapons. I learned early on that these needn’t be what we typically think of. Not every murder is committed with a gun or dagger or poison, although those are certainly effective. Finding new and creative ways of doing someone in helps keep the story fresh. If you look around a room, you can probably find at least an item or two that might be used in a pinch: a heavy lamp or vase, a scarf, a fire poker, even a long staircase, or an open window.
Even with recurring or repetitive story elements, there will always be new information to draw upon and new details to include, keeping each story original and presenting new challenges in crime solving while remaining true to the qualities that drew readers to the series in the first place.
About the Author
Alyssa Maxwell is the author of The Gilded Newport Mysteries and A Lady and Lady’s Maid Mysteries. She has worked in publishing as a reference book editor, ghostwriter, and fiction editor, but knew from an early age that she wanted to be a fiction author. Growing up in New England and traveling to Great Britain and Ireland fueled a passion for history, while a love of puzzles drew her to the mystery genre. She and her husband have made their home in South Florida. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the South Florida Fiction Writers.
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Joyce Proell is the award-winning author of Amaryllis, Eliza and the Cady Delafield mysteries: A Deadly Truth, A Burning Truth and A Wicked Truth. Along with her husband and little dog, Nellie, she lives in Minnesota in her very own little house on the prairie. She loves to hear from readers.
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CAROLYN ARNOLD is an internationally bestselling and award-winning author, as well as a speaker, teacher, and inspirational mentor. She has several continuing fiction series and has many published books. Her genre diversity offers readers police procedurals, hard-boiled and cozy mysteries, thrillers, and action adventures. Her crime fiction series have been praised by those in law enforcement as being accurate and entertaining. This led to her adopting the trademark: POLICE PROCEDURALS RESPECTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT™.
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