The Wide, Wide World of Mystery by Nancy Nau Sullivan

It’s still something of a mystery to me how I ended up writing mysteries, but it’s fun to look back down that long twisty road of reading and writing and see the markers. I read the Nancy Drew books, every one of them. I loved her and her roadster. She’s a keeper, the early YA equivalent of Agatha Christie, entertaining us with her craft and poise.  

We didn’t have YA—the Young Adult genre didn’t come into its own until the early 70’s, thanks to S.E. Hinton, Cormier, Lowry, and a cast of talented authors. I read the classics and every one of those biographies—Molly Pitcher, Betsy Ross, Amelia Earhart, all the pioneers. The books were worn and orange. They told stories about courage and faith in building the country, mostly.

In lit class, we continued with the classics. (I sometimes wondered if they were trying to kill our love of reading.) We had to write those dreaded essays and hope we were on the same page with the teacher. I was a terrible essay writer, so intimidated by grades. But after a while, the reading caught and superseded the grading business; it was all about getting something out of the book. It became a sort of interactive sport. Trying to figure out the puzzle, the tension, the mystery of it. And the motives. When I was 13, my father found me reading Forever Amber about a woman with many lovers in 17^th century England. Amber had motives. My dad hid the book, but he wasn’t very good at hiding stuff. The story was a page-turner to the end, and, of course, it fed my curiosity. 

In high school and college, we talked, in depth, about the books we read and the authors, dissecting them in light of the “elements of literature.” I determined, finally, to give those first 20 to 50 pages a chance. I can still see my high school English teacher, a little old nun, pacing back and forth in front of the room, getting all excited about the drama of Anna Karenina. If Anna could get Sister Celia Marie so worked up, there had to be something there. I had to find out what. I probably wouldn’t have gotten ahold of Russian writers early on had it not been for Sister Celia, and for that I am grateful. What a layered, intricate—mysterious—world it is.

I guess reading, curiosity, and life, have led me to write in an assortment of genre: a memoir, The Last Cadillac, a novel, The Boys of Alpha Block—about a woman who teaches in a boys’ prison and gets caught up in their escape plan—and now mysteries. I’ve settled there lately. I like the puzzle, figuring what’s next? How does the character do that? How do I write this? What’s the motive here? What’s the trick to keep the tension going until the end?

It’s a challenge, but it’s satisfying. Writing a mystery is a way to right wrongs. After finishing the memoir, which is set on an island I’ve loved for decades, I looked around and saw overdevelopment and environmental disaster, and so, I set out to fix things. Only on the page. I killed off a bad guy, a drug dealer, and restored some semblance of order. The first in the series, Saving Tuna Street (2020, Light Messages), was born. The setting gave rise to it, but my emotion brought it to life. Mysteries need a huge infusion of emotion. Without it, life, and death, are pretty flat, and, so, any story.

From the island setting, my main character, Blanche Murninghan, moved to Mexico City for Trouble Down Mexico Way (2021). Her third adventure takes her to Vietnam in Mission Improbable: Vietnam (2022), and after that, Ireland.

Writing mysteries has given me a broad brush to put experience and imagination to work. My main character can be impetuous. She’s a long way, and many pages away, from Nancy Drew. Blanche has flaws; she drinks too much and gets angry. She falls down, a lot, and gets up. She’s not going to set things right out of chaos sitting on the couch. I have to bug her, make her run down the bad guys, rescue and celebrate the good guys. In reality, that often doesn’t happen. Why not make it happen in the book? This fiction is meant to entertain, but it also holds out hope that things just might work out with effort and endurance, and there’s no mystery in that.     

BIO:

A former newspaper journalist, Nancy Nau Sullivan taught English in Argentina, in the Peace Corps in Mexico, and at a boys’ prison in Florida. Her novel, The Boys of Alpha Block (April 2021, TouchPoint Press) is based on teaching in the prison. Her memoir, The Last Cadillac, won two Eric Hoffer awards, and Saving Tuna Street was a nominee for best mystery 2020 at Foreword Reviews. Trouble Down Mexico Way is the second in the Blanche Murninghan mystery series (June 2021, Light Messages). Nancy lives in Northwest Indiana and, often, anywhere near water. Find Nancy at www.nancynausullivan.com, Facebook, BookBub, LinkedIn, and @NauSullivan on Twitter.