An Interview With Judy Murray

by Grace Topping

Some books grab you instantly, and you don’t want anything to interfere with your reading time. That’s how it was for me reading Judy Murray’s debut novel, Murder in the Master. She did a masterful job with her opening, the pace, and the surprising twist at the end. It was no wonder Murder in the Master was nominated for an Agatha for best first novel. 

 

Murder in the Master – A Chesapeake Bay Mystery

 

Real estate rule #1: A dead body creates buzz. A dead body in a house for sale is never the buzz you want.

It isn’t the first-time real estate agent Helen Morrisey has found someone naked in bed while showing a house to a potential buyer. But this one is different. One glance at the bluish cast around his lips and the vacant, staring eyes, and Helen knows big-time developer Al Capelli is never going to sign another sales agreement.

His death is big news for a small, top of the Chesapeake water town where a family empire is built around secrets and their brash money style is resented by locals. Within days, his lover, her old friend, begs Helen to find the killer before she’s arrested for murder. With her fight for the underdog style, Helen jumps in. She quickly realizes that solving a murder mystery in real life is a lot more dangerous than reading one. Helen decides to create her own Detection Club of expert sleuths—Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher, Nora Charles, Agatha Raisin, and, yes, Nancy Drew to help unearth the truth.

Detective Joe McAlister recognizes the value of Helen’s insight into back office real estate deals and local players. And for the first time since her husband’s death, Helen meets a man who might be able to return zingers as quick as she can toss them out. Mystery lovers hungry for a smart gutsy woman, a fast-moving plot, and an insider’s look into a business everyone talks about, but few understand, will devour this first in a series Murder in the Master.

                                                                                                            www.amazon.com

 

 

Welcome, Judy, to Writers Who Kill.

 

Murder in the Master garnered an Agatha nomination for best first novel. Congratulations. Has that type of early recognition put pressure on you when writing other books in your series?

 

Phew! Great question. I’m thrilled to be an Agatha nominee, but the pressure on writing the next in the series was already causing plenty of sleepless nights long before Murder in the Master was chosen. I recently finished my second in the series, Killer in the Kitchen, and one of my biggest worries was building on the character traits and the Chesapeake setting readers embraced in the first. At the same time, I wanted to create another clue laden story that’s very different. It’s hard not to keep comparing one to the other. A wise writer told me to think of the second as a completely different book and avoid comparisons as you write. It was very good advice.

Faced with solving a murder, Helen Morrisey takes inspiration from her favorite female sleuths. If you were in trouble, which female sleuth would you want on your case?  

 

That’s like deciding which of my children is my favorite. Impossible decision. I’d have to say I would struggle to do without any one of them. Each of my Detection Club members brings different talents to crime solving. Their uniqueness seems to be one of the elements in my series readers really enjoy. They like seeing these favorites in action in current day. Ironically, as we get more and more familiar with Helen, we’ll see more and more of their individual traits reflected in her. She’s stubborn, quick, a keen observer of people, hates to cook, loves to eat, a believer in justice. The fact that Helen talks out loud to herself and eats Twizzlers is all me.

Helen thinks she should form her own Detection Club similar to the one formed by Agatha Christie. Which current female sleuths would you include in your club?

 

Since Helen Morrisey, is current day, I’d choose her. I’m not sure about specific modern-day detectives. I’m much surer of their characteristics. It’s one of the reasons I chose Nancy Drew, a confident teenager, and sly Jane Marple, in her eighties. Everyone brings something to the crime scene. 

 

Helen is a widow with grown children. What made you create a more mature main character?

 

I thought there seemed to be a dearth of mature women in today’s mysteries and I hoped readers would relate to her. As confident and competent as she is, Helen’s not sure how to navigate through romance in her fifties. She doesn’t even know if she wants to. She’s a slow mover. She struggles to bite her tongue and not intrude on her children’s decisions. She’s bullheaded and tends to put her foot in her mouth. Helen’s life is complicated, like ours.

 

Some writers make the mistake of having their main character and her closest friends almost too perfect. How does Helen deal with discovering a good friend is involved with something he/she shouldn’t be? 

 

Helen is a traditionalist. Knowing her childhood friend is seeing a married man goes against her personal ethics but fighting for the underdog has long been a Helen trait. She is mature enough to know that everyone can get caught up in making poor decisions, including herself. Truth be told, her intrusion into an official investigation may be one of them since it threatens her personally. It’s our quirks and idiosyncrasies that make us interesting, don’t you think?

 

Writing the opening of a book can be really hard, but you start your book with a bang and sustain a good pace throughout the story. What helped you learn the techniques of writing an intriguing and well written book?

 

Thank you for saying that. My instinct was that my original first paragraph should remain untouched through all my revisions, which it did. It just felt right. I had formal training in newspaper journalism which taught me the importance of succinct writing and ‘cutting to the chase’. Most likely, much of the best training was acquired doing what I always love, reading and dissecting mysteries by all types of writers. Far more than anyone, studying the masterful Dick Francis taught me how to start fast, dive in deep, and encourage readers to keep those pages turning. When I was a child, my mother would catch me under the blankets at two in the morning holding a flashlight and a book. I’m hoping to bring that same level of enjoyment to my readers. I will likely need to keep learning. 

 

Part of the joy of reading cozy mysteries is learning about a main character’s business or interest. How do you balance it so you have the right ratio of Helen’s real estate activity and sleuthing?

 

The right work balance throughout the pages was always important to me. Helen needed to be a woman responsible for her own financial security. I hope weaving in her everyday life as a real estate agent helps readers identify with her. She’ll not be inheriting or moving back home in order to find security. She’s a Nancy Drew grown-up good at observing personalities and furrowing out clues.

 

Did you have actual real estate experience, or did you have to do a lot of research? 

 

I worked full-time in real estate sales, management, coaching, and training, all my life. All those life experiences and long hours dealing with people and odd situations gave me plenty of story possibilities. Knitting together those details, like Dick Francis did with British horse racing, introduces everyone to a business from the inside out. Real estate is not HGTV. It’s a lot more interesting.

You had a nice twist at the end of Murder in the Master. Did you have that twist in mind, or did it come as a surprise to you too? 

 

I planned on that twist right from the beginning. The much harder decision was choosing the killer. Deciding the killer and the red-herring characters is definitely my biggest mental challenge. I agonize over that more than Helen does!

 

After all Helen has been through, is she still going to feel comfortable living in a house in a rather remote spot near the Chesapeake Bay? 

 

She’s strong. She’s not a nomad. Her surroundings are an important part of her sense of herself and her family. She’s a collector and a rehabber. She loves the water. She likes to watch crabbers, boaters, and barges, and consider all the history that unfolded on the Chesapeake. So, she’ll stay put on her cliff looking out on the bay. Perhaps she’ll need to invite a male visitor home more often? I won’t tell. She may have to learn how to cook first. 

Please tell us about your journey to publication.

A lifelong dream since I edited my high school newspaper. I started this first novel about ten years ago, then set it aside about eight chapters in. About three years ago I picked it up and started writing every night well after midnight. I decided time was of the essence, as we say in real estate. I wrote and rewrote and rewrote. I sought out a literary agent devoted to representing mysteries. Shortly after, I was very fortunate to have a couple publishers offer me contracts. I’m very grateful and enjoying, sometimes mentally hyperventilating, every minute since. 

What was the most valuable thing you learned along the way? What advice would you give to aspiring mystery writers? 

 

Most valuable, don’t give up. Set a daily word goal each day and your words will begin to take on a life of their own. That’s when I began feeling I really was a writer. For aspiring writers, I’d tell them to be open to criticism, to input. Don’t be afraid of it. My years in sales taught me new writers only need one door to open. Listen to other writers, agents, and editors if you want to improve your craft. These past few years has made me very grateful to the generosity of other authors who root for each other and me. This is a wonderful community.

What’s next for Helen Morrisey?

 

In Killer in the Kitchen, Helen’s bombshell daughter, Lizzie, a popular home shopping network host, invites her to meet a famous chef. She jumps at the chance. What woman doesn’t want to shake hands with a celebrity and do a little shopping all at once? Even more intriguing, he is about to sell his waterfront mansion. That job comes to a dead halt when she walks onto the chef’s TV kitchen to find his blood dripping bright red into his signature dish. Helen calls on the personalities and skills of her Detection Club of famous sleuths to stir this investigation pot. Her little bay town becomes swamped with rumors. And her on again, off again, romance with Detective Joe McAllister might sour when she ignores his warnings. I hope my readers will be kept up at night again. 

 

Thank you, Judy.

 

For more information about Judy Murray and her book, Murder in the Master, visit her at https://www.judymurraymysteries.com.