GREETING THE AGATHA-NOMINATED AUTHORS FOR BEST DEBUT NOVEL

by Paula Gail Benson

On Wednesday, April 9, we had a virtual visit with the authors nominated for the Agatha for Best Contemporary Novel. Today, we are pleased to welcome the debut novelists, whose work covers an amazing range of characters, cultures, and time periods. Here are the nominated books and their authors:

Jenny Adams

A DEADLY ENDEAVOR by Jenny Adams (After returning home to Chicago from California where she has spent years recovering from influenza, Edie Shippen discovers her childhood sweetheart is engaged to her twin sister and that young women are disappearing. Edie teams with the brother of a missing girl to investigate)

HOUNDS OF THE HOLLYWOOD BASKERVILLES by Elizabeth Crowens (Young private detectives Babs Norman and Guy Brandt try to solve the celebrity dognapping of Asta, the dog from The Thin Man series, in order to collect a large reward)

GHOSTS OF WAIKĪKĪ by Jennifer K. Morita (An out-of-work journalist and the homicide detective who broke her heart must find out who murdered the land developer for whom the journalist has been hired to ghostwrite an autobiography)

THREADS OF DECEPTION by Elle Jauffret (After a devastating accident, defense attorney Claire Fontaine seeks to return to working as a caterer in Southern California, only to find her client dead)

K.T. Nguyen

YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID by K.T. Nguyen (A thriller where a first-generation Vietnamese American artist must confront nightmares of the past and the present)

Each of the debut authors was kind enough to answer the following question:

EACH OF YOUR PROTAGONISTS HAVE A SIGNIFICANT OBSTACLE TO OVERCOME. WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION TO WRITE THIS NOVEL AND IS IT THE FIRST OF A SERIES?

Many thanks to them for some fascinating insights into their craft!

JENNY ADAMS: The inspiration question is always a really tricky one for me to answer. Personally, I deal with chronic migraines and an anxiety disorder; when I was drafting the book that became A Deadly Endeavor, I wanted to write a main character who shared these challenges, and I knew I wanted to set it in Philadelphia. These two facts (and Edie in a dumbwaiter) are perhaps the only aspects of the book that remained unchanged between the first draft and published version; it initially was a YA paranormal romance, then an adult paranormal romance, and eventually morphed into an adult historical mystery over many, many revisions! Edie, as a character, appeared in my head like a freight train and really took over the story. Gilbert as a narrator was a later addition, and he morphed from medical student to doctor to coroner, and he was a much tougher character to write. I’m proud of the evolution of the book, even if it is so very different from the book I thought I was writing!

Edie and Gilbert, my protagonists, live in 1921 Philadelphia, and certainly have their share of challenges–in the opening chapters, you learn that Edie’s childhood beau is engaged to her twin sister, and Edie deals with anxiety and chronic migraine as a lingering side-effect of her brush with the 1918 influenza. She decides to reinvent herself as an independent young woman…despite the fact that across the city, young flappers are going missing. Gilbert, meanwhile, is a widowed single dad dealing with his own demons–in his case, shell shock from his time in World War One. He’s deeply devoted to his family, despite his internalized shame and reliance on morphine to keep his flashbacks at bay. When Gilbert’s sister goes missing, they find themselves working together to find her…before the killer terrorizing Philadelphia does.  A Deadly Endeavor is the first book in the Deadly Twenties Mysteries - the second book, A Poisonous Silence, releases on May 6!

Elizabeth Crowens

ELIZABETH CROWENS: Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles is the first of a series I have with Level Best Books. My protagonist, Babs Norman, a former actress-turned-private eye from the 40s, was based on my best friend. If she were still alive, she would’ve turned 102 this year. Among the many hats I’ve worn in the entertainment industry, at one point I was an independent consultant providing men’s and women’s vintage clothing and textiles to fashion designers in both the garment industry and for film, theater, and television. I had met my inspiration for “Babs” at a vintage clothing show many years ago. Her husband had just passed, and since I was one of the few dealers in New York who also had a significant inventory in menswear, she invited me to look at his wardrobe. To make a long story short, I ended up selling $10,000.00 worth of his clothing and mine to the wardrobe department for the Ridley Scott film American Gangster starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, and Josh Brolin. Babs and I became instant friends, but somehow we felt we were also kindred spirits.

Over our decade-long friendship, she shared the most interesting stories of her colorful life, and she expressed her interest in having me write her memoirs. I had to be honest and tell her that unless she was famous or notorious, memoirs were the hardest to sell. Then one day, the idea suddenly came to light. What kind of books did she read? Mysteries. What shows did she watch on TV? Law & Order, NCIS, Murder She Wrote, Turner Classic Movies, a mystery series on PBS, or an animal show on Animal Planet or NatGeo Wild.

So, I approached her with the idea of taking her stories and turning her into a fictional actress, frustrated with show business, and who became a PI. My friend was a former actress, but she never was a private eye, but she loved I was taking artistic license with the concept and gave me her blessing. Then I got her estate attorney, made it legal by drawing up the paperwork, and told her that’s how I’d memorialize her. I only wish she were still alive to know that my first book in that series, Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles, which she inspired, is up for the Best First Novel in the Agatha Awards.

ELLE JAUFRETT: My inspiration for this novel came from wanting to explore how people react differently to accents and speech impediments, and the stereotypes we carry about identity. My protagonist suffers from foreign accent syndrome, which causes others to mistake her for a French tourist rather than an American citizen. Through her journey, I wanted to examine deeper questions: Does an accent make you more or less American? How much of our identity is tied to the way we speak?

The story is about a former criminal attorney turned private chef who desperately needs to solve a murder to save her best friend's wedding to a soon-to-deploy Marine. She's invested heavily in catering this wedding, hoping it will launch her new culinary career, making the stakes both personal and professional. While she's racing against time to identify the killer and clear the crime scene (which happens to be the one-of-a-kind historic venue for both the murder and the wedding reception) of police tape, she's simultaneously struggling with her own internal battle—the frustration of constantly having to prove her American identity despite her French accent.

Yes, I'm excited to say this is the first in a series that will continue to follow our protagonist as she solves crimes while navigating the challenges of her unique condition. The second book in the series, Cosplayed to Death, comes out November 11, 2025.

Jennifer K. Morita

JENNIFER K. MORITA: I was originally inspired to write a mystery with an Asian American reporter many years ago when I was covering local government for a community newspaper. I was reading Jan Burke, Naomi Hirahara, and Sujata Massey at the time, and each of their characters had something that really spoke to me. Somehow Maya got into my head. It was years before I got serious about writing my book, and by then the newspaper industry had changed completely.  Ultimately, the downfall of newspapers became Maya’s obstacle and helped shape Ghosts of Waikiki.

I have several ideas for more Maya Wong books, so I’m hoping it will be a series.

K.T. NGUYEN: Like me, my protagonist Anh Le "Annie" Shaw experiences obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). After the death of her mother, the disturbing intrusive thoughts swirling around in Annie's brain begin to manifest themselves in real life. My personal struggle with OCD inspired the premise of You Know What You Did: "if thoughts could kill." 

BIOS:

JENNY ADAMS has always had an overactive imagination. She turned her love of books and stories into a career as a librarian and Agatha Award-nominated novelist. She holds degrees in Medieval Studies and Library Science from The Ohio State University and Drexel University. She has studied fiction at Johns Hopkins University and is an alumna of Blue Stoop’s 2019 YA Novel Intensive and the 2021 Tin House YA Workshop, and was a 2021 PitchWars Mentor. Jenny currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia with family, though her heart is always in the City of Brotherly Love. Her website is Jenny Adams – historical mystery author.

ELIZABETH CROWENS has worn many hats in the entertainment industry, contributed stories to Black Belt, Black Gate, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazines, Hell’s Heart, and the Bram Stoker-nominated A New York State of Fright, and has a popular Caption Contest on Facebook. Awards include: MWA-NY Chapter Leo B. Burstein Scholarship, NYFA grant, Eric Hoffer Award, Glimmer Train Honorable Mention, a Killer Nashville Claymore finalist, two Grand prize, and six First prize Chanticleer Awards. Crowens writes multi-genre alternate history/time travel and historical Hollywood mystery in Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles, nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel (mystery), and Bye Bye Blackbird, its sequel. Her website it www.elizabethcrowens.com

Elle Jauffret

ELLE JAUFFRET is a French-born American writer, former criminal attorney with the California Attorney General’s Office, US military spouse, Claymore Award finalist, and Agatha Award nominee. New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry described her debut novel, Threads of Deception, as “a powerful, complex, and compelling mystery,” and USA Today bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan called it “a smart and fresh new voice.” Elle is an active member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. She lives in Southern California with her family, along the coast of San Diego County, which serves as the backdrop for her Suddenly French Mystery series. You can find her at https://ellejauffret.com or on social media @ellejauffret.

Former newspaper reporter JENNIFER K. MORITA believes a good story is like good mochi - slightly sweet with a nice chew. Her debut mystery, Ghosts of Waikīkī, won the 2025 Left Coast Crime Lefty Award for Best Debut Mystery and has been nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. It’s about an out-of-work journalist who reluctantly becomes the ghost writer for a controversial developer. When she stumbles into murder - and her ex - she discovers coming home to paradise can be murder. Jennifer is a writer for University Communications at Sacramento State. She lives in Sacramento with her husband and two teenage daughters. When she isn’t plotting murder mysteries or pushing Girl Scout cookies, she enjoys reading, experimenting with recipes, Zumba, and Hot Hula. You can reach Jennifer at www.jenniferkmorita.com.

K.T. NGUYEN is a former Glamour magazine editor. Her debut psychological thriller YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID has been nominated for Lefty and Agatha Awards. The Seattle Times called the novel "a swirly, tangled hair-raiser...as sinister as it is emotional." It was selected as a People Magazine Best Book of April 2024 and named a Best Mystery and Thriller Book of 2024 by Elle, Parade, and Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine. K.T. enjoys practicing Krav Maga, rooting for the Mets, and playing with her rescue terrier Alice. A graduate of Brown University, she lives just outside Washington, D.C. with her family. Her website is K.T. Nguyen Suspense Thriller Books.