First interview about the new book!
I was delighted to join Paul Semel for the first interview around my new book—and new series! Read his interview below, or here.
Paul Semel:
After writing ten books in her Provincetown Mysteries series, author Jeannette de Beauvoir is going international with a new series, the Abbie Bradford Mysteries, which she’s kicking off with The Everest Enigma (paperback, Kindle).
In the following email interview, de Beauvoir talks about what inspired and influenced both this new novel and this new series.
To start, what is The Everest Enigma about, and when and where does it take place?
The story begins when a novelist hires the protagonist, Abbie, to accompany her to Nepal and trek from Kathmandu to Mount Everest Base Camp. Gradually, Abbie comes to believe that the novelist, Emma, is hiding her real reasons for the trek, and she’s proven correct in some — shall we say, exciting? — ways. And, going along with the present-day action, there’s a thread of a past mystery running through the book, the question of whether George Mallory was the first to reach the peak.
Where did you get the idea for The Everest Enigma?
Many years ago, I co-authored a novel, Assignment: Nepal, that took place in Nepal. It’s a country that’s so intriguing — a true crossroads in both time and space, and interesting things tend to happen at crossroads.
Besides that, though, I’m fascinated by obsessions, and people who climb mountains are among the most seriously obsessed. And, in addition, there’s a real historical mystery (also about obsession) playing out in real time that adds to the freshness of the story. I like using real places in my books, and every place has layers of existence, history, interactions that are fascinating to explore. Everest is no exception.
So, is there a significance to Emma being a novelist as opposed to a journalist or a photographer? Or maybe an actor who just wants to climb a mountain?
Novelists are storytellers. I think it’s interesting that Emma is creating whole layers of stories: about why she’s doing the trek, about the other people involved, about what role she sees Abbie playing in her drama. Some of those layers are real and some…aren’t. She’s a complex character who understands how to manipulate others.
And we have to remember that neither Emma nor Abbie actually climb Everest — that’s something that people train for strenuously, often for years. You have to be in good shape to do the trek from Lukla to Base Camp, but climbing the mountain itself is another whole level of fitness and preparedness.)
Also, is there a reason you chose Mount Everest for them to climb as opposed to Mount Denali or Mount Fuji or some other mountain? Everest seems like a tough one to start with.
Everest is actually not as technically difficult as many of the world’s other peaks; it’s the mystique of it being the world’s highest mountain that’s the draw. And, as I said, I like to consider how obsessions develop and sometimes dominate people’s lives; at its core, this is a story about obsession, which comes in many different guises. If you’re looking to accumulate a list of adventures, and one of them is climbing a mountain — well, then you’d be the sort of person who would go for the highest.
The Everest Enigma sounds like a mystery novel…
I wish we could go back to saying just, “a novel.” We categorize what we read and write because it’s comfortable — and easier to market. Someone may say, “I like romance, I don’t like science fiction,” and honestly? that is truly unfortunate, because it chops books up into their parts rather than existing as the sum of them. Many “literary” novels contain mysteries, or speculative fiction, or history, or romance. Many books contain combinations of these categories and more.
But because we are forced to label our work, I’ll play along: yes, it’s a mystery. It’s also a thriller. It’s also historical fiction. It’s a novel.
That said, is it the kind of mystery novel where people can try and solve the mystery themselves as they read, or is it the kind where we find out early on who did it and why?
I do play by the rules. I give readers enough information so that they can solve the puzzle (or at least the main puzzle!), but I also will make it as difficult as I can. But this isn’t a Poirot kind of mystery where you can follow one clue to the next to the next, because that isn’t how life works — and first and foremost, this is a story about life.
Now, The Everest Enigma is your eleventh novel after the ten in your Provincetown Mysteries series. More importantly, it’s the first in a new series, the Abbie Bradford Mysteries. Aside from the people who influence everything you write, are there any authors, or stories, that had a big influence on Everest?
Yes; I wanted a break after ten Provincetown Mysteries (though I am working on the eleventh in that series now!), and I have a lot of ideas that don’t fit conveniently into one place…so the obvious answer was a new series that allows for more flexibility.
Once I decided to write about Everest, I obviously read and viewed everything I could about it — and about George Mallory, whose attempt to summit in 1924 is at the core of the story. Months and months and months of research. And it’s really Mallory’s own words that have helped me understand the level of determination that drives climbers.
How about such non-literary influences as movies, TV shows, or games? Was The Everest Enigma influenced by any of those things? Because calling this series the Abbie Bradford Mysteries makes it sound like a show on PBS or BBC America.
I always site my stories in real places, for a whole lot of reasons. And each series is obviously connected to a protagonist, someone who will change and develop through the life of the series. So I think of them as embracing both the place and the person: the Martine LeDuc Montréal series, the Sydney Riley Provincetown series, and now the Abbie Bradford international series. I’ll always refer to them that way, though including all of that on a book’s cover is a little awkward.
Having said that, though I wouldn’t mind at all if any of them made their way to PBS!
Speaking of this book being the first in a series, what can you tell us about the Abbie Bradford Mysteries? Will it be an ongoing series or is The Everest Enigma the first book in a duology or a trilogy or something similar?
I’m now writing the second Abbie Bradford book, which takes place predominantly in England, with a couple of excursions to France and Cornwall. The working title (which can always change, obviously) is The Cambridge Effect. I have the framework for the third in my head, which will center around Paris.
So you see why the series is called “international” — every novel takes place somewhere new, though Abbie will obviously come and go from her home in Boston.
A moment ago you said of your books, “I wouldn’t mind at all if any of them made their way to PBS.” I assume, then, that you think The Everest Enigma and Abbie Bradford Mysteries could work as a TV show…
Oh, from your lips to God’s ears: I’d love to see either a movie or a series. (Is there any author who would say otherwise?)
So, if someone wanted to make a movie or TV show based on The Everest Enigma, who would you want them to cast as Emma Caufield and Abbie Bradford and why them and not Buffy The Vampire Slayer actress Emma Caufield and, uh, Rockford, Illinois clinical herbalist Abbie Bradford?
Ah, I like how you checked out those names! (And in fact that’s a bit of a conceit of mine, re-using names for characters: past books have featured Howard Carter, for example, and of course my other protagonist is named for the “ace of spies” himself.)
I’ll confess to not really knowing who a lot of current young-enough actors are — the last film I saw was Conclave, and a lot of my personal viewing involves Scandi noir dramas with unpronounceable titles. But this is, I think, a very visual novel with plenty of adventure in it, so I can absolutely see it being successful on the big screen.
What about a game? I once played a VR game [Everest VR] where you had to climb Everest.
Maybe…not really my wheelhouse, but I could see it as a video game where players go through the trek and perhaps even the climb as a quest of some sort (maybe even to discover what my characters do!). The last video game I played was in the Myst series era, so I’m a little challenged in making this connection!
So, is there anything else you think potential readers need to know about The Everest Enigma?
I think there are people who need to challenge themselves to feel alive. To climb the mountain, to cross the desert, to sail through the gale. Maybe in some way this novel provides something of a window into that need, without requiring anyone to actually do the thing. But I’m also so interested in getting to know a new protagonist, seeing what she’s like now, how she’ll grow and change. I hope that readers will feel that way about Abbie as well.
Finally, if someone enjoys The Everest Enigma, what similar novel or novella of someone else’s would you suggest they check out?
If you step away from the mountain itself, I’d recommend novels by S.J. Parris — smart historical suspense with murder and intrigue woven through — and Tess Gerritsen, who’s recently been writing suspense with international / spy elements and female protagonists.
Inside the Author of The Honeymoon Homicides :
I’m so excited to share that Jeannette de Beauvoir, author of The Honeymoon Homicides visited with me recently. Here are some highlights from our conversation.
What inspired you to write your first book?
My very first book (written when I was fifteen, but not published—with a whole lot of changes—until just a few years ago!) was inspired by my obsession with medieval history. I lived in Angers, France, had read Maurice Druon’s Les Rois Maudits, and plunged myself into writing about the early 1300s with great gusto. (The book is now called Lethal Alliances. If you’re interested in that period, it’s a good read.)
The first book in the Provincetown mystery series has a very different origin story. It was 2016 and I was concerned about the way people seemed to be hating each other almost as a knee-jerk reaction, without getting to know any of the “hated” group. As Provincetown is a haven for odd, artistic, and/or queer people, it occurred to me that it would make the perfect background to chip away at the “othering” that was going on (and unfortunately still is). If we can have empathy for people who aren’t like us, if we can enter into each other’s lives, we’re a lot less likely to make negative assumptions about each other.
If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
No; it’s still fresh enough that I’m pretty happy with it. The books I always want to change are older ones—writers are always (thank goodness!) evolving, getting better, but a published book stands still. So the current me wants to edit and rewrite all my books! I’m sure that in two years I’ll feel that way about The Honeymoon Homicides, as I’ll be a better writer then than I am now in 2024.
Who has impacted your life the most and in what way?
Two people, one I knew well, and one I never met. My mother taught me—mostly by example—to love words. All through my childhood, she was about reading, reading, reading… and writing; she wrote poetry and short stories and encouraged mine. I remember she always had a pile of mystery/suspense novels by her bed, and she introduced me to the wonderful Golden Age writers, people like Dorothy L. Sayers and Josephine Tey and Ngaio Marsh. She gave me entrée into magical fictional worlds and I will be forever grateful to her for that.
The other person is Mary Stewart, who wrote romantic suspense novels primarily in the 1950s and 1960s—come to think of it, my mother introduced her to me, too—and was a tremendous influence on my writing, especially when I was first finding my voice. She more than any other author shows how to bring readers into the lives and emotions of her characters, while filling in the background with descriptions that leap off the page.
You’ll notice I chose two people who have made me the writer I am today. For me, that can’t be separated from the person. Even when I’m not actively writing, I am a writer. It is, in a sense, what I was born for. And these two women made it possible.
What event in your life do you remember first when asked for a humorous story?
We find humor often in the unexpected, and sometimes well after the fact… when I was nine years old, we lived in Paris, in a fairytale house filled with antiques and old doors that didn’t always behave. My parents were out, and my younger sister had accidentally locked herself in her bedroom… and it being her, was not taking it well! So I went into my bedroom next door, opened the window, and crept along what I know now to have been essentially a gutter, got into her room, and opened her door.
A neighbor had seen me, horrified—for below us was an iron fence with wicked ornamental spikes on top of it—and spoke to my mother when she got home. The upshot was that I was in deep trouble. For me, the humor is in how incredibly unfair I found the whole episode to be: I saw myself completely as the hero in this story, having rescued my sister, and here I was being punished!
Life doesn’t always deliver what we think it will.
Gina Hott: My heart actually stopped in thinking about you on that ledge… and yet, yes, as a nine-year old, it’s a perfectly reasonable solution to the problem. O_O !! You have so many wonderful stories and quite a way of drawing us in. Thanks so much for stopping by Jeanette, it was an honor to chat with you and I can’t wait to talk again.