Five Books With Fiona Veitch Smith

I had the pleasure of meeting Fiona Veitch-Smith at Death In The Dales last month. I’ve reviewed The Jazz Files way back in 2015 and really enjoyed it. Never went back, for some reason – maybe because the publisher promised to send me the next few titles and then never did (I get be a bit sulky at times) – but she spoke so enthusiastically about her books, especially her current Clara Vale series, that a) I wangled a review copy of her new book from NetGalley – review coming tomorrow, publication day, and b) I persuaded her to do the interview that all the cool authors are doing, namely Five Books. So without further ado, over to Fiona.

Introduce yourself

I am best known for my neo-Golden Age mysteries. My debut, The Jazz Files, the first in the Poppy Denby Investigates series, about a young investigative journalist in London in 1920, was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger in 2016. There were eventually six books in that series under the Lion Fiction imprint and they have now been re-published by Embla Books under new titles (starting with A Front Page Murder). My new series for Embla is about a female forensic sleuth who inherits a detective agency in Newcastle upon Tyne. It is set in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The sixth book in that series, the Miss Clara Vale Mysteries, The Oxford Murders, is out now. As part of my research, I make vintage fashion from original patterns and collect vintage guidebooks and maps. I’m also working on a PhD in feminist representation in neo-Golden Age detective fiction at the University of Strathclyde. I’m the convenor of the Crime Writers’ Association North East chapter and I live in Newcastle upon Tyne with my partner and two border collies.

What book inspired you to write crime fiction?

None! I never set out to write crime fiction. The Jazz Files was intended to be a historical novel about the death of a suffragette but then, drifted into a murder mystery as I started writing it. Looking back, I see my childhood love of Nancy Drew books, starting with The Secret of the Old Clock, subconsciously influenced my writing, but I didn’t realise it when I first started. I have gradually been herded into the crime fold by my agent and successive publishers (not least on the back of my debut being shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger) and I now consciously write historical crime and mysteries. However, I am just as happy to be referred to as a historical novelist and am a member of both the Historical Writers’ Association and the Crime Writers’ Association. One day I might write a ‘straight’ historical, or a non-fiction historical, or a contemporary literary, or a Bridget Jones-style comedy …

Which of your own books are you the most proud of?

The Berlin Murders, the fifth in the Miss Clara Vale Mysteries. Reviewers describe it as my darkest, least ‘cosy’ book, but just like I never intended to write crime fiction, I certainly never intended to write cosies, although my books are marketed as such. I write the books I want to write and they don’t always fit into the industry’s rigid genre definitions. There are cosy elements – with quirky characters, humour, a recurring cast, some Golden Age tropes and fabulous fashion – but there are lots of serious issues too: feminist themes, social and political commentary, historical analysis and some quite dark emotional arcs. I think I achieve the blend of the two – cosy and serious – most successfully in The Berlin Murders, set at Berlin Fashion Week in September 1930, a week before the National Socialists are about to make a huge splash in the Reichstag elections. It’s been out for nearly a year and so far it’s been my bestselling book, after the first of the Clara Vale books, The Picture House Murders. So the ‘darker’ tone doesn’t seem to have put readers off.

What crime novel should everybody read?

There are so many Golden Age classics, but looking to the modern landscape, the book I have most recently admired in terms of structure, plotting and cleverly inviting the reader to participate in deciding whodunnit and why, is Janice Hallett’s The Appeal. It’s written in an epistolary form (which I’m currently experimenting with myself) and is similar in many ways to one of my favourite Dorothy L. Sayers’ novels, The Documents in the Case (which a little bird told me is one of the Puzzle Doctor’s least favourite!).

Puzzle Doctor here – and while I do like The Appeal, I should confirm what Fiona says and say that I really didn’t like The Documents In The Case. At All. Although I enjoyed writing my review. Sorry, back to Fiona!

What’s your favourite non-crime novel?

Watership Down by Richard Adams. One of the very few books I can return to and re-read. It’s an emotionally very important book for me as I first read it on the aeroplane when my parents emigrated to South Africa when I was ten years old. I felt like Fiver being forced to leave his home to travel to a scary new place, where the society was run very differently to the one I was used to. As it turned out, adventures – both good and bad – awaited me.

Please plug your latest book.

The Oxford Murders, #6 in the Miss Clara Vale Mysteries (my homage to Dorothy L. Sayers’ Gaudy Night)

May Day, 1931. Miss Clara Vale is looking forward to a respite from detective work as she attends her brother’s wedding in the Cotswolds before returning to Oxford for Somerville College’s ten-year reunion. But when Clara and her mother discover the body of a young research student at the ancient Rollright Stones, their celebrations are abruptly cut short. The victim appears to have been sacrificed as part of a Beltane fertility ritual dedicated to the mysterious Celtic goddess Cuda so Clara calls on her indomitable assistant Bella who is in town for a romantic weekend with an archaeologist. Together with determined WPC Rosie Winter, they begin to untangle a web of academic rivalries, dangerous political extremism and long-buried secrets. As the investigation draws Clara into the shadowy world of Celtic mythology she must separate ancient legend from modern murder before the May Day festivities claim another victim.

Thank you so much, Fiona. As I said, The Oxford Murders is out tomorrow – November 5^th – in paperback and ebook, and my review, in case you need a little more persuasion, will be up first thing tomorrow. No spoilers for that, but let’s be clear, I will certainly be going back to Fiona’s back catalogue in the near future. You can find out more about Fiona and her work at her website https://fiona.veitchsmith.com

Fiona Veitch Smith Bibliography

Poppy Denby Investigates