It’s Coffee Chat Wednesday!
Ready for your favorite drink and a little book talk? This week’s guest is historical and cozy mystery writer, Edith Maxwell.
Good morning, Edith! How do you like your coffee?
Edith: I drink two cups of a good dark roast with a bit of warm milk in it, and that’s it for the day.
Ally: Well, I hope you haven’t had your quota for today! I’ll fill our cups while you introduce yourself to readers.
Bio:
Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Maxwell, with nineteen novels in print and four more completed, has been nominated for an Agatha Award six times. She lives north of Boston with her beau and an elderly cat, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t killing people on the page or wasting time on Facebook. Please also find her at edithmaxwell.com, on Instagram, on Twitter, and at the Wicked Authors blog.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “I hold a long dusty black belt in karate, and an even dustier doctorate in linguistics.”
Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Maxwell, with nineteen novels in print and four more completed, has been nominated for an Agatha Award six times. She lives north of Boston with her beau and an elderly cat, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t killing people on the page or wasting time on Facebook. Please also find her at edithmaxwell.com, on Instagram, on Twitter, and at the Wicked Authors blog.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “I hold a long dusty black belt in karate, and an even dustier doctorate in linguistics.”
INTERVIEW:
Ally: How did you choose the title of your featured book, Judge Thee Not?
Edith: This book is about people being judged for things they have no control over, for who they are, whether it’s a physical disability, a sexual preference, or where they came from. It was an issue in the late 1800s and it’s unfortunately still an issue today.
Ally: Do you enjoy research? Does your genre require it?
Edith: I love research, and of course historical novels require a lot of it. I research language, how people traveled, police procedure, midwifery practices, daily life, and so much more. I’m lucky to live in the town I write about, so I can stroll among the same mill buildings my characters would have. I worship on Sundays in the same historical Friends Meetinghouse as Rose Carroll did. While I am pretty familiar with the era by now, every novel requires delving into a new area. For this book I researched lives of the blind and society’s attitudes toward them and people with other disabilities.
Ally: What’s the most meaningful thing a fan could say about your book?
Edith: Readers have told me my book got them through a difficult time – sitting at their dying mother’s bedside, for example, or when they had to be in the hospital for a week. This means the world to me, that my story took them temporarily out of their life and into a world where justice is restored to the community in the end.
Ally: What three books by other authors writing in your genre would you recommend to fans?
Edith: Jessica Ellicott’s historical Beryl and Edwina mysteries, set in England just post World War I; Alyssa Maxwell’s (no relation) Gilded Age Mysteries, which take place in Newport, Rhode Island; and Victoria Thompson’s long-running Gaslight Mysteries, in which a midwife solves crimes in turn-of-the-century New York City.
Ally: What is your next writing project?
Edith: I’m finishing up Quaker Midwife Mystery #6, which will be out in September of 2020. But I don’t have a title yet!
Ally: How did you choose the title of your featured book, Judge Thee Not?
Edith: This book is about people being judged for things they have no control over, for who they are, whether it’s a physical disability, a sexual preference, or where they came from. It was an issue in the late 1800s and it’s unfortunately still an issue today.
Ally: Do you enjoy research? Does your genre require it?
Edith: I love research, and of course historical novels require a lot of it. I research language, how people traveled, police procedure, midwifery practices, daily life, and so much more. I’m lucky to live in the town I write about, so I can stroll among the same mill buildings my characters would have. I worship on Sundays in the same historical Friends Meetinghouse as Rose Carroll did. While I am pretty familiar with the era by now, every novel requires delving into a new area. For this book I researched lives of the blind and society’s attitudes toward them and people with other disabilities.
Ally: What’s the most meaningful thing a fan could say about your book?
Edith: Readers have told me my book got them through a difficult time – sitting at their dying mother’s bedside, for example, or when they had to be in the hospital for a week. This means the world to me, that my story took them temporarily out of their life and into a world where justice is restored to the community in the end.
Ally: What three books by other authors writing in your genre would you recommend to fans?
Edith: Jessica Ellicott’s historical Beryl and Edwina mysteries, set in England just post World War I; Alyssa Maxwell’s (no relation) Gilded Age Mysteries, which take place in Newport, Rhode Island; and Victoria Thompson’s long-running Gaslight Mysteries, in which a midwife solves crimes in turn-of-the-century New York City.
Ally: What is your next writing project?
Edith: I’m finishing up Quaker Midwife Mystery #6, which will be out in September of 2020. But I don’t have a title yet!
Christabel Ally: Which of the quick answer questions did you pick to answer?
Edith:
Edith:
- favorite tv show: “Call the Midwife” – of course.
- favorite accessory: Anything turquoise – my glasses, rings, toenails, and scarves
- Your pets : We are down to one senior cat, Christabel. She’s a yellow and white longhair who is the kitchen cat in the Quaker Midwife Mysteries.
- What are your hobbies? Gardening, cooking, doing crosswords, and occasionally quilting.
- If you couldn't write anymore, what would you want to do? Play the cello, which I gave up after eighth grade.
Judge Thee Not
Genre: historical/cozy mystery
PG-13
No stranger to judgmental attitudes in her small town, 1880s Quaker midwife Rose Carroll is nonetheless stunned when society matron Mayme Settle publicly snubs Rose’s good friend Bertie for her nontraditional ways.
When Mrs. Settle is later found murdered—and a supposed witness insists Bertie was spotted near the scene of the crime—the police blame her. Rose is certain her friend is innocent, and she enlists the help of a blind pregnant client—who’s endured her own share of prejudice—to help her sift through the clues.
As the two uncover a slew of suspects tied to financial intrigues, illicit love, and an age-old grudge over perceived wrongs, circumstantial evidence looms large in small minds, and Rose fears her friend will soon become the victim of a grave injustice—or worse.
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