A Poisoned Chalice : The New Sister Agnes Story by Alison Joseph

Sister Agnes, for those that don’t know her, is a nun; contemporary, in an open order, based in South London.  She is a detective. And, in the archetypal mode of the amateur detective, she finds herself on the outside of things, privy to people’s secrets. In the words of a lovely police officer who has helped me on and off with my research, ‘There’s always someone who knows more than we do.’

In the time of Sherlock Holmes, it was easier for an amateur sleuth to know more than the police.  But now, with CCTV, mobile phone tracking, and highly developed forensic science, the expertise of the amateur detective is distilled into that one central point: being the repository of other people’s secrets.  And, as Sister Agnes works in a hostel for homeless young people, that is exactly what she is.

The new novel starts with a young woman appearing on the hostel doorstep asking if they’ve seen her husband, a young man on the wrong side of the law who has now gone missing. This one simple event widens out into a much bigger mystery, concerning a medieval silver cup known as the Judas chalice, a priceless, possibly stolen, artefact belonging to one of the old catholic families. It is extremely rare due to its depiction of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, the thirteenth apostle – so rare, in fact, that someone is prepared to kill for it.

I’ve always liked the classic detective structure – an all-knowing central character through which the story is told, with a Marple or a Maigret or a Marlowe at the heart of it. It allows a three-way relationship between author, reader and detective, all sharing the fun of engaging with the story together. The challenge is to make sure the reveal comes as a surprise while at the same time allowing the reader to walk hand in hand with the detective in solving the mystery.

But I also try, in my work, to bear witness to the harm that humans do.  People look at Golden Age crime fiction and make the mistake of seeing it as lightweight, as a historical romp in the company of Sayers, Allingham,
Christie et al.  But as far as she was concerned, Agatha Christie was writing The Modern Novel. And, having lived through a world war, she needed to talk about human pain, human damage, in a very particular way.   For some time, I have circled the idea that as a nun, Sister Agnes will at some point have to tackle the harm of which the church itself is capable, where its huge and powerful influence collides with its dangerous obsession with sex, shame and sin.

Sister Agnes, like many fictional detectives, is a person of contradictions. She has religious faith and yet is constantly beset by doubt; she accepts the unsolvable mystery of a God, and yet the mystery of a killing on her doorstep is there to be solved with careful attention to evidence, to science, to reason.

 

This new novel,
A Poisoned Chalice,
is the first of two new Sister Agnes novels

Published by Joffe Books,
31 October 2024.
In Paperback and e-book.

A Poisoned Chalice is the eighth in the new series published by Joffe, (with seven of the earlier novels republished under new names).  It has been a delight to be back with her, and also with her two best friends, Athena and Father Julius, who accompany her through the story in their own particular ways, Athena with
shopping, clothes, cake and fizzy wine – and Julius with his own
particular and difficult challenge.

The problem of evil may be preached from a pulpit, but what
happens if that evil is within the church, rather than something
external to be fought by the might of the faithful? And how does someone of faith continue within a structure that is so warped, so potentially malign?

Sister Agnes, walking the streets of South London, will find herself wrestling with all these questions.

Alison Joseph is a London-based crime writer and radio dramatist. She started her career in local radio, and then in television as a documentary director. She is the author of a series of novels featuring Sister Agnes, a
contemporary detective nun based in South London. Alison has written about twenty works for radio, including The True Story and also dramatisations of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels.

www.alisonjoseph.com  

Interview: Jill Amadio in Conversation with Carl Vonderau

 

Carl Vonderau grew up in Cleveland in a religious family that believed God could heal all illness. Maybe that’s why he went to college in California. After majoring in economics and dabbling in classical guitar, he ended up with a career in banking.

Carl has lived and worked internationally and has managed to put his foot in his mouth in several languages. He brought his banking expertise to his debut thriller, Murderabilia, as well as to his recently published novel, Saving Myles.
He has won first place awards from Left Coast Crime, San Diego, American Book Fest, Pencraft, and National Indie Excellence.
Carl is president of the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime, a member of Blackbird Writers, and also helps nonprofits through San Diego Social Venture Partners.

Author Carl Vonderau

Jill: Describe your literary background. Did you take classes?
Carl: As a kid, I enjoyed making up stories but did not take literature or creative writing classes in college. I majored in economics. After several years in banking, I enrolled in my first writing courses. I’ve continued with those courses, joined writing groups, and submitted sample pages to agents and editors. Slowly but surely, I’ve become a competent writer.

Jill: Have you written books all your life?
Carl: I used to write poetry and music for guitar and voice. But it wasn’t until my thirties that I took classes and began to write short stories and fictional pieces.

Jill: How have your books and writing evolved after writing the first one?
Carl: Crime fiction has always fascinated me by the way it amplifies family and the relationships of my  characters. I also love a good plot. Each book has had a different challenge, and each one has stretched me as a writer. My first book, Murderabilia, took many years to write. It was entirely in first person and used some parts of my life—private banking, growing up in a Christian Science family, and my familiarity with some foreign locals like Colombia and Algeria. My second book, Saving Myles, was in third person and contained three points of view—a mother, father, and teenage son. Getting those voices right and individualized was a major challenge. But writing them really helped me grow. My third book is in submission and only contains one voice in third person but contains some unique writing challenges I hadn’t tried before. All three books involve the banking industry. But the book I’ve just started has nothing to do with banking and is set in 1969.

Jill: When did you begin writing mysteries; what inspired you?
Carl: I would say that my books are combinations of thriller and domestic suspense with mystery elements in them. When I first started writing I thought the easiest way to get published would be to write a mystery or thriller. Little did I know. Still, in choosing that type of genre I grew to love what I could do with them. And mystery is really so broad. Much of literary fiction has mystery in it. What I like about it is that mystery combines character development and analytical reasoning.

Jill: Why did you write in first person for your first mystery?

Carl: I thought it was the easiest way to write my first book because it was closest to my own thoughts and emotions. Again, little did I know. I now think it is one of the hardest forms of writing. To be successful you have to have a unique voice, which took a while to develop. In cultivating that voice, going on for pages of description about thoughts, feelings, and technical knowledge is a very big danger. It can be self-indulgent and cause the book to sag. The biggest challenge in first person is Then there is the unreliable narrator. That is very hard. The master of it is Kazuo Ishiguro.

Jill: How do you decide on your characters and killers?

Carl: Each book is different. In Murderabilia I started with a premise. What kind of secret would a banker for the very wealthy hide? What if his father was an infamous serial killer as famous as Ted Bundy or Charlie Manson? I thought the most interesting aspect of that family history was how carrying that secret affected the banker’s life and family. The killer in that book was more difficult. I decided to make him a copycat of the protagonist’s father. Then I had to do research to get into the mind of a serial killer. It was definitely not something I could talk to my wife about at dinner. I also wanted my protagonist’s mother to be a fanatical Christian Scientist, someone who believed that evil would cease to exist if she stopped believing in it.  In Saving Myles, I took on a different problem What effect did a deeply troubled son have on a family and a crime? In this novel the son went so far off the rails the parents had to send him to a residential treatment centre. The trauma of doing that tore the marriage apart. Then, when the son returned, he sneaked off to Mexico to do a drug deal and got kidnapped. The only way the parents could save him was to become involve in money laundering. In this book I wanted to explore how the family had to come together and learn to cherish one another again in order to survive. The killers in Saving Myles were Mexican cartel families. They too were deeply driven by family, which made them more redeemable in the reader’s eyes.

Jill: Have your life experiences crept into your stories?
Carl: Yes. My banking and my travel experiences have greatly influenced my writing. I was a banker for more than 30 years and lived in Chicago, Montreal, and San Diego. I travelled extensively in Latin America and North Africa, and worked in four languages. I set my first three books in the banking world I knew, just different areas of banking. In Murderabilia, the world was private banking for the wealthy. In Saving Myles, it was commercial real estate banking. In the book I’ve just submitted it is in the branch of a large bank. I’ve based my characters on composites of the people I knew and know. Because of my languages, I injected a foreign way of speaking into some of the characters. Even so, I had to research some aspects of each book. I had to learn about photography in Murderabilia. I may be a banker but didn’t know much about money laundering, which is part of Saving Myles. So, I enrolled in an anti-money laundering organization and took courses and went to seminars. Much of laundering uses international trade, which I already knew a great deal about. I also had never worked in the retail branch side of banking. To learn about their daily challenges, I talked with several branch bankers.

Jill: Where does your inspiration for settings come from? 
Carl: I love international locales and have tried to put in details that evoke those different worlds. I’ve used settings in San Diego, Algeria, Colombia, Mexico, and Montreal. The best way to absorb the feel of a setting is to go there with a notebook and take lots of pictures. In Tijuana I had friends in the YMCA who helped me find the right locations for Saving Myles. I travelled back to Montreal for the book I just wrote to make sure I got it right. Part of Saving Myles was set in Mexico’s wine country, where I’ve never been. I couldn’t travel there because of the pandemic, so I had to use whatever visual images and knowledge I could glean from TV and the internet. Then I made things up. I’m sure I got some of it wrong…but it’s fiction!

Jill: Have you studied forensics?
Carl: I’ve read some books and talked with a few experts, but forensics is not my strength. I try to limit that aspect as much as I can in any mysteries I write. However, I am knowledgeable about finance, so I do put financial forensics into my books.

Jill: What is the greatest writing challenge?
Carl: Writing the next books fast enough. I am somewhat of a perfectionist, and my books are stand-alones, so I don’t write a book a year. I work very hard on getting the ‘write’ emotions down and coming up with decent prose. My first book I wrote more than 20 times. The second was 10-15, and the third less than 10. So I guess I’m getting better.

Jill: Any pitfalls along the way?
Carl: Sometimes I have a problem with a premise. I wrote 30K words for each of two books that I dropped because they didn’t work. The ending can also be a problem. I write a whole book with an ending in mind, and then it doesn’t work, so I have to change it. But the changes make the books better.

I’ve found that my writing group both makes my books better and slows them down. The people in the group really helped me improve—especially with the interior life of my characters. They also helped me see what scenes worked and didn’t work. But there are drawbacks. It’s very hard to get a lot of pages quickly through a writing group—typically only about 10 pages at a time. The other problem is that the other members can’t see the whole arc of the book because they’ve only seen pieces of it over several months.

Jill: Typical writing schedule?
Carl: I write every day. On weekdays I begin at about 7:15 in the morning. It is not all writing the manuscript. I also write a newsletter and do social media. Plus I‘m currently president of the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime and must do work for that organization. I’ve also been active in Social Venture Partners, a nonprofit that consults with other nonprofits. I will usually watch news or read at lunch and then work in the afternoon. I finish on at about 4:30 on the days that I exercise, and at 6:00 for other days. Night time is pure relaxation with my wife. On weekends I usually work 4-6 hours each day.

When I was a banker the hours were long, and in those days, I wrote whenever I had a few minutes, Now I’m a full-time writer and the hours are even longer.

Jill:     How do you beat writer’s block, if any?
Carl:   I always know the characters and the premise I’m writing about. I usually have a clear idea of the scene I want to write. Plot points are what block me. This is when I’ve written my character into a corner they can’t escape from, or when the book has begun to drag. I can rack my brain and go in circles, but usually the best ideas don’t occur to me then. Sometimes I’ll get a solution when I talk to someone. But often the best way to solve a problem is to let it go. Wash the dishes, exercise, or take a shower. And if it’s really a difficult problem, put it off for the next day. I won’t think of a solution in my sleep, but the next morning it often comes to me. This past week an idea occurred to me on something I’d worried about for weeks when I was in my spin class at the Y. I’m disciplined and focused, but the key to the unusual idea is to just let your mind go free and not force yourself to grind out a solution.

Jill: What keeps you in the chair?
Carl: I like to go to coffee houses to work. Then there is no distraction from TV or what’s going on at home. Just the work in front of me and the noise of people I don’t talk to. The hardest part is starting the day. That’s when I worry that my writing will be lousy. Often it starts out that way and then goes somewhere unexpected. When I follow a good trail, I lose track of the time.

The other thing I do is write first drafts by hand. I have an idea for a scene and the conflict between the characters and let it flow without worrying if there are enough setting detail, gestures, reactions, etc. Sometimes the scene is going so fast my hand can’t keep up with what the characters are saying or doing. That’s a great feeling. If there is a word I can’t think of or something doesn’t work, I ignore the problem and keep moving. Then I try to type it into the computer within 24 hours. That is my first real draft, and I will cut out and fill in pieces. Maybe the scene doesn’t really begin until the second page. Or it ends a page earlier than I’d written. I try not to polish it too much in this first-draft stage. After all, when the book is done, I might have to cut or revise the whole scene.

Jill: How do you organize your plotting – pantster or plotter?
Carl: I do both. My first book was heavily plotted. I had a half page of notes for every scene before I wrote it. I changed it so many times that many of those plotting points were a waste of time. Now I try to have some basic points in my outline but not be wed to them. I’m currently using Plotter to map out scenes and points of view.

Overall, I at least need some concepts of basic points: an inciting scene to launch the narrative, a big change in the middle, subplots that can stop the book from dragging, and a hopeless situation that the protagonist must resolve at the end. Plus some plot twists, of course. Steven James, a best-selling author, said the best twists are not the ones you think of first, but the ones you think of second or third.

I'm mostly being a pantser for the book I’m working on now. It is the first time I’ve written so much this way. Being a pantser frees me from having to get the characters to particular plot points I’ve got my heart set on. I also don’t have to bash my head against a stone to come up with a twist that will make the book more interesting. Just let the characters react in the way that any normal person would. Of course, this carries the risk of pulling me down a rabbit hole.

Jill: Do you have theme goals?
Carl: My general theme for all my books is that a crime forces dysfunctional families to unite to survive. My mantra is: Behind every crime is a family.  As I write the book, other themes emerge, particularly if I see an object or an action repeated. That might indicate a problem or a solution that could be worked up into a theme.

Jill: Publishing history?
Carl: It takes a long time to get published. I started 30 years ago. When I moved to San Diego I met Jacquelyn Mitchard at a writers’ conference. She helped me develop and edit the book that became Murderabilia. Jackie recommended me to her agent. We went through revisions for a year and then he told me I should find another agent. That was tough! So, I went to a conference on how to pitch a book to an acquisitions editor or agent. I used that advice in a conference in San Francisco and got an agent with a one-sentence pitch—Michelle Richter. But then there was the problem of finding a publisher. She sent it out to at least 20 of them. Murderabilia was a dark book, so only one was interested—Midnight Ink. They were a good publisher, so we went with them. Three months after we signed the contract, Midnight Ink’s parent company decided to stop publishing mysteries. We stuck with them, and they published the book, but did not give it a lot of support. My next book, Saving Myles, took me three years to write. Again, Michelle pitched to a number of publishers and Oceanview took it. They are considering my third book right now. Will they accept it? Nothing is certain in the publishing world. But I hope they do. They have been excellent to work with.

I’m glad to have the ongoing support of Michelle, my agent. Someone once told me, “A publisher buys a book, and an agent buys an author.”

Jill: How do you promote your books?
Carl: I have a website and am active with Facebook and Instagram. Plus a monthly newsletter in which I describe my writing activities, as well as a financial scandal that occurred somewhere in the world. I am the president of the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime, a writing organization with more than 4K members in 60 cities, including a chapter in the UK.  I’m also a member of Blackbird Writers, a group of writers who cross-promote their books. I attend and teach at writers’ conferences. And, finally, I love to talk virtually or in person to book clubs! No charge.

Contact me at CarlVonderauAuthor@gmail.com
or through my website, www.carlvonderau.com 
if you are interested in me talking to your group.

 Jill: Have you attended book tours or writers’ conferences in the UK and other countries? 
Carl: I did attend a Left Coast Crime conference in Vancouver a few years ago, but nothing else international. But would love to do more. I’m putting the UK on my bucket list.

Jill: Which genres do you read for pleasure? 
Carl: I read extensively both crime books as well as literary ones. I prefer books with plot and a traditional narrative. I don’t read science fiction or fantasy. Those are just too long, and I’m not a fast reader.

Jill: Your most exciting book news this year?
Carl: Saving Myles has won several awards. These include: American Book Fest for Best Mystery/Suspense, PenCraft for best Suspense, and National Indie Excellence for Best Thriller. The Local Author Showcase of San Diego Central Library spotlighted it in March.

Jill: Tips/advice for budding authors?
Carl: The two key talents you need in order to get published have nothing to do with your writing ability. Those are patience and tenacity. You have to keep at it and keep getting better as a writer. The saying is that you get your whole life to publish your first book, and a year to publish your second one. Most beginning writers, including me, have thought their book was ready before it really was. You only get one chance for an editor or publisher to look at it, so make sure it is at its best before you submit. That means, not only writing it, but vetting it through a writer’s group, maybe beta readers, and through a developmental editor. A writer’s critique group will make sure your scenes and characters work. Beta readers and a developmental editor will make sure that the overall structure of your book holds together.

 

Jill Amadio hails from Cornwall, U.K, like the character in her crime series, Jill was a reporter in Spain, Colombia,  Thailand, and the U.S. She is a true crime author, ghosted a thriller, writes a column for Mystery People ezine, and freelances for My Cornwall magazine. She lives in Connecticut USA.  Her most recent book is

In Terror's Deadly Clasp, 

‘City of Destruction’ by Vaseem Khan

Published by Hodder & Stoughton,
28 November 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-399-70765-7 (HB)

It is 1951 in Bombay, a city still recovering from the trauma and sectarian violence that followed independence and the partition of India in1947. Most Indians are happy that the British have been expelled, but not all are agreed about India’s relationship with their new neighbour, Pakistan: some want it reunited with India, some want it to remain separate, others want to wage war on it. As usual, politicians’ public statements do not necessarily coincide with their private aims and actions.

Inspector Persis Wadia, India’s first female detective, works out of Malabar House - the smallest and least auspicious police station in Bombay peopled by out-of-favour officers. When Persis shoots a young gunman intent on assassinating India’s new defence minister, Rafi Azad, male officers, Inspectors Oberoi and Fernandes, not Persis, are given the task of identifying the assassin’s partners in crime. Rosan Seth, Persis’ boss, sidetracks her into investigating a seemingly less important matter, the death of a white man found burned on some rocks in a posh area of Bombay. Who was he? Was he murdered or did he commit suicide?

Being highly intelligent and independently minded, Persis ignores her instructions and starts investing both the assassination attempt and the identity and reason for the death of the burnt man. A lead takes her to Delhi where she meets two MI6 officers, Barnes and Astor, who, theoretically at least, are supposed to be helping the new Indian Intelligence Service to find its feet.  Impervious to obvious dangers, Persis risks life and limb as she tracks suspects. She also gets under the skin of her Malabar House colleagues, her superiors and MI6 alike. Her single-minded pursuit of justice pays off when the two investigations eventually become linked.

Persis has a complicated private life. The apparently insurmountable barriers of race, creed and family contribute to a constant struggle over her feelings for Archie Blackfinch, an English criminologist in Bombay to help set up a local forensic lab. Sadly, Archie is shot early in the story and is in a coma.  Will he survive? And should he survive, any advance in their relationship is further complicated by the arrival of Archie’s wife from whom he is separated but not divorced.

City of Destruction is a delightful book, both entertaining and thought provoking. Vaseem Khan manages to weave the threads of politics, ancient and modern history and social commentary on the abject poverty and obscene riches in India, into a seamless whole. The story is populated by a wide variety of characters, the good - Persis and her family - the not so good, and the bad who are fighting to establish supremacy over various disreputable trades such as drug dealing, prostitution and money lending. Minor characters are often encapsulated in descriptions crafted to bring a smile to your face. Last, but not least, two complicated crimes are investigated. Although City of Destruction is the fifth book in the Malabar House series it can easily be read as a standalone. Having read it however, you might well want to seek out the previous four books in the series.

------
Reviewer: Angela Crowther

Vaseem Khan was born in London in 1973. He studied finance at the London School of Economics. He first saw an elephant lumbering down the middle of the road in 1997 when he arrived in the city of Mumbai, India to work as a management consultant. This surreal sight inspired his Baby Ganesh Agency series of 'gritty cosy crime' novels. He returned to the UK in 2006 and has since worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science. Elephants are third on his list of passions, first and second being great literature and cricket, not always in that order. His first book The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra was a Times Bestseller and an Amazon Best Debut. The second in the series Perplexing Theft of The Jewel in The Crown won the 2017 Shamus Award for Best Original Private Investigator Paperback. The latest book is in his new series Malabar House is  Death of A Lesser God published 10 August 2023.

http://vaseemkhan.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VaseemKhanUK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VaseemKhanOfficial/

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.