Interview: Judith Cranswick in Conversation Victoria Dowd

 

Victoria was born and raised in Yorkshire and after studying at
Cambridge, was a successful criminal law barrister for many years. 
Victoria’s debut crime novel, The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder is the first part of a dark, humorous crime series that is a modern take on the Golden Age of crime fiction and authors such Agatha Christie,
Ngaio Marsh and Josephine Tey.
She is an award-winning short story writer, winning the Gothic Fiction prize for short fiction 2019 by Go Gothic. Victoria has had short stories published in BTS Literary and Arts Annual, Gold Dust magazine and also by Stairwell books in their literary and arts journal Dream Catcher.
Her work has also been selected for publication in an anthology entitled
A Ghostly Challenge.
She speaks at various literary festivals, most recently in Bath, and at
various schools and book groups. 

https://victoriadowd.com/

Judith:         The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder was the book that brought you a vast number of fans, including me. What inspired you to write the series?
 Victoria:    Thank you so much! That’s very kind of you. I’m a huge fan of Golden AgeDetective fiction and I draw a lot of inspiration from that. I really wanted to write a modern take on those books with all the tropes of the genre but updated with characters and themes today’s readers can relate to. I loved the idea of a strong female family dynamic with all its tensions and complicated relationships. I wanted to test those bonds and see how they would react under the greatest pressure – being locked in a house with a dead body and a murderer amongst them. 

Judith:        The Smart family women are delightfully quirky. Are any of them inspired by people you have met or are they entirely from your imagination?
Victoria:     They are individually fictional, but I do come from a family of very strong, forceful Yorkshire women. How they respond and react to one another is wonderful and awe-inspiring!

Judith:         You have written several books in the Smart Woman Mystery series, do you have a particular favourite, and why?
Victoria:     I think probably The Supper Club Murders. The Smart women had really come into their own at that point. It was great to take the characters to the next level. I really loved the setting for this one, as well – an isolated village on Dartmoor. 

Judith:         Death in the Aviary, the first of the Charlotte Blood Chronicles, is something of a departure from the Smart  Woman Mysteries. What prompted you to begin a new series?
Victoria:        I read a lot of historical fiction and a lot of detective fiction based in the 1920s and ‘30s. I thought it might be interesting to actually set a novel in that time but I didn’t just want my protagonist to seem like she’d turned up in 1920’s fancy dress. I wanted to show how she would have lived and the frustrations she would have felt with all the issues and barriers she had to overcome. It was surprising how many are still relevant today! It was also fascinating to explore the difficulties they would have faced in detecting. There were none of the modern methods available, particularly out on the moors at the time. The idea of being so isolated and cut off from most modes of  communication was very attractive! 

Judith:         I see from your bio that you were a criminal law barrister for many years. Has that influenced your writing?
Victoria:      Very much so. With each book, I use the same process and approach I did for constructing a case. I’m very methodical and visual. I like to plan the structure in quite a lot of detail before I begin. For A Book of Murder, I set some of the action in a courtroom that I’ve appeared in as a barrister. It was great fun and also quite surreal to reimagine it from the point of view of witnesses and, of course, the defendant. It does help to bring the scene to life and place the characters in that world. 

Judith:           Who are your favourite authors, and do you think they have influenced your writing style?
Victoria:     Agatha Christie is an enormous influence on me. Her meticulous construction and plotting is an absolute masterclass in how to write detective fiction. Her ability to hide the clues in plain sight and her facility with misdirection is second to none. John Dickson Carr is another influence, especially his mechanics of a locked room mystery. I also read a lot of ghost stories. I always like to inject the possibility of a supernatural element. M.R. James is one of my favourites. 

Judith:       Do you plot your novels before you start writing or do you begin with a scene and see what happens? Tell us a little about your routine.
Victoria:     I start with the trick of the book right at the centre. I then work out from that, weaving in the various plot points and clues. So, for instance, in Threefold Death, the latest Charlotte Blood book, I began with the idea of a locked tomb mystery. How could a fresh dead body be locked in a tomb that hasn’t been opened in nearly two thousand years? I then begin working out each strand of the plot that resolves into the denouement. I plan every section on my murder boards and those mirror the structure of my notebooks exactly. I often build models as well, primarily out of LEGO and each character has a mini-figure so I can see exactly where every person is as I write each section of the book. It’s a painstaking procedure but it’s very thorough!

Judith:     The setting for ‘Murder Most Cold’ was a remote set of cabins in Finland and ‘Death in the Aviary’ is set in 1928, both of which I presume involved research. What did that involve, and how much research do you need to do for your books?  
Victoria:     I do a lot of research in advance. For Murder Most Cold, I did visit the setting, which was both incredibly beautiful and eerie. I don’t think I would have been able to envisage the way light works there without seeing it. It really is extraordinary and, at times, disorientating – always useful in a murder mystery! 

I love the research part of a book. It’s a lot easier reading about Boudica and the Iron Age than starting on the very daunting prospect of a new book. There comes a point though where I have to make myself stop and actually get down to the real writing. I do need to know which shoes Charlotte Blood would wear but, sadly, I don’t need to know all the makes of shoe available then and how they were made. It is tempting to head off down some very lovely rabbit holes! 

Judith:         You are the winner of several awards. How did it feel to be short listed for the prestigious CWA Dagger, and which award gave you the most satisfaction?  
Victoria:     I’m always very surprised to win anything. There are so many amazing books out there these days. It was a wonderful experience to be shortlisted for a Dagger, primarily because that particular piece of work was written with my daughter. She attended the Daggers gala dinner with me. To share that with her was a very
special moment. Aside from that, every award is incredible for an author. After all the work and months of being locked away with the book on your own, it’s nice to know someone likes it.  

Judith:     I’m looking forward to reading Threefold Death. What are your plans for the next book? Will there be any more Smart Woman books or will you continue with a third Charlotte Blood Chronicle?Victoria: My next book is a standalone. I love writing series. It’s great to step back into their world and immediately know the character inside out. But I wanted to challenge myself and explore very different ideas. The New Rules of Murder comes out next year in June (with Sphere/Little Brown). It focuses on Knox’s rules of detective fiction – the Decalogue. On the eve of the millennium, ten crime writers are sent to a remote castle to rewrite those rules. All of them are killed and the murderer is never caught. I poured all my passion for detective fiction into that book. It really was a labour of love.  

Thank you for talking with us Victoria. Roll on next year and
The New Rules of Murder.