Andrew Welsh-Huggins appeared at Gramercy Books Bexley, https://gramercybooksbexley.com/, for the release of his latest Mercury Carter thriller, The Delivery. Natalie Richards, Edgar Award winning author for her 2024 Young Adult novel, 49 Miles Alone, interviewed Welsh-Huggins.

First, Linda Kass, owner of Gramercy Books, talked about the store’s history with Andrew. Gramercy is in their tenth year, and Andrew has appeared there five times for his own books. In 2020, due to COVID, when he edited Columbus Noir, he and several of the authors appeared via Zoom. In 2021, when his Andy Hayes PI novel, An Empty Grave, came out, he appeared with author Connie Berry for the store’s first hybrid event, live and on Zoom. In 2023, the rural noir standalone, The End of the Road was released and he was in conversation there with author Lee Martin. Last year saw the release of the first Mercury Carter, the award-nominated The Mailman. And, last night he appeared for the release of The Delivery. He has also moderated a couple events at the bookstore.

As Natalie Richards kicked off the conversation, she asked Andrew to provide a little bit of background for the book. He said he first wanted to talk about the dedication because it was to two people who were big readers and supporters of writers. They died in the last year, and he said his message to everyone in the room was to keep supporting bookstores and libraries.

The Delivery is book two in the Mercury Carter series about a freelance mailman, a courier. Carter was once a United States Postal Inspection Services agent. The USPIS is the oldest federal law enforcement agency in the country. A little backstory – Carter’s father was a mailman, killed on the job. His boss had him killed because he was about to uncover a drugs in the mail scheme, and then the man fled. After his father’s murder, Carter was close to exposing the boss who took out a hit on him. Carter is still suffering from the aftereffects of traumatic brain injury. Now, people hire him to deliver items they don’t want to go through ordinary mail, such as paintings, or Andrew’s favorite a French bulldog puppy. Those are so valuable, dogs are stolen on the street by gunpoint.

After The Mailman was a hit, Welsh-Huggins wrote a novella in the Andy Hayes PI series set in Columbus. That novella, Rescue Me, is due out in June. Mercury Carter lives in Rochester, New York. The Mailman was set in the Midwest, in the Indiana and Illinois areas. The second one is set in the Providence, Rhode Island area. There’s quite a mob history there, and that’s a part of the plot.

Mercury Carter has never missed a delivery. He’s hired to get a ring back to a young, missing woman, a ring that was tucked in his vest by a woman he rescued. Once he takes on a job, he’s stuck. Then, he’s caught up in a bunch of crazy stuff.

Richards said she understands how Andy Hayes got his name. Andy and Andrew, and, of course, with OSU, the Hayes for a former quarterback. But, how did Mercury Carter get his name? Mercury is the Roman messenger of the gods. Mercury’s father was a mythology buff. As a mailman, hee liked the idea of naming his son after the messenger of the gods. And, Carter is a play on the French carte for letters.

Richards asked how he did such a good job capturing Rhode Island. He answered that they’d lived there at one time. But, it’s been a while. However, he’s a former journalist. He had three things that helped. He did research online. He interviewed a Pawtucket police officer, a detective who didn’t believe he was doing research for a book. He asked him questions about Pawtucket itself, and the crime there and investigations. He also has to friends, fellow writers, who helped. One even took photos of Providence streets. He likes to get it right, and he’ll hear from readers if he doesn’t.

What new things did he have to do for this series? Welsh-Huggins said he’s a big PI fan. In fact, he has twenty-three PI novels on a pile right now because he’s judging a contest. He said the PI novel is alive and well. As a reader, he’s a thriller fan. He likes Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. The late Thomas Perry inspired Mercury Carter with his Jane Whitefield character. He reads Karin Slaughter. He thought he’d try his hand at a thriller. His PI novels are written in first person, from Andy’s point of view. These books allow him to write in third person with multiple viewpoints.

According to Richards, there’s a lot of gray in Welsh-Huggins’ characters. Sometimes they’re admirable; sometimes not so much. He answered there are even discussions as to how to make villains more gray. One member of a book club, who had obviously never read or seen a crime book or show, said, your hero is a murderer. Andrew sees him as a good guy. Carter only sees himself as a delivery person. He does things that aren’t always good. But, he does them to get the delivery made. The people he takes out deserve it.

Why did he give Carter a postal background? The idea for Carter just came to him when he was on a walk. He knew the whole story of The Mailman. He couldn’t type fast enough. There have been a total of seven stories featuring him so far, including the short stories. The third book just went to his editor.

Before turning questions over to the audience, Richards asked about Andrew’s writing day. He was always an early riser. When he worked for AP, he’d start at 4:45 AM. Now, he’s a full-time writer at home, although he does a few freelance assignments. He’s up early, gets the freelance stuff, email and social media out of the way. About 1:30 or 2, he closes down the email and social media, and writes fiction for a couple hours. He does that five days a week, and sometimes writes a little on Sunday. He nver writes on Saturday. Richards pointed out to the audience that he said he shuts off the social media.

The first question from the audience was “Are we ever going to meet Tomeka, Carter’s wife?” Andrew’s working on somethng, and she’ll be along for the ride. She’s an accountant in Rochester. When Carter takes jobs in NYC, she goes, too. He goes to a Met game, and they go to a Broadway show.

How does he know so much about writing crime fiction? He was an AP reporter for thirty-four years. Most of the those years, he covered police matters. He wants to get it right. According to Andrew, what many crime fiction writers get wrong are police procedures or journalism. For instance, on TV they may say, you could go to jail for 30 years. No. You might go to jail for 30 days, but it would be prison for 30 years. And, trials won’t happen in just five weeks. The judicial system is too backed up. Welsh-Huggins uses police advisors including the Bexley Police Chief.

Asked if he has any input on the covers, he answered that his publisher sent several versions of the cover of The Delivery, and they went back and forth on that one. They did the same with the forthcoming Rescue Me, the Andy Hayes novella. His favorite cover is the one for the standalone, The End of the Road, and he had zero input.

Could he give a hint about Rescue Me? Although he wrote it two years ago, the Andy Hayes novella is still timely. Andy is hired to provide security to a young black drag performer who has received threats after doing a drag story hour. Naturally, he isn’t happy about this ex-football player. The job leads to something bigger. Unfortunately, nothing has changed in the last two years. Richards made the comment, no, it’s gotten worse.

Did he think about being a PI? No, he came too late to it as a profession. But, he uses some of those same reporter instincts to access records and information online.

What is he reading? He’s always reading two books. His downstairs book is for entertainment. He’s reading Lisa Unger’s new book, Served Him Right, and it’s fantastic. His upstairs book is always a memoir. He’s finishing up a three-part memoir. If you know the TV series, Call the Midwife, it’s based on memoirs by Jennifer Wroth. He’s currently reading Farewell to the East End. He said they had to sanitize the books for TV.

He was asked about his Christmas short story. His publisher is Mysterious Press, owned by Otto Penzler, who owns The Mysterious Bookshop. Every year he commissions an author, and the story is printed and given away free between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Last year, he commissioned Welsh-Huggins to write a Mercury Carter story. There’s only one rule. It has to take place at Christmas, and it has to have one scene at The Mysterious Bookshop. Naturally, many writers, including Welsh-Huggins, have a character named Otto Penzler.

Following this excellent conversation, Andrew Welsh-Huggins signed copies of The Delivery.

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The Delivery by Andrew Welsh-Huggins. Mysterious Press, 2026. ISBN 9781613167175 (hardcover), 336p.

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