Some readers may recognize Edith Maxwell as the author of the Quaker Midwife mysteries. She’s also the author of the Local Foods mysteries, and the Lauren Rousseau ones. As Maddie Day, she is the author of the popular Country Store mysteries, the Cozy Capers Book Group ones, and the Cece Barton ones. Now, her first Dot and Amelia mystery is A Case for the Ladies, written as Maddie Day. As the subject for today’s Sunday Spotlight, Edith/Maddie will answer a few questions about her books, including the new series. Thank you, Maddie!

Edith, would you tell us about your life before you were a writer? Then, tell us about your split personality as Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day.

First, thanks so much for having me over, Lesa! It’s an honor to be in your fabulous blog’s spotlight.

I’m a fourth-generation Californian (transplanted to Massachusetts for more than four decades now). I’ve always been a writer, but I stopped writing fiction when I started high school. I dabbled in journalism, went off to Brazil as an exchange student for a year, got a BA in linguistics, taught English in Japan, and then earned a doctorate, also in linguistics, in southern Indiana. During the time I ran a small organic farm and taught childbirth classes when my sons were young, I wrote free-lance essays. I ended up with a twenty-year position in hi-tech writing software manuals before I managed to get myself back to writing stories and novels, all mysteries.

Maddie Day was born this way: I’d been writing my Local Foods Mysteries for Kensington as Edith Maxwell. When I proposed a Country Store Mysteries series to my editor, he said he wanted it but asked me use a pen name. My agent explained he probably wanted me to look like a new author to readers and booksellers. I still write short stories as Edith, and my seven-book historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries are also under that name. But Maddie is very (very) popular, so my three contemporary cozy series are penned by her as well as my new historical, A Case for the Ladies.

Tell us about A Case for the Ladies, and the background, please.

Here’s the official blurb: Amid Prohibition, Irish gangs, the KKK, and rampant mistreatment of immigrant women, intrepid private investigator Dorothy Henderson and her pal Amelia Earhart seek justice for several murdered young women in 1926 Boston. As tensions mount, the sleuths, along with their reporter friend Jeanette Colby and Dot’s maiden Aunt Etta Rogers, a Wellesley College professor, experience their own mistreatment at the hand of society and wonder who they can really trust.

I had two inspirations to write this book. One was learning that Amelia Earhart had taught English to immigrant factory workers in my own town of Amesbury, Massachusetts when she was young. She then worked as a teacher and social worker at a Boston settlement house in the mid-1920s, flying on the weekends. Wow, I thought. I want to use this pre-fame Amelia in a story. 

At about the same time, I decided to devise an alternate reality for both my grandmothers as private investigators in my birthplace of Pasadena, California when they were young women. I’ve had two short stories about Dot and Ruth published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and have written a novel featuring them (as yet unpublished) in 1920. 

But after I discovered Amelia’s Boston history, I had to bring Dot east to work on a couple of cases with her. I wrote a short story that was published in Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories (Crime Spell Books 2021). The novel followed. 

 I know you have a full schedule of writing. Do you read mysteries or something else? What books are you looking forward to reading in 2024?

I do try to squeeze in some reading every day, primarily mysteries. I read cozy, traditional, historical, and domestic suspense, but I stay away from thrillers and unreliable narrators. Non-fiction is only for research, such as Amelia’s biography, East to the Wind, by Susan Butler. My 2024 TBR pile is already teetering! Coming up are new books by my Wicked Authors and Mystery Lovers Kitchen blogmates, including Barbara Ross, Leslie Budewitz, and Lucy Burdette, plus whatever Annette Dashofy, Jennifer Chow, Catriona McPherson, Lori Rader-Day, and Ann Cleeves have in the pipeline. Kellye Garrett’s Missing White Woman is a must-read, and Deborah Crombie’s next Emma James and Duncan Kincaid book. Plus new books by my historical buddies Alyssa Maxwell, Nancy Herriman, Clara McKenna, Victoria Thompson, and Rhys Bowen. And I’ve already blurbed Ellen Byron and Leslie Karst’s new series debuts! So many books, so little time…

My favorite question lately. What one author, not what book, is your favorite author, and why?

That’s SUCH a hard question, Lesa! I’ll pick Julia Spencer-Fleming. Her storytelling is gripping, her language elegant and rich, her setting evocative, and her characters are deeply drawn. Julia’s rate of writing has slowed way down, but she promises a new book soon. I highly recommend all of her Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne mysteries.

Thanks again for having me, Lesa. I hope readers will find Maddie and me at our web site and on social media.

Thank you, Maddie!

Where to Buy A Case for the Ladies:

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