With Vicki Delany’s busy writing schedule, we’re lucky she had the time to write a piece for us. I know how popular her books are, and I jumped at the chance to introduce her new series.
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Catskill Resort mysteries for Penguin Random House, the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane.
Vicki is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards. Vicki is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Now, let Vicki set the scene, and introduce you to her latest series.
Stepping Back in Time
By Vicki Delany
Let’s go back in time, shall we: stone tools, fur clothing, cave dwelling. Uh, maybe not that far back. How about togas and aqueducts and legions on the march in the year XXIV? Maybe not that far back either; let’s try horse drawn carriages, giant dresses with giant hats and gaslit streets.
No? Let’s move closer and go back to a time that some of us can actually remember.
It’s 1953: girdles and stockings, cigarette smoke (and more cigarette smoke), gum-chewing switchboard operators, uniformed elevator operators, grocery boys taking your bags to your car. Jell-O salads and tomato aspic and Cheez-Whiz on celery sticks; sweet frothy cocktails, big bands and the foxtrot. Reds under the beds.
The past was never as good as nostalgia paints it. As well as all the above, the 1950s were a time of rampant racism and sexism. LGBTQ people suffered and often died in silence or disgrace, that cigarette smoke didn’t do anyone’s lungs any good, and children were at risk of contracting polio.
But let’s forget all that and remember the good times in my new series The Catskills Resort Mysteries.
It’s not only the 1950s, it’s the Catskills! Grand hotels, summer-long vacations, top entertainment acts, beauty parlors on site and hotel-provided babysitters, even lifeguards at the pool. Gigantic meals, end endless rounds of bingo, bridge and Simon Sez.
The first book in the series, is Deadly Summer Nights, and it introduces Elizabeth Grady, a young war widow attempting to run the resort that her mother unexpectedly inherited. Elizabeth’s mother, Olivia Peters, is a retired Broadway and Hollywood dance star.
Olivia finally suffered one injury too many and she had to retire from the stage. She decided to take up the gracious life of a patron of the arts and gather new talent for cocktails and conversation to her Manhattan apartment. That ended when her third husband stole all her money and skipped town, leaving her just about destitute. Before she could hit the streets, fate intervened and a previously unknown admirer died and left her, of all places, the Catskills Resort he owned.
Olivia knows nothing about hotel management or running a business of any sort, and she has absolutely no intention of learning. Fortunately for her, Elizabeth does and without quite knowing what she’d agreed to, Elizabeth is now the manager of a three hundred room Catskills Resort, boss of hundreds of employees, employee of her own mother.
Welcome to 1953 and Haggerman’s Catskills Resort! Light up a cigarette, grab a Manhattan from the bar, take a turn around the ballroom floor as the in-house seven-piece orchestra strikes up the latest tunes.
Try to ignore rumours that Haggerman’s is a front for communist activity and that that dead guy in the lake was here to organize the overthrow of the US government.
Deadly Summer Nights releases on September 7 from Berkley.
Vicki Delany’s website is http://vickidelany.com/
Deadly Summer Nights by Vicki Delany. Berkley, 2021. ISBN 9780593334379 (paperback), 304p.
This book already has a hold list at my library.
Actually, that’s good, Sandy!
Lesa, it’s not good because I have to wait longer to read it!
Looking forward to anything written by you. Already pre-ordered
Very interesting to me, first because we actually spent two summers in the Catskills when we were kids, not at a big resort hotel but at my great aunt’s house right on White Lake. In later years, when we were engaged and first married we spent some summer weekends at my in-laws’ bungalow in the Catskills. In addition, we did spend a couple of weekends at hotels in the Catskills when they were well past their ’50s peak, and I have read books (like Tania Grossinger’s GROWING UP AT GROSSINGER’S) and seen movies using that setting.
And I really like that cover.
Then, you should be quite familiar with the setting of Vicki’s new series, Jeff.
I used Tania’s book as one of my sources. So much great info.
Thanks for having me today, Lesa.
You’re welcome! Anytime, Vicki! I enjoy hosting you here.
You had me at fruity cocktails and foxtrot! This sounds like so much fun!
Oh, how fun! I love all the things mentioned – Jello, Cheez-Whiz – well, maybe not girdles and cigarette smoke – ha! However, I do want to try this new series. I’ve loved Vicki’s books from way back – still recovering from no more Molly Smith books. Sigh. In any case, that picture above is so beautiful and it’s great to hear about the Catskills. I’ve never been there.
I know, Kay. I loved the Molly Smith books. Oh, Jello. It’s still a comfort food for me.
I hope we enjoy this series!
I’m looking forward to reading this one! The time frame and setting are quite intriguing.
I agree, Gretchen. You don’t find too many mysteries set in the Catskills in that time period.
This one really interests me! I’ll be starting this series for sure.
Great, Kathy! I hope you enjoy it!
I have never met a Vicki Delany book that I didn’t like. This one sounds fun. I loved the Molly Smith books, wish she would go back to that series.
I love that comment that you’ve never met a Vicki Delany book that you didn’t like. I hope you enjoy this one, Jeannette. (The Molly Smith series was my favorite, too.)