History in Mystery
Scapegoat
In the days and weeks following the 1666 Great Fire of London, there was tremendous civil unrest in England. The destruction of London had taken place on such a massive scale (80% of what had been contained within the city walls was destroyed, including 13,200 houses burned or demolished to establish firebreaks) that the population…
Read MoreTime Travel is Real
Feel like the current world is on fire? Slip between the pages of And by Fire and see what it was like to be surrounded by flames during the Great Fire of London in 1666. As you are “swept up in this double-barreled inferno” of a novel, Kirkus says you will “forget the history [you]…
Read MoreHistory, Books, Wine and ME
It’s ALWAYS Happy Hour somewhere, right? So, you can listen to this fabulous podcast morning, noon, or night (drink optional). Today I’m DELIGHTED to be the guest author on the “History, Books and Wine”. Listen wherever you download your favorite podcasts as chat with fellow authors Eliza Knight and Lori Ann Bailey covering some of…
Read MoreFinding Notes In Books—it’s not just a plot point
My novel, And by Fire, involves a collection of “case notes” discovered by my modern London detectives—DIs Nigella Parker and Colm O’Leary—but written by a pair of amateur sleuths more than three-hundred-fifty years earlier. Tucking things away in books not unheard of. I find everything from receipts to old school pictures tucked in mine. But…
Read MoreToo Damn Hot!—the Great Fire of London reached unimaginable temperatures
In And by Fire, Detective Inspector Nigella Parker has a fear of fire deeply rooted in her childhood. But even people who generally aren’t pyrophobic would be terrified by the heat generated by London’s Great Fire of 1666—legitimately so. How hot did things get inside London in September of 1666 when, in just under five…
Read MoreNo Tea No Shade . . . King Charles II’s Queen Did NOT Introduce Tea to England, But She Made It Fashionable
So, here’s the skinny: Catherine of Braganza (wife of England’s King Charles II) loved tea, but she cannot be credited for introducing tea to the British. Catherine did, however, almost single-handedly turn tea into widely consumed and very fashionable beverage. Where did Catherine’s penchant for tea come from? Portugal. After all she was a Portuguese…
Read MorePoint of Ignition: Where the Great Fire of London REALLY Started
For precisely 350 years, everyone in England believed that Pudding Lane was THE London hotspot—the place, on the property of Thomas Farriner’s bakery, that the Great Fire of London sparked. Then a historian and House of Commons Clerk said nope, not so. Yes, the Great Fire began—as generations of British school children had learned—on the…
Read MoreWorst Beauty Product EVER
History is fascinating, frustrating, and occasionally downright gross.1 In And By Fire—while my modern-day police detectives are chasing a murderous arsonist creating sculptures from burnt flesh—a pair of 17th century amateur detectives search for a friend gone missing during London’s Great Fire. During that hunt, Margaret Dove (a lady-in-waiting to the queen) and Etienne Belland…
Read More1666: The Devil’s New Year
Happy New Year all! Here we are at the start of 2022 in the midst of a pandemic. Gloomy times for sure. But at least we aren’t fearful of the violent wrath of God (are we?). In that we have an advantage over many residents of London at the start of the year 1666. If…
Read MoreLondon’s Great Fire—A Selection of Fearsome Facts
The Great Fire of London was an event of HISTORIC proportions. While researching the 17th century timeline in AND BY FIRE, I read a collection of exceptional books on the Fire. In fact, let me drop a footnote in here with a couple of recommendations for those of you who would enjoy a deep dive…
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