Episode 65: Andrea Penrose

Destination Mystery

A thick mist had crept in from the river. It skirled around the man's legs as he picked his way through the foul-smelling mud, drifting up to cloud the twisting turns of the narrow alleyways. He paused for a moment to watch the vapor ghosting through the gloom. A shiver of gooseflesh snaked down his spine. Shifting, he peered into the darkness, trying to spot the wrought-iron arches of Half Moon Gate. But only a shroud of black-on-black shadows lay ahead. -- Andrea Penrose, Murder at Half Moon Gate Author Andrea Penrose writes everything Regency: romances (as Andrea Pickens), steamy romances (as Cara Elliott), and not one but two fabulous Regency mystery series, which you can check out on her website right here. Her first mystery series, the Lady Arianna mysteries, is lighter, with a dash of chocolate, while her Wrexford and Sloane mysteries -- Murder on Black Swan Lane, and the latest, Murder at Half Moon Gate -- are a darker take on the Regency era. Both are brimming with mystery, friendship, and fabulous Regency details. Who knew Napoleon liked chocolate? Well, we all do now. Andrea is herself a fan of Georgette Heyer -- and really, who isn't? We talk about the fabulously evocative language of the Regency, and lo and behold, Ms. Heyer herself, on her website, offers up a dictionary of Regency slang. So if you find yourself becoming befogged, the remedy is within ames-ace. ;) Here are all of Andrea's mysteries in order: Wrexford & Sloane Mystery Series 1 - Murder on Black Swan Lane 2 - Murder at Half Moon Gate Lady Arianna Regency Mysteries 1 - Sweet Revenge 2 - The Cocoa Conspiracy 3 - Recipe for Treason 4 - Smoke and Lies Novella: The Stolen Letters As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura ****************************************************************************************************** Transcript of Interview with Andrea Penrose Laura Brennan: Andrea Penrose is a woman of mystery -- my favorite kind! Her bestselling mysteries are set in Regency England: The Lady Arianna Series, which melds danger, deception, and a dash of chocolate; and her newest series, The Wrexford and Sloane mysteries, in which an artist and a scientist find answers -- and unexpected chemistry -- when they solve cases together. Andrea, thank you for joining me. Andrea Penrose: Well, thank you very much for having me. LB: So you have been writing professionally for a long time now and under many pen names. AP: I have, and don't get me started on why. But it tends to be publishing, if you write for one house, you can't write under that same name for another house. LB: And it also allows people to not pick up a book that is, for example, a mystery when what they're looking for is your steamy Regency romances. AP: That's absolutely correct, too. Andrea Penrose is my mystery nom de plume. LB: So, Regency has been the thread running through a lot of your work, right? Because you went from Regency romances to slightly steamier Regency romances, to Regency mystery. So why Regency? AP: Well, you know, I love the era. I just find it a fabulously interesting time and place. It's a world that's aswirl in the silk and seduction of the Napoleonic wars, but it's also a time when radically new ideas are clashing with the conventional thinking of the past. People were questioning the fundamentals of society, and as a result everything was changing. Politics, art, music, science, social rules. The world was turning upside down. You had -- the romantic movement was really individual expression. You had Beethoven writing these amazingly emotional symphonies, and Byron pending wildly romantic poetry. And you had Mary Wollstonecraft writing the first feminist manifestos. Then the Industrial Revolution, technology is disrupting everyday life. So in many ways, it's the birth of the modern world. And for me,