Fiona Veitch Smith travels to Weimar Berlin in 1930, using her antique Baedeker guidebook, and finds that the nearly 100-year-old book can still help her find the places she’s researching in the 2020s. In previous articles for Historia I outlined how I use vintage fashion and vintage guide books as research for my neo-Golden Age […]
The Berlin Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith
In September, 1930, fearless detective Miss Clara Vale is bound for Berlin, but this trip is all about la mode, not murder. Clara is set to walk the runway at Berlin Fashion Week, as a favour to her designer friend Juju, with her assistant Bella in tow. Elections loom in Germany, and among Juju’s friends, […]
Fashion research for historical novels
Fiona Veitch Smith immerses herself in researching her 1920s and 1930s novels, using period objects and recreating costumes – which she also wears. She tells Historia about her 10 years of historical fashion research and offers some tips for anyone who’d like to try this way of getting a feel for the era they’re writing […]
The Penford Manor Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith
At Penford Manor, the guests are arriving to celebrate the start of the grouse-hunting season: lords and ladies, barons and baronesses, a Member of Parliament — and chemistry graduate turned detective, Miss Clara Vale, an old friend of the family. But Clara is no ordinary guest: she’s secretly investigating a blackmail plot against Lady Penford […]
Murder of an Oxford Scientist by Fiona Veitch Smith
Oxford, 1925, and intrepid reporter Poppy Denby is heading to Oxford, where a young female scientist, Dr June Leighton, has been found dead. Though June’s death is ruled an accident by the authorities, one of her colleagues, Sophie Blackburn, an old associate of Poppy’s, is convinced June was murdered for threatening to expose a male colleague for plagiarism. […]
Murder at the Art Gallery by Fiona Veitch Smith
Newcastle, 1924, and reporter Poppy Denby is making her way up to Northumberland to celebrate her father’s 60h birthday, but first, she can’t resist stopping for a few days in Newcastle, for a quick hello to her favourite Aunt Dot. The infamous suffragette has temporarily moved up and is hosting world-renowned artist and long-time friend, […]
The Pyramid Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith
1930: Miss Clara Vale, chemistry major turned detective, is taking a night off from sleuthing to attend the launch party of a new exhibition at the Hancock Museum in Newcastle. But when the piece de resistance, a rare ornate sarcophagus, is finally opened and it turns out the mummy inside it is a fake it […]
How period guidebooks and maps help me write murder mysteries
Fiona Veitch Smith explains how period guidebooks and maps help her write 1920s & 30s murder mysteries. The next, The Pyramid Murders, comes out on 13 June. “The Pyramids – The indispensable excursion on the outskirts of Cairo is that to the Pyramids. There is an excellent tram service, and many people will find that […]