We chat with author Delia Pitts about Trouble in Queenstown, which introduces private investigator Vandy Myrick in a powerful mystery that blends grief, class, race, and family with thrilling results.
Is there anything in your personal history that inspired you to write a novel about a female P. I.?
As a child in Chicago, I admired my older cousin, Esther Myricks, who defied social expectations in many ways: she worked as a teenager in the local alderman’s office, without her parent’s knowledge; as a young woman, she was the first in our family to cut her hair into the then-revolutionary Afro style, and after she married late in her thirties, Esther and her husband founded a neighborhood security agency. Esther’s firm was a classic detective agency, handling mostly job references, insurance claims, process serving and property protection. To my knowledge, Esther’s employees never handled anything like a murder investigation. But her willingness to step out of the assigned roles for women, her professional and personal drive, all inspired me to believe anything was possible. Now I’ve translated Esther’s spirit into my fictional private investigator, Vandy Myrick. And of course, I had to name Vandy for my dynamic cousin who inspired me!
Your C. V. is extremely impressive–journalist, diplomat, university admin–were you able to take skills learned at these careers and use them for writing novels?
. Summers during high school and college, I worked as a “copy boy” in the news room of the Chicago Sun-Times. At first my duties ranged from sharpening pencils to racing between reporter’s desks carrying their draft news articles to editors on the city desk. After a while I was given meatier assignments: cover coroner’s hearings on murder cases; attend city council meetings; interview neighborhood volunteers creating a mobile library; cover a bomb threat on the University of Chicago campus, sit with the family of a drive-by shooting victim. In short, whatever story the city editor threw my way, that’s what I worked on. I brought my own resources of empathy and curiosity to the work and I learned flexibility, speed, and rapid note-taking. Those traits and skills form the basis for my present career writing novels. After earning a Ph.D., I served in U. S. embassies in Nigeria, Mauritania, and Mexico from 1983 to 1994. Here’s where I learned key skills for a novelist: memorize swaths of conversation, draft persuasive memos and speeches, cooperate with colleagues regardless of rank, and accept multiple revisions with calmness. I worked as an administrator at a mid-sized private college, an Ivy League school, and a major public university. I learned that the best teachers aren’t necessarily the ones with the fanciest degrees. I tried to always hear the message hidden below a student’s gripe or a professor’s bluster. And I developed a capacity to sit through hours and hours of meetings without falling asleep. So valuable for writing on deadline!
How did Vandy Myrick come together in your head and on the page? Was her personality based on anyone you know?
As mentioned above, Vandy’s profession was based on the inspiration of my cousin Esther Myricks, who founded a tiny security agency on Chicago’s South Side. Vandy’s personality is entirely my invention, not based on anyone I know in real life. I wanted Vandy to be squarely in the classic private investigator tradition of the film noir movies I love. So, I made her a tough-spoken cynic who’s not afraid of a fist-fight. But I wanted Vandy to veer far from those old-school PIs in several significant ways. Vandy isn’t a loner, an alcoholic, a speed demon in a fancy car, or a quick-draw brute. She is unabashedly emotional, sexy, literate, snarky, and self-aware. She is supported by a circle of resilience formed by her close women friends.
Queenstown is basically a character itself with its distinct townspeople and deep racial history. Did you find it difficult to balance the racial history of Queenstown without it taking over the mystery?
Since Vandy Myrick is a Black detective in a small, predominantly white New Jersey town, I wanted her to grapple with the racial setting as it affects both her personal life and her professional investigation. To me, incorporating the uneasy racial history of the town, was a way to add depth and realism to the story, to enrich the narrative. Vandy understands Queenstown because it is her childhood home. She isn’t startled or handcuffed by past or current racial tensions in her community. So, while racism informs her understanding of personal dynamics, it never intimidates Vandy or swamps the unfolding mystery. For me, trying to write a novel about contemporary America without looking at race and social rank just doesn’t make sense.
Instead of telling us which authors you’re reading, who is Vandy reading right now, and who are her favorite authors?
Love this question! Because she grapples with it in her real life, Vandy isn’t looking for gut-wrenching violence and psychological suspense in her down-time reading. To relax, she enjoys the escapism of a good cozy crime story. So, her current favorite books are mystery series by Raquel V. Reyes, Mindy Quigley, Jennifer J. Chow, Olivia Blacke, V.M. Burns, Alexia Gordon, Abby L. Vandiver, and Mia Manansala.
Can you give us a sneak peek for what’s next for Vandy? Buying a gun maybe?
In her next case, Vandy cuts through tangled threads of greed, deception, and buried desire at Queenstown’s elite boarding school. And yes, she continues to grapple with how to fend off attacks without resorting to fire power. As she puts it, “A gun is an invitation to violence. If I’m carrying, danger flows in both directions. I’m safer unarmed. And so is everyone around me.” Sticking to her resolve gets tougher as the deadly case unspools.
