We chat with author Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar about Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator, which follows the search for a missing maid and leads Miss Caroline Bingley from Jane Austen’s beloved Pride & Prejudice into murder and mayhem in the gritty underbelly of Regency London.
Hi, Kelly and Sharmini! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourselves?
Kelly: Hi there. I’m a writer and I teach writing – I taught in universities for years and now run my own writing retreats and classes. I mostly write historical fiction, sometimes with a twist of fantasy or crime, for kids and for adults. I live in Melbourne and on an island near Auckland, New Zealand.
Sharmini: Hello! I work as a doctor, and I run a theatre company in Melbourne, Australia. I have lots of nerd obsessions, ranging from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Jane Austen.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Kelly: I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love stories. We didn’t have many books in our house when I was growing up, but we did have the local library, so my mum, brother and I used to come home with arms full. I wrote poems and songs from a pretty early age – I remember lighting a candle and writing bad poetry at the kitchen table when I was about 12. Let’s hope those poems never surface.
Sharmini: I’ve always loved books, since I made my parents re-read ‘Tat the Cat’ to me over and over. I started writing stories when I was in primary school – including some memorable short plays that I made my younger brothers act in (my parents were forced to watch and applaud). I loved the idea that you could have anything happen. Anything at all!
Your latest novel, Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Kelly: Regency snob discovers London reality
Sharmini: Cosy crime in Imperial England.
What can readers expect?
Kelly: It’s a Regency romp, set two years after Pride and Prejudice and in a London unfamiliar to Miss Caroline Bingley, who rarely strays far from Mayfair. She discovers a complex web of betrayal and corruption, the influence on the city (and the world) of the vast East India Company, and how to put her many accomplishments to better use than paying calls and designing cushions. I hope they can also expect a few laughs.
Sharmini: There’s a lot of the Caroline Bingley we know and love/hate from Pride and Prejudice – she’s still snobby and very convinced she is right. Which is true … sometimes. There are some characters that you’ll recognise, and some new ones. There’s scandal and carriage chases … and, obviously, murder.
Where did the inspiration for Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator come from?
Kelly: I was thinking about Jane Austen’s many beloved (and in Caroline’s case, not-so-beloved) characters, and how Caroline is quite similar to some of the amateur sleuths in early and Golden Age detective fiction. She’s clever, curious, witty, logical, and she has this enormous privilege that she can use to solve mysteries and perhaps put the world to rights. She does so love a challenge.
Sharmini: It came from Kelly! The stroke of genius, realising that Caroline Bingley would make a great investigator (or could learn to be one!) was hers. I got so excited when she said it (she probably regrets saying it out loud!), and I’m very grateful she’s let me collaborate.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Kelly: I love writing scenes where Caroline is completely out of her depth, but doesn’t realise it – often when she needs information from people she doesn’t consider her social equals – and let’s face it, she doesn’t consider many people her social equal. She’s often oblivious, which is fun to write, but it’s serious too, as something she has to learn and understand.
Sharmini: I particularly loved the new characters, and exploring how people of colour might feel in an England that has built itself into an empire.
Can you tell us a bit about your process when it came to co-writing the book?
Kelly: On a practical level, we wrote it in COVID lockdown, so we’d meet on Zoom to work things out, and then we’d both write in a shared file – until we broke it with too many tracked changes! I’m used to writing alone, so it was a whole new process for me, and great to share it with Sharmini.
Sharmini: We do a lot of plotting together, then write separately, then edit. And edit. And edit some more until it’s settled into a consistent voice.
What’s next for you?
Kelly: We’re knee-deep in Miss Bingley’s next adventures at present, and I’m also working on two other crime novels: a young adult book about bushrangers (outlaws) during the Gold Rush, and an adult novel set on an archaeological dig.
Sharmini: We’re working on a sequel! I’ve also got theatre projects brewing, and trying to write a sci-fi novel.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
Kelly: I’ve just finished Emily Maguire’s novel Rapture, based on the legend of Pope Joan, which is magnificent, and Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner’s hilariously anachronistic Lady’s Knight – it’s like a queer young women’s reimagining of A Knight’s Tale but with added dragons. I just got my hands on Emma Donoghue’s latest, Paris Express, and can’t wait to start it.
Sharmini: I’ve found a niche: murder mysteries set in Fiji that deal with the impact of colonialism! Nilima Rao’s books (A Disappearance in Fiji and A Shipwreck in Fiji) as well as Sugar: An Ethnographic Novel by Edward Narain and Tarryn Phillips. I’ve also started the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik, which is a lot of fun.
