From the award-winning author of The Day I Died and The Lucky One, a captivating suspense novel about nurses during World War II who come to Agatha Christie’s holiday estate to care for evacuated children, but when a body is discovered nearby, the idyllic setting becomes host to a deadly mystery.
We chat with author Lori Rader-Day about her latest book release Death At Greenway, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Lori! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Crime fiction nerd. Midwesterner. Big fan of dogs. Wow, this is a hard question. I’ll probably order a Moscow Mule, given the chance.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I tried to write early, maybe age six or seven. I realized that there was a name on these Ramona Quimby books that I loved, a name other than Ramona Quimby. And if this so-called Beverly Cleary person could write stories, then maybe I could, too. It took me a long time before I could finish anything and then even longer to take it seriously and put in the time writing requires. I rediscover my love of writing every book. And then I lose it. I love to draft until I have to do it, then I love to revise until—well, you see how I am.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Dr. Suess books at my grandparents’ house. So many books made me want to be an author but I’ll say Lois Duncan’s Lost in Time and Mary Higgins Clark’s A Cry in the Night. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, which I finally read and loved so much I’m mad it too me so long to discover it.
Your new novel, Death at Greenway, is out October 12th, 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Nurses wilding [at] Agatha Christie’s House
What can readers expect?
I’ve been calling Death at Greenway “Agatha Christie noir”—except with a different kind of ending. Since it’s set at Agatha Christie’s beloved holiday home, Greenway, during World War II and she was there for a time, I couldn’t ignore her as a character, so you’ll find Agatha, briefly. But the book is about the house and that community’s role in the war. It’s also about grief and friendship and legacy, how most lives are lived outside the news headlines.
Where did the inspiration for Death at Greenway come from?
From history. In World War II, when England was evacuating children—about 3 million of them—from London and other cities, ten children were really sent to Greenway. When I learned that fact, I wanted to read the book about it. The only problem was that no one had written it. I set out to see if the story could be told, using as much fact as I could find. Then I wove a fictional story about the two nurses who helped care for the children, getting them into a lot of trouble.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
The research was a true challenge for me. I usually do some research for each novel, but nothing like this. I’m no historian. I’m really impatient with anything that slows me down from starting to write. But for a story that encountered real people, real places, and history, I had to overcome my aversion. What happened is that I really went down a rabbit hole learning about the real people who lived and worked at Greenway during this time. I love that I was able to confirm real names and learn about their lives from old documents, to give these characters dimension I would have had to guess at. Then, as many historical fiction writers before me have said, I couldn’t stop researching. One day I just had to put down the geneaology sites and bombing records and start writing a story.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
There’s a moment late in Death at Greenway where a character we’ve met gets a chance to engage with history in a way that I loved. I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s based on a story I read in my research into local WWII history. It’s just a cinematic moment that I had to include.
One of the best parts of writing this book was getting to know one of the Greenway evacuees, a women named Doreen who was very small when she was sent to Greenway. We’re email pen pals now! The other best part of this journey was getting to visit and stay overnight at Greenway. My husband and I spent three nights as guests of the National Trust, which has refurbished and preserved the house. It’s lovely, and to walk through a place one of your heroes lived in and loved is pretty powerful.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
The worst advice is always the advice that asks a writer to act against their nature. There are so many ways to approach writing; no one method is the “right way.” I wrote this book in the messiest, every-which-way method you can imagine. I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone, even if it ended up producing this book. The only thing a writer must do is write, but they can do the work however, whenever they can.
The best writing advice I can pass along is to finish something. You learn by having a whole of something, having to try and reshape it through revision. Yes, that takes time, but working on a piece over time can teach you so much about your own work and how to make it better. The other best advice is to swap pages with someone for critique. You learn more quickly what you like and don’t when you have to articulate that to someone else. If that means a writers’ group, do that. You should also look to see if there’s a writers’ association for your genre. I’m a former national president of Sisters in Crime, and I highly recommend mystery/crime/suspense/thriller nerds look us up: www.SistersinCrime.org.
What’s next for you?
I’m teaching for Northwestern University MFA program soon, but I’d like a great next book idea to find me.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
What’s Done in Darkness by Laura McHugh, The Turnout by Megan Abbot, Clark and Divison by Naomni Hirahara, Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart, A Gingerbread House by Catriona McPherson, These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall. Watch for Kellye Garrett’s new book in the spring, Like a Sister. I could answer this question for days.
I recently read the book and absolutely loved it! I will read more by this author.