Hi everyone. Today I am featuring Stephen Cox's book "The Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder." This book is a spooky paranormal victorian murder mystery and you can find out all the details on how to purchase your copy for 99¢ below. Also check out Stephen's guest post that is coming up and purchase your copy today! Happy reading :).
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Did you do a lot of research?
Stephen Cox
Written for Silver Dagger Tours
To be honest, this question surprises me. I have seen and read things set in ‘olde Victorian vibe’, which muddle eras and clothes and the law. That might work for some books – steampunk wants vibe not accuracy - but not for mine. Imagine writing a book set in “America somewhere between 1910 and 1970.”
I wanted the world of The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder to feel genuinely Victorian, and for its characters to think like Victorians. That makes it easier to slip in the paranormal stuff in the shadows. I chose the early 1880s.
A few examples highlight the issues.
The 60+ years of “Victorian” saw the world transformed. Technology is a key example. If Mrs Ashton picks up a pen, takes a bus, or sees a man on a bicycle in 1875, that is quite different in 1890. There’s also a big difference between ‘invented’ and ‘widespread’. I got a lot of that writing the late 1960s for my earlier books.
In 1890 the pen is probably a fountain pen not a dip pen; the bus might have a proper staircase a woman could use to a seated upper floor; and by 1890 the bicycle is safe and comfortable enough that women and children may use them.
The criminal technology available is fascinating. Human blood could be told from animal but whose was a mystery - no blood types or DNA. The three commonest poisons were freely available – but easily identifiable if suspected. Fingerprints were neglected, and Mr Holmes used them before Scotland Yard. But closely inspecting the crime scene, matching footprints, holding a post mortem, and sending out national messages via telegraph and newspapers were all possible. And a mass press was obsessed with crime. Mrs Ashton reaches her solution primarily through understanding people’s motives and true identities.
If I write about married women, wills, and property, there were two acts between those dates. In 1875 a married woman had little legal or financial identity separate from her husband. By 1890 she could not only keep money she brought to the marriage as hers, but money she acquired during it. And, if I set a story with those characters in Scotland, I must remember that Scottish law is and was, substantially different.
A particularly vexing issue was forms of address. Flipping between guidance manuals online, while trying to write something accessible, is a headache. Lady Violet should in fact be addressed as Lady Barrington-Stewart, because using her first name implies she is the daughter of a peer not married to a mere Baronet (= a Sir who has a hereditary title but is not a peer.) In fact, Lady Violet is the daughter of a peer but has to use her husband’s rank. I did have to bend usage to be readable.
I partly wrote The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder because it’s a great story, but it was partly to comment on what Victorian England was like. Because in many ways, a clear sight of Victorian times might help us now.
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To solve a baffling murder – search both sides of the grave…
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The Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder
by: Stephen Cox
Genre: Spooky Paranormal Victorian Murder Mystery
Add to your TBR List!
Check out Reviews and Recommendations!
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What Readers are Saying!
"An astonishing feat of twisting plots and perceptions"
“It's deliciously twisty, with women who won't be told, a young bride in peril, and the delicate art of a con.”
“A book I've been looking for all my life. Queer found family all wrapped up in a supernatural murder mystery. Absolute perfection.”
“a brilliant, gripping story. .. if you're looking for a great new book to read, I encourage you to check it out.”
"...an actually intriguing mystery.”
“with a new murder thrown in and a couple of pre-existing ones uncovered, we get an astonishing story of redemption with well-plotted but never signposted twists and turns thrown in at every stage.”
“…a murder mystery with a supernatural spin. … the premise and plot were great. The story is very atmospheric with a very nasty aristocrat villain. ..an entertaining read..."
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BLURB:
London 1881. Can two crooked women stop a murder?
Extravagant medium Mrs Ashton and her lover, blunt working-class Mrs Bradshaw, run a spiritualist scam. Mrs Ashton secretly reads minds.
Believing that Mrs Ashton is genuine, grieving Lady Violet craves the truth behind her mother’s untimely death. But Lady Violet’s powerful husband Sir Charles hates spiritualists. Has he killed before?
Uncovering this MP’s wicked crimes will put all three women in terrible danger…
To solve a shocking murder, look on both sides of the grave.
**Only .99cents!**
Purchase your Copy Today!
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Stephen Cox
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Stephen Cox is a writer living in London. He’d read every Holmes, Christie, and Sayers before he was 21 and did Holmes fanfic in school. He has also read the Moonstone six times. With a science degree he has always been a fan of history and the imagination.
The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder contains the strong characterisation, women protagonists, authentic period setting, and wide roaming imagination of his other works.
He says ‘It’s a rip-roaring twisty story, with relationships under stress and surprising readers at every turn.”
His first two novels, Our Child of the Stars and Our Child of Two Worlds were called “heartfelt, imaginative and gripping”, with wide praise in the national press.
Stephen says ‘I wanted female rogues as my leads – people who lead a crooked life, who need to keep secrets, yet can be kind and generous too. This is a rigorous detective story with a client in trouble and old crimes to be solved. It has everything – a brutal man, a Lady in danger, and the past and present feeding the action. Can these outsiders possibly win? Queer women certainly existed and made lives together in Victorian England, as those with eyes to see can see,’
Follow Stephen at the Following Links:
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