Spotlight Sunday: Vicki Delany, Reinventing Myself

Most of you are here because you read cozy mysteries, my own and those of my fellow cooks in the Mystery Lovers Kitchen.  But did you know that I didn’t start out writing cozies and that I have an extensive backlist of earlier mysteries?  Let me explain.

Photo taken 10 books ago

I have now published 60(ish) books. I currently write four cozy series, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year Round Christmas series, the Tea by the Sea mysteries, and the Lighthouse Library series, under the pen name of Eva Gates.  I also wrote a very short-lived cozy series set in a Catskills resort in 1953. (Deadly Summer Nights, Deadly Director’s Cut).

I believe that part of the reason I’ve been lucky enough to have such a long and successful writing career is that I’ve been able to reinvent myself. My first novels were standalone psychological suspense, of the sort that is so popular right now.  Scare the Light Away was published by Poisoned Pen Press in 2005, followed by Burden of Memory, and later More than Sorrow.  

More than Sorrow as reissued 2025

All three of those books are set in the province of Ontario, and all have a dual storyline, concerning something that happened in the past that is affecting people of today.  I consider them to be in the Modern Gothic tradition. Scare the Light Away and Burden of Memory are no longer in print, but I re-edited, re-printed and rereleased More than Sorrow last year myself.  Meaning the first two are not available (except as used) but the third is in all online sources and a few select bookstores in print and ebook.  I love writing suspense and I love writing standalones, but they were not nearly as popular in the mid 2000s as they are today, so at the suggestion of my editor at Poisoned Pen, the incomparable Barbara Peters, I switched to a police procedural series.

The first book in the Constable Molly Smith series

Thus began the eight-part Constable Molly Smith series, and I’m hoping to introduce some of you to those. All the books are currently in print, from Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press.  The main characters are a brand-new policewoman, Constable Third Class Molly Smith, and a seasoned detective, Sgt. John Winters, in the small mountain town of Trafalgar, British Columbia. It is not a secret that Trafalgar is a fictional version of Nelson, BC., which I call my favourite place in all the world.  The real life-Nelson, like the fictional Trafalgar, is not a town anyone passes through. It is not on the way to anywhere.  Nelson is an eight hour drive to Calgary, and an eight hour drive to Vancouver, but you would not go through there to get to anyplace else. I love that about the town, and it worked well in creating that small town police department feel.

Very few Canadian towns have their own police departments, usually relying on the RCMP or the provincial police, but Nelson still has one which suited my needs for my characters and setting.  Molly Smith, named Moonlight by her hippy, Vietnam War draft-dodging parents (remember the first book, In the Shadow of the Glacier,  is coming up to twenty years old) is young, keen, somewhat naive, and trying to be a good police officer in the small town where not only did she grow up but her mother is a very well known activist.  

The books have a slightly cozy feel as it’s a small town, with close-knit family and friends, and regular reoccurring characters, but the plots are sometimes not cozy, dealing as they do with the lives and work of police officers. Some profanity occurs (yes, people sometimes swear at cops.) Tragedy happens in people’s lives, both series regulars and the people they encounter.  But ultimately, Trafalgar BC, remains a place you would like to live or to visit. A nice place to be.

As the series develops over the eight books, Molly Smith grows as a woman and as a police officer. By Unreasonable Doubt, she’s more sure of herself, much more confident, not afraid to confront injustice when she sees it, even if it’s on the part of the people she works with. She is in a committed relationship with the RCMP dog handler. And I loved learning about the lives of police dogs!

The eighth (and last?) Constable Molly Smith book

I spent a lot of time with Canadian police in the course of writing these books, both in Nelson and in Ontario where I live.  It was important to me to get the details of Canadian policing right, as in many respects it is far different than what we see or read in American or British TV or books. Of course, as always, sometimes veracity has to give way to a good storyline!

What else did I write all those years ago?  Seven novellas for adult literacy by the Rapid Reads imprint of Orca Books, and four books in the Klondike Gold Rush series, set in Dawson City, Yukon, in 1898.

Winter of Secrets got a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and Valley of the Lost got a blurb from none other than Louise Penny. Never say never, and I would like to take up the lives of those people again. Twenty years have passed. There's going to be a lot of changes. Right now, I simply don't have the time... but... someday maybe? 

If you’re so inclined, I’d love it if you gave some of my earlier books a try.

The Molly Smith books, in particular, are still available, and the ebook versions are often on sale.

To get you started, I’m going to give away copy of In The Shadow of the Glacier, to a lucky reader, and to another More than Sorrow. Glacier will come from your nearest book outlet, because I no longer have copies to give away, and the copy of More than Sorrow also, because I'm currently away from home.    

So, to enter my contest, in the comments below please let me know what type of fiction you like best, apart from cozies. If you’re a total cozy reader, that’s good to know too.  

Contest open to US and Canada residents. Contest ends Tuesday Feb 24.

For more info about all of my books, please visit my web page at http://www.vickidelany.com 

 

 

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