Trouble In Queenstown
Vandy Myrick Book 1
Delia Pitts
Minotaur Books
July 16, 2924
Trouble in Queenstown by Delia Pitts blends grief, class, race, and family within a murder mystery. This small-town suspense story has lies, dirty politics, and corruption.
The main character, Vandy Myrick, left the police force to become a private investigator, returning to her childhood hometown of Queenstown, New Jersey. A new client, Leo Hannah, the nephew of the mayor hires her to tail his wife, thinking she is having an affair. When she arrives at his home to deliver her report, she finds a bloody crime scene where two people were murdered and sets out to investigate what really happened. She realizes that there is a web of deceit surrounding a racially charged murder with deep ties to the town’s most influential family. Per usual, with small town stories where one family is the nemesis, Vandy finds herself the target of an assault with her family and friends also targeted. Someone doesn’t want the truth to come out and is willing to go to all lengths to get Vandy to abandon her investigation.
This double murder has many twists and turns. The main character, Vandy, is likeable and someone readers will root for.
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
Delia Pitts: I thought for many years how I would write a story in this genre. I also thought about a cousin and friend of mine, Esther Myricks, who I grew up in Chicago. She is several years older than me. I always admired her spirit, grit, and inventiveness during the 1960s and 1970s from an African American woman. She started with her husband a small security agency on the Southside of Chicago. It filled a gap for the neighbors in the community. Her agency was the model and inspiration for the character and the setting in the book, but I added the murders. I just changed the one letter in the last name of my character to give her a shout out.
EC: Does this book explore the why behind the crime?
DP: I think it is essential for the enjoyment of the crime genre. I want the readers to understand who the victim was, the preparator may be, and understand what might motivate them.
EC: Why Queenstown New Jersey as the setting?
DP: Queenstown is fictional but is based in some way on the small town in central New Jersey where I lived for the past twenty-three years. I wanted to make up a small town to show how there can be a detriment to having a tight community, where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Coming from my own experience, my sons in school had a diverse community for a small town, which I wrote into the book including the different language groups. I wanted to demonstrate through this small town the class, rank, and power relationships. In the book, one family has the political grip allowing for social connections, money, and prejudice.
EC: How would you describe the main character, Vandy?
DP: She is a private investigator who returned to the small town. She had a catastrophic event that disrupted her life. She has very resilient relationships with her strong women friends. She is very self-aware, sarcastic, literate, and tough. She takes no guff from anybody. I hope readers root for her. She is influenced by her dad, a former policeman. He was the most important person in her life growing up, a daddy’s girl. She became a police officer because of him. She left the police force and became a PI after her personal tragedy.
EC: What roles did her friends play in her life?
DP: Elissa is her friend and boss, a lawyer. She pulls Vandy up and sets her on her feet after hiring her as a PI in the law office. This helps her on the road to recovery. Another important friend is the bar owner, Mavis, who teases her and gives her intelligence about the town.
EC: How would you describe Leo, one of the suspects?
DP: He is the nephew of the town’s mayor. When readers meet him, Vandy is hired to research his wife. He is a complex person. He is controlling, powerful, angry, manipulative, and uncaring. The more Vandy speaks with him she realizes he has layers. When they first meet, he comes across as fearful and nervous. Later she senses an undercurrent of anger, which switches her view of him.
EC: Are you a chess player because that is also in the book?
DP: Yes, and I learned from my father while in grade school. This part of Vandy is exactly me. He also taught us to play bridge because he wanted partners.
EC: Next book?
DP: The title is Death of an Ex, the second in the series featuring Vandy. It takes place about a year later. All the cases she takes are personal. There is a scandal surrounding a boarding school with the themes race, class, status, money, and a family. It will be out a year from now.
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