Death Takes a Knight follows an American archaeology student visiting Glastonbury who has a friend framed for murder and has to take on the role of amateur sleuth to find the mastermind controlling the pieces in this deadly game of chess. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Here’s what it’s like to tour sacred sites with me: My husband says, “What a beautiful garden,” and I say, “What a great place to dump a body!” In the case of Death Takes a Knight, the inspiration came from visiting Glastonbury Abbey, seeing King Arthur’s gravesite (before the monks hid him), and the Chalice Well Gardens, where the Holy Grail was thrown. The wealth of history, legend, and sacred sites combined to make an irresistible setting.

The Glastonbury Abbey hosts a Medieval Fayre every year, so Arthurian knights do wander through town at times. They inspired the novel’s chess tie-in and the evil mastermind manipulating Maddie and the police.

Maddie is intelligent and capable but also impulsive. How do you balance those qualities without making her seem reckless simply to move the mystery forward?

In the first few books, Maddie is a college sophomore. For anyone who has ever been nineteen, they will remember that decisions that seemed perfectly logical were sometimes crazy. This phenomenon is caused by the brain rewiring, much like the Pixar movie Inside Out. Thoughts like, “I got an unbelievable job offer! I think I’ll stay up all night partying to celebrate,” have happened to the best of us.

For Maddie, she often thinks she’s figured out the best way to do something; however, she is usually wrong. She never plans to wind up in danger, but, of course, she always does!

What is your process for planting clues so readers have a fair opportunity to solve the mystery alongside Maddie?

My process for writing always starts with the crime. Once I have that, I work on the villain. How and why did the crime happen? Answering those questions gives me the clues. In Death Takes a Knight, I created a strict timeline of the mastermind’s movements so he could frame Maddie’s friend, and then interspersed those clues into Maddie’s story.

The clues are always there for the reader, but Maddie usually misinterprets them. As an American in England, she doesn’t read people correctly, and she thinks she understands when she doesn’t.

Are there other areas of British history or archaeology you would especially like Maddie to encounter in future mysteries?

In Book 3, Death Plays with Fire, Maddie works at the Chedworth Roman Villa, which boasts the best-preserved mosaics in England. While still Roman, the villa was constructed about three centuries after the Roman Baths, where she works, so the reader gets to experience a slightly different timeframe.

In Book 6, Death Goes to Church (release date January 2028), which I’m currently writing, Maddie is sent over to help with the Bath Abbey Footprint Project. Conducted by Wessex Archaeology to reinforce the abbey’s failing foundation, this massive undertaking uncovered many Norman, medieval, and Tudor treasures. The project is, in reality, completed, but in the universe of the book, Maddie can still help with uncovering over 2,000 skeletons. And maybe a few ghosts!

Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon