Uneasy Lies the Crown by Tasha Alaxander

The year is 1901 and the death of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch has sent all of the Empire into mourning. But for Lady Emily and her dashing husband Colin, the grieving is cut short as another royal death takes center stage. A body has been found in the Tower of London, posed to look like the murdered medieval king Henry VI. Soon after a second dead man turns up in London’s exclusive Berkeley Square, his mutilated remains staged to evoke the violent demise of Edward II, it becomes evident that the individual behind the crimes plans to kill again and again. The race to find him takes Emily deep into the capital’s underbelly, with its secret gangs, street children, and sleazy brothels. But the clues aren’t adding up, and even more puzzling are the anonymous letters Colin has been receiving since Victoria’s death. Is someone threatening her successor, Edward VII?

Jonathan Lowe) What is your background, and how did you turn to writing?

Tasha Alexander) I am the daughter of two philosophy professors, I grew up surrounded by books. I was convinced from an early age that I was born in the wrong century and spent much of my childhood under the dining room table pretending it was a covered wagon. Even there, I was never without a book in hand and loved reading and history more than anything. I studied English Literature and Medieval History at the University of Notre Dame. Writing is a natural offshoot of reading, and my first novel, And Only to Deceive, was published in 2005. I’m the author of the long-running Lady Emily Series as well as the novel Elizabeth: The Golden Age. One of the best parts of being an author is seeing your books translated, and I’m currently in love with the Japanese editions of the Emily books.

Q) You’re a travel buff, and love to pack light. Where have you lived and traveled?

A) I played nomad for a long time, living in Indiana, Amsterdam, London, Wyoming, Vermont, Connecticut, and Tennessee before settling down. My husband, the brilliant British novelist Andrew Grant. I may be biased but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong! I live in southeastern Wyoming, but still don’t have a covered wagon, yet a log house goes a long way toward fulfilling my pioneer fantasies. Andrew makes sure I get my English characters right, and I make sure his American ones sound American.

Q) What do you like to read?

A) I’ll read pretty much anything I can get my hands on, but some of my favorite authors (in no particular order) are Jane Austen, David Mitchell, Leo Tolstoy, Vikram Seth, Meg Wolitzer, Haruki Murakami, Elizabeth Peters, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anthony Trollope, William Thackeray, Naguib Mahfouz, Arthur Phillips, Pablo Neruda, Homer, Dorothy L. Sayers, Carol Shields, David Lodge, William Boyd, James Thurber, Margaret George, Pauline Gedge, Mika Waltari, Robert Harris, Jeannette Winterson, Henry James, Evelyn Waugh, Orhan Pamuk, Saki (H.H. Munro)  

Q) In Uneasy Lies the Crown, a thrilling mystery in your bestselling series, Lady Emily and her husband Colin must stop a serial killer whose sights may be set on the new king, Edward VII.  Anecdote?

A) On her deathbed, Queen Victoria asks to speak privately with trusted agent of the Crown Colin Hargreaves, slipping him a letter with her last, parting command: Une sanz pluis. Sapere aude. “One and no more. Dare to know.”

Note: Scott Brick narrates the new Reacher novels which Andrew has taken over. What comes next for Tasha is The Dark Heart of Florence. Since this interview she has done a short story Upon the Midnight Clear, and In the Shadow of Vesuvius. She loves Italy, where I visited just once. She lives on a ranch in the beautiful backcountry of Wyoming where Lee Child is also building a ranch TOO CLOSE TO HOME.