Linda L. Richards and the economy
by Oline H. Cogdill
April 16th, 2009“In this economy…”
OK, so how many times a day do you hear this phrase from newscasters, friends, waiters, sales people or even just floating through your brain like some modern-day mantra.
Makes you wish you had the theme song to The Beverly Hillbillies instead of this terror-inducing phrase in your head.
Hopefully, “in this economy….” will not stop you from buying books, preferably mysteries, and mystery-oriented magazines.
So it should come as no surprise how Linda L. Richards’s newest Kitty Pangborn novel Death Was in the Picture feels so contemporary, even though the novel is set in 1930.
But what’s a Great Depression between friends?
Richards’s heroine Kitty has to deal with some of the same financial situations that her readers do in reality.
Sure, the financially strapped hero/heroine is a staple of the mystery genre.
Very few sleuths are wealthy, unless they are a Lord or something.
But very few exist in an economy that we have now.
Can you say Bernie Madoff?
Kitty came from a fairly affluent family, but the 1929 crash hit her family hard. Her father committed suicide.
While she still lives in the family home, she takes in boarders to make ends meet.
The scenes in which Kitty saves money, trims little things here and there will hit home with many readers.
When she is given money by a client to buy new clothes, she’s both giddy with excitement and frightened by spending all that cash on just clothes, instead of, say, for food.
In Mystery Scene’s Winter Issue 2009 (No. 108), Kevin Burton Smith presents an insightful article about Richards, delving into how she made the secretary to a private detective the lead character.
I, too, found this quite interesting. (By the way, here’s a link to my review of Death Was in the Picture.)
After all, most of us – well, we women readers anyway – knew that Effie Perrine, Della Street and Peggy (on Mannix) were the real reasons those private detectives were so successful.
Like many mystery writers, Linda L. Richards includes a lot of layers in her novels.
And like most historical mysteries, her plots are a mirror to contemporary times.
(I am posting this for Linda as the site would not accept it earlier)
Oline, thank you so much for your coverage of Death Was in the Picture!
Things have been very odd since the book came out. I wrote both this
book and the one that came before it prior to the current “In this
economy…” environment. Writing and researching both books was
really entering a very foreign world for me. What a shock to see so
many of the things I’d been writing about come true, in a way. Oh not
the details of reality, of course. But the matters of spirit that
touch us when things are difficult. I got a lot of that right though,
to be honest, I wish I didn’t know that for sure! Sometimes it feels
too much as though I had a crystal ball while I wrote. Scary!
Here’s one thing I know: I wish Kitty’s financial woes in a world of
economic uncertainty were still as novel to readers as when I wrote
the books! For the next one, should I mix things up and have her win
the Irish Sweepstake?
linda@januarymagazine.com