Happy Friday, friend! Jenny Elder Moke’s half mystery, half romance adult debut set at a lavish destination wedding, She Doesn’t Have a Clue was a fun read. Though this book isn’t out till January 2025, I am honored to have a chance to chat with the author and bring you the interview! First, a bit about the book:
She Doesn’t Have a Clue
A high-end wedding on a private island off the coast of Seattle sounds like something out of a magazine. But for bestselling mystery author Kate Valentine, it’s more like a nightmare.
Why Kate agreed to attend her ex-fiancé’s wedding is its own enigma, but she’ll plaster on a fake smile for two nights, with the aid of free champagne, naturally. And because the groom happens to be her editor, she’ll try to finish a draft of her latest Loretta Starling mystery as a wedding gift. But when the bride is poisoned and Kate stumbles across a dead body, she finds herself in a real-life mystery that eerily echoes the plot of her latest novel. And the only person who seems willing to help Kate catch the killer is Jake Hawkins, aka: the Hostralian; aka: Kate’s biggest romantic regret.
As the wine flows and the weather threatens to hold every guest hostage, bitter resentments and long-held grudges surface amongst the colorful crowd. Anyone could be capable of murder, it seems. What would Loretta do? Unfortunately, Kate doesn’t have a clue.
Get to know the author: Jenny Elder Moke
Hi Jenny! It is a pleasure to have you on Armed with A Book. Please tell me and my readers a bit about yourself.
Hi, Kriti! Thanks so much for hosting me. I am a children’s and adult fiction writer based in Denver, CO, and I love stories with adventure, action, heart, and wacky hijinks. I love a twisty, plotty book that keeps me up well past my bedtime, and I hope that readers find all those elements and more in my adult rom-mystery debut, SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE.
She Doesn’t Have a Clue is a unique blend of mystery rom-com. How did the idea for it come to you?
I’ve always loved those “murder in a remote Victorian mansion during a massive storm” type murder mysteries, because there’s all the excitement and investigation of a mystery, but with allllll the spooky vibes of a ghost story. And I’m an avid romance reader, so of course I wanted to put a strong romantic element into the story. It took all the genre elements that I love and smashed them up into one zany, thrilling, swoony story.
Kate Valentine, the protagonist of She Doesn’t Have a Clue slips into the persona of the main character in her book series, Loretta. What was it like writing as an author writing another book?
It’s so funny, because that’s honestly what I do a lot during my own day! I often wander about my regular, boring life (grocery shopping, school drop off, cleaning house) losing myself in the story world of whatever novel I’m working on. Stories are like portals to another world, and being a writer is like having the portal directly in your own brain. So it wasn’t that much of a stretch for Kate to imagine what Loretta would do in her place, especially when the investigation starts to overwhelm Kate.
In She Doesn’t have a Clue, Kate talks about the stress of pushing deadlines for submitting her latest novel. Have you encountered writers block like hers? In your experience, how does the publisher handle these situations of creative blocks in authors with a contract in place?
Oh boy, what a question lol. Writer’s block is like the boogey man for most authors – we don’t speak of it out loud. A good friend of mine calls it “The Empty Place” and that’s such a perfect descriptor for it. I’ve thankfully never had to push deadlines because of writer’s block, but I’ve certainly gone long stretches without producing anything that I can sell, and that can be super stressful. Publishers are generally really understanding that writing is a creative endeavor, and you can’t force good creativity the way you can force other things. Every author encounters it at some point in their lives (often at multiple points), and it’s like any other form of burnout – the only way out of it is through it.
How did you strike a balance between mystery and the comedic side of the story?
I took a lot of my inspiration from the 1980s cult classic Clue, which does such a fabulous job of making this ping-pong, zany, slapstick murder mystery. The comedy almost becomes the point in that movie, but I wanted to make sure I was still telling a real murder mystery. And I think like most things in life, we often find the greatest humor in the most macabre situations (like dead bodies falling out of potted plants). It’s so ridiculous, so out of the scope of what we understand about the world, that you almost can’t help but laugh. So I really leaned into those scenes.
How similar or different are you and Kate in how you write mysteries?
Oh, Kate is far better at it than I am lol. The great thing about Kate is how successful she is at writing her books, which was important to me that she had something she was truly good at. She’s a mess, but she’s not a mess in everything. Writing a murder mystery is SOOOOO much harder than people realize, especially if you’ve only read the really good ones. They seem so natural, so easy, but those kinds of stories take an enormous amount of work to set up. Kate has a natural brain for such intricacies, whereas I…do not lol. But with a really good editor and a lot of revision, we got there!
Do you have a favourite quote or scene in She Doesn’t Have a Clue that you find yourself going back to?
Comedically, I have SO many favorite scenes. But the heart of the story, to me, is a conversation that Kate and Jake have late in the book, when Jake tells Kate to embrace the chaos of life and she says “I don’t want to embrace the chaos. I want to organize it.” Other than making me laugh every time I read it, that scene also reminds me as a person to let go of the things we can’t control. So much anxiety comes from trying to control all the elements, to keep ourselves safe and protected, but we end up ruining the moment happening right in front of us as a result. Life IS chaos, and accepting that things will change and the unexpected will happen makes us so much better at enjoying the life we’re living right now, not the hypothetical one we’ll experience in the future.
What is something you would like the readers of this book to take away or ponder?
The heart of the story for me is that Kate learns to let go of what she thought her life would be, and embraces the uncertainty of a different future. There is fear in the unknown, but there’s also the greatest chance for discovery there, too. I think the older we get, the smaller our worlds get as we try to protect ourselves from things that might hurt us. But we lose our sense of wonder, of exploration, when we keep our worlds so known and small. I want readers to embrace the chaos, and trust themselves enough to get through it, just as Kate does.
She Doesn’t Have A Clue is your adult debut novel. In what ways was it different from writing your Young Adult novels?
The biggest shift in writing for young adults vs. adults is the tone of the book. Young adult novels really have to be so earnest, because kids can smell BS a mile away. Adult novels tend to have a lot more of a disaffected tone, I think as a protective measure more than anything else. Kids don’t know how to bury their feelings yet, it’s all out there on the page and messy and real. Adults don’t like dealing with those uncomfortable emotions, and so they tend to be a lot more stilted or removed. I intentionally brought that earnestness with me to SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE, because I think most adults could use the space to express themselves with their whole hearts, even if it seems a little too mushy.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I hope everyone who reads SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE finds a comforting, cozy, swoony safe space to enjoy themselves and get lost for an afternoon or two. CLUE is best enjoyed with a hot beverage, a snuggly blanket, a favorite sweatshirt, and a cedar-scented candle burning.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and share with my readers.
Thank you!!
Thanks for joining us! Connect with Jenny on her website and follow her on Instagram.
I hope you will check out She Doesn’t Have a Clue on Goodreads. Review will be posted closer to publication date in January 2025!
Many thanks to Minotaur Books for giving me a chance to highlight this book on my blog in exchange for an honest review. 🙂
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