Welcome, friend! The Last Note of Warning made my anticipated releases this month and I am very excited to share this interview with author Katharine Schellman with you today. š Here’s a little bit about the book.
The Last Note of Warning
Goodreads | Nightingale Mysteries #3
The Last Note of Warning is the third in the luscious, mysterious, and queer Nightingale mystery series by Katharine Schellman, set in 1920s New York.
Prohibition is a dangerous time to be a working-class woman in New York City, but Vivian Kelly has finally found some small measure of both stability and freedom. By day, sheās a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to the cityās wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New Yorkās underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale. She’s found, if not love, then something like it with her bootlegger sweetheart, Leo, even if she can’t quite forget the allure of the Nightingale’s sultry owner, Honor Huxley.
Itās not a safe life. Every day comes with the threat of poverty; every night could be the police raid that ends in disaster. But itās a better life than Vivian once thought possible, and sheās determined to cling to it with both hands.
Then the husband of a wealthy client is discovered dead in his study, and Vivian was the last known person to see him alive. With the police and the press both eager to name a culprit in the high-profile case, she finds herself the primary murder suspect.
She canāt flee town without endangering the people she loves, but Vivian isnāt the sort of girl to go down without a fight. She can strike a deal with the police commissioner: one more week of freedom before sheās arrested for good. She can cash in every favor she has from the criminals she calls friends to prove she had no connection to the dead man.
But she canāt prove what isnāt true.
The more Vivian digs into the dead manās life, counting down the hours until the police come for her, the harder it is to avoid the truth: someone she knows wanted him dead. And the best way to get away with murder is to set up a girl like Vivian to take the fall.
Get to know the author: Katharine Schellman
Hi Katharine! It is a pleasure to have you on Armed with A Book. Please tell me and my readers a bit about yourself.
Thanks so much for including me, Kriti. Iām a former actor, which means Iāve had a ridiculous number of jobs-that-paid-the-bills: babysitter, restaurant hostess, standardized patient, makeup artist, personal assistant, clothing and lingerie retailā¦ And then of course, acting and dancing, primarily on stage. I also spent several years working in political consulting, which was a wild ride that Iāve never wanted to go back to.
These days, I write historical mysteries, including my Regency-set Lily Adler mysteries (like Bridgerton, but if everyone was less worried about getting married and more worried about getting murdered) and the Jazz Age-set Nightingale Mysteries (a little grittier, a little sexier, a lot more grey area).
The Last Note of Warning is the third book in your Nightingale Mysteries series. What attracted you to the 1920s New York setting?
I like to say I came for the glamor and stayed for the crime. š I generally start out with characters, rather than setting, so I had three characters in mind when I started thinking through this series. Based on their personalities and what they were doing, I knew they lived in the height of the Jazz Age, and most likely in New York City.
From there, I started researching, and it turned out the Jazz Age was such a fun time to set a mystery. Crime was everywhere! For a lot of people, it was baked into their everyday life because of the simple fact that Prohibition made selling and buying alcohol illegal. So odds were, either you or someone you knew broke the law regularly.
That was such a fun starting place. And then you add in the changing roles of women, the ways different immigrant groups interacted with each other, the rise of organized crime, speakeasy cultureā¦ there was so much to explore and play with that I had a hard time narrowing down my plots!
The Nightingale speakeasy serves as a central setting in your series, providing a refuge for Vivian and a backdrop for much of the action. How did Honor Huxley come to own it? When did Vivian first feel its allure?
I actually donāt think I can answer this one without spoiling too much of the book! The Last Note of Warning digs into Honorās life before the Nightingale, so readers will find out more about her childhood and how she came to own her speakeasy.
Vivian Kelly is a working-class woman navigating the challenges of life in 1920s New York City. What adventures did she have in the first two books of the series?
In the first book, Last Call at the Nightingale, Vivian works as a dressmaker by day and escapes to the Nightingale at night. Itās her refuge and her way to cut loose, and she sees it as a party that never stops. But she learns that thereās a darker underside to that world when she discovers a dead body in an alley behind the speakeasy, and certain people of a criminal persuasion think she knows more about what happened than she does.
In the second book, The Last Drop of Hemlock, Vivian has joined the staff at the Nightingale, which has really become her family and her second home. One of the bouncers, who is also the uncle of her friend Bea, dies under circumstances that seem straightforward. Bea is convinced something else is going on, so Vivian agrees to help her look into what happened. But Beaās uncle was involved in some shady business when he was alive, and they realize too late that theyāve put themselves right in the middle of it.
In this third book, The Last Note of Warning, things get even more personal for Vivian. She still works for a dressmaker by day, making deliveries to wealthy New Yorkers, and one day a clientās husband is found dead. As the last person known to have seen him alive, Vivian ends up accused of his murder. As she struggles to prove she didnāt have any connection to the dead man, she starts to suspect that someone she knows set her up to take the fall for killing him.
Do you have a favourite quote or scene in The Last Note of Warning that you find yourself going back to?
Oh my gosh, so many! Thereās a big set piece in the middle at a masquerade ball, and it was so much fun to write. And anything with Honor and Leo. Vivian has two very different love interests, and even though I know whoās the right one for her, I love them both equally and adore all the scenes I write with them.
I canāt reread any of them now, though. Once the book is done and out of my hands, I canāt go back to it, or I start wishing I could change things. The only reason I ever stop editing is because my publisher makes me!
What is something you would like the readers of this book to take away or ponder?
I love writing historicals because theyāre a chance to dive into the parts of history that rarely get studied in school. I hope readers discover something about this time period and place in history that they never knew before.
Mostly, though, I hope readers have fun! The Nightingale Mysteries are fast paced, a little suspenseful, a little romantic, and full of characters with good intentions who often make bad decisions and have to figure out how to get themselves out of trouble.
You have explored the state of flow in writing and performing. How did your time as a stage performer influence your writing?
That flow state feeling is a wonderful place to be. I often had it when I was performing, and I have it even more as a writer. (Which is part of how I know Iām in the right creative field now!)
Since my background was dancing, I tended to be a very physical performer, and a lot of how I found a characterās personality and voice was through discovering how they moved. Now, I usually have a very clear sense of how my characters move through the world physically, and thatās reflected in my writing. Sometimes too muchāmy editors often suggest that I cut back on my descriptions or point out that characterās physical quirks are popping up too frequently! I also usually hear dialogue in my head before I know anything else about a scene, which I think comes from all those years memorizing scripts.
Your debut, The Body in the Garden, was one of Suspense Magazine’s Best Books of 2020. How have you evolved as an author since its publication?
I hope my writing has improved and matured a lot since my first! I think if I were nine books in and not evolving or improving, something would be wrong.
More practically, I think Iām better at the boring parts of creating a book. I know how to sit down and get words on the page, even if Iām not feeling āinspired.ā I know how to outline so I can work more efficiently. I can more easily tell when something isnāt holding together, and I know when to ask for help fixing those problems.
Iām also much better at taking care of myself. With my first few books, I really bought into so many toxic āstarving artistā ideas, like chaining yourself to your desk to write and not exercising or sleeping enough or having a social life. I refuse to do those things anymore. I sleep a ton, I exercise regularly, I travel and have hobbies and see friends. My writing is so much better when I care for my physical and emotional self.
What are some challenges of writing mystery?
I prefer fair play mysteries, which means all the clues are on the page and readers can solve it along with my characters. Itās a tricky balance to get everything there and craft a mystery that holds together in a satisfying way but isnāt too obvious. I think the sweet spot is if readers can solve the mystery about ten pages before the characters do. But sometimes that depends as much on whether the reader knows mysteries really well as it does on my writing!
For readers who enjoyed your book, what should they pick up next?
I highly recommend the Harlem Renaissance Mysteries by Nekesa Afia. Theyāre also set in 1920s NYC and very character driven, plus her writing voice is just amazing. The third one comes out this summer! But you should start with the first one, Dead Dead Girls.
Are you currently working on any new projects or ideas?
I just finished a draft of the fourth Nightingale book, which will come out next summer. So right now, Iām waiting for my editor to get back to me with notes and suggestions. Iām expecting a lot of them, but I love editing, so I wonāt mind.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and share with my readers.
Thank you, Kriti! It was an absolute pleasure.
Thanks for joining us! Connect with Katherine on Facebook, X, Instagram and Goodreads.
I hope you will check out The Last Note of Warning on Goodreads.
Many thanks to Minotaur Books for giving me a chance to highlight this book on my blog in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for reading the interview! š
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