Author Interview | Discussing her Cosy Historical Mysteries about Lady Evelyn whilst celebrating the fifth release of the series “The Quality of Mercy” with Malia Zaidi

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

This particular series has been on my radar for the past few years – it was a series I was grateful to have found as I love finding Cosy Historical Mysteries! I have enjoyed tucking into Historical Mysteries moreso than Contemporaries (with a few exceptions) as I love getting the chance to see the historic past as a portal of a glimpse into what it might have been like to live during the moments bursting to life whilst being explored through the setting of the mysteries. Mysteries are a lot of fun to read as well – seeing if I can keep pace with the sleuths and their methodologies of uncovering the truth whilst seeing which of the characters I feel left the strongest impression on me.

I have the tendency to seek out more stories featuring strong women as lead sleuths than men but there are some series out there where a male is in the lead role and I love it as dearly as the women I’ve found over the years who are giving me a charming dose of mystery with a setting and/or a plot that gives me a heap of joy to be reading!

What I find endearing about the Lady Evelyn series is how she has a fiancé and how he worries after her as she seems to have the luck of placing herself in pickles of danger! I know I haven’t yet had the joy of reading one of these lovelies – but from the prior blog tour and this one, I’ve been gaining more information about the series and am finding it a sweet fit as a #mustread! I love when Mysteries can afford themselves a secondary thread of connection – such as through a romance and/or a relationship which continues to build through the different installments.

The full rounding of a character’s life and their motivations is what inspires me the most to be reading these kinds of stories. I like seeking out Mysteries which are charming to read and give me a healthy dose of mystery which isn’t easily resolved and/or solved. I truly look forward to gathering these stories in print (although the inventory seems to be quite low right now) and starting to read them from start to finish. For this conversation I wanted to dig into the heart of the story whilst pulling forward the author’s writerly process and for her to talk about the different components of both this latest release and the series overall.

Be sure to brew yourself a cuppa
and let’s discover more about this series together!

The Quality of Mercy
Subtitle: A Lady Evelyn Mystery
by Malia Zaidi

After years spent away, Lady Evelyn is at long last back in her home city of London and she has returned with a rather controversial plan. The Carlisle Detective Agency is born, and it does not take long for the bodies… ahem, cases, to start piling up. With her friend and assistant Hugh, Evelyn embarks on the quest to solve the crimes. Yet the London she encounters is not the London of her coddled youth, and she is forced to learn that there is more to discover than the identity of a murderer. It isn’t only her city which reveals it is not what she always believed it to be, but the people she encounters as well. Secrets are revealed that have her thinking twice about everything she thought she knew about the society in which she grew up.

Evelyn’s love for her hard-won independence confronts her with yet another mystery, whether she is ready or willing to give up any of it for marriage. And then there is the arrival of rather a familiar face in London, one Daniel is none to pleased to see. Evelyn must find not one but two murderers, as well as make a decision that could determine her future. From the mansions of Mayfair to the dark alleys of Whitechapel, can Evelyn catch the killers before another life is taken?

Genres: Amateur Detective, Cosy Historical Mystery, Crime Fiction, Historical Fiction

Places to find the book:

Add to LibraryThing

ASIN: B0889Y15ML

Also by this author: The Golden Hour (Spotlight)

Also in this series: The Golden Hour (Spotlight)

Published by Book Baby

on 25th August, 2020

A Poisonous Journey (book one) 

A Darker Shore (book two)

The Study of Silence (book three)

The Golden Hour (book four) | see also Spotlight w/ Notes

The Quality of Mercy (book five)

Published by: Book Baby

Converse via: #HistoricalMystery, #HistoricalMysteries, #LadyEvelynMysteries
as well as #HFVBTBlogTours

Available Formats: Trade paperback and Ebook

How exciting! “The Quality of Mercy” marks the fifth installment of the Lady Evelyn Mysteries – a series I am looking forward to reading and am thankful I can interview you today for the blog tour. For readers like me who haven’t yet delved into your series how would you best describe and introduce us to your Lady Evelyn and the ways in which mysteries alight in her life to solve?

Zaidi responds: Thanks so much for having me on your blog! I hope you enjoy “The Quality of Mercy”! For those readers new to the series, Lady Evelyn is a young woman living in London who has just opened up her own detective agency. In the previous books, she was traveling around a bit and rather disturbingly, happened upon the occasional dead body… Being a curious and intrepid sort, she threw herself into the tasks of solving those cases with some success, though never without stumbling into a bit of danger herself, which keeps her fiancé Daniel up at night.

I hope I do as well. I need to gather the books in print but when I checked the availability of them this week I noticed that the print copies are a bit more limited. I might have to get them secondhand by the time I am able to purchase them. Either way, I simply want to read the series start to finish – I would have started requesting these at my local library this year but they’ve turnt off purchase requests (pre-pandemic) which reduces my chances to fetch Indie and Self Pub authors via the library. Technically I’d try to ILL them (inter-library loan) but those services are all but stalled right now as well which is due to the pandemic. *le sigh* One day, I promise I’ll read them!! 

I love the innocent ways in which Lady Evelyn entered into this kind of detecting life and how it changed her life path quite a bit thereafter. I will enjoy taking that journey with her and I appreciate how you’ve introduced her to my readers.

What do you love most about creating a Cosy Historical Mystery series and which authors influenced you as a reader before you became a writer of your own historic mystery series?

Zaidi responds: I love delving into a different era, doing the research and painting a scene that hopefully transports my readers to another time and place. My favorite part about writing these books, however, has been creating the characters. I think authors such as Tasha Alexander, Jacqueline Winspear or Kerry Greenwood influenced me, though I have to say, I learned so much about writing from trying to read across genres, not just in the one in which I write, which is definitely what I would recommend to aspiring writers as well.

Ms Alexander’s series was one of the first ones I found on my library’s shelf when I was seeking out new Cosy Historical Mysteries to read. I dearly want to re-read the first novel one of these years and continue to move forward within the series. I hadn’t had the chance to discover Ms Winspear’s novels until I participated on one of her blog tours (see also Review) wherein I promptly fell in love with her writing style and character!

When it comes to #MissFisher (Murder Mysteries) I came into those via the seasonal Australian adaptations of which I was able to finish this Spring via #AcornTV as I saw the feature film the fans funded and produced!! I only wish they had included more with Dot and Hugh! (frowns) I saw for the first time shortly thereafter the new spin series wherein its her niece whose sleuthing in her steed in the 1960s? I found that a charming addition because they kept the heart and essence of the show from when Miss Fisher was at the helm but found a legacy way of reinventing a way to progress forward with the niece! You could say that series has had a profound impact on me as well as I delight in the joy of how they were written and how the characters were in each others pockets! Sidenote: I am aware of the differences between the novels and the series which is why I opted not to read the series as I hadn’t read them first before I saw the series and film.

I completely concur with you about being a reader of eclectic genres and literary styles as it not only enriches your readerly life but it gives you such a baseline of technical skills in writing that you might not even be aware of until you sit down to write your own stories. Such truth!

The 1920s is such an enticing era of History – both stateside and in Europe – what first drew you into the 1920s and what was it about this independent thinking decade of explosive rebellion gave you the most curiosity to explore in the series?

Zaidi responds: I have long had a fascinating for the time between the wars, in particular in Europe. It was a time in which people were still recovering from the terrible tragedy and loss of the First World War, while many also tried to simply forget and move on. I love learning about this time and imagining how it must have been to be alive then, both as someone who comes from great privilege like Lady Evelyn and those who do not, like Hugh Lawrence.

I oft wondered how they did it myself. I tried to have some of those conversations with both my grandparents (both sides!) and my great-grandmother of whom was bourne in the late 1800s – she nearly lived to 100, too! The insight I missed out on is jarring but I could not get any of them to tell me any first hand accounts. They referred me to books or other persons who’ve shared it as they felt it was hard enough to live through once. *le sigh* In that regard I understood but counter to that when I have children and grand-children I’m not going to say “Go read a novel about the pandemic of 2020.” 

The war era is definitely one I enjoy reading about myself – not just for the strictly focused war dramas but the stories as you said which speak to the ‘life’ being lived between the wars themselves and the differences in the social classes and what those challenges were for both of them. It was a very interesting time in history and it hasn’t been repeated in the sense of how people handled those kinds of crises in our modern society. I tend to think that if the pandemic had happened then it would have been dealt with differently than it was now. And that’s quite telling.

How did you want to paint a portrait of the era Lady Evelyn lives behind the mysteries you are creating? In other words, for readers who are familiar with series like Miss Fisher which as a aesthetic all of its own which is readily known on sight – how did you want Lady Evelyn’s world to feel just as vibrantly livable as Fisher’s?

Zaidi responds: I love Miss Fisher’s Mysteries, and you’re right, creating a sort of palpable aesthetic for the reader is important to me as a writer. I try to show rather than tell, as far as I am able, trying to give the readers a feel for 1920s London through Evelyn’s eyes and the way she interacts with the world around her. It’s fascinating to think how many advancements they already had at the time (car, telephone, to name a few) and how much things have changed in the past century. How different would Evelyn’s sleuthing endeavors be if she had a cell phone, for example!

I hadn’t realised your passion for Miss Fisher when I first asked this question! How wickedly serendipitous was that?! (big smiles) Ooh I know! I love seeing those technology changes as the world shifted forward and more little conveniences started to become added into our lives! I would imagine she might grow bored with the cell phone at some point – imagine the insanity it of it ringing off the hook constantly? You wouldn’t have a moments peace!

What fuelled the choice to bring Lady Evelyn home to England from her globe hopping adventures to where she needed her own agency to funnel her sleuthing through? Was it a choice to give her more independence in the field or was there another reason entirely to have her keep a home base?

Zaidi responds: It felt like a natural progression to me. She left England, because she felt stifled both living with her strict aunt and because of painful memories. I think the time abroad helped round her as a character, gave her a glimpse of how other people live and experience life that she would not have had, if she had stayed in her sheltered London sphere all that time. If she had not left London, she also would not have met her fiancé.

I love how you wanted to encourage Lady Evelyn to see past her own heritage and her own living conditions whilst engaging with the world. It speaks volumes about you and about how it is good to show this kind of character growth in a Historical series. I know I will be readily engaged with her as she takes her travels but also learns some life lessons along the way. Plus, I’m keenly curious how she met her fiancé! 

Which secondary character stands out to you in the series and why?

Zaidi responds: I am fond of many of the secondary characters, but one that surprised me is Aunt Agnes, Evelyn’s aunt. She took on caring for Evelyn when, aged four, she lost her parents in a fire. The two always had a contentious relationship, but also one I wanted to explore further. Nothing is black and white and I wanted Agnes to be more rounded, to give her greater depth and for Evelyn to see that her aunt had a lot to deal with, too, which shaped her into the person she is now.

Aunt Agnes sounds a lot like Miss Fisher’s Aunt! Both women respect their Aunts but they are from two separate generations and thereby there are bouts of friction to be had. I’d like to see how Aunt Agnes changes over the course of your series but also to see things from her POV as well as like you said, she had to tackle being her guardian and sole parent after the tragic loss of Lady Evelyn’s parents which could not have been easy at all.

As this is a progressing series – how many installments of the mysteries are you hoping to publish and how long in the timeline of the stories do we get to spend with Lady Evelyn throughout her life?

Zaidi responds: That’s a good question! I have already written the next two installments, but I always thought I would end the series before the Second Word War really begins. I am also working on some other projects, which are more contemporary.

Hmm…. now I am hoping I can gather all the installments once the final two are released. That way, I won’t have to stop and wait to find out how the series ends. Perhaps by then there will be more copies in print and/or no, wait, I don’t think they bundle print copies of series! lol I hadn’t had the chance to re-direct about your Contemporaries – if they were going to be Mysteries or if you were exploring other genres. I write across genre myself and that is inspired by my eclectic readerly wanderings and as you mentioned the same I thought you might branch out as well. Curious though – to find when your setting your Contemporaries as that is always the rub with me as well – which decade past 1950 do I desire to explore?

Aside from her sleuthing nature, Lady Evelyn also has a romantic side to her story – what can you share about her love interest and how he plays a role in the mysteries themselves or are they solely her pursuit and he is never entangled?

Zaidi responds: Daniel is a good counterbalance to Evelyn. He is calm and gentle, and he is a modern thinker who won’t try to hamper Evelyn’s pursuits. That being said, he is also frustrated that she often ends up endangering herself. Sometimes he helps her with her detecting (such as in book 2 “A Darker Shore”) in large part to keep an eye on her, though he wouldn’t admit it. ;-) He is a complicated character with a tragic past and this has, in some ways, made him isolate himself. Evelyn and her rather intrepid ways make him come out of his shell and try to live in the present. I think they are good for each other, and I hope readers will enjoy the way their relationship evolves.

Ooh that is what you need isn’t it? A ready partner for someone like Lady Evelyn. I love how you’ve complimented them both rather equally. Their relationship reminds me a heap of the marriage between Kay Hunter and Adam (in the Contemporary Thrillers the Kay Hunter Detective series) as you truly need that kind of relationship in order to thrive as a couple. I am so encouraged by this description of them and again, this is another bit of joy I’ll have as I’m reading through your series!

Which Cosy Historical Mystery authors do you enjoy reading and which eras of history are they writing?

Zaidi responds: I enjoy books by Jacqueline Winspear and Kerry Greenwood, who write around the time I do, but also authors such as Charles Finch and Tasha Alexander, whose books are based a little earlier in Victorian England. I feel I can learn a lot about history from historical fiction (both with an element of mystery and without).

OOh I do as well! I have always read Historical Fiction but as a book blogger I’ve have had more opportunities to read non-traditional routes of publishing (from Indie Authors – Press & Pub to Self Pub and Hybrid authors as well) which as afforded me to re-look at History through different variants of writerly expression, style and period focus as well. I have oft mentioned on my social feeds on Twitter that Historical Fiction ought to have been taught in schools as it is a better gateway into History than the droll studies they force you to drudge through instead. Historical Fiction allows that living edge to History to happen for the reader and as most writers of HistFic due their due diligence you are getting a lot of truth per page as you’re reading too!

When you’re not researching and writing your stories what renews your spirit the most?

Zaidi responds: I like to spend time with family, travel, go for walks and museums. With the lockdowns and Covid restrictions, one really does appreciate the small things in life that matter a lot and which we otherwise may have taken for granted.

OOh dear, isn’t that the truth? We’ve had to amend our small pleasures and joys ourselves – we re-invented the car picnic as a for instance and that has led to even more coffee, tea or chai klatches, stormy day lunches and dinners and curbside pick-up for pizza and movie nights! lol It is better to stay adaptable and to reinvent your own joys than to worry about the things we cannot fix and must ride out together globally. We’re also going between streaming services via Roku and finding ourselves wickedly intrigued by gobs of murder mysteries and police dramas that we otherwise might not have seen! lol Keep well and be well – find your joys and celebrate how despite the changes, there is still a lot to do together with our families.

Thanks for this interview and I hope everyone stays safe and well!

Happy Reading!

In closing,.. I want to thank Ms Zaidi for her wonderful conversation & the ways in which she has brought this series to life for myself and for my readers. For those who are thinking of purchasing the series – kindly now I hope you can snag some of the last print copies I spied myself and have a wonderful journey into the Lady Evelyn series! I hope this interview has given you a better introduction to the series overall and that perhaps it will make it to your TBR!

I’d love to hear your reactions, thoughts and comments as well.

This Book Blast Tour is courtesy of:

Follow the Virtual Road Map

as you visit others participating:

As this particular one has a bookaway along the route:

NOTE: Similar to blog tours wherein I feature book reviews, book spotlights (with or without extracts), book announcements (or Cover Reveals) – I may elect to feature an author, editor, narrator, publisher or other creative person connected to the book, audiobook, Indie film project or otherwise creative publishing medium being featured wherein the supplemental content on my blog is never compensated monetarily nor am I ever obligated to feature this kind of content. I provide (98.5%) of all questions and guest topics regularly featured on Jorie Loves A Story. I receive direct responses back to those enquiries by publicists, literary agents, authors, blog tour companies, etc of whom I am working with to bring these supplemental features and showcases to my blog. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them: I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers. Whenever there is a conflict of connection I do disclose those connections per post and disclose the connection as it applies.

{SOURCES: Book covers for “The Quality of Mercy”, book synopsis, author biography, author photograph of Malia Zaidi, the tour host badge and HFVBTs badge were all provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and used with permission. The collage of the Lady Evelyn Mysteries (book covers 1-3) and the book cover for “The Golden Hour” were previously provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and are reused with permission. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Conversations with the Bookish banner and the Comment Box Banner.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2020.

I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life

.@joriestory 🦋NEW Author interview!

Diving into @MaliaZaidi's #LadyEvelynMysteries as we discuss her leading heroine & how she was dearly inspired by #MissFisher!😉A convo celebrating Cosy #HistoricalMysteries🦋https://t.co/Bzs5mTugZ8#HistFic #bookblogger | #HFVBTBlogTours pic.twitter.com/RNnr7LOxIT

— Jorie (#WyrdAndWonder) 💜🦝😷 (@joriestory) August 23, 2020

Comments via Twitter:

I *loved!* hosting you today!!💜🦝Especially as I was able to give my readers & visitors of the #blogtour a better first glimpse into your style of #HistoricalMystery! I was cheering for Lady Evelyn and I haven't yet met her! Such a brill convo & am thankful to have had it; 🤗☀

— Jorie (#WyrdAndWonder) 💜🦝😷 (@joriestory) August 23, 2020