Marta Perry

Marta Perry realized she wanted to be a writer at age eight, when she read her first Nancy Drew novel. A lifetime spent in rural Pennsylvania and her own Pennsylvania Dutch roots led Perry to the books she writes now about the Amish.

Her new novel is Echo of Danger.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Perry's reply:

I tend to binge-read, like binge-watching, only with books. I recently found a treasure trove of mostly forgotten Golden Age British mystery authors on Amazon, and I've been working my way through them. This has been an unexpected benefit of switching to a Kindle for my recreational reading. I initially started using it simply because it was easier to read after spending a day at the computer on my own current manuscript. But then I discovered the array of books that were no longer or had never been out in mass market, but were only a click away with an e-reader.

First I read my way through a batch of Patricia Wentworth books that had preceded her popular Miss Silver mysteries. Now I've started on the Molly Thynne books. An actual member of the British aristocracy, Mary "Molly" Thynne wrote about the world she knew—an England between the wars. Independently wealthy, she wrote only six novels, and I'm already dreading coming to the end of them. They are intricately plotted, something that I know to my cost to be difficult at best, and they also show a very sympathetic and understanding eye for characters in trouble.

The current book is The Case of Sir Adam Braid, originally published in 1930, and Ms. Thynne used the now-familiar device of a victim who was disliked by so many people that Chief-Inspector Fenn has his hands full trying to sort them out, especially since the chief suspect is a young woman he cares for. Just the sort of book to inspire my own romantic suspense writing!

Visit Marta Perry's website.

--Marshal Zeringue