Marty Wingate

USA Today best-selling author Marty Wingate writes The First Edition Library series set in Bath, England, about the curator of a collection of books from the Golden Age of Mystery. Book one, The Bodies in the Library, concerns murder among an Agatha Christie fan-fiction writing group, and in book two, Murder Is a Must, an exhibition manager is found dead at the bottom of a spiral staircase. Wingate also writes historical fiction: Glamour Girls follows Spitfire pilot Rosalie Wright through both the physical and emotional dangers of the Second World War. Wingate writes two further mystery series: the Potting Shed books feature Pru Parke, a middle-aged American gardener transplanted from Texas to England, and the Birds of a Feather series follows Julia Lanchester, bird lover, who runs a tourist office in a Suffolk village.

Wingate prefers on-the-ground research whenever possible, and so she and her husband regularly travel to England and Scotland, where she can be found tracing the steps of her characters, stopping for tea and a slice of Victoria sponge in a café, or enjoying a swift half in a pub.

Wingate's new novel is The Orphans of Mersea House.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

I find myself immersed in historical fiction lately—not the distant past of medieval battles and Viking invasions, but of the more recent past within the last century or so.

Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym (1953)

Barbara Pym excelled at writing about the lives of the women in the 1950s—what they want to do, what they are allowed to do, and what they do anyway. Jane and Prudence is about two friends from university, one married to a vicar and living in the country where she isn’t sure just what she should be doing, and one single, working and living in London and falling in love regularly with unsuitable men. Jane, the vicar’s wife, is determined to do the right thing, often fails, but stays mostly in good spirits regardless. Meanwhile, in town, Prudence imagines a love affair with her quite ordinary boss, because he once called her by her first name. The story meanders along, but it’s never boring. There is a gentle satire afoot as there is in most of Pym’s books. I’ve read four by her now, and will read more.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (1938)

Miss Pettigrew is on the verge—perhaps already over the edge?—of complete destitution. She can’t hold any sort of job. She’s rubbish at being a governess or nanny, but nonetheless replies to a request from the temp agency as a desperate last resort. What follows is twenty-four hours of frenetic silliness during which Miss Pettigrew is mistaken for someone who knows how to live and soon, she begins to act like it. The chapters are divided up into time (Chapter Eleven: 8.28 p.m.-12.16 a.m.) so that we can clock Miss Pettigrew’s progress. It’s huge fun and an entertaining look at London nightlife.

The Fortnight in September by R. C. Sheriff (1931)

A family goes on their annual holiday to Bognor Regis where they have stayed in the same lodgings for twenty years. The family comprises a father, mother, and their two adult children (the daughter a bit younger than her brother) who still live at home. Their holidays have had a comforting sameness from year to year, and nothing changes this time. Or does it? This book was reprinted in 2021. I saw a mention of it on Facebook and thought it looked interesting. When I found it at my local bookstore, I saw that the cover blurb was written by Kazuo Ishiguro, and so I bought it. (Note to authors: cover blurbs work!) I’ll be reading this one again.

Visit Marty Wingate's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Librarian Always Rings Twice.

The Page 69 Test: The Librarian Always Rings Twice.

Q&A with Marty Wingate.

The Page 69 Test: The Orphans of Mersea House.

--Marshal Zeringue