Writers Read: Elizabeth Hobbs

Elizabeth Hobbs is a New Englander born and bred, who spent her childhood roaming the woods, making up stories about characters who live far more exciting lives than she. It wasn’t always so—long before she ever set pen to paper, Hobbs graduated from Hollins College with a BA in classics and art history, and then earned her MA

in nautical archaeology from Texas A&M University. While she loved the life of an underwater archaeologist, she has found her true calling writing historical mysteries full of wit, wickedness, and adventure. Hobbs writes wherever she is and loves to travel from her home in Texas, where she lives with her husband, the Indispensable Mr. Hobbs, and her darling dogs, Ghillie and Brogue, in an empty nest of an old house filled to the brim with bicycles and books.

Her new novel is Murder Made Her Wicked: A Marigold Manners Mystery.

Recently I asked Hobbs about what she was reading. Her reply

For a writer, reading is not just a relaxing pleasure, but an essential tool for keeping my imagination full of new and different voices and ideas and vocabulary. I usually have a few different books going at once and usually a combination of fiction and non-fiction. But the common denominator is usually a strong female protagonist. This month, I’ve read:

The Wind in the Willows

This is an annual re-read for me. During my recent downsizing, I pulled this 1908 Kenneth Grahame book out of my children’s bookshelf to put in my ‘keeper’ pile, but ended up sitting down and re-immersing myself in the pastoral children’s tale of a group of anthropomorphized animals who band together to save a feckless friend. What once seemed a charming adventure tale, now strikes me quite differently— Mole, Ratty, Badger and Mr. Toad have stuck with me throughout my writing life as archetypes of the Fish Out of Water, The Loyal Stalwart Friend, the Wise Leader and the Feckless Ne’er-do-Well. I think that every protagonist I’ve ever written—male or female—is some version of Ratty, that rugged, persistent fellow who lives in the moment, packs an extravagant picnic basket, stands loyally by his many and varied friends and never, ever gives up. Beneath all that children’s charm lies a brilliant character study.

The Librarians

Sherry Thomas is one of my go-to authors in a number of different genres—mystery like this story (she also writes the Lady Sherlock historical mystery series), Young Adult Fantasy, English language versions of a Chinese Wuxia novels (with Thomas’s characteristic heroic female spin), Chinese language web novels, and several different romance genres (see below), most prominent among them historical romance. In this recently released who-done-it, four librarians working in an Austin branch library must solve the murders of two patrons of a mystery-themed game night. Like all Thomas novels, the characterizations are beautifully and insightfully drawn and the prose is measured yet propulsive. Always a great author.

Prima (After the End Collection)

Once I had read Sherry Thomas’s Librarians, I was eager to prolong my stay in her distinctive voice, so I read her most recent post-apocalyptic romance, Prima. In this novella that is part of the After the End collection, Thomas creates an evocative setting on the open ocean, where the romantic protagonists meet. The writing is lush and lyrical and the characters and romance is beautifully drawn. Honestly, I will read anything and everything Thomas writes.

A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge

After the romance, I needed the cozy reality of Kate Khavari’s most recent Saffron Everleigh mystery. This academic-set historical mystery series is set in 1920’s University College London and the English countryside. The protagonist, Saffron Everleigh, is a crime-solving botanist who uses her specialist knowledge and scientific process to solve a series of murders. A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge, the fourth book of the series, is brilliant catnip for my mystery-solving soul.

Real Tigers

Once I was reading about historic London, I wanted a little more of the grit of the present-day metropolis, so I turned to Mick Herron’s third Slough House novel, Real Tigers. Now that the anti-heroic Slow Horses of Slough House are on our TV’s, the characters need no introduction. But if you’ve only watched the TV series, you’re missing a vast deal of the superb language and acerbic wit of Herron’s writing. In this story, one of the Slow Horses themselves is abducted and the team have to navigate a deep web of intrigue and betrayal within MI5 to ensure their cohort’s safety. Such gritty fun.

The Sway of the Grand Saloon

I do have to write myself, so my reading always includes a vast deal of research and non-fiction histories. At the moment, my reference book of choice is The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic by John Malcolm Brinnin, which I hope will give readers a hint as to the setting of the next Marigold Manners Mystery.

Mythology

And last, but certainly not least, my constant companion during the writing of my Marigold Manners Mysteries has been Edith Hamilton’s classic Mythology. Concentrating on the classical myths of Ancient Greece and Rome, Hamilton was a classics scholar who, after an illustrious career in women’s education, retired to write her seminal works, which remain standard reading for all classical studies scholars—just like my Marigold Manners. I often recommend this book because the myths that Hamilton translated are repeat with archetypes and themes that every working author should know.