The Femmes Fatales welcome Angela Misri!

posted by Dana 

When we were introduced to Angela Misri, Jewel of the Thames, the first book in her Portia Adams Sherlockian series had just come out.  Now she's tackling what comes after a detective learns she's a detective and in this guest post, tells us some of the challenges of writing the series sophomore.  Angela, take it away!

What they don't tell you about writing the second book in a series

The thing they don’t tell you about book two in a series is that the pressure you put on yourself to tell a good mystery really turns up the heat. Good thing the second Portia Adams Adventure is called Thrice Burned!

In all seriousness, I learned so much in the revision process for Jewel of the Thames that by the time I got to that stage in book two, I was able to focus on the detective work, which is my favourite part of mysteries (both reading and writing them). The cases get harder for Portia to solve, which means the research gets that much harder for me. Where the clues in Jewel are clearer and simpler in some ways, in Thrice Burned I made the crimes more complex, I gave the criminals just a little more back-story. I feel like by the third case (called Truth be Told) in the book Portia was finally competing at the same level as her more famous relatives. Not only that, I felt like taking on the prostitutes as her clients and then adding them to Portia’s own version of the Baker Street Irregulars allowed her to step even further out of the shadows of Holmes and Watson. I’m pretty proud of that story if you can’t tell.

In terms of the larger arc of Portia’s growth into the detective I know she will be, this was a book where she had to embrace that realization herself. She had to put aside distractions and insecurities and the ‘easy’ road and make a real decision to become the latest consulting detective to hail from Baker Street. That was a big deal for both of us and I really wanted to write that arc to show Portia’s struggle with her decisions. Easy vs hard. Lawyer vs detective. Brian’s advice vs Gavin’s. Fame vs the quiet life. Someday, in a future story, I sense that she will wonder if she should have chosen differently as we all do at some point in our lives.

Finally, writing about Annie Coleson was like introducing my family to my best friend. Very early on in Portia’s development I considered recreating the dynamic duo of Holmes and Watson but with two women, and Annie was the Watson to Portia’s Holmes. When I started writing about Brian Dawes, I found that instead of falling into the Lestrade foil as he was intended to be, he became Portia’s equal, and Annie fell by the wayside. What I discovered at the end of Jewel was that Portia is more than just Holmes, therefore her ‘Watson’ must also be ‘more.’ Annie and Brian together will fill out Portia’s life, adding value to her detective work and bringing love and friendship into her solitary life.

I can’t wait to hear what people think of Thrice Burned, and all the new characters - I hope you love them as much as I do! 

Angela Misri is a Toronto author who writes detective fiction inspired by her birth country, Great Britain. The first book in her YA detective series is called Jewel of the Thames and follows her detective Portia Adams through her first three cases as she immigrates from 1930s Toronto to the bustling streets of London. The second book in the series is out now and is called Thrice Burned. Misri has spent most of her career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation making radio ‘extra-terrestrial’ through digital strategy, podcasts and websites.

 

Comments

[Kristopher]

Thanks for introducing us to this series, Dana. Sounds very good.

[Dana]

Thanks, Kris!

[ElaineViets]

What fun, Portia. Looking forward to reading your new novel. Welcome to the Femmes.

[Mary S.]

Fantastic. Sounds like another winner for you. Congratulations, Portia!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

The second book, yeah, so interesting, huh? The first one, you have all the time you need. The second one is REAL, and people are waiting for it, and it had better be better than the first. No pressure, right?

These sound terrific..so lovely to "meet" you!