Riana Everly: Crafting Cozy Mysteries Set in Jane Austen's England

Meet Riana Everly, author of historical cozies. Born in South Africa, award-winning mystery and romance author she has called Canada home since she was eight years old. She proudly boasts one husband, two grown(ish) children, three degrees, four recordings, five instruments (of varying proficiencies), six languages (also of varying proficiencies), and thirteen novels (and growing). She also can’t count very well.

When not indulging her passion for Jane Austen and mysteries, Riana loves cooking (not with dangerous ingredients), travel (to scout out the next crime scene), and photography (to record the evidence). She’s a historian and trained classical musician, specialising in viola, and is delighted to be able to combine her love of writing and music in her novels, as well as her passion for a good whodunnit.

She now lives in Toronto, Canada, with her husband, a secret stash of chocolate, and far too many books.

Could you share a little more about yourself and the cozy mysteries you write?

I’ve been a mystery fan since I’ve been a reader. The first chapter books I enjoyed were Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven books, so it’s no surprise that I love to write cozies as well. I’m also a historian. My academic background is in Medieval history, but a history geek is a history geek, regardless of era, and I’ve set my mysteries in the Regency era. And one more thing that will come as no surprise: I’m a Jane Austen aficionada. So, with all this together, what else could I do but write a series of mysteries in Jane Austen’s England, using her characters as sleuths—and sometimes victims!

How do you develop your characters, particularly your amateur sleuth?

My Miss Mary Investigates series has two sleuths. The first is my borrowing from Jane Austen. No, it’s not Elizabeth Bennet or Mr. Darcy, but instead, it’s Mary Bennet. She’s the overlooked, ignored, forgotten middle sister, who so wants to have a moment in the spotlight. I took Austen’s character and asked myself what would happen if she DID have her moment to shine? Well, it turns out that Mary Bennet is a crack investigator! My second sleuth is my own character, a professional investigator from London, more along the lines of Poirot than any police detective. Alexander Lyons is a young lawyer-by-training with red hair and a broad Scottish accent—and some secrets of his own—and he doesn’t quite fit in with the polished London society. But he’s smart and he sees something in Mary that everyone else has missed. They have their own issued to work out between them, but they grow together through the series. I’m thrilled at how readers have loved them as a team.

Cozy mysteries often feature unique settings or themes. Can you tell us about the setting/theme of your latest book and what drew you to it?

This series of books has been fun to write, since each mystery takes place in a different one of Jane Austen’s novels. My most recent published mystery sees Mary and Alexander thrust into the world of Sense and Sensibility. Working with Austen’s storylines and characters is both challenging and inspiring, since the mystery needs to fit in with what her characters would do if things went just a little bit differently, while keeping the characters as true to her original vision as I can. My jumping off point for this one, Death in Sensible Circumstances, was a chance meeting at a bookshop in London. What would happen if Mary Bennet met Elinor Dashwood? Well, it turns out they became great friends, and Mary was pulled into Elinor’s circle of friends. And then, so the saying goes, the murders began!

What do you find most challenging about writing cozy mysteries, and how do you overcome it?

Writing historical mysteries gives me a bit more leeway in some respects than a contemporary mystery would, because policing was so different in the early 1800s. I don’t have to worry as much about stepping on a detective-inspectors toes or being arrested for getting in the way. But a lot of the challenges are still there. How can an ordinary person find the necessary clues? What extra knowledge or information does she (or he) have that the professionals don’t, that let her put the pieces together? How does she manage without all the tools and techniques the pros have? For Mary, she has her incredible smarts, a photographic memory, and the luxury of sitting at tea, being ignored, while other people gossip. Those little details she hears, dropped so innocently between nibbles of shortbread, are the sorts of things she needs to help solve terrible crimes.

Cozy mysteries often incorporate humor and wit. How do you balance the lighter elements with the seriousness of the mystery?

My Miss Mary Investigates mysteries aren’t humorous, per se, and they can deal with very serious matters such as discrimination, slavery, and sexual abuse, but the setting—Jane Austen’s sparkling version of Regency England—keeps it from getting dark. After a day of wading through the filth of London’s worst slums, my characters check that their gloves are still clean and white and retire to the salon for a spot of tea. It’s also impossible to try to channel anything of Jane Austen without touching upon some of her wit. I don’t pretend to reach her lofty attainments, but I try to capture something of what makes her novels shine.

Can you share any interesting research experiences or fun facts you discovered while researching for your books?

Oh, the research! That’s my favourite part. I mentioned above that I’m a history geek, and part of that is diving down the rabbit hole of research. No spoilers, but for a while I was looking into common poisons in the early 19th century, and my husband began to get worried! More recently, for my not-quite-complete fifth book in the series, I’ve been reading about hot air balloons and their use in the Napoleonic Wars! What fun that was.

Is there anything else you’d like to share that I haven’t covered in the interview?

One of the other challenges of writing a historical mystery series is finding out not necessarily what investigative tools people DID have, but what they COULD have had. For example, I can’t give my detective DNA test results, since that wasn’t even a concept in the early 1800s. He didn’t even have the means to check if blood was from a human or an animal. I also can’t give him fingerprint kits (although the first person to use fingerprints to solve a crime was another fictional detective – Sherlock Holmes). But he can go to a chemist to see if there’s arsenic in a solution. He can take plaster casts of footprints, because the technology was there and only needed the right people to use it for specific purposes. Again, it’s another set of challenges, but it’s also a huge font of inspiration.

If you want to meet Alexander, please check out the free novella, The Mystery of the Missing Heiress.

Finally, what advice do you have for aspiring cozy mystery writers?

My advice is to read, read, read! Find some cozies you love. Find some police procedurals that are well researched to see how it looks from the other side. Read Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh for a glimpse into early- to mid-20th century fictional sleuthing. Read PD James for her masterful character sketches. Read everything you love. And then write. It doesn’t matter if it’s brilliant or dreadful. First drafts are often dreadful, but you can’t polish a manuscript you don’t have. And, of course, have fun! If you don’t have fun writing, the reader won’t have fun reading. And that’s what it’s all about.

-To learn more about Riana Everly click on the links below:
Website: https://rianaeverly.com/
Blog: https://rianaeverly.com/blog/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/RianaEverly
Instagram: http://instagram.com/rianaeverly
Miss Mary Investigates: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H89XV5C