Cryptography in seventeenth-century England was not just the stuff of spies and traitors, a fact that became a major plot point in The Sign of the Gallows, my fifth Lucy Campion historical mystery. While ciphers had grown more complex between the 16th and 17th centuries with the development of new mathematics, the actual practice of…
ONE London November 1667 The north-western road to St Giles-in-the-Fields was darker and more desolate than Lucy Campion remembered. She shifted her peddler’s pack, full of True Accounts and Strange News, her shoulders aching under the familiar strain. She’d taken the longer path to avoid the outskirts of Covent Garden since it still teemed with…
We all love a good mystery—but I prefer the butler bring me a nice cocktail at the end of a long week, rather than murder a guest at my dinner party. (To make it clear, I do not have a butler. And, as a former bartender myself, I am perfectly capable of making my own…
Read this exclusive guest post from Susanna Calkins about 17th-century murder ballads, and then make sure you're signed in and comment for a chance to win a copy of Susanna's book, A Death Along the River Fleet! The murders in my Lucy Campion mysteries are largely described through ballads, broadsides, and other penny pieces, which…
Susanna Calkins, author of A Death Along the River Fleet — the 4th Lucy Campion Mystery — was kind enough to answer some of Criminal Element's questions about her love for the mystery genre, writing about 17th century England, and being nominated for this year's Mary Higgin's Clark Award. What authors have inspired your writing? Like most…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! Check back every Wednesday and see what we're reading for the week!
A Death Along the River Fleet by Susanna Calkins is the 4th book in the Lucy Campion Mystery series (Available April 12, 2016). Lucy Campion, a ladies’ maid turned printer’s apprentice in 17th-century London, is crossing Holborn Bridge over the murky waters of the River Fleet one morning when, out of the mist, she sees…
Discover (or remember to order) your next cozy with a delightfully convenient shopping list of upcoming soft-boiled mysteries! Last month, we got our first taste of spring with March's releases; this month—we keep the good times rolling with some great new titles! Let us know in the comments how you like it and what you…
The Masque of a Murderer by Susanna Calkins is the third historical mystery in the Lucy Campion series set in 17th Century London (available April 14, 2015). SEE ALSO: Join Susanna Calkins for a lesson in 17th century forensics! Lucy Campion, formerly a ladies' maid in the local magistrate's household, has now found gainful employment…
In writing my historical novels, which are set in seventeenth-century England, I have had to spend a lot of time thinking about the crime-solving methods that would have been available to authorities of the time. In the era before modern forensics, when there was no DNA evidence, blood typing, fingerprinting, math modeling, computer simulating, chemical…
