What is Mary Miley reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Mary Miley, author of The Impersonator.

Her entry begins:

Because I’m working on book #3 of my Roaring Twenties mystery series, I’m usually reading books written in the Twenties or about the Twenties. This helps keep me in the mood, gives me insight into the decade, and provides details that bring life to the scene. I can learn how people interacted with others (blacks and whites, men and women, bosses and employees), how they spoke (the use of slang, contractions, swearing, insults), how they dressed at various types of events (for work, a cocktail party, a dinner party, a tennis match), descriptions of offices, homes, drug stores, boarding houses, theaters, and so forth.

Right now, I’m working through all the Agatha Christie mysteries that she wrote in the Twenties.... On the nonfiction end, I’ve just finished re-reading Last Call by Daniel Okrent, a fascinating history of Prohibition in which he mentions an incredibly bold whiskey theft that gave me the idea for my side plot....[read on]

About The Impersonator, from the publisher:

In 1917, Jessie Carr, fourteen years old and sole heiress to her family’s vast fortune, disappeared without a trace. Now, years later, her uncle Oliver Beckett thinks he’s found her: a young actress in a vaudeville playhouse is a dead ringer for his missing niece. But when Oliver confronts the girl, he learns he’s wrong. Orphaned young, Leah’s been acting since she was a toddler.

Oliver, never one to miss an opportunity, makes a proposition—with his coaching, Leah can impersonate Jessie, claim the fortune, and split it with him. The role of a lifetime, he says. A one-way ticket to Sing Sing, she hears. But when she’s let go from her job, Oliver’s offer looks a lot more appealing. Leah agrees to the con, but secretly promises herself to try and find out what happened to the real Jessie. There’s only one problem: Leah’s act won’t fool the one person who knows the truth about Jessie’s disappearance.

Set against a Prohibition-era backdrop of speakeasies and vaudeville houses, Mary Miley’s Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition winner The Impersonator will delight readers with its elaborate mystery and lively prose.

Learn more about the book and author at Mary Miley's website, blog, and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Mary Miley.

--Marshal Zeringue