What is Tessa Arlen reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Tessa Arlen, author of Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders.

Her entry begins:

Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson

It has been an intense couple of years: moving to our new house in Santa Fe and writing the debut to a new mystery series have been tremendous fun, but sometimes a bit draining! So, last week when the weather cooled and we lit the first fire of the season, I hunted through my bookshelves for a comforting re-read and chose Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson. A book that rewards those exhausted from the stern realities of our world, and in search of a good chuckle by the fireside.

E.F. Benson ranks among my favorite fiction re-reads along with Nancy Mitford and P.G. Wodehouse. Benson’s Lucia novels, written between 1920 and 1939, had an enormous impact on the subsequent Golden Age of British writing, influencing the comic work of Mitford, Waugh and Coward who were all doting fans.

For those not yet acquainted with the incomparable Lucia, the novels are...[read on]

About Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders, from the publisher:

Charming and feisty Poppy Redfern stumbles into murder in this exciting new World War II historical mystery series from critically acclaimed author Tessa Arlen.

Summer 1942. The world has been at war for three long and desperate years. In the remote English village of Little Buffenden, Poppy Redfern’s family house and farmland has been requisitioned by the War Office as a new airfield for the American Air Force. As the village’s Air Raid Warden, Poppy spends her nights patrolling the village as she tries to ease her neighbors’ fears about the “Friendly Invasion” and what it means to their quiet way of life.

When two young, popular women who were dating American servicemen are found strangled, Poppy quickly realizes that her little town has been divided by murder. The mistrust and suspicion of their new American partners in war threatens to tear Little Buffenden apart. Poppy decides to start her own investigation with the help of a charismatic American pilot and she soon unearths some chilling secrets and long-held grudges. Poppy will have no choice but to lay a trap for a killer so perilously close to home, she might very well become the next victim….

Visit Tessa Arlen's website.

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Writers Read: Tessa Arlen.

--Marshal Zeringue