Photo by FizCo Photography
Nekesa Afia is the author of the new novel A Lethal Lady, the third in her Harlem Renaissance Mystery series.
Q: This is your third novel featuring your character Louise Lloyd. Do you think she's changed over the course of the series?
A: I sure hope she has! That’s my main goal with every book, or else what’s the point of writing it. I want Lou to always be able to draw on her past experiences to be able to solve the crime. And her past experiences also inform her perceptions and opinions of people.
I always try to treat Lou, and all of my characters, like people, and that means she has to grow. I really hope I’ve been able to do it.
Q: What inspired the plot of A Lethal Lady?
A: A Lethal Lady was inspired by a few things. First, with Lou moving to Paris, I knew I had to involve artists and art culture in some way. I also had to involve legendary art salons in with them.
I based the actual case off an old unsolved one from the 1930s which involved a woman, author Barbara Newhall Follett, who walked out of her house after a fight with her husband and was never seen again. I was sort of obsessed with the idea of a woman artist who wasn’t happy with her husband, and the plot came together from there.
Q: How did you research the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: Research definitely involved a Nekesa-And-Her-Mom trip to Paris. We stayed in Montmartre, steps away from the Moulin Rouge, the heart of where Lou would be living. I explored museums, went sightseeing, and trying to live like Lou would have really helped me center myself in the world that I wanted.
I learned that a lot of Black Americans expatriated from the States to Paris, and a lot of those men were servicemen. Black culture was so alive in Montmartre, it was much like Harlem. Lou needed a home-away-from-home and Montmartre was it.
Q: Why did you choose the Harlem Renaissance as the setting for your series?
A: I chose the Harlem Renaissance as the setting of my series because I thought it was a fascinating time period to explore. We discussed the era in detail in the history course I took in the final year of my bachelor’s degree and, ultimately, I very much wanted to build a mystery about a ‘20s jazz babe who was forced to solve crime.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am working on a couple of things! I have just turned in the next Louise Lloyd mystery, lovingly called LOU4, and am anticipating beginning edits for another release coming from Lake Union.
The stand alone is a totally different vibe from the Harlem Renaissance Mysteries and I am so incredibly excited to be able to start really diving back into it.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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