Michael G. Colburn is the author of the new novel Asylum Murders. It's the second in his Lady Black mystery series, following Stolen Brilliance. He lives in Vermont.
Q: This is the second in your Lady Black mystery series—do you think your character Lady Edith Black has changed from one book to the next?
A: Edie Black grows from a naïve child to a master criminal, then to an educated, sophisticated lady seeking to apply her skills to solving crimes. Edie matures from being a poor child of the slums in London to a very wealthy lady in Australia because of a benefactor that cannot be revealed. She marries her long-time lover and vows to be like him in caring and helping others.
Q: What inspired the plot of this new novel?
A: I write to create Victorian adventure mysteries and explore new locations with my characters. I enjoy using actual events and look for crimes that haven’t been solved when possible.
In book two I needed to bring Lady Black and her childhood friend, Britina, back together again and Edie was now in Melbourne, Australia, because that is where the stolen ship Ferret, of book one ended its voyage—these were two givens for me. Research gave me clues to the plot I would later develop.
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: I read newspaper archives and did research on the time in Melbourne. I looked for crimes that weren’t solved and strange occurrences I could weave into a narrative.
Once I found out about the Kew Lunatic (official name at the time) Asylum, I focused a lot of time on studying asylums and asylum life.
Eventually I uncovered a book entitled Lizzie’s Journey to Yarra Bend. Written by Linley Walker, it’s an authentic account of her great-great- grandmother’s confinement in the lunatic asylums of Kew, Australia. Yarra Bend was the predecessor of Kew Asylum. It provided a wealth of detail about asylum life.
What surprised me a great deal from all my asylum research is the injustice of asylum confinement and how patient treatment deteriorated into abuse and mistreatment frequently and how easy it was to cover it up.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: I wanted to show the injustice in the asylum confinement system of the 1900s. How madness isn’t always in the mind; it’s often in the system, and confinement was used to cover up mistreatment and illegal activities, including murder. I also wanted the reader to take away the enjoyment of a good story.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m writing book three of the Lady Black Mysteries—The Fate of Precious Things. In this book, Benji Diamond, Edie’s husband, is returning to London to complete the sale of the farms and food businesses he and Edie own so he can spend more time with Edie in Australia.
He chooses a voyage up the East Coast of Australia, where he has not been. He booked a passage on the HMS Quetta. The ship’s hull is ripped open on uncharted rock and sinks.
Benji survives and is stranded on a Torres Strait island with a young girl. Lady Black seeks to find him. He must confront West Indian savages, pearl-harvesting pirates and a lost memory. Jack Cramer (from book one) is hired by Lloyds of London to salvage the cargo of the Quetta, but others want to prevent him from doing so. He and Edie join forces.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I’m researching book four, which brings the characters to Boston to uncover the secrets of murders that occurred in the 1800s and to confront the monster of the Berkshire Mountains.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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