Q&A with Kirsty Manning

  

 

 

 

 

Kirsty Manning is the author of the new novel Maisy Bell Is Missing, the second in her Charlie James mystery series. She lives in Australia. 

 

Q: Maisy Bell Is Missing is your second novel featuring your character Charlie James--do you think she’s changed from one book to the next?

 

A: The Charlie James we meet in book two is resilient. She’s finally divorced, understands Paris, has police contacts and has earned the grudging respect of her editor, George. She’s also prepared to trust her instincts and wants to have some fun.

 

Also, this Charlie James is confident in designer dresses and wants to feel great. What can I say, Charlie is glowing!

 

Q: What inspired the plot of this new novel?

 

A: My launching point for this novel was Janet Flanner's “American in Paris” columns in The New Yorker during the 1930s. Flanner writes with the intelligence and sass I try to imbue in Charlie James. I want my women to be every bit as worldly and wonderful as the female reporters in Paris at this time.

 

No spoilers, but the plot is based on a very famous case that went to trial that Flanner covered. That was the starting point … a case of a missing American tourist in Paris. 

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: I mostly read newspaper articles of the time, to get the voice. And I looked at a lot of fashion pages.

 

It surprised me, unfortunately, how little has changed in terms of victim-blaming for women. How can people still say that what women wear, how much they drink, who they see is responsible for how some men treat them? I didn’t need to research that, we see it every day in the media. 

 

Q: Can you say more about what you think Charlie’s experiences say about women in journalism during this period?

 

A: Charlie James is based on the early female correspondents at the turn of the century who were not given formal accreditation nor the support of their male colleagues.

 

The bones of Charlie’s character are drawn from Australian reporter Louise “Louie” Mack, borrowing elements (and plotlines) from other notable reporters like The New Yorker’s hilarious and savvy Paris-based correspondent Janet Flanner, Clare Hollingworth (who reported on World War II in Poland), Dorothy Lawrence (who dressed as a male sapper and served in the trenches in France), and the indomitable American Martha Gellhorn.

 

Charlie is without question a feminist, with views that sometimes surprise the French—and her family and friends.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Two glorious rom-coms for grown-ups…watch this space. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Kirsty Manning. 

Q&A with K.B. Brodsky

  

Photo by Skye Brodsky

 

 

K.B. Brodsky is the author of the new novel Beyond Honor. K.B. Brodsky is the pen name for the husband-and-wife writing team of Bill and Karen Brodsky. They are based in New York and Colorado. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Beyond Honor, and how did you create your character, Kevin Rhoads?

 

Bill:  Karen and I didn’t ever decide to sit down and write a novel. It started more like a political thriller version of J.R.R. Tolkien, who said that one day he spontaneously found himself writing down the sentence “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” and then just started writing.

 

In a similar way, I found myself looking at a painting by an artist named Bill Logan that’s been leaning against the wall of our living room for years. It’s a moody portrait of a bearded young man turned away from the viewer, looking over his shoulder at something unknown.

 

He became the inspiration for Kevin. I just started telling myself his story. Military and political thrillers are what I read and enjoy the most, and so it was natural that this was the kind of story I started telling. When I was partway done writing it all down, I shared it with Karen, and she jumped in to join me in creating what is now Beyond Honor.

 

Kevin Rhoads had several influences. We have had many conversations with people with military backgrounds over the years. We’ve also learned about veterans’ and active military servicemembers’ experiences through podcasts and written biographical accounts.

 

It struck us both that their stories were often centered more on how their military experiences affected them personally than the heroic feats for which we all admire them. Kevin incorporates the attributes of a hero, but he is not a superhero, and he’s not unscathed by his experiences.

 

Q: How did the two of you collaborate on this novel? Can you describe your writing process?

 

Karen: We both work on all parts of creating the book, but we have different strengths. Bill is really good at creating intricate plots and doing research on a lot of the political and military details in the book. And he has this ability to work until the whole plot is laid out.

 

My strengths and passion lie in crafting how the story gets told—through action, or dialogue, for example. And working out which shoulder our narrator should be sitting on for each chapter.

 

We both care deeply about our characters and where the story takes them, so we push and pull to make sure their actions make sense to both of us. We discuss and revise and discuss and revise. It ends up being collaborative on all levels. 

 

On a practical level, we have a good system that relies on two things: 1. A shared Google doc where nothing gets changed without the other approving the edit. 2. Constant conversations, especially about the “big picture” ideas. For example, in Beyond Honor, we had lots of discussions about how the arcs of each of our main characters bent “beyond honor” in a way that was true to them. 

 

Q: The author Jack Carr said of the book, “Beyond Honor carries the DNA of the great old-school espionage novels fused with the action of the modern thriller.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: First, let’s read that sentence again. Jack Carr gave our book a quote! Still can’t quite believe that. (Thank you, Jack!) 

 

We love this quote because that was the goal! Bill has been reading books in the military, geo-political thriller genre—dare I say nonstop—since he was a teenager.

 

The old school writers like Le Carré, Ludlum, and Forsyth, into the Clancy generation of writers, through to the current era that includes Jack Carr himself are all heroes. Incorporating the elements we love from each iteration of the genre was very much a deliberate choice.

 

We wanted the thrilling action that so many current novels possess, but we also intentionally slow the pace down and pause in certain places, either for an emotional punch or to focus on certain storylines.

 

It might also help that Beyond Honor has strong female characters in the mix who are less likely to point a gun or throw a punch in response to a conflict, which leads to more complex combinations of action and old-style espionage.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way? 

 

A: Our north star was always for the novel to end with Rhoads acting on a personal moral code that takes him outside of his military code of honor, and Skyler being pushed from her early role as an analyst into the complicated world of being an operative. 

 

Our goal was to balance a satisfying ending with a compelling set-up for the sequel, but we always knew where Kevin and Whitney would wind up.

 

We wrestled with how to begin the story much more than how to end it. A common thriller structure is to open the story with a big inciting incident that hooks the reader and builds the plot around that moment. 

 

Our true inciting incident takes place midway through the novel, bringing several storylines together. Some early readers encouraged us to go the expected route and move this event to the beginning.

 

We tried it out, but we knew the reader needed to be emotionally invested in the characters before the event occurs. We kept it mid-story, and we both think it was the right move. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

Karen: We have a solid draft of the sequel written. I think of it like making a table. The table is built and now each pass of the manuscript is like sanding it with a finer and finer grit sandpaper. Each time, the narrative gets smoother and any problems we didn’t catch on the last round show up more clearly. I love this part.

 

Bill has the first draft of the third book down, and we’ve just moved it to the Google doc phase.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: This has been an entirely unexpected journey—and we are so grateful for the team of people who took a chance on Beyond Honor and are supporting us on this adventure: our editor and her team at Emily Bestler Books/Atria, including Emily, David Brown, Wren Watkins, and Zakiya Jamal; our agent, Anthony Mattero at CAA; and our publicist, Megan Beatie.

 

It also includes our family and friends who have been so encouraging and such amazing cheerleaders. And thank you, too, Deborah, for inviting us to contribute to your blog!

 

We tell each other pretty much every day how lucky we are to have started this new chapter in our lives, and to do it together is so much fun. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Marianne C. Bohr

  

 

 

Marianne C. Bohr is the author of the new novel When Paris Whispers. Her other books include the memoir The Twenty. She lives in Park City, Utah. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write When Paris Whispers, and how did you create your character Catrine?

 

A: The book was actually conceived on a writing retreat with one of my editors, April Bosshard, and 10 other writers in 2019. My husband and I had just visited all the places in the book, including the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris where I saw an old woman sitting on a bench, and a story began to percolate.

 

I continued writing into the pandemic in 2020, when so many of us were sitting still and thinking about the places that had shaped us.

 

Paris has been that place for me since my postgraduate year in the Loire Valley, and I found myself circling back to 1981 and a Paris just before all the modern technology arrived, still lit by its literary ghosts.

 

Catrine grew out of a simple question: what if a lonely young woman arriving in Paris could actually hear the voices of the writers she'd studied, who'd walked those same streets, and they became her spiritual guides?

 

It became a way for me to explore Catrine's displacement, grief, and self-discovery all at once, filtered through a device that let the city itself become a kind of character.

 

Q: The novel is set in Paris — how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: Enormously important. For me, setting isn't backdrop, it's close to being a co-author. I've always written with place established first and the story flows from that. My earlier travel memoirs were built entirely on that instinct, on paying close attention to where you are, including the tiniest details, and what it all does to you.

 

With When Paris Whispers, I wanted the city to feel earned rather than decorative—the loneliness of it as much as the beauty. Catrine changes because of where she lives and she and France both grow together.

 

Q: Did you need to do much research to write the novel, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: Yes, I did do a fair amount of research, particularly around the literary history woven through the book and specific locations. I had to find the exact quotes Catrine hears and to get them to be ones that feel authentic to what she as going through.

 

And in doing that research, it surprised me just how much what writers and artists and designers had said even hundreds of years ago were still relevant to Catrine and her story.

 

I also had to look up tiny details: what a café actually looked like in 1981, did it even exist, when were certain public buildings built, how did the Métro feel and sound back then, and what streets met where. Recreating the France of 1981 often ended up mattering more to the texture of the book than any big historical research did.

 

Q: As someone who’s written fiction and nonfiction, do you have a preference?

 

A: I don't think I could choose because I absolutely love them both.

 

Nonfiction, especially memoir, demands a kind of honesty that's uncomfortable but clarifying. I'm accountable to what actually happened. But fiction gives me the freedom to chase an emotional truth without being bound to the facts, which is quite liberating.

 

I move between them depending on what stories make their way into my head, and I suspect I will always be toggling back and forth.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: For the first time, I'm actually working on two books at once. I'm editing a memoir about growing up the eldest of 11 children in a strict Mexican, Irish Catholic home, and eventually leaving the Church. I haven't decided on a title yet.

 

I'm also starting a new novel with the working title Borrowed Grace in Aix-en-Provence. It's about a middle-aged chambermaid at a luxury hotel who collects small objects and clothing left behind by guests and what she does with them. It's a quieter, more Flaubertian book than When Paris Whispers, and I'm enjoying the discipline of writing in a more spare style.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Just that this book has been a long time coming. I hope readers caught between who they were and who they're becoming see something of themselves in Catrine, and I hope they can feel, on every single page, just how much I love France.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Marianne C. Bohr. 

Q&A with Rick Sopher and Abdulla Galadari

  

Rick Sopher

 

 

Rick Sopher and Abdulla Galadari are the authors of the new book Illuminating Scriptural Connections: A Qur'anic Commentary on the Torah. Sopher is a fellow of the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, UK, and Galadari is an associate professor of Islamic Studies at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi.

 

Q: How did the two of you end up working together on Illuminating Scriptural Connections?

 

Rick: My passion for exploring scriptural connections between the Qur’an and the Bible is relatively recent - I am actually a career banker. So it was important to me to have the ideas emanating from my passionate explorations properly scrutinised, researched, and elaborated on in greater depth.

 

In 2020 I therefore convened a “Reading Group” of the top academic researchers in this area, under the umbrella of the Woolf Institute, Cambridge, an organisation dedicated to improving relations between the Abrahamic religions.

 

Abdulla, an established leading scholar in this field with several important books and papers already published, was introduced to the group and rapidly became its leading light. I think we bonded well together.

Abdulla Galadari

 

Abdulla: I first met Rick virtually during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when our mutual friend and the distinguished scholar of Jewish and Islamic traditions, Rabbi Professor Reuven Firestone, introduced us. At the time, Rick was organizing a virtual Torah–Qur’an reading group.

 

The book itself was very much Rick’s initiative. As the project developed, however, Rabbi Firestone suggested that, if it were to have a broader and more enduring impact, it would benefit from having a Muslim co-author who could bring a more scholarly foundation and I was delighted to collaborate on the project.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

Rick: In addition to the Reading Group, and the access to scholars that it gave us, most of the book was shaped in dialogue with Abdulla. Over several years we were able to share with each other existing ideas and published research on which we were able to build the ideas that appear in our book.

 

I learnt a lot in the process. Some very basic findings surprised me, especially as they seemed to contradict tropes circulating publicly. For example, the Qur’an did not seem to call for the outright destruction of Jews (or Christians).

 

And it consistently revered what it called the “previous scriptures,” which includes the Torah (the five books of Moses, part of the Hebrew Bible), saying that “guidance and light” was to be found in them. Our Reading Group came to the conclusion that the Qur’an did not contradict anything fundamental in the Torah.

 

Abdulla: One of the conclusions that became increasingly clear to me throughout this project is something my co-author, Rick, often says: the similarities between the Torah and the Qur’an far outweigh their differences.

 

Of course, important distinctions remain, but reading the two scriptures alongside one another reveals a remarkable degree of shared ethical concerns, narrative traditions, and theological commitments that are often overlooked.

 

We should remember that the Qur’an did not emerge in the time of the biblical authors, but rather the community that received them by the 7th century. As such, some of the differences we find between the Torah and the Qur’an reflect rabbinic (or also Christian) interpretations. As such, to many Jews at the time, they may not have always perceived a difference solely because the Qur’an had a distinct narrative from that of the Torah.

 

Q: In the book, you write, “May this commentary serve as a small step toward a future in which Jews and Muslims can celebrate their shared scriptural heritage, and nurture a more harmonious relationship with each other.” Can you say more about that, and about your hopes for this book?

 

Rick: Relationships between Jew and Muslim in the Middle East and around the world today are under strain and probably worsening. A ray of hope may lie in the connections between the foundational scriptures.

 

It is perhaps an area of untapped potential: few Jews have read the Qur'an, which is surprising given the Qur'an's extensive engagement with the Torah; and few Muslims have read the Torah, which is even more surprising as the Qur'an praises it (Qur’an 5:48) and asks for it to be consulted in case of doubt (Qur'an 3:93).

 

This ignorance can lead to suspicion by non-Muslims about the Qur’an – we have called this “Qur’anophobia” - the irrational fear or hatred toward the Qur’an, treating it as a current threat to all non-Muslims; perhaps perceiving it as some kind of war manual, or blueprint for takeover of the West. It is not.

 

Our book seeks to uncover for Jews and Muslims alike the profound interconnectedness of their faiths.

 

Abdulla: We live in a deeply divided world. Contemporary societies are fractured along many lines—race, nationality, religion, social class, and political affiliation, among others.

 

Religious divisions are often intensified by these broader social and political dynamics, and it is no secret that political concerns frequently shape theological interpretation. This has been true throughout history and remains true today.

 

When political agendas become intertwined with the interpretation of scripture, they can create interpretive lenses that sometimes obscure what the texts themselves are seeking to communicate.

 

One of our aims in this book was, therefore, to approach both the Torah and the Qur’an primarily as historical and scriptural texts, allowing them to speak on their own terms rather than through the prism of contemporary political debates.

 

Q: What are you working on now? Will you work together on future

projects?

 

Rick and Abdulla: Our book is the culmination of a process which has emerged in an academic context and discussed, so far, mainly in that context.

 

Rick: I now hope to use the book to reach public audiences of Jews,

Muslims, religious leaders, policymakers, and others with the ultimate aim of improving Jewish-Muslim relations in particular. The Drumlanrig Accords between Imams and Rabbis in the UK, entered into last year and with which I was closely involved, shows what can be done to build bridges.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

Rick and Abdulla: Read our book, or the scriptures themselves. You may be surprised.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Duncan Ritchie

  

Photo by Photographique Studio

 

 

Duncan Ritchie is the author of the new novel The Truth Chamber. A former investment banker, he lives in Tasmania, Australia. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Truth Chamber, and how did you create your character Liam?

 

A: I have always been fascinated by the human capacity for deception and self-interest. Politics is fertile ground for both. Media, and now social media, add high-octane fuel to the mix, rewarding politicians for distorting reality for their own ends and enabling them to acquire power.

 

That dynamic was what I saw at work behind Brexit and the rise of Trumpism in 2016. At the time, I was working for a Japanese bank in Singapore. A seed was planted.

 

Fast forward to 2022. I watched an interview with UC San Diego professor Barbara F. Walter discussing her book How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them.

 

What caught my attention was that she had applied to the US an analytical tool traditionally used by the CIA to assess risks of instability and civil war in hot spots around the world. The risk analyst in me came alive, and I started filling notebooks with “what ifs”; they became the foundation for The Truth Chamber.

 

I had a clear vision of Liam’s character early on. “Liam’s Lament” was the first chapter I wrote for the book and has remained largely intact through the rewrites and edits.

 

I used a real-life admiral with a similar career trajectory as a loose model for Liam, but I wanted Liam to be from Boston with Irish roots. I also gave him a complicated backstory and a few skeletons in his closet.

 

It was also important that Liam not be reduced to a caricature of an ex-military man—either defined by PTSD or cast as an invulnerable alpha-male stereotype.

 

I wanted his strength and restraint to feel authentic, while still allowing the reader to feel his grief (after the losses of his wife and son) and his doubt as he confronts the moral ambiguities that underpin The Truth Chamber.

 

Q: Did you need to do much research to write the novel, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: I had to do a tonne of research. As a non-American, I had a lot to learn about America’s founding and history. I wanted to ensure my representations of America’s past and politics, and of an emerging fascist leader, were broadly accurate.

 

 I read around 50 books on fascism, the history of race relations in the US, the Constitution, the Supreme Court, the role of money and religion in politics, and, of course, language and the art of deception.

 

I also did a six-week tour of the US over the 2024 election, visiting key sites in the novel; I volunteered for the Harris campaign in Atlanta and knocked on doors—an eye-opening experience in itself.

 

The thing that surprised me most was discovering that most Confederate political and military leaders were never held accountable for seceding from and waging war against the Union.

 

It made me wonder how much of America’s later political culture—and some of its enduring problems—may have been shaped by a recurring reluctance to hold powerful white men accountable.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: I had the book’s title long before I had even written a single page. It percolated up as I was reading and researching in the months before I started writing.

 

It was born of the role propaganda and disinformation play in politics, and also of the complicity of consumers of media and social media. There appears to be a disengagement from critical thinking.

 

I wondered what it would take to break through an echo chamber, and how people might react when confronted with the truth. That question eventually inspired both the title and one of the central devices of the novel.

 

Q: Especially given the upcoming elections, what do you hope readers take away from the novel?

 

A: The view looking into America from outside is very different from the view most Americans have of their country. America’s democratic mythology has often been more flattering than the reality. My goal was to hold up a mirror to America, then tilt it forward slightly—a warning: “This is where you could be heading.”

 

When I started working with my editor, Sam, I told him that I wanted to tell stories that make people think about real-world issues and potentially see them from a new perspective. One of my reviewers said that I had “crafted a novel that demands reflection long after the final page.” If I have done that, I have succeeded.

 

With elections fast approaching, I hope readers will look beyond partisan loyalties and consider the long-term health and preservation of America’s democratic institutions—the very idea of America, even. I think America is approaching an inflexion point. We could know which path America has chosen before the year is out.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I spent most of 2026 learning the publishing business and preparing for The Truth Chamber’s release on 1 September, which hasn’t left me much time to write.

 

But I did just wrap up an essay on what I describe as America’s crisis of democratic legitimacy, the nonfiction companion to The Truth Chamber. In it, I’ve attempted to synthesise some of the research behind the novel and apply my risk-analysis lens to the current state of American democracy. I hope to publish that in September.

 

In the meantime, I’m kicking ideas around in my head for a second novel. But it’s still early days on that front.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I have a Malinois called Aletheia (Alé), who was the model for Liam’s pup, Senna. I talk to Alé in much the same way Liam talks to Senna, which is probably why she thinks I’m mad.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Sept. 2

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Sept. 2, 1894: Joseph Roth born. 

Q&A with Gabriella Saab

  

 

Gabriella Saab is the author of the new novel The Survivors Guild. Her other books include The Last Checkmate. She lives in Mobile, Alabama.

Q: What inspired you to write The Survivors Guild, and how did you create your characters Bea and Marguerite?

 

A: Years ago, at a Southern Federation of Syrian/Lebanese American Clubs convention, I learned there were Lebanese immigrants aboard the Titanic. I had never known this before, and I wanted to explore the history more fully to discover not only what the journey might have been like, but what survival and life in America might have been like.

 

From there, Bea and Marguerite came surprisingly easily. I wanted two women to represent the lowest and highest classes on the ship so I could more fully explore the different ways the journey and survival impacted them.

 

Bea, a Lebanese immigrant, is determined and fiercely guarded while Marguerite, an American heiress, is privileged and accustomed to having her life decided for her. While they are opposites in many ways, they are also more similar than they initially realize, something they discover as they get to know one another.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between them?

 

A: At first, it’s tentative. They’ve survived a terrible ordeal together, and neither one knows exactly how to relate to the other, but they share a bond considering what they’ve gone through. And now they also have an infant who needs their help.

 

Both are motivated by the same goal — to help their families, to help survivors, and to help the baby — and, to do so, they have to learn how to trust one another and work together.

 

Through these efforts, they discover a deeper understanding of one another’s position in life as well as a friendship that defies what societal norms would expect, and it was such a beautiful, important dynamic for me to write. 

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: I had so many nonfiction and firsthand accounts at my fingertips thanks to museums, interviews, artifacts, autobiographies, and more about the Titanic, survivors, and New York in 1912.

 

I was surprised to learn about the Lebanese aboard the ship, and the story about the Titanic Orphans is one that has to be read to be believed. These two little boys were survivors who were too young to identify themselves, and they inspired the similar plot line in my novel.

 

I share more about the true story in the author’s note, so I highly encourage readers to read it, but only after they’ve finished the book to avoid spoilers!

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: At a time when circumstances were difficult for women and immigrants, I hope readers discover the importance of female friendship through Marguerite and Bea.

 

Their courage, determination, and compassion enable them to stand up for what they believe in, to help others, and to pursue the lives they want rather than the lives others want for them.

 

I also hope readers learn about pieces of Titanic history that they might not have known before. Although we know a lot about the ship, there are other stories — like those of the Lebanese immigrants — that have yet to be told, as well as the stories of what happened next. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I don’t know if I’m allowed to say! But I will say it’s another 20th century historical setting inspired by real women. My goal with all my books is to draw attention to stories of women and lesser-known pieces of history. I’m having a lot of fun with this one, and I’ll share more about it on my newsletter and social media as soon as I can!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: As a Lebanese-American, it was such a privilege for me to bring this history forward and share a bit more about myself and my culture. Bea and Marguerite were such a joy for me to write, and I hope readers experience the same joy in getting to know them.

 

Also, for anyone considering the audiobook of The Survivors Guild, I want to give a shout out to my narrators, Saskia Maarleveld and Gail Shalan — they’re incredible!

 

Finally, I want to extend my biggest thanks to everyone who reads books and supports authors. You are the reason we get to do what we love, and it means more than I can say. Thank you!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb