Colleen Cambridge is the author of the new novel A Fashionably French Murder, the latest in her American in Paris mystery series, which features Julia Child as a character. Cambridge also writes under the names Colleen Gleason, C.M. Gleason, and Alex Mandon.
Q: This is the third in your American in Paris mysteries—how did you come up with the idea for the series?
A: It wasn’t my idea, it was my editor’s idea. I did two series for her, the White House Mysteries series and the Phyllida Bright series, about Agatha Christie’s maid. I had a shtick going—an amateur with a famous person. Julia Child, Paris, food—I was not going to say no!
Q: What inspired the plot of A Fashionably French Murder?
A: Paris is the fashion world’s capital. After the war, fashion was turned on its ear with Christian Dior and the New Look. Julia Child did attend a fashion show.
Q: So how did you balance your version of Julia Child versus the historical figure?
A: One of the biggest challenges a writer can have is a real person in a fictional setting. Julia stays in her lane—in the kitchen, cooking, at the market. Anything she did, I feel okay. She can stumble on a dead body, but not track down [clues like my fictional character] Tabitha Knight.
Julia Child, Agatha Christie, Abraham Lincoln—stay in your lane! Don’t try to be solving mysteries, Julia!
Q: How would you describe the relationship between Julia and your character Tabitha?
A: Who would Julia be a sidekick of? They’re in their 30s, Julia is a little older than Tabitha. What would make two people be friends to the extent of solving murders? They both want to find out what to do with their lives; they’re not super-young any more. And opposites attract. One person’s weakness is another’s strength.
In real life, Julia had other friends in Paris, but a little later in her life. It’s fiction; you can play with that. They have the same sort of outlook. It’s a blast to write this series.
Q: How would you compare the historical Julia Child or Agatha Christie or Abe Lincoln to your characters?
A: Lincoln made me the most nervous. Everybody knows him, and some people know a lot. There was no video, it was documented by historians. Julia had a TV show and anyone can look at it. I run into people who knew Julia. You don’t want to screw it up.
Agatha Christie was easier. She was shy and didn’t do a lot of publicity. Agatha was always thinking about murder. She gets a lot of ideas for her books based on her housekeeper. There are Easter eggs in the books.
But Julia was easy because I could see and hear her when writing the dialogue.
Q: How did you research Julia Child?
A: When the idea for the series was floated, I did a quick Google. I knew it would be set in Paris. Then I got her autobiography, My Life in France, which is a gold mine of information. Then I watched the TV show and got the cookbooks.
There are lots of books about postwar Paris and what the city was going through.
For this book I found a fabulous self-published memoir of a mannequin who worked for Dior in Paris at this time, which showed what it’s like down to the eye makeup. There are a ton of books on Dior, haute couture, what it was like being in the fashion world.
In my previous book, I did a deep dive on wine. Wine is important to the French psyche. They did so much to keep the wine safe from the Germans.
Q: What can you tell us about the fourth book in the series?
A: There’s a little supernatural element. Tabitha is going to the unknown nooks and crannies of the city.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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