Amita Murray is the author of the new novel An Unladylike Secret, the third in her Marleigh Sisters series. She is based in London.
Q: This is the third in your Marleigh Sisters series--what inspired the plot of this new novel?
A: So many things! It's set down in the south coast of England, in Devon. Devon is an incredibly beautiful place with towering red cliffs and gorgeous coves with lots of potential for stealth and romance. In Devon in the 1800s, there was a lot of liquor smuggling from France.
I loved the idea of setting a book in this incredible setting, with smugglers, secret coves, all the passion the sea inspires. A lot of Regency novels are set in drawing rooms in London.
I wanted to give my protagonist Mira a chance to let her hair down. She writes circulars but is pretty tired of the social whirl. She's one of those people who is very creative and needs a lot of alone time, but works in a profession that needs her to mingle.
When she heads down to Devon, she's itching to escape her life. When she bumps into a hot, mysterious man near a cove one night, well, let's just say things get spicy.
Q: How did you research the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: On one of my trips down to Devon, I came across a great book called Devon and the Slave Trade. See, the early 1800s in England were full of contradictions. Glorious ballrooms and crazy-ass poverty. War in France and soirees at home. Slavery and the abolition movement, all in the same place.
You could be neighbours with someone who owned plantations in the Caribbean and on the other side, your other neighbour could be an abolitionist. I wanted to explore this complicated history.
I grew up reading authors from the 1800s. Austen, the Bronte sisters, Dickens. But they missed out a lot of history. Here's my chance to fill the gaps and have fun with it.
Q: What initially inspired you to create the Marleigh sisters?
A: I love Regency novels. My first ever Regency was The Talisman Ring by the queen herself, Georgette Heyer. I fell in love with the funny dialogue, the social satire of it all. Heyer wrote love stories that were witty and intelligent, and I loved that.
When I watched Bridgerton, I realised there was a heck of a lot more diversity in England in the early 1800s than we realise. I wanted to explore this diversity, in all its glory, but in fun, commercial fiction.
And I love passionate love stories where two people get close really quickly, but this means they have to work out their relationship and all their baggage before they can be together. A bit like real life.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: Fun dialogue, steamy scenes, a love story where two people need to come to terms with old secrets and their own baggage if they want to be together. And a cast of hilarious characters. The action takes place in an inn and on beaches - I mean, what could go wrong?
My books are mystery-romances. They aren't just romances. I want readers who love a bit of mystery and intrigue.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I've written my next Regency - the start of a whole new trilogy. This one focuses on Kora, who is a matchmaker in the day and then dresses as a man to go out in society at night. She's all alone and needs to earn a living, and can't easily do it as a woman in the 1800s.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Come check out my new substack in which I talk about crushes, disordered eating, high sensitivity, and more https://creativehunger.substack.com/p/creative-hunger-what-the-heck-is and follow me on insta @AmitaMurray
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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