Q&A with Katherine Reay

  

 

 

Katherine Reay is the author of the new novel The Undercover Bookshop. Her other books include The English Masterpiece. She lives near Bozeman, Montana. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Undercover Bookshop, and how did you create your character Gemma?

 

A: The story started with the spy. My last few books have revolved around Cold War spies and I loved every aspect of researching and writing them. But upon discovering this particular spy and pondering this next book, I instinctively knew she could not be the main character.

 

She could not be the heroine because that is a very different type of story —one that’s a bit more intense — and I truly wanted The Undercover Bookshop to be a delicious escape. An escape that had us cheering for someone young and eager to learn, someone making mistakes but trying to make them right too — a more winsome heroine.

 

I also wanted a more classically-toned mystery (or a story that alluded to them) and that idea brought to mind the golden glow of both that genre and a time which, from our perspective, inherently holds an aura of peace, those early reconstruction days following WWII.

 

Gemma Brown and her youth, intelligence, innocence, determination, and delightful obsession with the classic British mysteries of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Josephine Tey, and more, felt perfect for the story as she stepped onto the page.

 

Q: How did you research the spy Ursula Beurton’s life, and what did you see as the right balance between fact and fiction as you wrote about her?

 

A: I read everything I could find about Agent Sonya and I’ll admit to marking up Ben Macintyre’s book, Agent Sonya, as if it was a college textbook. I also found some excellent lectures out of Britain about her, especially from the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum.

 

But what I discovered most interesting was all the questions still surrounding her. Scholars aren’t entirely sure about what happened regarding Ursula Beurton and her loyalties post her time in England. They know a lot of what she did, and that was fascinating, but there are holes in the narrative — and I loved that!

 

It meant that I could present the details of her life factually, and I strove to do that, but it also meant a little leeway existed in creating a bit of fiction around her as well. That was tremendous fun!

 

Q: The writer Kate Quinn said of the novel, “The Undercover Bookshop feels like a warm, possibly arsenic-laced hug straight from Agatha Christie.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: It’s clever and spot-on! It captures the tone of the story perfectly and provocatively and Quinn really is a fantastic writer.

 

What I love about this line is that the story is meant to be a hug — it is truly meant to be an escape into a charming Cotswold village with a winsome cast of characters just as Agatha Christie presents in her own novels.

 

However, there is that low thrum of tension beneath the surface too — that’s the bit of arsenic — because all is not what it seems. But never fear, just like a Christie novel, most things come right in the end. 

 

Q: How did you choose the novels that Gemma loves to read?

 

A: I kept within the classic mystery genre — mostly British and from the “Golden Era” of the 1920s and ‘30s. I peppered in a few American mysteries as well for there were definitely some iconic titles from the time.

 

That said, all the books needed to be published prior to the fall of 1949. That is the season in which The Undercover Bookshop takes place so it wouldn’t do to have Gemma reading and recommending books that were released after that winter.

 

Beyond that, I chose books with themes that supported Gemma’s journey, the questions she was asking, and the world she observed around her. Christie’s novels were particularly useful as she set her novels in a contemporary context and often posed the types of questions and themes people were genuinely asking and pondering.

 

Q: What are you working on now? 

 

A: Right now I am developing my talk for The Undercover Bookshop. It’s an absolute pleasure to go to bookstores and libraries and chat books with readers and celebrate all that those institutions do for us. In my spare time, however, I’m delving into my next story as well. It’s a departure for me with a tiny touch of magical realism and it is so much fun!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: My tour is posted on my website, www.katherinereay.com, and I’d love to see you at any of my talks. Additionally, you can sign up for my newsletter there and we can stay in touch. I do answer all my own email and it’s truly me at my Instagram and Facebook accounts. (@katherinereay and @katherinereaybooks) 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Katherine Reay.