Author Spotlight: Melinda Mullet

Do you have a favorite amateur sleuth?

I still love Jane Marple. I’m always drawn to characters that are incredibly smart and extremely underestimated. Women, the elderly, the outsider (in Poirot’s case). All people that are easily overlooked but have a lethal intellect. I also love Richard Osman’s gang in the Thursday Murder Club, and Richard Ainsworth in Ian Moore’s Follet Valley Series.

What inspired your first cozy mystery?

My first mystery was Single Malt Murder where a young man is found drowned in a vat of whisky shortly after the new woman owner takes over. It is the beginning of a steam of crimes that seem designed to drive the outsider away. My inspiration was quite simple. My husband is a lifelong collector of whiskies and along with that he loves to tour distilleries all over Scotland. I trailed around after him for so long I eventually decided that a vat would be a great place to find a body. (Not his I hasten to add!) Women were very underrepresented in the industry in those days and many of them were receiving a chilly reception from the established old boy network. I met several of these fascinating women and wanted to include them in my story.

How do you research and create the "cozy" elements in your books, like the settings and community?

I usually write about settings that I’ve found compelling when I have visited. I take lots of pictures and talk to people all the time in cafes and shops. I think the key to writing a cozy setting is to make it a place you would enjoy living or at least escaping to on vacation. A place where you could feel comfortable in the surroundings and with the people. I believe that affection for location will resonate with readers. It also helps if your location is one other people might not be familiar with. Your reader will feel as if they are learning/experiencing something new as they read.