Author Spotlight: Scott Finley

Scott Finley is the author of the Voyages of the Queen Mystery Series, a historical cozy mystery series set in the period from 1929 to 1939. The amateur sleuth is Maeve Chandler, a headstrong and accident-prone ship’s nurse of the British luxury liner Queen Victoria. Each Atlantic crossing by the Queen Victoria presents Maeve with a mystery—and with a passenger on board who may be able to help her solve it.

The first book in the series is Shadow of the Queen, and the second book is the Queen of Diamonds.

Cozy Crime Reads Interview with Scott Finley

What attracted you to the cozy mystery genre?

When I was a boy I avidly read the Happy Hollisters series (still in print) and dreamed of solving mysteries. As I aged, I graduated to the Hardy Boys (still in print) and finally, one Christmas morning, found a stack of Agatha Christie paperbacks waiting for me. A few years later, the Ellery Queen series ran on NBC, putting period 1940’s elements on screen tied to a mystery. So, a solid foundation with children’s books cemented by the realization that I had fallen in love with the time period of the 1920s-1940s.

What are a few of the essential elements that make a cozy stand out to you as a reader?

The time period, as I related, attracts me first, but I think all cozy mysteries stand out for not dissimilar reasons. I like a believable amateur sleuth, either working on his or her own, or paired up with a detective who grudgingly puts up with them as they solve the mystery. The locale has to be fairly small and interesting; the quintessential English village, a tight-knit shop or shops, or in my case, a vintage ocean liner. I’m not interested in overt sexual content. I look for a sleuth who is memorable and, in the case of a series, can easily carry the load, but also always gives the reader something new to learn about them. Additionally, I enjoy a bit of humor, or a quirk that the sleuth has that endears them to readers.

Do you have a favorite amateur sleuth?

Miss Marple, of course. Brother Cadfael, The Thursday Murder Club, and when I’m feeling nostalgic, tight-knit my old friend Ellery Queen.

What inspired your first cozy mystery?

Ever since I read Walter Lord’s minute-by-minute account of the sinking of the Titanic – A Night to Remember – I was fascinated by the classic golden age ocean liner. It was like a small city at sea, and except for radio, almost completely cut off from the world for the duration of its voyage. One evening, I was waiting for some friends at a bar, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. (Not the bar, but the idea!) I grabbed a bar napkin, moved my martini and began making notes. Two finished books in the series and the third heading toward completion, I still have that bar napkin.

How do you research and create the cozy elements in your books, such as the setting and community?

I was enamored of the golden age of the ocean liner well before I began writing the Voyages of the Queen series; as a result, I had the beginnings of a nice topical research library already collected, though I didn’t know it yet. Once I went into it full bore that collection mushroomed. To date, including period medical books, since my protagonist is the ship’s nurse, there are over 60 books in that collection. I also rely on novels that were actually written in the time period; they are an invaluable source of period slang. One author in particular I’m fond of is PG Wodehouse, and of course any Christie books set in that era, because they were actually living and writing at the time I’m talking about. I’m also fortunate in that there is still one surviving ship of the era: the Queen Mary, launched in 1936, is berthed at Long Beach, California where it serves as a floating museum and hotel.

What is one key step in your writing process that helps you transform an idea into a finished book?

I would say key to my writing is – could this have happened? I set myself a time period; for instance the first book, Shadow of the Queen, takes place at the end of October, first of November in 1929. Once a time period is set, I do research to see what and who was going on in the world. For the first book, the stock market crashed at the end of October in 1929. The planet was only 11 years removed from the Great War – not World War One, because in 1929, no one knew there would be a World War Two. And Maeve dressed up as Groucho Marx at a Halloween party – she had seen their first film only a few weeks before the book opened. I’m a stickler for historic accuracy, doing the research and sending the emails to firms to enquire if their product was available. I add a lexicon of terms to the back of the book, a glossary of people, places and things mentioned in the book in 1929 that you, the reader in 2026, may not be familiar with. I also provide a diagram of the ship to help readers navigate it (no pun intended). Once I have set up my “playground” and the parameters that fence it in (there will NOT be a cell phone call or a helicopter coming to the rescue, for instance) then I can start putting the plot into a finished product.

What advice would you give aspiring cozy mystery authors who want to start writing their first novel?

Write! I generally go through four drafts. Put together your supporting cast. Build what’s called a bible for them – it will hold their physical traits, likes, dislikes, titles, relation to other characters, etc. You won’t remember if they are blue-eyed or brown-eyed by page 320. And on that note, don’t stop to look things up. I highlight questionable words or phrases in red and keep going. That way, I can get my thoughts down and then go back and see what needs attention. Finally, don’t write yourself out. Leave yourself a bit of a lead for the next day’s writing so you can jump in and kickstart yourself out of the gate.

How can readers connect with you online?

Go to the website www.voyagesofthequeen.com and then to the radio room section. There’s a form to use to send an email. Or you can skip the website (but don’t, there’s a lot of good information there) and send an email to voyagesofthequeen@gmail.com