Kate Westbury

Kate Westbury grew up a voracious reader of detective fiction, and unraveling plot twists became her favorite pastime. She now puts her whodunnit obsession to good use writing historical mysteries. Beyond the page, Westbury teaches Latin and dreams of moving to an English village with crimes to solve.

Her new novel is The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The original title for this story was A Tutorial in Murder. I loved that it was a play on words (i.e. the Oxford tutorial system), but it also sounds more like an actual midcentury mystery…which probably wouldn’t draw in as many contemporary readers. My agent suggested thinking of a new title, and my critique group helped me brainstorm The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies, which my publisher loved and kept. As much as I was fond of Tutorial, the new title also better conveys the humor and hijinks and hint of romance, and I’m glad for the switch.

What's in a name?

I can either name a character immediately or after tedious research. It’s important to me that they roll off the tongue easily and are slightly unique without sounding outlandish. For first names, I often consult baby name data from whatever year that character was born, and for surnames I look more closely at that part of the country. Sometimes I look at meanings for a tie-break if I’m waffling between options, but I tend not to rely upon those too much (especially for suspects’ names because I don’t want to tip off readers). Ginevra and Sidney both happened to be names I had loved and jotted down before starting this book, and they ticked the right boxes.

The Rook is the one name which did get chosen for symbolism since it’s a codename. I liked the double meanings (chess piece and bird), as allusions to his strategic, solitary, slightly taciturn persona.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

Teenage Kate would be enthralled with this book. It is the product of so many things I’ve loved for decades, especially in high school (mysteries, Oxford, slow-burn romance, espionage). She would also be very excited (and relieved) because I tried writing my first mystery in high school and gave up in despair over plotting mechanics. What would probably shock her is that it took eight years of writing middle grade before switching to adult historical mystery, but that early frustration and overwhelm really left me wary of tackling the genre I loved so much again.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I find beginnings harder because there’s so many good places one could start a story, and settling on which one is the best takes so much trial and error for me. But it’s also really satisfying to see the first chapter come to life through the extra polishing and layers created in the process. I don’t have the same emotional connection to my endings, if only because less work goes into them.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Ginevra got my snark, and Sidney my tendency to overthink everything. That being said, in some ways I feel like I met these two rather than created them, and they are by far the loudest characters I’ve ever written and sometimes beyond my control. In this book, they frequently shifted the plot from my outline, and the results were always better than whatever I had planned.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I love to create an immersive experience when I’m drafting, and for this book that brought in a lot of photographs for a mood board and 1950s music in the background (Perry Como ended up a favorite). I also love to make a book-specific playlist with tracks pulled from different scores, and for Oxford Guide I found myself consistently drawn to Daniel Pemberton’s work. I’m also a huge fan of Masterpiece Mystery, and Endeavour certainly left its fingerprints on this book.

Visit Kate Westbury's website.

Q&A with Kate Westbury.

--Marshal Zeringue