By R.G. Belsky
Laura Lippman likes to surprise readers. Beyond the twists readers find in the pages, she also keeps things fresh by writing in different genres, as with her new novel, Murder Takes a Vacation.
This story—about an elderly, overweight widow named Mrs. Blossom who sets out on her dream vacation of a Parisian cruise up the Seine, only to find herself at the center of murder and intrigue—is a dramatic departure from the intense thrillers the best-selling Lippman has done in the past.
Is it fair to describe Murder Takes a Vacation as a “cozy” mystery? “Yes! It absolutely is. I’ve always read cozies. I admire them extravagantly. I was particularly inspired by A Streetcar Named Murder, written by my friend Greg Herren, under the pen name T.G. Herren.
“I’ve been lucky enough that my publishers allow me to switch things up from book to book. The three books I wrote before this book centered on deeply unpleasant people. I really wanted to spend some time with someone I flat-out liked and Mrs. Blossom filled the bill.”
Living a quiet life until this unexpected adventure, Mrs. Blossom actually appeared in Lippman’s early Tess Monaghan books working for the private investigator. Her full name is Muriel Blossom, but Lippman refers to her as “Mrs. Blossom” throughout the book.
“It just feels right—or it did. There’s a formality to her, an old-fashioned sensibility. It seems respectful to me. And yet, I can imagine Mrs. Blossom beginning to insist on her first name. She’s changing. She’s a pretty traditional protagonist, in the Miss Marple mode. Her character comes easy to me. It’s the plotting and pacing of a cozy that takes extra work.”
Within the first 24 hours of her trip, Mrs. Blossom meets the first man she’s attracted to since her beloved husband died years earlier, but then this man is shockingly found dead. Soon after that, another mysterious man begins showing up wherever she is. Then she finds herself at the center of a mystery over an art theft.
How did Lippman come up with the idea? “It started with a rewatch of Charade. I’m always thinking about how to play with old stories, forms. I wanted to flip the ages—an older woman, a younger man.”
She says she became aware of prejudice sometimes against older and overweight people and talked about how that played a role in deciding to make this minor character from a previous book the primary protagonist here. “In Mrs. Blossom, I saw a secondary character I hadn’t done right by—and, increasingly, I saw a kindred spirit. Generally, I think I do well by my secondary characters, especially in the Tess series. But I hadn’t given her her due.”
Will we ever see Mrs. Blossom again in one of Lippman’s books? “I definitely have ideas for her! She’s not done traveling, that’s for sure.”
