Episode 82: Dead and Gondola (Christie Bookshop Mystery Series) – Ann Claire

SPEAKERS
Sarah Harrison, Carolyn Daughters, Ann Claire

Sarah Harrison: Welcome to Tea Tonic & Toxin, a book club and podcast for anyone who wants to explore the best mysteries and thrillers ever written. I’m your host, Sarah Harrison.

Carolyn Daughters: And I’m your host Carolyn Daughters. Pour yourself a cup of tea, a gin and tonic …

Sarah Harrison: … but not a toxin …

Carolyn Daughters: And join us on a journey through 19th and 20th century mysteries and thrillers, every one of them a game changer.

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Carolyn Daughters  01:43

I’m excited to talk about this cozy mystery series by Ann Claire. It’s a Christie Bookshop Mystery. It’s Dead and Gondola.

Sarah Harrison  01:43

And if you are listening to these out of order, which I don’t know why you do that, but you do it. If you’re listening out of order. Go back and listen to our last episode where in Ann Claire weighs in on Agatha Christie herself and And Then There Were None, which was a really fun discussion.

Carolyn Daughters  02:11

Listen to us in order. Listen to us in any order. You do you.

Sarah Harrison  02:14

Do what you want, but we do put a lot into the order.

Carolyn Daughters  02:22

Let me tell you a little bit about Dead and Gondola. It’s the series debut of the Christie Bookshop Mystery series. A mystery, a mystery. A mysterious bookshop visitor dies under miss, my goodness, I’m going to start this again. A mysterious bookshop visitor dies under murderous circumstances, compelling the Christie sisters and their cat, Agatha, to call on all they’ve learned about solving mysteries from their favorite novelist Ellie. Christie is thrilled to begin a new chapter. She’s recently returned to her tiny Colorado hometown to run her family’s historic bookshop with her elder sister Meg and their beloved cat, Agatha, perched in a Swiss style Hammett accessible by ski gondola and a twisty mountain road. The book chalet is a famed bibliophile destination, known for its maze of shelves and relaxing reading lounge, at least until trouble blows in with a wintry white out. A man is found dead on the gondola and a rock slide throws the town into lockdown. No one in, no one out. The victim was a mysterious stranger who’d visited the bookshop. At the time. His only blunders had been disrupting a book club and leaving behind a first edition Agatha Christie novel written under a pseudonym. However, once revealed, the man’s identity shocks the town. Motives and secrets swirl like the snow, and when the police narrow in on the sisters close friends, the Christie’s, have to act, although the only Agatha in their family tree is their cat, Ellie. And Meg know a lot about mysteries and realize they must summon their inner Miss Marple to track through a blizzard of clues before the killer turns the page to their final chapter book.

Sarah Harrison  04:00

Page says, Dead and Gondola is a light hearted, fast paced, cozy mystery with a cast of likable characters who wouldn’t want to ride a glass dome gondola to historic bookshop and cozy up by the fire with a good read. Publishers Weekly wrote a fair play plot. We talked about that in the last episode. Vivid characters, fascinating facts about Dame Agatha and an intelligent and appealing protagonist make this a winner. Cozy fans will chomp at the bit for more. Today, we’re excited to have mystery writer Ann Claire joining us in the studio to discuss Dead and Gondola, the first book in her Christie Bookshop Mystery series, the second book in the series, last word to the wise, was released in 2023 her bookmobile series, Santa Fe Cafe mysteries and cyclist guide. Mysteries are available in print, e-book, audiobook formats on Amazon and from a. Their booksellers. Anne earned degrees in geography, which took her all across the world. Now she lives with her geographer husband in Colorado, where the mountains beckon from their kitchen windows. When she’s not writing, you can find her hiking, gardening, herding house cats and enjoying a good mystery, especially one by Agatha Christie. Welcome in welcome.

Ann Claire  05:22

Thanks for having me. It’s so nice to be hearing this talk about Agatha.

Sarah Harrison  05:26

I have to say, technology is wonderful, and we love technology here, but nothing compares to an in person conversation. It’s just so nice to have you in the studio and just be able to chit chat. Have snacks. Yeah, snacks, oh, my goodness, I have to hold these up for the video. Oh yes please, because baked goods feature heavily in the book and brought what did you call What did you call this ginger dead man?

Ann Claire  05:52

Ginger dead man cookies.

Sarah Harrison  05:54

So if you’re like, what is Sarah talking about? Amazing. There’ll be a clip one day on YouTube with this ginger dead man. It’s like a little man with a skeleton. It’s so cool.

Carolyn Daughters  06:05

Apparently, this is like a cookie cutter. It’s a cookie.

Sarah Harrison  06:08

The press is a skeleton, and then the icing, like builds up in there.

Ann Claire  06:13

Cut a regular gingerbread man, and then it has the little skeleton that’s amazing. Press into it, and then I put a glaze on it.

Sarah Harrison  06:20

Yeah, it’s so cool. I love it.

Ann Claire  06:23

I thought, Who else could I bring these to? Yeah, holiday season, perfect.

Sarah Harrison  06:27

It’s perfect for the book club.

Carolyn Daughters  06:31

I started this Christie Bookshop Mystery book, Dead and Gondola, in November, a couple days before Thanksgiving, and then on Thanksgiving Day, we were at Copper Resort, and I was not skiing, so I was beside a fire.

Sarah Harrison  06:52

Like you were in the book.

Carolyn Daughters  06:55

It’s, beautiful and snowy, white outside. They had gotten a lot of snow here in we’re in Colorado, and I’m sitting by a fire and just in a comfortable chair, cozy as can be with the book. And I thought, Okay, this worked out really well. That’s nice. Tell us about the setting of this book. And it’s in a town called Last Word.

Sarah Harrison  07:21

Is it Telluride, Colorado?

Ann Claire  07:23

In my mind, it’s Telluride.

Carolyn Daughters  07:24

Because they have the gondola that goes up to the top part of the town.

Ann Claire  07:29

Yeah, I loved reading Dead and Gondola. We were visiting one summer, and I was thinking of locked room mysteries. Now, if I could have set the whole thing in the gondola somehow, that would have been great, but I was thinking of little locked room mysteries.

Sarah Harrison  07:39

Well then it was a box canyon, and there’s a rock size, like that. Sounds like tire ride. There’s one rodent.

Ann Claire  07:45

Some readers have insisted that they see Breckenridge, but thinking of Telluride, Oh, definitely. And I was definitely thinking, I am my dream fantasy ski town is sitting in a lovely chalet by a fire. Other people can be out skiing. I love snow, but I love looking at snow too. Yeah. So that was my, my fantasy setting, in a way.

Sarah Harrison  08:03

This setting, you’re not from Telluride, are you?

Ann Claire  08:07

No, I wish, no, again, a dream. Nor will I unless I win the Powerball or something. But, yeah, this is what I like about cozy mysteries, too. A lot of them are set in aspirational places or in cute, small towns or neighborhoods and cities where you’d like to live, and the sluice are amateur sleuths. They can be like us, and they’re off solving crimes.

Sarah Harrison  08:31

Yeah, there’s a lot of Miss Marpling in this Christie Bookshop Mystery. There’s a verb that into the book, yeah? Marpling. Tell us. We haven’t done a Marple book club book yet.

Carolyn Daughters  08:42

but we have not yet. I think 2026, is our year.

Sarah Harrison  08:45

Yeah, I think stay tuned, folks, only two more years. Miss Marple.

Ann Claire  08:49

Miss Marple is my favorite.

Sarah Harrison  08:53

I have never had someone say Marples were their favorites. Tell us about that.

Ann Claire  08:57

I like her character. I like that. She’s an older, single woman, and that people disregard her. And this is what I love about it, and I think this is where cozy writers set a lot of their characters. They disregard it because they’re not professionals. They’re sitting at their knitting club and they overhear something, and this is the clue Miss Marple. Great skill is she’s observant, and she listens and she picks things up, and again, people disregard her. They don’t see her. They’re knitting and observing what they’re doing. I think that’s a superpower.

Carolyn Daughters  09:32

I love how this older woman character in Agatha Christie’s books is extremely relevant and more insightful and intuitive than anybody else.

Ann Claire  09:43

I love that about her. I do too. Yeah, and she’s a little bit of the outsider in a way, too, isn’t she? She’s single, she’s on her own. There, she’s on her own. Yeah? The spinster character, which is that word, but she’s transformed her into this super sleuth.

Carolyn Daughters  09:59

Think it’s cool. And the grandmother of Meg and Ellie in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series is quite a character. The Christie sisters are running the family bookstore. And there’s a grandmother character who was reminiscent of Miss Marple a little bit.

Ann Claire  10:17

Not the same character, but an older female character in a lot of my books. The first book I did was the Santa Fe Cafe mysteries under a pen name Anne Myers, and I had an older character there as the mentor to my Sleuth. And in a way, they’ve all reminded me of my grandmother, like if I if I set my grandmother in these places, she never was, but she would be inquisitive and into her job and into baking and sleuthing and books and figuring things out. So throughout all the books in the bookmobile, I was a senior woman who’s driving a bookmobile. And, yeah, that’s cool.

Sarah Harrison  10:56

Do you have a lot of older women that are fans?

Ann Claire  11:00

I don’t know the demographic. Honestly, of cozies, I think, I think maybe more women than men, but there’s a really cozy readers are, yeah, young, old, male, female.

Sarah Harrison  11:18

And you look so cozy. It’s so it’s like Carolyn was saying, I was reading this, and I was like, I finally understand what a cozy is. It couldn’t be more cozy than if the book was a blanket.

Ann Claire  11:32

Thank you. That’s the tone.

Sarah Harrison  11:36

It’s so much was and, yeah, it really, it surprised me. And there was so much, like I said, like baked goods and Italian hot chocolate and book snuggling and cat snuggling.

Ann Claire  11:52

Or pets, yeah. This is what I also love about cozies. They are cozy even though there are these horrific murders going on. Everyone’s still baking, helping their friends and going out visiting, of course, in real life, I would be holed up in the house. The Christie Bookshop Mystery series is a cozy series.

Carolyn Daughters  12:12

Terrible things are happening. Why haven’t you baked anything?

Ann Claire  12:15

Bringing you cookies?

Sarah Harrison  12:17

Yes, I just say yeah, yeah. Donut muffins.

Ann Claire  12:23

I have a recipe for those I could send.

Carolyn Daughters  12:27

We want the recipe.

Sarah Harrison  12:28

Yeah, we are actually. Do you know about the Agatha Christie cookbook?

Ann Claire  12:33

I have seen it out in the wild. I don’t have a copy.

Sarah Harrison  12:37

You should listen to our episode about it. We got to talk to Karen Pierce, and she made a rap recipe for each and every book. Yeah, that reminds we love recipes. Yes, me too. I just love — I don’t know what I would even call it. I have a have that cookbook, so I’ve made some stuff out of there. Then I got, um, puddings, sweet and savory, like a British puddings cookbook. That’s fascinating. And then I have, like, a congressional cookbook, interesting, yeah, from like, the like, oh, there’s a million congressional cookbooks. Did you know that we’re members of Congress and their wives and the recipes from Forever, wow, yeah, my friend got me.

Ann Claire  13:25

Oh, a Downton Abbey cookbook. I need to start working my way through that.

Sarah Harrison  13:31

Sometimes those are super complicated but fascinating. Yeah, there’s toad in the hole.

Carolyn Daughters  13:35

I think, okay, Breckenridge, Colorado, famous town. And I think, okay, Breckenridge is cozy. It just is. But now amp that up another notch. You got on this gondola and you rode up the mountain and there’s this bookstore, like, I mean, it’s, it’s isolated in the, in my mind, the best possible way, but yet, it’s also filled with people who love bookstores and who love reading and who love talking about books. And it’s this really interesting place, this bookstore in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series. So this, and it seems quite successful this bookstore, which is amazing because they’re always giving stuff away.

Ann Claire  14:27

Yes, they are. And this is, again, with the cozies. It’s rather a fantasy setting in situations like, yeah, you have these good, close friends. They’ll step up for you if there’s a murder in the in the building. But that cozies are like that. They are warm and fuzzy and cozy, but I think they do take on bigger themes too. I’m thinking of cozies in general. They will take on, well, I mean, there’s murder.

Sarah Harrison  14:53

They’ll take on the least cozy thing. And I’d like to hear you talk. About this in your books is Colorado Real Estate in mountain towns. Yes, Colorado Real Estate. And it like you brought up a lot of issues happening here right now. You have this former starlet that moves in, nobody that was born there can now afford to live there. They’re getting forced out. I think it’s problems that we living in Colorado, or familiar stranger to. Talk a little bit about, I feel like, the real estate aspect, but it’s like, real it’s where people live, and they’re trying to live, and it’s difficult.

Ann Claire  15:40

In the Christie Bookshop Mystery, I wanted some of that reality in there too, that it isn’t just this, oh, we can live in a mountain town and not a bookstore, yeah, there’s a starlet next door, but everything’s okay, yeah? But yeah, they do start talking about these issues that are just all over our state, aren’t they, and other resort areas and other places that, yeah, you can’t afford to live in your hometown. And it’s not just Telluride, glitzy Telluride. It’s

Carolyn Daughters  16:04

true these towns, isn’t it, Colorado and New Mexico and other areas where, I mean, they’re stunningly beautiful places and very famous people, right?

Ann Claire  16:15

Wyoming, and you can’t afford to live there, so if this, yeah, things could go very wrong for her dream job if she can’t make it, because she’s not going to be able to stay there.

Sarah Harrison  16:25

It’s a little bit of a double edged sword, because both her and Sid acknowledge that the things they want to do for a living do rely on having more people in the town and like tourism and people that want to spend money and do things, but also Now she lives in one room above a bookstore. Yeah, a beautiful room, but, yeah, yes, it’s great, but not for having a bigger house.

Ann Claire  16:48

It’s a big conversation, isn’t it? And I’m writing them a cycling she’s a cycle to bicycle tour. And in France, and there’s a huge debate, of course, in Europe too, about Yeah, yeah, we want tourists, but we don’t want to be mobbed by tour, so that we can’t live in Barcelona.

Carolyn Daughters  17:03

Barcelona this past summer, there it was a big deal where a lot of local people were very upset at the number of tourists this past summer, and there were various incidents that happened as a result, right?

Ann Claire  17:15

So I wanted her to touch on that with this, this setting, and in the cycling book too, it’s touch on it lightly. She doesn’t have to dwell on it because, again, it is cozy, but to talk about these realities that they’re in.

Sarah Harrison  17:29

Even the family was so cozy, and it brought me back to our first Agatha Christie book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, where that family was just at each other’s throats and like, there was the family tension was the backdrop of the mystery. And in here, like, it’s funny, because even one of the characters, Miss Ridge, comments, and she’s like, my family’s not like your family, but it’s like, they all just adore each other so strongly. Tell me about that part in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series.

Ann Claire  18:01

I like a cozy, cozy, actually, like some of them can be, of course, there has to be conflict in a mystery novel. And this is the first one I wrote. It went nowhere. And one of its problems never was published. It never should have been seen. One of his problems was, everyone was just too nice. You’re muddling around in France in this book, eating, and then you have to find a murderer and who. So I didn’t want them all universally nice. There has to be some conflict in there. But I also didn’t want just bickering for the sake of bickering. I wanted them to be and for the sisters to work together and that a crime solving duo there.

Carolyn Daughters  18:44

I was going to say, from a literary perspective, and maybe from a real world perspective, one of the more functional families I’ve seen, yeah, yeah. I like their dynamic for sure. And thought it was quite admirable, the way they all interacted and engaged, and there weren’t there didn’t seem to be a lot of petty jealousies.

Sarah Harrison  19:06

So much support.

Ann Claire  19:08

I figured that’s yeah, again, I’m saying what I love about cozies, but yeah, there is often a lot of support from your friends and your family and cozies, and that’s what I like, because it is comforting. It I heard someone say, Well, it’s a mystery. You can read it bedtime, and you stay up only because, if you want to keep going with the mystery, you’re not going to be terrified by it. Not blood. And gore definitely gets the rules of cozy.

Carolyn Daughters  19:31

That’s true. If it’s noir, and you’re invested in a few of the main characters, and you’re afraid somebody’s going to be offed. Like, maybe you don’t stay up extra late reading. You’re like, I think the light of day tomorrow would be a better time to paint this back.

Ann Claire  19:45

It’s not the psychopath in your basement.

Carolyn Daughters  19:49

Yeah, for sure. So now Ellie is our narrator in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series. She comes back. Back into town to run this bookstore, and she’s been living abroad. I think she was at torque, which was Agatha Christie’s residence, I believe. And she’s a traveler. And I think you’re a traveler too, or have been a traveler a lot,

Ann Claire  20:17

and in my this is, again, my fantasy of this book, like, it would be a fantasy to be able to live abroad for years and shift around to jobs, like, I just think that’s very cool. And I think that’s why we read certain genres of books, right? It’s to get into this life, right? I can travel. I can be on a little island, one of those little island huts, like selling beach books to people and that kind of thing. So she has that background, and then she comes back to this job that she’s always wanted, which is working in her family bookstore.

Carolyn Daughters  20:45

I know she has three weeks in, she has to pinch herself. She’s like, Oh my gosh. And so like, Ellie, she’s traveled, and now she, I mean, she’s a bibliophile, right? Like her, there are times where she is supposed to go out of the chalet and go do something in town. You got to take the gondola down. And she’s like, I could just be wearing my slippers. I could be sitting I could be sitting here reading. I could. There’s a lot about her that resonates with me, because there are many times where I’m like, oh, I’d rather be reading. And, and she goes to this event at one point and is seeing people she went to school with, and they’re saying, Oh, I remember you being at the football game, and you were even reading in the stands. And like, so I have a couple questions for you and for both of you. But like, so Ellie, like, how much of yourself have you drawn into this character? Or your actual self, plus your like, hey  if I had a magic wand self or, like, what like, tell us about Ellie?

Ann Claire  21:54

Well, like you said, her background is the magic wand self, isn’t it? And the fantasy book shop, where you don’t have to worry about the cost of running a book shop, actually running a book shop like in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series.

Sarah Harrison  22:04

Or all the sweets you consume all day.

Ann Claire  22:08

And all the books you give away, books they give away and we sit at book club. That’s the fantasy. The part about, oh, rather stay home reading. That’s me. That’s me sitting by the fire and reading. That would definitely be me. How about you all?

Sarah Harrison  22:25

I get in certain circles, like from my husband, so you’re in different environments, right? And my if I’m hanging with my family, back in the day, they’re all watching TV, and I’ve got my book in the recliner, and I just if I’m not interested, I just tune it out and I’m reading my book. With my husband’s family, if I were to, like, bring I will sneak my book down sometimes, if TV is happening, but otherwise, it’ll be like.

Carolyn Daughters  23:00

Sarah, what are you doing? You’re not watching this show.

Sarah Harrison  23:05

In here with us. You’re being rude. And nobody’s ever said that, except for Nate. He’s But I happened at a friend’s wedding too, as well. It was like, all this, and it was out in the mountains, and I was like, it was a weekend wedding, and I was just like, dying to take my book out and read it by the lake. And he was like, what? It’s okay. I don’t have to socialize.

Carolyn Daughters  23:34

I don’t every minute, like, right? I love socializing. I’m a situational extrovert and a situational introvert, and I can, like, go here, here, here, but if you’re like, be on from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, and then do it again tomorrow. And then I mean, like, there’s something in me that would just break. And so an hour off reading somewhere and just sort of chilling, I think would be awesome.

Sarah Harrison  24:01

My friend later, she’s like, You could read because she’s similar to me in that way. That should be the best.

Ann Claire  24:10

Go read somewhere quietly by a lake.

Carolyn Daughters  24:13

Everyone bring your favorite book. I love that in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series.

Sarah Harrison  24:16

If I don’t have a book in my purse and I’m gonna be going or waiting.

Ann Claire  24:22

I have a lot of my phone now.

Sarah Harrison  24:26

You’re a better woman than I cannot. Like to look at a screen and read is like, I just hate it. I just do hate it. I want to like it, but I hate it.

Carolyn Daughters  24:36

But it’s so interesting, I have noticed that it seems to me more acceptable for somebody to sit in a room say everybody’s watching a movie, but somebody’s holding their phone, yes, and so you could be holding your phone for an hour and doing, who knows what you’re crossword puzzling, you’re reading a book, you’re texting, who knows what you’re doing. Then if you had sat there with tactile, you know, an actual book. Look in your hand, then it’s like you’re not engaging. It’s like the rules of engagement. Oh, that’s a good catch. I’ve noticed this. People wouldn’t approach you and ask you, either. They would just think you were staring at your phone, because everyone stares at their phone, stares at their phone. This is what Miss Marple would be doing if she she could be hiding behind her phone. I noticed that. Now look out for see you guys can check me. Now it’s so accepted for people, even at tables or out and about, just always have the phone up. But try to do a family gathering and you’re in the living room with your novel.

Sarah Harrison  25:40

Whoa, except my family, and they all know that’s when, when we doing, so we’d be okay. And this poor book, this Christie Bookshop Mystery series book, you probably see all wrinkly, my copy is good. Well, I was starting it, so I normally mean the bathtub. But this was extreme, because when my parents were here over Thanksgiving, and we actually got to take a couple days and go to a mountain town, snowy. We were at Strawberry Park hot springs. And so I was reading in the hot springs, definitely. And I was so livid over people that were bringing their phones in the hot springs, but I do have my wrinkly book in there.

Carolyn Daughters  26:22

And they were like, what’s wrong with this woman with her like, can’t you?

Sarah Harrison  26:25

Can’t you diseased people disengage technology?

Carolyn Daughters  26:29

Yeah, it’s funny. It’s hard.

Sarah Harrison  26:35

When it was dark, I wasn’t raining, but I was still hollering at people that were carrying their phone around in the dark. I’m just gonna go off.

Carolyn Daughters  26:42

Were you actually hollering? Or in your head, you were no, I hollered.

Sarah Harrison  26:46

Have you guys been to Strawberry Park? You gotta go. There’s like, no electricity, and when it is dark, it is dark. And where is Strawberry Park? It’s outside of Steamboat Springs. It’s just outside there, but it’s super-duper natural. They used to be hard core on the like, if you have a flashlight pointed at the ground, there’s no there was no electricity. Now there is some electricity, but it’s still like, dark as dark. And so when people, like, have their phone on, it’s just like so disruptive. And if it’s you, listener, I’m yelling at you right now, turn it off. Strawberry Park, don’t bring that phone out in there.

Carolyn Daughters  27:31

That light pollution then makes it harder for the people who have adapted to this darkness. There’s sight in the darkness. You see things that you wouldn’t see.

Sarah Harrison  27:39

You can see the Milky Way every night there people aren’t pretty blinding you with their phones. Oh, my goodness, you came to this place. There’s no reception either. So what are you doing reading their books?

Carolyn Daughters  27:51

By reading their books, they’re not.

Sarah Harrison  27:53

They are not. One of us was.

Carolyn Daughters  28:04

Books, bibliophiles like this is thematically throughout this book, like the characters, most of the characters, in large part, are like, all about the books. And they all have their genres. They all have and there’s this book club.

Sarah Harrison  28:21

They have their own book club in Dead and Gondola in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series. And your names are so clever. I love it. Mountains of mystery. Shelf indulgence.

Carolyn Daughters  28:28

I love it. So shelf indulgence is a name of something. It’s Morgan’s book club, but it’s, I think it’s a real thing. I don’t remember what it is. I’m gonna have to, I’m gonna look it up. And so there’s this Hollywood star, Morgan Marin, and then there’s Miss ridge, and they have two very different approaches to a book club. And so like, can you talk a little bit about, like, Okay, Miss Ridge runs a book club, and this is what the book club looks like. And then Morgan Marin comes in and co-ops the thing, and this is what it looks like. And then I want to hear like, Okay, you guys have to belong to a book club, and you can only pick one whose book club are you joining. So talk about the books versions.

Ann Claire  29:16

Miss Ridge wants to start right on time, and she has a very elaborate talking points listed out and what we’re going to get to at each time, and to lead the book club through, to make sure she gets through the whole book, and then Morgan Moran, like you said, comes through, and she wants to do all these flamboyant things and make a performance out of certain aspects of the book. I’d probably be a miss ridge. I’d probably want to discuss the points like, go point by point. I’d probably have a list like, like you so kindly provided we discussed and then then we’re not. I love a list.

Sarah Harrison  29:51

Carolyn’s the Miss Ridge

Carolyn Daughters  29:53

Carolyn Miss Ridge Daughters.

Ann Claire  29:58

I like, but I’ll take it. But no. I love a list, so I’d probably do that. That’s funny.

Carolyn Daughters  30:04

Morgan annoyed me. I will say like, when she took over.

Sarah Harrison  30:11

Shelf Indulgence is the right name for her book club in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series.

Carolyn Daughters  30:16

Or Marin Indulgence.

Sarah Harrison  30:18

She’s very self-centered and likes to make a show, and doesn’t realize.

Ann Claire  30:24

She’s taking over, necessarily.

Sarah Harrison  30:26

I don’t think she would even consider whether or not it mattered.

Carolyn Daughters  30:30

She’s probably in her day to day life used to being whatever she wants to do, people follow that direction. So she’s not accustomed to following someone else’s lead. She’s accustomed to being the lead. But what, what I would say is, for me, it’s not so much that Miss Ridge has her process, and it’s got to be this question, and this question, because we aren’t, we aren’t that rigid here, but like you want, you want to respect the whatever the plan or strategy is for the person running the thing, and if you don’t do your own thing, right? So this is Miss Ridges book club, so you run with that. And if it’s not doing it for you, then you do your own thing in place of it, or in addition to it, but it bugged me when she took over for her, right?

Ann Claire  31:26

And I was trying to play with the idea that she’s a newcomer to the town, so she wants to fit in, but she hasn’t melded in yet. And in a way, newcomers might hers. I don’t know how to say it, but she might be changing the town. The town might be changing, but the newcomers that come in, so maybe everyone will have to change a little bit.

Sarah Harrison  31:46

Where do you guys think Tea Tonic and Toxin is on this spectrum of book clubs, between Miss Ridge and Shelf Indulgence in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series? Where’s ours?

Carolyn Daughters  31:58

So there’s they’re so different because one is like, let’s get a Ouija board.

Ann Claire  32:04

I brought one. No, I didn’t.

Sarah Harrison  32:06

We do have ginger dead cookies, folks.

Carolyn Daughters  32:11

So these are two very big extremes for a book club. I mean, I wouldn’t even say somewhere in the middle, though, if we had to, like, pick a place, I would say in the middle. But I feel like that’s not even accurate, because Morgan Marin’s book club idea is just so out there. And then people are like, way into it. And I don’t know if they’re into it, because they like Ouija boards, they like Morgan Marin, or she speaks. And people are like, Oh, she spoke.

Ann Claire  32:42

I think it’s more that the glittery star presence.

Carolyn Daughters  32:47

Which I think would be so many mountain towns in Colorado, New Mexico, other places have Hollywood stars and big money people who move there and buy acres upon acres of land, and you know, they live there part of the year like I think when you run into them, I would probably be stars I’m guessing I would. I don’t run into famous people.

Ann Claire  33:13

I’d probably be starstruck.

Sarah Harrison  33:14

I didn’t tell you, right? Once, ah, secret. No, it’s not because he was a jerk, folks. It was Bill Murray, and I don’t mind telling you what. He was really rude,

Carolyn Daughters  33:32

What happened?

Sarah Harrison  33:35

You want to hear my Bill Murray story? I’m sure he’s not listening. But if you know him, feel free to forward how rude he was.

Sarah Harrison  33:44

I’m sure he would. Why would he know he’s a naming subscriber.

Sarah Harrison  33:47

The Telluride Film Festival is every Labor Day weekend, the one in the fall, which is a great weekend to go camping. And just coincidentally, I went camping there one year, and I was like, Oh crap, it’s the film festival. We probably won’t be able to get a spot, but that’s not true. There’s plenty of camping during the film festival. And so we’ve gone for years, and it was like, I go with different people, different friends, and it’s fun because you can go into town in the evening after hiking and see free movies and stuff, and like a new bill movie was playing. So we actually wrote the gondola up at the top level. And I was like, oh, but there’s a movie theater up there. I don’t know if there’s a bookstore up there like in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series. So we wrote the gondola up, and I was like, I’m a huge, huge Rushmore fan, so I don’t know if you’ve seen, yes, the Wes Anderson, Bill Murray, Rushmore, but it’s one of my all-time favorite movies. And I just was like, up there, and I studied my buddy, and I was like, Wouldn’t it be cool if he came to the film festival? And it’s just my dream to say I loved you in Rushmore, I wanted to say. And then I turned around and it was sunset, and Bill Murray was there. Oh, I was like, Oh, my goodness, I’m not a person to get star struck, but I was a huge fan, so I went over there, and just before I said anything, he turned just like, Hang on just a second, and he takes me, and he positions me somewhere, and he walks away. And I was like, What is this joke? It was so rude. He just actually went away and wanted me to stay away from him. No, he just wanted me to stay away.

Carolyn Daughters  34:17

Yes, I did not understand what you were saying. Now I do.

Sarah Harrison  35:41

I didn’t understand for a minute what was happening, and then when I realized it, I was like, man, what jerk. And then his movie was sold out, and we couldn’t even get in, and we’re like, blah, blah, blah, who cares? Because I don’t even want to see it. I know, like, it totally ruined me. I’m not a fan anymore. It sucks because I have a T shirt with his head on it and stuff and, like, that’s frustrating. No, it has a funny ending. It does have a funny ending. That’s not the end. So my friend and I may go back down the gondola. We’re just like, let’s go to, I don’t know, we’re going get dinner or some other free movie that was going on, and it was a little frustrating. One of my pet peeves is people that like, take up sidewalks. Maybe that’s a stupid pet peeve. I was in a bad mood, and this group was just standing, taking up the whole sidewalk with their chit chatting and, like, just being really self-centered, like we were talking about sidewalks.

Sarah Harrison  36:37

We’re trying to walk down the sidewalk, and it’s crowded, and they wouldn’t get out of the way.

Carolyn Daughters  36:43

Let’s share the space.

Sarah Harrison  36:45

So I shoulder check them. If you don’t know about this, about me, I do that sometimes. So I shoulder check this person. And I’m just because I’m just like, whatever I’m going, I’m going. And my friend turns to me, and she’s like, Did you see what? Oh, no, oh no, no. Who was it?

Carolyn Daughters  37:03

Bill Murray.

Ann Claire  37:10

That’s amazing. That’s a great story.

Sarah Harrison  37:12

Isn’t that a weird story? The characters who are starstruck in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series reminded me of it.

Carolyn Daughters  37:15

So he’s no longer a listener. He’s like, I remember that woman. I remember that.

Sarah Harrison  37:24

It made me feel better after that. Though I was like, Oh, Good, glad I did that. Good. That’s why I do that.

Ann Claire  37:32

Now I can say I know somebody.

Carolyn Daughters  37:35

I through Lighthouse Writers Workshop, which I belong to for years. And here in Denver, met an author one time who I was just like, in awe of. And she did a workshop, and I had proudly read multiple of her books, non-fiction, fiction like and at the end of the workshop, she was available for people to sign books and chat. And people were not chatting with her for very long. They were like talking her briefly. And she just moved people along. I got up there, and I just this, I am not graceful under pressure a lot of the time. So I was like, Oh my god. I’m so, oh my gosh. I’m so happy to meet you. Oh, this is amazing. I’m really just excited. I’ve been reading all your books, and I’ve read this and this and this, and I brought this book, but I also have this second book for you to to read. I don’t know, I just I, I’m also a writer. Actually, I’m writing fiction, and I’m I just rambled for like, I don’t know, 30, 60, solid seconds. And she sat there behind the desk and then said she signed my book, and the only thing she said to me was, and it affects the way I think of her books today. Like, not even like, well, good for you, good you keep riding. Or, you’re obviously, like, nervous and uncomfortable and not as elegant as one could be and like, and, you thanks for being here and for attending my workshop, which, you know, like it was, and I was like, I didn’t know I was just took the book from her, and I had said, Oh, and I’ve multiple books for you to sign. She only signed one, and I just picked up my books and hooked back. And I felt it was like, drawing, every once in a while we have these experiences life where you, like, go back to when you’re like, eight years old, or something. And right then I was like, eight again, or something, and it’s just, it’s hard. That’s my formerly starstruck story related to the Christie Bookshop Mystery series.

Sarah Harrison  39:47

I haven’t worn my Bill Murray shirt since.

Ann Claire  39:49

That’s good material for your book. Put something like that. Change the characters.

Sarah Harrison  39:54

Have you met like a Morgan Marin type character of yourself?

Ann Claire  39:59

No, no, I don’t. Haven’t been anyone famous, no, I don’t think so.

Sarah Harrison  40:03

I do have a good story, though it’s not all it’s not about Bill Murray, though he’s turned like the dream scenario, though you guys probably don’t know who Lloyd Kaufman is, I just want to tell it to, like, set the balance in the universe. And also Lloyd Kaufman, you should be a listener. But anyway, he founded Troma entertainment instructor. I don’t know if you familiar with the Toxic Avenger and that works. Anyway, I read all his books. Love him. Saw him speak in Cleveland. I thought he was a genius. I made my own Toxic Avenger ceramic cast in grad school. If ever, if I meet him, I met him twice. If I see him again, I’m gonna give it to him anyway. The first time I met him, like I actually went up to him because I’d seen him in Cleveland, and then he came to Nashville, and I was living there, and I go up and I had my book.

Carolyn Daughters  40:56

Could you sign my book?

Sarah Harrison  41:00

He’s this tiny little man in a bow tie. He’s like, yes. And he’s like, inscribes it to me. And then he has a box there, and he’s like, Do you want a DVD? Do you want this? Wow, and then I go, and I sit down, and he found me in the audience, and I guess he’s like, came up to me and sits by me. It’s like, Did you Did I give you the DVD? I want to make sure you got that.

Sarah Harrison  41:29

That’s great. He’s great.

Sarah Harrison  41:31

Lloyd Kaufman is great. You guys go out support, support. What trauma does I know it’s a lot.

Carolyn Daughters  41:44

So this is a real thing in Colorado, right?

Sarah Harrison  41:47

It’s so funny that you have this character, but you haven’t necessarily had any of those, like, interesting Hollywood experiences.

Carolyn Daughters  41:55

I need to go back to the film festival. Go to Aspen on really, any weekend.

Sarah Harrison  42:03

The film festival is really fun, though.

Carolyn Daughters  42:07

Let’s talk a little bit about you and the Christie Bookshop Mystery series and your writing more generally. So you have degrees in geography, multiple degrees. What did you do?

Ann Claire  42:16

I got lost coming here. Twice on the interstate at the wrong time. I’m really this is part of my background. For Ellie too, sort of the fantasy. I come from a small town in Pennsylvania, and didn’t travel much as a kid, and then in college, I fell into geography, and I realized, oh, places. We can go places. And I’m very interested in cultures and travel and foods and explorations in history and all that. And so it morphed into geography. Ended up with these degrees in geography.

Sarah Harrison  42:54

Did you work as a geographer?

Ann Claire  42:57

I taught for a couple places. Oh, cool. Way back. And was just listing all this out for something else. I also worked for a major mapping company that made road maps back when they were still I sound ancient. It was the early 2000s they were still writing them out by hand.

Sarah Harrison  43:20

Probably you might have one.

Ann Claire  43:21

One of these old atlases in your car. They were written in my lar in hand. And I had these colleagues, like one who would try to get his name on tiny little streets, Carl Court. If you ever see a Carl Street or Carl Court, and it’s a little tiny cul de sac from the early don’t trust it. It doesn’t exist. Awesome. I love that so in various ways. And then I, I did various writing jobs at grant writing and copy editing and things like that.

Carolyn Daughters  43:53

And then, when did you decide I’m, I’m putting it out there? I’m writing a book.

Ann Claire  44:00

Oh, me, I thought you said you I wanted to talk about your book. When did you decide? When did I decide? Well, I I’d written a book that I mentioned in this episode of previously, though everyone was being too nice in the book, the first draft of a book. And I thought, Okay, this is fine. And I sent it out to agents, and just got over 100 rejections, rightfully so.

Sarah Harrison  44:24

That’s funny that you say that.

Ann Claire  44:27

Well, it wasn’t to the genre like the Christie Bookshop Mystery series is. It wasn’t quite cozy. I once got a huge rejection letter, like a whole it would have been a whole printed page in email form from an agent who was so insulted by my book not being too cozy form, and was going to teach me how to do it right. And I should have. I probably should disregard it. I thought it was still cozy. It was set in France, and they were eating. And what’s cozy form? What did they say? He had all sorts of things I’ve never I didn’t emotionally. Brought it up again, but, I mean, I never brought up the email, but there was a huge list like and there are rules of cozies, if you’re Oh, yeah, what are they? Well, there can’t be blood and gore. They used to be only set, predominantly set in small towns, but that’s changing. There’s some great urban cozies. There’s no foul language. People stretch that a little bit now, but I’ve made this very cozy. Oftentimes there are pets, there are amateur sleuths there.

Sarah Harrison  45:33

Yeah, what was not cozy about what you wrote was not cozy because it does sound to me like eating in France is pretty cozy.

Ann Claire  45:41

This is ridiculous. What did I have? No this is ridiculous, and should go without saying it. I There are no Nazis and cozies. And I didn’t have a Nazi in my cozy. It was set in France. And they were like, there was history involved. Somebody had found as I remember as I pushed out of my mind like somebody had been in the resistance or something. There was a good person. No, you must not ever mention so yes to anybody writing a cozy not political. No, not political.

Sarah Harrison  46:15

Hercule Poirot was a refugee.

Carolyn Daughters  46:18

Barely discussed, though.

Ann Claire  46:20

Right, more traditional, and people quibble whether that’s cozy enough.

Carolyn Daughters  46:24

I feel like people decided she was cozy. She never decided she was going to write in genre or something.

Ann Claire  46:32

I think so. And I’ve heard people call Louise Penny cozy, and she’s like, No, and she’s not this kind of cozy. She’s a traditional mystery, however you put it so.

Sarah Harrison  46:45

You’re currently writing also your bicyclist guides. Right now you’re going back and forth between the two series.

Ann Claire  46:51

This series sadly ended at two books. Oh, really, revived somehow. I wish it could keep going. Bummer. But, yeah, it is a bummer, because I really like the setting, and I have plans for them, and I left them romantically. Well, anyway, I had plans, and maybe someday they will come to fruition.

Carolyn Daughters  47:11

How are you deciding? So you have, you have a cyclists mystery coming out in May.

Ann Claire  47:17

I have the second one will be coming out in May.

Carolyn Daughters  47:21

How do you decide? Okay, I’m so you’ve had all these different series, book, reveal, series, Santa Fe, not even mysteries like, Okay, I’m gonna work on a book in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series next, and this is the second and final or the like, how do you determine what you’re doing next?

Ann Claire  47:38

Well, I would have liked to have liked to have kept going with this one, and the publisher just couldn’t do it more than two. So that was decided for me. I was hoping that I was going to be juggling both, and so right now I’m gonna, I’m writing a third cycling mystery of the three book contract on that. And after that, I don’t know. We’ll see.

Sarah Harrison  47:56

Are you a cyclist? Is that how you came up with this?

Ann Claire  47:59

I have to confess this every single time I talk about the book. No, no, it’s good, because I feel like I should confess it. My Mike and I had not seen each other in about a decade before this book. It was my agent connected me to an editor who’d had this idea of in her head just spinning around for years. She’d been on a cycling tour, and she thought, in a way, it’s like a little it’s not a locked room mystery. I mean, they’re out there in the country, but it’s a small group of people, and they encounter different situations and strangers, and you’re mixed together as a as a tour group. And so as she got to thinking, Oh, this is a great mystery idea, and she went looking for somebody who might be interested in doing it.

Sarah Harrison  48:43

You should go on a cycling tour for research.

Ann Claire  48:45

I truly should. I totally should.

Sarah Harrison  48:47

do them. My buddies went on one that I really wanted to do. Was it cross Lake? What’s that teeny, tiny country in?

Carolyn Daughters  48:56

What continent, Europe? Oh, and or not that teeny.

Sarah Harrison  49:02

But it’s very flat. Is it the Netherlands that’s very flat? It’s Belgium.

Carolyn Daughters  49:07

There’s a lot of cycling tours probably Belgium and Netherlands, because it’s like a very tiny, compared to the US, right?

Sarah Harrison  49:18

Yeah, it’s much smaller than some of the big ones, but then it’s very flat.

Carolyn Daughters  49:23

What about Luxembourg? Yes, it is okay. Yeah, there is. You can, you can bike from one end of Luxembourg to the other. Fun to do that. And it, you could do it. I don’t. I’m gonna make up an amount of time, and somebody’s gonna correct me. Someone from Luxembourg can do it in a day. Like, I believe you. It’s not like a multiday trip, necessarily neat?

Ann Claire  49:41

I should do that. I had the cycling guide who inspired my editor. He’s called me several times from the tour, so been on a to his name is Bill Ruther, Discovery bicycle tours out of Vermont. They go everywhere. But yeah, he’s called me from his bike to tell me about stories of cycle touring. And it really it’s, I mean, people on vacation. Some funny situations. That’s so cool. I’s fun. So he’s been really helpful. So I did that. It’s fun to think about.

Sarah Harrison  50:09

That sounds like a really fun series. I really enjoy the Christie Bookshop Mystery series, too.

Carolyn Daughters  50:11

How long does it take you to write a book?

Ann Claire  50:14

Well, it’s I’ve got a year in between each of these, a year to write. It’s December right now. I have to get moving on the third one. I just finished copy editing. Well, looking at copy edits from the second one. Okay, so hopefully you’ll all come together. Oh, it will, yeah, it will, because it has, it has two deadlines. That decides what I’m doing.

Sarah Harrison  50:38

That sounds fun. And I love the book mobile idea too. That was fun idea too. Of course, I grew up with book mobiles, so I love the idea of a bookmobile. Is that a series? That’s a series as well, right?

Ann Claire  50:50

There’s three books in that, and it features a senior sleuth, and she drives a school bus bookmobile in southern Georgia. And it’s another one of those where everyone loves books, and then there’s mysteries around the books, and then the small fictional town that’s a totally fictional town.

Sarah Harrison  51:09

Well, I just want one more question, because we are again, out of time, and so especially like in studio, I feel like it’s so easy to just chat, chat. But the feature, one of the mysterious aspects of this book, is this book by Mary Westmacott, which I always hear like, oh, that’s Agatha Christie’s other like personality and other pen name and but I’ve never read a book, and I often like, hear them dismissed, like they’re not as good as her mysteries. But you really feature the book in Dead and Gondola from the Christie Bookshop Mystery series. Could you say a little bit about that.

Ann Claire  51:49

Yeah, I was interested in reading some of them. and I think people, and I think I can’t remember the story now, I should look this up if she had to take on a pen name. Or I think she did because her publishers wanted the mysteries, what she was known for, and so she published them under Mary Westmacott. And they’re more, gosh, I don’t know how you would describe them. Actually, they’re not exactly romances or novels.

Carolyn Daughters  52:13

I have not read them, but I’ve read that. They’re more psychological and more about the relationship, or the breakdown of a relationship, and how you get there.

Ann Claire  52:24

And they’re quite and she said of this one that she was compelled to write, and she wrote it in a whole like, I think, some of several of her books. And of course, it’s escaping my mind, because I’m here in front of a microphone that she did, and just blasts of time, I keep waiting for this moment to inspire me that will happen to me. I think she wrote that one and something crazy. And again, if I’m wrong, I apologize. But, like, three days or a week or something, she just poured through that book, yeah, very emotionally, and it had connected with things in her life and the breakdown of her first marriage. I think, I think I could be off on that after this amount of time, but, but, yeah, they’re interesting in there. I’ve read that there. Maybe you can see some into Agatha Christie’s psyche and those, because these are the books that she’s getting more into emotions and psychology.

Carolyn Daughters  53:15

This book, The references, almost felt to me a little bit like history of mystery, because we learn about The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and Nero Wolfe.

Sarah Harrison  53:28

It even mentions the Wolfe Pack. We had, we had the president, the Werowance of the Wolfe Pack, on for our Nero Wolfe book. Go back and check it out.

Carolyn Daughters  53:41

If you haven’t, Sherlock Holmes is referenced, as he is in so so many books. But like, yeah, it’s the references are so interesting because it’s walking through this history, and a lot of the feedback on Dead and Gondola has to do with how the references to Agatha Christie make people like, understand more, like, why she’s so amazing, if they didn’t understand before. And they want to read more of your work, and they want to read Agatha Christie, so they want, they want this, like, richness of, you know, the references made throughout the book by all of these people who love these authors.

Ann Claire  54:19

I think that’s what I wanted the sisters, the Christie sisters, to have. Is like to talk about books other people could read. I mean, we can all read any book, but to talk about a classic that maybe most people, more people have come in contact with and appreciate it and discuss it. And yeah. So yeah, I had fun with that in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series.

Carolyn Daughters  54:39

How can people reach you? How do they find your books?

Ann Claire  54:44

You can find the books are everywhere books are sold. How to cover has been really, really nice about putting the books covered treasures and monument was great. Has been great online, of course, sure you buy books. I am on Instagram as AnnClaireAuthor. I’m gonna get these mixed up, and Facebook is AnnClaireMystery. Those are the that’s where you can mostly find me. And, yeah, get in touch. Instagram is my preferred platform, but I’m trying to do better with Facebook, because I know there’s so many things out on Facebook.

Carolyn Daughters  55:30

We met you many months ago, and so we’ve had this, these couple of episodes, mapped out for a while now. We’ve been very excited about having this opportunity in the spring, I think last March.

Ann Claire  55:47

Very exciting. Barbara Nickless.

Carolyn Daughters  55:50

Also wonderful.

Sarah Harrison  55:52

And check out our Barbara Nickless episode.

Ann Claire  55:55

Yeah, Barbara Nickless has a new book out. The Drowning Game comes out in January.

Sarah Harrison  56:00

Sounds like a terrible game,

Ann Claire  56:03

Yeah, but a good book.

Sarah Harrison  56:07

Thank you so much, and it’s been fantastic, so fun to talk. Thank you for the ginger dead man cookies.

Carolyn Daughters  56:15

They’re amazing.

Ann Claire  56:24

Thank you so much.

Sarah Harrison 
We hope you enjoyed this episode on Dead and Gondola, the first book in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series by Ann Claire. If you did, it would mean the world to us if you would subscribe and then you’ll never miss an episode. Be sure to leave us a rating or review on Apple podcasts Spotify, or wherever you listen to Tea, Tonic & Toxin. That way, likeminded folks can also find us on all platforms.

Carolyn Daughters
You can learn more about all our book selections at teatonicandtoxin.com. You can also comment, weigh in, and follow along with what we’re reading and discussing @teatonicandtoxin on Instagram and Facebook. And you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Finally, please visit our website, teatonicandtoxin.com to check out current and past reading lists and support our labor of love, starting at only $3 a month.

Sarah Harrison
We want to thank you for joining us on our journey through the history of mystery. We absolutely adore you. Until next time, stay mysterious.