I (Donis) am so happy to host my friend Karen Odden to Type M 4 Murder today. Karen is a wonderful historical mystery author whose latest release is An Artful Dodge, about a gang of female thieves in 19th century England. Great concept, isn't it? And the best part is it's based on real people and real events. Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up.
Karen Odden
The “wait, what?” moment that sparked the idea for An Artful Dodge, my sixth book set in 1870s London, happened in December 2021.
My daughter Julia had just finished her semester abroad at Oxford. If you remember, there was a lull during the Covid pandemic. We rented a flat and spent a week bopping around London doing Mom/Daughter things. The gray days required umbrellas; the night winds turned our umbrellas inside out. We still had a lovely time, as my daughter is game for any number of long walks, teashops, bookstores, and museums. And Harrods. Here she is in one of my favorite cafes, inside the Victoria and Albert Museum, with a scone the size of her head.
One evening, we ducked into the Great Scotland Yard Hotel in Whitehall, not far from Big Ben. It’s built on what used to be the odd-shaped cobblestoned yard behind 4 Whitehall Place, which was the official address for the plainclothes division of the Metropolitan Police, what we now call Scotland Yard, in the 1870s. The yard served as the “public entrance,” was large enough for wagons, and usually smelled of horse dung and musty hay.
The hotel (shown here in much better weather than we had) was built in 2019, an homage to the Victorian period. It’s run by Hyatt.
Shivering, Julia and I entered the foyer and discovered glass cases full of Victorian crime memorabilia—mug shots, police truncheons, whistles, helmets, weapons, poison bottles, and more. (Be still my I-want-to-see-the-authentic-stuff heart.)
Afterward Julia and I went to the restaurant to have dinner, but they said, regretfully, they were “full up.” However, we could go to the Forty Elephants bar across the way and get a drink and a bite to eat.
Forty Elephants.
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| The Elephant and Castle |
What an odd name, I thought. Did it have to do with the British Empire, which in the 1800s was busily expanding into India and Africa, home of real, gray, floppy-eared elephants?
We entered to find a room with a portrait of a gorgeous woman over the fireplace.
I was madly curious. Fortunately, on our wooden corner table, there was a QR code “For more information about the 40 Elephants.” Of course I clicked.
I discovered that the “Forty Elephants” were members of an all-women thieving gang based out of Elephant and Castle neighborhood, in Southwark (pronounced “South-uck”), in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The crime-ridden area was named for an old stagecoach inn, built in the 1700s, located at the intersection of six roads coming in from Dover, Canterbury and various parts of London.
An all-women thieving gang, in a crime-ridden part of London! Women who went into the new department stores and tucked gloves and lace and jewelry into long thieving pockets that went down to their hemlines, and into special netting in their hair! Who wouldn’t want a mystery about that?
I was finishing my fifth book, Under a Veiled Moon, so I scribbled the idea down and set it aside. When I later pitched the idea to my publisher, he gave dubious little grimace. Clearly, no interest there. And although the Inspector Corravan series had earned out my modest advance, the publisher canceled the series.
It hurt because I really loved those books. I loved Michael Corravan. (For those of you who have seen Miss Scarlet and the Duke, which came out afterward, people were texting me: “This reminds me of your Corravan.”)
It’s hard to have a beloved series canceled. It filled me with self-doubt. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever find another publisher. I didn’t know if anyone would want a book about women thieves, much as I loved the idea.
Fast forward to Left Coast Crime mystery conference in 2024, where I asked Juliet Grames, Editorial Director, of Soho Press, to sit down with me, so I could share the idea I had.
Wait. First, I should explain that I met Juliet Grames in 2019 at Bouchercon. It was my first mystery conference. I attended her panel, where she talked about her new novel, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna and how she’d spent two summers researching and mulling over the characters. I felt instant sympathy! That evening, I’d approached her at the Harper Collins party to congratulate her on her book and introduce myself. (My second and third books were with HC.) We exchanged numbers and emails. Only much later did I learn she was an editor at Soho Press.
[Moral of the tale.] Good things happen at mystery conferences. And it pays to talk to everyone. You never know what will happen years later.
OK, back to the Left Coast Crime conference. I found Juliet and asked if I could pitch her an idea for a book. She said she had twenty minutes. I told her about the 40 Elephants and their skirts and how they ran dodges in department stores. Her blue eyes got large. “I want to read that book. You should write it. I’ll buy it.”
[Moral #2: A grimace from one publisher does not mean you won’t be picked up by a different one.]
I signed the contract, put my butt in the chair, and in 8 months, I wrote the book about Kit Jimeson, my heroine and 20-year-old thief, pulling off a nearly impossible and incredibly dangerous jewel heist in London. It launched two weeks ago, and I hope if you’re in San Francisco, Bellingham WA, New York City, Columbus OH, Rochester NY, or Portland ME, you’ll come to my event, so I can share the other pictures and stories behind the book.
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visit Karen's website at http://karenodden.com
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