Imagining the Past-HNSA2019-History and Mystery: weaving a web of truth and lies in detective fiction

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our twelfth episode explores History and Mystery: weaving a web of truth and lies in detective fiction.  Writing historical crime fiction is like a treasure hunt for authors who dig up nuggets from the past to recreate old crimes and mysteries, both real and imaginary. How do authors lay down clues to keep readers (and the central characters) guessing whodunit? How do you balance the interlacing stories of detective, murderer and victim? What sources do authors use to set the scene and solve the crime using old-fashioned methods of crime detection? Felicity Pulman tracks down the answers to these questions and more with Malla Nunn, Katherine Kovacic and Tessa Lunney.