Vicki Delany
Mystery Book Authors

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

You mention in your Acknowledgements that "the town of Trafalgar in British Columbia has no existence outside of my imagination." Can you tell us a little bit more about where your idea for this book came from?

One of my daughters lives in Nelson, British Columbia, a small town in the South East of the province (about 2.5 hours from Spokane, WA). It's my favorite place on earth; when I was thinking about starting a series, I'd written standalones before, Nelson came to mind immediately. It was important to set my series someplace I'd like to be, metaphysically speaking at least (plus I get to go there a lot). Trafalgar is very much based on Nelson, but it is not Nelson. It's even more perfect!

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

I'm desperate to know more about both Smith and Winter's pasts. Specifically Graham and the Vancouver incident respectively. Why don't we get more of a background in either of these stories?

The past is the past, and the door is pretty much shut on those stories. Graham was Molly's fiancé; he was a social worker, killed by a drugged up client and left to die in a back alley. Molly is still having a lot of trouble dealing with it. It is the way in which she tries to deal with Graham's death that will form part of the story in the next couple of books. The Vancouver Incident was just the one thing that showed John Winters that he needed to leave the big city. There will be no repercussions from that. However, Eliza Winters does have a dark and murky past, stuff her husband doesn't know about, and that will be explored later. As will the Chief Constable's love for Lucky Smith, Molly's mother.

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

What do you think about the draft dodgers? Did this part of the story spring from any personal situations in this area?

The story is based on a real life incident. Nelson was a major settling point for draft dodgers and deserters fleeing the Vietnam War. A couple of years ago someone offered the town of Nelson a statue to commemorate the draft dodgers who settled in the Kootenays (as the area of B.C. that includes Nelson is called). It was quite a controversial incident, and did get some international press. The town refused the statue and that was the end of that. Which got me thinking as to what might happen if the controversy hadn't died. If you're asking what I personally think of the Vietnam –era draft dodgers? I think they were brave people who gave up their families and homes rather than fight in a war they didn't believe in, and I'm proud Canada accepted them. Incidentally Nelson is now a centre for deserters fleeing to Canada to avoid Iraq. That issue I decided not to touch.

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

Molly and Christa's relationship was troubling to me. Mostly because it seemed like Christa was a weak girl who couldn't survive unless Molly was telling her what to do. That left a lot of guilt and pressure resting with Molly and I didn't feel that was fair to her. Why did you set them at odds this way?

Molly has taken on the job of a police officer in the small town in which she grew up. Where, as the book says, "a substantial number of the residents had seen her performing as Number Two Wise Man in the Grade Three Christmas pageant." It isn't easy for her, particularly with such an activist mother, and her relationship with the troubled Christa isn't making things any easier. Christa's mother and Molly's mother were close friends. Christa was child when her mother died, and Lucky Smith pretty much took Christa under her wing. So Molly and Christa are, in many ways, much more like sisters than friends. And thus Molly can't turn her back on Christa, no matter how petty and demanding she might be. The Christa story line will carry on through the next several books, and we haven't seen the end of Charlie Bassing.

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

Rich is a heinous character! Did Meredith go along with his plans so willingly because she was ambitious or because she had a leftover dislike for Molly from high school?

Meredith detests Molly, and the feeling is mutual, but I think the primary motivation for Meredith is pure ambition. Giving Molly Smith a boot in the rear end would be a nice side benefit as far as Meredith is concerned, but she wouldn't go out of her way just to get Molly. Meredith's dreams of being a big time TV journalist are coming to naught (the only job she could get is on the paper in a town of 10,000 people) and she sees Rich Ashcroft as offering her a foot in the door to the big career. So she takes the chance, not caring about anything other than herself.

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

You write confrontational scenes with very real authenticity. Have you had any experience with protesting and/or riots?

Thank you. But no I don't. I spent my career as a systems analyst in a big bank. I got a lot of help from the members of the Nelson City Police and one of them described a riot situation to me.

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

Why did you choose to refer to Molly by her last name throughout the novel?

I don't recall it being a choice – I just started writing her like that. I suspect that I wanted to keep the focus of the books on her professional life rather than her personal life, although there is a lot of that. I read a lot of the traditional British police procedurals, such as Ian Rankin's Rebus, or Peter Robinson's Banks, and that just seems to be the way they do it. Incidentally, although I love his books, I just hate the way that Peter Robinson calls Alan Banks, Banks, and Annie Cabbot, Annie.

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

Mystery Book Authors: Interview with Vicki Delany

I know you have more plans for Molly and John Winters. Can you tell us where they are headed in the future, without giving away any major plots of course!?

Molly's emotional life is a mess; she's going to have to make some decisions around that. At the end of In the Shadow of the Glacier, she meets a young RCMP officer who likes her, we'll have to see if she can get over Graham and move on. The Mountie will be pressing his case a bit more in Valley of the Lost, which is coming out in February from Poisoned Pen Press. She also has to make some decisions about her professional life. If she wants a good police career she will probably have to leave the peaceful town in the mountains and head for the big city. I don't yet know if she has the strength to do that, or, more to the point, if I can do that! As for John Winters, I see one of the pivots of the series being his relationship with Lucky Smith. He's an old time cop and he's probably never known anyone like Lucky before, other than across a police line or in court! Certainly not personally. He's going to learn things from Lucky, and hopefully grow a bit. Winters' marriage, which is the bedrock of his life, is going to have some shaking up, but I think I'll spend a couple of books setting the scene about his perfect marriage first. And as for Lucky, even though she is very happily married (most of the time) to Molly's father, she's going to find some bumps in her romantic life as well.