Author Interview: Murder in Her First Degree by Lizzie Bentham

Thank you so much for joining us for this Q&A! We’ll start off with one of our standard podcast opening questions–tell us something great that’s happened recently.

My lovely surgeon husband, who is a Fiction Fans Podcast listener, has just got his first consultant job (attending physician equivalent). I am over the moon for him because he has worked so hard to get where he is and for us as a family, because we know where we will be for the time being. 

What are you currently reading or what’s up next on your TBR? What made you pick up this book?

Over the Christmas period I wanted to read some festive murder mysteries, so I discovered Denzil Meyrick’s Murder at Holly House and The Christmas Stocking Murders, both of which I have really enjoyed. They are set in the 1950s, in Yorkshire. Inspector Frank Grasby, a reluctant hero, has to spend his Christmases solving diabolically fiendish murders in far-flung, snowbound Yorkshire villages. I will definitely buy the next one in this series for next Christmas.

My next TBR book is The Cream Tea Killer by Judy Leigh, the third novel in her Morwenna Mutton mystery series. I read the first two last year and loved them. They follow the adventures of Morwenna Mutton, a librarian granny, who enjoys wild swimming and helps out at the family-run tea shop. She also solves murders in the Cornish seaside village of Seal Bay. I pre-ordered book three which has just arrived and I can’t wait to get started.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to start writing?

I am married with two children and live in the West Midlands, UK. I studied Chemistry at university and stayed on to do a PhD at the University of Liverpool. When I graduated, I discovered the dark side of research . . . research administration and worked for a further eight years helping academics to apply for research funding at various universities, so I have a love for the higher education system. During lockdown, with two very small children, I reread lots of novels by the Queens of Crime from the Golden Age of detective fiction and decided (in a sleep-deprived haze) that it would be a good idea to have a go at writing my own murder mystery novel. My great aunt studied at the Victoria University of Manchester in the 1930s, so I decided to set my first book Murder in Her First Degree there. Little did I know then, that I would end up writing my Red Brick Mystery series set at various red brick institutions!    

Who are your favorite current writers and who are your greatest influences?

My current favorite murder mystery author is Fiona Leitch, particularly her Nosey Parker Mysteries, set in Cornwall. As a fairly new author, I have begun to meet other authors and read their work, so would recommend Roger A Price, Fiona Forsyth and Jane McParkes’s novels. If it is cold outside and I want to lose myself in a gorgeous romance, I would choose a novel by Tricia Ashley, Katie Fforde or Sophie Kinsella to curl up with.

 I grew up reading Enid Blyton’s stories (which I am now reading to my eldest son), along with C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. I then progressed on to Georgette Heyer’s regency romances and from there to detective novels including the Queens of Crime: Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Josephine Tey. My dad got me reading adventure stories too by the likes of Alistair MacLean and Leslie Charteris. I also adore Ellis Peter’s Cadfael series.

I think my writing style could be described as an Agatha Christie meets Enid Blyton, meets Alistair MacLean mash up, with a bit of Cadfael shoehorned in for good measure.     

If you could collaborate with any one author, who would it be and why?

I think it would be really good fun to collaborate with the Reverend Richard Coles. On the TV he is funny, kind and erudite so writing would be a giggle. I am a vicar’s daughter, so have a shared background in the Anglican Church, which is where he sets his Canon Clement novels. I would quite happily collaborate to write something like, Funeral for a Flower Arranger or The Diocesan Dilemma! 

What are your favorite types of stories? Of characters?

I love historical murder mysteries and ‘cozy’ mysteries, ones which contain very little sex and violence (apart from murder), but which pose a conundrum to solve. I do like romances too, so a cozy mystery containing a romance is an absolute winner for me. I look for strong female characters in a book, who are daring to be different, which is why I fill my novels with them. 

How much do you plan when you write? What’s your writing process like?

When I first start writing a novel I usually only have a nugget of an idea of where I am going with it. I enthusiastically write the first few chapters and then pause to take stock. Because I am a scientist at heart, I then use a spreadsheet to create a colour-coded chart of what has happened and what needs to happen in each chapter going forward. This is when I actually get organised and ditch anything that I have written that is a little bit rubbish. My basic writing process is manic, heart-over-head splurging to get something down on paper to start with, followed by my head kicking in to strategize what route the plot needs to go down to come to a satisfying conclusion. 

Fig 1. Part of one of my planning charts

Can you tell us a little bit about your characters? What are your favorite kinds of characters to write?

My heroine, Dorothea Roberts, is a first year English student at the Victoria University of Manchester at the start of the 1934/35 academic year. A chance encounter with a stranger on a train changes the course of her first term of university. She meets Matilda Abbott, an undercover MI5 agent with a secret, who is fearful that she is being followed by an assassin. She hands Dorothea a letter to give to an eminent professor at the university. Then Matilda is shot by an unknown assailant, she is injured but manages to escape from the train. The letter is lost in the kerfuffle. Dorothea and her new university friends are drawn into investigating a series of attacks on prominent members of the Women’s Student Union Committee and unearthing a dangerous spy-ring which could compromise national security. This in turn leads to a whole host of adventures as the series progresses.

I really enjoy writing the character of Dorothea and her university friends who are strong, funny women and who are my team of amateur detectives. I like having a group of crime fighters, this probably stems from my childhood exposure to The Secret Seven! Dr Geraint Hadley-Brown, my hero/love interest, is fun to write too. He is an English postdoctoral fellow at the university who moonlights for MI5. To stop him getting too uppity, I do tend to put him in ridiculous situations like covering him in manure. I love writing a baddie as well, particularly one who starts off seeming nice and morphs into an evil genius.  

What is your favorite part of writing the Red Brick Mysteries series?

I think it is the research into what life was like for the pioneering women who went to university in the 1930s. My great aunt was the inspiration for Dorothea Roberts. I only knew her as an old lady who unfortunately had Alzheimer’s disease. My research into higher education for women has helped me to imagine what her life might have been like as a brilliant undergraduate.    

What comes first to you when you’re writing, the world, the characters, or the storyline?

First it is the world. I get an idea of when and where I want to set a story. Then something I have read or watched on TV will spark an idea for a storyline and it is only then that I start populating the world with characters. This is the bit that I find trickiest. I have a great idea for a garden centre mystery that is on hold because I can’t get the characters sorted out in my head.

In your opinion, what kind of reader would like this series?

I think my Red Brick Mystery series will appeal to anyone who loves the Queens of Crime from the Golden Age of detective fiction. It sits firmly within the historical mystery sub-genre of crime fiction. If the reader has read a lot of Enid Blyton growing up too, all the better! 

Do you have a favorite quote from your books that you can share with us? What about this quote in particular makes it your favorite?

“‘But surely they would kill us both.’ Dorothea was thinking of all the places someone with murderous intent could hide within the grounds.

So was Geraint. ‘Let us think of something more cheerful instead like . . .’ He cast around for a safe topic of conversation. ‘Like current literature. What have you read recently?’

‘Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, Margery Allingham’s Sweet Danger, Dorothy Sayers’ Murder Must Advertise.’

‘Um, right. Remind me to make you a reading list.’”

I love the fact that my novels are concurrent (by chance) with some of the greatest works of detective fiction ever written and that Dorothea as an English student would have devoured them voraciously.

When you started the series, did you have a clear idea in mind for how you wanted to continue it in subsequent books? How, if at all, has that changed while writing the series?

When I started writing I only had the idea for Murder in Her First Degree in my head. However when I got the idea for its sequel, Murder by the Book, I realised that I wanted each of my stories to have a different academic theme. Murder in Her First Degree has an English Literature theme, Murder by the Book has a History/Archaeological theme and Dying to Get to the Truth has a Biology/Genetics/Agriculture theme. I also wanted to explore other red brick universities (Manchester and Reading to date) and keep up the relationship with MI5. My fourth book when it is written will have a Physics/Maths theme and be set at a different university and MI5 will be back again. 

If you could sit down to dinner with one of your characters, which one would it be?

It would have to be Mr George who runs MI5’s Undercover Procedures, Infiltration, Science and Technology Bureau (U Branch). He is friends with all the great and the good, has very refined tastes, so dinner would be excellent and he considers himself a notable raconteur. Whether his wife would let him dine with me, is another matter!

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few questions for us! Do you have any parting thoughts or comments you’d like to leave for our readers?

Thank you so much for inviting me to take part. When I started writing, I never dreamed I would end up with three published novels. I would encourage anyone who has a story idea in their head to have a go at writing it down. Writing is very therapeutic and it might lead you to a new hobby, or even a career change.  

Is there anything you can tell us about any current projects you’re working on?

I have started writing a new murder mystery series set in 1920s Warwickshire, in a tearoom, run by mystery-solving, flapper vicar’s daughters. I also want to write the fourth book of my Red Brick Mystery series and some short stories following the further adventures of my Red Brick characters. 

And finally, where can you be found on the internet if our readers want to hear more from you?

All of my RedBrick Mystery Series are available through Amazon. Please do check out my website: https://lizziebentham.com/

I am also on: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky

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About the book:

‘Pulsing with wit, bonhomie and boundless energy… A seamlessly plotted mystery in the tradition of Dorothy L Sayers and the golden age of detective fiction.’ Anna Legat

Autumn Term 1934

Manchester, England

Dorothea Roberts, a farmer’s daughter, leaves Derbyshire for the Victoria University of Manchester. Her academic career starts with a bang when she and her friends are drawn into investigating a spy-ring, after a chance encounter with a stranger on a train.

Members of the Women’s Student Union Committee are dying unexpectedly and everything points towards there being a killer on campus.

Dorothea must infiltrate the committee, whilst dealing with essay deadlines and her increasing feelings for the enigmatic Dr Geraint Hadley-Brown, before the killer strikes again at the Christmas fancy dress ball.

Worse still, Dorothea receives news that her friend’s daughter has been kidnapped, as a ploy to entrap her.

Can Dorothea unmask a murderer and prevent a spy-ring compromising national security?

Some lessons may be too dangerous to learn.