Thank you for joining Olive and Jasper for another mystery! When I’m plotting a book, I draw inspiration from many sources—books, blogs, memoirs, and my own travel. When I began working on An Old Money Murder in Mayfair, I decided it had been far too long since I’d visited England. A research trip was in order. I began writing the first draft of the book while reading all I could find about London’s high society in the early 1920s. I delved into researching the lives of several women that the press of the day dubbed the Bright Young People, including Loelia, the Duchess of Westminster, Nancy Mitford, Barbara Cartland, Elisabeth Ponsonby, Lady Eleanor Smith, and the Jungman sisters, Zita and Teresa.
I discovered many of the elegant London townhouses like my fictional Alton House have either been torn down or converted to embassies or hotels, but I didn’t let that stop me from traveling to London. I toured a few of the stately homes that remained and tromped all over Mayfair. I also sampled tea at several tea shops and visited the Savoy, a favorite stop for Jasper and Olive.
The inspiration for the Murder Party came from a real incident. Extravagant themed parties were all the rage, and one hostess hired a party planner to stage a murder. As in this novel, only a few people were in on the secret that it was a fake murder. Zita Jungman, who did know the whole thing was an elaborate joke, played the part of the victim, while hired actors took on the roles of investigators. They gathered clues and accused the Duke of Marlborough of murder. The party made the front page of the Daily Express the next day with the headline that the duke had murdered a woman. My fictional murder party occurred in 1923, much earlier than the real incident that inspired it, but when I read about the Murder Party, I knew I had to include something like it in An Old Money Murder in Mayfair.
Besides hosting over-the-top parties, the Bright Young People engaged in a number of other entertaining activities. They really did have treasure hunts and raced around London in motors looking for clues. Scavenger hunts came into fashion, and they hunted for unusual items like a police bobby’s hat or a feather from a black swan. They hosted a fake exhibit of modern art, creating a fictitious persona, Bruno Hat, and fooled many of the attendees. They dressed up and took on diverse roles—reporters, literary award presenters, and even foreign royalty—all for a laugh.
It was a madcap lifestyle, and I tried to capture that sense of energy and fun in this book. Yet under the frivolity, there was a frantic aspect to the lives of the Bright Young People. The realities of the Great War were still very close, and it seems they didn’t want to slow down because then they’d have to examine the grief and sorrow that had touched every family.
Another tidbit from real life is the issue of The Sketch magazine that Olive discovers in Addie’s room. Agatha Christie did write many short stories for magazines in the 1920s, and The Cornish Mystery was one of those. A poisoning is central to the plot, but I won’t give away the details here.
Until I began researching what makeup Olive and Gigi would wear, I had no idea that cosmetics could be such a rich source for a mystery writer. Belladonna, lead, and arsenic are just a few of the dangerous ingredients that were common in makeup over the centuries. Arsenic was an ingredient in many cosmetics throughout the Twenties, even though it was well known it could be deadly. It was nicknamed “inheritance powder.” Coco Chanel popularized sunbathing and tanning, but pale skin was still prized. I was amazed at the number of advertisements that promised to remove freckles, calling them “blemishes.” Some of the beauty treatments like bleaching the skin sounded painful, while others like those touting the benefits of radium were dangerous. You could buy radium day or night creams or get a radium mud treatment!
If you’re curious about Olive’s references to her time with Jasper at Hawthorn House, that story is in Duplicity, a crossover dual timeline novel. One storyline follows Olive in 1923, while the modern storyline follows Zoe from the On the Run series. The two women are separated by nearly a century, but both women chase the same masterpiece.
The most frequently asked question I hear from readers is Will there be more Olive books? Yes! Up next is a Christmas mystery. I hope to write many more Olive adventures after that book.
If you have the time and inclination to leave a review on this book or any other book in the series, especially the first book, Murder at Archly Manor, I’d greatly appreciate it. Reviews help readers find books, which enables me to continue writing the series.
Sign up for my updates at SaraRosett.com/signup to get exclusive content and early looks at the books. I’d love to stay in touch!