Victoria Thompson is the author of my absolute favorite series of all time, the "Gaslight" Mysteries. Set in turn-of-the-century New York City, the series main character is Sarah Brandt, a midwife whose job takes her to all corners of Manhattan, from the lower East Side tenements to the marble mansions of Fifth Avenue.
To celebrate the release of her latest mystery, Murder On Sisters' Row
, I asked Ms. Thompson to stop in to A Cup of Tea to let us all know about the research that goes into each of her sensational books. I am absolutely thrilled that she took me up on the offer and decided join us here. I am honored to welcome Victoria Thompson!
For someone who hated studying history in school, I’ve turned into quite a history buff as an adult. I’ve been writing historicals for over 25 years now, and for me the best part as always been doing the research. Researching New York City in the 1890’s is much easier than you might think, too. Photography was quite popular then, and you wouldn’t believe how many photographs there are of the city and its residents. I actually have several books of nothing but photographs, and these tell me far more than any research book ever could. I mean, who would think to write a detailed description of what the back of a tenement building looked like? Or a flop house? Or a beach at Coney Island? Yet all I have to do is look at a photograph to find all the details of what life in that particular time and place was like.
Another great research tool I have found is the book How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis. This is one of the earliest books that used photographs as illustrations to touch the hearts of upper class New Yorkers and convince them they needed to take action to help those less fortunate. He has short chapters devoted to various neighborhoods and ethnic groups in the city where he outlines their unique issues and problems. Here is where I found a story about the Irish women who married Chinese men and lived in Chinatown, which was the inspiration for Murder in Chinatown. And here is where I gleaned a lot of great information about Italian immigrants for Murder in Little Italy. I also plucked out details of life in the tenements that I have used in every one of the Gaslight Mysteries.
While I’m researching my current book, I often come across ideas for future ones as well. This happened when I saw a reference to the New York Charity Organization Society in a book I was reading for something else entirely. I was fascinated to learn that attitudes toward poverty were much different in the Nineteenth Century than they are today. Do-gooders back then believed that only the deserving poor should receive help, and not too much at that, lest they grow lazy. This became the germ of an idea that grew into my newest Gaslight Mystery, Murder on Sisters’ Row. Sisters’ Row was a row of houses on 25th Street that were all brothels, and when Sarah Brandt is tricked into going there to deliver a baby, she can’t resist helping the young woman escape from prostitution. But nothing is what it seems, as Sarah learns when she seeks help from the Charity Organization Society.
If you’re a fan of the Gaslight Mysteries, you’ve already learned that the problems people faced in the 1890’s aren’t so very different from those we still face today, and that’s why I find doing research so fascinating.
You can find out more about Ms. Thompson and her books by visiting her website http://www.victoriathompson.com/. She is also the author of many romance novels, if that is more your cup of tea!
