Q & A with Y. S. Lee

Interviewing Y. S. Lee was FUN!  She’s so interesting and I loved learning about how her books came about!

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A Spy in the House!

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BotH:

As a fellow mystery writer, I’m always curious how other mystery writers fell into the genre.  Where does your love of mystery come from?

Ying:

Sherlock Holmes was the gateway drug – so respectable, so Victorian! I then made my way through Agatha Christie. And my friend Sarah is a mystery maven who insisted I read Elizabeth Peters, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy L. Sayers. For me, it’s all about the characters – I need vivid, 3-dimensional sleuths in order to love a series.

Both:

You added a great element to your mystery series by setting it in Victorian, England.  How did you decide on the time and setting for your series?

Ying:

Thank you! The Victorian period more or less chose me: I did a PhD in Victorian literature and culture and found it absolutely enthralling. I could talk about it all day, if permitted. So when I decided to write a book, the setting was the first thing to fall into place. The idea of an all-female detective agency, the plot, even the heroine – all that came later.

BotH:

I can tell from your website that you have a fun sense of humor.  Are your books serious, or does your wit come through?

Ying:

Aw, thanks again. That’s a really tough question. I like to think my sense of humour appears in the novels but they’re not primarily comic works. The jokes are subtle, but my favourite letters are the ones from readers who got them.

BotH:

Would you fill in the blanks, please?  If you like to read ____________, you’ll love The Agency books.

Ying:

Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart quartet; Anna Godberson’s Luxe novels; Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy; mystery novels in general.

Both:

What made you decide to write about a 17 year old ex-thief turned sleuth?

Ying:

I was thinking about the very limited choices available to smart, unconventional women of the Victorian era. If you weren’t a good little girl, and you didn’t have a lot of money, your options were pretty grim: a dead-end job, living on the charity of your relatives, marrying for security rather than love. I wanted to write something with a modern edge, and to imagine a better fate for a girl like Mary Quinn.

BotH:

What’s next for you after the Agency Trilogy is complete?

Ying:

The trilogy might turn into a quartet: I just couldn’t jam everything I needed into the third novel! (And I’ve been thinking lately about the effects of the Second World War on Southeast Asia, so maybe I’ll go there next.

BotH:

Oh, can’t wait!  We’ll be looking for #4 down the line!