Author Q&A: Houstonian Sara Rosett

Author Sara Rosett’s new book, Murder Among the Pyramids, published earlier this fall. It’s 1924, and Blix Windway has made a career out of her wanderlust, giving lectures to ladies’ groups about everything from the flora of the American desert to the beauty of the Swiss Alps, but she needs new material for her talks. She strikes what seems to be an ideal agreement with an eccentric older lady. Blix will be her travel companion during a journey to Egypt, helping to smooth the way through customs and coordinate sightseeing tours. The arrangement will provide Blix with the perfect opportunity to photograph the pyramids and gather material for her next lecture series.

But they’ve barely left England before the trouble begins – rough seas and an attempted robbery. Then a murder occurs during a tour of the pyramids. Despite the attempts of the British officials to sweep the death under the rug, Blix becomes increasingly convinced that one of their tour party is a murderer.

A native Texan, USA Today bestselling author Sara Rosett grew up reading and dreaming of writing books. Her stories and essays have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Military Wife’s Soul, Georgia Magazine, The Writer, and Romantic Times Book Review. Sara began writing fiction when she was a military spouse. As she moved around the country, she gathered material for her first cozy series, the Ellie Avery series, about a military spouse who is constantly unpacking boxes and finding an occasional dead body. With the On The Run series, Sara branched out in a new direction, writing about some of her favorite international destinations with a healthy dose of mystery and a sprinkling of romance. The Murder on Location series features a location scout whose life is complicated by murder and mayhem while searching the English countryside for stately homes for Jane Austen-inspired programs. Her High Society Lady Detective series is a historical British cozy series set in the 1920s.

A native Texan, USA Today bestselling author Sara Rosett grew up reading and dreaming of writing books.

Sara answers some questions that I posed to her about Murder Among the Pyramids:

What inspired you to start writing Murder Among the Pyramids?
I’ve always found Egypt fascinating. It’s the setting of some of my favorite books and movies: Death on the Nile, the Amelia Peabody books, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Mummy (the 1999 version, not the more recent one!). A few years ago, I wrote a book about Egyptomania in 1920s England, The Egyptian Antiquities Murder. When that book came out, I realized my readers really liked Egypt too, which got me thinking about setting a book there. I decided it would be a series featuring Blix Windway, a 1920s lady traveler. Murder Among the Pyramids is the first book in the series, and it’s set in Cairo. The next book will take place on a Nile steamer. 

What kind of research did you have to do?
I spent a lot of time reading Egypt travelogues from the 1800 and 1900s and searching for details on Cairo of the 1920s. Vintage travel guides were invaluable, not just for their details about getting around, but also for their amazing maps. I love a vintage map! 

What surprised you the most when writing this book?
I was surprised to learn how well-traveled Egypt was, even in the 1800s, particularly for women travelers. Those Victorian women were intrepid!

Are you working on anything at the present that you would like to share with me?
The second book in the series is finished and with the copy editor now. It will be out in 2025. Up next for me is the ninth book in the High Society Lady Detective series, which will take place in the south of France. Lots of globe-trotting in the 1920s, so I get to travel vicariously through my research! 

Share something your readers wouldn’t know about you.
One of my first jobs was at a travel company. I researched excursions, wrote city descriptions, and planned travel itineraries. I loved it, and I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to get to write about international destinations for my job!

What are you reading now and what have you read recently that you loved?
I’m currently reading S.S. Murder by Q. Patrick. A murder occurs on a ship traveling from New York to South America in the 1930s and one of the passengers, a woman who is taking the journey as a rest cure after a surgery gets involved in solving the case. 

As for what I’ve loved reading . . . I look forward to each new book in the Crown Colony series by Ovidia Yu, which is set in 1930 and 1940s Singapore. I just recently read The Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery, the seventh book in the series. If you want an inside look at a different culture and enjoy a World War II setting, you’ll enjoy the series. There is an eighth book out, but I’m saving it for later because I don’t want the series to be over.  
 
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