Settings as a Starting Point for a Story

Please welcome a guest post by mystery and romantic suspense author M. S. Spencer:

First off, let me explain that I write murder mysteries in the vein of Agatha Christie. They are not “cozy” mysteries, which usually have heroines who cook, bake, knit, or keep cats and yet find the time to solve sudden deaths occurring in their close-knit Vermont or West Virginia hamlet. True, my stories have happy endings, and my heroes and heroines are amateur sleuths, but with the exception of one who made jellies out of wild Florida fruits (Whirlwind Romance), they don’t cook. Or knit. In fact, in my new book Fair Winds and Foul Play, Zoe pokes gentle fun at the genre. She tells the hero about the local novelist Hilda Gringold. “Her latest cozy relates a riveting tale of English gold hidden from the American revolutionaries and buried somewhere on the Maine coast. Of course, her heroine, Daisy Bluebonnet, deftly solves the mystery and finds the treasure, which she shares with her love interest, Hugo Perlmutter. Despite being now fabulously wealthy, Daisy resumes her doughnut bakery business, whence she solves any and all of the murders that so often occur in a small village.”

Most authors write about what they know, but I’m not sure how many authors start with the setting and build a story around it. My nineteen books can be divided by setting: four are set in Maine; six in Florida; six in the DC area; and two on Chincoteague Island (One outlier is set in the Amazon). The setting isn’t just the location, but usually a specific spot in that location that cries out for a story. The Pit & the Passion: Murder at the Ghost Hotel, refers to a partially built Ritz-Carlton that sat on a Florida key for almost 40 years. in Artful Dodging: The Torpedo Factory Murders, my tower office, reached by secret stairs in a cavernous old building, was the perfect place to find two corpses. The Wishing Tree: Love, Lies and Spies on Chincoteague Island, is based on an actual dead tree on the beach that is covered with trinkets and mementos.

My new release, Fair Winds and Foul Play: An Amity Landing Mystery, is set in Maine. It was born from the smoking ruins of a house in the village. I thought, “It could have been a witness protection safehouse, burned down with evidence inside!” Here’s the story: At midnight on a deserted island, Gunnar Nordstrom, assistant secretary of the Interior, falls from the sky, to be ripped to shreds by the blades of a wind turbine. Sebastian Guthrie—the lone witness—is rushed into the witness protection program. Nordstrom was about to approve an offshore wind farm in Maine, a project opposed by all but a handful of people. Sebastian finds an ally in Zoe Thibodeau, and together they sort through a Gordion knot of dead ends, red herrings, murders, and suspects.

In short, I use setting rather than characters or plot to ignite my imagination and build a story. I would be interested to hear what other authors do and think about this approach. I’d also love to hear what readers feel about the importance of a setting in their choice of books. Fair Winds and Foul Play can be ordered in print or ebook from all fine online book stores. Here’s a universal buy link:

Fair Winds and Foul Play