Death of a Doxy

I would like to introduce my guest today, author Chris Longmuir, of Montrose, Scotland.

What a challenge my author/friend, Chris Longmuir, has undertaken. Her latest series of crime novels features Kirsty Campbell, a policewoman in Scotland during and after WWI.

Death of a Doxy is dedicated to the memory of Jean Forsyth Thomson, Dundee’s first policewoman. The fictional Kirsty Campbell goes through much of the lack of acceptance and the condescension that Ms. Thomson did in real life. In Death of a Doxy, Kirsty Campbell does her best to be taken seriously as a competent policewoman, but it is an uphill struggle against the nearly all-male staff. She is keen to prove herself and solve the crime when a local prostitute is murdered.

We sympathize with Kirsty as she faces obstacles typical of the ones that plagued women in the work force nearly 100 years ago. Many of the townspeople thought a woman had no place in the police force. She should be at home minding the children and keeping the house for her husband.

In  Death of a Doxy, a prostitute is killed in the city of Dundee. Ms. Longmuir must keep her characters, the setting, and the events true to post WWI times. Attitudes were different in 1919. Clothing was of a different style. Some postwar food shortages still existed. Many inventions we take for granted today, were not even thought of yet. The author had a huge challenge not to slip up and mention something in her novel that was yet to be invented.

Ms. Longmuir’s writing is convincing as she transports us back to those post WWI days, showing us the frustration Kirsty (and working women of her time) endured.

The closer Kirsty comes to tracking down the killer, the more she puts her own life in danger.

The author keeps the tension rising as she guides us through the investigation.

I felt as if I were watching a movie that kept me well entertained.

About Chris Longmuir

Chris Longmuir is an award winning novelist who has published three novels in her Dundee Crime Series. Night Watcher, the first book in the series, won the Scottish Association of Writers’ Pitlochry Award, and the sequel, Dead Wood, won the Dundee International Book Prize, as well as the Pitlochry Award. Missing Believed Dead is the third book in the series.

Chris also publishes a historical crime series, The Kirsty Campbell Mysteries, set during and just after the Great War. This series features Kirsty Campbell, one of Britain’s first policewomen. There are currently three books in this series; The Death Game, Devil’s Porridge, and Death of a Doxy.

Her crime novels are set in Dundee, Scotland, and have been described as scary, atmospheric, page turners. Chris also writes historical sagas, short stories and historical articles which have been published in America and Britain. Writing is like an addiction to me, Chris says, I go into withdrawals without it.

To find out more about Chris Longmuir and her books, visit her blogsite and her website:

http://chrislongmuir.blogspot.ca

https://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

 

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Moleskine or Moleskin?

Today I’ve just discovered what most people probably have known for years; that the Moleskine notebook is not named after the hide of a little mouse-like creature. I used to think that the Moleskine notebook was perhaps originally made with a soft, fuzzy cover that resembled the fur of a tiny mole and that the name had stuck and future notebooks were named in honour of these little creatures with soft hides.

Every serious writer should have a little notebook (a Moleskine) with him at all times, as you never know when a fantastic idea will pop into your head and you know you’ll forget it if you don’t write it down immediately.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that Moleskine is the company co-founded by Maria Sebregondi in Milan, Italy, in 1997. Ms. Sebregondi approached the Modo & Modo Company to produce the notebooks styled after those produced in Paris in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Writers love them because the acid-free pages are stitched rather than glued so they lie flat, and the elastic holds the book closed when not in use.

Below is the mole (whose species was not used to make the famous notebooks). Perhaps I was the only one who thought the notebooks were named for the soft feel of this little animal’s fur. I feel a bit foolish for even thinking that now.

Get your notebook from the “Moleskine” Company and don’t even think of skinning me for a “moleskin” notebook.

I did find out that moleskin is the name of a heavy cotton fabric used to make clothing, especially trousers. The German army used it for making their uniforms from the 1960s to the 1990s.

And have you ever had a blister on your foot? You may have put a strip of “moleskin” on it. The fuzzy material can have an adhesive backing to stick on your foot like a Band-Aid, but there is a hole cut out so it doesn’t rub on the blister, and the thick soft moleskin around it prevents further chafing of the blister.

I will no longer think of little mice and shrews and moles when I scribble my all-important author’s notes in my Moleskin notebook.