Audio Interview With the Author

 Audio Length: 15 minutes

New York Times bestselling author P. J.(Paula) Brackston is back with the latest novel in her rollicking Brothers Grimm series, Once Upon a Crime, which follows Gretel (yes, that Gretel) —all grown up and working as a private investigator in 18th century Bavaria — as she embarks on a case involving a royal kidnapping, missing cats, and a cadaver minus one finger. 

She recently spoke with Authorlink by phone from her home in Wales. In this audio interview we learn about the Paula’s writing journey. It took her nine years and mountains of rejection letters to land her first publishing deal. When her novel, The Witch’s Daughter  hit the New York Times Bestseller list, she called it a real life fairy tale. Here she talks about how she dealt with soaring self belief and crippling self doubt as a writer, how she survived the early days of rejection, where she gets inspiration, and her strategy for coping with what she calls “writer’s tangles,” rather than writer’s block.

In Brackston’s latest novel, Once Upon a Crime, sleepy, picturesque Gesternstadt is shaken to its foundations when the local cart maker’s shop is burned to the ground—and a body, sans one finger, is found among the ashes. Gretel’s already been hired by a wealthy client to find three missing cats, so she has no time to investigate this new mystery—until she realizes that the catnapping and the cadaver are inextricably linked. Gretel’s investigation takes her down a rabbit hole that involves a kidnapped princess, an amorous troll, and a murder charge, among other misadventures. (And her brother Hans, addled by drink, is of limited help.) Will Gretel be able to prove her innocence, identify the corpse, and find the cats before they meet a grisly end?

In the vein of Jasper Fforde’s popular ‘Nursery Crime’ series, this book is a unique twist on a classic story that continues the fun and inventive series Brackston began with Gretel and the Case of the Missing Frog Prints—and is a must-read mystery for fairy-tale fans everywhere.

The author lives in the wild, mountainous part of Wales with her family, and holds an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University.

Praise for P. J. Brackston’s Brothers Grimm Mystery Series

“Bestseller Brackston melds folktale whimsy with a sardonic adult voice in the rollicking first of a new series set in 1776 Bavaria.”

—Publishers Weekly

“A tongue-in-cheek fantasy crime cozy. For those immersed too long in the world of noir, this is an apt palette-cleanser.”

—Booklist

“Dances a fine line between spoof and satire, with a hearty mix of fairy-tale lore thrown in. Larger-than-life characters are balanced with a smart plot.”

—Library Journal

 Pegasus will publish on Once Upon a Crime July 15, 2015.