Jane Willan calls her novel a "comfortable detective story that elicits lots of cozy feelings." It kicks off our annual Summer Fiction Series.
Willan set her second novel, "The Hour of Death," in a convent in Wales.
Willan is a Congregational minister in Paxton, Massachusetts.
Jane Willan: It's a small, insular community. I mean we're right next to Worcester. We're right next to Holden and Spencer, but Paxton is really its own town. You know — it has its own town hall. It has its own little school — a wonderful school, actually. Two churches and two liquor stores. There's a great place for breakfast, a diner and a pizza place. I think that's about it.
Carrie Healy, NEPR: Were any of the congregants that you see every week used in whole, in part, in spirit maybe in your books?
Kind of. They're certainly church people in my books.
In "The Hour Of Death," the actual dead body — the victim — I call the perfect church lady. She's kind of an amalgamation of lots of church ladies, very in control. She runs the church kitchen, makes sure things happen, and sings soprano in the choir.
The backbone of the church in many ways, and also, kind of a — well, I won't say that — but kind of a pain, too, for the pastor-- for the vicar. But yet, he [Father Selwyn] can't go on without her because she does so much.
You wrote Sister Agatha, who is the lead detective nun, and we hear and read her internal monologue. She has a lot of specific things that she has picked up through her reading, and through epic name-dropping of other detectives she admires. Who are some of the names that Sister Agatha looks up to — and then knows she doesn't actually live up to the standards of?
She loves Louise Penny and [Chief Inspector] Armand Gamache, Louise Penny's protagonist. Of course, Agatha Christie, from whom she likes to think she got her name.
She does have a whole list that she talks about you know, Kinsey Millhone. She sometimes goes for the authors like, Louise Penny, or she goes for the character, and she gets them confused. I think she has trouble telling you what's real life and what isn't.
And then she has a fake one that she made up --or I made up, my goodness -- and that is the Scotland policeman that does "Wales Right Now," and she listens in on his podcast and she's always channeling him.
She is you — Sister Agatha is really Jane — isn't she?
In many ways, she is. The fun part about writing a character -- because I like to think I'm also Reverend Mother a little bit, she's a little more noble -- the fun part about writing a character is you can live out a life you wanted to live out.
So sometimes Sister Agatha can say things that I'd like to say. Like I notice with Reverend Mother — Reverend Mother offers grace to other people in the community — and I like to think as a pastor that I can sometimes offer grace instead of just receive grace. So I like to think I'm her, too.
I don't think I'm Sister Callwen; she's too organized to be me. She's some friends I've had.
Has it been questioned by anybody in the community yet -- Paxton's a small community at heart -- that their minister is bumping off people in books and this is what she's spending her time thinking about?
It doesn't seem to bother them. And in fact my church, Paxton Congregational Church, is extremely supportive.
The ladies of the church did my two book launches. They took the fellowship hall and turned it into a Welsh tea. They made all the recipes in the book. They scoured garage sales and bought up old, ornate tea pots and tea cups.
So that was the first one, and it was amazing. Every book I sold that day, all the profit went to the church.
Then for the second book, "The Hour Of Death," they even outdid themselves and they made a diorama of scenes of the book-- for every table! Every table had a little a little scene of the book, and as you see over there is a red jumper. They knitted sister Agatha's jumper — the knitting group — and her blue hat that she wore, and that broken teacup.
Over there, you'll see they made Pryderi village.
This is what the church did for me. Isn't that amazing? I just I love this congregation. They're really something. They've embraced it.
I don't think they mind that I murder people in my fiction.
Keep up here with the NEPR Summer Fiction Series.
