Guest Post

Guest Chick: Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell)

Today the Chicks are pleased to present the fabulous (and prolific) author Maddie Day, who also writes as Edith Maxwell. Her newest mystery, A Case For the Ladies, featuring sleuth Dot Henderson and pal Amelia Earhart as they investigate the murders of several young women in 1926 Boston, releases next month, and we can’t wait!

And she’s giving away of a copy of the new book to one lucky commentator! Take it away, Maddie!

Congrats to Sue Leis who won a copy of A Case for the Ladies!

CHICKS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Thanks so much to Leslie for inviting me back to Chicks on the Case. Have I got chicks on the case for you! Four of them, to be precise.


According to one of my favorite historical research sites, Etymology Online (etymonline.com), “chick” as modern slang for “young woman” is recorded as of 1927. A Case for the Ladies takes place in the summer of 1926, but that’s close enough. A few years ago I learned Amelia Earhart had taught English to immigrant factory workers in my very town of Amesbury, Massachusetts. This was before the chick became famous. That simple little fact was enough to inspire an entire mystery novel.


At about the same time, I had envisioned an alternate reality as a lady PI for another chick of the era, my paternal grandmother Dorothy Henderson. The word “alternate” is key, since as far as I know, Mama Dot never held a day job other than wife and mother. She was elegant and able at both, but I’ve always wondered if she felt frustrated not to be a race car driver or the head of a driving school. Dot was one of the first women to drive an automobile halfway across the country. She and her younger brother drove, with their family in a second touring Cole automobile, from Indiana to California in 1918, celebrating her eighteenth birthday on the road in Salt Lake City.


I’m so fortunate to own her diary from the trip, which was recently conserved by my cousin’s husband, Laurent, a professional document conservator.


When I knew her, Dot smoked cigarettes in a silver holder, enjoyed a cocktail before dinner, and had blue-silver hair, but she also tended the orange trees in her southern California back yard and squeezed them for breakfast juice when I stayed overnight.


My grandmother actually did have an aunt named Etta Rogers. Except I’m quite sure Etta wasn’t an accomplished unmarried lady professor at Wellesley College (with a male lover on the side) nor one of the founders of Denison House, a real settlement house with a mission to aid and teach immigrant women. The organization in the cluster of buildings in what is now South Boston did amazing work to support newcomers to the country and to Boston.


Denison House, as it happens, was where Amelia worked for a couple of years after she left Amesbury. She flew a Kinner Airster out of an airfield in Quincy, south of the city, on weekends but worked teaching and counseling immigrant women during the week. She lived with her mother and sister in the nearby town of Medford, a nearby part of which was settled by Pullman porters and still remains a largely Black neighborhood (and is where I formerly lived and where my best friend has lived for decades).


If those aren’t enough historical chicks for you, I made one up, too. Jeanette Colby is a stalwart newspaper reporter looking to right the many injustices she encounters. She, Amelia, and Dot become a team, supported by Etta. All four women encounter dismissive attitudes as they pursue the men attacking young immigrant women and smuggling alcohol all over the city. Lesbian Jeanette gets an extra dose of derogatory treatment but doesn’t let it dim her focus on the Irish gangs who compete with each other for the bigger share of the illicit alcohol trade.


As for me, this particular chick of an author loved writing a story about four strong chicks of long ago. Three were real, one I made up. All of their stories sprang up out of my hyperactive imagination, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.


I’m delighted this book will see the light of day and be ready for you all to read on paper or as an ebook on March 12 (or possibly before). Chicks on the Case Lisa gave it a good edit and much improved the nitty-gritty of the book. Thanks, Lisa!


Readers: Who is your favorite historical chick, real or otherwise? I’d love to send one of you a copy when I have them in hand.


About A Case for the Ladies: Amid Prohibition, Irish gangs, the KKK, and rampant mistreatment of immigrant women, intrepid private investigator Dorothy Henderson and her pal Amelia Earhart seek justice for several murdered young women in 1926 Boston. As tensions mount, the sleuths, along with their reporter friend Jeanette Colby and Dot’s maiden Aunt Etta Rogers, a Wellesley College professor, experience their own mistreatment at the hand of society and wonder who they can really trust.


Maddie Day pens the Dot and Amelia Mysteries, the Country Store Mysteries, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, and the Cece Barton Mysteries. As author Edith Maxwell, she’s the author of the historical and Agatha Award-winning Quaker Midwife Mysteries and short crime fiction. Day/Maxwell lives with her beau and cat Martin north of Boston, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook. Find her at EdithMaxwell.com, wickedauthors.com, Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, and on social media:

Twitter
Facebook
Instagram

49 thoughts on “Guest Chick: Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell)”

      1. Edith,
        Hestia here. It’s funny. The hubbs family was just talking about Hedy the other night. About how she wasn’t crazy like most actresses of that era. But 6 husbands back then? WOW! I have very strong-minded in-laws I refuse to have some conversations with.
        I can’t wait for this book to come out. It sounds like a lot of fun, and I love this era.
        My fav historical chick? Probably the snarky Dorothy Parker. She had no problem voicing her opinion, kind of like me. Did you know she worked on the script for the original A Star is Born movie?

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  3. This book sounds absolutely fantastic, Edith! Congrats in advance on it’s upcoming release.
    I’ve been recent reading TE Kinsey’s Lady Hardcastle Mysteries, so I have to mention retired spy Emily Hardcastle and her ladies maid/enforcer Florence Armstrong. Cheers!

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  5. WOW! I can’t wait to read this book! My parents grew up during this period of time and I love reading about the world they saw every day as it is so different from what we see today.
    The historical “chick” I love to read about and admire is Eleanor Roosevelt. I have a quote from her that I read every day, especially if I am hesitant to take on a task. “Nothing has ever been accomplished by the person who says, it can’t be done.”
    Carol

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  6. I did a report on Indira Gandhi once and was amazed by the first woman prime minister of India! Congrats on your upcoming book, Edith–love that you got to create this strong group of characters. Thanks for sharing the fascinating inspirations and research behind it.

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  7. Nellie Bly is a favorite Gilded Age chick — and I’ll add my Grandmother, Helen Grant Kenneth, who, in college in the 1920s wore boy’s clothes, bobbed her hair, went by “Billy”, and got suspended for smoking. Her father told the college President that it was only on a dare and that she never smoked. Too bad he didn’t see her diary which contained samples of all the brands she had tried! I had the higher GPA in college, but Grandma had a LOT more fun!

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    2. Your grandma sounds cool! And Edith, I shouldn’t be surprised that yours is too! What a treasure that travel diary is. I will say that my Grandma Lil was pretty kickass too. Rode in an early airplane, and perhaps even wing-walked. And a fun family story: grandma and grandpa and a bunch of their friends were sitting around in their house in Jackson Hole. Lil saw a rat skulking around and picked up the shotgun next to her chair (!!!) and without a break in the story she was telling, shot it dead. I wish I knew more of her stories earlier so I could have asked about them!

      Congrats on another stellar book, Edith!

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      1. I found a photo of my other grandmother reading a letter out west outdoors at about age 20 with a rifle across her lap.. so of course I had to make her into a character too! -Edith

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  8. There are so many historical women I admire that it’s hard to select just 1! I’m going to choose early women writers who paved the way for today’s writers – including Marie de France, Christine de Pizan, Phyllis Wheatley and George Eliot.

    Looking forward to reading the new book, I loved the story you wrote about your grandmothers solving a crime!

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  9. Elizabeth the First was pretty darn amazing. What a force of nature she must have been–yowza. And I had a several-year obsession with Amelia Earhart, as well, back in my twenties, so I can’t wait for this new book, Edith! Thanks so much for visiting the Chicks and sharing the story with us all!

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  11. Congratulations, Edith, on A Case for the Ladies’ upcoming birthday–and may I just say to everyone, it is an AMAZING book! (I had the honor of a sneak peek, and thanks for the kind words, Edith.) Fascinating post as well–thanks for sharing with all of us chicks. My vote is Alice Roosevelt. If nothing else, her antics were a kick!

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  12. Edith, this sounds fantastic! I know it’s a passion project for you and can’t WAIT to read it. Don’t enter me, of course. I want to buy it. And I love love love the cover.

    Your grandmother sounds incredible. And that diary – wow. What an heirloom.

    As to who’s my favorite historical chick? Honestly, historical mysteries are my favorite genre so there are too many to count. I guess I’d have to say Miss Marple, since she counts as historical now!

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  13. What a delight to find the Chicks welcoming one of my favorite mystery writers! I haven’t read all of Edith/Maddie’s books yet but I am working on it. I am looking forward to the release of A Case For The Ladies, since I love historical books that feature real people. I love learning about women who invented things, made scientific discoveries, and were pioneers who got little or no credit. One of my favorites is a woman named Mary Anderson who invented the windshield wiper. The car companies told her they weren’t necessary but as soon as Mary’s patent expired, whatta ya know, they became standard equipment. Anyone interested in learning about women’s achievements should check out A Mighty Girl website.

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  16. Thanks for sharing how a little tickle of an idea combined with, well… YOU, blossomed into such a romping and intriguing tale.

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  17. Amelia Earhart was one of my favorite ladies and the secret of what happened to her. When I was a child, it truly amazed me that they just disappeared. A mystery not solved. They just had a thing on the news that they think they have found the plane, and it sure looks like it from the amazing underwater drone. It is absolutely a plane, but whether it was hers or not is of interest. I think that it is too deep to get to though. It is about 100 miles from Howland Island where they were heading for in 16,400 feet of water. The Titanic was only at 12,500 feet, I think. Go to USA Today on Feb 7 and read the article and see the photos. Just google amelia earharts plane and it comes up. They show the drone photo and have a drawing of her plane next to it and it sure looks like it. They covered 5200 square miles of the ocean at $11 million dollars. They are planning another trip sometime in the future. I also love that era. My mother gave me her collection of movie star photos from the 1920s and 1930s when I was collecting autographed movie photos in the 1950s and 1960s and then the 1980s again. I have developed a true love for the stars of 1916 and have collected many movie memorabilia items given away from back then at the movie theatres. I have china plates, spoons, playing card, mini felt pennants, ink blotters, beautebox Canco tins, etc. from that time period all with their photos on them.

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  18. Thanks for your post. There are plenty of women out there that have achieved so much and are deserving of my respect. Women like Amelia Earhart and Florence Nightingale fascinate me because of their courage.

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  19. Any woman who tries a non-traditional job is interesting. It takes courage and so much more to do so. I appreciate all the unsung women who contributed to the war effort in WWII, flying – even those who moved planes from one base to another or test drove those just repaired – nursing, journalism, and the myriad of jobs vacated by men who served in the military. Red Cross, Clara Barton.

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  21. Pingback: A Case for the Ladies Release Day #giveaway – The Wickeds

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