Interview with S.K. Waters, author of The Dead Won’t Tell

Today it gives the Indie Crime Scene great pleasure to interview  S.K. Waters, whose novel The Dead Won’t Tell is published on September 20 (today)

Tell us about The Dead Won’t Tell. Is this your first published novel?

This is my first novel, unless you count the 50-page space opera I wrote when I was 10. The Dead Won’t Tell is the story of an amateur sleuth tackling a 46-year-old cold-case in a fictional southern town made up of real towns.

What made you decide to write a mystery?

A lifetime of reading Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, Earlene Fowler, Mary Daheim, Donna Andrews, Janet Evanovich, and others.

Your main character, Abbie Adams, is a freelance historical researcher. What propels her to become an amateur sleuth?

In early drafts, money. You just don’t get paid a lot doing research for regional newspapers. Later, I toned that aspect down, and learned that when I let Abbie loose on the page, she developed deep empathy for the 1969 victim, Rosalie DuFrayne. Every witness account she listened to told more about Rosalie, and ultimately she just wanted justice.

Abbie failed her history PhD due to faculty adviser Frank Wexler. Tell us something about him and the Wexler dynasty.

Frank Wexler always lived in the shadow of his father, the president of Hunts Landing College who rubbed elbows with NASA elite and town fathers. After the events of 1969, Frank became a bitter man, accepting nothing less than academic excellence from his students, and punishing those who fell short.

The story is set in a small town. How much did your own home town affect the imaginary town you create in The Dead Won’t Tell?

I lived in Athens, Alabama, and spent quite a bit of time in the nearby towns of Huntsville and Decatur. Yes, there are recognizable parts from the historic districts of all tree towns, and I went to all the neighboring libraries to read newspapers from the time and get some of the flavor pieces that people remembered. 

You are passionate about history and also issues of social justice: family, race, and the weight of the past. How far did this book allow you to explore those ideas?

Before the George Floyd killing, I’m ashamed to say, hadn’t given much thought to the ideas of social justice and race; my victim happened to be black and her murderer happened to be white and it didn’t jump out at me. But after George Floyd’s murder, I scoured the book with my editors and did a full editorial pass just looking for issues and fleshing out Abbie’s empathy, which I felt was truly within her but hadn’t made it onto the page.

Before becoming a full time writer, you were a technical writer, a database administrator, and a championship quilter. What made you choose to give up the day job?

I kinda still have a day job, but do carve out time for writing every day.

You say on your website that you have always wanted to write, starting very young. What was the initial inspiration when you were growing up?

The aforementioned Nancy Drew, of course. We even used to make up mysteries amongst the neighborhood kids and try to solve them. And then there was Encyclopedia Brown.

Tell us something about your book shelves. Who or what lives there? Are there any old favourites?

OK, some might call me a hoarder…but, we’ll give this a shot. I have two bookshelves in the living room, one full of old favorites and one devoted to mysteries. The console under the television set is all mysteries/thrillers. Downstairs in my office, one console has all the fantasy, one bookshelf contains my to-be-read pile, and two other bookshelves contain my books on the craft of writing. The bookshelves are all five-shelf units, the consoles all over six feet wide. A couple of old favorites: Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier, Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien, Rin Chupeco, Mary Daheim, Donna Andrews, Hank Phillipi Ryan. Really too many to list.

What do you enjoy reading now?

I always have multiple works in progress at any particular time. Right now: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, The Prison Healer, by Linette Noni, A Knife in the Fog, by Bradley Harper, and Her Perfect Life, by Hank Phillipi Ryan.

With your book debuting in September, are you planning a sequel or something different?

Yes, hard at work on the sequel.

In your author bio, you say that you write “mystery, fantasy, and a little in-between.” What can you tell us about that?

I have a short story which is a fantasy police procedural in a world of magic that I plan to use as the basis for a full-length novel. Also have another novella-length work that I’d like to develop as well.

Are there any television dramas that you enjoy and would recommend?

I’m a huge fan of Britbox and some of their shows: Midsomer Murders, Father Brown, The Brokenwood Mysteries, Vera, Death in Paradise, My Life is Murder.

Will Abbie Adams return?

Yes she will, along with the delightful and quirky characters of Hunts Landing (those who survived The Dead Won’t Tell, anyway). 

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About S.K. Waters:

S. K. WATERS grew up in New Jersey and still misses it. In previous lives, she was a technical writer, a database administrator, and a championship quilter. She writes mystery, fantasy, and a little in-between.

Connect with Waters at kianahwaters.com, on Facebook.com/KianahWatersAuthor, on Twitter @KianahWaters and Instagram @KianahWaters.