When Judith Cutler sits down to work on a novel she knows, at least in part, exactly what she hopes to achieve. "What I aim to do," Cutler says, "in addition to writing a strong detective story, is to highlight problems which strike a chord in my readers. Life Sentence raising questions about women balancing careers, aging parents and a private life. The Food Detective has a very shady past. Drawing the Line highlights the problems of a child without an identity."Cutler, who lives in the Cotswolds, in England, has five engaging series in play. In between series books, the prolific writer creates standalone novels. The newest of these is Staging Death, featuring "resting" actress Vena Burford, once famous and now forced to take any job going in order to survive. "She has had to clean other people's houses," says Cutler of her creation, "now she helps her brother, an estate agent, to sell them. She also has a sideline as an interior design consultant, currently refurbishing the stately home recently occupied by Toby Frensham, whom she might once have married. He's now a Hollywood heartthrob with a bad boy reputation."
It's Vena's relationship with Toby that creates much of the fuel for Staging Death's fire. Cutler says that Vena's "ongoing relationship with Toby troubles her," but not as much as some of the weird couples who want to see the expensive country houses her brother represents. "Why should these characters who clearly have money but patently have no intention of buying, demand to explore every nook and cranny of the houses?" Cutler asks, clearly as intrigued as readers, no doubt, will be. "And why do their beautifully dressed wives appear to be so cowed? And why is Vena's life suddenly at risk?"
Even though Staging Death is a standalone novel, Cutler has created the sort of cast that leaves readers wishing for more. Vena, for instance, is difficult to look away from. "Vena's a bit of a misfit," says Cutler. "She lives in a tiny house in a rough council estate and gets around on a bike while selling houses priced in millions to people who drive Mercedes and BMWs." Nor, in some ways, has Vena stopped acting. "Just as she lived vicariously in her stage roles, now she lives the life she'd really like by arranging others' homes. She's got a really miserable past, too, though she copes by not talking about it. She gets involved in a series of adventures she never sought, and, having at last achieved the security and comfort she's always needed, is unlikely to rock the boat by putting herself and others she loves at risk again."Cutler finds herself deeply inspired by the things in her life that she loves. This can be easily seen in the material she chooses to work with in her novels. "I love writing books about things I'm already interested in: antiques, food, cricket, the theater. Don't expect a book about wrestling."
In fact, some of the source material for Staging Death seemed to fall right out of Cutler's own life. "Like most women," she said, "I love poking round in other people's property, and derive enormous pleasure from National Trust properties in Warwickshire and throughout the country, so I could draw on my love of architecture and fine things."
But it was actual experiences that provided the underpinnings for Staging Death. "Specifically," says Cutler, "I'd just moved house, which involved a lot of dealings with estate agents, some of whom made Vena's brother seem positively angelic! On the other hand, my sister-in-law works for an estate agent, so I know that kind and decent folk work in the industry."
Though Cutler's characters get up to all sorts of highjinks, the writer insists her own life has been unadventurous thus far. "Like many writers, I was a sickly child, which meant I lived my life through books during long incarcerations in bed." This led Cutler to a rich inner life. "Perhaps instead of living vicariously through others' fiction," she says, "I'm now doing it through my own!"
Contributing editor Linda L. Richards
is also the editor of January Magazine and a contributor to The Rap
Sheet. Her fifth novel, DEATH WAS IN THE PICTURE, will be published
St. Martin's Minotaur/Thomas Dunne January 2009.
