Guest Post: Inspiration for ‘The Deadly Series’ by Kate Parker

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• About The Author
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Guest Post

Authors are often asked where they get the ideas for their stories. In the case of The Deadly Series, the impetus, I have to admit, was curiosity.

A few years ago, when I was living in New Bern, North Carolina, the town received an influx of Congolese refugees. Most of them attended our church, since our minister, the Reverend Kalonji, was born and raised in the Congo. Besides speaking various African languages, many of the refugees spoke French since the Congo was a Belgian colony until about 1960, but not English. They were used to a warmer climate than we had. Their child rearing philosophy was greatly different from ours, much more relaxed with everyone in the community more involved than the way Americans raise their children.

Even more difficult was that so many of them had to leave family members behind in refugee camps. I spoke to one young man who showed me a picture of his wife and baby daughter. He told me, in halting English, that he was working to earn the thousands of dollars it costs to pay for the background checks and visas to enable them to join him in the United States.

How would the Congolese refugees adapt to their new country? I wondered about that, and it led me to wonder how any group of refugees adjust to being uprooted by war and oppression. The story of the Congolese refugees in New Bern is still being written, but the story of refugees of Nazi oppression before and during World War II was nearly completed by the time I was born. Using the historical records of Britain before and during the war, I can explore these themes in a series of murder mysteries.

And so, The Deadly Series was born. I’ve now entered 1939, and plan four books for that year. Two before the war begins and two after. With the coming of war, we’ll see Olivia’s focus, and that of everyone around her, change. How will this affect the German refugees? We shall see.

Deadly Travel, set in March and April of 1939, is the fifth in the Deadly Series. Olivia Denis is called on to investigate the murder of a young Quaker woman who is scheduled to travel with the next Kindertransport. The request comes from Sir Malcolm, the head of Britain’s counterintelligence service, a man Olivia has worked with before and doesn’t trust.

Kate Parker is the author of three series, the Deadly Series of pre-World War II mysteries, the Milliner Mysteries of 1905, and the Victorian Bookshop Mysteries. All take place in London.

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About The Book

Travel to Berlin in 1939 is treacherous. Carrying out two clandestine missions in the enemy capital could prove deadly… In Kate Parker’s Deadly Travel

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About The Book:

When a Quaker Kindertransport chaperone is murdered in the East End of London, Britain’s counterintelligence spymaster tasks Olivia Denis to join the group rescuing children from Nazi Germany. Olivia must find not only a killer, but a traitor relaying sensitive material to the enemy.

Once they reach Berlin, Olivia discovers she must rescue the family of an imprisoned British spy before she leaves the next day. An attack convinces Olivia the family’s two young sons are in grave danger, but where to hide them?

Can she protect the boys before they become the traitor’s next victims?

Deadly Travel, Book Five of the Deadly series, is for fans of World War II era spy thrillers and classical cozy mysteries, of intrepid lady sleuths with spunk and smarts. No explicit cursing, sex, or violence.

Continue your journey today into Olivia’s world of intrigue in London in the days leading up to war.

Book Links:  Amazon – B&N – Kobo

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About The Author

Kate Parker caught the reading bug early, and the writing bug soon followed. She’s always lived in a house surrounded by books and dust bunnies. After spending a dozen years in North Carolina, she moved to Colorado. The Rocky Mountains are beautiful, but she’d developed a love of wide rivers, warmer and wetter weather, and fast-growing greenery that sent her hurrying back to North Carolina.

Deadly Travel is the fifth book in the Deadly Series, and Kate’s plan is to follow it quickly with Deadly Darkness, both set in 1939 in the days leading up to war. There are at least three more of the Deadly Series coming that will bring the beginning of the war to Olivia’s doorstep. Kate reports that she is having fun creating new stories to entertain readers and chaos to challenge her characters.

Author Links: Website / Facebook / Goodreads / BookBub

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