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Part of a murder mystery’s charm is the narrative movement from chaos to order. The natural balance of justice is overturned and it’s up to ordinary people – rather than the law – to fix it. The uncovering of clues, red herrings, the many suspicious characters – all of these are essential to a good murder mystery.
What happens when you set a murder mystery in a fantasy realm? You can imagine our excitement at finding a book that is basically Murder on the Orient Express, but it’s secondary world fantasy, they’re all on a boat, and everyone has magical powers. This is Voyage of the Damned by Frances White.
Just in time for the end of Pride Month, we had an absolute blast chatting to Frances: about queer normative worlds, how to write a mystery and, of course, murder on a magical boat.
Frances White is the Sunday Times and USA Today bestselling author of Voyage of the Damned, a fantasy murder mystery at sea. Born in Leicester and now a Nottingham resident, Frances is a creative writing graduate from Royal Holloway University of London. She has a soft spot for writing unlikely, flawed, messy heroes and loves mixing humour and heartbreak. Frances is passionate about bringing more LGBTQIA+ representation and fat positivity into fantasy. When not writing, she can be found sewing costumes or researching obscure historical facts. She also loves to perform on stage, with a fondness for musicals and Shakespeare.
