Article Index

Victoria Abbott
Mary Jane and Victoria Maffini
Book Collector Mystery series

maffini_maryjanevictoriaOn writing together
Mary Jane: Victoria showed me how to lighten up, take more chances, and enjoy more wimsey in the writing (and Wimsey too, but that's the next book, The Sayers Swindle).

Victoria: In the course of writing The Christie Curse, my mother taught me about using the peaks and valleys of plotting in order to keep people engaged.

On reading together
When Victoria was just learning to read, we enjoyed Frog and Toad are Friends (an I Can Read book by Arnold Lobel ). We loved these gentle, funny characters and their collaboration. We still do. Later, we shared the Narnia series, especially The Lion,The Witch and the Wardrobe, read together in the "good" living room on the sofa. This was such a special time cuddled up together with books that were magical, memorable, and a little bit scary.

Victoria Abbott is a collaboration between the always funny and creative artist, photographer, and short story author, Victoria Maffini and her mother, Mary Jane Maffini, award-winning author of three mystery series and two dozen short stories. Their three miniature dachshunds are understandably outraged that a pug and some Siamese cats have wiggled their way into the series. Visit their sites victoria-abbott.com and maryjanemaffini.com.

A Victoria Abbott Reading Listabbott_thechristiecurse

Book Collector Mystery series
The Christie Curse (2013)
The Sayers Swindle (2013)

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Peter Swanson on Reading for the Season
Wednesday, 15 September 2021

Naomi Hirahara’s powerful new book, Clark and Division, follows the Ito family in 1944.

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Naomi Hirahara on "Clark and Division"
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Jane Stanton Hitchcock on Giving Voice to Great Reads
Thursday, 18 October 2018

"For me, the books I read were the call—the call to adventure, to thinking, to acknowledging other points of view. But to complete the ritual, I needed to respond."

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Reading: A Call and Response
Saturday, 16 June 2018

Cynthia RiggsI am surrounded by books. Every room, every space in my large, sprawling 1750s house is full of books...

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Cynthia Riggs on Living in a House of Books
Monday, 30 April 2018

Our history and experiences can define us, inspire our actions, and as writers impact our words and stories. Mine most definitely has: my father was a small-time gangster. Really.

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My Book: The Gangster’s Daughter
Thursday, 12 April 2018

"My ah-ha moment came when I read The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.... That was it for me – I was off to the races."

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Jacqueline Winspear on The Great Gatsby
Sunday, 01 April 2018

Nietzsche once wrote, “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”

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My Book: Head Wounds
Thursday, 15 February 2018

"Mystery books were daring and exciting, firing up my imagination and making me yearn to become a girl detective or even a secret agent. They also empowered me to make up impromptu ghost stories around the campfire for my Girl Scout troop and sneak into the cemetery at night on a dare."

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Laura Childs on Growing Up Reading
Thursday, 27 July 2017

vietselaineCR CristianaPecheanuFire and Ashes, the latest Angela Richman Death Investigator mystery, is an exploration of a fatal fire. To research this novel, Viets delved into the devastating consequences of junk science and arson investigations.

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Fire and Ashes and Arson