An Interview with Author, Maureen Jennings

By Jill Amadio

It hasn’t yet run as long as Agatha Christie’s “Mousetrap” in the West End, the theater district of London, U.K.,  but Maureen Jennings’ Detective Murdoch television series is well on its way to a record fourteenth year for the mystery author. A “Brummie” from Birmingham in the north of  England who emigrated to Canada as a 17-year-old and now lives in Toronto, she lends her British roots to one of her three series, the World War II DCI Tom Tyler cases, setting the books in the market town of Ludlow, in the Shropshires, U.K.

“I visit Ludlow annually”, she said a few days after being honored at the 2019 Left Coast Crime conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. “I love being in Ludlow. I wanted to write the Tyler series there because of the war years, which affected people so deeply.”

Her first foray into creative writing was three stage plays, all of which were produced, although she says, at very small theaters. She then turned to books.

As one of the top and most popular mystery authors in Canada, the Jennings’ Murdoch Mysteries (titled The Artful Detective in the US) was brought to the viewing public first as three Movies of the Week and then as a television series. Set in Toronto in Victorian days, ‘When people tended to be much more aware of good manners and polite behavior,’ the crime novels number eight so far, although the TV episodes number many more. A team of six writers creates the scripts, with Maureen writing one show a season and acting as creative consultant for the others.

After ensuring that the Murdoch books were pretty well established, but still writing a couple more later, Maureen launched the private investigator Christine Morris series. Although its future as a film is currently in limbo, she notes.

Another project, a drama titled  ‘Bomb Girls,’ was a concept derived from a Tom Tyler mystery and has become a TV series, written by Maureen with a partner. Thus, Maureen successfully mixes stage, screen, and literature. Indeed, she is regarded as a national treasure in Canada and has won so many literary awards in North America and in other countries, that it staggers the mind. The Toronto Star newspaper named her as one of 180 people who have influenced the history of their city through her mysteries.

So who is Maureen Jennings?

Married to photographer Iden Ford, who is also her literary agent, she has a constant reminder (at her feet) of her fictional Toronto detective. A dog called Murdoch. ‘He requires a daily morning walk, and that sets me up beautifully. I come back and can get going. In the evenings, I have less energy and usually use that time to read and do research.

As regards the books, I wanted to commune with ghosts of the past in Toronto, which has largely disappeared, and [back then] it was easier to include forensics, which was not as advanced as it is now.’

All the Brits from the Golden Age were and still are her inspiration, especially Arthur Conan Doyle and John Le Carré.  ‘I have always loved reading mysteries. Fell in love with Sherlock, still am. I like the notion of two-for-one, that is, you get a good story and learn something at the same time. For me, that’s typically history, which I love,’ she said.

Maureen calls getting her first book published a stroke of luck when Ruth Calvin at St Martin’s Press took a look at her manuscript at the urging of a friend, and bought it. Since then, she has mastered just about every writing discipline: books, scripts, short stories, and poetry. Yet this woman who streams so many, many words didn’t start out to be a writer. She studied psychology and philosophy at the University of Windsor and received an M.A. in English Literature at the University of Toronto.

She turned to teaching at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, then practiced as a psychotherapist. Maureen believes that her expertise in that field has helped her create characters that are believable and their motives credible, although keeping them straight requires making careful notes. Her latest is the PI Charlotte Frayne series, starting with ‘The Heat Wave,’ which launched in March 2019 and brings the character into contact with Murdoch’s police detective son.

Her writing process involves outlining in detail. ‘That might change in small ways as the book grows, but I have found that if I don’t do that, I waste a terrible amount of time. I know some writers say they just start off, but I couldn’t imagine that. It would be like getting in the car and saying I’m going to drive somewhere now, but I don’t know where exactly. I’m not that kind of traveler. I have to have the hotel booked.’

A lover of history and a meticulous researcher, Maureen delves into primary sources, including newspapers and Coroner and Chief Constable reports, bringing her skills in particular to one of her latest mysteries, ‘A Journeyman to Grief,’ a recounting of life in the small black community in 19^th century Toronto, much of it unknown to most of the city’s present residents.

Maureen’s biggest challenge?

‘Making sure Tyler didn’t look and sound like Murdoch. As for themes, they sort of come to me unbidden as I am researching. For instance, I was recently reading about Safety in the Workplace and how late that was in being established. That immediately became the focus of my next book, which is set in 1936.’

Any advice for first-time writers?

‘Oh dear. I know how hard it can be and how easy it is to get discouraged. But I absolutely believe that passion plus preparation leads to opportunity. I love horse racing and often think of it as a metaphor. Most of the horses and jockeys are more or less of equal ability, but the ones that win do so because they seize the opportunity when the gap opens up ahead of them and they gallop through. They’re ready. They’ve done their homework.

Also, I don’t think you should ever stop studying the craft, whether it be novels or theatre or film.’