The next, long-awaited installment in the Sydney Brennan PI Mysteries, Memory Lane, is available for pre-order. Woo-hoo!
Until its release, I’ll be continuing the Getting to Know Sydney (Again) campaign here at the blog and in my Newsletter, wherein I re-introduce you to your favorite Tallahassee private investigator. I’ve been pinning old—I mean, classic—posts about the series to the top of the blog as I reread the books. Be sure to check those out.
But since I’ve been focused on Book Two lately, I feel like there’s something I need to add to the conversation. Let’s call it an authorial confession…
Secrets in Stockbridge is weird.
I don’t mean it has flesh-eating zombies or shortbread recipes. (Both are totally fine, but neither belongs in a Sydney Brennan PI Mystery.)
In SIS, an old boyfriend hires Syd, then entices her to report on her investigation at his New York family estate. (The wily bugger bribes her with Red Sox tickets.) And then—not really a spoiler alert because this is a mystery—Someone Dies.
So the story itself totally fits Sydney, but… The weirdness issue is sort of a space-time continuum thing.
I’ll explain.
All of Sydney Brennan’s books stand alone. You can pick up any one at random and follow the plot. That said, you won’t always have the emotional context for what’s happening, and you may miss some big picture (think series arc) types of implications.
When I wrote SIS, I specifically intended to write a book that truly stood A-LONE. Like the cheese in the nursery song. (Farmer in the Dell, for those of you squinting at the screen.) I wanted SIS to be so alone that you wouldn’t miss anything at all if you hadn’t read Back to Lazarus. Not just in terms of plot, but in terms of experience.
This was partly to maximize to reader enjoyment, but also for marketing reasons. I won’t go into the details, but I was trying (unsuccessfully) to follow best practices at the time for optimizing a series and its reader magnet.
(A reader magnet is the cookie I offer readers to let me chunter in their inboxes from time to time. Speaking of which, have you read the Syd stories you’ll find in the sidebar? 😉)
You can see Stockbridge’s alone-ness in the setting. Sydney’s investigations don’t always take place in Tallahassee, but they do cover the same general area. Except for Secrets in Stockbridge.
Secrets in Stockbridge is the only Sydney Brennan book (so far) that takes place outside of Florida.
The action occurs primarily in an isolated, fictional New York town. But when does SIS take place?
I include a note at the beginning of every Sydney Brennan book to orient readers as to time (mid 2000s) and placement in the series. As I write this post, the SIS author note says:
This novella is a standalone work. It takes place in the summer of 2005, approximately one year after the events in Back to Lazarus, if you like to keep track of those things.
Author’s Note
But does it? Does it really? 🤔
The story contains hints that Sydney has endured the trauma in Back to Lazarus, but no specifics, and no real connecting character or plot threads. So much so that—according to an Amazon review—I lost at least one reader who wanted an explanation for the absence of Mike and Richard (the investigator and attorney in BTL that are key figures in later books in the series).
So that’s problematic, but the bigger difficulty with SIS is that when I started writing the subsequent Syd books, I suddenly realized that I couldn’t wait until fall of 2005 to start Book Three. I needed more time to squeeze in a bunch of stories between Back to Lazarus and a later book in the series that will change everything. (Sounds ominous, huh? I can’t wait!)
In fact, according to one of my many cheater files, every other book I’ve written in the series—from The Perils of Panacea to the upcoming Memory Lane—would technically take place before the summer of 2005. In other words, <gulp> before Secrets in Stockbridge.
In fact, according to one of my many cheater files, every other book I’ve written in the series—from The Perils of Panacea to the upcoming Memory Lane—would technically take place before the summer of 2005. In other words, <gulp> before Secrets in Stockbridge.
It’s almost as if there’s a Sydney Brennan multiverse and Secrets in Stockbridge exists in a parallel timeline.
So what’s a writer to do? I honestly don’t know. I’ve even considered pulling the book out of the series, but a previous attempt to manipulate the series structure (separating novels and novellas) scarred me so badly my chest still seizes up just thinking about it.
I’m open to suggestions. In the meantime, just enjoy Secrets in Stockbridge for what it is. A fine cheddar displayed on its own board… with several bottles of Sydney Brennan wine nearby. Because the cheese can stand alone, but it shouldn’t be abandoned. 📚🍷