Katie Oliver is…On the Writing Block!

Sherry Ickes
Jul 22
4 min read

Who here likes Jane Austen? Well, this next author certainly does! Join me as we talk about a cozy mystery series with a little vintage flair. But we first need to introduce the woman behind the mysteries…

Katie Oliver is the Amazon bestselling author of the romantic comedy, Prada and Prejudice, book one in the Dating Mr. Darcy series. After completing a second series, Marrying Mr. Darcy, she switched genres to write a cozy mystery series. The first book in the Jane Austen Tea Society Mystery series, Pride, Prejudice, and Peril, was published by Berkley in December 2021. A Murderous Persuasion followed in January 2022, and Cyanide and Sensibility was published in December 2023.

Katie lives in South Florida along with her husband and an ever-growing stack of cozy mysteries waiting to be read. You can learn more about Katie and her books at Katie Oliver.com or Penguin Random House, and on X (@Katieoliver01), Instagram, or Facebook (KatieOliverWriter). You can also follow her on BookBub.

Who is your favorite mystery sleuth? (Books, TV, amateur and professional alike)

Favorite amateur sleuth - It’s difficult to name just one - there are so many excellent amateur detectives to choose from. Agatha Raisin, Miss Marple, Father Brown, Miss Fisher, Hercule Poirot…

Nancy Drew tops the list. She was the first fictional sleuth I encountered. I was eleven when a neighbor gave me a box of her college-bound daughter’s Nancy Drew mysteries. What a treasure trove!

The books spanned the 1940s through the 1960s, with illustrations of Nancy driving everything from a roadster to a convertible. She had a boyfriend, Ned Nickerson, and she solved mysteries with her best friends, George Fayne and Bess Marvin. There was never a dull moment and no clue left undiscovered as Nancy searched tirelessly for the truth.

Who are two authors that have inspired your writing?

I enjoy Laura Childs’ Tea Shop Mysteries, featuring the intrepid Charleston tea shop owner and sleuth, Theodosia Browning, as well as her Scrapbooking Mystery series. Carmela Bertrand and bestie Ava Gruiex are as lively and entertaining as the French Quarter of New Orleans where the books take place. The settings are vivid and the characters (and plots) are always full of twists and surprises.

Growing up, I loved reading Mary Stewart’s romantic suspense books. The European settings — Corfu, Austria, Vienna, Athens —never disappointed, and I could relate to her characters… ordinary young women who found themselves in extraordinary (and often dangerous) circumstances. Oh, and they usually crossed paths with an intriguing (and handsome) young man along the way.

Any advice for other authors?

Read everything you can, in every genre. Write what speaks to you the most. Don’t focus on trends or the hottest mashup genre, but write the book of your heart. If you put passion into what you do, it will show in your story… and it will interest an editor.

Do the necessary things to promote yourself and your book, but don’t lose sight of the most important thing — the story itself. Craft the best book you can. Make your characters real, with problems and desires the reader can relate to.

It’s more difficult than ever to get traditionally published. Or you can go the indie route and self-publish. Whichever path you choose, do your due diligence. Connect with other writers and readers; learn the nuts and bolts of crafting a good story; and most important of all, write a book that you’d love to read.

Are there any animals in your book? If so, describe them and how involved they are in the investigation.

Phaedra Brighton is the heroine of my cozy mystery series, the Jane Austen Tea Shop mysteries. She’s a professor of English at Somerset University and a noted Jane Austen scholar… but very much a modern woman.

She has an on-again, off-again relationship with Mark Selden, a fellow university professor. But the main male in Phaedra’s life is her Siamese cat, Wickham.

Wickham, like his namesake in Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, is independent, self-centered, and always has an eye on the main chance. But when things get dicey, Phaedra’s intrepid cat is ready to jump into the fray. As long as there’s a treat in it for him afterwards…

What is Pride, Prejudice, and Peril about?

Phaedra Brighton is perfectly content with her life of lecturing college students, gossiping with her best friends, and dreaming of Mr. Darcy. She is a young, respected (if somewhat peculiar) English professor, and her expertise lies in all things Jane Austen—but she knows that the closest she’ll ever get to being a real-life Elizabeth Bennet is in her dreams.

When Who Wants to Marry Mr. Darcy?, a new reality TV show, starts filming at her best friend Charlene’s estate, Phaedra is intrigued. And when the producer asks her to lend her Austenian knowledge as a consultant on the show, she’s over the moon. But on the first day of filming, when Charlene’s new husband is found electrocuted and Charlene herself is accused of the crime, Phaedra comes crashing back to reality.

With murder on the syllabus and her best friend in dire straits, there’s no Mr. Darcy around to help Phaedra—she’ll have to get to the bottom of this mystery herself.