Authors Kiss with Sara Troy and her guest James Sulzer, on air from January 6th
All That Smolders is a New Murder Mystery Focuses on the Search for Redemption on a New England Island with a Buried Secret.
A past he can’t escape. A secret that won’t stay buried. A murder that changes everything.
It’s 1980, a time of peace and tranquility on a legendary island off the coast of New England. Inhabiting the island is a vibrant cast of locals that includes scallopers, tradespeople, and a mysterious recluse -the wealthiest man in Massachusetts. But that peace is shattered by the murder of a prominent lawyer, a pillar of the community.
After writing two literary novels inspired by Emily Dickinson and John Keats, he turned to the mystery genre with All That Smolders, a shift that invited new creative challenges and preparation. Set on a small New England island, the story is deeply informed by his family’s more than forty years of living on Nantucket, where the rhythms, isolation, and intimacy of island life naturally lend themselves to mystery. His protagonist, Peter Christie, is given a compelling backstory as a distant relative of Agatha Christie, creating subtle parallels between Peter’s life and that of the famed author. Scalloping plays a central role in the novel—not only as a community tradition and industry, but also as a potential cover for murder—drawing directly from his own experience as a scalloper. While a murder mystery relies on pace, action, and carefully placed misdirection, he also explores how to craft characters who are vivid and memorable, revealing how he selected and shaped his cast, whether inspired loosely by people he has known or imagined from the deeper truths of human nature.
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James Sulzer was an Intensive English major at Yale, worked in television for a number of years, then moved with his family year-round to the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. In his early years on the island, he labored as a commercial scalloper and sang professionally in a barbershop quartet, then taught English for three decades. Other published works include a novel about Emily Dickinson, The Voice at the Door and a novel about John Keats, Writ in Water, as well as the novel Nantucket Daybreak and a trilogy of middle grade novels for children, The Card People. All That Smolders is his first murder mystery and is written in honor of his mother, who was a big fan of Agatha Christie. Sulzer’s novel is heavily inspired by Agatha Christie. He even creates a backstory for his protagonist that places him as one of Christie’s relatives.
https://www.facebook.com/james.sulzer.35
www.instagram.com/jimfromnextdoor
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvfC31mFZv4
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