Interview with Rosie Genova, Author of Murder on the Steel Pier (A Tess Mancini Time Travel Mystery)

What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write Murder on the Steel Pier (A Tess Mancini Time Travel Mystery)?

This is going to sound crazy, but one of my neighbors has a shiny black 1950s Buick that I would often pass on my morning walks. Seeing it really sparked my imagination and provided the premise of the story: What if a Millennial went to Atlantic City for a drunken birthday blowout and woke up the next morning in 1955? And then had to save her own grandfather from Death Row? I just ran with it, and Murder on the Steel Pier was born.

If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of Murder on the Steel Pier (A Tess Mancini Time Travel Mystery), what would they be?

There’s a Gershwin song that comes up in the story, “Someone to Watch Over Me,” sung by Frank Sinatra. It was recorded before my main character, Tess, was born, but she is moved by the song when she first hears it. And when Tess ends up in the 1950s, she indeed has to “watch over” her Italian ancestors, so I think the song is fitting..

What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?

I love the classics, particularly 19th century British literature, but my escape reading has always been mystery and romance. I love writing mysteries, but I’ve got a couple of rom-coms I’m also hoping to publish.

What books are on your TBR pile right now?

I’m on the middle of An Old, Cold Grave, by Fiona Wishaw. Waiting on my Kindle are Same Time Next Summer, by Annabelle Monaghan, The Witch Elm by Tana French, and Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout.

What scene in your book was your favorite to write?

It’s hard to choose as this book has been a labor of love for me. But I would have to say it’s the scene in which Tess shows up at the 1955 newspaper office where she works. It’s a bustling, noisy, smoke-filled place in which she’s the only woman. She refers to it as “a nicotine-infused man jungle” that she has to navigate. It was great fun to write the modern-day Tess clapping back at the guys.

Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)

I keep a little bit of candy in my desk to help me get through the afternoon malaise!

Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?

It’s never too late to be who you might have been, attributed to George Eliot.

If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?

I would hope they remember the immersive world of 1950s Atlantic City, as well as my sassy main character, Tess Mancini.

Rosie Genova is the author of the new book Murder on the Steel Pier (A Tess Mancini Time Travel Mystery)

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