Antony Johnston joins us for this week’s The Cozy 52 interview. Read on to find out more about his books (both cozy and not-so-cozy), why he started writing cozies, and a few of his favourite things.
Who or What is The Cozy 52? Each week I will be sharing an interview with someone involved with Cozy Mysteries – an author, blogger, Facebook Group host, podcaster, cover designer – so that we can showcase this amazing community! I hope you’ll discover some new authors, plus learn more about what goes on behind the scenes with the people who write, publish and promote cozy mysteries!
Introducing Antony Johnston
NAME: Antony Johnston
LIST ALL YOUR COZY MYSTERY SERIES: The Dog Sitter Detective (Series, starting with the book of the same name. Second book Death in Little Venice is due in 2024)
HOW ARE YOUR COZY MYSTERIES PUBLISHED? Traditional, published by Allison & Busby
The Q&A
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF
I’ve been a professional writer for more than twenty years, and you might have seen my work without knowing it. I’m best known for Atomic Blonde, the blockbuster movie starring Charlize Theron, which was based on my graphic novel. I also write the Brigitte Sharp spy thrillers, which are being developed for TV; videogames, including a string of horror titles such as Dead Space, ZombiU, and most recently Resident Evil Village; and I’ve written Marvel Comics superheroes such as Daredevil, Shang-Chi, and Luke Cage.
But what your readers really want to know about is my cosy writing! The Dog Sitter Detective is my first cosy crime novel, and I’m a lifelong reader of ‘amateur sleuth’ books and stories, as well as enjoying them on TV.
I live and work in north-west England, surrounded by trees, moors, and, whenever I can, dogs.
LIST THREE FUN FACTS ABOUT YOURSELF THAT WE WOULDN’T READ IN YOUR ‘OFFICIAL’ BIO.
- I’m a musician, and in my 20s I sang in several heavy metal bands
- Before becoming a full-time writer I was a senior graphic designer and art directed newsstand magazines
- I’m an NFL fan, which can be tough here in the UK. At one point in the late ’90s the only way I could experience the Super Bowl live was via BBC radio commentary…!
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START WRITING? WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO WRITE COZY MYSTERIES?
I’ve made up my own stories for as long as I can remember, and have been an avid reader since childhood. Even when working as a graphic designer I was always writing on the side, whether articles for magazines or fiction. So there wasn’t a single moment of inspiration; it’s something that’s always been there.
In terms of cosies, I’ve been reading ‘amateur sleuth’ stories since I was young, devouring series like The Famous Five and The Three Investigators, and then graduating to classic mysteries like Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple. I enjoy modern cosies like Kate Collins’ Flower Shop Mysteries and MC Beaton’s Agatha Raisin, and also watch a lot of British-style cosy crime TV shows, like Father Brown and Rosemary & Thyme.
With all of that in mind, you might be surprised to learn that The Dog Sitter Detective is the first cosy I’ve ever written!
I finally took the plunge during the initial Covid lockdown, when we were all feeling rather down and stressed out. I wasn’t really even thinking about publication. I just wanted to cheer myself up, and writing a humorous cosy featuring dogs – I’m a lifelong dog lover – was a good way to do that.
But after I finished the rough draft, I sent it to some author friends to see what they thought, and they all responded enthusiastically.
WHAT SUBGENRE(S) OR THEMES OF COZY MYSTERIES DO YOU WRITE?
I suppose you’d class it as pets, although there’s a wrinkle; Gwinny, the dog sitter detective herself, doesn’t have one of her own because she’s too busy acting and auditioning. So the dogs in each book are other people’s pets, which she’s been hired to look after – and in doing so inevitably stumbles across a puzzling murder, of course!
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR COZY MYSTERY SERIES. WHAT INSPIRES YOUR SERIES?
Guinevere ‘Gwinny’ Tuffel is a retired actress who gave up work a decade ago to care for her ill father. He’s now passed on, but it turns out the family was broke; all he’s left Gwinny is a paltry sum of money and a broken-down old house. So she decides to try and revive her acting career – not an easy task for a sixty-year-old woman.
Before then, though, she’s to attend the wedding of her best friend Tina, to a wealthy Italian business magnate, at Tina’s country house. But things take a bad turn when the groom is found dead before the ceremony – and Tina is accused of murder! Gwinny is determined to prove her friend’s innocence by uncovering the real killer, while also having to care for Tina’s expensive saluki hounds…
My initial aim with the book was simply to cheer myself up during the first Covid lockdown. But I chose this concept, and this character, because it combines many things I love or have experience of: amateur sleuths, dogs, and acting.
I grew up with dogs, and more recently owned sighthounds for fifteen years; during that time I also worked with rescue charities, helping out by fostering dogs, transporting them to new homes, and even carrying out home checks of prospective adopters on behalf of rescues. We lost both our hounds just before the pandemic, so the salukis in The Dog Sitter Detective are kind of a tribute to them; they’re not exactly the same as my old dogs, but they’re not entirely un-like them either…
As for acting, in the States you’d have called me a ‘theatre kid’. I took acting very seriously and was regularly involved in school, local, and community theatre. I wrote, acted, and directed in many productions, and came very close to studying drama at university. Although life took me in a different direction, I’ve always maintained that interest, and then having become more deeply involved in show business thanks to Atomic Blonde has given me further insight.
These elements all came together when I was creating The Dog Sitter Detective as a way to make something that I feel is unique, and will hopefully inspire me for many books to come!
WHY DO YOU THINK PEOPLE LOVE TO READ COZY MYSTERIES?
I think there are lots of different reasons, but some are more common than others.
Cosies generally take the view that everything will turn out all right in the end, and justice will be served. That’s a really powerful message, which not all crime fiction adheres to, but with a cosy you’re just about guaranteed to see the villain get their comeuppance.
There’s also a focus on the puzzle – the best cosies, in my opinion, feature real brain-bending crimes that readers can try to figure out as they read along. Of course, when you’re the author you hope people won’t succeed! But I believe the emphasis on a puzzle, rather than brutality, is a huge part of the appeal of cosies.
Finally, there’s the characters. All good fiction contains well-written characters, but with a cosy they’re really front and centre. Readers return again and again because they want to spend time with the detective and their companions, just like a long-running TV show.
ASIDE FROM BEING AN AUTHOR, ARE YOU INVOLVED IN THE COZY COMMUNITY IN ANY OTHER WAY?
I don’t run anything, but I do take part in groups. I’m a former vice chair of the Crime Writers’ association, and still do a lot of work for the association: helping to promote other authors, working on the Dagger awards, giving technical support, and so on. But that’s across all crime, not just cosy.
WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE WRITERS?
I read a wide variety of genres, so this could go on for ever! But I’ll stick to cosy and cosy-adjacent authors I love to read:
- Agatha Christie (obviously! But mostly for Miss Marple)
- Vaseem Khan (Inspector Chopra and Malabar House)
- Fiona Veitch Smith (Poppy Denby Investigates)
- MC Beaton (Agatha Raisin)
- Julia Chapman (Dales Detective)
- Kate Collins (Flower Shop Mysteries)
- Richard Osman (Thursday Murder Club)
- Bonnie MacBird (Sherlock Holmes continuations)
IF YOU WERE MAROONED ON A DESERTED ISLAND, WHAT 3 BOOKS WOULD YOU WANT WITH YOU?
Can we cheat and bring a compilation? If so, the complete Sherlock Holmes would be in there, for sure.
Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson; it’s my favourite novel of his, somehow feeling like sci-fi even though it takes place in the present day, and every time I re-read it I find something new to enjoy.
The third would have to be whatever crime novel I’m currently reading when I got whisked away to the island, because I need to know whodunit!
DO YOU HAVE ANY PROJECTS COMING UP THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH US?
I just finished writing the second Dog Sitter Detective book, Death in Little Venice, which will be out in early 2024. In that book, Gwinny stays at an ageing rock singer’s Little Venice houseboat to look after his border collie while he’s on tour. But during the local Canal Cranival, the singer’s dead body is discovered – because he never made it out of London…
The Quickie 5
- FAVOURITE FOOD: To eat: pizza. To cook: pasta
- BEVERAGE OF CHOICE: Alcoholic: Laphroaig, a deliciously peaty Islay single malt. Non-alcoholic: A good hot cup of tea!
- MOST PRIZED POSSESSION: The first suit I had made by Savile Row tailor, for the premiere of Atomic Blonde. It’s lovely, of course, but what I really prize about it is the memories and occasion that it represents
- FAVOURITE SEASON? Autumn. Still warm, but cool enough to wear a scarf
- FAVOURITE VACATION SPOT? Anywhere I can relax, wander around old buildings, and read!
To keep up to date with Antony Johnston online, you can connect with him on:
THE DOG SITTER DETECTIVE | AUTHOR WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK
