Character Interview – Emma Starrs of How to Book a Murder
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself--both something we learn from [the story] and something that readers might not guess?
Thank you for having me! My name is Emma Starrs, and while my current work in How to Book a Murder involves selling books and planning literary events, I’m also writing a novel. Readers might not guess how anxious I am to have that published someday.
2) How did you first meet your writer?
Nora Haven, the famous mystery writer, is my aunt, so she introduced herself when I was born (that counts, right?).
3) Want to dish about him/her?
She’s an author, professor, and bookseller; I would love to follow in her footsteps.
4) Why do you think that your life has ended up being in a book?
Probably because I found myself in the role of amateur sleuth after the murder mystery dinner party I planned ended with a real murder.
5) Who's your favorite character? Why?
It’s a tie between Lucy Starrs, my sister, and Nora Haven, our aunt. We have so much fun together, whether we’re selling books or solving mysteries.
6) Who's your least favorite character? Why?
Tabitha Louise Saxton Lyme Harmon Gladstone Baxter, who has been my nemesis since school. Talk about a Mean Girl…
7) What's next for you?
In the second book, I’ll be helping out with the Silvercrest Library Gala, which turns out to be a more dangerous endeavor than one might expect!
About How to Book a Murder
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series 
Perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Kate Carlisle, in award-winning author Cynthia Kuhn’s series debut, small-town bookseller and literary event planner Emma Starrs is out to close the book on a killer intent on crashing the party.
To help save her family’s floundering Colorado bookstore, Starlit Bookshop, newly minted Ph.D. Emma Starrs agrees to plan a mystery-themed dinner party for her wealthy, well-connected high school classmate Tabitha Baxter. It’s a delightful evening of cocktails and conjecture until Tabitha’s husband, Tip—hosting the affair in the guise of Edgar Allan Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin—winds up murdered.
In a heartbeat, Emma and her aunt Nora, a famous mystery writer, become suspects. Emma is sure the party’s over for Starlit events, until celebrated author Calliope Nightfall, whose gothic sensibilities are intrigued by the circumstances, implores the bookseller to create a Poe-themed launch event for her latest tome. Throwing a bash to die for while searching for additional clues is already enough to drive Emma stark raven mad, but another shocking crime soon reveals that Silvercrest has not yet reached the final chapter of the puzzling case.
Someone in this charming artistic community has murder on the mind, and if Emma cannot outwit the killer, she and her beloved aunt will land behind bars, to walk free nevermore.
About Cynthia Kuhn
Cynthia Kuhn is an English professor and author of the Starlit Bookshop Mysteries and the Lila Maclean Academic Mysteries. Her work has also appeared in Mystery Most Edible, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Copper Nickel, Prick of the Spindle, Mama PhD, and other publications. Honors include an Agatha Award, a William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant, and Lefty Award nominations. Originally from upstate New York, she lives in Colorado with her family. For more information, please visit cynthiakuhn.net.
Thank you so much for reading, reviewing, and hosting Emma!
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