I am very grateful to the charming Fly On the Wall team for contacting the author Donna Moore, since I love the premise of her new book. I am delighted that Donna has agreed to stay with me to tell me everything about it.
Let’s find out more.
Keep Donna Moore
Welcome Linda bag Donna Thanks for accepting to stay with me.
Thank you very much for inviting me, pretty! I am delighted to be here. I love your blog.
Thanks Donna.
And you have a good comfortable space here to ‘stay’. I also have good authority that you serve delicious cookies to your guests!
Oh yes, help yourself.
Tell me, which of your books have you brought to share tonight and why have you chosen it?
I have brought my new novel, The Diablo Draperwhich is a historical novel of criminal fiction set in Glasgow in 1920.
Is the follow -up of Contemptwhich was established from the end of the 1870s to 1919, and it is the story of three generations of women, grandmother, mother and daughter, that each had their own struggles against inequality and injustice.
I love historical fiction. So what can we expect from one night in The Diablo Draper?
Well, I hope you enjoy the company of three very different characters, which are unlikely in the fight to discover the truth about a scandal in the far stores. First, there is Mabel, one of Glasgow’s first women police (or “police” as the newspapers of the time would have referred to her!), Whose story continues from the description. Then there is Johnnie, who is an expert thief in an All-Woman gang called Saint Than’s Avengers. Finally, we have Beatrice, a war widow that runs an employment agency for women. There is crime and intrigue and, hopefully, a small pinch of humor and lightness between darkness.
That sounds fabulous. I really need to meet Mabel, Johnnie and Beatrice as soon as possible. I’m looking forward to it arriving The Diablo Draper Leaving May 1.
What else have you brought and why have you brought it?
Well, I brought with me some different things. Three of them represent my three main characters and then I brought an extra, to have fun. And I thought we could hear one of Mabel’s favorite songs while we looked at them. It is called someday, honey and was written in 1919 and was really popular during the 1920s. This version is from Alberta Hunter, who apparently was the first person to record it.
Wow. What a voice.
First, Mabel and I talked about her offering. I said that I should bring something serious to represent your professional life in the police force, but I wanted me to give you a recipe for one of your favorite desserts (you love desserts!)
Not everyone?
This was also one of the favorites of both his mother and his grandmother and is mentioned in contempt, as well as in the Diable’s Draper. Is Pitivier Albaricoque That is a traditional puff pastry. I have adapted it a bit to make it easier for a modern chef, but if you are anxious to make your own puff pastry, then Mabel would definitely approve it! It can also be done with other fruits, and like a tasty dish with chicken, ham and cheese, or roasted vegetables.
Wow. I do not bake, since I am always fighting my weight, but Mabel could have convinced me to do this!
Johnnie has given me something completely different for you. Johnnie is in a very successful gang of All-Woman and is one of his best thieves. The first time we know her in The Diablo DraperShe is an elegant wedding with the aim of helping some of the wedding gifts. When I was investigating the book, I discovered that at the beginning of the 20th Centurio, the weddings of society were completely covered in the local press. Not only could you find out what the brides and bridesmaids carried, the flowers they carried and where the reception was, but there was also a complete list of gifts and who gave them. This article by Oban Times’s advertiser and Argyllshire in May 1920 is a beautiful example. The article gives details of the wedding of Miss Peggy Ellix and Mr. Le Dunlop, who had a reception in Invertgarry House with a bonfire, dance and “general joy”, along with a partial list that shows sixty -three gifts.
Partial wedding gift list: Oban Times and Argyllshire May 8, 1920.
Some of these gifts came to The Diablo DraperIncluding a set of illustrated books of eight volumes on World War I, which I am not sure that I think it is a very cheerful wedding gift. The bride seemed to work quite well, since many of the gifts were clearly pieces of elegant jewels for her, but I was glad to see that the boyfriend received a reel for her trout bar. One of the gifts to get to the scene was an umbrella. I don’t know who it was for, but I think that the next time I go to a wedding, I will ignore the gift record and buy an umbrella.
Genius. Much more useful than a Muffin dish!
I love the fragments of social history that you get from this type of article. As a writer, they give me a lot, not only for the most select wedding gifts of the day, the material and colors of the attire of the bridal party (Miss Ellice carried white silk Charmeuse, by the way) or the menu at the wedding breakfast, but they are also really useful for the names of the characters. The umbrella giver, for example, is called Eglantine. I have saved that name for future use! I lose myself in several research rabbit holes, and most of what I find never reaches the page, but I hope you get to writing in some way.
I think many authors do that Donna. It seems to me that you also have a lot of material for future books.
The use of Johnnie for newspapers is much more practical. She is not interested in the reports of the event after the weddings itself, but it is very Interested in advertisements of the next weddings, only the elegant, of course, where it is announced that Lady This and the honorable they will attend, because she knows where all the most select gifts will be exhibited.
An ideal opportunity!
Complete the trio of main characters is Beatrice. It is greater than Mabel and Johnnie, and a widow of war that runs an employment agency for women. She wanted her to bring a photograph of a recent tour that I made, which goes behind the scene of the Central Glasgow train station. It was a fascinating tour, which takes him to a trip to the past and under the tracks, revealing a Victorian platform in disuse and discovering stories of the people who used to work there. However, what seemed more surprising and moving was the information that, some floors under the main station, part of the building had been used as temporary mortuary during the first months of World War I. Some artifacts of this period were found in warehouses and wardrobes in disuse, including a wheelchair made of a child’s PRAM and a springboard.
Glasgow Central Tour artifacts (author’s photo)
The bodies would take this improvised mortuary and placed in rows on stretchers, covered by blankets. Family members would walk through those ranks of bodies to try to identify their loved ones. If they did, it depended on them to bring the body to give their son, husband or brother an adequate burial. The men who were out of work, too old to fight or injured would be waiting at the central station to earn some cents to raise the bodies of the various stairs. It was very moving to hear that story.
That sounds fascinating and moving.
As for my own gift, I have brought you a photo of the Baroness Elsa Von Freytag-Lloringhoven, a German avant-garde poet and artist, who can actually have been the creator of the famous Urinal art of porcelain art, generally attributed to Marce Duchamp. He lived in New York for several years and was well known in Greenwich Village due to his artistic clothing style: with a coal scout in the head, postal stamps on his cheeks and adorning his attire with things he found on the street: curtain rings, toys for children, flashing lights and golden vegetables. I am fascinated by its history and I used it as an inspiration for a minor character, the Countess of the Dadaist artist Colette von der Weid, who was an absolute joy of writing.
Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Lloringhoven. Photo of the Congress Library.
My God! She looks and sounds a lot of character.
Thank you very much for staying with me to chat about The Diablo Draper and the research that has entered it. An absolute reading sounds.
Thank you again, pretty, for allowing me to stay with you and chat. And thanks for tea and delicious homemade cookies. Sorry, but it seems that I have eaten them all!
Oh, so you have it. It doesn’t matter. Put on the kettle for another cup and give readers some more details about The Diablo Draper.
The Diablo Draper
From the author of ‘Contempt‘
When the whispers of abuse in the department stores of Arrol arrive in Mabel, a specific police woman, knows that she must act. Alisting Johnnie’s help, a cunning thief, and Beatrice, an intelligent businesswoman, embark on a dangerous trip to discover the truth.
Located in the context of Glasgow of the 1920s, where the voices of women are often silenced, this exciting story intertwines crime, justice and the struggle for equality. As the trio comes to expose the scandal, they realize that in a world where women are rarely believed, their own lives can be at stake.
Posted by Fly on the Wall on May 1, The Diablo Draper It is available here.
About Donna Moore
Donna Moore is the author of criminal fiction and historical fiction. His first novel, a private -eyed parody Go to Helena HandbasketHe won the left -handed prize for the majority of the criminal fiction novel and his second novel, Old dogsIt was preselected for the Lefty and Last Laugh Awards. His short stories have been published in several anthologies and his story inspired by Cornell Woolrich, first that Dream, then Die was preselected for an Edgar award in 2023. In his daily work, he works as a literacy tutor for adults for marginalized and vulnerable women. He has a doctorate in creative writing about the history of women and gender violence, and his third novel, ContemptSet in Victorian and Eduardian Scotland and that covered three generations of ‘hysterical women’ who experience systemic corruption and injustice, it was published in October 2023. The follow -up, The Diablo DraperIt will be published in May 2025 by Fly On The Wall Press.
For more information about Donna, visit your website or look for it in Bluesky and Instagram.
