Do you have any idea how difficult it is to write a mystery? Any mystery. I don’t just mean following in the footsteps of Agatha Christie or anything like that. I mean mystery easy books, graphic novels, picture books, YA novels, you name it! It’s hard, man. I feel like a person needs to have a particular knack for the genre. Every year I look at the books nominated for the Edgar Awards in the young person’s category and every year I’m a bit shamefaced to admit that I just don’t know most mentioned.

This year, however, may be different. You see, when I spotted the fact that Dianne Salerni had a new novel out, and a mystery novel at that, I was instantly intrigued. Salerni was responsible for one of my favorite novels for kids in 2023, The Carrefour Curse. This book undoubtedly would have less time travel and magical powers in it, but there was a fair chance that it might also have a creaky old house, duplicitous grandfathers, secrets, lies, and a focus on family. Turns out, I was right. So, naturally, I wanted to talk to Dianne about it.

Here’s the plot description of The Tontine Caper (out now) from the publisher, in case you’re curious:

Eleven-year-old orphan Nico Lombardi has been unfairly indentured at a remote mountain inn for five years now. 

Just as he gathers the courage to escape, the inn gets booked by the remaining members of a “tontine,” an investment scheme where a cash prize is awarded to whomever lives the longest. In other words, every guest wants access to the fortune. Preferably as soon as possible.

During their stay, a chaotic race to control the fate of the tontine takes over the normally sleepy inn. Nico watches in horror as a series of comically disastrous events unfolds—some of which might aid his escape, and some of which might get him in big trouble. Before he can even put the right clues together, three unexpected revelations change the course of everyone’s future!

Arch humor and an incredible cast of strange and calculating characters keep the pages turning in this Wes Anderson-esque mystery filled with funny mishaps and misunderstandings.

With illustrations, a hotel map, character dossiers, a personality quiz, and a test to see how YOU would fare in a tontine caper, this read is perfect for fans of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library and The 39 Clues series.

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Dianne! Such a delight to speak with you today. Your middle grade novel THE CARREFOUR CURSE, was such a huge hit amongst my librarians. Now you’ve returned with a middle grade novel that has all the hallmarks of a mystery at its core. Tell us a little bit about where THE TONTINE CAPER came from.

It was early 2019, and I was on pins and needles waiting to hear about a revise & resubmit manuscript that my agent had recently sent to an editor. I needed a distraction and a project ASAP! Late one night, while my husband was watching an episode of Archer that featured a tontine, I thought, What if I wrote a quirky mystery that featured a tontine? The setting … well, I almost always defer to the Poconos Mountains when a story can be set anywhere. It’s one of my favorite places to be! A quick search demonstrated that tontines were banned in the US by 1906, so the story had to take place before that. The wheels started turning, and I ended up with THE TONTINE CAPER.

And tontines are just so friggin’ cool too. I was inordinately grateful too that you mentioned the tontine-related episode of The Simpsons at the end of your book. How did you, personally, first hear about tontines and what inspired you to put one in your book?

When I was growing up in the 1970s, television was full of warnings about the dangers I would face in adulthood. For example:

No notes. I would only add that falling into cracks in the ground when there’s been an earthquake would also fit on your list. Getting back to your book, it’s a mystery of sorts, but not in the classic Agatha Christie sense. Instead of building to a final denouement, little secrets are leaking continually throughout the text. Was this a particularly hard book to write? After all, you need a strong sense of continuity to keep up with all the twists and turns. How do you, personally, keep track of everything as you write?

The strangest thing about writing THE TONTINE CAPER is that the plot unraveled before me as if I’d dropped a ball of twine. All I had to do was follow it through the labyrinth, much like Theseus. I knew the ending from the start. That helped. The only part of the story that I had to stop and plan to the Nth degree is the first night in the Precipice Inn, where I spend 3 chapters describing the same events 3 times, from 3 different points of view. For that, I created a chart describing where all the participants were, what they were doing and at what time, and what they all would have seen and heard of each other (if anything). Once that was accomplished, the chapters were a delight to write.

The art of Matt Schu was, to my mind, a godsend in this book. Not only does he capture the tone of the book with aplomb but he provides small character drawings at the beginnings of chapters so that readers like myself don’t have to keep flipping to the cast list at the beginning of the book. Were you aware of Matt’s work prior to this book? What do you think of the final product?

I was not familiar with Matt’s work until my editor sent me a link to his website. I think we both knew immediately that he was the right artist for this book, and luckily he was available and interested! The character drawings—or “character dossiers”—were the brainchild of my editor at Holiday House, Sally Morgridge. It was her idea to include them. I was in charge of providing the text and figuring out where each one should be placed in the book. Matt created the delightful drawings, as well as deciding how to lay out the information in an eye-pleasing way. I love his artwork throughout, including the unique drawings at the start of every chapter.

The book reads a bit younger than some of the other middle grade titles out there, which I also appreciated. Finding mysteries for kids that aren’t tomes or written with adults in mind can be tricky to find. Did you purposefully aim for a younger readership as you wrote this title, or did it just sort of shake out that way?

I did plan on writing for a younger audience than usual, aging my protagonist and the other middle grade characters at 11 instead of my usual 13. When a dry-witted omniscient narrator turned up in my head wanting to tell the story (these things happen), I wondered if that voice would counteract my effort to appeal to a young reader. Then I remembered that Lemony Snicket pulled it off and decided to give it a go.

Finally, can we hope for more mysteries from you in the future or is this a one-and-done kind of deal?

I love writing mysteries and hope to produce more. I am currently toying with an idea about a heist at a museum for mystical and cursed objects. Unfortunately, this idea has not turned itself into a convenient ball of twine that I can follow with ease. This one feels more like a big knot. It’s going to take a lot of work to tease the story out of this one, but we shall see!

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Great gobs of thanks to Dianne for taking all this time to talk to me today. I’m happy to report that The Tontine Caper is indeed out right now, so you needn’t wait to read it. Thanks too to Anna Abell and the folks at Holiday House for helping to put this together.

Filed under: Interviews