Velma Gone Awry - An Interview, Review, & Giveaway

I'm pleased to welcome Matt Cost to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Matt writes the Brooklyn 8 Ballo Mystery series. VELMA GONE AWRY is the first book in the series and was released this week!

Kathy: In VELMA GONE AWRY we meet Hungarian private investigator 8 Ballo. 8 has a unique background. How does that help him as a PI?

MC: As a veteran of World War I, or Kaiser Bill’s War as he calls it, 8 has certainly learned the art of fighting, but that ability actually came long before he went to Europe. As a Hungarian growing up in Brooklyn with a best friend who is Black, he and Pearle Hill run into discrimination that leads them into many a fight throughout their formative years. Even more than the fighting, his knowledge of his neighborhood of Bushwick, the larger Brooklyn,, and New York City as a whole allows him to go places and network with people to resolve his cases.

Kathy: Set in the 1920s 8 has to find the flapper daughter of a wealthy businessman. Why choose this time period for your mystery?

MC: I’ve written several historical novels and am currently publishing two mystery series. This is my first foray into creating a historical PI mystery. The time and place of the Roaring ‘20s has always fascinated me, and the more I dug in, the more I realized that it may have been the most exciting time and place for all of history. Coming out after WWI, Brooklyn is a melting pot of diversity of cultures, rich with the explosion of the Jazz Era, Prohibition and the rum running that follows with illegal speakeasies, baseball, moving pictures, and so much more. Mix in legendary figures such as Dorothy Parker, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, and Babe Ruth and you truly have a novel laded with content. 

 

Kathy: Historical mysteries require an extra special brand of research. What's your favorite method to research this time period?

MC: I read many a book, did countless hours of internet research, but by far the best method of research was www.newspapers.com, a site that archives newspapers of America from long before the 1920’s. I actually read the Brooklyn Eagle for the year of 1923 every morning, starting before I began writing the novel. I’d read my local newspaper, and then move to the computer, and read that one. Fantastic resource for events, stories, people, entertainment, and culture, but as valuable as anything else were the advertisements.

Kathy: 8's investigation leads him to many famous people of the 1920s. How did you decide who to include? Who would you most want to meet?

MC: I did include the legendary people mentioned above. Dorothy Parker, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, and Babe Ruth. I also included the legendary gangsters, Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, amongst others. The people that enthralled me the most made the cut and several have continued on into the second in the series, City Gone Askew, due out in April of 2024. 

 

Kathy: What first drew you to historical mysteries?

MC: I have always loved history and mystery. I started at a young age reading the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, and moved my way up through writers such as Robert Parker, Elmore Leonard, and Carl Hiaasen. The same can be said for historical books of James Michener, Ken Follett, Leon Uris, and William Martin. I then went on to get a B.A. in history from Trinity College and taught history at the junior high School level. Velma Gone Awry is my first incursion into combining these two loves of mine, histories and mysteries, into a historical PI mystery.


Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?

MC: So far, I’ve written histories and mysteries. My current work in progress, The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed, is more in the thriller vein.
 

Kathy: Tell us about your series. 

MC: VELMA GONE AWRY is the first in my Brooklyn 8 Ballo series. 8 Ballo is a PI in the neighborhood of Bushwick in Brooklyn and is helped in his endeavors by his close friends, Pearle Hill, a Black business entrepreneur, Marty Hoffman, a Jewish journalist for the Brooklyn Eagle, and Stephen McGee, an Irish cop. Together, with help from others such as Dorothy Parker, they work to find the missing flapper, Velma Hartmann.

Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?

MC: I am partial to my protagonist, 8 Ballo. Much like a best friend, he is the person I have chosen to spend the most time with because of his mixture of intelligence, culture, and roughness. He enjoys philosophy, poetry, literature, and a good fist fight.


Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?

MC: The first step was realizing I wanted to combine my two loves and write a historical mystery. My second revelation was to choose Brooklyn because my daughter lives there and I could visit and do research. The final genius was to realize how legendary of a time period the Roaring ‘20s were.

Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?

MC: I write because I have to, but I suppose I’d like people to read my books and appreciate them. I often include an educational component, mostly for myself, but certainly something I believe my readers have valued. This might include topics such as Fidel Castro, the Civil War, the personality of cults, genome editing, or nuclear power to name just a few. I enjoyed learning about these topics and hope my readers do as well. 

 

Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?

MC: I am going to have to answer that twice. I have many friends who are authors, and I can’t leave them off the list. So that list would be BJ Magnani, S. Lee Manning, Kevin St. Jarre, and Anne Britting Oleson. The second list would be those that I’ve not met. They would be Robert Parker, Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, and Louis L’Amour.

Kathy: What are you currently reading?

MC: I am currently reading RICHER THE MIGHTY by J.B. Manning (the husband of S.L. Manning).

Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?

MC: I like to play golf poorly, walk with my wife and dogs in the woods or on the beach, and read. Of course, I write. 

 

Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.

MC: Bacon, roast beef, potato chips, and cookies. Yeah, I know I’m going to die young. 

 

Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?

MC: The fifth book in my Mainely Mystery series, Mainely Wicked, is due out in August. The fifth book in my Clay Wolfe Trap series, Pirate Trap, is due out in December. The second book in the Brooklyn 8 Ballo series, City Gone Askew, is slated for April of 2024. I am currently writing a thriller that will debut a new series, tentatively titled The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed.

Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?

MC:  I love all aspects of writing. Creating characters and plots is fabulous, as is editing to improve those characters and plots, but then sharing them with readers in the form of listeners at readings and presentations is pretty fantastic as well. Write on.

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Review

VELMA GONE AWRY by Matt Cost

The First Brooklyn 8 Ballo Mystery

Brooklyn PI 8 Ballo has seen a lot, growing up as an eighth child whose grandparents fled to New York from Hungary, studying philosophy in college, and fighting in the Great War, but his search for a missing flapper could be his greatest adventure yet. Businessman Fritz Hartmann is paying 8 good money to find his missing daughter, Velma. The young flapper happens to be friends with a lot of notable people and 8's search for her leads him to the likes of Dorothy Parker, Coleman Hawkins, and the Fitzgeralds. 8 soon discovers that Fritz isn't quite the reputable businessman he appears, running illegal liquor and other unsavory businesses-businesses that have gangsters like Meyer Lansky and Ben "Bugsy" Siegel taking offense. Could Velma have been taken in retaliation, or is she merely enjoying her own life? Or could she be running from her father? With an eclectic band of friends 8 will search the boroughs of New York City for the woman who has piqued his imagination.

I really enjoyed this trip to 1920s NYC. What starts as a missing person case evolves into mob dealings, revenge, murder, and more. One of the things I liked best about VELMA GONE AWRY was meeting some of the famous people of the time and seeing how 8 interacted with them. I particularly enjoyed 8s relationship with Dorothy Parker while I shook my head at the antics of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

 

The fictional characters are just as intriguing. 8 Ballo is a thoroughly modern man, believing in equality, not only of race, but gender as well. It's a bit surprising, and very welcoming, especially as he is in his mid 30s during the 1920s when the book is set. It's also part of his charm. Intelligent and quick witted, 8 cultivates friendships with a diverse group of people and allowing him to fit in with a wide range of situations. For the most part Velma is an enigmatic character, a will-o'-the-wisp. Other characters are more down to earth. All are interesting and there are truly no minor characters. Author Matt Cost has a good grasp of psychology as well, as shown in the reactions and behaviors of his characters.

 

VELMA GONE AWRY is a historical mystery with a modern flair. In depth characterizations and an intricately plotted mystery will captivate readers. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Brooklyn 8 Ballo Mystery and I look forward to joining 8 on his next case!

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The author is generously offering a print copy of the book to one person who comments on this post no later that 11:59pm Monday, April 17, 2023. Sorry, US mailing addresses only. Please leave an e-mail address along with your comment so that I may contact you should yours be the chosen comment.