The Sulphur Springs Cure - An Interview & Review

I'm pleased to welcome Jeffrey Round to Cozy Up With Kathy today. THE SULPHUR SPRINGS CURE is his latest book and it was released last month

Kathy: THE SULPHUR SPRING CURE encompasses two different time periods: 1939 when Violet first arrived at the Sulphur Springs Hotel and 2009 when she returns. Was one time period easier to write than the other? Was one more enjoyable to immerse yourself in?

JR: Of the two time periods, 2009 was sometimes the harder to write because of the rapid advances in technology in this century. For instance, I had to remind myself that Facebook was then a relatively new invention and therefore something Violet (my protagonist) could legitimately claim not to know about when her niece, Claire, first mentions it. As well, I had to recall what was entailed in airport security clearances at the time. The scene where Violet’s hip replacement pin sets off the scanner is one I lived through when my mother and I travelled to Nova Scotia, just a few years later than when it occurs in the book.

The chapters set in 1939 were a joy to create. It’s this sort of writing that sets my imagination on fire because I can really invent. In an effort to be factual, however, many of the details were taken from real life, either from photographs taken at the time or actual objects now in my possession. The Marconi radio mentioned in chapter 20, for instance, was a model introduced in 1939. One of these was purchased by my mother’s family, who at the time lived in Noel Shore, Nova Scotia. It now resides in my home in Toronto. The Victrola Enid Browne plays so reverently each night after dinner was similar to one owned by my family when I was a child. Although LP records were the norm by then, I used to enjoy going through a box of 78 RPMs and playing those.

Kathy: Violet and her parents originally came to the hotel for the waters’ restorative properties. Many places through the centuries have touted healing waters. Have you ever availed yourself of any?

JR: Good question. I am recently back from a trip to the La Fortuna region in Costa Rica. During a three-week period, I visited three different thermal springs, the waters of which are heated by the Arenal volcano. And yes — I am sold on their restorative qualities!

Kathy: What first drew you to mysteries?

JR: My friends, the Hardy brothers, Frank and Joe. We were best buddies from the time I was ten to around the age of twelve.

Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?

JR: I like to say that each book is its own genre and try not to force books into categories. I am also a playwright, poet and songwriter. I think it’s more interesting to explore a story in whatever way it wants to unfold and then let people tell me what they see or hear in each work.

Kathy: Tell us about your series. 

JR: Violet McPherson is not yet a series, as this is her debut story. She is eighty-four when the story opens, and is clearly haunted by something that happened when she was fourteen. I explore her story in both timelines. I have sketched out a sequel, but one with an independent storyline that takes place on a vacation resort in Havana. We will see where it leads.

I have two other characters who can legitimately claim to be in a series — one is four books in total, to date, while the other is seven. The Bradford Fairfax mystery series is a sort of cozy, because there are always murders to be solved, although Bradford himself is a secret agent. These books are comedies. Again, there is that crossing of genres that makes them hard to define. The second is the Dan Sharp series, for which I won a Lambda Award. These are more hard-hitting and closer to what a noir mystery series entails.

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

JR: Strangely — or perhaps not — I don’t have a favourite character. Or, rather, my favourite happens to be the one I’m writing at the time.

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

JR: Generally, they involve travel. THE SULPHUR SPRINGS CURE started as the result of a day trip to the ruins of the former Sulphur Springs Hotel in Dundas Valley, near Ancaster ON. As I walked along, I felt as though the grounds were talking to me. I stopped to listen to what they had to say, and this book was the result.

The first Bradford Fairfax book, THE P-TOWN MURDERS, came about as the result of a vacation to Provincetown, MA. While there I came across many quirky, real-life characters who I felt deserved to be in a book. So I put them in one.

The first Dan Sharp book, LAKE ON THE MOUNTAIN, came about as the result of a sailing trip. While passing through the Bay of Quinte in Prince Edward County, I looked up at the ridge of a promontory and felt a shiver when I was told it was called Lake On The Mountain. When I returned home I began to research the area.

Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?

JR: THE SULPHUR SPRING CURE had been sitting on my desktop for a while when I got a message from Cormorant’s publisher, Marc Côté, asking if I had anything along the lines of the Bradford Fairfax books. I hadn’t, but it put me in mind of this book and I offered it to him instead. It was Marc’s suggestion that I focus a bit more on the book’s literary qualities that gave me the final push to polish it.

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

JR: Shakespeare would be first on the list. I recall saying this while on a panel of mystery writers and being labelled pretentious as a result. But who better to discuss murder, mayhem, and devious characters? I would also love to talk with John Le Carré, whose books enthral me even when I want to chide him for writing so many awkward sentences. Of living authors, I would invite Kate Atkinson, with whom I once had dinner and found her personality to be sparkling, and Pat Barker, author of the extraordinary “Ghost Road Trilogy.” They would all give good lip.

Kathy: What are you currently reading?

JR: This question would take up a lot of space, since I can take years to complete a book, but I’ll give you the short list:

1: AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare — the first of his plays that comes fully alive for me

2: INSOMNIA by Stephen King — dreadfully overwritten, but the characters are compelling

3: PROUST'S DUCHESS by Caroline Weber — an impressively researched book about the women on whom Proust based his Duchesse de Guermantes

4. THREE-WAY RENEGADE by Keith Garebian — poems about the early gay activist Samuel Steward

5: THE FOURTH COURIER by Timothy Jay Smith — a political thriller I discovered through an on-line podcast hosted by author Brad Shreve

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

JR: I had to pause to think. I don’t have hobbies because I take everything too seriously. It’s all or nothing. I am a nature lover and gardener, however. Does that count?

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

JR: I am stuck on the Cs: cheese, chocolate, chillies and cilantro are mainstays. Perhaps I should add cooking — another C word — to my list of hobbies.

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

JR: The Dan Sharp series is probably complete at seven books. I have four more volumes sketched out in the Bradford Fairfax series. As for Violet, she will let me know when she wants to pay another visit. She is always welcome.

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

JR: Good reviews! Not for the ego boost, but as an affirmation that I am doing my job as a writer. It’s a nagging feeling most of us get. Also, I love hearing from people about my books. It doesn’t happen often enough. It doesn’t always have to be a compliment. I learn from people’s reactions. In fact, I have probably learned more from well thought-out criticism than outright praise. I think writers need to stay in touch with what informed readers are saying. 

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Review

THE SULPHUR SPRING CURE
By Jeffrey Round 

 

Violet McAdams knows she's coming to the end of her life. Her husband dead, her body slowing, she's preparing to sell her house and move into a home for seniors. But memories are bothering her, the dead reminding her of her past and the secret she kept from that time seventy years ago. The time spend at the Sulphur Springs Hotel. The time she was involved in murder. With the dead becoming more insistent she decides to take one last trip. Accompanied by her youngest niece Violet heads back to Dundas, Ontario to discover the truth once and for all.

 

Part mystery, part coming of age story THE SULPHUR SPRINGS CURE is a unique and beguiling book. I appreciated the melding of the two time periods, the more recent past of 2009 and that of 1939. The historical part of the novel was fascinating with references to the upcoming war and compelling details of life at the Sulphur Springs Hotel. Invalids who nevertheless dressed for dinner, nightly dancing, the fact that personal time pieces weren't allowed, as well as the freedom given to the young girls all added to the ambiance and made it seem as if you were actually there, smelling the sulphur in the air, feeling the heat of the summer, and witnessing a girl growing up.

 

I really like Violet. She's a precocious youth and a headstrong senior. She knows her own mind and isn't afraid to speak it. Yet she's also naive and somewhat vulnerable. I enjoyed seeing Violet as both a fourteen year old and an elderly woman, how she's changed and adapted as well as how much she remained the same.

The author's use of foreshadowing lent a heaviness, a quietly oppressive atmosphere to the time spent in 1939. Knowing that before long something very wrong would happen, but not knowing exactly what kept me enthralled. So many mysteries, what was actually wrong with Violet's mother, what was Willoughby up to, and more. I was also captivated by the way the eighty-four year old determined the truth of what happened that fateful summer. It's interesting to note the use of tenses chosen by the author, with the modern section written in the present tense. I'm not a fan of present tense, but it did provide a notable change from Violet's past.

With wry humor and a distinct sense of time and place THE SULPHUR SPRINGS CURE is not only a mystery, but an intriguing story of a woman's search for truth and redemption.