Author of The Mad. Mad Murders of Marigold Way (October 2022), Raymond Benson discusses the concept and writing process behind his timely and darkly comedic thriller.

When the Covid-19 pandemic began, there was much discussion on social media and the like among writers, especially those who write thrillers and mysteries, regarding whether or not we should include the coronavirus in our fiction. Should fictional characters who are investigating a murder be wearing masks? Do they practice social distancing? Should they be mindful of health and safety protocols? Or do we pretend the pandemic doesn’t exist and just write the book with no mention whatsoever of a global disease that has impacted every person on the planet?

When I wrote The Mad, Mad Murders of Marigold Way (Beaufort Books), it was very early in the pandemic. It didn’t even occur to me that writing a murder mystery with the pandemic in the background might be a concern. I came up with a darkly comic murder mystery that took place in the thick of it. In searching for the right tone for the story, I was likely inspired by Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and the works by the sardonic Coen Brothers.

It was May 2020 and my wife and I were in lockdown at home with Covid-19 raging outside. At that time, no one knew what the future would hold. There was no vaccine in sight, and there was still so much that was unknown about the virus. The geographical environment in the story mirrors where we were living (fictionalized, but yes, we live on a street not unlike “Marigold Way” and in a town very much like “Lincoln Grove”). As with most writers, my imagination, fueled by the fever dream of the paranoia and bizarre life we were leading during the lockdown, took off. The book was written over the next two to three months.

My existence at the time was pretty close to the protagonist’s (Scott Hatcher) daily life—staying home, going for walks, social distancing, wearing masks at the grocery store and such—but I certainly am not as stupid as he is! Being happily married, I was not in the rather shattered mental state that encourages him do the irrational and impulsive things that push the story forward. I had no reservations about the setting at all. History is history. Especially now, nearly three years later, the pandemic is a part of the world’s timeline and it can’t be ignored. I, for one, will have trouble buying into any novels, movies, or television shows that supposedly take place recently or “now” that do not acknowledge in some way that we’ve been through this experience.

Alas, my literary agent and I were rather shocked to receive some resistance from publishers, even though editors proclaimed how much they liked what I’d written. It took some time, but eventually we found a publisher. Luckily, the folks at Beaufort Books had no problem with the subject matter. That said, these attitudes seem to be lifting. I’m seeing more authors write tales set during the pandemic. I’m thinking of Michael Connelly and Jodi Picoult, among others.

Mind you, my book really isn’t about the pandemic. It’s merely the backdrop, the “special world” of the story that informs how the characters behave. When one is frightened, paranoid, and uncertain about the future, a person might do some crazy things. The Mad, Mad Murders of Marigold Way is about some of those crazy things. Or perhaps it’s more about the hidden underside of suburbia and the dark recesses of the human heart. There is a labyrinth of a mystery that is the backbone of the novel, but it is placed against the larger “Mystery of Life” itself, all with a touch of down-home humor.

And a virus.