Q&A: Jo Nichols, Author of ‘The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective’

We chat with Jo Nichols—the pen name for married co-authors Joel Ross and Lee Nichols—about The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective, which is the perfect summer read, full of charm and heart, written in the vein of The Thursday Murder Club or Only Murders in the Building but with a southern California twist.

Hi, Jo! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Jo Nichols is the pen name for a married couple who’ve published roughly thirty novels in the past thirty years. Separately and together, we’ve written cookbooks, paranormal YA, thrillers, romantic comedies, children’s fantasy, science fiction, and literary weirdness. Marigold Cottages Murder Collective is our very first mystery, though, and our debut as Jo Nichols.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

Our first joint experience of writing and stories was when we both took a college course called Latin American Big House Fiction. (Our eyes met across a crowded classroom, and we moved in together four months later.)

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: We’re going to answer this as a two-headed beast! The first book we remember reading together, that wasn’t assigned for a class, is also from our college days. MAMA DAY by Gloria Naylor, who is a formative author for both of us.
• The one that made you want to become an author: We’ve wanted to write a mystery for years, since reading Lindsey Davis’s Didius Falco series and Kate Ross’s Julian Kestrel mysteries. We used to devour Lawrence Block, Ed McBain and Donald Westlake/Richard Stark. And of course, Sue Grafton, who wrote about our hometown Santa Barbara. We tossed mystery ideas back and forth for decades before we landed on The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective, also set in Santa Barbara.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: We both read HOT MILK by Deborah Levy a few months ago, and still haven’t stopped talking about it.

Your novel, The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective, is out August 19^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Sunshine, friendship, moral flexibility, murder.

What can readers expect?

All of the above! We wanted to write a not-so-cozy cozy mystery. That is, one with all the heart of a cozy, but without, perhaps, quite as black-and-white an ending. It’s a light read, a quick read, a beach read, written in part to lift our spirits during these rough years. We hope readers can expect to escape reality while reading, and lose themselves in the warmth and welcome of Marigold Cottages.

Where did the inspiration for The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective come from?

We’re both huge fans of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series. If you pour that found family into a blender, add a generous helping of Only Murders in the Building, The Maid, and Thursday Murder Club, along with our love for mid 2020s Santa Barbara … and you’ve got yourself The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

It’s hard to answer this without spoilers! We each wrote elements of the other into several characters, so—not to be too narcissistic—we really do love ’em. There is a cathartic moment for one character that emerged late in drafting that we both love. We each have mothers who are or were, shall we say, a lot, so the relationship between Mrs. B and Ocean pleases us, too. We found that every pairing of characters was rewarding in its own distinctive way!

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

We dithered for months between setting the book in the real Santa Barbara or a fake Santa Barbara—’Santa Brigid’ or whatnot—and now we’re so pleased we decided on the real place. Other than that, the challenges were mostly what we always face when writing together: we co-write extremely smoothly at this point, but that smoothness still includes ‘disagreeable grumbling’ and ‘sulking’ as part of the drafting process.

What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?

For this book, the road was many many years in the making. We read all of Sue Grafton’s books back in the day, all of Dick Francis’s, we both read Chandler and Stout and Christie as kids. So mystery is deep in our writing DNA. However, we never quite settled on a mystery of our own until we realized we wanted to write about a community more than a lone wolf.

In terms of our overall journey? Also very long! We’ve been doing this for decades, we’ve published under six names. At this point, we’ve spent more time on the road as published authors than becoming published authors, yet somehow the potholes and treacherous turns remain the same!

 What’s next for you?

The second book in the series! We just sent Marigold Cottages Two: Death by Palm Tree, to our editor! (Okay, we’re not entirely sure what the title will be. But we’re super-excited with the draft.)

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

Just finished the wonderful Gunk, by Saba Sams, and very much looking forward to A House Between Sky and Sea, by Beth Cato, about a loveable and anxious murder house. Currently reading Thus with a Kiss I die, by Christina Dodd and plan on buying A Witches Guide to Magical Innkeeping, by Sangu Mandanna to read on vacation.

Will you be picking up The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective? Tell us in the comments below!