Murder & Mystery in Middle Grade Fiction - Q&A with Alasdair Beckett-King

1. Congratulations on writing your first book! Can you tell us a little bit about the idea seed for this story? How did it grow into a fully fleshed story?
   
   Like most of the unwise decisions you hear about these days, it all started during lockdown. (Remember lockdown?) I began talking to Walker Books after running an interactive murder mystery game on Twitter. (Remember Twitter?) I had been fiddling around with the concept of Montgomery Bonbon: Murder at the Museum for some time, and I thought it would be easy to turn it into a proper bona-fide book. It turned out to be incredibly hard work! Fortunately, I had my brilliant editor Gráinne Clear to wrangle things into shape and Claire Powell's illustrations to make every joke even funnier.
    
2. You are also a comedian, which is apparent from this book because there are so many LOL moments as well as hilariously clever word play. As being funny comes naturally to you, what advice would you give to other writers who want to strike the balance between a *serious* mystery for kids to solve as well as comic relief?
   
   Being naturally funny took me quite a lot of practice. (This will come as no surprise to the people who don't think I'm funny.) And it's something I am always trying to get better at. So, please, take this as the observation of an enthusiastic dilettante, rather than an expert. It's easier to write comic characters who are flippant and detached, quipping in the face of danger. It's better, I think, to have characters take the stakes of the story seriously, no matter how ludicrous those stakes may be. It may be a joke for us, but it's not for them. This was such a grown up answer, I have no choice but to end it with the words poo pants.
    
3. Let’s talk character development and the star of the show – Bonnie Montgomery/Montgomery Bonbon. Children’s fiction has a rich landscape of amateur sleuths and daring detectives; can you talk us through the creation of this wonderfully unique character? 
   
   Montgomery Bonbon is a tribute to all the golden era detectives, especially Hercule Poirot. And that's completely deliberate (and not plagiarism, honest!) because the great detective is the invention of Bonnie Montgomery. She is the ten-year-old protagonist of the series, and Montgomery Bonbon is her idea of a gentleman detective, complete with moustache, beret and wobbly foreign accent. I wanted to write a mystery story that poked fun at the conventions of the genre, while also fulfilling those conventions to the best of my ability.
    
4. The ending of Murder at the Museum is a delicious cliffhanger! What advice would you give to writers of series fiction who want to ensure the first book is a contained, satisfied read while leaving enough intrigue to make readers desperate to read the second book?
   
   I'm learning as I go. The screenwriter Alexander Mackendrick wrote about the concept of an obligatory scene - which is a climactic moment that the viewer or reader will be anticipating whether or not they have been told to expect it. Obligatory scenes don't have to play out the way the reader expects and, it's possible to create suspense by indefinitely postponing an obligatory scene. But, as fans of streaming TV services know all too well, a show is often cancelled before that scene is reached. Whodunits usually pose great big questions. Who Killed X? How did Y escape? I think the writer is obliged to answer those questions in the denouement. But, having done that, I hope to conjure up a little fresh mystery about what's coming next...
    
5. Following on from that, are you able to tell us a little bit about the second book Montgomery Bonbon: Death at the Lighthouse? What can readers expect from Bonbon’s next case?
   
   Thank you for asking! I intend to take Montgomery Bonbon to all the best murder mystery locations. So book two takes place on Odde Island: a little community, separated from the mainland by a causeway. On the island, I can promise that Bonnie and Grampa Banks will encounter a clockwork lighthouse, a smuggler's den and... an onion ring. And, I'm sorry to say, the death of lighthouse keeper Maude Cragge was no accident.

Alasdair Beckett-King is a multi-award-winning comedian and writer. He studied at the London Film School and was nominated for a Student Oscar in 2012. Since then he has performed critically lauded solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, written for BBC radio, co-written an award-winning video game and created numerous viral sketches for social media, including an interactive whodunit.