I am so excited to have James Ponti back today (read our previous interview here) to celebrate the release of The Sherlock Society, the start of a brand new middle grade mystery series!
Interview with James Ponti
The Sherlock Society is the start of a brand-new middle grade series. What was your favorite part about writing a new cast of characters in a new world?
This is my fourth series, and in each instance the first book brought added excitement, along with a little bit of anxiety, as I tried to create characters and a setting solid and defined enough to support a book, but with the flexibility necessary to sustain a series.
Figuring out the characters is always my favorite part because it’s where the most surprises occur. Let’s use Grandpa as an example. I knew I wanted a team of kids solving mysteries in Miami. But I didn’t know how they would get around. There isn’t much in the way of mass transit there. That’s when I came up with Grandpa.
I didn’t want him to simply be a chauffeur. I wanted him to be a true member of the team because you don’t see a lot of that in middle grade. So, I started asking myself how he could organically be involved in solving the mysteries. Soon, I had a 73-year-old retired investigative reporter who drives a 1964 Cadillac Coupe de Ville named after Roberta Flack as a central character. His life experience and sense of humor bring an entirely different perspective to the stories. Grandpa is already a crowd favorite among early readers and he was born completely out of the mundane necessity of building a workable world.
What inspired this new series?
I love that the characters in City Spies get to crisscross the globe and tackle huge crises with worldwide ramifications. Since I’m continuing to write that series, I wanted to counter balance it with a mystery series that was more localized and felt more personal. I also wanted one that touched more on my childhood growing up in a beach town in Florida.
One day, I went for a walk knowing only that I wanted to write a mystery series set in Florida and determined that I wouldn’t come back until I had it figured out. There’s a lake near my house that has about ten benches around it. The assignment I gave myself was to sit at each bench and ask a question. I couldn’t get up until I had a solid answer. Then, at the next bench, I had to ask a more difficult question.
This is how I worked out the characters and the world. I was about three-quarters of the way through my first lap when Grandpa arrived to solve the transportation issue. That’s when I started getting hopeful. At the end of the second lap, I came up with what turned out to be the opening paragraph of the book. “Maybe if our last name was Baker, we would’ve sold cupcakes. Or if it was Walker, we might’ve taken care of people’s dogs while they were on vacation. But it’s Sherlock, so starting a detective agency just seemed like the thing to do.”
When I had that, I knew that I was ready to go home and start writing.
Let’s meet the characters! Describe Alex, Zoe, Lina, Yadi, and Grandpa with one word.
You can’t do this to me! This goes against the idea of creating characters who are multi-dimensional and defy easy labeling. Can I please use a brief sentence instead of a single word? Alex is refreshingly comfortable in his nerdiness. His sister Zoe is no so comfortable in her status among the queen bees at school. Bookish Lina is trying to find her place as she adjusts from the measured pace of rural Wyoming to the non-stop swirl of culture that is Miami. Yadi believes in friendship, filmmaking, and conspiracy theories. And Grandpa is living his absolutely best life. (Thank you, although, I admit that Lina’s wasn’t exactly brief.)
The next City Spies book, London Calling, releases in February. How do you balance writing two series at once? Does anything about your writing process change to keep the books distinct and separate?
I’m still trying to find that balance. The difficulty is more one of time needed to write than it is keeping them separate. The scope and dynamics of both series are distinctly different, so I’m able to sort them fairly well in my head. The thing that I’ve tried to do is break up the calendar. You usually try to write a book a year before it comes out, so I’ve been using the book release and tours as natural breaks the process. I just finished a solid draft of Sherlock 2 as I head for the promotional tour of book one. When I get back, I’ll address my editor’s notes on the manuscript and feel fresh to start City Spies 7. That should be in good shape by February when I go on tour to promote London Calling. At least that’s how I draw it up in my head. I’ve found life rarely follows my intended schedule.
What can we expect to see in the next Sherlock Society book?
Sherlock Society 2, tentatively titled Hurricane Heist, involves a mystery that dates back to when Grandpa was the same age as the characters. There are two hurricanes, one in 1964 that covers up a case and one today that helps open it up. I love the chapters featuring Grandpa as a twelve-year old and am extremely happy with how it’s turning out.
About The Sherlock Society
Release Date: September 2, 2024
Find it: Goodreads, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Amazon
In the tradition of Nancy Drew, four kids and one grandfather in Miami tackle a decades-old mystery in this first book in the action-packed and funny Sherlock Society middle grade series from New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award–winning author James Ponti!
Siblings Alex and Zoe Sherlock take their last name as inspiration when choosing a summer job. After all, starting a detective agency has to be better than babysitting (boring), lawn mowing (sweaty), or cleaning out the attic (boring and sweaty). Their friends Lina, an avid bookworm, and Yadi, an aspiring cinematographer, join the enterprise, and Alex and Zoe’s retired reporter grandfather offers up his sweet aquamarine Cadillac convertible and storage unit full of cold cases.
The group’s first target is the long-lost treasure supposedly hidden near their hometown Miami. Their investigation into the local doings of famed gangster Al Capone leads them to a remote island in the middle of the Everglades where they find alarming evidence hinting at corporate corruption.
Together with Grandpa’s know-how and the kids’ intelligence—plus some really slick gadgets—can the Sherlock Society root out the conspiracy?
About James Ponti
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James Ponti is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of four middle grade book series, including City Spies and The Sherlock Society. His novels have been named to forty-five state award lists and translated into a dozen languages. He’s a two-time Edgar Award-nominee, winning in 2018 for Vanished. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida.
