An Interview with Carmen Radtke

 

Today, I am chatting with Carmen Radtke about The Case of the Missing Bride, the first novel in her historical mystery series featuring Alyssa Chalmers.

Inspired by the true story of a group of young Australian women who sailed for Canada in 1862 and subsequently disappeared, the novel takes readers aboard a ship filled with women hoping to secure new futures through marriage. Among them is Alyssa, an independent and determined young woman who finds herself investigating when one of her fellow passengers mysteriously vanishes.

Carmen joins me today to talk about the remarkable true story that inspired the novel, creating a mystery within the confines of a nineteenth-century voyage, and introducing a heroine who refuses to be silenced or underestimated.

But first, let's check out The Case of the Missing Bride

Publication Date: 1st December 2019
Publisher: Adamantine Books
Print Length: 222 Pages
Genre: Historical Mysteries

A sharp tongue. An even sharper mind. A sleuth criminals overlook at their peril.

1862. Trapped on a ship sailing to Canada, a group of young Australian brides dream of security in a country they’ve never seen. Only fiercely independent Alyssa Chalmers has no plans to let matrimony decide her future.

When her closest friend disappears after a stormy night, she is the only one refusing to believe in a tragic accident. And if she’s right, there is a killer on board. A killer they can’t run from in the middle of the ocean…

With the captain dismissing her fears and no authority of her own, Alyssa must investigate in secret. Unexpected support comes from the ship’s doctor, a man torn between admiring her and judging her motives to be on the ship.

But every step closer to the truth also brings her closer to becoming the next victim.

Inspired by a true event.

The Case of the Missing Bride was inspired by a true event involving young Australian women sailing to Canada in 1862. What did you discover that made you realise there was a mystery novel waiting to be written?

I knew the second I read a short paragraph about the women and their unsolved disappearance. I couldn’t sleep that night, wondering what happened to them. They’d set out so full of hope! 

Alyssa Chalmers is travelling alongside women hoping that marriage will provide them with security, yet she is determined that matrimony will not dictate her own future. What kind of heroine did you want Alyssa to be when you first began developing her character?

I wanted her to be the smartest person in the room. She’s very aware of the restrictions forced upon her, so she’s using her wit and will to decide her own fate, as far as possible in a world made for men. She can’t even purchase her own passage although she has the money, just because she’s a woman! Despite the pushback she receives, she stands up for herself and for the other brides, who don’t have the luxury of money or education.

Setting a murder mystery aboard a ship creates an intriguing problem: the suspects and the potential victim are trapped together, with nowhere to escape. How did that confined setting influence the way you constructed the mystery and built the tension?

Everything had to develop slowly, with lots of undercurrents. Due to societal restrictions, Alyssa has to tread carefully and find male allies who believe her and assist her. She can’t even walk around freely or easily interview any of her suspects. 

When Alyssa's friend disappears, the captain is willing to accept a tragic accident while Alyssa refuses to do so. What gives her the confidence to trust her own judgement when those with authority are dismissing her concerns?

The captain is well-meaning but used to transporting goods and livestock, not women (or a killer!). And Alyssa knows her friend and she knows when a scenario sounds logical in theory but doesn’t fit. 

Alyssa has no official authority and must investigate without attracting too much attention. How did the restrictions placed upon women in the 1860s shape both the investigation and the methods available to her?

They gave me a framework where all Alyssa can rely on are her own power of deduction and her force of personality to convince the men who become her sidekicks that she’s right. Every step she takes is restricted by societal norms. 

The ship's doctor becomes an unexpected ally, although his admiration for Alyssa is complicated by his judgement of her reasons for being aboard the ship. What interested you about creating that tension between them?

The poor man! He feels sympathy and compassion for the brides because he understands that marriage is their only way out of poverty. But because Alyssa is different – she is well-educated, financially independent, and standing her ground – he struggles to understand why she’s willing to marry a man she’s never met. He’s as stubborn as she is but a lot less clear-eyed.

A ship carrying young women across the world in search of new lives must have contained an extraordinary mixture of hope, uncertainty and fear. What research did you undertake into the experiences of women making journeys like this in the nineteenth century?

I’m tempted to call it fate (or at least a stroke of good luck): A few days after I’d started my research, including ship’s lists, I stumbled upon a library sale that included a book with family letters covering the exact period I needed in Melbourne, giving me all the background I could wish for. And my local librarian helped me find a doctor’s memoir, covering the kind of journey my brides went on. He’d travelled as a ship’s surgeon and described his tasks as well as the entertainment on board. My brides owe him for the deck games.

Before becoming a novelist, you worked as a newspaper reporter on two continents. Do you think your journalistic instinct to question accounts, look for inconsistencies and keep digging for answers finds its way into the way you construct a mystery?

I think so! It also means I can’t resist doing just a little more research…

The novel was a finalist in the Malice Domestic competition. What did that early recognition mean to you, particularly as this was your first mystery novel?

It gave me an enormous boost, not just as a writer, but also because I don’t want these women to be forgotten.

The Case of the Missing Bride introduces Alyssa at the beginning of a historical mystery series. What was it about her character that convinced you she had more mysteries to solve beyond this first voyage?

She’s not the kind of character who allows herself to be ignored! I’m drawn to heroines who find a way to turn the disadvantages they face into a power. If men don’t take her seriously or ignore her, they’re making a big mistake. To add to that, I’ve been trying to give the brides the lives they should have had. Alyssa won’t settle for less.

A huge thank you to Carmen Radtke for joining me today and sharing the story behind The Case of the Missing Bride.

If you enjoy historical mysteries inspired by true events, resourceful heroines and investigations filled with secrets and intrigue, then The Case of the Missing Bride is certainly one to add to your reading list.

Pick up your copy of The Case of the Missing Bride HERE
Read with #KindleUnlimited

Carmen Radtke

Carmen has spent most of her life with ink on her fingers and a dangerously high pile of books and newspapers by her side.

She has worked as a newspaper reporter on two continents and always dreamt of becoming a novelist and screenwriter.

When she found herself crouched under her dining table, typing away on a novel between two earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, she realised she was hooked for life.

The shaken but stirring novel made it to the longlist of the Mslexia competition, and her next book and first mystery, The Case Of The Missing Bride, was a finalist in the Malice Domestic competition in a year without a winner. Since then she has penned several more cozy mysteries, including the Jack and Frances series set in the 1930s.

Carmen now lives in Italy with her human and her four-legged family.

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Author Interview: Amber Hoyem

Today, I am chatting with Amber Hoyem about Strawberry Moon, the first novel in her Light and Shadow Series.

Set in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, the novel follows Sarah and John, two people living on the margins of a society in which identity, faith and social standing can determine the course of a life. Sarah's Massachusett heritage and John's position as an indentured servant place them outside many of the structures governing the world around them, while their growing relationship offers the possibility of something neither expected. Pasted markdown

Amber joins me today to talk about bringing Sarah and John to life, exploring the complexities of belonging and identity, and placing an intimate love story against the turbulent realities of early colonial Massachusetts.

But first, let's check out Strawberry Moon

Publication Date: 5th June 2026
Publisher: Independently Published
Print Length: 335 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Inspired by the author’s ancestral connection to John and Sarah Whipple, Strawberry Moon is a literary historical romance set in 1630s Massachusetts, where a forbidden slow‑burn love grows in the shadow of cultural upheaval.

Massachusetts Bay, 1630: When Puritan soldiers destroy Merrymount, Sarah watches her English father dragged away in chains and loses the only home where she ever felt she belonged. Forced back to her mother’s Massachusett kin, she finds herself caught between two worlds—and fully accepted by neither.

John Whipple arrives as an indentured servant determined to earn his freedom. Sarah never expects to find an ally in him, much less a love that could cost them everything. But as Puritan rule tightens and fear spreads, their connection becomes increasingly dangerous.

With war looming and loyalties hardening, Sarah must decide what she is willing to sacrifice to protect her people—and who she dares to become in a colony determined to divide her.

Atmospheric, intimate, and rooted in early American history, Strawberry Moon blends Indigenous resilience, cultural conflict, and a tender forbidden romance into one unforgettable story.

Strawberry Moon places Sarah between two identities—Sarah in the English world and Kimi in her mother's Massachusett community. What first inspired you to create a heroine who belongs to both worlds yet is never entirely accepted by either?

One of the things that fascinated me most in my research was the silence surrounding Merrymount’s children. There had to be children born of those unions; Morton himself mentions marriages. So where did those children go? How were they absorbed or not absorbed into the surrounding communities? Those questions became puzzle pieces.

Sarah grew out of that curiosity. If she were of mixed heritage, it could explain why her maiden name never appears in the records, why she was referred to simply as “Goodwife,” why her first child's baptism was delayed two years, and why she wasn’t welcomed into the church until 1641. She was only admitted once the church opened membership to African and Native enslaved people, which further suggested she occupied a liminal place in the community. It might also shed light on why her home in Providence was left standing when others were burned during King Philip’s War. All these puzzle pieces were coming together for me.

What began as a historical question, “what happened to the children of Merrymount,” became a character. 

Sarah and John begin the novel from very different circumstances, but neither has much control over the life being imposed upon them. What interested you about bringing these two characters together?

The historical records are clear that John was indentured and living on the outskirts of Dorchester, and someone in his social position would have had very few choices when it came to marriage or shaping his own future. If Sarah were of mixed heritage, she would understand what it meant to be seen as other, to be pushed to the margins of a community. That shared experience of being outside the structures that defined early colonial life is what interested me. I imagined that recognition between them creating a quiet but powerful bond.

John arrives in Massachusetts as an indentured servant, with survival rather than opportunity defining his early experience of the colony. Why was it important to show seventeenth-century New England through the eyes of someone without wealth or social standing?

I believe there are too few stories from this period that look closely at the people without wealth or social standing. Most narratives about seventeenth century New England focus on ministers, magistrates, or landowners, but the colony was built just as much by indentured servants, laborers, and families living on the margins. I wanted to understand what life looked like for someone like John, whose choices were limited from the moment he arrived and whose survival depended on the whims of others.

Seeing the colony through his eyes allowed me to show a version of New England that was harsher, more precarious, and far less romantic than the one preserved in official records. It also made his connection with Sarah more meaningful, because both navigate a world where their place is never guaranteed.

The relationship between Sarah and John develops slowly through moments of care and intimacy rather than sweeping romantic gestures. How did you approach creating that gradual connection between them?

I approached their connection with the realities of the period firmly in mind. In my research, I found many accounts of secret relationships, unmarried mothers, and the harsh consequences faced by servants who crossed social or cultural boundaries. Within that world, a sweeping and overt romance simply would not have been possible for two people in Sarah and John’s positions.

Their relationship had to grow in the quiet spaces available to them: small acts of care, shared labor, stolen conversations, and moments of intimacy that accumulate over time. Those subtle exchanges allowed their bond to deepen gradually, shaped as much by the constraints around them as by their own choices. The slow build also let me show how their connection strengthens through hardship and is continually threatened by circumstance, culture, and the fragile standing they each hold. It is a love that survives because it grows carefully, deliberately, and in the shadows where it can exist at all.

Belonging is one of the strongest themes in the novel. Sarah is continually confronted by other people's ideas about who she should be. What did you want to explore through her struggle between inherited identity and the identity she chooses for herself?

Sarah’s struggle between inherited identity and the identity she chooses for herself grew out of the questions that stayed with me throughout my research. I kept returning to the history of the Massachusett people and the ways colonization reshaped every part of their world. I wondered what happened to families who were fractured by disease and displacement, and how individuals navigated the pressure to assimilate in order to survive. Someone like Sarah would have lived at the intersection of those forces, carrying traditions and kinship ties that were increasingly difficult to maintain while also being pulled into English systems that demanded conformity.

Through her story, I wanted to explore what it means to inherit a cultural identity that is threatened by erasure, and what it costs to hold onto it when every external structure insists on something different. I was also interested in the agency she carves out for herself. Even within severe constraints, she makes choices about who she will be, what she will protect, and which parts of her heritage she refuses to relinquish. Her struggle allowed me to examine belonging as something shaped by history and community, but also by personal conviction. It is not a simple conflict between two worlds. It is the ongoing work of preserving a self that is continually challenged, constrained, and reshaped by the forces around her.

Smallpox, a hurricane, and eventually the Pequot War all shape the characters' lives. How did you balance these major historical events with the quieter, more intimate story unfolding between Sarah and John?

I treated the major historical events as the spine of the narrative, the structure that shapes the world Sarah and John must move through. The smallpox epidemic, the hurricane, and the Pequot War were all defining forces in seventeenth century Massachusetts, and I wanted the story to acknowledge their weight without letting them overshadow the quieter human experiences at the center of the novel. My approach was to imagine what daily life would feel like inside those moments. People still worked, cared for one another, and formed relationships even as history pressed in around them.

The intimacy between Sarah and John grows in the spaces that remain when the world is unstable. Their connection is not separate from these events. It is shaped by them, but it is not consumed by them. By keeping the historical record present as atmosphere and pressure rather than constant spectacle, I could let the love story remain central. Life continues while history unfolds, and I wanted their relationship to reflect that truth.

The novel doesn't present colonial Massachusetts simply as a place of new beginnings; it is also a world of fear, violence, strict social expectations, and competing loyalties. How important was it to challenge some of the more familiar ideas about early colonial life?

It was very important to challenge the familiar, simplified ideas about early colonial Massachusetts. “The City Upon a Hill” speech by Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop is widely taught and often presented as the defining vision of the colony. It is idealistic, righteous, and entirely one sided. When I read Winthrop’s journals, I saw a very different picture. The entries reveal smallpox outbreaks, political dissidents, territory disputes, war, and the beginnings of genocide. They show a community struggling with fear, instability, and internal conflict rather than a unified moral project.

What frustrated me most was how the Massachusett people are never mentioned in the history books. An entire population is ignored or reduced to a footnote, which amounts to erasure. The same is true for places like Merrymount, which is often omitted because it does not fit the familiar narrative of Puritan order and purpose.

I wanted the novel to reflect the full reality of the period. Colonial Massachusetts was not only a place of new beginnings. It was a world shaped by violence, strict social expectations, competing loyalties, and the consequences of colonization. By bringing those elements forward, I hoped to complicate the traditional story and make space for the people and experiences that were pushed aside in the historical record.

Sarah's connection to her Massachusett heritage gives the novel a perspective not always foregrounded in fiction about seventeenth-century New England. What considerations were most important to you when developing this aspect of her character and world?

I wanted the world Sarah inhabits to feel fully alive. The flora, the fauna, the seasonal rhythms, the traditions, and the social complexities were all essential to building a Massachusett perspective that is often missing from fiction about seventeenth century New England. My goal was to bring the lives of the Massachusett people to the forefront. They were present, they had been present for generations, and they continued to exist throughout colonization, even as their world was reshaped around them.

It was important to show the differences in culture and worldview, not as background decoration but as a lived reality that shaped Sarah’s identity. The Neponset River became a natural symbol of that divide. It marked a boundary between two communities, but it also represented the space where Sarah’s inherited identity and her lived experience met and sometimes collided.

By grounding her character in these details, I hoped to honor the Massachusett people and give readers a perspective that reflects the depth and continuity of their world.

Strawberry Moon is the first novel in the Light and Shadow Series. How much of the wider story did you know when you began writing Sarah and John's journey?

Through my ancestral research, I already knew the wider story before I began writing Strawberry Moon. The Light and Shadow Series grew out of that work. I understood the historical and religious pressures that shaped colonial New England and how those forces would influence the Whipple generations that follow. Their lives unfold within a much larger narrative that I had already traced, which made it possible to focus this first novel on the earliest part of their journey while knowing the broader world their story grows into.

For readers reaching the end of Strawberry Moon, what do you hope stays with them most strongly about Sarah and John's story?

I hope readers carry with them the sense of a powerful love story, one that is achingly beautiful and deeply human. Sarah and John build a life outside the expectations of their time, on the outskirts of society, navigating a world that is changing around them. What matters most to me is the way they hold on to identity, humanity, trust, and the courage to love despite the uncertainty. Their story is about choosing one another in a world that does 

A huge thank you to Amber Hoyem for joining me today and sharing more about Sarah and John's story in Strawberry Moon.

If you enjoy immersive historical fiction, slow-building love stories and novels that explore identity, belonging and lesser-told perspectives from the past, then Strawberry Moon is certainly one to add to your reading list.

Pick up your copy of Strawberry Moon HERE

Read with #KindleUnlimited

Amber Hoyem

Amber Hoyem writes literary historical fiction rooted in early American history. She is the author of Strawberry Moon.

A former secondary educator, her descent into genealogical research drew her into early American history. What began as curiosity became a years‑long search for emotional and historical truth—one that revealed her ancestral ties to John and Sarah Whipple and the archival traces that sparked Strawberry Moon.

Originally from Southern California, Amber now lives in Oklahoma with her husband, two sons, and their fluffy puppy, Brooke. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found at a BMX track, cheering on her youngest, who behaves as if gravity is someone else’s problem.

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Dragonbound (Ice & Fire Book 1) by MJ Porter

 

Dragonbound

 (Ice & Fire Book 1)

 By MJ Porter 

Publication Date: 23rd September 2026

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Print Length: 246 Pages

Genre:  Viking Historical Romance

In a world frozen by darkness, desire is the most dangerous thing to awaken. Step into the world of Dragonbound 

The Long Night is ending. The dragon is waking.

Sereh has escaped the tyranny of the local jarl, but the frozen wilds are just as deadly as the life she left behind.

And when she and her wolf-dog, Arrow, save a mysterious stranger from the glacier, she becomes bound to a destiny she never chose.

Erann has secrets. About the cold. About the land. About why the world is changing.

As the Long Night stretches on, survival means trusting each other. But beneath the frozen earth, something ancient is awakening. And as their fragile alliance deepens into something far more dangerous, Sereh and Erann must decide whether love is worth risking a world already on the brink.

Get ready to fall in love this with this Norse-set, myth-inspired fantasy romance from bestselling author MJ Porter!

Pick up your copy of Dragonbound HERE

M J Porter

I'm an author of historical fiction (Early English/Saxon, Vikings and the British Isles as a whole before the Norman Conquest, as well as four 20th-century historical mysteries) and fantasy (now published under a different name).

I was born in the old Mercian kingdom at some point since 1066. Raised in the shadow of a strange little building, told from a very young age that it housed the bones of long-dead kings of Mercia and that our garden was littered with old pieces of pottery from a long-ago battle, it's little wonder that my curiosity in Early England ran riot. I can only blame my parents!

I like to write. You've been warned!

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Beneath David's Throne: Michal's Story by Melissa Alfredson

 

Beneath David's Throne: Michal's Story 

By Melissa Alfredson

Publication Date: September 3rd, 2026

Publisher: ScarletWhite Press

Pages: 339

Genre: Literary Historical Fiction / Biblical Fiction

THEY CALL JERUSALEM DAVID’S TRIUMPH.

Michal calls it her cage.

Once a princess of Israel and the woman who helped secure King David’s crown, Michal now lives as a discarded queen in the palace her husband built upon the ruins of her father’s dynasty. Childless and increasingly sidelined as new wives and their sons rise around her, she clings to the fragile power her name still commands.

But when the house of David fractures under rival claims and hidden betrayals, Michal is drawn into the deadly politics of succession as she fights to protect the young princess Tamar, the one soul in the palace she cannot abandon.

As prophecy closes in around David’s throne and old wounds refuse to stay buried, Michal must confront the legacy of her father, the silence of the husband she once loved, and the God whose purposes she cannot escape.

Darkly lyrical and psychologically charged, Beneath David’s Throne is a work of literary historical fiction steeped in the court intrigue and dynastic politics of ancient Israel. For readers of The Red Tent and The Marriage Portrait, this first novel in the Beneath David’s Throne saga reclaims Michal, daughter of Saul—the forgotten woman who stood closest to David’s throne.

History remembered her as barren. This is the story it left out.

Beneath David's Throne: Michal's Story HERE

Melissa Alfredson

Melissa Alfredson is an award-winning screenwriter and novelist with a passion for uncovering the stories history left untold. Her fiction explores the lives of women caught in the shadow of great events, bringing overlooked voices to life through richly imagined, character-driven prose.

Beneath David’s Throne is her debut novel.

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