WILLIAMSBURG — Local Williamsburg mystery writer Tim Holland will be signing books at Barnes & Noble on Saturday, Feb. 11.
Holland began writing while at St. Bonaventure, where he was one of the editors of the school’s literary magazine. During that time he also worked as a printer’s apprentice for the university press on campus. Eventually, he went to graduate school at Drew University in New Jersey to refine his scope.
Currently, he is a director of the Williamsburg Book Festival, a past director of Chesapeake Bay Writers, and a Mystery Writers of America member. He recently received a Keating award for his short fiction and was one of the featured authors at the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival.
Holland’s love for mystery goes back much further, though. His mother was an advent mystery reader, and he remembers fondly how she always had a book in her hand and would tell him about what she was reading.
“It just seemed a natural thing for me that I followed along and started reading mysteries. I enjoyed them. They were very entertaining and I just kept with it. I write about a lot of other things too, but mysteries were the one thing I keyed off,” Holland explained in an interview.
Holland is also a fan of Victorian literature, specifically the Brontë Sisters, and he joined the Brontë Society of Haworth, England in 1987. Holland even had the opportunity to pen articles for the Brontë newsletters.
Holland’s love for the Brontë sisters carried over into his newest novel, “Deception: A Sidney Lake Lowcountry Mystery,” which was released in June by Black Opal Books. The story follows Sidney Lake as he uncovers the mystery of a stolen copy of Anne Brontë’s novel “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” with the help of his companion Tillie James, a Gullah woman. Tillie has to drop the investigation when a ninety-year-old Gullah woman is threatened with losing her home at a delinquent tax sale. The mystery unfolds as the two seemingly unrelated events come together in this southern mystery.
The series takes place in Lowcountry, South Carolina — a area Holland had lived in for around ten years and fell in love with. Noticing not many other writers wrote about the area, he wanted to shed light on its culture as well as the place.
“If you’re going to write something about the south, you have to use it as a character itself, especially in that area,” Holland emphasized. “I try to do that, where the unique nature of the place plays a big part in the activity in the stories. Whether it’s a hurricane coming through or something with Gullah culture or the way the tide moves, they’re all intricate parts of any story that I put out.”
The book signing will take place at Barnes & Noble New Town on Feb. 11 from 1-3 p.m. To learn more about Holland’s other books, check out his website.
