Hester Thursby sits down for a Q&A with dru’s book musings responding to twenty or more questions so that we can learn more about her. So, let’s get to know Hester.

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What is your full name?
Hester Gertrude Thursby

How old are you?
I’m 39 and verging on the next decade of my life!

What is your profession?
I work at Harvard’s Widener Library as a research librarian. My specialty is Americana. I like anything involving movies, television, or any other type of entertainment, like vaudeville, circuses, and World’s Fairs.

Do you have a significant other?
I live with my long-time boyfriend. Actually, we live in the same house, but each of us keeps a separate apartment. I like my independence!

What is their name and profession?
His name is Morgan Maguire, and he’s a veterinarian.

Do you have any children?
We don’t have kids of our own, but Morgan’s niece Kate lives with us. She’s five years old and finishing up kindergarten. Lately she has been obsessed with numbers, Legos, and anything that happened before her own existence.

Do you have any siblings?
No.

Are your parents nearby?
Yes. I live in Somerville, Mass., which is right next to Boston. My mother lives near Cape Cod, but we are estranged. I haven’t spoken to her since I left for college more than twenty years ago. Lately, I’ve been considering whether I should give her a second chance.

Who is your best friend?
My best friend used to be Morgan’s twin sister Daphne. We went to Wellesley College together, and our lives have been entwined ever since. We had a falling out about something last year and haven’t been in touch again, so I would say my best friend right now is Angela White. Angela works as a detective with the Boston Police Department, and we sometimes work together on cases.

Do you have any pets?
Morgan and I have a basset hound mix named Waffles, but Morgan’s worst (and best) habit is saving animals in need, so we have a constant parade of creatures great and small traveling through the house. I wouldn’t have it any other way! Right now, we have a six-foot-long iguana named Ian staying with us. Thankfully, Ian is a vegetarian.

We’re also petsitting for our friends Prachi and Jane who are skiing in Aspen. They have a greyhound named O’Keefe. Our tenant, Jamie Williams, is basically our roommate, so his Bichon Frise, Butch, is around a lot too. So, long story short, yes, we have pets!

What town do you live in?
We live in Somerville, Massachusetts, which is right next to Boston.

Do you live in a small town or a big city?
It’s a small, very densely populated city.

Type of dwelling and do you own or rent?
We own a house with three apartments. Jamie Williams lives on the ground floor, I live on the top floor, and Morgan lives in the middle.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
My apartment is tiny and tends to be a pigsty. Morgan’s the one with the taste and the nice furniture, so we congregate there. We call his apartment the “adult space.”

Favorite meal and dessert?
I try to eat with abandon, and I like any kind of comfort food – pizza, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, reubens, French fries. I hope Kate never outgrows being a picky eater because it gives me an excuse to eat like a kid! For dessert, I’ll take anything besides raisin pie, but if I had to choose, I’d opt for ice cream from Christina’s in Inman Square. I like the burnt caramel, in particular.

Do you have any hobbies?
I find missing people, and it tends to get me in big trouble! Once, I found a serial killer and wound up fighting him off with an axe. This time around I’m finding a group of missing students, and one of the ones I locate turns up dead.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
Ooh, that’s a good question. Morgan and I have been very distracted for the last three years, ever since Kate came to stay with us, so we haven’t had the opportunity to travel much. Kate loves princesses, so I suspect there will be a trip to Disney sometime in the future, but for myself, I’d choose getting in an RV and driving across America to visit National Parks. Along the way, I’d stop at any out-of-the-way distraction I could find. I love visiting places like old amusement parks, ghost towns, and museums of the absurd.

What music do you listen to?
Thankfully, Kate seems to be outgrowing The Wiggles, though they still seem to pop up when I least expect them. I mostly listen to a mix of pop/rock from the 80s and 90s, but I’m also a sucker for indie folk and rock like Tegan and Sarah or Bon Iver.

Do you have a favorite book?
Right now, it’s Adam Bede by George Eliot, which plays a big part in the novel Watch Her!

What is your idea of a really fun time?
Morgan and I have a small and ever-growing group of friends. My favorite thing to do is to have them over for dinner and then stay up late playing games.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
Pipsqueak

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
I am definitely an amateur. I work with different partners to solve crimes. In Watch Her, I work very closely with Detective Angela White from the Boston Police Department. Sometimes I annoy her, but I think she secretly appreciates my insight!

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
Morgan and I are supposed to swap off taking the dogs out in the morning, but I like to beat him to it, which allows me to sneak in a visit to Union Square Donuts when no one is looking. Their maple bacon donuts are spectacular. After a frenzied breakfast, Kate and I ride the bus to her school, while Morgan takes Waffles to work, then I head to the library where I work on a variety of research projects and sit on a number of committees. Harvard’s Widener Library has a long-standing policy that any research query that comes in gets answered no matter the source, so I’ll often find myself in the stacks or on the databases researching something obscure. The other day, a middle school student asked what we could find on circuses in St. Louis at the turn of the 20th Century. I had fun with that one!

When I get home, we have dinner, and I usually have two fingers of whisky (or more). After everyone else is in bed, I sneak into my own apartment with Waffles, curl up on the sofa, and watch old videos. I love horror movies and 80s action flicks, but lately I’ve been binging old episodes of The Waltons. I love the theme song, don’t you?

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Watch Her by Edwin Hill, Hester Thursby Mystery #3
Genre: Thriller
Release: January 2021
Purchase Link

While attending a gala at Prescott University’s lavish new campus, Hester Thursby and fellow guest, Detective Angela White, are called to the home of the college’s owners, Tucker and Jennifer Matson. Jennifer claims that someone broke into Pinebank, their secluded mansion on the banks of Jamaica Pond. The more Hester and Angela investigate, the less they believe Jennifer’s story, leaving Hester to wonder why she would lie.

When Hester is asked by the college’s general manager to locate some missing alumni, she employs her research skills on the family and their for-profit university. Between financial transgressions, a long-ago tragedy, and rumors of infidelity, it’s clear that the Matsons aren’t immune to scandal or mishap. But when one of the missing students turns up dead, the mystery takes on new urgency.

Hester is edging closer to the truth, but as a decades-old secret collides with new lies, a killer grows more determined to keep the past buried with the dead. . . .

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About the author
Edwin Hill’s critically-acclaimed crime novels include Watch Her, The Missing Ones, and Little Comfort. He has been nominated for Edgar and Agatha Awards, featured in Us Magazine, received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal, and was recognized as one of “Six Crime Writers to Watch” in Mystery Scene magazine. He lives in Roslindale, Massachusetts with his partner Michael and his favorite reviewer, their lab Edith Ann, who likes his first drafts enough to eat them.

All comments are welcomed.