Dial M(SU Denver) for Murder…

Halloween chills and thrills don’t come only from trick-or-treaters.

For almost a decade, Cynthia Kuhn — English professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver and an Agatha Award-winning mystery writer — has been simultaneously delighting and spooking her readers. Her series of murderous yarns weaves together suspense, eye-popping twists and even humor, but there’s always a body waiting to be found.

As her seventh novel, “In the Event of Murder,” hits the shelves, Kuhn spoke to RED about her writing process and the constant search for new ideas.

A good murder mystery needs to entertain and perplex the reader, while also instilling a sense of unease and danger. How difficult is it to strike that balance as a writer?

It’s always difficult to walk that line. And besides that, you have the challenge of constructing a mystery where the solution remains invisible to the reader throughout but then seems inevitable once it is revealed.

Mystery novels are heavily plot-driven, almost akin to creating a puzzle. You’re seven books in — where do the ideas keep coming from?

It’s a creative process. I’ll usually start with a general premise — for example: What if my professor went to a horror conference and such-and-such happened? — then continue to hone the idea as my writing and revising continues.

I also make a bullet list of chapter-based actions at the outset so there will be a backbone to the structure. But I’ll often end up somewhere altogether different because there’s a natural momentum and flow of ideas that takes over during the drafting process. And thank goodness for that!

There is a lot of factual information in your books — do you enjoy research?

Research is essential, both to gather necessary facts and to feed the imagination. In the course of writing these novels, I’ve learned about secret societies, explored the elements of ghost-hunting and toured the iconic Stanley Hotel, among other things.

Your first five books featured a sleuthing English professor, but your latest two have focused on a bookstore owner. Why did you decide it was time for a change?

My publisher stopped publishing books. This happens sometimes, and it’s hard to move to a different publishing house with an existing series. Since we were in pandemic lockdown at the time and I really missed going to bookstores, I invented one to write about. Happily, both my agent and new publisher liked it.

All your books are set in fictional institutions and towns, but they in turn are very much based in real-world Colorado. Why is this important to you?

My husband and I moved from the East Coast to Colorado in 1991, thinking we’d be here a few years — but we loved it so much that we never left. Our sons were born and raised here, other family members have moved nearby, and it’s truly home. It has been such a joy to write about the real Colorado, while also imagining the world of the series within it.

You’ve presumably learned a lot over the course of writing so many books. If you could time-travel back to give one tip to your novice writer self, what would it be?

Start sooner. And join a professional organization where other people are writing the same kind of books that you want to write. Belonging to such a community can make all the difference.

How do your students feel about having a modern-day Agatha Christie teaching their classes?

Ha! Well, I’m certainly not that, so I couldn’t say. But I can share that we have enjoyed some wonderful conversations about Agatha Christie in the Mystery class. She had such an enormous influence on the whole genre.

Your book is being published as Halloween approaches, and we’re presuming you like this spooky time of year. Any thoughts of basing a story around the occasion?

You’re right — fall is by far my favorite season. And it must be said that a mystery novel pairs well with a cozy chair and a delicious seasonal beverage.

But to directly answer your question: The third book in my Lila Maclean Academic Mystery series,  The Spirit in Question, is in fact set during Halloween and features a haunted opera house inspired by real opera houses in Colorado … including our college’s very own Tivoli Turnhalle!