Indies Introduce Q&A with Alasdair Beckett-King

Alasdair Beckett-King is the author of Montgomery Bonbon: Murder at the Museum, a Winter/Spring 2025 Indies Introduce young adult selection, and March/April 2025 Kids’ Next List pick.

Suzanne Lucey of Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC, served on the bookseller panel that selected Beckett-King’s book for Indies Introduce.

“Where was this book when I was young?” Luvey said of the book. “I loved Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and later Agatha Christie. Montgomery Bonbon has it all. Quirky, smart, characters and laugh out-loud-funny schemes. Bonnie Montgomery and her grandfather are never seen with Montgomery Bonbon, yet they work so well together. This fun new series is the perfect fodder for inspiring kids to do great things. Fun, imaginative, and downright silly. This will turn the most reluctant reader into a super sleuth, and parents will jump right in the story too.”

How are you this morning? Chip, chip, and cheerio?

Alasdair Beckett-King: I'm very, very well. Of course, it is afternoon where I am. But apart from that, everything's good.

SL: Good. So, tell us how you came to write this book.

ABK: I was thinking back to when I was a kid — which was ages ago now — and I don't think that mystery books for kids was a huge genre. In the States, you have Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, but they weren't in the school libraries when I was a kid here — I guess they were too American. We had The Boxcar Children and The Falcon’s Malteser by Anthony Horowitz, which is a film noir parody comedy. It was quite scary, there were real murders in it.

But when I started working on the Montgomery Bonbon series, I thought I had invented a new genre. I thought, “I've come up with a great idea here. Kids love murder mysteries!” Of course, I very, very quickly discovered that it's a now well-established genre with a lot of brilliant writers working in it. The obvious ones (from a British point of view) are Robin Stevens and M.G. Leonard, but there's loads of exciting stuff happening. Unfortunately, I didn't invent the genre, but I've been a fan of jokes and mysteries my whole life, so getting a chance to squeeze those together has been really fun.

SL: Some of the most popular books are coming out of London right now too, especially Richard Osman, who's a famous comedian in the UK, as you are.

ABK: He's a little bit more famous, but it's not important.

SL: Oh, I don't think so. But, I agree, Agatha Christie and Hardy Boys are kind of out of touch — the Bobbsey Twins too. I could relate to them because I thought it was my parents’ generation. Now, I don't think kids can relate to them as much.

ABK: When I read The Boxcar Children as a kid, I enjoyed it at the start. It's the Depression, and they're orphaned, and they go and live in a boxcar. I was on board with that! Then at the end, it turns out their uncle is alive and he's a millionaire. I was like, “Nah, come on! I don't like these kids now. They're so bourgeoisie! I liked it before.”

SL: My son loved The Boxcar Children.

ABK: I did read all of them. So, I guess maybe I did like them.

SL: I think they're close to 90 years old now.

ABK: Wow. They’ve held up pretty well then, considering.

SL: Yeah. How did you make your fun mystery series hip and collegiate while still being relevant and fun?

ABK: That is a really tricky question, because, as a stand-up comedian, we cheat all the time. I don't think people realize how needy and pathetic comedians are. People think comedians are brave, but it's not true at all.

If you're a comedian, you go out with new material, and you're like, “Is this funny?” Then a room full of people say “yes” or “no.” If they say “yes,” you keep working on it. If they say “no,” you stop saying it.

The very weird thing about writing fiction — especially children's fiction — is that the audience for the book doesn't get to read it until it's too late. Not only is it finished, but it's actually been printed on paper, and bound, and shipped to places. There's no opportunity to iterate on it. You have to rely on very talented editors and the publisher knowing their stuff. It made me realize what incredible nerve authors must have to be able to hold your nerve through drafting and redrafting.

It's only in that final stage where someone sends you a message on Instagram and says, “Hey, my kid really likes your book. Here's a drawing they did.” And you go, “Oh, wow, that's so weird. What a huge surprise.” The nice thing about it, compared to comedy, is nobody ever emails you to say, “My kid hated your book. Here's a drawing they did of you looking like a poo.” That doesn't happen, so it is better than comedy in some ways.

SL: I love selling books to kids, because kids are honest to a fault, and they'll say, “No, I don't like that. Doesn't appeal to me.”

So, you're huge over in England right now, and I can't wait to bring this to the United States. I have nieces and nephews that I'm going to share this with too, because it's so much fun, and we need fun in the world.

ABK: Yes, absolutely, fun is really important to me. I'm a comedy writer, I suppose. It still feels weird to say that. I feel kind of anxious saying that.

I was trying to find that balance where there's jokes that the kids will enjoy, jokes that parents reading the book to their kids will enjoy, and maybe a couple of references that the older readers might pick up on, but also trying to maintain that sense of bouncy fun that carries you through and allows me to play with the conventions of the mystery genre.

I wanted to write something that wasn't a spoof of mysteries. Perhaps a child is picking this up having not read a mystery before, and I get to introduce them to the conventions of a mystery and the way that a mystery story is structured — because they're highly formulaic — but also have a little bit of fun.

SL: You did an outstanding job. Who are your biggest influences for children's books or even adult books?

ABK: That's a really good question. Well, I mentioned Anthony Horowitz.

SL: Yes. I love him!

ABK: He's a fantastic writer — more for adults these days, but when I was a kid, lots of kids books. I never met him —

SL: I have!

ABK: Have you? Oh, you’re so lucky!

SL: I had dinner with him. He was delightful. And so kind.

ABK: Wow. Yes, he seems like he would be delightful. He wrote a lot of blackly comic TV shows, some of them mysteries, some of them dark comedies. We have Midsomer Murders in this country, and he adapted the books they're based on — which are a silly murder series set in rural England where everyone's plotting to poison someone or stab someone in the back. And he wrote something called Murder Most Horrid. So when I was a kid, you were staying up just a little bit late and watching those things on TV…

I should be giving a literary answer, shouldn't I? Shouldn't be saying, “Well, I watched this stuff on telly when I was a kid.”

SL: I want you to be you! That makes it real.

ABK: One of the nice things about those things is they're a gateway. You can watch an adaptation of the mystery and then you can find the books. I read The Falcon’s Malteser, and then I grew up and I watched The Maltese Falcon and I got into film noir and Raymond Chandler. It was obviously a different genre, sort of, but they're all connected. And Raymond Chandler's a very funny writer as well.

I like Marjorie Allingham as a mystery writer. I think she's a very good writer. One of the things that always impresses me is when writers seem to know a lot about something I don't know anything about. Now, I can't tell whether they know a lot about it. Like when you watch old episodes of Frasier and they make a joke about opera, and I laugh along as if I know what they're talking about. I don't know if it's a good opera joke, but it's enough to convince me. It's the same when she talks about art, and fashion, and the make of a piece of furniture. It always sounds so specific and concrete. And I'm like, “Whoa. She really knows a lot about the way table legs are turned,” or something. I don't know anything about it, but she builds such a sense of place that sounds so specific and really impresses me.

SL: Yeah, you feel like you're there. I love that, and your books do that. So, are you a pantser or a plotter? Do you know what that is?

ABK: I had to Google it, because it sounded like World War II weaponry.

SL: Well, it kind of is.

ABK: Yeah, I guess I am a plotter because I'm an over-preparer, but I don't think that's good. I think preparation is kind of procrastination, and what I've learned from doing comedy — or from not doing comedy — is that you don't learn to do things by waiting until you're ready to do them. You do have to just have a go, and try and get better.

SL: That’s great advice.

ABK: But I wish I could take that advice, because, in spite of having recognized that about myself and about the creative process, I'm still a nerdy little dweeb who has spreadsheets, and diagrams, and flow charts, and notes across several different notebooks, and apps, and desktops, and little post-it notes. I've written three and a half of these books now, and weirdly, I always find the most fun part of writing is when I haven't solved one part of it. Because then, as I'm writing it, I have to be the detective.

I'm like, “Okay, so in this scene, she works something out, and I know what she works out, but I don't know how she works it out.” I just have to sit there and look at the clues and be like, “How is she going to work—?” Then I have to come up with an explanation that's plausible. It's like being a real detective. I just have to stare at the clues and go, “What happened behind that locked door?” and that's a really fun part.

So maybe the whole process would be more fun if I didn't plan any of it.

SL: You're doing really well, so why change it? You're a pantser and a plotter. You evolved from it. Having all those ideas and then being able to tie it together is genius. And you're a genius.

ABK: Well, thank you very much. Obviously, you're a genius as well. And the listeners are all geniuses too.

SL: Well, yes, because they read your book.

ABK: Yeah. Yes, thank you.

SL: I know you have been published in the UK for a few years, have children ever asked you questions that you've never thought of?

ABK: There was an interesting question, a kid at a school said, “Are they scary?” And I'd been reading just a tiny bit of academic theory about mysteries — and I can't remember who I'm plagiarizing here, so I apologize — but I had to be honest and go, “Well, yes,” because I hated scary books when I was a kid. I was too scared. I didn't do horror. I love that sort of thing now, but when I was a child, I would never read a horror book. They fascinated, but terrified me.

I had to be honest, that there is a murder in the story, and it is supposed to be a little bit scary. There are loads of jokes in there, and there are loads of things to make sure that the reader always feels secure, and the reader always knows that the detective has got things in hand.

But in a mystery story the structure of a mystery makes a promise to the reader, doesn't it? The nastier, the scarier the setup, and the nastier the murder, the more perilous the situation. A mystery story promises you that by the end of the book, all of this is going to be worked out. The good-hearted detective with wits and intelligence and lateral thinking is going to resolve this, and we're going to find out who was responsible for this terrible crime. But it does need to be quite a terrible crime, I think. It does need to have that Gothic element, which, for the most part, I think children really like.

When I go into schools and I say, “Who likes murder?” They're like, “Wooooo! We love murder!” And I’m like, “No, no, I'm here about solving murders.” And they're like, “Boooooo! Nooooo.”

Something that really made me smile was when a friend of mine was in a cafe that's opposite my flat, or apartment, to put that in American terms. She was there with her son, and he'd read the book. So she pointed at the window of my flat, my apartment, and said to her son, “Oh, that's where Alasdair — who wrote that book you read — that's where Alasdair lives.” And he looked at my flat, and he said, “Nooo, authors are rich! No, that can't be an author's flat!” I think maybe a couple of authors have given a misleading impression of how wealthy… Maybe there's one or two. I think there's a lot of us in quite small flats.

SL: Oh, yes, definitely. That's why you have to love what you do. That's why booksellers love what they do too. Because we're not going to be millionaires. We're squeaking by.

ABK: Who needs a swimming pool?

SL: Well, I want one. We're in the South here, though.

ABK: I live in South London, so we don't have the weather for it,

SL: When we moved from Boston, I was promised a pool. That was 17 years ago. We still don't have a pool, but whatever.

Working in the store, I have so many young kids — second grade — that'll come in and say, “I want to read Stephen King. I heard it was so good.” I'm like, “No, no, we have some appropriate books for you.” I can't say that word in front of them. But yeah, there are some greats that are horror, and mystery, and Gothic.

ABK: Yes! And I didn't read them as a child, but there’s the Series of Unfortunate Events, which have been so very influential. There’s so much great stuff.

Even Roald Dahl. A brilliant writer, horrible, horrible person, but I feel he channeled his unpleasant personality into some really nasty writing for kids, which has a levity to it that nasty writing for adults doesn't have. And, I still feel so warmly towards the gruesome tales.

SL: Yes, yes. I totally agree. So, in your scheme of things, where you have a hand in all the pots in all the places, what do you think you're going to do going forward? Everything?

ABK: That's a really good question. I often feel terrible about this, because I'm someone who never saw a hobby that I couldn't ruin by turning it into a job.

When I started doing stand up, I was a film student. I was making short films, and I was writing indie video games, and my thought was, “Why be unsuccessful in only one medium? Let's spread that out a bit.”

I could understand why other children's authors might feel resentful, or a bit miffed by people moving from doing comedy and publishing books. And what I tried to do for years was keep the threads of all the things I was interested in separate, but what I've discovered is they do actually feed into one another.

Like you said at the start, I did a murder mystery on Twitter (as it was) during lockdown in the UK, which was kind of a game. It was kind of a comedy sketch. It was also a proper mystery story that I plotted out and I played all of the characters, to varying degrees of success. And by bringing together the different threads of things that I was interested in, the reaction to it was really great.

In fact, it was the starting point of these books. I started talking to Walker Books — who published the books in the UK. It’s published by Candlewick in the US, and the first two books are coming out on February 11. I just remembered to say that!

My feeling is, if it all stopped now and there were no more books, and I couldn't do stand-up anymore, then I would gladly switch to something else. I’d become a puppeteer or a very bad poet. I don't know. I wanted to make jokes, create stories, characters, images, ideas, those sorts of things. And I do it through any means I can. I feel so lucky to be able to do it in the form of kids’ books, because I've been messing around with stories like this for years, and it's so nice that some of them are finally reaching an audience.

SL: Yes, I can't wait to introduce this. Well, Alasdair, I can't thank you enough for being on with us today. I think we read 80 books over the summer, and you are one of the top ten. I'm really happy, and excited for you, and to see what happens to you. Thank you so much for being on here.

ABK: Thank you so much for selecting me.

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Montgomery Bonbon: Murder at the Museum by Alasdair Beckett-King (Candlewick Press, 9781536241662/9781536241679, Hardcover/Paperback Middle Grade Mystery, $18.99/$9.99) On Sale: 2/11/2025

Find out more about the author at abeckettking.com.

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