Research Can Reveal Diamonds or Ice

Every great mystery begins with a little digging! Join Scrivenings Press author Ellen E. Withers as she takes readers behind the scenes of the research process for her Show Me Mysteries series. From exploring historic buildings in her Missouri hometown to uncovering forgotten letters, photographs, and fascinating details from the past, Ellen shares how historical research can become a treasure hunt that brings fictional mysteries to life.

Research Can Reveal Diamonds or Ice: Do you Achieve Rewards or a Chill?

By: Ellen E. Withers

Doing research for a book can either be like discovering a treasure map that leads you to the diamonds, gold, and doubloons you seek or slogging through six inches of snow at subzero temperatures where you dig into the permafrost only to unearth nothing of value. Regardless of what you find, you must do the search. Research adds validation to any topic and can provide richness to a storyline.

Mexico, Missouri is my hometown and the setting for my mystery series, Show Me Mysteries. Each novel in the series spotlights a historical structure and follows a dual-era format, intertwining a contemporary mystery with one from a historical era, both related to that structure. Even though I was born and raised there, I need to research specific information for my novels.

I’m just beginning to work on the fourth book in the series. I’ve chosen to feature a building once related to Hardin College and Conservatory of Music, a college for women established in 1873. Presser Hall, a four-story brick building built in 1924, housed the Conservatory of Music and included an auditorium for 1,200 people.

The college closed in 1932, and Presser Hall came under the care of the public school system. Although the building served the school system for decades, it ultimately fell into disrepair. A group of dedicated people, through years of hard work involving fundraising, grants, donations, and a shared commitment to preserving history, revitalized Presser Hall into the Presser Arts Center, a full performing arts center, in 2007.

To do justice to both the contemporary and the historical stories, I need an intimate knowledge of Presser Hall when it was built and functioning in the 1920s, but also knowledge of modern-day renovations.

As research begins, I worry whether it will bring diamonds or icy ground. Is the history of my chosen structure rich enough to carry a novel? If not, I’ll have to choose another structure to feature and start the creative process all over again. But without research, I wouldn’t know that a different choice needs to be made. I’d rather research up front than be halfway through writing a book and realize the “soup is too thin.”

It’s been helpful for me to have connections with an outstanding historical society in the town. Not only does the Audrain County Historical Society Museum have a seemingly unending resource of historical documents collected over decades, but the staff are helpful, kind, and get as eager as I am about the research topic. It also doesn’t hurt to have written a mystery which featured their structure, my second mystery in the series, Show Me Deceit.

My hometown is six hours away by car, so I can’t just drop by the museum. This distance requires visit planning, and that saves me time and effort. To make the most of my time, I called ahead and explained what I wanted to research and when I would arrive. Two weeks later, everything related to Hardin College and Presser Hall had been gathered and placed into the new research room at the museum for my review.

The treasure included books related to county history, bulging folders of newspaper clippings, letters written by women who attended the college (primary source material!), graduation invitations from the college, yearbooks, photographs, and much more. Hours later, a collection of the “sparkling diamonds” of historical information found with my cotton-gloved fingertips was chosen to be sprinkled into my novel.

That first stage of research for my latest mystery novel provided the following:

• Timeline: I developed a precise timeline for my historical mystery.
• Interesting backgrounds of students: Several girls came from Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Most students arrived by train.
• Intriguing classes offered: besides Music and Art, there was Chemistry, Physics, Economics, Advanced Calculus, Latin, Greek, and Astronomy.
• Original building layouts: I have maps and photographs of the interior and exterior of Presser Hall and two dormitories.

Next up, researching the contemporary Presser Arts Center. A family friend is a board member and has agreed to give me a complete tour of the four-story facility, auditorium, and classrooms. Although I have ideas for mysteries swirling around in my head, I hope a walk through the facility will inspire more ideas for both the contemporary and the 1920s mystery. My goal is to weave the two timelines together into a seamless plotline encompassing two eras.

Research is a necessary step for most authors. I hope research will provide you with your own treasure map to riches.

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Genre: Mystery

Author: Ellen E. Withers

Release date: May 13, 2025

Other books in the Show Me Mysteries: Show Me Betrayal and Show Me Deceit 

Read the first three chapters for FREE here.

Death comes knocking once again in Show Me Skullduggery, the captivating third book in the award-winning Show Me Mysteries series. These mysteries involve two eras, early 1900s, and contemporary times, featuring a famous Saddlebred horse stable in Mexico, Missouri. Intrigue, deception, underhanded behavior, and murder will keep you turning pages.

Present day: Because of her behavior, the disregard of the needs of her tenants, and her penny-pinching ways, everyone despises slumlord Katherine Mull. When a killer emerges and acts upon their desire to end Katherine’s life, Liesl, Kurt, and Nicole must race against time to identify the killer before this mad person kills again. Can they track down the killer before someone else dies? Do they have the skills necessary to identify the killer before they become the target?

1920 through 1953: Mexico, Missouri, is famous for being the “Saddlehorse Capital of the World” thanks to world-famous owner/trainers Tom Bass, C.F. Clark, Joseph Potts, George and William Lee, Robert Stewart, and Art Simmons. Each has built upon the solid, respected reputation of the previous trainer at these beloved stables until now. Who can discover and stop sabotage at the stables? Will the Saddlebred trainers be bankrupt if the breed’s sterling reputation is destroyed? Is murder the ultimate act of an evil man seeking revenge?

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Ellen E. Withers is an award-winning fiction writer, freelance writer, and retired insurance fraud investigator. Show Me Betrayal, the first book in her Show Me Mystery series, won Book of the Year, Best Mystery/Suspense, and Best Debut Novel in the Scrivenings Press Reader’s Choice Awards in 2023 and was a dual finalist in the American Christian Fiction Writer’s (ACFW) 2024 Carol Awards for Debut Novel and Mystery/Suspense/Thriller categories. Show Me Deceit, the second book in the series, won Scrivenings Press Reader’s Choice Awards for Best Mystery/Suspense in 2024. Show Me Skullduggery, book three, was published in May of 2025. A fourth book in the series is under contract.