Behind the Scenes of “The Cryptic Clue”

From childhood, I have always loved going to see the Ancient Egypt exhibit at the Met. I was so fascinated by this very literate culture who recorded everything in pictures and words, and have no doubt it inspired me to continue to put pictures and words together to tell stories scores of centuries later. One treasure I took home with me as a souvenir was a tiny statue of a black cat, the goddess named Bastet. I still have the little figure, and I put its magic into the second installment of the “Pearl Caper” mysteries, except of course Cleo De La Nile’s statue had rubies for eyes, and had been in her tiger family for eons. What would happen if such a treasure went missing? I imagined the written word would play a part in its recovery, as well as pictures and written riddles on papyrus as clues. And that’s how “The Cryptic Clue” was born!

I wrote the first version of this story before I was a teacher of little kids, however, and that led to some large changes when recording it for the screen. Originally Mr. Wolfsbane went missing entirely, and there was a madcap scene where the whole gang journeys to a local cemetery to uncover more riddles, but these, I thought, might be a bit frightening for some of my younger readers. I vividly remembered my first time as an elementary school teacher on Halloween, when some of my more sensitive students absolutely would not hear me read Tomie DePaola’s charming, light, and comedic “Strega Nona“ because she was a homespun wise woman who cast spells— in other words, a witch. I wanted to remain sensitive to these kinds of concerns and put age-appropriateness paramount, because I (like Night Owl!) know how it feels to be just a little too scared to watch or listen to something. While I wanted “Cryptic Clue” to have some suspense and thrills, I wanted to keep it fully in the register of light fun.

So I moved more into the realm of silly and zany, madcap and over the top, than truly mysterious or spooky, and as a result had a ball with the performances— the new characters of Cleo De La Nile and Ms. Puppy Chow especially! “The Pearl Caper” series has found its new secondary trait – the zany—and it fits!

Once again, this subtle characteristic undertone of the story is picked up and beautifully outfitted by our wonderful illustrator, Natalia Gubanova, who creates the most lavish costumes in utter seriousness, but also shows a talent for the comedic in making these characters become the biggest and funniest versions of themselves – whether Lady Plumel is squirting a pomegranate all over the delicate dresses of fellow guests, or the scenes of silly mayhem as Sir Seeth hangs from a chandelier holding a juice-filled goblet.

I am already looking forward to bringing further stories in this series to the page and screen!

For now, sit back, relax, and enjoy “The Cryptic Clue”!

Love,
Lauren