Passport to Peril Mysteries by Maddy Hunter

In October of 1999, in the midst of the Y2k frenzy that predicted global chaos would reign when computer systems crashed on January 1, 2000, I traveled to Switzerland as part of an organized tour for a group of Iowa seniors. Though I wasn’t a senior, I went as a companion to my girlfriend’s mom, so I was allowed to join the group and was welcomed with open arms.

We checked into the Grand Palais Hotel in Lucerne where the rooms were spartan, the food unappetizing, and the weather outside miserable. But the Iowans were undaunted. They were cheerful despite the persistent fog that never lifted. They were unfazed when the drinks at the Hotel Chateau Gutsch cost more than a small car. They arrived obsessively early for everything. And not just early. Insanely early. A company tour director ran the show, but a chaperone from Iowa also accompanied our group of seniors, acting as a kind of fairy godmother, buying us Swiss treats, answering questions, and performing general troubleshooting duties.

As I’d been desperately trying to think of ideas for a new book, this Swiss trip sparked a kernel of an idea for an entire series. What if I recorded the misadventures of a core group of Iowa senior citizens as they traveled around the world? What if they were quirkier than the group I traveled with and engaged in constant affectionate anarchy?  What if I created a much younger, well-intentioned but slightly hapless female protagonist who traveled the world with them as their chaperone?  And what if they encountered dead bodies on every trip? I could make it a murder mystery series, but not hardcore or graphic. A funny mystery series without blood or gore. Something cozy that could be read late at night without giving the reader nightmares. Thus was born the Passport to Peril Mystery series. 

Happily, computer systems didn’t crash and the world didn’t end on January 1, 2000, which allowed me to write the first book in the series, Alpine For You. And the rest, as they say, is history.