Tulip Season

How does a gardener from Wallingford get herself involved in a missing person case steeped in mystery, murder, and international intrigue? The answer lies within Bharti Kirchner’s latest novel, Tulip Season, the first in a series of Mitra Basu Mysteries.

Mitra Basu is a 29 year-old Calcutta-born, Wallingford-based landscape designer who discovers that her dearest friend, Kareena Sinha, has gone missing. As she tries to get to the bottom of Kareena’s mysterious disappearance, she discovers a lot of things about herself, her friend, and the people around her. The search for her friend ultimately takes her back to Calcutta, where her mother and her childhood friend help with her search, and she learns that behind the scenes of Bollywood, it isn’t always about song and dance.

Tulip Season is the first mystery written by Bharti Kirchner who’s lived in Wallingford since 1985. Kirchner has written five other novels and four cookbooks, and is a book reviewer for the Seattle Times. She’s also been a guest speaker at many local and national writers conferences. Initially, Tulip Season began as a short story that appeared in Seattle Noir, a collection of works by Seattle writers, and published in 2009; but Publishers Weekly specifically called out Kirchner’s story as one of the two best in the collection, and people who read it asked her when the novel would be done!

We sat down one chilly July morning at Tully’s to discuss her book and all the different things about Wallingford that make it such a great place to live. An avid flower gardener, Kirchner is the first person I’ve heard call Wallingford Seattle’s “Garden District” but it makes perfect sense given the beautifully-tended gardens in the neighborhood. To Kirchner, there are two Wallingfords: one as it exists; and the other she’s written about. Both are relatively quiet and full of gardens and families, but her invented Wallingford includes a mystery (I quite liked the latter, as it spiced things up a little bit!)

Tulip Season is perfect for summer reading. Get yourself over to Wide World Books & Maps (4411-a Wallingford Avenue North) and pick up a copy. Then, come see Bharti Kirchner give a reading on August 28 at the University Bookstore (4326 University Way NE) at 7pm.