Special Report: Murder at the Movies (2026)

Hold your ears, folks. It's showtime. People pay good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth. Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.

Turn it off. Hey folks, welcome to The Projection Booth. I'm your host Mike White. Today I'm talking with TCM host and author Alicia Malone about her new cozy mystery novel, Murder at the Movies. It is her first work of fiction after years of writing about film history.

As you know, she's been on the show a few times to talk about some of her other books as well as co-host an episode, which was great. Set inside a fictional movie palace and following a heroine she calls the fantasy version of herself, The book arrives on running press on October 6, 2026, with a sequel already underway. As always, I had a great time talking with Alicia, and I hope you have a great time listening. Enjoy. So it's been a while since we've talked.

I don't even remember if you had brought up that you're writing fiction last time we talked. Well, how did you decide to do it? Well, this is something I have long wanted to do. And it was something I was quite shy about. So I did a lot of writing courses over the years.

I would write short stories for myself. I did a writing course in Paris in 2010. And I would start books and not finish them. And I kept being saying, like, one day, one day, one day. But as you know, Mike, unless you put a line in the sand and make yourself available, then you're never going to do it.

So... I had decided after TCM imports my last nonfiction film book, um, I'm sure I'll return to fiction, but I decided, okay, I just have to try. Otherwise I'm always going to regret it. And I didn't have any kind of sense that TCM would want a fiction book cause they've never done fiction before. I wasn't even really thinking of pitching it to the editor I'd worked with at Running Press until we had coffee, her name's Cindy Sapala and she's really lovely.

And she's only ever done nonfiction books. So I wasn't going into the coffee with any intention at all just to catch up. And she said, what are you working on now? And I said, well, I've always wanted to write fiction and I love cozy mysteries and I have an idea for a series. And I told her about it and she said, that's so weird because I've been told to find cozy mysteries and romances.

And she wasn't even thinking TCM would be interested at that stage, but she just said, send me sample chapter and a synopsis and we'll go from there. And then she liked that and then she pitched it to TCM and they liked it. And then it was kind of like I had a book deal and a deadline and no other choice, but that was so fun and such a challenge to write, but I really enjoyed the process. And that's what I hope people get when they read the book that I was having a lot of fun with it. I guess having a deadline really has to motivate you.

Yes, and it has to be someone else's deadline, because if it's my deadline, I'll fail myself every time. I'll make an excuse, be like, I can't do that right now because the TCM cruise is coming up or whatever it is. But if someone else gives me a deadline, I will make it happen no matter what. How did you find the time to write it? I had to squeeze it in.

So I'm lucky that I work from home a lot, writing my TCM scripts for all the intros I deliver and then travel. you know, for TCM and for other jobs, but I had to really be. Disciplined and just sit down as. Much, like as much as I could, even if it was when I was traveling and in a hotel, um, or when I was at home, then I would say, okay, these are the writing hours and non-negotiable. Cause again, other things would always pop up, but I had to make a schedule for myself and work to a word count I found helped me if I was looking for a daily word count. And some days the words were terrible and the sentences weren't coming and nothing made sense.

But I just forced myself to write because I knew the next day there might be something from the day before, one little kernel that I can use. And some days were more productive than others. But just I think having that discipline and putting it first really or you know, as important as all my other things. What are some of your other favorite cozy mysteries? Oh yeah.

I love reading cozy mysteries. I love, uh, Lorna Barrett has a whole series called the book town mysteries, and that was a big inspiration for my book. Um, it's set in like a, a fictional New Hampshire town where all the stores are bookstores of various kinds. And I love a cozy mystery that's either in a bookstore or in England. So I also love MC Beaton's book.

She's passed away now, but she had the Agatha Raisin series and the Hamish Macbeth series. And then some newer writers like Olivia Black. She's been around for a while, but she has the Record Storm Mysteries that I really loved. Uh, High Conrad has like a whole series of books. And then also I like to read ones that maybe the authors wouldn't call cozy.

Like Louise Penny's books are amazing. Um, the Thursday Murder Club. I know that Richard Osman doesn't like them being called cozy, but I found myself feeling very cozy when I read his books. And he was also an inspiration being that he's a TV host in England as a writer. So I thought that's kind of an inspirational model.

So many, I'm constantly reading cozy mysteries and finding more too. And that's what's the joy of them that When you find a series, sometimes there are 20 books in that series. There's nothing better than loving the first book and knowing you've got so much more to read. People don't have that advantage right now since you need to work on the second one now. Sorry.

Yeah, well, I have been. So second one is coming and hope to do more after that, but we'll see. And what came to you first, the mystery, the characters, or the movie palace? One of the fun parts I didn't expect about writing a fiction book is that I can open it up and I can look at any idea and tell you exactly when and where I had that idea or where it came from, whether it's in my life or something I saw. So I have always dreamed, like many film lovers, of owning a movie theater.

And I always said I was going to call it Malone's. Movie Palace because I liked the idea and the feeling of a movie palace that's so grand. And when I moved to Maine, there was a movie theater that was for sale and I was trying to figure out whether I could actually buy it. But of course I didn't have the money for that. So then I joined the board of another theater here in Maine called the Strand Theater.

And that taught me a lot about how movie theaters are run. So I thought that could be a cool setting for a cozy mystery because cozy mysteries are always set in like a, like a bookstore or, you know, a place where people work or a library. And so I thought of that. So kind of all at once. And then moving to Maine was big inspiration.

Being here and seeing the change of seasons and also feeling what it's like to go from LA to a small town. I do want to say everyone here was very nice to me when I moved, unlike the characters in my book, to Audrey Sullivan. That was purely for fiction purposes. And then also Audrey is kind of She's kind of like a fantasy version of me. So there's parts of me in there, but I'm definitely not fearless.

I am very squeamish. I would not, not ever get involved in a murder case and I would never want to see a dead body. So she's definitely kind of a fantasy version. You have to be careful though in Maine because there's so many awful things that happen. I've heard about rabid dogs.

I've heard about vampires. I mean, it's just, it's an awful place. It really is. I mean, there's so much that goes on here. And it's amazing how many writers are here in Maine.

Obviously, Stephen King being the biggest one. But there is something about Maine. And I think the fact that there's a lot of natural areas that haven't been built up. There's just surrounded by nature. It's a very quiet place that you can start to think, you know, sometimes quite morbidly, but you can think of stories and let your creation and creativity kind of flow.

Yeah. You kind of answered one of my questions already, which is how similar you are to your main character. I mean, I kept thinking of that the whole time while I was reading. I was just like, I wonder how much of this is Alicia. Yeah, little touches.

I mean, I definitely reference movies all the time like she does. I do like to picture classic film star could play this person. in real life, that's one of my favorite things to do at an airport is when I'm walking through a crowd is trying to see if there's anyone who looks like a classic film star walking around or who could play that person. But definitely, yeah, there's a lot of her that's not similar. And, you know, I have a very nice mom. Audrey's mom is not very supportive of her, but my mom was very supportive of me to want to point that out.

So yeah, touches of touches of me. I do like a pumpkin spice latte, but it's a more exaggerated version. What was the toughest part of writing this? Putting together the mystery because it's such a puzzle piece and I Didn't know whether I was gonna I actually thought I was gonna be more of a plotter You know how they talk about a plotter or a pantser or whatever the term is of like either Figuring it all out beforehand or just writing and see where it goes and I'm such a planner by nature I plan everything Lots of lists and to-do lists and goals. That I thought I would be more of a plotter.

And then I wanted to realize I wanted to leave some room for discovery. But what I would end up doing is I. Said, let's just write the first draft from start. To finish and then go back. When I went back, I realized that, oh, I started so many things that I didn't finish.

I never tied that together. And that actually doesn't make sense. Logically, you can push the truth a little bit with cozy mysteries, but you still have to have some basis in logic. So that was tricky. And every time I would change one thing, then I have to go back and change it all again and make sure I had really crossed all the T's and dotted the I's.

And I had other readers helping me spot all those things and the editors, of course. Oh, that's nice. I was wondering if you had other friends read this for you and give you that feedback. I had a variety of friends, some who love mysteries, some who don't. Eddie Muller read the manuscript when it was quite early and Gave me some tips because he's written mysteries before.

And he's seen a few mysteries in his life too, I think. Yeah. Seen one or two. Yeah. And I didn't think he would like my books.

I was like, it is very cozy and it's supposed to be very warm and like no real blood or gore or darkness to it. But he actually really liked it, which gave me some confidence early. And so it was really helpful to send it out to friends and other writers and just get their feedback. And as well as, yeah, I had two editors working on it. So that was very helpful.

Did you have fun killing off people in the book? Yes. So much fun. And that's the thing is like, even though I'm not really a morbid person, I have so many ideas for murders. That's why I hope this series can continue because many people I want to kill off and many interesting ways to do it.

That was the fun part. Yeah. With you being a plotter, do you have like, okay, here's the next, you know, 25 books planned out, or is it just one book at a time? I've got rough ideas for three and four. I haven't yet heard whether there will be a three and four, but I would love to do four just so I could have one each season.

You know, this one's fall, the next one will be summer, and I'd love to do a Christmas themed one. You know, that would be a lot of fun. So, I have been thinking about interesting ways to kill people in winter and interesting ways to kill people in spring. Well, and then you get to program the imaginary movie theater too. Exactly.

Yeah. That was also a bit of a wish fulfillment that I could vicariously through Audrey program the theater the way I would want to program a theater. What would be your perfect Christmas movie for someone to get murdered in? Oh yeah. It would be fun actually to, do like a very innocent um movie like a christmas in connecticut or something that's very like nice and happy and then have a murder happen in the background because with this book i obviously thought well hitchcock will work because i like the idea of someone getting killed during hitchcock movie but yeah i would like that juxtaposition with christmas like cozy christmas and then someone is.

Killed if you talked about how you're on the third draft of the second one how long does it take you to write. These I don't have long, and the way it's been working out, the timeline of it. I mean, these books often, when they are a series, will come out pretty close to each other. So really the first draft in about six weeks, I would say, and then back and forth from there. So the whole process is probably like six months with all the back and forth, the notes from the editors and the rewrites.

But the first draft is very quick just to get it out, and I kind of have sent it. The second and the first being like, I know there's a lot of issues here. This is just basically what I'm thinking. And I will go back and start working on it again. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I imagine that writing some of the other books that you've done, like TCM Imports, take a little bit longer to do.

Yeah, they do because there's so much research involved. And I really enjoy those books, the nonfiction books. I feel like there's the joy of a nonfiction book and you probably agree with this is looking at all the research and then seeing a through line or seeing a way into the story or exactly like how you're going to tell the story of the person or the film. That's really fun. But it is tricky with a nonfiction book to know when to stop the research, as I'm sure you will agree on.

But then fiction, the joy was just having a blank page. And then filling it with words that just purely came out of your head. So they, it was a faster process to write a fiction. And especially because this book is designed to be fast, fun, escapist read, not, you know, an intense literary novel. It was, I could like really just sit down and write for hours and get it out.

Are you able to use the same parts of your brain to do both? Well, yeah. I mean, nonfiction is also creative as you know. But I wasn't sure whether I would have ideas, you know, because I was like, am I going to have lots of ideas for scenes? And then especially coming to a second one, am I going to have new ideas that are different from the first?

And I was really surprised to discover that I have lots of ideas. Not saying they're all good, but that just ideas are there. And that's really exciting, like ideas from nothing. They're right there. As if writing wasn't enough, what else are you working on these days?

Well, the TCM, uh, job keeps me pretty busy. So I, uh, write the scripts for a intros. Um, so I'm watching the films and doing the research and then going to Atlanta to film plus all like the extra interviews. We have extra co-host shoots and, um, the film festival in April and the cruise that's coming up in October. Then I also work on the Gilded Age podcast with HBO and that's coming back for season four, starting soon.

So I'm working on that. And then I do a show with Focus Features called Real Destinations, where I go to the locations of their movies. And that's usually about once a year, but it's usually in England or in, um, yeah, in the UK. So, uh, yeah, that takes up a bit of time. And then I also have been renovating my house myself.

So I've been doing little bits. At a time and there's definitely not much progress that's happened this year because of writing books and everything else. Yeah, I've got lots I can see from here. I've got paint samples on the walls, just trying to figure out. Which way to go.

So all of that keeps me busy, but I'm the kind of person that I struggle to do nothing. I always complain that I want a day off and then when I have a day off, I just am like, I need to do something. I feel like I can't sit still. That's my issue. Well, I have to tell you that I absolutely devoured Murder at the Movies.

I was just having a great time. I can't say it's a page turner because I read a PDF. So it's a page flipper, I suppose. Yes. It's a swipe left kind of thing, which I know has bad connotations, but that's what you have to read, right?

But yeah, it was fantastic. Thank you. I really appreciate that. I mean, It feels exciting to have it out in the world, a little bit scary as well. But that's what I want is just a page turner and a bit of escapism.

No, it's wonderful. Well, I look forward to the next one and I'm so glad to hear that that's happening. Yeah, thank you. And Murder at the Movies in the final copy, which I have here at the back, you can read the first chapter for book two, which is called A Killer in the Credits. I love it.

I love it. Well, I know that I've already read it, but I want to invest in the audio version because I really like audio books. And I think my wife would like this for a long road trip. Oh, fantastic. Yeah, that was fun too, to get to listen to various samples of voice actors and audiobook narrators who could possibly read and think like, what do I want Audrey to sound like?

And That was, yeah, really fun. And I was glad they didn't ask me because I'm not an actress and Audrey is American and I can't do a good American accent. You just have to talk real flat. Yeah, that's right. Do that Benedict Cumberbatch, Doctor Strange kind of thing.

That's right, yeah. Well, Alicia, it is always so good talking with you. I really appreciate this. Thank you, Mike. It's always lovely to talk to you and I appreciate your support.

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