by Elizabette Guéçamburu
ABOUT THIS BOOK
It’s the 1940s. There’s a murder. And everyone in the Basque boardinghouse is a suspect. Fourteen-year-old Anna Elissetche isn’t waiting for someone else to solve it. Part coming-of-age story, part whodunit, Murder at the Boardinghouse has been described as “Agatha Christie meets a Basque boardinghouse in the ’40s” — and it delivers exactly that. Guéçamburu wrote the entire novel in eight weeks. It shows: the pacing is sharp, the characters are vivid, and the ending will keep you guessing.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Elizabette Guéçamburu grew up in Patterson, California in a tight-knit Basque family with deep roots in the community — her great-grandmother was a cook at the Overland Hotel in Gardnerville, Nevada. A graduate of Santa Clara University, she’s been writing her column Hometown Girl for the Patterson Irrigator since 2005 and is also a vocal disability rights advocate. Murder at the Boardinghouse is her debut novel. It won first place in the 2022 Center for Basque Studies Writing Contest, which led to its publication by the CBS Press at UNR.
WHY IT MATTERS
Basque boardinghouse life is a cornerstone of the American immigrant story — and it hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention in fiction. This book changes that, with humor, heart, and just a little scandal. As Guéçamburu herself puts it: “Bascos keep stuff quiet, but things happen.”
📖 Get a signed copy at elizabetteunplugged.com or find it through the Center for Basque Studies Press and Amazon.