Paul Austin Ardoin's Blog, page 2

A Visit to the Corpse Flower

As most of you have heard, I moved from Northern California to Milwaukee back in October 2022. My kids both attend Marquette University here in Milwaukee, and I've fallen in love with the city.

One of the many unique and fascinating attractions in the city is the Mitchell Park Domes (the photo in the header is by Michael Barera), a horticultural conservatory composed of three beehive-shaped glass domes, each 140 feet in diameter and 85 feet high. Each of the domes represents a different climate.

We were in for a treat this week, as the tropical dome hosts a few corpse flowers (Amorphophallus titanum, the titan arum). This flower is huge—some of them are over 10 feet high. They flower very infrequently, most of them once every 7 to 10 years, and then for only about a day. And, true to the name "corpse flower," they reek like dead, rotting flesh.

Perfect for a mystery author like me!

The local Milwaukee news was abuzz earlier this week: the corpse flower was about to bloom! My wife and I went to go see the flower on Saturday morning.

I'd heard the line to see it on Friday afternoon had been very long—people had to wait for over two hours in line. I was a little nervous that we wouldn't get in, but the line wasn't too bad half an hour before opening.

After paying for our tickets, we wound our way around the tropical dome, seeing fascinating flora like the rattlesnake plant. And after about twenty more minutes, we got to the grand prize:...Read More

Review: All Good People Here

All Good People Here • Ashley Flowers • ★★★★

Ashley Flowers is the host of the #1 true crime podcast in the USA right now, and her debut novel, All Good People Here, was hotly anticipated—and shot to #1 on The New York Times bestseller list as well.

With accolades from PopSugar and over 20,000 ratings on Amazon (a healthy 4.4 star rating—that's the same rating as The Reluctant Coroner), I wondered how All Good People Here lived up to the hype.

The story follows two narrators: Margot Davies in the present day, who returns home to her Indiana small town to help her uncle who's suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's, and Crissy Jacobs, twenty-five years ago, who comes downstairs one morning to find her six-year-old daughter missing and a mysterious message scrawled in red paint on the kitchen wall.

When another little girl goes missing in a neighboring town, Margot—now a reporter in Indianapolis—must balance her job of getting the current story with her belief that the two cases are connected. It turns out Margot and the missing girl were across-the-street playmates back in the day, and Margot wonders how her closeness with her former neighbos might be coloring her view.

The narrative starts out a bit slowly, with more of a focus on the challenges of taking care of an adult who's slowly losing his memories and his ability to care for himself—but soon Margot's investigation kept me turning the pages. I thought I'd had the murderer figured out early in the narrative, and I was wrong.

The narrative itself is...Read More

Why Murders of Substance is Changing to Woodhead & Becker

Previously, I announced a change to the Murders of Substance series to The Woodhead & Becker Mysteries, as well as a change of the book titles to The Winterstone Murder and The Bridegroom Murder.

I’ve written about the origin of the series title, book names, themes, characters, and covers of the Murders of Substance and how they were influenced by the 1987 album Substance from the British post-punk band New Order. This post will discuss why I’m making the change.

If you’re scratching your head wondering who New Order is, or if you had to search online and you vaguely remember a couple of their hits, you’re not alone—very few of my readers knew about New Order, and even those who were familiar with some of the songs didn’t make the connection. As much as New Order influenced me personally, the references were obviously too obscure! That’s the main reason I’m changing: the series title and book names aren’t connecting with either Fenway Stevenson fans or new readers.

Another reason: even though I thought those New Order song titles would make good murder mystery titles, it turns out I was wrong. Songs like “Temptation” and “Perfect Kiss” would be more at home as romantic suspense novels, not hardboiled...Read More

An Ice-Cold Seven-Up

Bernadette Becker walked briskly off the plane, exiting the security checkpoint into the General Mitchell
Airport’s main terminal. The dimly-lit Starbucks, just beyond the Summerfest store, called its siren song, but the line of people snaked all the way to the information booth—not surprising for nine in the morning.

She looked around and tried to casually wipe a bead of sweat from her temple. Bernadette welcomed the chill of the air conditioning in this part of the terminal; three months had made a huge difference from the snowy, chilly March days of her first investigation here—when she’d been introduced to Lamar.

Two weeks after her investigation concluded, she’d come back to Milwaukee for a weekend in April. Lamar had been waiting at the top of the escalator that led down to baggage claim, a mixed bouquet of flowers in his hand and an offer to take her overnight case.

Now, Bernadette took a few steps tothe side of the terminal—in front of a Spanx store, she noticed—propped up her roll-aboard, and dug for her phone in her purse. There was a text.

Meet you outside door 2

She hadn’t had a long-distance relationship since college, and the sting of her recent separation put her on uncertain footing anyway. Yes, two weeks ago, they’d had a romantic week in Miami, but left things a little weird when Bernadette had to leave a day early to fly off to another investigation. They’d texted and had a couple of video calls, but Bernadette had been swamped with other investigations. She’d thought
that since Lamar was a cop, he’d understand the demands of her job more than a civilian might—but maybe she was wrong.

Bernadette grabbed the handle of her roll-aboard, strode to the escalator, past the spot where Lamar had been standing only...Read More

Review: The Circus Lights is Best in the Series So Far

Slim Hardy Mysteries, Book 8 • Jack Benton • ★★★★★

If you've followed my writing for a while, you know that I'm a big fan of Jack Benton's Slim Hardy Mysteries. Set in the modern-day UK, Slim is a former soldier from the Gulf War, trying desperately to escape the demons of alcohol addiction and distracting himself with complex murder cases as a private investigator.

The new Slim Hardy mystery has just been released—The Circus Lights. And once again, Benton has outdone himself with one of the best mystery books of the year.

The setup: Slim finds himself on a blind date with a woman who walks with a limp—and tells Slim the story of how her trapeze artist career was cut short by a nasty fall in the waning days of a failing circus. She suspects sabotage—and Slim, whose need for investigation rivals his need for drink, is drawn to the out-of-business circus like a moth to the flame.

The characters in this investigation are by turns charming, fascinating, or horrifying. Like a ringmaster, Benton keeps many acts in motion at once. Some of Slim's professional assistants make appearances for longtime readers of the series, but this book could stand on its own as well. By the time Slim uncovers two murders in the retirement home next to the land the circus rented, enough intrigue has been spun to ensnare the reader.

One of the interesting aspects of...Read More

On Favorite Books and What's Coming Next

Last month, fellow indie author Amy Pendino reached out to me after finding Fenway's series. Knowing her readers would love Fenway too, and thinking you might enjoy her novels as well, we decided to introduce each other via author interviews on our blogs! Below, you'll find excerpts of her interview with me, and can read the entire interview on her blog .

You can read my interview with Amy where we discuss her journey to becoming an author, what real life mysteries, animals, and events inspired her award-winning novel, The Witness Tree , and its sequel, Wild Horses .

Fenway is an engaging but flawed protagonist. Without being too obvious, [Paul Austin Ardoin] shows Fenway’s insecurities and vulnerabilities while crafting plots that force her to grow and learn her new role. Her spicy attitude and her...Read More

Amy Pendino: Author Interview

Amy Pendino  writes mystery, women's fiction, and historical fiction. A member of the Twin Cities chapter of Sisters in Crime, her writing has been published in anthologies, several magazines and reviews. The Witness Tree, her first published novel, won 3 indie writing awards: an IPPY gold for "best regional fiction", a silver Ben Franklin for "best new voice, fiction", and a finalist award from the Midwest Book Awards.

RUSSELL RICARD, author of "The Truth About Goodbye"

Q: What inspired you to start writing The Witness Tree ?

A: I was visiting a lifelong friend at her new farm in Iowa and noticed a strange double- trunked tree. She said she’d been told that the tree was cursed and should never be cut down. I wondered what would cause a tree to be cursed, and The Witness Tree was born. The story explores a small town’s reactions to newcomers, and themes of friendship, betrayal and self-reliance are woven in.

Review: When the Wind Blows

Slim Hardy Mysteries, Book 7 • Jack Benton • ★★★★½

When the Wind Blows is the seventh novel in the Slim Hardy mystery series. Hardy is nearly an antihero, harkening back to the old-school hard-drinking detective in many ways: he’s a self-destructive alcoholic, pouring gin on the horrors he witnessed as a former soldier in the Gulf War—and equally on the mistakes he made in his last case that resulted in tragedy.

In all of the previous Slim Hardy novels, Benton does a masterful job of showing us how Hardy’s addictive personality both helps him be tenacious enough to solve the case—often, these are years-old cold cases—while also destroying his life. Hardy has nothing at the beginning of the book: waking up hungover with only the clothes on his back, hating himself for the things he’s seen, the decisions he’s made, and the person he’s become.

Hardy’s search for the truth and for the justice that comes with catching murderers are the only way he can get even a glimmer of redemption, and he hangs onto that hope with everything he has. He’s a fascinating character, and even when he falls off the wagon, you can’t help but root for him.

In this installment, Hardy finds himself in a seaside town Cornwall in winter, performing physical labor for his job to pay for rent in a drafty trailer. His landlady approaches him when she realizes he’s a detective, asking him to solve the suspicious fourteen-year-old death of her brother.

Hardy soon discovers that few in the town want him to uncover the truth—and more he uncovers, the more he realizes that his boss might be a key figure in the suspicious death—especially as he’s married to the dead man’s widow.

The dead man’s...Read More

Valentine's Day Roundup: Mysteries with a Splash of Romance

With Valentine’s Day coming next week, it’s impossible to ignore the ads for jewelry, flowers, and decadent edible creations, or the red and pink decorations in every shop and restaurant. Even our morning doughnuts came covered in red and pink sprinkles. With celebrations of love everywhere around, it’s nice for my book of the week to reflect the festivities.

Not ready to jump into a bare-chested Romance? Me neither. Here is a roundup of novels with strong romantic themes, and lots of good old-fashioned murder mystery.

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutano
NPR Best Book of 2021. When Meddy Chan accidentally kills her blind date, she is shocked when her mother and aunties (who run a wedding business) are more than prepared to help her hide the body.

A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock #1) By Sherry...Read More

2023: Embracing the Clutter

Marie Kondo urged everyone to de-clutter to de-stress, telling folks to evaluate the items in their home and ask this question of each one: does it bring me joy? For most things, the answer is no, and it can be tossed away or donated to someone who will appreciate it. My wife and I spent hours evaluating our belongings as we moved across the country (as my  Patreon supporters have read , it was significantly more complicated than anticipated!) into a much smaller home. I still overestimated the space our pared-down belongings, so as we unbox items, we continue to discard and donate anything possible.

Except the books.

Even though I primarily read ebooks on my phone or Kobo reader, I can't quite bring myself to discard all my hard copies. They carry unique smells of ink and aged paper, author signatures, and memories of gifts given and received. And, despite the giant corner book shelf we built to store our volumes, and the Little Free Library in the front yard to share the less-precious tomes with neighbors, there always seem to be more laying around.

Which is probably why the Country Living article laying open on a waiting room table grabbed my attention. "The unofficial anthem of book lovers all over might as well be just one more–as in, Read More