Paul Austin Ardoin's Blog, page 3

More Horrifying than Fiction

The Offside Coroner is about a women's professional soccer team and a coach whose gross misconduct might be what gets him killed.

Much of what the coach did in my book was inspired by the story of the USA's women's pro league; in particular, the actions of the former coach of the Portland Thorns and North Carolina Courage. But I had no idea of the extent of it—and how systemic and pervasive the abuse was—until this month. That's when I read the summary of the Yates report, an investigation led by a former U.S. Attorney General into what happened. It's horrifying reading. (There's a free article on ESPN's site, though you'll need to read past their promos of their documentary. Steph Yang and Meg Linehan of the The Athletic have done a great job of...Read More

Offside Insights

I was recently interviewed by the USA TODAY bestselling author Uvi Pozansky about the upcoming release of The Offside Coroner. You can read the full interview on her blog, but here are some of the highlights.

The eighth book in the Fenway Stevenson Mysteries, The Offside Coroner, will be released in September 2022. How has your relationship with your main character changed over the years?

The more I write about Fenway, the more she reveals herself to me. She and I have a lot in common: she’s an extroverted introvert, for example. She follows her nose in both her career and her relationships, yet she tends to overthink things—which I think is an interesting dynamic. More and more, however—and I’m by no means the only author to experience this—my main character does what she wants, so she doesn’t follow my plans.

The Offside Coroner Read More

The Clandestine Coroner is Now Available!

Thank you to everyone who read The Clandestine Coroner on Kindle Vella, and those Patreon subscribers who received an advance copy. If you didn't already read it, the full novella is available to purchase on all major ebook platforms! The Clandestine Coroner is book 7.5, set between The Accused Coroner (Book 7) and next month's new release, The Offside Coroner (Book 8).

Don't miss the latest installment in Fenway's adventures! Buy your copy today from your favorite ebook retailer.

 

 

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The Names of New Order

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.

In the last blog post, I talked about the origin of the series title and book names of the Murders of Substance. This post will talk about other ways New Order and their songs wove their way into the books.

Once I decided the song titles would make excellent mystery novels, one of my goals was to tie in the books thematically to the song of the same name. “Ceremony” is about hope in the face of loss (it was the last song Joy Division singer Ian Curtis would write before taking his own life), and “Everything’s Gone Green” is about being adrift, not finding your way out. I had big ideas for the books that would use the titles “Blue Monday,” “Perfect Kiss,” and “Shellshock.”

In addition, the main characters were named after New Order’s band members. The two most visible members, bassist Peter Hook and guitarist/singer Bernard Sumner gave their names as the inspiration for case analyst Bernadette Becker and forensic toxicologist Dr. Kep Woodhead.

“Kep” is a Czech diminutive for “Peter”“Woodhead” is Peter Hook’s given surname“Bernadette” is the feminized form of “Bernard”“Becker” is a shortened form of “Beckoner,” a synonym of “Summoner,” which is the meaning of the surname “Sumner”

The two supporting characters, recurring in each book, are:

Maura Stevenson, whose name is based on drummer Stephen...

From Murders of Substance to Woodhead & Becker

In the last post, 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.

Changing the titles of series and books is not a small task, so that raises a couple of questions: how did I come up with the original titles, and why am I changing?

I first came up with the idea for this series while listening to one of my favorite albums: Substance by the British post-punk band New Order. (Hence, Murders of Substance.)

New Order was one of the most influential bands of the 1980s, growing out of the band Joy Division. They pushed the bounds of technology, sequencing, and tape loops. “Blue Monday” was...Read More

The Autumn of Fenway

Big news for Fenway fans! THREE Fenway books will be coming your way in the next three months!

The Clandestine Coroner: Book 7 1/2

When a member of a secret society is found dead in the local temple, Coroner Fenway Stevenson finds herself embroiled in an underground world where no one plays by the rules. The society leader turns hostile, a dead body goes missing, and an embezzlement scheme threatens disaster. Can Fenway find allies to uncover the truth before the killer gets away?

The Clandestine Coroner takes place between Book 7 (The Accused Coroner) and the upcoming Book 8 (The Offside Coroner). The novella (about 1/3 the length of a Fenway novel) is available NOW to my Patreon reader subscribers or in the USA to Kindle Vella readers. It’ll be released at the very end of August in ebook and paperback on all major reader platforms. (Due to Kindle Vella rules, it won’t be available for preorder.)

The Offside Coroner: Book Eight in the Fenway Stevenson Mysteries

A coach, a protégé—and a scandal that turns deadly.

A fancy dinner date with her boyfriend turns into Coroner...Read More

Woodhead and Becker Mysteries

The federal investigation team of Dr. Kep Woodhead and Bernadette Becker are chronicled in two books, with a third coming soon!

However, I’ve received some valuable feedback on the current titles and covers, and I’ll be making some changes to the series.

A few book experts pointed out that the covers looked more like post-apocalyptic thrillers than classic whodunits (and a few of my reviews echoed this sentiment). If you’ve ever ordered a book and thought you were getting one genre and instead get something you didn’t expect, you know how frustrating that can be! So I’m changing everything about the series (except for the manuscripts!).

In keeping with many popular mysteries, the series will now be called The Woodhead & Becker Mysteries, after the names of the main investigators who solve the murders.

I’m changing the names of each of the books, too!

Book 1: The Winterstone Murder (formerly Ceremony)Book 2: The Bridegroom Murder (formerly Everything’s Gone Green)

Look for these changes to be implemented by the end of September 2022!

In the next few...Read More

In Memoriam: Sue Grafton

In my last post, I mentioned my early love of Agatha Christie. As an adult, I’ve absolutely loved the Kinsey Milhone books by Sue Grafton.

Sue Grafton didn't write cozies, but neither did she write blood-and-gore thrillers. Her main protagonist is a smart, savvy professional who is highly competent but doesn't take herself too seriously. Her books hint at darker themes without being disturbing, and have a lot of humor without being silly or absurd.

She also helped to revolutionize the stereotypical hard-boiled mystery formula. Prior to the 1980s, whodunits were primarily a "good ol' boys’ club" where the only real roles for women were femme fatale or victim. Casting 30-something, twice-divorced Kinsey Milhone as the gumshoe opened up the entire genre to new emotions, themes, and humor–not to mention a generation of female sleuths, including my own Fenway and Bernadette.

As Milhone travels through the alphabet, she doesn’t just check off the crimes solved, but actually wrestles with the violence of the past.

“Most of the hard-boiled male detectives go through murder and mayhem, and it has absolutely no impact on their personalities,” she said in an interview with The New York Times in 1985. “I find it more interesting to see what the constant exposure to violence and death really does to a human being, how a person incorporates that into their psyche.”

Recommended Sue Grafton books (note: while the...Read More

Review: Death in Aramezzo by Michelle Damiani

Murder in an Italian Villiage, Book 1 • Michelle Damiani • ★★★★★

Death in Aramezzo is a great read. Damiani is masterful with her characters. Amateur sleuth Stella Buchanan, the heroine of Death in Aramezzo, is no exception. Stella is an intriguing, complex sleuth, and I loved reading about all the different villagers. 

The setup is almost cinematic: Stella’s fall from grace in Manhattan and her last chance in Aramezzo to save her career. She doesn’t want to fall in love with the town she has to call home, but it’s delightful to see the journey she takes as Aramezzo chips away at her rough edges. The murder mystery is solid, and the steps Stella takes to solve the crime often had me at the edge of my seat.

I read (and loved) Damiani’s Soli series, and I felt right at home in this neighboring Umbrian town. I also love mystery, and this ticked all the boxes for a good cozy: great food,...Read More

In Memoriam: Agatha Christie

I've been a fan of mysteries as long as I can remember—Encyclopedia Brown, Danny Dunn Scientific Detective, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew. By the end of junior high, I had burned through most of Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels. I love mysteries with twists, and it’s easy to see why Murder on the Orient Express continues to be a bestseller: the sense of claustrophobia on the train. The characters all trapped in a snowdrift ramps up the tension, and the resolution is incredibly satisfying (and relatively simple, to boot). 

Christie was a master of the puzzle mystery. She featured surprising but solvable crimes, almost all clued fairly. She rang changes on almost every who/howdunnit there could be except for the butler, and she came up with many of them first. Not only that, but, while written for adults, Christie's books are clean and simple enough for teens (and the occasional tween) to enjoy.

Christie's methods of killing characters are clean and she uses poisons for most of the murders in the books. She used her experience as an apothecary's assistant during the first world war to construct crime scenes based on poisons. Her perfect depiction of Ricin poisoning was apparently the first in literary history- this poison now known by its use in the Popular TV show “Breaking Bad”. She believed in clean deaths and had nearly no description of gory or violent murders in...Read More