Elena Hartwell's Blog, page 14

The Dead Detective Casefiles: The Series

The Dead Detective Casefiles by Tj O’Connor [image error]

Excerpt from Book One + Guest Post + Book & Author Info!

 

Don’t miss any blog tour post! Click the link here to read more.

The Dead Detective Casefiles
DYING TO KNOW

Detective Oliver Tucker’s dead—murdered—and back as an earth-bound spirit to help his wife, Professor Angela Tucker, crack the most important case of his life—his own. But, this is not a ghost story; it’s a murder case.

Tuck knows why he is back among the living but not one of them—Detective Solve Thyself. Perhaps he was murdered because of his last case—a murder involving a retired mob boss, a local millionaire land developer, a New York hit man, and the local university elite. Or could it be that Bear Braddock, his best friend and partner for more than fifteen years, wants Angela? Tuck knows that everything surrounds Kelly’s Dig where the discovery of Civil War graves may put an end to a multi-million dollar highway project. If it does, who stands to gain the most? Enough to kill?

Using his unique skills, Tuck weaves through half-truths and generations-old lies chasing a madman. And he’s not alone—others, dead and alive—are hunting the same killer. Still nothing can change the truth—it is the living, not the dead, who are most terrifying.

To purchase Dying to Know, click any of the following links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

 

DYING FOR THE PAST

Still an earth-bound spirit-detective, Tuck is on the case of the murder of a mysterious philanthropist with ties to the Russian mob and 1930’s gangsters.

With the help of his wife, Professor Angela Tucker, and his former partner, Detective Bear Braddock, they must find the killer and be the first to read “the book”—an old gangster’s journal of the roots of espionage, racketeering, and corruption leading to the identity of modern-day powerbrokers and spies.

Tuck finds a colorful cast of allies in a tough Assistant U.S. Attorney General, a secretive FBI agent, and the spirits of a long-dead 1930’s gangster and his sassy girlfriend.

As Tuck searches to learn the secrets of “the book,” he begins to unravel his own ancestry of mobsters, adventurers, and wayward spirits. Is being a ghost hereditary?

To purchase Dying For The Past click any of the following links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

 

DYING TO TELL

Detective Oliver Tucker never knew how perilous dying was until he stumbled onto William Mendelson—murdered in a hidden vault where Egyptian relics and World War II secrets were once stashed. Now those relics are missing. The secrets are coming out. The dead are talking.

Tuck, the detective for the dead—the Dead Detective—is pulled into the case by the spirit of a World War II Office of Strategic Services operative with his own agenda. OSS Captain Ollie Tucker I—Tuck’s namesake—knows the past is catching up to the survivors of an Egyptian spy ring from more than seventy years ago. With the help of his beautiful and brilliant wife, Angel, and his gruff former partner, Detective Bear Braddock, Tuck must unravel a tale of spies, murderers, and thieves.

As Tuck’s case unfolds, he confronts the growing distance between his death and Angel’s life—and the solution is a killer of its own.

To purchase Dying to Tell, click any of the following links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
 
Praise for The Dead Detective Casefiles:

“O’Connor’s The Dead Detective Casefiles series is a must read for those who like mysteries with a dash of history, a hard-boiled twist, and a pinch of paranormal.”
~ Heather Weidner, Author of the Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries

“Tj O’Connor is a master storyteller who can have you gasping in suspense one moment and snorting coffee through your nose the next. In the Dead Detective Casefiles, he seamlessly merges mystery, humor, and paranormal so authentically that the reader never gives a second thought to the concept of the main character, Detective Oliver Tucker, actually being dead. ”
~ Annette Dashofy, USA Today Bestselling author of the Zoe Chambers Mystery Series

Book Details:

Genre: PI Cozy Mystery
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: September 2024
Series: The Dead Detective Casefiles

Guest post from Tj O’Connor author of The Dead Detective Casefiles

Alas, if I knew how to solve The Mystery of Writing, I would be a best seller or at least a better seller. The biggest mystery of writing is how to find an audience. Eh, my solution? To do as my brilliant agent, Kimberley Cameron, tells me often—just write the books. 

For this blog, I think I’ll go through a little process discussion, since whenever I find myself in a café or bar or group of other authors, I get the same question—“Tj, you’re so brilliant, tell us your secrets!” Okay, so no one ever actually said that, but that’s what I heard. 

Let’s take the Dead Detective Casefiles as an example—though my process is generally the same for my thrillers but without the paranormal element.

First, it’s the story line. Each casefile revolves around my protagonist, Oliver “Tuck” Tucker—the Dead Detective. Each of his cases has three elements: a traditional murder mystery; a historical subplot; and a new secret from Tuck’s past that even he doesn’t know yet. (Of course not, I haven’t told him yet). So I begin with the first murder. But I can’t figure who to kill or why until I know what the historical subplot will be. The battle begins there. 

I love history, so I grab something historically connected to Winchester, Virginia, or the surrounding areas and connect it to Tuck and his gang. In the case of the new casefile coming in 2025, that would be the infamous Beale Treasure—a supposedly lost treasure of millions hidden somewhere in Virginia back in the 1800s—true story, or at least, that’s what treasure hunters say. So, someone is searching for the treasure—modern-day treasure hunters who get mixed in with a secret government research agency trying to find Tuck. What could go wrong? And how, might you ask, do I connect 1800’s lost treasure with a 21st Century murder mystery? Why, Tuck—the Dead Detective—and his family, including his long-dead and dishonored Civil War Spy ancestor. Between them, they connect the two mysteries, encounter the secret government group, and fight to save a little girl used as a pawn in all the thrills. Easy. History—murder—mayhem—and the paranormal.

Next, the characters. I use a murder board to keep them all straight. Once I know who the main characters are (not counting Tuck, Angel, Hercule, and the cast of almost-regulars), I search the internet for people who look like I imagined the character to be. Then, I grab their photo, print and mount it on my murder board, and write up a bio on each. Viola. My cast of characters!  The truth is, I always have a half-dozen too many and by the end of the book and all the editing, the rest are, er, victims themselves. But alas, I keep them in my head and computer for the next novel. Funny thing here. I had a character—I won’t reveal who or what happens because you’ll have to follow Tuck to find out—that was supposed to be in Dying to Know, the first Dead Detective casefile. This character never made the cut. Didn’t make the next two sequels, either. But hold your breath!  That character is a key figure in Dying With A Secret!  Unless, of course, Shawn at Level Best Books gives it the ax. 

My next and final process is the editing. I would rather gargle with glass and turpentine than edit my books. After all, I wrote it the first time. If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t have written the 130,000 words.  True story here. In the first draft of The Consultant—my first published thriller—I sent 150,000 words to my agent. She gasped. She read it. Contemplated my future. Then, she said, “Great two books. Now cut it to 100K and move on.” Geez. It took me a good story editor and three months, but I got it down to 108k and it sold pretty fast. 

Now, with cozy mysteries, I’m sorta capped at 90,000 words. I cheat, of course, and squeeze in a few extra here and there. My first drafts are almost always over 100K. Here’s how I get there:

I outline and write the opening 100 pages. Then I see that I abandoned my outline on page 10 and went a different direction. So, I update the outline and edit the work.
I outline and write the middle 100-200 pages. Then I see that I abandoned my outline on page 120 and went a second different direction. So, I update the outline and edit the work.
I outline and write the ending. On the 10th page into the editing or so, I abandoned my outline and ended the story completely different. So, I update the outline and edit the work.
Finally, I have to go back through the first 2/3 of the story and update everything to match the ending. 

There, my first draft is done.

Send to Beta readers group.
Buy expensive dinner/lunch and get beat up, slapped on the back, or both in edit and story recommendations.
Return to beginning and update, edit, clean it up.

Viola, my second draft is done.

Almost assuredly, characters die by my beta group. Plot twists aren’t as clever as I thought. Chapters change. And yes, my ego suffers. But hey, it’s a process! 

Finally, after all this, my work goes to Kimberley C—agent extraordinaire—for read, edit, approval. Once it passes her tests, it’s on to the publisher. 

And that’s when I get scared. 

The moral to this story? Find a process that works. Build a great beta group. Listen. Lose the ego and the hubris. Write. Edit. Rewrite. You’ll be better for it. 

Read an excerpt from Dying to Know

One

Dying is overrated. Murder, on the other hand, is not.

Trust me, after fifteen years as a detective, I know a lot about both. Like death and murder are always complicated, but not always related. You can have death without murder, but not the other way around. That’s what I used to think anyway. I changed my mind after an episode of my recurring nightmare. I’d been having it for years and it always turned out the same. While chasing a bad guy in the dark, he turned and shot me. I was about to die when something always pulled me from the nightmare.

This time, it was Hercule’s hot breath.

My four-year-old black Lab was standing beside my bed alternating between low growls and a tongue-lashing. Both demanded my attention. When my eyes first opened, he lapped at my face and nudged me with his big, wet nose. I forced my eyes open wider and at the same time realized that Angel was not snuggled beside me in bed. She was standing across the room and listening at our bedroom door.

“Angel, did you hear something again?” She always heard things late at night and always felt compelled to share them with me. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, Tuck. Herc can hear it, too. Wake up, will you? What kind of detective are you?”

“The asleep-kind.”

“Just get up. Please?”

Hercule froze, nose down, staring at me as we both heard creaking floorboards in the downstairs hall. I rolled sideways and sat on the side of the bed. Hercule crept away and crouched near the door. For the third time, something interrupted Angel’s sleep. The first two times were just our old house’s creaks and groans, and both failed to wake Hercule out of a stone-cold sleep. Now, after summoning me, he was poised for homeland defense.

I got to my feet and gathered my clothes littered in a strategic path across the room. I nearly toppled over slipping on my jeans and a black tee shirt and did manage to trip over my running shoes.

Angel motioned for Herc to return to the bed. To me she whispered, “Hurry up.”

“Look, if I’m going to get killed tonight, I don’t want to be naked.” I grabbed my 40-caliber Glock from the nightstand and checked the chamber. Then, I retrieved a .38 revolver from our walk-in closet and handed it to Angel. “Just in case.”

“Okay. Be careful.”

“Keep Herc close, babe. If it’s your imagination, stay awake and lose those pjs. If it’s trouble, give me fifteen minutes—then lose them.”

Even in the dark, I could see her eyes roll. “Just be careful.”

At the door, I listened but heard nothing. I winked at Angel and Hercule on the bed and whispered, “I love you—you too, Angel.”

Hercule wagged his tail.

In the hallway, I waited for my eyes to adjust a little more to the darkness. I shifted them to use my peripheral vision, looking for any telltale movement. Still nothing. From the top of the stairs, I could just make out the foyer below and did not see or hear anything. There were no wispy shadows, no running feet, and no creaking floorboards. Yawning, I eased down the stairs with my Glock out in front of me. At the bottom landing, I stopped.

Darkness and the grandfather clock greeted me—it chimed two.

The downstairs was quiet and I checked the front door. It was still locked and there were no signs of splintered wood, broken glass, or other forced entry. The only sound I heard was my own breathing. The only curious sighting was the half-dressed, frumpy guy in the hall mirror who looked tired and irritated.

Maybe Angel would be losing those pjs sooner rather than later.

I started with the kitchen and worked my way around the first floor, searching room by room—all five of them—ending in my den. Nothing. The most dangerous thing I found was Hercule’s squeaky frog that scared the crap out of me when I stepped on it. I felt foolish and decided to head back to bed.

It hit me when I reached to turn off my desk lamp.

The light shouldn’t have been on. I looked around. My briefcase wasn’t in its ritual place on my credenza. It was on my chair and the contents strewn over my desk. Everything was dumped out—my gold detective’s badge and I.D., several files, a notepad, tape recorder, and my .380 backup piece.

No, the Walther wasn’t there—the holster was empty.

“Angel …” I bolted to the stairs and looked up.

Floorboards groaned above me. A door opened in the darkness beyond the landing. Movement—a shadow.

Somewhere above, Angel called, “Tuck.”

There was a flash at the top of the stairs … a shot.

I lunged for the third stair. A figure stepped out of the darkness twelve feet above me.

Another flash.

“Angel!”

***

Excerpt from DYING TO KNOW by Tj O’Connor. Copyright 2014/2024 by Tj O’Connor. Reproduced with permission from Tj O’Connor. All rights reserved.

**Excerpt from Dying To Know by Tj O’Connor. Copyright 2024 by Tj O’Connor. Reproduced with permission from Tj O’Connor. All rights reserved.

 

Tj O’Connor — Author of The Dead Detective Casefiles

Tj O’Connor is an award-winning author of mysteries and thrillers. He’s an international security consultant specializing in anti-terrorism, investigations, and threat analysis—life experiences that drive his novels.

With his former life as a government agent and years as a consultant, he has lived and worked around the world in places like Greece, Turkey, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and throughout the Americas—among others.

In his spare time, he’s a Harley Davidson pilot, a man-about-dogs (and now cats), and a lover of adventure, cooking, and good spirits (both kinds).

He was raised in New York’s Hudson Valley and lives with his wife, Labs, and Maine Coon companions in Virginia where they raised five children who supply a growing tribe of grands.

To learn more about Tj, click on any of the following links: tjoconnor.com | Goodreads | BookBub – @tj37 | Amazon Author | Instagram – @tjoconnorauthor | Twitter/X – @Tjoconnorauthor | Facebook – @TjOConnor.Author | YouTube – @tjoconnorauthor3905

 

Visit all the Stops on the Tour!

10/28 The Dead Detective Casefiles Showcase @ Kenyan Poet
10/29 The Dead Detective Casefiles 3-Book Series Review @ Dogs, Mysteries, & More
10/30 Author Tj O’Connor Interview @ Literary Gold
10/31 Dying to Know Review @ Country Mamas With Kids
11/01 The Dead Detective Casefiles Showcase @ Ink. Readsalot
11/06 The Dead Detective Casefiles Showcase @ Cozy Home Delight Book Reviews
11/08 DYING FOR THE PAST Review @ Country Mamas With Kids
11/12 The Dead Detective Casefiles Showcase @ Jodys Bookish Haven
11/13 DYING TO KNOW Review @ Wall-to-wall Books
11/15 DYING TO KNOW Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
11/21 DYING TO KNOW Review @ rozierreadsandwine
11/22 DYING TO TELL Review @ Country Mamas With Kids
11/25 DYING FOR THE PAST Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
11/27 DYING TO TELL Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
11/29 The Dead Detective Casefiles Showcase @ Books, Ramblings, and Tea
11/30 The Dead Detective Casefiles 3-Book Series Review @ Guatemala Paula Loves to Read
12/01 Author Tj O’Connor Guest post @ The Mystery of Writing
12/02 The Dead Detective Casefiles 3-Book Series Review @ Sapphyrias Books
12/05 The Dead Detective Casefiles Showcase @ Celticladys Reviews
12/06 DYING TO KNOW Review @ The AR Critique
12/08 DYING FOR THE PAST Review @ The AR Critique
12/10 DYING TO TELL Review @ The AR Critique
12/10 The Dead Detective Casefiles 3-Book Series Review @ Its All About the Book
12/11 DYING TO KNOW Review @ fuonlyknew
12/12 DYING FOR THE PAST Review @ fuonlyknew
12/12 The Dead Detective Casefiles 3-Book Series Review @ Scrapping and playing
12/13 DYING TO KNOW Review @ bookwormbecky1969
12/13 DYING TO TELL Review @ fuonlyknew

Elena Hartwell/Elena Taylor

The post The Dead Detective Casefiles: The Series appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.

Call Me Carmela: New Psychological Suspense

Call Me Carmela, a Dot Meyerhoff Mystery by Ellen Kirschman [image error]

 
An Excerpt + Book & Author Info + A Giveaway!

 

Don’t miss any blog tour post! Click the link here.

Call Me Carmela

A Dot Meyerhoff Mystery
Police therapist Dot Meyerhoff helps a young woman find her birth parents and unburies dark family secrets in this psychological thriller.

Police psychologist Dot Meyerhoff’s caseload is usually filled with cops—which is why she’s hesitant to help an adopted teenager locate her birth parents. But the teen’s godmother is Dot’s dear friend Fran and a police widow to boot. How could Dot possibly say no?

Once Dot starts digging into the case, though, she’s drawn into a murky world of illegal adoptions and the choices a young pregnant woman might make as a last resort. Soon there’s only one thing Dot knows for sure: the painful truth of what happened all those years ago might heal one family—but it’s certain to destroy another.

Praise for Call Me Carmela:

“Ellen Kirschmann’s front row criminal justice insight is woven throughout the mystery, and in Dot Meyerhoff, she’s created a hero the world needs: smart, big-hearted, and complex. This is a story that will stick with you long after you close the book.”
~ Edgar-nominated author Jess Lourey

“Have a seat in Fran and Eddie’s Café and you are among friends who care about what happens to a teen desperately seeking the truth of her adoption. Ellen Kirschman seamlessly brings her expertise and empathy as a therapist for first responders in creating her fully realized amateur sleuth, Dr. Dot Meyerhoff. Call Me Carmela is like the perfect morning coffee, rich, smooth, and nuanced and leaving you craving for another cup.”
~ Naomi Hirahara, USA Today bestselling and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of Clark and Division and Evergreen

“Ellen Kirschman sees into people’s hearts: not just those of the victims, or of the good guys, but the hearts of all her characters. With a rare delicacy of language she lets us know that no one’s innocent, but no one’s past redemption, either — except those who refuse to try.”
~ SJ Rozan, best-selling author of The Mayors Of New York

“Call Me Carmela is a firecracker of a read, a tour de force that immerses you in the characters’ lives with empathy and insight. I couldn’t put it down until I reached the very last page–I will be back for more Dot Meyerhoff. Highly recommended!”
~ Deborah Chrombie NYT bestselling author of the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James novels

“This latest in the Dot Meyerhoff series gets everything right, as we’ve come to expect from author Ellen Kirschman. Psychologically astute, its blend of intriguing mystery, topical subject matter and well-rounded characters make this a must-read for anyone who loves a great story.”
~ Dennis Palumbo, psychotherapist and author of the Daniel Rinaldi mysteries

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological/Domestic Suspense
Published by: Open Road Media
Publication Date: November 26, 2024
Number of Pages: 292
ISBN: 9781504095754 (ISBN10: 1504095758)
Series: A Dot Meyerhoff Mystery, #5

To purchase a copy of Call Me Carmela, click any of the following links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | Open Road Media

 

Read an excerpt of Call Me Carmela:
1 

Fran and Eddie’s café is a shrine to the past. Formica counters,  stools tipsy with age, and scarred tabletops. Nothing’s changed  here but the person frying eggs and fipping pancakes with a  Sheetrock trowel. It used to be Fran, now it’s retired cop Eddie  Rimbauer, his face red from the heat. I’m dropping by, as I ofen  do, to get cofee and a bagel to go before heading to my ofce.  Te screen door to the restaurant bangs open several times in  a row. It’s not quite lunchtime, but cops eat when they can, not  when they should. At Fran’s they can eat in peace, without being  accosted by irate citizens complaining about trafc tickets they  most certainly didn’t deserve. 

Eddie waves me over. “Just the woman I want to see.” He leans  across the counter, holding his trowel in the air. “Something’s  going on with Fran. I caught her this morning, hiding out in  the back booth, crying. She thinks I didn’t notice, but you  can’t fool an old cop. When I asked her what’s wrong, she just  clammed up.” 

Fran’s had a lot to cry about in her life, but mostly she’s sturdy  and cheerful. Always good for a joke. Te café has been her bully  pulpit for decades, long before her husband, BG, was killed in  the line of duty chasing a twenty-year-old armed felon who had robbed a convenience store. It was only the second line of  duty death at the Kenilworth Police Department in ffy years.  A photo of him in uniform and the glass-encased American  fag they handed to Fran at his funeral sit high on a shelf over  the long front counter. Never one to—as she says—“play the  widow card,” she’s always ready to help anyone, especially her  cop customers. 

“Look who’s here.” Fran’s voice reaches me from her booth in  the back where she’s rolling fatware in cloth napkins.  “I thought you were retired.” I walk toward the back. From  a few feet away, I can see that her face is blotchy and her eyes  pufy.  

“Stay home and let Eddie run this place unsupervised? I been  watching that boy since he was a child. I’m not letting him out  of my sight. At least I’m sitting down for a change.” Fran’s legs,  swollen and riddled with varicose veins, were just about to give  out when Eddie put in his papers at KPD and took over.  

Fran tells me to grab a cup of cofee and sit. And while I’m at  it, pour her one too. As soon as I do, Eddie joins us. “Too early  in the morning for the doc to look at your ugly mug,” Fran says.  “She needs more cofee frst.”  

Tis isn’t bickering. It’s love, pure and simple. It’s how they  are, the two of them, a widow with bad legs and a recovered  drunk, twice divorced, still mourning the only thing he had lef in life, his job as a cop. I’d worried Eddie wouldn’t survive retire ment, that he’d kill himself or start drinking again, but here he  is, king of the café. Cops fock from all over to hear his war  stories.  

“Don’t you have anything else to do, Eddie? Prep work? Taste  today’s soup? Wiggle the Jell-O?” 

Since he’s taken over, Eddie has expanded Fran’s menu. Afer  what we’d all been through last year, Frank and I invited Eddie and Fran to our wedding in Iowa. Eddie went crazy for the local  food. Despite Fran’s opposition, he put Iowa potato salad and  three kinds of Jell-O on the café menu.  

“How is my man Frank? Tell him I said hello. I’m going to be  calling him one of these days to talk about remodeling this joint.” “Will that be before or afer you call the bank for a loan?”  Fran says. “I’m not fronting the money. Tis place is fne as it is.” “Tis place is older than you. It needs a total do-over. If  there’s any money lef, you can get a facelif.” He turns to me.  “What’s up at the PD? Cops still turning the other way when  they see you coming?” Eddie swipes at the table with the corner  of his apron. “I know a couple of guys who are in the middle of  nasty divorces. Tey’d rather talk to me than a psychologist. I  don’t charge for my time plus I’m an expert on nasty divorces.”  “Are you fnished?” Fran looks disgusted. “Get back in the  kitchen and make yourself useful.” 

“See what I got to put up with? Twenty-plus years on the  job chasing crooks and directing trafc in the rain is nothing  compared to working for Ms. Slave Driver over here who forgets  she’s not the one in charge anymore, I am.” He snaps his towel  against the tabletop and storms of in a mock rage. 

Fran shakes her head. “He’s never going to grow up. Never.  Still doesn’t have a life. All he did was trade his addiction to  police work for an addiction to this place.” 

“Better than his addiction to alcohol,” I say. “What’s going  on, Fran? Eddie said you were upset but you wouldn’t say why.” “None of his business.” 

“Your eyes are red and your face is spotty.” 

“I’m old. Tose are age spots.” 

“Tose are not age spots. Talk to me, Fran.” 

I stretch my hands across the table. She reaches back. Hers  are sandpaper-rough, the backs covered with knobby veins. I’ve developed an abiding affection for Fran’s tough-on-the-outside,  sof-on-the-inside personality. Te fortitude it took for her to  keep going afer BG was killed. How she honors his legacy and  love for police work by mothering the cops who came afer him.  I have warm feelings for Eddie, too, as erratic as he can be in his  still wobbly sobriety.  

“It’s my eighteen-year-old goddaughter, Ava Marie. She’s in  trouble. Tings haven’t been great for her at home, but, until  a few days ago, I didn’t know how bad. Her parents think she’s  gone of the rails. They had a big fight and she took of. Nobody’s  seen or heard from her for two days. They think she might be  headed my way.” Fran pulls her hands back. “Tis is killing me.” “Has anyone called the police?” 

“They live in Moss Point on the coast. It’s a little one-horse  town with a one-horse sherif. He thinks she’s a runaway. Told  her parents to give her a few days to get over being mad and  she’ll come home.” 

“Tere is no waiting period in California for reporting a  missing person. He has to take the report.” 

“He knows that. Ava’s father told him. Dan used to be a KPD  cop. BG was his field training officer. Te only way anybody in  that two-bit agency is going to find her is if she runs in front of a  patrol car. I keep thinking about that coastline, that skinny road  over the mountains. What if she drives of the road? Or over a cliff? Or into the ocean?” 

“Has she ever tried to kill herself?” One of my psychology  journals just issued a report that teenage girls are experiencing  record high levels of violence, sadness, and suicide. I keep  this unhappy bit of information to myself. Statistics are about  groups. Fran’s goddaughter is not a number. 

“Not that I know of. Except now I don’t know what I don’t  know. She used to tell me everything until about a year ago.”

“What happened a year ago?” 

“She was adopted. I think she started asking about her birth  parents.” 

“How can I help?” 

“When they find her, could you talk to her?” 

“Doesn’t she have a therapist?” 

“Her parents tried to get her to go to counseling. She refused.” “So why would she agree to see me?” 

“I’ll tell her you are good people. She’ll listen, she trusts me.  At least she used to.” 

“I don’t have any experience with teenagers.” 

“Not to worry. If you can help cops who don’t trust civilians  and hate asking for help, you can help anybody.”

 

Excerpt from Call Me Carmela by Ellen Kirschman. Copyright 2024 by Ellen Kirschman. Reproduced with permission from Ellen Kirschman. All rights reserved.

Ellen Kirschman

Ellen Kirschman, Ph.D. is a police psychologist. and clinician at the First Responders Support Network. She is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, The American Psychological Association, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Public Safety Writers Association.

She is the recipient of the California Psychological Association’s award for distinguished contribution to psychology as well as the American Psychological Association’s award for outstanding contribution to the practice of police and public safety psychology.

Ellen brings her expertise and decades-long experience to both fiction and non-fiction. She is the author of three non-fiction books and a five-book mystery series featuring police psychologist Dot Meyerhoff.

To learn more about Ellen, click any of the following links: EllenKirschman.com, Goodreads, BookBub – @EllenKirschman, Instagram – @ellen.kirschman.copdoc & Facebook

 

Visit all the Stops on the Tour!

11/12 Guatemala Paula Loves to Read CALL ME CARMELA Showcase
11/13 Books R Us CALL ME CARMELA Guest post
11/13 Novels Alive CALL ME CARMELA Review
11/14 Because I said so CALL ME CARMELA Review
11/14 Books, Ramblings, and Tea CALL ME CARMELA Showcase
11/15 Country Mamas With Kids CALL ME CARMELA Review
11/16 Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin CALL ME CARMELA Review
11/17 tea. and. titles CALL ME CARMELA Review
11/18 Literary Gold CALL ME CARMELA Showcase
11/18 Silvers Reviews CALL ME CARMELA Showcase
11/19 Book Reviews From an Avid Reader CALL ME CARMELA Review
11/19 Celticladys Reviews CALL ME CARMELA Showcase
11/20 Jodys Bookish Haven CALL ME CARMELA Showcase
11/25 Ink. Readsalot CALL ME CARMELA Review
11/26 Book Corner News & Reviews CALL ME CARMELA Showcase
11/26 The Mystery of Writing CALL ME CARMELA Showcase
11/27 411 ON BOOKS, AUTHORS, AND PUBLISHING NEWS CALL ME CARMELA Showcase
12/03 5 Minutes for Books CALL ME CARMELA Review
12/06 Catreader18 CALL ME CARMELA Review

Elena Hartwell/Elena Taylor

The post Call Me Carmela: New Psychological Suspense appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.

Contagion of the Night: Historical Mystery

Contagion of Night: The Dan Brady Mysteries by Ed Leahy

Author Interview + Book & Author Info!Don’t miss any Author Interviews! Click the link here.Contagion of the Night

Minutes before twelve on a night in 1943, Detective Dan Brady is summoned to a churchyard where a woman has been found strangled. He soon discounts the theory that the woman was killed during a mugging, and an interview with her widowed husband yields more questions than answers.

When a man’s body is found on a rocky islet a few days later, Danny connects him to the woman’s murder, and soon suspects mob involvement.

As he widens his investigation to include the Bronx rackets, he encounters resistance from his lieutenant and an assistant district attorney, and is cautioned by a friend in the FBI, who nevertheless agrees to provide helpful information. As he probes deeper, he learns of the reach of organized crime in the city.

When a detective who provided him with information disappears and Danny discovers he is being followed, he realizes he is placing his fellow detectives, and possibly his wife and newborn son, at great risk.

Based on true events.

To purchase Contagion of  Night, click the following link:  Amazon.Interview with Edward J. Leahy — Author of The Dan Brady MysteriesContagion of the Night is set in 1943, based on true events. Tell us how you discovered these events and how you wove the truth into your fiction:

I was drawn to the topic of mob control of the waterfront, partly from reading Nathan Lane’s Dark Harbor, and partly because my dad had worked on Piers 90 and 92 for Cunard Lines in the ‘50s and early ‘60s as an engineer. I had begun planning Contagion and was researching the circumstances of policing in New York City during World War II when I came across an article that described the investigation of a murder that was known as the Cupcake Killing.

A woman had been found dead in a churchyard in Jamaica, Queens, not far from where I lived for many years, with a bakery box of cupcakes next to her. I changed the location from Queens to the Bronx and the killer from a jealous lover to an enforcer in organized crime to fit the bigger story. Weaving these two threads together was easy once I devised a story for rackets in the Bronx in the ‘40s.

 

Contagion of the Night is the second Dan Brady Mystery. What would you like readers to know about Dan and the first book:

Dan was born in Dublin in 1910. His father died when he was very young, but Michael Collins, the revolutionary leader who eventually became Ireland’s first president, befriended Dan’s mother. By the time Dan was ten, he had become a runner for the Sinn Fein. When he was 17, after his mother died, he emigrated to New York and ultimately joined the NYPD.

At the beginning of Enemies of All, he is investigating a serial rapist who murdered one of his victims (also based on a true event) when he interviews a young married woman, Meg Corwyn, whose husband, Hal, obviously blames her for being raped. She later divorces Hal, leaving the door open for Dan.

At the same time, Dan is investigating a series of burglaries in which the burglar leaves a signature, a carved swastika, which leads him to a plot by Nazi saboteurs to destroy important infrastructure.

45th Street, Sunnyside-GardensContagion of the Night is set in New York City. Tell us about your research process for these historical mysteries:

I usually start with some historic event. Enemies of All was inspired by an episode on the show, “A Crime to Remember”, and then I read Michael Dobbs’ book, Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America.

There are plenty of books about the ‘40s, but the challenge is digging out details specific to policing during those years. It’s not just that there were no Miranda warnings, Exclusionary Rule, or public defenders; there was also much more limited technology, and very little interjurisdictional communication. I rely a lot on archived newspaper reporting. The NY Times archives are a solid source, but because they wrote to a certain standard, much of the “juicier” stuff, the kind of thing that was often found in the NY Sun or Daily News, isn’t there.

Fortunately, I’ve recently discovered Newspapers.com, which I’m hoping will help fill in the blanks. Googling specific topics also turns up relevant material in different places. And, when I simply can’t find a detail I need anywhere, I do what any good writer would do: make it up, but make it believable.

 

Tell us about your favorite places around New York City.Donato’s

During the pandemic, my son and I would go for long walks on the weekend.

Niers Tavern

One of the neighborhoods we walked through is Sunnyside Gardens in Queens. It was designed in the late 1920s and modeled after English gardens. Our route took us past an Italian restaurant, Donato’s, where we have since become regulars.

I fell in love with the area and decided that Dan should live there. I’ve since met a fellow named Herb Reynolds, president of the Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Society (a group that succeeded in securing landmark status for the neighborhood). He was able to provide me with background information that I will be using in the third Dan Brady Book.

I also recently discovered the oldest tavern in Queens, still operating: Neirs Tavern in Woodhaven, established in 1829. My wife and I were there the night the Mets beat the Dodgers in Game 5 of the NLCS.

What can we find you doing when you aren’t reading and writing mysteries?

I run three days a week, two at our local YMCA and one in our neighborhood in Jackson Heights, and I cycle two days a week, also at the Y.

I’ve recently rekindled my love of chess (partly because I worked it into some of my books) and reactivated my US Chess membership. I’m still a patzer, but I love the mental focus I get from playing.

We also dine out at least once per week and keep in touch with old friends.

 

Where do you get the ideas for your titles?

All my titles are taken from lines in Shakespeare. Contagion of the Night is taken from Julius Caesar.

 

What are you working on now?

I’m currently preparing the fifth Kim Brady (Dan’s granddaughter) novel, A Tempest Dropping Fire, for publication next November. I’ve also started the third Dan Brady novel, tentatively titled The Lip of a Lion.

 

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:

Read as much as you can from all genres because you never know what will appeal to you. Research thoroughly, because you never want someone to read what you wrote and say, “Nope, got that wrong!” And, in the immortal words of Jim Valvano, “Don’t give up; don’t ever give up!”

Great advice!Edward J. Leahy

Edward J. Leahy is a retired tax accountant living in Jackson Heights, New York.

A life-long New Yorker, he enjoys taking advantage of all the city has to offer with his wife, Cindy, spinning stories of crimes past and present, with the city-that-never-sleeps serving as a character and their favorite restaurants as scenes.

You can find out more about Edward on Facebook.Elena Hartwell | Elena Taylor

The post Contagion of the Night: Historical Mystery appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.

The Cadieux Murders: Author Guest Post

The Cadieux Murders, by R.J. Coreto

Guest Post + Series & Author Info![image error]Don’t miss any blog tour post! Click the link here.

 

 

The Cadieux Murders

The ink is still wet on the contract, but Wren Fontaine is already running into trouble as she renovates Cadieux House, a modernist masterpiece on Long Island’s exclusive Gold Coast. The home’s architect was the brilliant and eccentric Marius Cadieux, her father’s mentor, and Ezra doesn’t want Wren to change as much as a doorknob.

And the home itself comes with a dark past: In 1955, it was the site of the never-solved murder of its owner, Dennis Blaine. Cadieux himself was alleged to be having an affair with Dennis’s wife, the stunningly beautiful Rebecca. It seems like yesterday’s headlines, but then someone starts killing people with a connection to the house. The home’s new owner—bestselling novelist Bronwyn Merrick—may be using the house to launch a fictionalized account of the 1955 crime. But someone may not want to her to. Just how far will Bronwyn’s armed bodyguard go to protect her?

As Wren untangles the threads, she finds they all lead back to the house. Rebecca apparently inspired the strange, yet alluring residence, and both the home and its mistress may have caused uncontrolled emotions that led to tragedy. Wren uses all her architectural skills to decipher the hidden message Cadieux cunningly wove into the home’s design. She must think back 20 years to when, as a little girl, she met Cadieux. Deeply impressed with Wren, he gave her a clue about the house—and his unusual friendship with Rebecca. With her girlfriend Hadley at her side, Wren eventually solves the mysteries of the home and the people who lived there, develops a grudging respect for modernist architecture—and learns something about the difference between love and obsession.

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: October 15, 2024
Number of Pages: 237
Series: The Historic Homes Mysteries, 3

To purchase your copy of The Cadieux Murders, click any of the following links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Audible | Goodreads | Level Best BooksGuest Post by R.J. Koreto

Readers seem to like to guess which real life people book characters are based on. To be fair, there is a long tradition of this: Charles Dickens was alleged to have based Uriah Heep on Hans Christian Andersen, who visited Dickens and drove him to distraction. John Le Carré borrowed from a secret service colleague to create the brilliant spymaster George Smiley.

So I’m in good company when I admit that Wren Fontaine, the protagonist/sleuth of my Historic Homes series, is also based on a real person.

She’s based on me.

Architect Wren Fontaine & girlfriend Chef Hadley Vanderwerf

This isn’t immediately obvious, I confess. Wren is a woman, and I’m a man. She is in her early thirties, and I’m on the far side of sixty. She is gay, and I am straight. As an architect, Wren has an extraordinary sense of space, while I still regularly get lost in the county I’ve lived in more than a quarter-century.

However, Wren and I approach the world in the same way. This wasn’t intentional. I had decided to create a mystery series featuring an architect who specializes in restoring historic homes. I found it made sense to create a character who felt a greater connection to houses than to people. Wren has trouble understanding people and how to communicate with them. That proved surprisingly easy, because I often don’t understand people either. I understand them in books, but that’s a lot easier. Mark Twain supposedly said that the difference between fiction and nonfiction is that fiction has to make sense.

In “The Turnbull Murders,” Wren is delighted to have uncovered the fascinating history of the 200-year-old mansion her client had just hired her to restore. Her father, a world-renowned architect and her boss, had advised her to become more talkative with her clients, to build a connection with them. So she polishes her historical researches into an engaging anecdote, only to have her client’s young girlfriend burst into tears and cry her heart out on Wren’s shoulder. “What did I say?” wonders Wren. “Why is she doing this?”

I’ve been there, Wren.

In “The Greenleaf Murders,” Wren gets herself a girlfriend, but it starts slowly. She meets the beautiful, outgoing Hadley Vanderwerf while researching a Gilded Age mansion once owned by Hadley’s ancestors. Hadley is a chef and event planner who quickly deduces Wren has always been a “good girl.” She tells Wren she is going to change that, promising to take her to the performance of a band she’s working with: “second-wave emocore—plenty of chance for you to be a ‘bad girl.'”

Wren has no idea how to be a bad girl. She has no idea what emocore is. What she does know is that at age 30, she still finds herself terrified that—like she was at 16—she’ll have no idea how to behave at one of the cool kids’ parties. Once again, she wonders, how did I even end up in this conversation?

BTW: I had to look up “emocore” on Wikipedia.

The good news is that Wren and Hadley do manage to get together, and Wren realizes that even the extroverted Hadley has issues she’s uncomfortable discussing.

In her most recent book, “The Cadieux Murders,” Wren manages to grasp the complex love relationships among a group of people who died before she was even born. Hadley gently upbraids her, telling Wren that she understands people better than she realizes. Wren modestly says she still doesn’t understand people all that well, but she does understand houses, and the way people interact with them. Still, maybe that’s just as good. Wren thinks back to a legendary architect who gave her some advice when she was 10 years old, and only now is she realizing the tight connection between people and their homes: “I had to figure out the owners and give them the homes I knew they wanted, even if they didn’t know themselves.”

As an author, I like to think Wren grows over the books I’ve written. As a person, I like to think I have grown as well.

Don’t Miss The Previous Historic Homes Mysteries
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | GoodreadsThe Greenleaf Murders

Book 1

Young architect Wren Fontaine lands her dream job: restoring Greenleaf House, New York’s finest Gilded-Age mansion, to its glory days. But old homes have old secrets: Stephen Greenleaf—heir to what’s left of his family’s legacy—refuses to reveal what his plans are once the renovation is completed. And still living in a corner of the home is Stephen’s 90-year-old Aunt Agnes who’s lost in the past, brooding over a long-forgotten scandal while watching Wren with mistrust.
Wren’s job becomes more complex when a shady developer who was trying to acquire Greenleaf House is found murdered. And after breaking into a sealed attic, Wren finds a skeleton stuffed in a trunk. She soon realizes the two deaths, a century apart, are strangely related. Meanwhile, a distraction of a different kind appears in the form of her client’s niece, the beautiful and seductive Hadley Vanderwerf. As Wren gingerly approaches a romance, she finds that Hadley has her own secrets.
Then a third murder occurs, and the introverted architect is forced to think about people, and about how ill-fated love affairs and obsessions continue to haunt the Greenleafs. In the end, Wren risks her own life to uncover a pair of murderers, separated by a century but connected by motive. She reveals an odd twist in the family tree that forever changes the lives of the Greenleafs, the people who served them, the mansion they all called home—and even Wren herself.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | GoodreadsThe Turnbull Murders

Book 2

Movie star Nicky Tallon selects architect Wren Fontaine to renovate Turnbull House, where he’ll be filming his next movie. Even to Wren, used to old homes, this one is special: a 200-year-old federal-style home on a private island in New York harbor, designed by the most celebrated architect of the day. But Turnbull House hides many secrets, such as the disappearance of the sea captain who built it. That’s just a historical curiosity, until a studio executive no one likes is killed.
Wren just wants to keep her worksite safe, but then another murder occurs, and she starts noting eerie connections between the mysteries surrounding the Turnbull family and Nicky and his entourage. The handsome star seems to have two girlfriends, a childlike folk singer and a cynical fashion model. Meanwhile, renowned actress Veronica Selwyn renews a friendship with Wren’s father, which Wren finds more disturbing than she wants to admit. She concludes it’s time she and her girlfriend Hadley take the next step and find a place together, an exciting but stressful change.
As the attacks continue, Wren realizes she will have to solve the mysteries surrounding Captain Turnbull and Nicky Tallon. Turnbull House speaks of order and harmony, and Wren must dig deep to see how the house has affected its owners, old and new. Fortunately for her, the eminently practical Hadley is by her side, pepper spray at the ready—because a frighteningly clever killer is about to find that Wren is getting too close to the horrific truth.

R.J. Koreto — Author of The Cadieux Murders

Over the years, R.J. Koreto has been a magazine writer, website manager, textbook editor, novelist and merchant seaman. He was born and raised in New York City, graduated from Vassar College, and has wanted to be a writer since reading The Naked and the Dead. In addition to his novels, he has published short stories in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, the 2020 Bouchercon Anthology and Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon.

His current series features Wren Fontaine, an architect who finds mysteries in the historic homes she renovates. He and his wife have two grown daughters, and they divide their time between Rockland County, N.Y., and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

To learn more about R.J., click any of the following links: www.RJKoreto.com, Goodreads, BookBub – @rkoreto1, Instagram – @RJKoreto, Threads – @RJKoreto, Twitter/X – @RJKoreto & Facebook – @RJKoreto

Visit all the Stops on the Tour!

11/04 Country Mamas With Kids THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/04 Silvers Reviews THE CADIEUX MURDERS Showcase
11/05 Book Reviews From an Avid Reader THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/06 Literary Gold Author Interview and THE CADIEUX MURDERS feature
11/07 fuonlyknew THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/08 Review Thick & Thin THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/11 Guatemala Paula Loves to Read THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/12 Celticladys Reviews THE CADIEUX MURDERS Showcase
11/13 bookwormbecky1969 THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/14 The AR Critique THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/15 Binge Reading Books THE CADIEUX MURDERS Guest post
11/18 Book Talk with Fran Lewis Radio Interview of R. J. Koreto featuring THE CADIEUX MURDERS
11/18 Ink. Readsalot THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/18 Just Reviews THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/21 Novels Alive THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/22 Books, Ramblings, and Tea THE CADIEUX MURDERS Showcase
11/23 The Mystery of Writing THE CADIEUX MURDERS Guest post
11/26 Dogs, Mysteries, & More THE CADIEUX MURDERS Review
11/27 Books R Us THE CADIEUX MURDERS Showcase

Elena Taylor/Elena Hartwell

 

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DevilsGame: An Immersive Cyber Novel

DevilsGame by Michael Wolk

Guest Post + Book & Author Info!Don’t miss any blog tour post! Click the link here.DevilsGameGuest Post from Devil’s Game Author Michael Wolk

CYBER FICTION: A NEW THRILL

By Michael Wolk

One of the most thrilling things about the thrillers I love is that they seem real, or at least really possible: They parallel our own experiences and events in our world but add a twist that raises the stakes and keeps our pulses pounding.

When I conceived DevilsGame, which is about an internet apocalypse, I wanted readers to experience the story as they would an actual cataclysmic event.

And how do we experience world-shaking events? Most often and most immediately it is through our phones or digital devices.

The news comes in and we scroll madly to read the story, then we click on related links to surf and search news sites and perhaps social media to get more background, to go deeper.

A print book may be a page-turner, but it is a closed system, and it is frozen in time.

Enter cyber fiction.

Designed to be read on your phone or digital device, cyber fiction offers the liberating power of hyperlinks, which in DevilsGame will take you to external websites curated or specially created for the story.

And the experience is interactive, giving you the power to decide which links you click, and how long you spend exploring the ancillary information and offshoots of the central story. The story is as wide and deep as you make it.

Weaving between actual news websites and the fictional websites created for DevilsGame, you’ll also be replicating the journey you take when seeking more information about a real world crisis, surfing from fact-based websites to perhaps spurious websites, barely aware you have crossed the boundaries of verisimilitude.

Further, cyber fiction has complete portability and convenience. I like to think DevilsGame is the ultimate “smartphone read:” The plot is paced by “real-time” text messages exchanged between the two lead characters, and the story is revealed through reader’s exploration of the contents of the hero’s phone. And each chapter is a scrollable, bite-sized portion of the story, perfect for when you find yourself and your device on the bus, waiting in line, or anywhere with a moment to kill.

For all these reasons, I am a cyber fiction convert! But committing to this new genre necessitates coming to grips with the unfortunate fact that what you write does not exist in printed, bound form. You can’t put it on your shelf, or lend it to a friend, and if you’re the author, you can’t autograph it. More crucially, many literati and reviewers will not even consider it a book.

But cyber fiction is so freeing for both writers and readers, I firmly believe it is destined for wide public acceptance…in time.

Enter DevilsGame

NEW YORK CITY – From Michael Wolk, an innovative New York theater producer and creator, comes the unique and immersive new interactive e-novel “DevilsGame” (Nov. 19, 2024) that’s not just bending genres — it’s recreating the very essence of the ebook format. Enter cyber fiction — a story set in the recent past, formatted for the uncharted future.  The interactive fiction elements are unlike anything the literary world has seen before, with savvy multimedia elements optimized for mobile and web reading. Multilevel storytelling includes pop-up illustrations and interactive links that plunge readers into the heart of the action to make “DevilsGame” an addictive and wickedly funny thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat, ahem, screen. 

Ready to play DevilsGame?  

In a world where pixels collide with prayers, an unlikely duo emerges as the last line of defense against digital Armageddon. Meet Claire Bodine, the fiery televangelist with a penchant for preaching, and Nathan Rifkin, the cunning mastermind behind the world’s most addictive video games.

As a cross-platform virus sweeps across the globe, turning our beloved devices into tools of destruction, Claire and Nathan find themselves thrust into a high-stakes game of survival. Armed only with their outdated BlackBerrys and an unshakeable resolve, they must navigate a treacherous landscape of  interconnected smartphones and sinister plots. But this isn’t just a battle against code and circuits — it’s a clash of ideologies. Claire sees the hand of Satan behind the chaos, while Nathan smells a geopolitical conspiracy. And as the clock ticks down and the world teeters on the brink of collapse, they must put aside their differences and confront a common enemy.

Buckle up, log on and head down the rabbit hole to join Claire and Nathan on a journey that will test their faith, their wit and the very essence of what it means to be human. 

 

SEE THE COMPLETE BOOK TRAILER

DISCOVER HOW TO READ THE BOOK

DevilsGame Author Michael Wolk

Michael Wolk, author of the cyber thriller “DevilsGame,” has written screenplays (Innocent Blood, Warner Bros., directed by John Landis), mystery novels (“The Beast on Broadway,” “The Big Picture,” “Signet”) and plays (“Femme Fatale,” “Broadway Play Publishing”). He wrote the book, music and lyrics for “Deep Cover” (New York Musical Theatre Festival) and for “Ghostlight 9” (Cherry Lane Theatre) and wrote the book for the musical, “The Pilot and the Little Prince,” currently premiering in Poland at Katowice Miasto Ogrodow.

He is also a Broadway producer (“Job,” “Once Upon A Mattress,” “The Hills of California,” “Prince of Broadway,” “Pacific Overtures,” “A Class Act,” and the forthcoming “The Karate Kid”), and has also produced at Lincoln Center (“Musashi and Temple of the Golden Pavilion”), Kennedy Center (“Up In The Air”), BAM (“MacBeth”), George Street Playhouse (“The Pianist”), and in Central Park (“Japan Day @ Central Park 2007-2017) as well as in the U.K. (“Kenrex” premiere at Sheffield Theatre).

He founded the nonprofit  All For One Theater,  which has staged over 50 solo shows off-Broadway since 2011.  He directed the award-winning documentary “You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story,” which screened at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (Plexifilm DVD). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and works and lives in Times Square.

To learn more about Michael, click on any of the following links: Devil’s Game, Facebook, YouTube.Elena Hartwell | Elena Taylor

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Ghosts of Waikīkī: Debut Crime Fiction

Ghosts of Waikīkī, the debut crime novel by Jennifer K. Morita

Author Interview + Book & Author Info + Author Pet Corner!Don’t miss any ITW Debut Author interviews! Click the link here. Ghosts of Waikīkī

In this atmospheric debut mystery, an out-of-work journalist and the homicide detective who broke her heart must cipher out a murder before the clock runs out, perfect for fans of Naomi Hirahara and Jane Pek.After the newspaper she works for folds and the freelance assignments no longer pay the bills, Maya Wong reluctantly returns to her native Hawaiʻi to ghostwrite controversial land developer Parker Hamilton’s biography. But when the Hamilton patriarch is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Maya is unwittingly drawn into the investigation.Maya’s family and friends aren’t happy about her work for Hamilton. And now, with her ex, Detective Koa Yamada, on the case, she’s forced to contend with the very person she was determined to avoid.All too soon, Maya is dodging assailants and digging for clues while juggling girls’ nights out with her old BFFs and weekly family dinners. Convinced the police are after the wrong man, Maya is determined to stop the killer before it’s too late.Exploring timely issues in Hawaiʻi, including locals getting priced out of paradise, Ghosts of Waikīkī is an engrossing mystery in the vein of The Verifiers.To purchase Ghosts of Waikiki, click the following link to access all your favorite outlets:  Penguin Random HouseInterview with Ghosts of Waikīkī Author Jennifer K. Morita

 

Ghosts of Waikīkī centers on Maya Wong. What would you like readers to know about her?

Maya is an idealist whose mounting bills force her to sell out and move back home to Hawaiʻi. She has a plan to get her career back on track and return to California ASAP, but it goes awry when a man drops dead her first day on the job.

Her reporter’s instincts won’t let her ignore niggling doubts about her employer, and the longer she’s on the Islands the more she questions her life’s path and where she truly belongs. 

Also, for the record, Maya is an Asian American who was born and raised in Hawaiʻi. She’s what people in Hawaiʻi would call kamaʻaina, a long-time local. She is not Native Hawaiian.

 

Ghosts of Waikīkī includes a busted romance. How does the history between Maya Wong and her ex, Detective Koa Yamada, enhance the mystery?

The history between Maya and Koa creates tension. Their past relationship gives Maya access to information about the murder investigation that a new, civilian acquaintance probably wouldn’t have.

But it’s also a source of conflict for her both professionally and personally, on several levels.

 

Ghosts of Waikīkī is set in the Hawaiian Islands, one of my favorite places in the world. What drew you to locate your debut in Hawaiʻi?

My family bounced around the states a lot when I was growing up because of my dad’s job. I think that’s why I love books with vibrant settings that either make me want to visit those places some day or bring back fond memories.

We lived in Hawaiʻi during the eighties. It’s still the place that feels most like home to me. Ever since we left, I’ve wanted to read a mystery set on O‘ahu – the kind of book where the setting is as much a character as the protagonist.

It never really occurred to me to write it myself. I spent years playing around with ideas for characters and plots, all set in Sacramento, where I live now. Nothing gelled. Until I was on vacation, crossing Ala Moana Boulevard in Waikīkī. I looked up and saw apartment balconies, where people were drying clothes on the railing and growing potted plants. I thought, “What if Maya lives in Waikīkī?”

And that’s how I ended up setting my book in Hawaiʻi.

 

Tell us about your path to publication with Ghosts of Waikīkī:

I did everything ass backwards.

I spent a lot of years thinking about writing a book, but more about the characters, the mystery, where it would take place, not about how to structure a plot or create multi-dimensional characters. I didn’t even know what a plot point was, and the only thing I really knew about getting published was that I needed an agent.

A few months into the pandemic, I finally started writing it. We were sheltering in place, and the luxury of time helped my words flow. When I thought I was done, I queried, tried the Twitter pitch thing and struck gold with Lori Galvin. She was very honest with me and said that the manuscript needed a lot of work before we could go on submission with it.

It took two years and a total rehaul. While I was “revising”, I signed up for almost every online class the Sisters in Crime Guppies chapter offered and Zoomed a bunch of writing craft webinars to figure out how to fix my book.

I should’ve taken those classes during the years I was thinking about writing my book, and maybe would’ve figured out how the publishing world works, too. It’s been a crash course for me, instead. But no one’s journey is the same, ya?

Lori went on sub with my book in June 2023, and I took Crooked Lane’s offer on my birthday in August.

 

Rumor is that you can be found pushing Girl Scout cookies … what’s your weakness (Thin Mints here), and what do you love about Girl Scouts?

I’m a Thin Mints gal, too. But I also really like the Peanut Butter Patties, which are like peanut butter cups but with a crunch cookie. I like both frozen. They’re great crushed up and sprinkled over ice cream.

YUM!What are you working on now?

I’m working on Book 2 of what I hope will be my Maya Wong series.

I’m also jotting down notes for two other ideas I’ve got floating around, including a culinary mystery about a woman who runs a mochi shop with her grandmother and stumbles on a decades-old murder, and one about a bartender at a restaurant in San Francisco Chinatown whose customer confesses a terrible secret and ends up dead in Portsmouth Square. 

 

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:

I tell them what my friend Laura Jensen Walker told me: Just do it.

Don’t get too caught up in so-called “rules” or what other writers say you’re supposed to do. Just do whatever works to get words on the page.

 

Author Pet Corner!#NotMyIdea (Mushu!)

 

My husband, an elementary school principal, caved and got the girls a puppy at the tail end of the pandemic, just before they all went back to school in person.

They named her Mushu, but I call her #NotMyIdea. This is a photo of me trying to revise Ghosts of Waikīkī while I was home alone with her three years ago.

 

Ghosts of Waikīkī Author Jennifer K. Morita

Jennifer K. Morita spent the first six months of the pandemic purging and baking with the rest of the world before giving her lifelong pipedream of being a mystery author a chance. She wrote while the California wildfires burned and her kids Zoomed through school, figuring she had nothing to lose – not even time.

Jennifer signed with literary agent Lori Galvin in 2021 and spent the next two years revising her manuscript.

Jennifer is a former newspaper reporter, who juggled freelance jobs with being a stay-at-home mom for several years before becoming a writer for the communications department at a local university. Her first short story, “Cranes in the Cemetery” was published in the Capitol Crimes 2021 Anthology Cemetery Plots of Northern California. In 2022 she was a runner up for the Sisters in Crime Eleanor Taylor Bland Award.

Jennifer is a past president of her local Sisters in Crime chapter and continues to serve on the board. She is a member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. When she isn’t writing, reading or pushing Girl Scout cookies, she enjoys watching British mysteries, cooking and baking. Her favorite shows are “Kim’s Convenience”, “Unforgotten”, “Top Chef” and “The Great British Bake Off.”

Aside from leisurely hikes with her family, Zumba and Hot Hula are the only forms of exercise she willingly participates in. Jennifer lives in California with her husband and two daughters.

To learn more about Jennifer, click any of the following links: Facebook, X, Website, Instagram, and TikTok.Elena Hartwell/Elena Taylor

The post Ghosts of Waikīkī: Debut Crime Fiction appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.

When Mimi Went Missing: A Debut YA Thriller

When Mimi Went Missing by debut author Suja Sukumar

Debut Author Interview + Book & Author Info + Author Pet Corner!Don’t miss any Debut Author Interviews! Click the link here for more.When Mimi Went Missing

The splintered relationship between two Indian American cousins is at the center of this dark, twisty YA mystery—perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson, Karen McManus, and Angeline Boulley.

Shy, nerdy Tanvi has always thought of her perfect cousin Mimi as her sister. Not only did Mimi’s family raise Tanvi after the tragic death of her parents, fierce Mimi has always protected Tanvi at school. At least until Mimi fell under the spell of their flawless, rich classmate, Beth . . . Tanvi’s biggest bully. Fearing another terrible year, Tanvi decides to take a desperate, preemptive strike—and captures an incriminating photo of Mimi and Beth at a party. When Tanvi wakes up the next day with a bump on her head, scratches on her leg, and no memory of what caused her injuries, Mimi is gone.

Tanvi begins to fill the gaps in her memory and question Mimi’s friends and enemies, hoping to bring her cousin home. But when new evidence comes to light, the search for Mimi takes a dark turn as the cops announce that they are now hunting a murderer. Could Tanvi be the killer?

To save her family, Tanvi must revisit the worst night of her life and the darkest parts of her past to discover if she’s capable of murder—and the truth of what happened to Mimi.

To purchase When Mimi Went Missing, click the link here.Interview with When Mimi Went Missing Author Suja SukumarWhen Mimi Went Missing, is a YA thriller. It’s also dark and action-packed. What are the elements you think a YA Thriller must have to engage teen readers, and is there a line you wouldn’t cross, with your target audience 13-18?

I would say the most important thing is to know what matters most to teens and to center those in your story.

It’s important to appreciate that they face real traumas and often do not have the support they need to protect themselves. For example, in When Mimi Went Missing, Tanvi was bullied cruelly and that trauma shapes much of her actions throughout the story. She also lost her parents early in life and that makes her fearful she’ll lose the family she has left.

But I also wanted to show the resilience teens have and how they find strength within themselves, even after facing unimaginable tragedy, to not only defend themselves but also their community. 

The line I wouldn’t cross—I’ll find it very hard to write about any type of physical abuse of kids by adults. It happens, I know, but it’ll really hurt to write anything like that.

 

When Mimi Went Missing focuses on the relationship between two Indian American cousins. The girls’ relationship is rocky, and they are also struggling with the challenges of what it means to be a teenager in today’s world. What drew you to exploring family dynamics and bullying alongside the psychological intrigue required for this genre of crime fiction?

I’ve always been fascinated by how much family dynamics and external societal issues play a part in shaping peoples’ behavior patterns. Kids can learn empathy and kindness and tolerance from adults, or they can learn to be cruel, entitled, and selfish. 

In Tanvi’s case, her behaviors were triggered by an unfortunate incident in her life, namely her parents’ murder suicide. She was a happy eight-year-old loved by both parents until her mom had a miscarriage. Suffering from paranoia, her mom killed her dad and then herself. This led Tanvi to fear she could’ve inherited her mom’s homicidal tendencies. Her fears also make her susceptible to cruel bullying by the kids at school. 

So here you have a teen who believes she’s weak and flawed and even evil, and that belief is instilled in her by the bullies at her school. But when faced with losing her cousin, she realizes she must learn to fight for her family, and to do that she has to start believing in herself. This character arc—where she starts realizing who she really is—parallels the key plot arc of the investigation itself.  

 

Tell us about where When Mimi Went Missing is set. How does the often insular world of teenage girls collide with the larger community? 

When Mimi Went Missing is set in a fictional small town in Michigan.

I love small-town mysteries because while everyone seems to know everyone else, these small communities often carry the deepest secrets.

Tanvi’s school is a community by itself, where the popular clique exacts a steep price for perfection and popularity. Mimi (Tanvi’s cousin) is lured into this group with the promise of acceptance and ends up betraying Tanvi and fracturing their sisterhood. The larger community remains oblivious to the machinations of this popular clique—until Mimi vanishes and the investigation kicks in. 

 

Tell us about your journey to publication for your debut novel:

This story started as an idea about ten years ago, and I wrote it between work and my kids’ extracurriculars. I was lucky enough to get into a mentorship program called Author Mentor Match where Dana Mele, author of People Like Us, mentored me.

Dana is an awesome writer, and she not only helped edit but also supported me through the querying process. In 2018, I took part in #DVPit and that was how I found my agent. We started the submission process in late 2019, but then Covid hit, and everything shut down. My editor from Soho Teen had initially passed on the story because they were closed, but in late 2021 she emailed with an offer saying she couldn’t get the story out of her mind. I signed my contract mid-2022 for a fall 2024 release. 

 

When you aren’t penning YA thrillers, you’re a physician in suburban Detroit. How does your job impact your fiction? What’s it like to save lives in one part of your life, and think up creative ways to endanger them at your computer?

Haha, it’s so true when you put it like that! I probably should be more conflicted by these contrasting motivations. But the one iron clad rule I’ve stuck with is to keep my two worlds separate from each other.

When I’m working, my writer self shuts down and my sole motivation then is to take care of my patients. Within the walls of the clinic, what drives me is the entrenched reflex to spring to action if anyone is endangered. But on the same note, when I’m writing in my personal time, I tune my doctor reflexes out, and then my natural instincts for crime fiction kicks in. During that time, I’m devising psychological intrigues and ways for a killer to hide a body

I love this answer!

 

What are you working on now?

A YA horror where an Indian American teen returns to her ancestral home in India to prove her mother’s innocence in a decades-old murder—and finds the house haunted by an undead creature who happens to be the murder victim. 

It’s based on folklore from Kerala, my native state in India, and is about Yakshis, who are bloodthirsty vampires driven by vengeance.

 

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:

Write for yourself and not for the market. It sounds cliché, but this can be a long journey, and the market trends keep changing. I’ve found that the best part of this writing journey is the peace of mind and the joy from the writing itself. 

Great advice!

 

Author Pet Corner!Tiger!

 

My cat, Tiger, turned twenty this July. We adopted him from the local vet when he was six weeks old.

He’s an indoor cat, and very loving.

Here, in the picture, he’s sitting on my lap next to my laptop and devising ways to interrupt my writing

Author of When Mimi Went Missing — Suja Sukumar

Suja Sukumar loves hanging out in coffee shops and Indian restaurants, drawing inspiration from naan and malai kofta, masala chai and lassi.

She is a senior staff physician at a health system in suburban Detroit, where she lives with her husband, two wonderful, beautiful kids, and an elderly cat.

She is also a member of SCBWI, ITW, Crime Writers of Color, and SINC and an alum of Author Mentor Match.

When Mimi Went Missing is her debut novel

 

Learn more about Suja by clicking any of the following links: website, Facebook, and Instagram.Elena Hartwell/Elena Taylor

The post When Mimi Went Missing: A Debut YA Thriller appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.

The Measure of Life, A Story of Love and Loss

The Measure of Life by Judith Works

Author Interview + Book & Author Info!Don’t miss any Author Interviews! Click the link here.The Measure of Life

A story of love and loss begins in Rome with Nicole’s unhappy marriage to an older widower. As the new city brings new opportunities, Nicole faces an exploration of who she is and wants to be, new friendships, and immersion into Rome’s bountiful food scene.

But life abroad also forces Nicole to confront her mistakes, broken relationships, and the consequences of her actions. In search of forgiveness and healing, she returns home to Seattle. But, then she finds that the only way to truly heal is to go back to Rome and face her past.

To purchase a copy of The Measure of Life, click the following link:  Amazon.

 

 

Author Interview — The Measure of LifeThe Measure of Life takes place in both Rome and the Seattle area. What is your relationship with those places? What made you want to set your story there? 

I have fond memories of living in gorgeous and chaotic Rome for ten years while I worked for the United Nations.

After I left I returned many times for consultancies and for pleasure. Rome, with its thousands of years of history, monuments, and marvelous food is made for stories! Vashon Island, where I‘ve spent many happy hours, is a complete contrast, rural and very Pacific Northwest, exactly what I needed to contrast my protagonist’s life after her life turns upside down. 

Rome San AnselmoThe Measure of Life centers on Nicole, who is struggling with an unhappy marriage and choices she’s made that have complicated her life. What drew you to this story? What is it about the character of Nicole that made you want to spend time with and explore? 

Expat life can be fraught with the tensions of living in a foreign country piled on top of normal family tensions that would be expected in the home country.

I watched as a few families buckled under the stress with separations, affairs, divorce, and mal-adjusted children. Fortunately many others lapped up every experience with aplomb and even joy. 

I created Nicole while on a visit to an archeological site filled with ancient tombs, a place of death.

It is the perfect place for something dramatic to happen and I needed a character who struggles with adjusting to life in Rome to experience a critical moment. Then I had to build a character arc—who was this woman?

Since many American women in Rome are trailing spouses, that was a natural choice to develop her character. But she had to want something, and that something was love and recognition, qualities her older husband did not give her. So enter the man who could. I wasn’t writing a romance novel so she had to pay for her mistakes and overcome the setbacks in a journey to healing and reconciliation before she could start again.. 

Etruscan TombFountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza NavonaThe Measure of Life is in part, about finding one’s place in the world. What has your own journey been like to find your place in the world? 

My journey began ages ago with a young marriage that didn’t last, so like Nicole, I had to find my own way. And I did by finishing a degree and taking on more work responsibility while raising my daughter.

Along the way, I met a great guy who put up with my foibles like going to law school while working full time leaving him to become the family chef. (And he still is.) My journey has often been an actual journey with living in California, Virginia, Oregon and Washington along with Rome.

Always afflicted with an insatiable urge to travel, I’ve been to well over 100 countries, and with each visit I’ve learned something about the location and myself. 

In addition to being a writer, you participate in one of my favorite writing conferences—Write on the Sound. Tell us about that conference and how you got involved in helping to manage that event: 

When I returned to the States from Rome and settled in Edmonds, Washington, I needed something less fraught to replace the often daily drama of working for the World Food Programme whose mission is feeding the starving poor, especially after natural disasters and during conflicts. So I looked around for activities locally.

I volunteered for a number of organizations, one of which was the big annual writing conference, Write on the Sound. I served on the Steering Committee, which vets proposals by those wishing to present, for over ten years. I think it is an exceptionally well-run conference for a very reasonable price, and we always get positive reviews from our attendees. I recommend it to any writer at any level. 

 

You love to collect old travel books. What are a few of your favorites and how did you get started collecting them: 

I’ve always had books—many on shelves and many piled up bedside, in the living room and in my office. Many are about Italy, art, history. And so when I came across the first Michelin guide to Italy in English published in 1959, it piqued my curiosity about collecting books that past travelers used to find their way.

Then I found a 1904 Baedeker guide to Central Italy filled with advice about avoiding cholera season, train timetables, best carriage roads, and marvelous maps and floor plans of monuments in Florence and Rome. The next purchase was a 1914 Baedeker guide to Palestine and Syria. It was purchased by a D.P. Wetherall in Cairo on March 7, 1914, and is filled with dates he or she visited various sites.

I find it poignant as it was only a few months before the First World War. I wonder what happened to this person who pressed wildflowers gathered on excursions into the pages of the book. 

The annual Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair is my favorite spot to expand my collection but I also roam used bookstores and library book sales. 

 

What are you working on now? 

I have about half a first draft, tentatively titled GOOD BONES and set in the Pacific Northwest. I’m sorry to say, it’s been neglected due to all the work surrounding the final rewrites and launch of The Measure of Life. I hope to get back to it soon. 

 

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:

No matter what your age, keep at it!

Judith Works — Author of The Measure of Life

Judith Works lived in Rome for ten years while working for the United Nations. 

Her adventures and misadventures are the subject of her memoir, Coins in the Fountain. In addition to the forthcoming novel, The Measure of Life, she has had articles published in the Alaska Air magazine and Wanted in Rome – a glossy monthly. Her short stories have been published in several literary magazines and recognized in contests, and has presented locally at bookshops, book clubs, and other literary groups. Most recently she was a featured speaker at a literary event sponsored by Creative Colloquy in Tacoma in recognition of their annual Message in a Bottle literary initiative. 

She holds a J.D. cum laude from Lewis & Clark Law School and was a founder of a 501(c)(3) non-profit writers’ support group, EPIC Group Writers and was president. She served on the steering committee for the annual conference, Write on the Sound, and arranged for the poetry presentation at the Edmonds Arts Festival. She was formerly on the board for the Edmonds Center for the Arts, the Friends of the Edmonds Library, and the Edmonds Planning Board. She resides in Edmonds where she writes.

To learn more about Judith, click on any of the following links: Website, Facebook, Instagram.

The post The Measure of Life, A Story of Love and Loss appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.

Death in the Ozarks: A Sally Witherspoon Mystery

Death in the Ozarks, A Sally Witherspoon Mystery Series by Erik S. Meyers

 
Author Guest Post + Book & Author Info + an Excerpt!
 
Don’t miss any blog tour post! Click the link here.

Death in the Ozarks

 
 
A cross between Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and a Cheers bartender, Sally Witherspoon, a 50-something accountant turned biker-bar owner, loves solving puzzles. Up to now, she has focused on helping neighbors and friends find lost jewelry, lost pets, and lost loves.
 

But when she finds her best friend and business partner, Bill Arnold, dead in a dumpster behind her bar on a Saturday night, she needs all her wits and grit to find out who did it. And she won’t stop until she does.

Praise for Death in the Ozarks:

“Christie meets Cornwell in this vivid mystery, by Erik Meyers. I found myself investigating the story, lending a hand to Witherspoon but never quite unravelling the threads, and in the end experiencing a satisfying read that provoked everything from anxiety to relief.”
~ Callan J. Mulligan, Bestselling Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author

“Move over, Jessica Fletcher and Agatha Christie. Here comes Sally Witherspoon, a small-town bartender with mad skills as an amateur sleuth. Determined to discover who murdered her best friend and co-owner of Sally’s Smasher. Experienced in solving minor mysteries, the community isn’t surprised when Sally launches herself into the murder investigation, frustrating the local authorities, but they aren’t the only ones. Some secrets should stay secret or should they? Follow Sally and find out.”
~ Wendy Bayne, 5-Star Goodreads Review

“I loved this mystery! Suspenseful and a real page turner. The main character Sally Witherspoon, the owner of a biker bar, is a gutsy, intelligent, likeable woman determined to find out who killed her business partner and this leads the reader on an exciting adventure. Thought I had it figured out but was surprised at the ending. Highly recommend!”~ Lillian M. Finn, 5-Star Amazon Review

Book Details:

Genre: Traditional Mystery, Cozy Mystery
Published by: Level Best Books
Series Links: Amazon | Level Best Books

To purchase Death in the Ozarks, click any of the following links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads

Guest Post from Death in the Ozarks author Erik S. Meyers
My Journey into Mystery

Writing has been a passion for me since as long as I can remember. 

I love reading mysteries and so when the pandemic hit, I decided to use the lots of time I had available to try my hand at a mystery.

My favorite mysteries are by Agatha Christie, so the first thought was a setting in a small-town. Back in 2015, I took a lovely trip to the Arkansas Ozarks so I decided to create a fictitious town there. For the detective I wanted someone quirky and different.

I describe Sally Witherspoon as a cross between Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and a Cheers bartender. 15 years before the events in the first book in the series, Death in the Ozarks, she uprooted her life by getting divorced and moving from Atlanta to my town of Berry Springs. Instead of trying to get a job in finance, as she had done in Atlanta, she decided to open a biker bar with the help of a friend from college and Berry Springs native, Bill Arnold.

To start the series off with a bang at the beginning of Death in the Ozarks, she finds him dead in a dumpster behind the bar.

Throughout her race for the truth, trying to beat the local police force of course, she uncovers deeply buried secrets revealed by people she has known for years in town. 

Throughout the process of getting the Sally Witherspoon series published, I met so many wonderful people and learned so much about the publishing industry and publishing process.

I’m so thankful to my agent, Cindy Bullard at Birch Literary and of course Level Best Books for bringing Sally Witherspoon into the world.

Death in the Ozarks was published in December 2023 and the second book in the Sally Witherspoon series, Murder on the Mississippi, will be published in December 2024.

 

Read an excerpt of Death in the Ozarks:

Chapter One

Sally Witherspoon dropped onto the sofa in her office with a sigh, the cracked brown leather groaning as she settled herself, and ran her hand through her graying chestnut ponytail. What a night. The fights in the bar on Saturday nights were getting worse. Sally loved her bar, Sally’s Smasher, and her adopted town of Berry Springs, but the violence was getting to her. She had come to live in the small town fifteen years ago.

An old college friend, Bill Arnold, was from there, and he had always urged her to come for a visit. With a population of two thousand, one hotel, two bars, two diners, and a few arts-and-crafts shops, it was very different from her high-powered life in finance in Atlanta, but now it was definitely home.

A home that didn’t include her husband, mind you. They had divorced soon after the trip to Berry Springs. Putting her life’s savings into buying an old run-down bakery—with a lot of financial help from Bill—and turning it into Sally’s Smasher had been quite a gamble, but life here was different.

The thought of living in the beautiful Ozark mountains in Arkansas and still sitting in an office like back in Georgia hadn’t been an option for her, and the bar seemed like the perfect alternative. Running it meant she had more time to explore and hike the local area. Yes, the nights were long, but the town had come to love Sally and her biker bar, and she’d made many friends.

With only two bartenders, Jay and Magda, to help, it took a lot to run the place. Most Saturday shifts were hard slogs, but that night had been an especially long evening, as she had to deal with three bar fights, each uglier than the last. First, her business partner, Bill Arnold, had gotten into a heated argument with his biker club, The Mountaineers, over who would get to ride Bill’s vintage Vincent Rapide next. As it was on display at the bar in a large metal cage, it was often a topic of contention. Bill was always worried it would be stolen, it was worth a lot, or worse, one of his buddies would ruin the perfectly restored and polished leather seat and shining metal.

Then Bethany Wells, the school assistant, had accidentally stumbled into Mayor Jennifer Milkowski on her way to the bathroom. Bethany did love her wine, and there had been a bit of a misunderstanding. Bethany got easily annoyed when she had had too much to drink. Jennifer was not the easiest to get along with, for sure, but she was always watching her image, and being involved in a bar fight would certainly not fit her mayoral brand, and she quickly defused the situation.

The third fight almost resulted in Sally calling the police. Her friend Jeff Bartholomew, a teacher at Clinton High School, was sitting with their local Catholic priest, Father O’Malley, and had become pissed off by the bikers yelling at each other next to their table. Jeff stood up, his fists at the ready. One of The Mountaineers lobbed him in the jaw, and Jeff swung in return. Jeff had had too many beers to be in top form, and his swing missed. As he swiveled around, he fell hard, knocking over a table full of glasses and falling on a metal chair in the process, which his broad six-foot-two frame bent out of shape. If it weren’t for Bill stepping in and throwing Jeff out of the bar at that moment, Sally’s Smasher would have been truly and royally, well, smashed up.

Unfortunately, this was not something completely unusual; the rough-and-ready people living in the remote town rising to conflict more than she’d seen in the city, but the fights that night had been more violent than normal. They’d completely torn up one corner of the place. Her insurance would pay for now, she hoped. She didn’t really have the funds to fix it up herself.

But reviewing the events of the evening wasn’t going to change matters, nor was it helping Sally relax. She pushed herself up from the couch to finish cleaning up and readying the place for the next night. She’d sent Jay and Magda home at half past twelve, not needing their help in finishing off the last of the jobs. Plus, she didn’t want to overwork them. If they quit, she would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

Sally went over to her desk to tally up the night’s receipts, making a note of the amount of cash in the drawer and putting all of it in the safe. While the overall accounting at the bar wasn’t as perfect as she wanted it to be—far too much red ink for her finance background’s liking—she always made sure the cash drawer was perfect.

She then headed back out into the bar to put the glasses away she had washed before closing for the night. Pushing all the tables and chairs back in their proper places, Sally made one final sweep of the bar before checking all the windows and doors. Casting her eyes over the decorations around the bar always made her smile. The deer antlers above the door came from one of her hunting trips. Bill’s vintage bike was a real pull. And the red wooden paneling had been specially made by the local lumberyard. She was so proud of what she had accomplished, though it wouldn’t have happened without Bill’s help, and his money.

As she did every night, she went to each window from left to right, making sure the catches were secure. Then she locked the front door. Back in her office, she grabbed her backpack and shut off the lights. Just before leaving through the back door, she set the alarm. The reassuring red light always calmed her nerves. After four break-ins in one month the previous year, she finally broke down and bought an alarm, a huge expense, but so far, worth it.

In the parking lot, she headed to her car, looking forward to falling into bed. She threw her red backpack in the back of her old blue Datsun and started the engine.

Damn, I forgot to put out the trash.

She turned off the car and reluctantly headed back across the parking lot. Looking up, she frowned. Bill’s fiery-red Harley-Davidson motorcycle was still parked in the back of the building near the trash bins. Bill didn’t have a car, so he couldn’t have taken that. And she had definitely checked everywhere inside to make sure no one was passed out in one of the bathroom stalls. Maybe someone had given him a lift home.

Bill was her business partner, but he acted like a very loyal customer most nights, drinking up the Murphy’s stout imported from Ireland for him. She walked over to the motorcycle and was surprised to find the engine warm to the touch. That’s strange, she thought. She glanced around the parking lot and the woods behind for Bill. Though, why would he be waiting outside?

At that point, she was too tired to think about the motorcycle any further. Bill was a big boy, and he’d make his own way home, and she went to get the trash bags. She stomped back inside. Annoyed with herself, she had to switch the alarm off. She’d left the damn things by the door but must have walked straight by them. There were three huge bags, so she would have to make two trips. To make it easier for herself, she moved the bags outside before locking up and turning on the alarm again.

She then grabbed two of the bags and lugged them across the lot. Why hadn’t she put the trash bins closer to the door? This was one of her many to-dos that never reached the top of the priority list. She should get Jay to do it for her next week.

At the dumpster, she opened the lid and threw the bags in without looking, brushing her jeans against some grease on the side. Jeans were pretty much her go-to outfits, or sweatpants at home. Everything else was a waste of money, as it got dirty so easily at the bar. And she didn’t do much beyond hiking, working, sleeping, and eating.

She went back and grabbed the third bag from the door, and returned to the dumpster. Her long night would finally be over. As she opened the lid again, she realized the bags she had just thrown in were too close to the top. The dumpster had been emptied the day before, so what was under the bags? If someone else was dumping their rubbish in her bin, she’d be having words.

Sally fumbled in her pocket for her cell, switched on the flashlight, and peered inside. Waving the flashlight, the light landed on something that was definitely not trash. She brought her hands to her mouth, dropping the trash bag, and screamed.

Staring back at her were the gray, unseeing eyes of Bill Arnold.

***

Excerpt from Death in the Ozarks by Erik S. Meyers. Copyright 2023 by Erik S. Meyers. Reproduced with permission from Erik S. Meyers. All rights reserved.

 

Author of Death in the Ozarks — Erik S. Meyers

Currently in Austria, Erik S. Meyers is an American abroad for years and years who has lived or worked in six countries on three continents, the longest in Germany.

He is an award-winning author and communications professional with over twenty-five years of expertise in a variety of corporate roles.

Reading and writing are his passions, when he is not hiking one of the amazing trails in Austria or elsewhere.

To learn more about Erik, click any of the following links:
www.ErikMey.com | Medium – @erikmey | Goodreads – @erikmey | Instagram – @erikmeyauthor | Facebook – @ErikSMeyersAuthor

 

Visit all the Stops on the Tour

11/11 Book Reviews From an Avid Reader DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
11/12 Books, Ramblings, and Tea THE SALLY WITHERSPOON MYSTERY SERIES Showcase
11/12 Its All About the Book DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
11/13 Country Mamas With Kids DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
11/15 Guatemala Paula Loves to Read DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
11/15 Novels Alive DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
11/16 The Mystery of Writing THE SALLY WITHERSPOON MYSTERY SERIES Guest post
11/19 Cozy Up With Kathy THE SALLY WITHERSPOON MYSTERY SERIES Interview
11/19 Jodys Bookish Haven THE SALLY WITHERSPOON MYSTERY SERIES Showcase
11/20 5 Minutes for Books DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
11/20 Nanas Book Reviews DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
11/21 5 Minutes for Books MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI Review
11/21 Silvers Reviews THE SALLY WITHERSPOON MYSTERY SERIES Showcase
11/22 Cozy Up With Kathy DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
11/25 Literary Gold THE SALLY WITHERSPOON MYSTERY SERIES Showcase
11/29 Binge Reading Books THE SALLY WITHERSPOON MYSTERY SERIES Showcase
11/30 Words by Webb DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
12/01 Ink. Readsalot DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
12/03 bookwormbecky1969 DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
12/10 The AR Critique DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
12/12 Book Reviews From an Avid Reader MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI Review
12/14 Celticladys Reviews THE SALLY WITHERSPOON MYSTERY SERIES Showcase
12/14 The AR Critique MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI Review
12/15 Guatemala Paula Loves to Read MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI Review
12/16 Books R Us DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
12/17 Country Mamas With Kids MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI Review
12/18 Its All About the Book MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI Review
12/19 Melissa As Blog DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
12/20 Books R Us MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI Review
12/20 fuonlyknew DEATH IN THE OZARKS Review
12/20 Melissa As Blog MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI Review
12/27 fuonlyknew MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI Review

Elena Hartwell/Elena Taylor

The post Death in the Ozarks: A Sally Witherspoon Mystery appeared first on The Mystery of Writing.

The Crushing: New Suspense

The Crushing, by Kerry Peresta

Author Guest Post + Book & Author Info + A Giveaway!

 

Don’t miss any blog tour posts! Click the link here for more.The Crushing

The victim of a vicious assault six years ago that resulted in a traumatic brain injury, Olivia Callahan is now a private investigator with her own firm. The assault that almost took her life resulted in a spectacular metamorphosis. No longer the shy, passive introvert she once was, she’s become a driving and determined force. However, the lack of impulse control caused by her rewired brain causes her to run toward trouble instead of away from it.

When Olivia sends her colleague, Sherry, to the Florida panhandle to find a missing friend, Hannah; the search takes Sherry into the dark heart of an abusive, hostage situation. The man Hannah married is cruel, dangerous, and well-connected. Olivia reels in her favorite cop—Sergeant Hunter Faraday—for a discreet assist, and it soon becomes clear that Hannah’s new husband is adept at waging war against anything that blocks his way.

While rescuing Hannah is Olivia’s primary goal, her incarcerated ex-husband has other plans. He’s collected friends who support his obsessive need to punish her for her role in his murder conviction, and a time bomb is ticking.

As Olivia and Sherry battle to save Hannah, try to neutralize the fiendish plan of an ex bent on revenge, and endure a terrifying race for their lives through the Florida wetlands; a final betrayal waits patiently in the dark. Smiling.

Genre: Thriller, Suspense
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: October 15, 2024
Number of Pages: 310
ISBN: 978-1-68512-770-1
Series: Olivia Callahan Suspense, Book Four

To purchase your copy of The Crushing, click any of the following links: Amazon | Goodreads | Level Best BooksThe Crushing Guest Post by Kerry Peresta Should a Protagonist be Likeable?

 

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘likeable’? For me, I think of a person possessing a winsome expression, a good personality, a sense of style, and is reasonably good-looking. In short, the person is perfect. And, this is the problem for me: who is going to relate to the “perfect” person?

I’m not particularly drawn to books featuring a main character who does no wrong; who is so blatantly bland he offends no one. My critique group and I have had disagreements over this, and finally decided the protagonist should be ‘relatable’, and doesn’t have to be ‘likeable’.  However, one reader’s ‘relatable’ may be another reader’s ‘detestable’.

So. This is a writer’s dilemma, isn’t it? Creating an interesting, relatable character who inspires readers to buy all the books about that character.

I keep these wisdom-nuggets in my mind as I forge ahead with my protagonists, who are based on real people I’ve known, with exaggerated traits or flaws that make them (more) interesting. Obviously, we cannot please every reader and are not meant to, but we can carve out a lane for ourselves which readers will recognize. I want my readers to enjoy my protagonist with each book they purchase. Story is important, of course, as is setting and plot. However, I feel the protagonist is the linchpin that holds it all together. If they don’t find the protagonist interesting, the book is cast aside. We do our readers no favors when we write what we think everyone wants, i.e. the flavor of the month approach; nor do I think it works when we grab a character from a popular story from the past, (it worked then, maybe it’ll work now!) tweak the character with our own eccentricities, and release them into the world. A character should not be contrived, based on someone else’s success, or based on current market trends. Our protagonists should seem real to us, flesh-and-blood-and-bone; living, breathing vessels in whom we feel comfortable pouring our essence. This is how a three-dimensional character is born.

I’ve read a multitude of writing articles about how to develop a three-dimensional characters, and don’t remember ever writing a one-dimensional character in my life. It feels unnatural to write a ‘stick figure’, other than the characters meant to melt into the background. If I don’t feel a deep connection to my protagonist or antagonist, I back out of my story and think about why. Sometimes, we have to go back, take a closer look, and ‘fill in the blanks’ on a character, because we’ve gotten focused on racing through the draft, and other times we may have to scrap that character and build a different one. Often, for me, one of the secondary characters rises to prominence in my head, and if I’m working on a series, she has a bigger part of the plotline in the next book. My new release, The Crushing, features Hannah, a friend of Olivia Callahan, my protagonist. I enjoyed fleshing her out and bringing her into focus. As it turned out, bringing her into focus revealed more flaws and cracks in her psyche than I could have predicted!

I gave up on crafting a protagonist with a bent toward making her “likeable” a long time ago. I can’t even write my stories with this thought uppermost in mind. I would rather people cheer for my character as she fights her way through seemingly insurmountable obstacles and wounds in her spirit. My stories focus on the journey, and I am candid about my protagonist’s flaws and struggles. Most of us have clawed our way back from devastation, chaos, or disappointment. These experiences are invaluable in writing an authentic character, so use the emotions! These touchpoints help the reader feel empathy. If you don’t already do it, I encourage you to be as transparent as possible with your protagonists’ choices, good or bad; and let their soul breathe. Your reader will feel it.

I would love to connect with you! Please stay in touch, visit my website, here.

Kerry Peresta — Author of The Crushing

Kerry Peresta is a suspense novelist, and her releases include The Deadening, The Rising, The Torching, and The Crushing, books one-four in the Olivia Callahan Suspense series; and Back Before Dawn, a standalone thriller, all published by Level Best Books Publishing. Her magazine articles have appeared in Hilton Head’s Local Life Magazine, The Bluffton Breeze, Lady Lowcountry, and Island Events Magazine. She spent twenty-five years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, editor, and copywriter.

She is past chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association and a current member and presenter of Hilton Head Island Writers’ Network, South Carolina Writers Association, Pat Conroy Literary Center, International Thriller Writers, and the Sisters in Crime organization. Kerry is the mother of four adult kids, a flock of grandkids, and three cats.

She and her husband moved to Hilton Head Island in 2015.

To learn more about Kerry, click on any of the following links: kerryperesta.com Goodreads BookBub – @kerryperesta Amazon Author Page Instagram – @kerryperesta Twitter/X – @kerryperesta Facebook Author Page & Facebook Personal Page

Visit all the Stops on the Tour!

10/22 Review @ The AR Critique
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