Adding Realism to Mysteries

Aside from my women’s fiction, I’ve had a lifelong love of mysteries. As kids we watched a lot of mystery shows and movies and really enjoyed the Masterpiece Mystery series on PBS–with Sherlock Holmes (first with the inimical Jeremy Brett and David Burke, and now Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman), Miss Marple (Joan Hickson), and Hercule Poirot (Sir David Suchet) as favorites. My mother was incredible at guessing whodunit very quickly in these shows, much to my father’s bafflement. We played the classic board game, Clue, quite a bit as a family, too. Prof. Plum with the candle stick in the library…..

In 2016, I started my own Marguerite “Monty” Montez mystery series. A local soccer mom is bludgeoned to death in her suburban parish chapel outside of Boston. In her first homicide case, prosecutor Monty endangers her life and budding career digging up evidence that shows the police nabbed the wrong man for this murder in Deadly Sacrifices.  A sometime Portuguese fados (blues) singer at local clubs and events, Monty uncovers disturbing memories and fresh leads about the long unsolved murder of a childhood friend in her close-knit Portuguese community that hamper her efforts to crack her first homicide case. Her dauntless search for the killer takes the reader on a wild thrill ride from a simple murder for insurance scheme to the shadowy world of domestic political extremists and the secretive designs of a senatorial candidate during a heated election year.  Monty brings her razor-sharp legal mind, colossal stubborn streak and offbeat humor to her first investigation as well as her steely determination to follow unsettling leads in her friend’s unsolved murder. I’m about halfway through the second book in the series, tentatively entitled Deadly Encounters.

For the past two plus years, I’ve been fortunate to be able to connect with other mystery writers with the Citrus Crime Writers, a Central Florida chapter of Sisters in Crime, Inc., and have begun to cross-promote chapter activities with the Florida Gulf Coast chapter of SinC, based in Tampa. Check out these organizations if you want to learn more about mystery writing and to connect with other local authors. Here are some cool upcoming virtual events from these organizations that will help bring real world forensic tips to mystery writers in January 2021.

Firearms Forensics – https://citruscrimewriters.wordpress.com/2020/12/21/ready-aim-firearms/

Death and Cold Case Investigations – https://wordpress.com/post/citruscrimewriters.wordpress.com/540