Malice Domestic part 2

I had to read four books for the panel I moderated at Malice. One was in my to be read pile, one I got at the library, one I bought for my e-book device. I had to email the author to get the fourth one. They were all is different sub-genre of mystery. I was prepared to dislike two of them. Much to my amazement I loved all four. It’s hard to tell if I liked the setting or the characters best.
In these works each of the leading characters was someplace other than home,or what felt like home, so the author had to try harder to make the setting real. A character out of his or her well-worn daily routine is apt to show more personality than he or she might at home. So both the person and the place are more vivid. I read all four books with Google Earth up on my computer. Two of the places were real and I could look at the buildings the author described. The other two were fictional. The author stuck the place in the midst of real places. I could see the mountains, rivers and all the places the characters might have been.
Setting and character at the things I find the most fun about writing.
Lest you think that other things don’t matter, the plots were all carefully thought out. Secondary characters, while we knew less about them, were all real. We felt for the murder victims and sometimes for the perpetrator. In one case I really wanted the murder to get away with it.
Well, I’m off to pick up more books by these authors.
The books?
Sheila Connolly, Buried in a Bog
Sandra Parshall, Poisoned Ground
Terrance Faherty, Eastward in Eden
Jeanne Dams, Shadows of Death