An Interview With Lida Sideris

by Grace Topping

I have been following Lida’s Southern California Mystery series ever since her first book was published.  She just launched book six in the series, Murderous Means, and I’m happy to report that the series gets better with each book. It has been a pleasure seeing Lida’s career blossom and her characters grow. 

 

Murderous Means

 

When resting in peace isn't an option. 

 

Corrie Locke may not be the best rookie lawyer in town, but when it comes to catching a killer, she's got enough skills to bring a band of shifty-eyed suspects to their knees. 

 

When the wealthy matriarch of the dysfunctional Means family dies in her sleep, the family is convinced her death was anything but peaceful. They hire Corrie to prove it, but the only evidence they have to go on is a psychic’s half-baked vision that it was murder. To put the matter to rest, Corrie sets her sights on proving the psychic is a fraud. But what should be a simple investigation morphs into something a little more...deadly. 

                                                                                                www.amazon.com

 

 

Welcome back to Writers Who Kill, Lida.

 

Corrie Locke is a lawyer with one of the Hollywood film studios, but she wants to work as a private investigator. What is driving her to give up her job and become a P.I.?

 

A typical day for a junior movie studio lawyer involves drafting contracts, all of which kind of look the same. For a newbie lawyer like Corrie, who spent her teen years shadowing her P.I dad on his cases, legal work is mundane in comparison. There are studio perks like eating in the commissary among big talent, and attending screenings of yet-to-be-released films, but those perks are overshadowed by the thrill of hunting down criminals and cracking cases. Corrie may not be an exceptional lawyer, but she feels right at home in a criminal investigation.

You have worked as an entertainment attorney with a movie studio. Did any of your experiences working there contribute to your Southern California Mystery Series?

My lawyerly experiences informed the first (Murder & Other Unnatural Disasters) and third (Murder: Double or Nothing) books, in particular, because they both centered around shady activities at the movie studio. At the film production arm where I worked, there was a small scandal, but, in Corrie’s case (in book #1), it exploded into a murder case. Just like Corrie, in book #3, I watched movies being filmed on the backlot…except Corrie can’t just quietly watch. She gets directly involved and discovers, what else? A crime scene.

 

In Murderous Means, Corrie has been hired to prove that her client’s deceased sister was murdered, based solely on the word of a psychic. Why does Corrie take on the case? 

Since she’s only unofficially a PI at this point, with no office or staff (not counting her mother), and there’s nothing exciting happening at the studio, she welcomes a new investigation. She expects it to be an open and shut case since everyone knows psychics are crackpots. All she needs to do is prove the psychic is a fraud and she’s done. But it doesn’t exactly go as Corrie planned…

Veera, Corrie’s friend and co-worker, and her boyfriend, Michael, who is a technical wizard, assist her in her investigations. Recently, Corrie’s mother has become involved. What does her mother bring to the team?

 

Corrie’s lucky to have three highly motivated sidekicks; eager, ready and willing. Their enthusiasm is catchy and even though Mom plainly voiced her opposition to Corrie’s PI work in the first four books, she changes her mind and joins in, in Gambling with Murder.  She is the voice of maturity and the cook of delicious food, which makes her popular with everyone, even Corrie, with a few reservations. Mom views situations differently than the rest of the gang, and tends to do things her own way. But she brings enough to the table to make Corrie admit that she is an asset… sometimes.

 

Some of Corrie’s investigative activities at times are less than legal. For example, she searches homes without permission and passes Michael off as her firm’s psychic. How does she justify taking steps that the police would not be able to get away with?

When a former client believed Michael was psychic, Corrie didn’t argue because that belief is what got them the gig at Means Well Ranch. Michael, being honest and sincere by nature, tries to explain to the Means client that he uses logic and facts to make his so-called predictions, but the client just views him as a different kind of psychic. As for justifying Corrie’s bending the rules to the point where she could end up in jail, it’s a habit she can’t break. That’s where the thrill comes in for her—taking risks. Which leads me to think, maybe she should be tossed in jail one of these days. But in Murderous Means, she does turn over a slightly new leaf by trying to be somewhat more upstanding. She’s a work in progress.

 

Corrie is fit and, on occasion, engages in physical combat and carries a shuriken to defend herself.  Are you into physical fitness? What is a shuriken, and have you ever used one?

 

I like to stay fit, Grace, so I walk daily, which I hope promotes my fitness. Corrie and I both have sweet tooths that require some heavy-handed, disciplinary management and for me, lots of walks. Shuriken are Japanese throwing stars used by ninja warriors back in the day. They are illegal in California. I have never seen or held one in-person (as you can tell, I’m not Corrie). But I like the concept of a weapon that’s used to distract potential criminals rather than harming them.

 

Murder is a very serious affair, but you inject a lot of humor into your books. How do you use humor without appearing to make light of someone’s murder?

I need humor in my daily life to take the edge off unpleasantries and, in Corrie’s case, to soften the gloom from serious situations. All I know when I’m writing is that if I can make light of a situation so that it blends into everything else going on, I will. It deflects a serious matter, and puts a smile on my face. I hope it does the same for my readers. It’s a break from life’s upsets and worries.

 

Promotion is one of the biggest challenges a writer faces. You’ve taken a large step forward on that by working with other writers to form Sleuths and Sidekicks. Please tell us about that. 

 

I am so grateful to have banded together with lovely, talented authors: Jen Collins Moore, Tina deBellegarde, and Carol Pouliot. I can’t believe my good fortune. It was the summer of 2020, when the pandemic was in full swing (pre-vaccines), and I had a book release that fall. As we know, in-person book events weren’t happening. I put out a call on my publisher’s (Level Best Books) listserv for authors with release dates around the same time as mine, so we could promote together. Only three authors responded, and we hit it off immediately. We had a ball promoting virtually from coast-to-coast, and last year, we launched the Sleuths & Sidekicks website, geared mostly for readers. We also teach writing workshops, virtually, and just finished up a panel in London. It’s amazing how everything came together for us.  

 

What’s next for Corrie and her team?

That’s a great question, Grace. I’m working on Book #7 in the series, which opens with Corrie and Michael on a long-postponed date that doesn’t exactly unfold as planned because…a case drops into Corrie’s lap. A young girl needs help in determining what happened to her father, who disappeared years ago. Corrie can’t turn down the case because someone strong-arms her into taking it: her mother. Mom has her reasons, as readers will see.

 

What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned since you started writing fiction?

 

About 50,000 words into writing Murderous Means, I came to a halt. My fingers were clunky, the word flow dried up, and my frustration was mounting. So, I stopped writing that manuscript and started writing another in a different genre. It was so liberating. After about 30,000 words in my new draft, I had a strong hankering to return to Murderous Means, which went a lot more smoothly. That never happened to me before, but now I know what to do should it occur again.

 

Thank you so much, Grace, for hosting me today.

 

Thank you, Lida.

 

 

To learn more about Lida Sideris and her mystery series, follow her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Lida%20Sideris.

 

 

Grace Topping is the author of the Laura Bishop Mystery Series.