Killer Questions - Favorite Type of Books to Read

 Killer Questions – Favorite Type of Books to Read

We are often asked what each of us likes to read. Consequently, as part of our year of favorites, here is what each of us most enjoys reading:

Annette Dashofty: Mystery and thriller.

Heather Weidner: I like lots of genres, but mysteries are always my go to favorites. Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Three Investigators (along with a host of 70s cartoons like “Scooby-Doo”) were my gateway books to so many adventures.

James M. Jackson: A crime novel series. I enjoy watching the main characters live and change while bringing their version of justice to the world. Second choice is a well-written nonfiction book on almost any topic.

Martha Reed: Crime fiction with a paranormal element. I love solving the whodunnit but keeping something mystically unresolved gets me every time. Think the Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman.

Molly MacRae: Clever, funny mysteries with satisfying endings – like The Librarians by Sherry Thomas and The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.

Sarah E. Burr: I really love reading manga, especially the slice-of-life genre. The relationships are so sweet, and it’s just an enjoyable reading experience.

Kait Carson: The kind with words. I’ll read anything and often venture out of preferred genres of Mystery and Romance just for fun.

Debra H. Goldstein: I am an avid reader of cozy and traditional mysteries, but I also enjoy biographies and memoirs.

Elaine Douts: I love culinary mysteries for the food, of course, and mysteries that include pets.

Margaret Hamilton: When I’m deep in writing mode, non-fiction, essays, and poetry. Otherwise, traditional amateur sleuth mysteries and for long trips, the latest Daniel Silva thriller.

KMRockwood: Crime fiction. Who knows why?

Lori Roberts Herbst: I read most genres, so it’s impossible to choose. I can get lost in a humorous whodunit, a heart-stopping thriller, intense crime fiction, or nail-biting horror.

Grace Topping: Historical mysteries. I enjoy a mystery that transports me to a different time. I learn something new about that time period with each book.   

Korina Moss: Crime fiction. Who knows why?

Shari Randall: Mysteries of course! Especially those that have a rich sense of place like Anne Cleeve’s Shetland books.

Mary Dutta: Mysteries! I love the challenge of a puzzle and the satisfaction of a resolution.

A Return to Mythology

by Paula Gail Benson

I was excited to see The Odyssey as the big summer movie. I remember the joy I had reading Bernard Evslin’s The Trojan War, and very much anticipate watching Christopher Nolan’s adaptation.

Maybe another reason I feel “connected” to Nolan’s production is through the actor Logan Marshall-Green, who plays Melanthius, Odysseus’ disloyal goatherd. Logan and his twin brother, Taylor, are the children of my high school drama teacher, Lowry Marshall, and my college theatre director, Russell Green. I saw the twins as babies not long after they were born. After divorcing, Lowry moved to Rhode Island, where she taught students John F. Kennedy, Jr., and John Krasinski at Brown University. Fortunately, Facebook allowed me to reconnect with her a few years before she passed away. I know she would be tremendously proud of Logan.

Madeline Miller’s books The Song of Achilles and Circe drew me back to mythological reading. Miller’s work brings the stories to a modern audience. She’s extremely skilled at character development and helping readers understand what motivated these mythic and somewhat mysterious beings. I had the chance to meet her when she attended the Decatur Book Festival and was very impressed she had spent some time at Yale School of Drama to learn how to better portray scenes and action.

Currently on my bookshelf is the adult debut novel I, Medusa by New York Times best selling author Ayana Gray. The first book in her speculative young adult series, Beast of Prey, has been optioned by Netflix for a series. In I, Medusa, Gray explores the origin story of a young woman who becomes an acolyte for the goddess Athena then falls from grace.

Recently, I’ve come across another novel reinventing mythology. Ungodly Rich by Katharine McGee is recommended by People and Woman’s World magazines. It’s the contemporary story of Julia Dodds, a young woman working as a tour guide, who meets Harry Adams, an adventurer. There is instant chemistry. After they begin living together, Harry asks her to come home with him to meet his folks. The parents happen to be Zeus and Hera and Harry is actually Ares. How Julia navigates the modern pitfalls of becoming involved with the gods of Olympus is the story.

I’m looking forward to reading Gray’s and McGee’s books. I’m wondering how those works should be categorized. McGee’s sounds as if it might be considered “romantasy,” a combination of romance and fantasy. But is myth categorized as fantasy? Maybe it should be a corollary of speculative fiction called “mythic fiction.” What do you think?

Returning to CozyLand - The Joys and Challenges of Writing Cozies by Kassandra Lamb

Returning to CozyLand ~ The Joys and Challenges of Writing Cozies by Kassandra Lamb

I recently had a little chat with myself about whether I should retire from writing. My third series is winding down (four if you count the romantic suspense I’ve written as Jessica Dale), and I was debating where to go next. I decided to go back to writing “just for fun,” and not worry so much about the business end of things.

And “fun” writing meant cozies for me. Why do I enjoy them so much?

First, they are more lighthearted than other subgenres of mysteries. The characters don’t take themselves quite so seriously, even though they’re still trying to solve a murder (or two or three).

And this ties into my second reason. The main character can be spunky, sometimes even snarky. My second series, The Marcia Banks and Buddy Mysteries, were cozies, and the MC, a service dog trainer, even had an alter ego whom she dubbed Ms. Snark.

In this new series, The Aging Ain’t for Wimps Mysteries, the protagonist is seventy-one, so snark might not wear as well on her. But she can be spunky. When Amy Parker suddenly finds herself widowed, she

begins to realize how subtly controlling her husband was. As she starts to spread her wings (and sets out to solve a murder), she finds her spunk.

Third, writing the first draft seems to go faster with cozies. Maybe that’s partly because of number one above, the more lighthearted tone. It may also be because the plots are a little bit less complicated, especially less so than police procedurals (my third series, The C.o.P. on the Scene Mysteries).

And a faster first-drafting experience means I get to the part that I like best sooner—the editing. I love editing. Watching the story shape up, getting all the rough edges polished off, is so much fun.

Fourth, the world building is fun too. Cozies are usually set in small towns, and populating a fictional town is kind of cool. There’s the local law enforcement of course, the sheriff and his or her deputies. Then the merchants and professionals—the grocer, the librarian, the veterinarian, the auto shop owner—and the nosy but also supportive neighbors.

And fifth, the characters can be quirky. Indeed, some of them are expected to be quirky.

Which brings us to the sixth reason, the MC usually has a pet.

And Amy’s pet is my favorite quirky character in this new series. She’s a gray tabby cat that Amy inherits from her sister. Her sister called her Misty, but Amy’s name for her is Nuisance. Nuisance is not a very friendly cat, and Amy starts out barely tolerating her. But as the story unwinds, she warms up to her some, especially after discovering why the cat is so standoffish.

But there are some challenges to writing cozies as well.

The main one being the rule about no swear words. That can be tough to pull off, especially when law enforcement folks are around (cops swear!), and still have the story feel realistic.

The age of most of my characters, in their sixties and seventies, helps here. Older gentlemen, even older sheriffs, try not to cuss in front of women. Indeed, gray-haired, bushy-eyebrowed Sheriff Andy Taylor is my third favorite character so far in this series, after Amy and Nuisance. (And yes, he gets a lot of jokes about his name, like folks asking him if he’s from Mayberry).

The other two main rules regarding cozies are easier to follow—no on-screen sex and minimize the gore. I’m not a big fan of gore myself, so that last one is totally easy.

And while I enjoyed writing sex scenes in my first series—The Kate Huntington Mysteries, with a psychotherapist amateur sleuth—they are not easy to craft. I’m just as happy not to have to deal with them here.

Indeed, I haven’t even decided yet if Amy will have a love interest. She’s still grieving her husband and also enjoying her independence. 

And I’m having so much fun helping her do the latter.

Which do you prefer to read (or write)—regular whodunnits or cozy mysteries?

What does it say about you when your coming-of-age story begins at seventy-one?

Kassandra Lamb has two loves: writing and psychology. In her youth, she discovered that writers need day jobs in order to eat. Partial to food, she studied psychology. Now retired from a career as a psychotherapist and college professor, she spends most of her time in an alternate universe with her characters. The magic portal to this universe (i.e., her computer) is in Florida, where her husband and dog catch occasional glimpses of her. Kass has authored over 40 books, including four mystery series and a romantic suspense trilogy.

WEBSITE: https://kassandralamb.com 

Troubled Water, An Aging Ain’t for Wimps Mystery (#1 in a new series)

Amy Bridges Parker asks herself that question as she resists her domineering sister’s attempts to take over where her subtly controlling and recently deceased husband left off. Then her sister turns up dead, and the sheriff suspects a young man claiming to be the grandson of Amy’s first husband, who died in the Vietnam War. Amy, however, is not convinced. Her sister—a mean girl back in high school—had plenty of old enemies. But who hated her enough to actually kill her?

AMAZON:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H7YZSQG3   

BARNES & NOBLE:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/troubled-water-kassandra-lamb/1150617824?ean=2940196583292

The Vacation That Almost Wasn’t by Sarah E. Burr

Last week, my husband, our two dogs, and I headed to Maine to spend some time with my parents. I was fully prepared to relax. I brought a stack of books and planned to sit outside, enjoy the lake, explore a few towns, eat good food, and generally do as little as possible. After a busy summer of releases, promotions, and more, I thought I’d earned it.

Maine apparently had other plans for me.

Things started going sideways when my mom threw her back out the day after we arrived. Naturally, that changed the dynamic of the trip because she was hurting and couldn’t move around normally, so there was a lot of checking on her and adjusting plans. Still, George and I figured we could roll with it. We were all together, we were in Maine, and there were plenty of other things we could do.

Oh, silly, naïve Sarah. I don’t know what happened to the refreshing Maine summers of my childhood, but this was not one of them. For the first week of August, it was oppressively hot, the kind of heat where you walk outside and immediately regret every decision that brought you to that particular moment in your life.

Then we lost power.

Thankfully, my parents have a generator, so this wasn’t quite the disaster it could have been. The problem was that the generator couldn’t run everything in the house at the same time. Choices had to be made, and when it’s a bazillion degrees outside, air-conditioning wins. Hot water is a luxury. But oddly enough, as the week continued, the generator eventually became preferable to having actual electricity. You see, once power came back on, the electric company started having brownouts across the state. The Maine community Facebook pages were flooded with complaints and horror stories. For our family, we technically "had" electricity, but there wasn’t enough of it for the air conditioners to run at full capacity. So, we went from having no power, to generator power that could run the AC but no hot water, to real power that couldn’t run the AC as well as the generator. Nothing says “relaxing Maine vacation” quite like discussing whether you’d rather have fully functioning air-conditioning or hot water while Central Maine Power struggles to provide enough electricity to accomplish either.

As if the heat and power situation weren’t enough, George and I briefly thought our credit card had been stolen. Late one night, our credit card company called to ask whether we were making purchases at a Texas Target, which sent us into a spiral of checking charges, wondering what had been compromised, and mentally preparing to deal with fraud while on vacation. Except it turned out the card being used was our old credit card. The one that was already inactive. Yep. That’s right. After all that concern, there was literally nothing for us to do. No stolen card. No active fraud on an account we use. Just a pointless little burst of panic dropped into the middle of an already chaotic week.

Meanwhile, we had four dogs sharing one old farmhouse. For those keeping score, George and I brought Eevee and Itto, while my parents have Louise (a Shih Tzu) and Niko (a German Shepherd). These dogs do not share a beautiful friendship. Every visit becomes a complicated system of who can be in what room, who needs to go outside, and why everyone is suddenly mouthing off. I often felt less like someone on vacation and more like the manager of a very poorly organized doggy daycare. Thank goodness my parents installed heavy-duty dog gates in all the doorways after our visit last Christmas. Lessons learned!

We still had sightseeing plans, though. What could go wrong with a little tourism? With that positive outlook, George and I headed to Rockland to wander around Main Street. Rockland is exactly the kind of coastal Maine town where you expect to spend a Wednesday afternoon popping into cute shops, looking at art, grabbing something to eat, and generally enjoying yourself. Except almost everything was closed. George and I walked around staring into darkened storefronts wondering if we had somehow missed an announcement to shelter in place. Every time we spotted somewhere that looked interesting, we’d walk up to the door and discover that, nope, apparently, that place didn’t want to see us either.

But the whole reason we were in Maine this particular week was to celebrate my dad’s birthday. As part of the fun, we made reservations at a fancy local restaurant we'd yet to try. This was supposed to be one of our big outings. We’d get dressed up, have a lovely dinner, and enjoy a nice evening together. Sounds great, right? Wrong. On the morning of my dad's birthday, we got a call. Not to wish him a happy birthday, but to tell us that the restaurant was closing because of the heat. Yes. It was apparently so hot in Maine that even the restaurant decided it had had enough. At this point, the trip was beginning to feel slightly cursed.

Thankfully, one outing went as planned. Rallying after the canceled birthday plans, the four of us piled into the car, drove forty-five minutes to Hallowell and had a wonderful meal at The Liberal Cup (such a great name for a cozy mystery locale). It was a restaurant my dad had long wanted to visit, and we figured, if not now, then when? The food was great, we got to relax, and for a little while, nothing broke, closed, lost power, injured itself, triggered a fraud alert, or otherwise went dramatically wrong. It was glorious.

Despite how all these mishaps make the trip sound, we really did have an enjoyable stay. Maybe it wasn’t the relaxing Maine vacation I’d envisioned, but we were together. We laughed a lot, ate well, spent time by the lake, and somehow found plenty of good moments tucked between all the things that didn’t go according to plan. By the end of the week, I realized those were probably the moments I’d remember anyway. That’s the funny thing about family vacations. You can plan where you’re going, what you’re doing, and where you’re eating, but you can’t plan what happens once everyone gets there. Sometimes the trips that go completely off script become the stories you tell the longest. Someday, I’m sure someone will say, “Remember that vacation in Maine…?” and we’ll all laugh, conveniently forgetting how exasperated we were while living through it. Then, eventually, someone will suggest we do it all again. And we will. Because it’s family, and getting together is always worth the trip.

But next year, I’m bringing lower expectations.

Research Snags When Creating Settings by Judy L. Murray

Here I am. Drowning in research. Let me explain why I could use your help.

As many of you know, mystery series is centered around a busy little town at the very top of the Chesapeake Bay. Over the span of my first four books, I decided that Helen, my heroine, is more believable and interesting when she gets caught up in crime solving that introduces what I consider ‘a setting within a setting’. Helen may get entangled in sleuthing because of her friendships and career life as a real estate agent but the people she helps and the villains she tracks down have different expertise from her own. Unfortunately, as a writer, these differences can make storyline accuracies a challenge.

In Murder in the Master, Helen’s family, friends, and work life are introduced. The town of Port Anne, with its tiny shops and restaurants and generations of businesses, all reflect a blend of locals and newcomers that don’t always see eye to eye. Helen discovers a builder in the master bedroom of a new McMansion. Since I know the real estate business like the back of my hand, I could concentrate on plot, dialogue, and character building.

In Killer in the Kitchen, a celebrity chef and client leads Helen into the world of an online home shopping network like QVC. I had to learn about the back-office world of television production, products, and guests. To entertain readers, I learned terms and built a setting that reflects real life. Did I tie it all into real estate? Yes.

In Peril in the Pool House Helen is thrown into solving a politician’s family secrets of missing pilot boat captains and fraudulent shipping up and down the bay. I researched abandoned lighthouses, float planes versus seaplanes and environmental law affecting the Chesapeake. I enjoyed it.

Villain in the Vineyard immersed Helen in dealings with wine connoisseurs and questionable vineyard owners. When Detective Joe McAlister asks Helen what she knows about wine she says, “I’m never quite sure what to do at a wine-tasting. Do you?” “Taste wine?” Joe retorts. I still don’t know how to discern wines, casks, or soil but I learned enough to generate dialogue that wouldn’t be criticized later by a wine expert.

Back to my current misery. My fifth book is centered around the world of thoroughbred horse racing, principally because Fair Hill International Training Center is minutes from my home and can be another setting within Helen’s world. Thoroughbreds who win races at Saratoga and the Kentucky Derby train here in unsurpassed facilities. But I’m stumbling around trying to get a footing within this horsing community and it hasn’t been easy.

Dear Research Experts, what ideas do you have to break into a close-knit, private, and competitive world? I’m inclined to keep plotting based on potential crimes in this world and stop worrying about editing for accuracy at this point. Thoughts?

From a writer who doesn’t know the difference between a trot and a canter, Judy

 

What Grover Taught Me about Writing Mysteries

By Heather Weidner

 

I am Gen X, first-generation Sesame Street and first-generation MTV. One of my favorite children’s books of all time was the classic, The Monster at the End of This Book. I still have my copy. Mystery, fantasy, suspense, monsters. This book had it all.

 

 

As I look back on some of my childhood favorites, I realize I’ve been reading mysteries for a long time. Here’s what this Little Golden Book and the blue fuzzy monster from Sesame Street taught me about writing mysteries. 

• You need to build suspense in your stories to keep your readers engaged.
• Your readers need to like or empathize with your protagonist.
• Everyone is afraid of something, and writers need to tap into fears to build tension.
• Write strong (and fun) dialog. Make it sound like real speech, slang and all.
• Use pacing correctly. Slow down the action to build suspense, and speed it up to amp up the excitement.
• Your protagonist needs a challenge or a problem to solve.
• Your character should not be perfect. Little (or big) flaws make your character relatable and interesting.
• Make sure your character is not flat. He or she needs to be a real person (or monster) with all the things that life throws in the way. Your protagonist has to stumble and make mistakes.
• When you think your character has had enough and is close to breaking, pile it on. Add more tension.
• Don’t load up your work with a lot of narrative and back story. Readers want to stay in the action.
• And most importantly, never forget that reading is fun.

Do you have a favorite children’s book that taught you some life lessons?

Heather Weidner writes cozy crime fiction for readers who want justice with a sprinkle of fun and a southern accent.

Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Pearly Girls Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries. 

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a crazy Mini Aussie Shepherd. 

YESTERYEAR by Caro Claire Burke

 

 

 

By Margaret S. Hamilton

 

“Tradwife is a term for a married woman who embraces traditional gender roles and values and tends to share the details of her life on social media.” (Britannica.com)

 

“The goal of the influencer is not to be loveable, and it is not to be unbearable. The goal is to be both at once. In other words: addicting.” (Natalie)

 

In Burke’s satiric 2026 debut, Yesteryear, fictional influencer Natalie Heller Mills provokes intense discussions among women of all ages. Those of us who struggled to raise a family, care for elderly parents, and maintain a career aren’t lured by an aura of cream cashmere-swathed country living. We devoured magazines about Martha Stewart but created our own lifestyles, by choice and economic necessity

 

Our daughters, who are closer in age to thirty-two-year-old Natalie, might be entranced by the idea of living in Natalie’s remote Idaho farmhouse (Fresh eggs and raw milk! Kids romping through a wildflower meadow!), homeschooling their brood of gifted children and feeding them a wholesome diet of grains and root vegetables. Natalie’s lifestyle is meticulously portrayed on Instagram, with themed merchandise. You too can purchase organic cotton onesies and cloth diapers, and swaddle baby in a hand-woven blanket! All, it turns out, made in China.

 

Yesteryear is superbly written, though the characters are more caricatures than believable people. Natalie is the mother of six, probably suffering from postpartum depression. She is a narcissist: selfish, self-important, with a lack of empathy for her husband, children, and employees (two nannies and a social media content producer, plus the farmhands). Natalie’s relationship with her children is transactional—how can they enhance her Instagram image?

 

Natalie either time-travels or endures prolonged psychotic episodes, transported to the same Idaho farm where she lives, but in 1855. [With the exception of trading posts and a mission, Americans of European descent didn’t settle in Idaho until 1860.] In her imagined past, Natalie suffers in her unfamiliar environment—she’s cold, dirty, and unloved as she deals with the reality of the nineteenth-century pioneer lifestyle she embraces during her Instagram career. It’s an original twist on the tradwife trope, and Burke does it well.

 

The book is a jumble of past and present, with Natalie’s children and their nineteenth-century lookalikes, plus the additional children she bears after her Instagram career implodes. Natalie damages everything she touches: children, husband, employees, and farm animals. Ultimately, she pays the price.

 

Natalie considers herself a spiritual person, but it’s the automatic worship of a mumbled grace before dinner or morning prayers recited by habit, not conviction.

 

The last third of the book is a chaotic chain of events, past and present, and somewhat confusing.

 

Reviewers have labeled Yesteryear a thriller, black comedy, social satire, or a coming of age book. I would add, in the immortal words of the Rolling Stones, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and then term it women’s fiction.

 

Readers and writers, have you read about or encountered the trad wife movement?

 

Margaret S. Hamilton is the author of forty short stories and the first two books in the amateur sleuth Jericho Mysteries series.

 

Home - The Official Website of Margaret S. Hamilton

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Interview With Ashley-Ruth Bernier

by Grace Topping

 

The Bush Tea Murder

Food journalist Naomi Sinclair doesn’t expect a side of murder with her passion fruit juice. But when her return to Saint Thomas heralds a series of troubling cases, ranging from petty theft to cold-blooded murder, that threaten her tight-knit community, that is exactly the kind of unsavory treat she must sink her teeth into.

Luckily for her neighbors, Naomi is as adept at solving puzzles as rolling johnnycake dough—a good thing, since her island community, though small, keeps serving up plenty of trouble. With the help of her friends and her crush, Mateo, Naomi must navigate the tumultuous turquoise waters of life in the Caribbean, all as her beloved father battles an illness that keeps tugging her back to her island amid her rising career stateside.   www.amazon.com

 

 

Ashley-Ruth Bernier enjoys writing mysteries, but she especially loves introducing readers to the vibrant culture of her home in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her first novel, The Bush Tea Murder, was published this spring, and the setting was so well done that it could be considered another character in her book. It was a pleasure talking to Ashley-Ruth about her novel and short stories. The Bush Tea Murder is a delight to read, both for the mystery and her clever and humorous analogies.

 

 

Welcome to Writers Who Kill, Ashley-Ruth.

 

Your short story, “Six-Armed Robbery” won the Agatha Award recently for Best Short Story. What inspired you to write crime fiction?

I’ve ALWAYS wanted to write mysteries. I've been fascinated by the genre ever since I was a kid, watching Murder, She Wrote on the big TV in my grandmother’s living room or reading Encyclopedia Brown. I loved the fair play of a good whodunit because I got to look for clues as the story unfolded. It’s a genre that feels participatory like none other. 

I tried writing mysteries for years, but I could never get them quite right. There was something eluding me, and I couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. Then I wrote “Rise,” my first mystery short featuring Naomi Sinclair, and I realized what I’d been missing before. I’d been trying to write stories set in old manor houses or in big, flashy cities, because I thought that’s where such stories had to take place in order to be taken seriously. It wasn’t until I embraced the setting I knew most intimately—my home island, where I grew up and where my family had lived for generations—and put personalities and dynamics I understood on the page that my stories found success. I’m truly grateful that my stories have been embraced by readers and other authors.

 

Here’s another big part of my inspiration: I’ve spoken about this often, but I rarely saw sleuths who looked like me in books, TV shows, or other media when I was growing up. It’s important to me that readers see Black women having adventures, too—solving mysteries, analyzing clues, being the main character in stories, and saving the day.

 

You have published short stories in some prestigious magazines like Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, and Caribbean Writer. You also have stories in Malice Domestic’s Mystery Most Devious and Mystery Most Humorous anthologies. What motivated you to branch out and write a novel?

 

Well, I kind of took the middle road. The Bush Tea Murder is a hybrid—it’s what is referred to as a “novel-in-stories,” a large overarching mystery with six shorter mysteries embedded within, all of which lead toward the solution of the big puzzle. It started when I wrote “Rise”, a short story about a stolen johnnycake recipe, and before I finished the last lines of that story, I had ideas for several other short stories featuring Naomi, wild crimes, and Virgin Islands cuisine. I wrote eleven of them over the course of two years. My goal? To sell the work as a short story collection, one in which the stories were linked by a loose arc.

   

When my agent sold the collection, my editor at Crooked Lane asked me if I could take the linked stories a step further by writing a narrative that pulled them all together. It felt daunting at the time, but the more I wrote, the more I realized that I knew these characters and Naomi’s story well enough that the big story—the actual “bush tea murder”—wound up being very easy to write!

    

…that being said, I’ve also written traditionally plotted novels featuring Naomi and her adventures. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to share those with readers eventually.

   

What do you find more challenging to write—short stories or novels?

 

Novels, for sure. It’s tough to sustain a narrative over 90K words—and this is from someone who enjoys “writing long.” I think the hardest part of a novel is pacing. I’m very wordy, and it’s easy to think that there’s space to spread out and include details and extras because there’s a larger word economy. However, there are beats that readers expect, and the story still has to move along while including all of those beats, so there shouldn’t be as much “spreading out” as I’d like. Short stories are easier for me. I’ve written enough of them now that I understand exactly what I can do in the word budget I have—if I can include a subplot, an extra red herring, or a fun connection. 

Are all of your short stories set in the U.S. Virgin Islands? 

 

I would say about 90 percent of them are, and the ones that aren’t will always mention it somewhere or include a character from there. Some writers are fluent in several different languages. Writing about St. Thomas is like that for me. I feel “fluent” in including characters, settings, and dynamics from home. I’ve lived in North Carolina for over ten years now, and occasionally I’ll include settings that are familiar to me, like a story taking place in a school or classroom. But in terms of culture, I’ll always write about the one I know best.

   

Two years ago, I was invited to write a story for Michael Bracken’s Chop Shop series, which takes place in Dallas. Writing about a city I didn’t know very well was a fun challenge, and I learned a lot about the area through research and talking to other writers from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. My character in that story was originally from St. Thomas, though–I had to pull the VI in somehow. Hopefully, that story will be out in the world soon. 

 

The Bush Tea Murder features culinary journalist Naomi Sinclair. What is a culinary journalist? How does a culinary journalist differ from a food critic? Do all of your stories feature food or recipes?

 

Naomi is someone who examines food rather than evaluates it. She writes about the process, the history, the preparation, and the origin of dishes. She also interviews the chefs who prepare them.  I needed her to be more than just a critic for a few reasons. First, I needed her to be skilled and savvy with her interviews, since as a sleuth, she’d need to get clues and information from the people she speaks to. But more importantly, I needed her to think deeply and analytically about food so that I could make a deeper connection between the food, the crime, and the theme in her short mysteries. 

   

Not all my stories feature food or recipes, but many of them do. My short story, “A Li’l Something Extra,” which was published by Rock and a Hard Place as the July 2024 Stone’s Throw pick, was about a new bride who uses her husband’s love of food as a way to his heart…literally.

 

What is bush tea? Is it something that can only be found in the islands?

 

There are many herbs that are traditionally chosen for a cup of bush tea—balsam and lemongrass are two favorites in the Virgin Islands. Balsam is what many people refer to as sweet basil. My grandmother would send me outside to pick some leaves from her plants to make a big pot of bush tea on Sunday mornings. Some people will add some mint leaves as well. 

   

Personally, I like my balsam tea with brown sugar and a splash of milk from the can, like Naomi does. Other people can’t imagine adding milk to theirs. I think we can all agree it’s the perfect way to start your day, especially if you have some dumbread or a traditional VI breakfast to go along with it.

 

The Bush Tea Murder has been very well received, gaining acknowledgement for being so authentic. What do you think accounts for it being viewed as authentic?

  

It really means so much to me that it’s been so well received. It feels authentic because it is. I tried my best to use real settings, landmarks, and history where I could…and if I needed to make something up, I made it as familiar as possible. For example, Pereira’s Fruits and Produce isn’t a real produce store on-island, but readers from St. Thomas would likely think of Fruit Bowl, a real establishment, when reading “Strain,” the fifth short mystery in the book.     

When I first began to write the short stories that make up the bulk of the book, one early beta reader suggested I spend more time writing about the more spectacular parts of the island—beaches and vistas. I didn’t want to do that, though. While those are definitely lovely parts of the island to share, my goal was to invite readers into some of the real spaces in Naomi’s island life—porches, restaurants, and kitchens.

 

Does your large and vibrant family in the islands provide fodder for your stories? Have family members ever accused you of including them and their adventures in your works?

   

Ha ha. Nobody’s accused me of including them in my work yet, although I have a lot more stories to tell, and they have a LOT more reading to do. I frequently get asked which senator inspired slimy Lucky Simons in “Ripen,” though. 

 

You include recipes in your book. Are these tried and true family recipes?

 

They are definitely tried and true. The johnnycake recipe is the one I use without fail, but mine are different from others in my family, like my grandmother and my mother-in-law. My grandmother’s johnnycakes were thicker and more dense. My mother-in-law uses shortening in hers, which gives them a fantastic texture and taste. Mine are light and fluffy. I hope my kids eventually use my recipe, but if they find another that makes them feel happy and connected to our culinary canon, that’s fine, too.

 

I also include an ice cream recipe. I make a lot of ice cream with my ice cream machine at home, and I love being able to add purees of fruits I love. We have made mango, soursop, and guava ice cream.

 

With a family and a full-time job as a first-grade teacher, when do you find time to write?

 

Well, it was a lot easier before our sweet little surprise Quinn arrived this February. Our other kids are teens and tweens, and when they were old enough to play independently, I found it easier to make time for writing however I could manage it. I could write while they played at the pool, or during a baseball practice, or while I chaperoned band camp, or while waiting in the carpool line to pick up kids after play rehearsal. My husband is also very helpful, and a huge supporter of my writing life. 

Being a first grade teacher means that I get summers off, so that means a nice wide-open schedule for writing. Baby Quinn is still figuring out what a schedule is, though, so I have not been as productive as I usually am this time around.

 

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

 

Besides making time for writing wherever and whenever I can, I think the most valuable thing I’ve learned is the generous and welcoming nature of the mystery and crime writing community. Within Sisters in Crime, the Guppies chapter, Crime Writers of Color, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and especially my SinC critique group, I’ve made so many wonderful writer friends and have gotten to know some of the most talented authors around. I hope to be able to give back to the community that has given me so much.

 

What next for Naomi Sinclair?

 

I have so, so many more of her stories to share—some that I’ve already written, some that are currently being written, and some that are still waiting their turn in the queue in my head. I really hope to be able to share them all with readers over time. There’s no shortage of delicious Virgin Islands cuisine to write about, either. 

 

Thank you, Ashley-Ruth. You’ve made me yearn for a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

 

 

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

 

 

Let's Talk by KM Rockwood

Dialog in fiction is important. It gives the reader important information. It enhances character development. It sets tone. It can provide a touch of humor. It carries the story along in a natural, reader-friendly way.

In writing, every “rule” exists to achieve something specific. And yes—rules can be broken. But before one is broken, the writer needs to understand what the rule is meant to accomplish. Then decide whether that goal can be achieved using a different technique, or the rule just doesn’t apply here.

Not confusing your reader is rule number one. You don’t want a reader to have to stop to figure out who’s saying what. Or worse, to give up reading in frustration. That is usually handled with dialog tags—“I’m leaving,” she said—or beats—She stood and gathered her things. “I’m leaving.”

“Said” is supposedly invisible to the reader. It’s true that the eye tends to skim over it while the brain registers the meaning. It’s unobtrusive and can be used repeatedly to clarify who is talking without adding a lot of padding.

But it’s not entirely invisible. A long page of “Joan said…” followed by “Harry said…” over and over risks becoming a distraction to the reader. Those of us who struggle with writing for venues that list strict word counts hate to waste our valuable words on things like “said.”

Sometimes alternatives to “said” are nearly as invisible. “Asked,” “answered,” “replied” are examples.

And sometimes, despite the warnings not to make the tags hover noticeably in the background, more colorful or descriptive tags are appropriate. “Watch out for the alligator!” she screamed. Yes, the “screamed” is intrusive. It will probably register with the reader. It’s an urgent situation, and here it’s meant to be intrusive.

Dialog beats get around the constant use of “said.” They also provide context, display character tendencies, and can nudge the story along.

When there’s a great deal of information to be conveyed via dialog, the characters will often be seated at a dining table. Lots of opportunities for meaningful beats. The character slouched in a diner booth nervously shredding paper straw wrappers and lining the pieces up on the Formica tabletop presents a much different image than the character standing primly in an elegant private dining room, oyster fork poised in her fingers.

Characters can sip their champaign. They can gulp their beer. They can lick the salt off the rims of their margarita glasses. They can stir their tea. They can eye the contents of their red Solo cups suspiciously.

There are beats that display action, too. They are less conducive to conveying lots of information, but they can create tension and move the story along nicely. When a character perching on a wobbly ladder or crawling through a muddy tunnel says something, the reader gets a better picture than what just the dialog presents.

One-sided dialog can be startlingly effective. The presentation is oral, but Bob Newhart’s “No One Will Ever Play Baseball,” given over the phone, is pure genius.

Even the “don’t confuse the reader” rule can have exceptions. If the intended purpose is to create a chaotic scene, a hectic deluge of unattributed dialog can help. Although I have seen that done effectively, I have never been able to create that feeling. When I have tried, I just ended up confusing myself. So I can only imagine how a reader would react.

Real life dialog is full of “you-knows”, “uhs,’ and other hems and haws. Learning to speak without falling back on such meaningless interjections is one of the major goals of public speaking lessons, but most people fill their speech with them. The admonition writers get is to avoid them.

But they do have their place. Once again, consider the effective comedy skits. Carol

Burnett’s characters, with panicked eyes darting from side to side and a prolonged, “Umm…” can’t be totally recreated in writing, but a hesitant character sitting rigidly and also uttering a prolonged “Umm…” can give the reader real insight into both the character and the situation.

How long should a dialog passage be? The rule of thumb is that in exchanged dialog, one person seldom speaks for more than three sentences before the other participant responds.

Once again, there are exceptions. Lectures, rants, and giving instructions often go on for much longer than that. The point of the rule is to keep the story moving along. If a situation calls for a longer passage, that’s what should be there.

Some situations call for such longer passages. A Sovereign Citizen in court is like to start spouting a set statement about being a live person and the court not having jurisdiction. The judge may very well permit the defendant to have such a say (although in this situation, the author may revert to a “tell” vs. “show” by letting the character start the monolog but reverting to “He continued to rant semi-coherently for the next six minutes.) The judge who sits there quietly and thanks the defendant when she finally shuts up, the proceeds while ignoring all that was said, runs a different courtroom than the one who tries to answer the defendant’s concerns. Undoubtedly in vain.

Regionalisms and local terms can spice up the story, especially if the meaning is clear. Residents of some places may throw the door wide and invite visitors to “Come away in.” It is a regionalism, but most people will not have to stop to wonder what it means. Slang can be colorful, but it can date a story as surely as having a character hitch a yoke of oxen to a cart to go into town. The reader is quite aware that he is not headed for the center of modern-day Cincinnati.

Mark Twain aside, serious use of vernacular dialects may make a reader slog awkwardly through dialog. Some readers may have the patience, and even delight in the passages, but many readers will either skip the dialog or just skip the rest of the book.

Same goes for foreign phrases. Most people know what a pied de terre is but would be mystified by a reference to carne cruda all piemontese. If it’s easily understood, fine. Otherwise, proceed with caution.

Since some readers will abandon a story at the first sign of profanity or blasphemy, authors need to be aware of the reaction they may get when using such expletives. Or curses. Or even prayers. A college professor will speak differently than a long-haul truck driver, who in turn will speak differently than a homie from the ‘hood.

People tend to be more casual in their everyday speech than they are in more formal settings of their writing, and their dialog should reflect that. In fragments of sentence even. Most people use contractions unless they are making an effort to be very precise. Or are non-native speakers who have learned a very formal version of English.

Dialog should sound natural, not stilted. In most cases, just go ahead and say it, and it should be fine.

When Your Setting Starts Killing People, You Know You’re Doing Something Right

A Guest Post by Mindy Quigley

You may have heard writers describe moments when their characters take over the story. This has certainly happened to me. I’ll think I know which way a scene needs to go, only to have the folks on the page inform me they have other plans.

Something that gets less attention is what happens when a book’s setting starts taking over the plot. 

I certainly didn’t expect Geneva Bay, the charming Wisconsin lakeside resort where my books take place, to start murdering people. But—surprise!—it did just that. 

When I first pitched the Deep Dish Mysteries, I had no intention of setting the books in small-town Wisconsin. The books feature deep-dish pizza and a detective descended from Al Capone, so obviously they belonged in Chicago. I envisioned my fictional pizzeria in Hyde Park, where I could draw on the neighborhood’s fascinating history and the city’s unseemly connection with organized crime.

My publisher had other ideas. They loved the concept, but wanted it set in a small, tightly knit community—a place where readers could take a mental vacation. 

I tried to argue that Chicago is, in fact, a great place for a vacation, but finally relented, moving the whole shebang to “Geneva Bay,” a lightly-fictionalized version of Lake Geneva.

As it turned out, Lake Geneva had everything I needed. It’s a short drive from Chicago, and its history is deeply intertwined with the city. Wealthy Chicagoans flock there in the summer, and during Prohibition, the area served as a convenient booze-smuggling pitstop. Gangsters, including Al Capone, also reportedly used the area as a place to lie low when things got too hot in Chicago.

I soon realized that my publisher had done me a huge favor. The town wasn’t just a backdrop: as I got to know it, it became a murder-mystery-generating machine.

The early books’ plots were driven primarily by the characters. Take the first book. Main character Delilah O’Leary discovers her elderly aunt holding a literal smoking gun over the corpse of her seemingly beloved caregiver, upping the stakes. In the sequel, Delilah herself becomes a prime suspect after a murder takes place in a juice bar owned by her ex-fiancé’s new girlfriend. 

By the fourth book, though, Geneva Bay had started suggesting plot twists of its own.

Sleep in Heavenly Pizza takes place during the U.S. Snow Sculpting Invitational, a real event Lake Geneva hosts each winter. Huge mounds of snow are transformed into oversized artwork over the course of a few days. Watching the sculptors work, I began to wonder: What would happen if they carved back the snow only to unearth a corpse? 

I hadn’t simply found a fun place to hide a corpse (though it is fun!). The entire mystery grew out of the setting: the town’s winter attractions, its wealthy seasonal residents, its unpredictable weather. The murder couldn’t be uprooted and plunked down in another place. It became a wheredunnit. Only Geneva Bay could’ve pulled it off. 

By the time I started writing At Death’s Dough, the fifth Deep Dish Mystery, the setting was again at the top of my mind.

In this book, Delilah’s great-aunt, an enthusiastic ice fisher, takes her out onto the frozen lake, where—well, you can probably guess what happens next.

The gruesome discovery plunges Delilah into a mystery involving a real-life, century-old crime, the Capone family, and a trail of clues that may lead to a priceless treasure. All of those elements are unique to Lake Geneva/Geneva Bay.  

At Death’s Dough won the 2026 Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel, which was a particularly satisfying development for a book that began with the question, “How might this cute-as-a-button place kill someone (again) and why?”

At long last, the audiobook of At Death’s Dough is now available, narrated by the super talented Holly Adams. 

So if you’re fed up with the summer heat and looking for a book to transport you, I invite you to visit the frosty shores of a scenic Wisconsin lake. 

Just watch your step. Geneva Bay is a dangerous town.

 

Agatha Award-winning author Mindy Quigley writes twisty, character-driven crime fiction with a sharp, snappy sense of humor. Her Deep Dish Mysteries were a Woman’s World book club pick and have been featured in Parade and the Seattle Times.

Before turning to full-time fiction writing, Mindy spent more than a decade managing veterinary clinical research studies. That followed an unusual career path that took her from the U.S. to the U.K., where she studied British colonial history, worked as the personal assistant to the scientist who cloned Dolly the sheep, and project managed a neurology research clinic founded by J.K. Rowling.

She now lives in small-town Virginia with her Civil War historian husband and their children. For a lifelong dog owner, she spends an awful lot of time thinking about cats.