An Interview with Krista Davis by E. B. Davis

  

Old Town Virginia’s entertaining guru and occasional sleuth Sophie Winston – a young Martha Stewart in the making – juggles Fourth of July fireworks, a houseful of guests, and homicide in the latest Domestic Diva culinary mystery from New York Times bestselling author Krista Davis.

With a big crowd descending on her Northern Virginia home, it’s a good thing event planner Sophie Winston is an expert at entertaining. Whipping up patriotic pastries is as easy as pie for her, though meeting the man her widowed Aunt Melly just impulsively married in Las Vegas is a little more awkward. Especially when Melly’s longtime, now-heartbroken secret admirer is there too, which could lead to some fireworks.

But the house party really gets explosive when Sophie’s favorite tour guide falls victim to a killer—and evidence points to Sophie’s own father. Will DNA really incriminate her dad? And what’s the real story with her new uncle-by-marriage and the mysterious pal he’s brought along with him? Some of the secrets Sophie’s discovering are raising flags—and while the police department casts suspicion on her father, she has to declare her independence as a detective to find the real culprit, and serve justice along with her red, white, and blue cupcakes . . .

Amazon.com

 

Krista Davis’s Domestic Diva mystery series never gets old for me. It’s more like coming home to friends and family. The Diva Hosts a Murderer is the nineteenth book in the series and was released yesterday. The story takes place over the Fourth of July in Old Town Alexandria. I was glad for the heat given off in the book since it’s been a cold spring, and it made me long for the warmer days of summer, soon to come, but not soon enough!

 

Second-chance romances versus the single life seem to be a topic that Krista explores for the middle and older characters in this book. It’s an interesting topic with no one answer as the characters find. And there are a lot of characters because Sophie is hosting her family: mother, father, sister, plus an aunt with her newly-wed husband and his friend, along with two men from Sophie’s hometown of Berryville, VA, where her family still lives. With that crowd, even a domestic diva can find being the perfect hostess problematic.

 

Please welcome Krista Davis back to WWK!                      E. B. Davis

When I started to read, I thought this was the first book in which you showed Sophie’s family. But over the years/books, you must have brought them into the story. Did you?

They were in the first two books and then occasionally showed up in holiday books.

 

Does Hannah, Sophie’s sister, still live with her parents in Berryville?

 

Hannah has been living in Berryville but not with her parents. She’s been in transition, spending a lot of time in Old Town, but not with Sophie!

 

Is Sophie being nosy by wanting Hannah to account for her whereabouts in the wee hours of the morning or is she just being an older sister?

 

Sophie lets her sister be an adult and do her own thing. But when someone comes home closer to the crack of dawn, and the bars closed at 2AM, it’s natural to wonder where she has been.

 

Sophie and Hannah don’t seem to have much in common. Is Sophie the extrovert and Hanna the introvert?

 

They just have different interests. Sophie loves entertaining, after all, she’s a professional event planner. But Hannah is a computer whiz.

 

Nina’s pathologist husband is usually off testifying somewhere. Although he doesn’t stay for long, he does make an appearance. Has he been in other books before?

 

He makes his sole appearance in this book! After all, it’s a holiday so he’s finally home for a few days.

 

Why does Officer Wong dismiss Sophie’s older neighbor Dollie’s account of seeing a dead man in her house?

 

Dollie has a record of calling the police to report sounds like creaking floors and footsteps in the night. But there’s never anyone there and no sign of a break-in, so the police think she has an active imagination. Her family has owned that house for generations, so there’s always the possibility of ghosts or just a creaky old house.

 

Are the Masonic Temple and the Apothecary Museum real and open to the public?

 

Yes, they are! Old Town Alexandria is often on lists of great places to visit. Good food, lovely old architecture, and loads of history. One of the popular restaurants was a hospital during the Civil War. And for history buffs, Alexandria found itself between the South and the North, so it was packed with spies!

 

Why did Natasha throw a 1820s costume party?

 

The 250^th celebration of the Declaration of Independence was coming up. Natasha was all in with a huge party. She asked guests to dress in the type of clothes people would have been wearing at the time. Even the menus were based on a typical dinner in the 1820s. Natasha always has a scheme in mind and this is another one of them.

 

What was the story about burying politicians in unmarked graves so their enemies wouldn’t find them and then the locations of the unmarked graves were lost?

 

The most notable story (true or false, it’s a fun legend) was about John C. Calhoun from Charleston, who was the Vice President of the United States twice. The story goes that he died in Washington DC and was buried there. But due to the Civil War, they feared his foes would disturb his grave, so in the dark of night they dug him up and moved him to an unmarked grave. His wife then asked that he be moved to Charleston, but apparently there was some confusion about which grave he was actually occupying at that point. Eventually, they dug him up again and moved him to Charleston. But he had been born upstate, not in Charleston, so he was buried across the street from the church, in the Stranger’s Graveyard for visitors and non-locals, not in the proper cemetery. Eventually, he was dug up again and finally moved to the St. Philip’s Episcopal Church cemetery.

 

It's a story that a lot of tour guides enjoy embellishing.

 

After her father is arrested for murder due to his DNA found on the victim, Sophie researches DNA evidence and finds that it may not be conclusive evidence since DNA could be spread by mere contact and not necessarily during the time of death. Since the victim was Sophie’s family’s tour guide, they were on his bus and in his proximity for several days. Would the police arrest him on just that evidence?

 

They did, based on the DNA. There is a difference between DNA from skin cells and DNA from blood, which yields a higher quantity and quality.

 

What is a Dunlap Broadside? Why do they call them that?

 

Remember that we’re talking about 1776 when there were no computers or copy machines that could copy papers in a minute. So a Philadelphia printer named John Dunlap churned out 200 copies overnight. They were the very first broadly distributed copies of the United States Declaration of Independence, now referred to as Dunlap Broadsides. Today, there are only 26 known copies still in existence. But every once in a while, one turns up in a basement or box of old papers. The last auction of one brought in $8.14 million.

 

What’s the difference among a buckle, crisp, cobbler, crumble, and a betty?

 

That’s a tough question. They are all baked desserts with fruit. According to the Farmer’s Almanac and St. Louis Magazine, these are the distinctions. https://bit.ly/42Iwc0H and https://bit.ly/4ulsGFG

 

A buckle has a streusel topping. The berries are folded into the batter.

A crisp usually has oats in it. Often confused with a crumble. It has a crumb topping and sometimes nuts.

 

A cobbler has a biscuit topping, sweetened fruit, and spices.

 

A crumble never contains oats, unless it does. Major confusion on this issue!

 

A Betty is like a crisp but has no oats. There are crumbs inside as well as on top in a buttery crumb topping.

 

Whew! Still confused? Me, too. LOL! They’re all delicious!

 

What’s next for Sophie?

 

Hmm. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, but a lot happens in the next book! Stay tuned!

Libby Klein's Gimme Shelter: A Review by E. B. Davis

  

For Vader, my emotional support puppy. And Tony, my emotional support human.

I’d thank the cat but she’s really just in it for herself.

                                                                        Libby Klein, Gimme Shelter, Dedication

 

As the song says, you can’t always get what you want. Maybe that’s why, instead of fulfilling her youthful dream of being a rock star, Layla Virtue is living in a trailer park while playing third-rate gigs, including a stint at a seventies ABBA brunch. Given everything else she’s been through lately, she’s not complaining (much) about satin ruffles and go-go boots. She has a squad of supportive new BFFs, and she’s reclaimed a relationship with her famous rocker dad. His recent diagnosis has brought them even closer—sharing the trailer park’s lake house, which he’s had remodeled in typically over-the-top style.

Layla’s dad loves his new community and the feeling seems mutual. So, why is one of them blackmailing him? It’s a mystery almost as baffling as the assignment Layla receives from her former commissioner. Look into the brutal murder of a mild-mannered school teacher. Archie Wilkins was bludgeoned with a candelabra, shot up with drugs, and stuffed into a church confessional. Not the kind of outcome expected for a guy reputed to be the world’s nicest.

Perhaps Archie had secrets. Perhaps everyone does, including Layla’s one-time cop colleagues. She’s been blaming herself for a deadly ambush that destroyed her career and her peace of mind, but as her new friends help Layla regain her memories, a different picture emerges, and it’s one that forces her to question so much that she’s taken as truth . . .

Amazon.com

 

There’s something about Libby Klein’s humor that just hits my funny bone. I laughed through most of Gimme Shelter starting with the above dedication. I was happy to see that Libby had started a new series, although I was also dismayed that I missed the first book, Vice and Virtue, which was released April, 2025.

 

In this book, the backstory and plot intersect for character-driven mystery resolution and provides the impetuous for the next book’s plot. Because Libby has two other subplots, those are solved, but while the character-driven main plot comes to a head, the truth isn’t fully revealed.

 

Libby’s main character, Layla Virtue, is the daughter of a rock star, a former police detective, and she is an alcoholic—like her father. In Gimme Shelter, we get the backstory of how Layla was thrown off the force when her sting operation ended in disaster, an explosion that ended the lives of her team. Layla wasn’t killed because she was dead drunk in a bar during what was supposed to be the takedown of a drug syndicate. She’s down on herself big time—and yet—what she thinks happened may not be the truth. Her posse of gals she met at Alcoholics Anonymous prod her to find out the truth. In addition, her old police commissioner asks her to get information about the murder of an elementary school teacher who seemed to be everyone’s friend.

 

In her personal life, rock-star Dad has dementia and has moved from Malibu to the Northern Virginia trailer park that he bought for Layla. He fixes up the one real house on the property by bringing in his CA designer. She turns the house into a fairy tale/Hobbit house. His dementia is coming on fast, which is worrisome to Layla. But the other man in her life, an ex-marine fresh from three tours in Afghanistan suffers from PTSD. They are attracted, but the time is not right for fresh starts. Not until each of them can slay their demons. Hopefully, they will help each other’s conquests.  

 

Layla is a strong character, and the secondary characters display a variety of human pitfalls that beleaguer mankind from dementia, alcoholism, PTSD, drug abuse, criminality, and the frailty of human relationships. I hope this series takes off. Libby’s writing is superb. 

 

 

An Interview with Susan Van Kirk by E. B. Davis

  

When Susan Van Kirk drove into little Monmouth, Illinois, in 1968—straight out of college, with her teaching degree in hand—she thought she was ready to teach English and speech to high school students. She didn't realize she would both teach and be taught by a town, a school, and the students who entered her life. A veteran of forty-four years of public high school and college teaching, Van Kirk will take you on a passionate and unforgettable journey through one teaching life. Meet her students and experience the events that molded a rookie teacher into a veteran. This montage of stories covers the years 1968 to 2008; they describe her early fears about classroom discipline, plots to overthrow "the rookie," handling drug overdoses, the devastating first student death, and a challenge to a major Kurt Vonnegut book in her classroom.

Mr. Vonnegut and Me (And Other Incredible Tales from a Teaching Life) is a second edition, and Van Kirk has added a new introduction plus updated material about where the students from the stories are now. These fifteen stories are incredible, inspiring, and filled with what makes us human.

Amazon.com

 

I’ve read all of Susan’s books, except Mr. Vonnegut And Me. Why? I guess I’m not much of a nonfiction reader, and that’s what surprised me. I started to read slowly and ended up being engrossed by her stories. For me, the times in which she taught were my history. Her first year of teaching was 1968, the year I entered 8^th grade, so when I got to high school, I might have had Mrs. Van Kirk as a teacher had I lived in Monmouth, IL.

Susan covers topics she dealt with while teaching: sexism, diversity, racism, classroom discipline, family backgrounds, pregnancy, politics, etc. We learn how much these affected her teaching and how they impacted her students.

 

This 2026 release allowed Susan to update her stories and follow her students after they left the high school, which I found very interesting, like seeing the before and after.

                                                                                                                                   E. B. Davis

 

Did retirement prompt you to reflect on your teaching, resulting in the book?  When was the book first published?

My memoir was first published as The Education of a Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks) in 2010. It was the first book I ever wrote, and the thought that I could write a book came about through a college professor and a college student. I was getting my master’s degree at University of Illinois, and I took a class called “reflective teaching.” The purpose was to reflect on how my values and beliefs affected the way I taught. The professor wrote on one of my papers, “You have a wonderful voice, and this story is incredible. Have you ever considered writing a book?” No, I hadn’t. Then, one of my college students said the same thing, only he was referring to an inspiring story I’d told about why teaching was an amazing profession. He suggested I write it so people who wanted to teach could read it. I did. And a magazine picked it up immediately and published it. I thought to myself, “I’ve taught for four decades and I could write a memoir that might explain what it’s like to teach.” I chose fifteen stories that were funny, sad, poignant, and thought-provoking. That became this book.

 

Is Monmouth, IL, the prototype of Endurance, the town in your first series? Why is it called “The Maple City?”

 People do, indeed, see aspects of both Monmouth and my home town, Galesburg, in my Endurance series. History is ubiquitous here. The Underground Railroad, a Lincoln-Douglas debate, Beecher Chapel (named for the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe), the birthplace of Wyatt Earp, and the extradition hearing of the Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, were all parts of our area history. My Endurance series has a lot of Midwest history as part of the setting. Monmouth is called the Maple City because it was founded in 1831, and maple trees lined the streets of the town. Western Stoneware, our internationally-known pottery company, used a maple leaf in its logo.

 

Did your kids have trouble due to your teaching at their school? How about grading their papers?

 I taught my three children two years in a row. Fortunately, they were excellent students. We had a deal. If they had problems or concerns with other teachers, they solved those problems themselves. If they heard rumors or gossip, they didn’t tell me. They did their own homework, and I imagine they occasionally heard thoughts about me from other students in my classes. But overall, those were smooth years. It was more difficult having the children of my friends.

 

In deciding which stories to include in the book, you asked yourself which students changed your teaching and you. How do you think you changed your students, such as John Critser?

This is a long answer! John’s story, “War and Remembrance,” was the first one I wrote that was published by Teacher Magazine. It illustrates the theme of the book: the profession of teaching puts you in a position to change students’ lives, hopefully for the better. John and I had a conversation after school that I didn’t remember until twenty years later when he told me about it at a reunion. He was a junior in high school trying to decide what to do about enlisting during the Vietnam War years. He would have a number in the draft lottery, and he was having moral concerns about killing people. On the other hand, he felt he should do his duty to his country. He stopped in to see me after school on a day when I’d received a telegram that a close friend from college had been killed in that war. I was not the usual “Ms. Van Kirk” who stayed as neutral as possible in class discussions about current affairs. (I’d always encouraged my students to think for themselves and back up their beliefs with logical arguments and evidence.) But that day after school, I was a mess. I didn’t remember, years later, our conversation. But he did. And more than that, he remembered how that death affected me. The next year, he made a decision to go to college, hope not to have his number called, and if it were, to become a conscientious objector. As it turned out, his number was not called before the war ended, and he went on to become a world-renowned research scientist, and, unlike me, remembered that conversation with his weeping teacher. He told me at his twentieth reunion that but for our conversation he might have enlisted, died in that war and never married, had children, or done life-saving research. For many years, we met for coffee when he came back to visit his mother. From him I learned that sometimes you change your students’ lives by tears rather than by Shakespeare.

What quality drew the troubled girls to you? Did they see you as a strong single mother or as a teacher they could trust?

Both of these girls, names changed, came to my house to talk to me over Christmas break. They had some serious problems and felt they couldn’t talk with their parents about them. One had recently discovered she was pregnant, and the other stated she was being abused by a foster parent. At the time, I was going through a divorce, and they’d silently watched as I’d lost weight, been preoccupied, and seemed sad. I think they believed I’d understand their very serious problems. I imagine they saw me as trustworthy and someone juggling a lot in my life. Their stories illustrate yet another moral dilemma. As a teacher, I couldn’t tell them what to do. I was legally required by the abuse situation to turn it in to child protective services. I did. The other was a situation where it was up to the student and her parents to make a decision about her pregnancy. I convinced her to talk with her parents, and we used role-playing to decide how she’d do this. Their stories illustrate some of the moral dilemmas teachers face when dealing with teenagers.

 

Trying to maintain discipline in the classroom led to nightmares for you. Did this problem get better with time and experience?

Absolutely it did. When you see my photo on the book cover, I was twenty-two. It was my second year of teaching, and my students were 17 or 18. Maintaining discipline was a real learning curve. Eventually, I was able to balance a sense of humor with definite rules and outcomes. I was never a friend to my students. I respected them, and I would say they respected me. Over the years, I learned that balance. This is why people are a much better teachers as time goes by. Experience really makes a difference.

 

Was your personal life affected by the expectation of professional behavior and decorum outside of school? 

It definitely was in a small town, especially when I first started teaching. I couldn’t walk into a bar, and if I went out to a restaurant with friends and had a drink, it was all right. But if students were working there, they might see me, and it would be discussed with their friends. Because I was married, I didn’t have to worry about the dating game and students talking. But teachers back then were held to a higher standard. There was a moral turpitude clause in our contracts, and being picked up for a DUI would definitely end a career.

 

When one set of parents tried to censor the reading of Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, I wondered about their daughter. You didn’t influence her selection of the book. You allowed her to pick another book. You never knew how she felt about the book. Do you know what happened to her?

No, I don’t. Her parents still live in town, and I see them occasionally. Their daughter left town and has a life somewhere. I believe she got caught up in that situation and possibly lied, telling her parents she was required to read the book for my class. She wasn’t. I’m certainly not naïve enough to believe teenagers always tell the truth when they might get into trouble. It was a book she selected. But the parents really blew it all up and went to the principal, superintendent, the media, the school board, and didn’t talk to me. I would have given her a different book. But it was way-out crazy by the time it all ended after six weeks. And one of my children was in the class, so she was his friend. Now that was a difficult line to manage. It was a textbook case of a book challenge.

How did you connect to those featured students to find out how they led their lives?

I knew a student in town who knew “where all the bodies were.” I found many of them via social media, but if I couldn’t, she helped me find some of them. A few had kept in touch with me. One had passed away last year, and that was a blow. I knew the city where he lived and came upon his obituary. Mostly, the internet was very helpful. I don’t always say that! It was amazing to reconnect with them and hear how their lives had gone. They are doing incredible things, and they came from such a tiny town. Midwesterners from small towns are often known for their kindness. They sure showed me that continued to be true.

 

Why is it that some people determine their futures and others drift without direction? Is it family background, talent, or personality?

Good grief, Elaine. If I knew the answer to this question, I’d bottle it and make millions. It’s a combination of all of those things plus a bit of luck along the way. One of my children went to college not knowing what he wanted to do. He thought about teaching, but I knew that wasn’t for him. He drifted in that direction. But finally, through classes and reflection, he ended up in a job that was perfect for his personality. In his case, college exposed him to a lot of possibilities, and he was open to testing it all out. So, sure, it’s those items you listed. But never discount luck. I often enjoy going back to reunions of my former students because I enjoy hearing what happened to them after school.

 

Would you change anything in your career and/or student interactions if you could?

I was very fortunate. I could usually find positive qualities in most of the students I taught. Teaching was the perfect vocation for me. I wish I could have gone back to graduate school before I had a family. But in those days, the social pressure was to marry and have children. And once I became a single mother, going back to school was impossible. On the other hand, graduate school after all that experience made my understanding of education discussions richer. So, who knows? I wouldn’t exchange those years for anything.

An Interview with Heather Weidner by E. B. Davis

 

The Pearly Girls return to solve a high school reunion murder in this sequel to Murder Strikes a Chord.

 

Event planner Cassidy Jamison and her not-so-helpful sexagenarian staff of Roxie, Kate, Aileen, and Ruthanne are up to their elbows with a high school reunion committee’s constantly changing requirements for an event that must be the most elaborate and memorable at all costs.

 

When well-known reporter, Darcy Branch, and former cheerleader, Brittany Mahoney, are found dead on her property, Cassidy and the gang have to find the killer before the party’s over. And the more Cassidy and her Chihuahua mix, Elvis, dig for clues, the more deadly secrets they uncover—including one that changes everything she knows about her family’s history.

The Pearly Girls need to solve the case before the Class of 2009 goes down in Ivy Springs history as the deadliest reunion.

Amazon.com

 

Yesterday, the second book in the Pearly Girls mystery series, Murder Plays Second Fiddle, was released. I interviewed Heather Weidner about the first book, Murder Strikes a Chord, which can be found here.

 

The books are set near Southwest of Staunton, VA in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The main character, Cassidy Jamison, owns property that she has turned into a venue for various activities, such as concerts, parties, and, as is the case in the second book, reunions.

 

Unfortunately, she seems to be a magnet for murder, or at least her venue is. Fortunately, she has her late grandmother’s childhood friends to help her run the business and investigate cases. Although the Pearly Girls are her grandmother’s age, they aren’t exactly grandmotherly—more rabble rousers—and they can’t help but play matchmaker since Cassidy is single.

 

                                                                                                E. B. Davis

 

Is the Blue Ridge area in Virginia increasingly popular with tourists? Do they crowd the roads during leaf season?

 

It is. The Blue Ridge Mountains are such a gorgeous vista in autumn. The area gets really crowded during peak leaf season, and a lot of the roads are in rural areas are quite narrow.

 

Cassidy inherited the property from her grandmother. What happened to Cassidy’s parents?

 

Cassidy’s parents died in a car accident when she was in elementary school, and she went to live with her grandparents in Ivy Springs.

 

How did Cassidy get enough experience to be an event planner and know how to run a business?

 

She has a background in marketing, and she watched and helped her grandmother over the years. But after a little while, she realized it was a bigger job than she had imagined.

 

For a time, her grandparents ran a country western bar or honky-tonk on the property that popular musicians would visit since before Interstate 81, the road in front was the main one used to get to Nashville. Was the bar in the cave, which now stands empty, or was there a different structure and they saved the cave for illegal moonshine storage back in the day?

 

The honky-tonk had been in the family for several generations. Her great-grandfather built it, and her grandfather ran it during its heyday. Ivy Springs is on the I-81 corridor which used to be the main route to Nashville, and a lot of entertainers used it in their travels. The cave is just a feature on the property, and Cassidy is trying to find a way to incorporate it. Her family also had an illegal moonshine business going during Prohibition, and they used the cave and the root cellar in the barn to store the alcohol.

 

The honky-tonk burned down in a lightning storm. The charred remains are still on the property.

 

Were the Pearly Girls younger than Cassidy’s grandmother? They described going to the honky-tonk, but they were very young and hid their presence from their parents. Whereas, Cassidy’s grandmother must have been a co-owner if her husband ran the bar. Am I confused?

 

Cassidy’s family owned the honky-tonk that was a popular music venue. The Pearly Girls were younger when Cassidy’s great-grandfather owned it, and then her grandfather took it over when he married Cassidy’s grandmother.

 

Is there a culture of crafted moonshine up in those hills today that actually is sanctioned via taxes, by the state or is the illegal kind still prevalent?

 

There is a long-standing culture of moonshine in Virginia. Some of it now is legal. Some not. I invited an Alcohol Bureau and Control Board investigator to speak to our Sisters in Crime group a few years ago, and it was amazing how much illegal enforcement they still do. When my husband and I moved to Central Virginia (which is about an hour from the mountains), our county police officers had green uniforms. I asked someone once why there were so many park rangers in the county. It turned out that back in the 1920s the local police worked with the moonshine investigators, and they chose green to be more camouflaged in the woods. They have since changed to black uniforms.

 

Britt, former homecoming queen, and current influencer, is the head of the reunion committee. Why is she trying to get publicity from a journalist and in her online presence with a reunion? Aren’t reunions only of interest to those participating?

 

Britt loves to be adored and the center of attention. She has to have the biggest and the best, and she’s determined to make the reunion the most memorable in the town’s history. And she plans to take advantage of hobnobbing with the school’s famous alumnus to try to get herself some publicity.

 

Britt characterizes the reunion as a “mega-reunion.” Is that a term much like “supermodel?” Or was Britt organizing a multiple-class reunion?

 

Britt loves to exaggerate everything. Whatever she’s talking about, it’s bigger, better, or more fantastic than anyone has ever seen. And she will step on anyone who gets in her way.

 

One of the activities planned for the reunion is goat yoga. Have you or anyone you know ever experienced goat yoga? Couldn’t their hooves cause injury?

 

I have never tried it, but it’s on my bucket list. From the videos I’ve watched, it looks like not much yoga gets done in the play session. A goat yoga session just sounded like some over-the-top event that Britt would have to have.

 

Are CBDs and gummies legal in Virginia?

 

Some are. Most are sold in convenience or vaping shops. I listen to a great podcast, “Pick Your Poison,” and Dr. JP talked about gas station herbals. It was frightening to hear about how deadly some of these items are.

 

Cassidy finds that what she thought was the history of the honky-tonk wasn’t exactly the truth. Why were the Pearly Girls so reluctant to talk about the bar’s history? Their reluctance gives Cassidy the wrong impression.

 

Her grandfather fell ill with cancer and closed the honky-tonk during this time, and he eventually passed as a result of the disease. In all of the commotion, priorities shifted, and the honky-tonk took a backseat. Most of the players had forgotten that some of the secrets were preserved, and it was a surprise for Cassidy and the Pearly Girls.

 

Is knit bombing a thing?

 

It is. People decorate poles, posts, and statues. I’ve seen several here in Richmond, Virginia.

 

Cassidy has bought a new red jeep. What is the “Duck, Duck, Jeep” thing all about? Do you know how it started and why?

 

Cassidy loves her rugged Wrangler. And yes, Duck, Duck, Jeep is a thing. You’ll see Jeeps driving around with a row of rubber ducks on the dashboard. The internet gives the Canadians credit for starting the trend as a way to boost morale during the pandemic. I have friends with quite the duckie collections.

 

For a time in the book, Cassidy has two handsome and eligible guys around her, a bartender-Austin, and the Deputy Sheriff-Zac. But she then realizes that Austin must remain a friend. Why?

 

She likes the attention of both handsome guys. Zac has something that excites and frustrates Cassidy at the same time, and she’s drawn to him. She often mistakes his warnings for her protection as a scolding. Austin is adorable, but he is a hopeless flirt, and she just doesn’t get the vibe that he’s long-term boyfriend material. But Austin does play a big role in the resort’s new venue.

 

Are the Pearly Girls making up the attraction Zac has for Cassidy or does she miss his tells, which is out of character for her?

 

I think down deep she sees the attraction, but she is so focused on the murders that she mistakes his warnings for her safety as scoldings. She is a bright, independent woman who doesn’t like being told what to do, and I think that clouds her judgement sometimes.

 

What’s next for Cassidy and her dog, Elvis?

 

In book three, Murder Whets Its Whistle, Cassidy and the Pearly Girls welcome the Sip, Sip Hoorah festival on her property. Local vintners, distillers, and brewers gather for their organizational meetings and to showcase their wares to the public. All is rosy until one of the marketing specialists is found dead in a wine barrel.

 

 

An Interview with James M. Jackson By E. B. Davis

 

When your name is a lie, every truth can kill.

Three months after cutting a secret deal with the FBI's Deputy Director, ex-Special Agent Ashley Prescott gets her first off-the-books assignment: go back undercover as Niki and infiltrate Greenwar, a radical eco-cell executing executives of America's biggest polluters. Her way in? A dangerous cover as special assistant to the head of a powerhouse D.C. energy lobby. Access that could expose buried studies and dirty money—and paint a target on her back.

The assignment is already a death trap. But her real nightmare? The FBI surveillance team tracking her every move. Her former boss wants her silenced, buried, gone—and he's sent agents to make it happen. Now Niki is racing against two countdowns: Greenwar's next kill and the federal raid that will blow her cover wide open. One mistake, one moment of exposure, and she loses everything—her freedom, her mission, and the only life she wants.

The terrorists want justice. The agents who destroyed her career want her gone for good. And Niki? She just wants to survive long enough to take them all down.

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Niki Unleashed is the second novel in James M. Jackson’s Niki Undercover Thriller series featuring Ashley Pendergast Prescott, a federal agent, who undercover goes by the name Niki. She goes undercover for a special assignment for the FBI’s Deputy Director Ambrose, an assignment he created because he’s trying to protect a friend of his.

 

The assignment is to find the killer of the CEOs targeted by the environmental extremist organization Greenwar, and to do so she must infiltrate the splinter group. While trying to balance her personal problems with her family and its corporation and working undercover, Niki also finds that her old boss, Gex, is gunning for her.

 

As usual, Jim’s knowledge of technology keeps readers fascinated!                                                                                        E. B. Davis

 

When, after months of not hearing from Ambrose about an assignment, she meets him at a Nationals’ game where he creates a breach of security from the onset. Niki tells him about his breach and coaches him on undercover protocols. Why does Niki have to do so? Isn’t he well versed in FBI undercover procedures?

 

Thanks so much for another wonderful interview, E.B.

 

Ambrose is the #2 person at the FBI and is not versed in day-to-day operational details regarding undercover operations. Because Niki’s assignments are sub rosa, he can’t use Bureau resources who understand the complexity of successful undercover work.

 

Did you interview FBI and U.S. Marshals Service personnel to research this book?

 

In addition to reading books, articles, and training manuals, one of my past neighbors was a retired FBI Special Agent who worked many undercover assignments (mostly financial crimes). Besides taking me to a range to teach me how to shoot a pistol, we talked about his work. Everything I know about the US Marshals Service came from books or my imagination.

 

After spending years undercover infiltrating militia groups, Niki tells Ambrose her cover can’t be blown or her previous work will be for naught when she accepts the assignment of protecting the CEO, Jim Ford—an old friend of Ambrose’s, of American Hydrocarbons Institute from being targeted for assassination by the environmental extremists of Greenwar. How really can Ambrose ensure that Niki’s cover won’t be blown?

 

Blown-cover risk is something undercover agents fear because it endangers their lives. No one can guarantee a cover won’t be unmasked, but through meticulous backstory preparation, agents minimize the risk. Despite whatever Ambrose may claim, he can guarantee nothing.

 

To infiltrate Greenwar, Niki must ask Jim Ford to give her proof of environmental violations so she has the fodder Greenwar is looking to expose. This puts Jim Ford in the awkward position of trying to protect his life but by doing so compromising the integrity of the very organization he heads. Is it any wonder Ford only helps but so much?

 

How much is pride worth to you? Is it worth dying for? Not to me, but the rich, like Ford, have a different calculus and think they can escape paying a price for their misdeeds.

 

The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Bureau (ATF) has an undercover agent already in place at Greenwar. If they are after the same thing, why duplicate efforts?

 

As Ambrose explains it, they aren’t after the same thing. The ATF tasked Mike, their undercover agent, to discover who in Greenwar is using explosives and where they are getting them from. Ambrose and the FBI are trying to find whoever is killing the executives and stop that person before they strike again.

 

If Niki is now with the U.S. Marshals Service, doesn’t she have a boss she needs to report to?

 

She would, except the Marshals Service is unaware she’s a badge-carrying member of their organization. They don’t find that out until Hijacked Legacy (Seamus McCree #8). [Although published earlier, that novel occurs chronologically two years later.]

 

Since Greenwar is a midwestern group, Ashley decides to stay at her father’s house, which now belongs to her sister Tabitha, who allows their brother’s destitute family to live at the house. Ashley meets her nieces and a nephew, Jacob, who loves baseball. Since Ashley was a college softball star at UCLA, she takes a shine to Jacob, who is going through hard times since his father’s suicide and bankruptcy. Why is Ashley so drawn to Jacob?

 

In the beginning, guilt played a role: Ashley blames herself for Jacob’s father’s death, which brought on the financial hardship. It starts as an athlete-to-athlete connection, but grows deeper. Jacob needs a protector and a mentor, and Ashley steps into those roles—only later realizing the relationship has given her an impetus for personal growth.

 

Ashley and Seamus McCree have become lovers and partners especially when dealing with her family’s corporation, but he also helps with the logistics of her undercover assignments. Why wouldn’t Ashley read Seamus’s emails?

 

The emails relate to the Pendergast family business, of which Ashley wishes she had no part—but that’s not her fate. Given the choice of doing Pendergast business or almost anything else, she avoids the business. It’s not one of her strong points. Seamus’s emails are about business, so when she’s the least bit busy, she ignores them until they become critical—which, given we’re talking about a thriller, they do.

 

What are beta blockers that Ashley takes when she gets stress headaches? Is that like Prozac? Why does it help headaches?

 

Beta blockers are drugs that slow heart rate by blocking the effects of stress hormones, like adrenaline. Doctors sometimes prescribe them to reduce the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as a racing heart, shaking hands, and excessive sweating. Performers with anxiety often use beta blockers, as do people, like Niki, who have a fear of flying. In Ashley’s case, the beta blockers allow her shoulder and neck muscles to remain loose, and she doesn’t get tension headaches.

 

Does a water belt have a long straw so she can sip water when she runs?

 

Niki’s water belt carries two water bottles.

 

When Niki realizes that her old boss Gex is out to get her, she contacts Patrick McCree, Seamus’s son and technology expert, to make sure she has a way for Seamus, Rick, and her to communicate securely. Patrick recommends an online secure site where they can text only since there is technology that can conjure voices from vibrations on windows and ripples in water glasses. Is that a real thing? What’s it called?

 

It's a real thing that spy agencies have been using for years. They use laser microphones to detect the vibrations and sophisticated software to convert the vibrations into sound.

 

What was the Silk Road takedown? What is Tor?

 

Tor (The Onion Router) is software that provides online anonymity through encryption and hiding where the data is coming from. Ross Ulbricht founded Silk Road in 2011 as a darknet market that used Tor and bitcoin to hide transactions (the vast majority illegal—narcotics and other illegal products and services). The FBI cracked the network in 2013. Two years later, Ulbrick was convicted on multiple charges and given two life sentences without the possibility of parole. President Trump pardoned Ulbricht in January 2025.

 

Along with FBI Deputy Director Ambrose, Niki’s other boss is the Assistant Director of National Intelligence Park. Is that part of the NSA? Does he have access to FBI intel?

 

The Director of National Intelligence oversees many U.S. intelligence programs, including the National Security Agency (NSA). That includes FBI intelligence. Park, as an assistant director, would also have that access.

 

Is OnX some sort of GPS program?

 

OnX is a GPS-mapping app that combines GPS location and tracking with accurate land ownership maps. It’s used by hunters, hikers, off-road enthusiasts, and me.

 

What’s the difference between Cell Site Location Information (CSLI) and GPS?

 

GPS uses satellites to pinpoint a location. Every time a cell phone connects to a cell tower, it generates data (CSLI), which includes which cell tower, and the time and duration of the connection. CSLI is not as precise as GPS, but is still very useful in law-enforcement suspect analysis.

 

What is water poisoning that occurs during rehydration?

 

When a dehydrated person drinks too much water without added electrolytes, it screws up the mineral balance of their blood, particularly regarding sodium. In severe cases, it can cause confusion, seizures, coma, and death.

 

Ashley worries that her ideals are greater than her loyalty to the people who sacrifice for her, like McCree. Why does she think that about herself?

 

Ashley is an extremely competent woman who has focused almost exclusively on doing her job as best she can. Like many people focused on work, she has compromised other aspects of her life. In her undercover assignments, she’s dealt with many individuals who, while motivated to correct what they perceive as wrongs against society, have changed from principled do-gooders to become judge, jury, and executioner. She hasn’t gone that far, but she’s crossed some lines, and it makes her wonder if she’s abusing her relationships to bring “justice” to those who need it.

 

What’s next and when?

 

Niki Undercover and Niki Unleashed took place in 2000. Two books in the Seamus McCree series, Granite Oath and Hijacked Legacy, occur in 2002. The third book in the Niki Undercover Thriller series takes place in 2025-6. She’s still working undercover, but a lot has changed since Niki Unleashed: in her life, in Seamus’s life (as Seamus McCree series readers know), and—as readers will learn—to Ambrose and Park. But bad actors are still threatening the government, and Niki faces her largest challenge ever to save the country, or (as they say) die trying.