Nov 22, 2024 | #reviews
It’s been 12 years since I released THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY. On the eve of Mexico’s presidential elections, an attorney discovers collusion between the country’s powerful Minister of Public Security and a notorious drug cartel leader, making him a target hunted by both the cartel and his own government. Literary Fiction Review called it “Enthralling political drama.” it was longlisted for the 2020 Millennium Book Award.
Yet, agents said that no publisher wanted a book with all Mexican characters. I should make the heroine Luz de Maria a college student from the United States.
Related post: Worst writing advice ever.
Well, I’m glad to see that this attitude has gone by the wayside. ALL OUR WARS by US writer Stephanie Vasquez is a Mexican family drama pitted against pending presidential elections, very similar to HIDDEN LIGHT but with narco protagonists as in Jeanine Kitchel’s 2-volume WHEELS Up series about narco Layla Navarro.
If you like literary fiction with a deep dose of Mexican authenticity, ALL OUR WARS is a must-read.
Sofia De Luna left Mexico—and the mid-tier drug cartel run by her father—after her mother was murdered. More than a decade later, she is summoned home to Cuernavaca because her drug kingpin father is going to “retire.” As the family gathers, the unspoken question is who will inherit the mantle of jefe. Odds are that the old man will anoint one of Sofia’s two brother or two male cousins.
Instead, he points to her.
Sofia is reluctantly plunged into the role of cartel dealmaker. A presidential election is coming up, the cartels are fighting for territory and candidates want their support. One in particular is willing to strike a deal, knowing Sofia wans out of the business. The deal is being enabled by a partner in the drug business who was Sofia’s first true love as well as the man rumored to be responsible for her mother’s death.
At the same time, her cousins are tired of moving cocaine and are moving into the more lucrative human trafficking business, plus causing trouble by tweaking the nose of Mexico City law enforcement.
This is a heavily dialogue-driven story, with lots of enigmatic conversations. Everyone wants Sofia to make deals but the actual terms are opaque and it’s hard to know if that was a deliberate device by the author or not. Sofia is bound by family ties, a theme repeated over and over, basically keeping her from really doing anything until she finds out about the human smuggling and suddenly has something to trade.
The book would have moved more swiftly without the asides about her dead mother, although the flashbacks from that woman’s point of view are very well done. I assumed that the flashbacks would point to Sofia’s father as the mother’s killer, which would have freed Sophia to act more independently, but that was not the case.
Who is revealed to be the killer? Will Sophia break free of her family’s dirty business? Those are the questions that drive the book and come together in a riveting climax.
I devoured the book in two days. You will, too.
Find ALL OUR WARS on Amazon.
Nov 20, 2024 | #EmiliaCruz
Drum roll, please!
Graphic artist Matt Chase has created another signature piece of art for the next book in the Detective Emilia Cruz series, BARRACUDA BAY.
Cover Reveal
The background color was inspired by the cover for PACIFIC REAPER, which both Matt and I love, while ocean tones of blue and green evoke Acapulco Bay. The pop of red adds even more menace to the dark denizen of the deep.
This is the 10th cover Matt has created for the series, fitting it in around his work for major publications including The Washington Post and the New York Times Review of Books.
I hope you love it as much as I do.
Release date
In honor of my mother, who passed away late last month, BARRACUDA BAY will be released on her birthday, 20 February 2025.
She was a huge supporter of my second career as a mystery author. Even after dementia prevented her from reading, she kept a dog-eared copy of CLIFF DIVER in the storage compartment of her walker.
Shout Club
If you’d like to help get the word out about Detective Emilia Cruz’s return, after a nearly 2 year hiatus (while I wrote and published the Galliano Club historical fiction series) I’d love to have you aboard.
You’ll get an Advance Reader Copy of BARRACUDA BAY and a box full of Mexican-themed goodies. In return, be first to share reviews, list the book on Goodreads, and let social media friends know about the book. More to come but if you love books and would like to participate, please drop an email to carmen@carmenamato.net.
Nov 20, 2024 | #EmiliaCruz
Just another day in paradise, except for the dead police lieutenant in the bottom of a speedboat drifting in the still waters of Puerto Marques, the small bay-within-a-bay on the southeastern tip of Acapulco.
That’s really when the story gets rolling for Detective Emilia Cruz in CLIFF DIVER, the first book in the series. I had the opportunity to rewrite the whole shocking day in a blog post for the “Day in the Life” column on on Dru Ann Love’s popular drusbookmusing.com blog.
It’s called This is how it began…Just Another Day in Paradise. Find the post here: https://drusbookmusing.com/emilia-cruz/
As the narrator of the post, Emilia tells the tale of the fateful career-changing day herself.
Here’s a sample:
My partner Rico Portillo squinted up at me as he knelt by the body. “It’s the lieutenant all right,” he said. “This is gonna be bad.”
I knew what he meant.
Lieutenant Inocente was a dirty cop.
Two years ago, he had tried to prevent me from becoming the first female police detective in Acapulco and would have succeeded if Rico hadn’t agreed to partner with me. In retaliation, Rico and I were assigned to minor cases and administrative tasks. Bigger investigations were reserved for favored detectives who generated bribes and kickbacks and shared with the boss.
This is different, because Emilia is not the narrator of the books. From CLIFF DIVER to NARCO NOIR, and BARRACUDA BAY coming in 2025, you the reader experiences the action through Emilia’s deep point of view. That is, you are absorbing what she is thinking and feeling every step of the way, plus getting a dose of the environment that impacts her, from Acapulco’s beach resorts and deluxe hotels to poverty-stricken and gang-riddled streets far from the ocean.
What would you do if your boss suddenly turned up dead and you had to handle the situation? Could you figure out what it takes to survive as an honest (mostly) cop in today’s Mexico?
Here’s that link again: https://drusbookmusing.com/emilia-cruz/
Also, stay up to date with news about BARRACUDA BAY, Detective Emilia Cruz #9 when you join me on Substack: https://mysteryahead.substack.com.
Nov 3, 2024 | #authorlife
My mother passed in October at age 95.
Although she’d been declining for some time and dementia had robbed us of who she really was, the loss still hit like a hammer blow.
Many of my writer friends know that I wrote the Galliano Club series during the pandemic, using the project to get her talking about positive things during our nightly phone call. With some prompting she would tell me about growing up in Rome, NY, in the Italian section known as East Rome. Her recollections fueled the creation of the fictional city of Lido and the East Lido Italian neighborhood.
She was a huge supporter of my second career as a mystery author, arranging me to speak to a woman’s club she belonged to and invited everyone she knew when I was inducted into the Rome Arts Hall of Fame in 2019. Even after dementia prevented her from reading, she kept a dog-eared copy of CLIFF DIVER in the storage compartment of her walker.
It fell to me to write her obituary. It started this way:
Marietta Jean (Sestito) Booton of Rome, known to all as Jean, passed in her 96th year. She leaves an enduring legacy of personal strength, steadfast perseverance, loyal friendships, and love of family.
There are many things I could say about my mother. That she was terrible at telling jokes, hated fast food, always set her table with cloth napkins, was the Class Treasurer of the Rome Free Academy Class of ’46 and enabled class reunions for 70 years. A single mother of 4 at a time when few women were. A financial whiz, an accomplished pianist, a standard shift driver who once owned a Corvair.
She insisted that we all go to college and we did. Three of us have advanced degrees.
She was firmly anchored in her home town of Rome, but loved to travel. When I was in college in Paris, she spent several weeks with me. When my spring break rolled around we took a bus tour through Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. She kept a record of the trip, which has sadly disappeared.
I particularly recall getting off the bus in Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber, a picturesque medieval walled village in West Germany (before the wall came down). An outdoor beer garden was right in front of us, so of course we had to absorb culture—as in have a beer right there and then. Having slaked our thirst we found our hotel. My mother made a beeline for the closet housing the toilet. She came out two minutes later giggling hysterically.
Apparently, the cubicle had a wooden board over the plumbing, set into the wall in a frame. Drunk on a single beer, my mother thought it was a mirror and couldn’t figure out why she looked so plain.
We staggered around the hotel room together, laughing until we cried.
I’ve lost my mother, but oh, how lucky I am.
My mother jean, around age 18.
Jean getting ready for her wedding, age 21.
Jean and children circa 1963. I’m the youngest in red.
Oct 23, 2024 | #reviews
DEAD WATER is a deep dive into a British police investigation, set against the beautiful light and harsh seas of the Cornwall coast. First in Berrick Ford’s new Cornish Crime series, the compelling atmosphere and relatable characters make it a fast, page-turning read. In short, a great start to a new British mystery series.
Tamsyn Poldhu, whose Cornish last name translates to “Blackpool,” reports for her first day as a police officer trainee and is immediately plunged into a murder investigation. Robert Rego is a Detective Inspector who accepted a transfer from Manchester to Cornwall as a way to burnish his already significant career credentials but the urban cop immediately finds himself out of his element in the harbors around Penzance where fishermen still struggle to make a living from the sea.
The narrative moves easily between the two points of view, which offers a nice contrast between the wide-eyed Tamsyn doing her best in a new and highly-charged situation, and Rego who knows procedure inside and out. He’s also smarting from a run-in with an Albanian drug kingpin, basically the one that got away.
An unidentified body of a woman with her tongue cut out starts gets the story rolling. Who was she, where did the body come from, what resources does Rego have in his new job to track down a killer? Suspense and questionable relationships abound as her identity is pieced together.
I liked the pace of clues and progress on the case; nothing comes easy, just as it should in a good whodunit.
Tamsyn’s inner voice is the real driver of the book and we can’t help but walk in her shoes, especially in the riveting climax. By becoming a cop, she risks alienating friends and worrying her grandparents, the only family she has left. She’s learning on the job but circumstances have arranged themselves so that she’s drinking from a firehose and dealing with a new boss no one really knows.
The book is frontloaded with British police procedures and departmental acronyms, giving it an unquestioned authenticity. The momentum picks up after that and stays consistent, building to a strong climax.
By the time I finished the book, I was totally invested in Tamsyn’s police career and immediately downloaded the next in the series. DEAD MAN’S DIVE has such a great first chapter I can’t wait to jump into it!
If you like British mystery series, add the Cornish Crime thrillers to your TBR list now.
Get DEAD WATER on Amazon
P.S. if you have seen the television show Doc Martin, you can easily imagine the setting for DEAD WATER. If not, here’s a guide to locations in Cornwall. https://www.thegeographicalcure.com/post/doc-martin-filming-locations-in-cornwall-england
Oct 10, 2024 | #booknews
I’m thrilled to announce that Laurel & Croton has released a brand new edition of AWAKENING MACBETH, a suspenseful, page-turning paranormal romance novel. It’s available now in Kindle and paperback formats, with audiobook coming soon.
?? Paranormal romance ??
Yep, you read that right.
AWAKENING MACBETH stands alone among my contemporary mystery and historical fiction thriller books but it was inspired by my grandmother, the Claudette Colbert lookalike married to the deputy sheriff whose stories inspired the Galliano Club historical fiction thrillers. (Yes, I have a very inspirational family!)
When we granddaughters had children of our own, my grandmother cautioned us to always wake a child gently, never abruptly.
“The soul wanders while we sleep,” she said. “It needs time to come back to us before we’re fully awake.”
My older sisters dismissed her caution as a silly superstition. But for years I woke my children gently, even as I wondered why a soul would wander while we slept.
What are our souls looking for?
The obvious answer
I was walking through Edinburgh, that city of narrow streets and a thousand ghosts and a fabulous place to set a scene or two, when I finally answered my own question.
It’s love. Our souls are always searching for love.
But there’s a dangerous side to love. Lost love, unrequited love, and grief at the loss of a loved one all demand a reason why love–so ardently desired–has slipped out of our grasp. As a result, brokenhearted and grief-stricken souls wander in search of answers.
That restlessness takes place in dreams–limbo, really–where evil stalks in an unending quest for souls to steal.
That evil is revealed in the eyes, of course. We all know that the eyes are the windows of the soul.
But if evil steals a soul, what happens next?
Now for the paranormal romance trope
Here’s the recipe to answer that question:
Take one brilliant history professor recovering from her father’s shocking death.
Add an Iraq War vet who recognizes another survivor when he sees one.
Mix in a baffling inheritance.
Sprinkle with scenes from British history, which play out in terrifying nightmares.
Oh, and there’s a dog. Mouse has instincts which shouldn’t be ignored. (She’s based on our first German Shepherd, Rudi the Wonder Dog who lived with us in 5 different countries.)
The result? From Virginia’s most famous university to the Scottish highlands to a dusty road in Iraq, not even Shakespeare could have predicted the secret that AWAKENING MACBETH will reveal.
Grab your copy on Amazon today!
Oct 8, 2024 | #reviews
It’s the long-awaited next book in the mystery series set on Mexico’s Isla Mujeres on the Caribbean coast. TANGLED ISLA is full of island atmosphere, familiar characters, and the real places that have made the series such a fan favorite.
When last we saw her, Jessica Sanderson had left the island and followed vintner Mike Lyons back home to Canada. (There to star in Lock’s new Death in the Vineyard series.) But homesick for the dear friends she left on Isla Mujeres, she heads back for a visit without Mike or crime-sniffing pooch Sparky (Based on Lock’s own pup of the same name).
Of course, she promptly ends up at a crime scene.
A young American woman goes missing. She worked in the restaurant owned by Jessica’s close friends Yasmin and Carlos. At the same time, a folk parade is disrupted, a costume stolen, and the islander leading the event is assaulted. Later, the woman’s body is retrieved from the ocean. She was killed and cut in a peculiar way that harkens back to several unsolved murders in Florida.
In a clever turn of star characters, the central investigator in this Isla book isn’t Jessica but Diego, a charter boat captain. Jessica gets involved (sorry, no spoilers) but Diego does the legwork which puts him in a great position to be the main character in forthcoming Isla books.
As a native islander, his preeminence gives the books a subtly tougher vibe. He’s got more to lose when crime hits the island. Diego also has insider knowledge and leverage against the local cop who likes to drink and cut corners.
Loose ends are wrapped up at the end, but Lock has left me impatient to find out what’s ahead for the residents of Isla Mujeres. Will a new version of Jessica arrive and drive the next book? Will Diego continue to solve crimes while raising 4 kids and eking out a living as a charter boat captain (my vote)? Or will Yasmin and Carlos come to the fore as in previous books?
No matter where the Isla Mujeres series goes, I’m there!
Get TANGLED ISLA on Amazon
Sep 8, 2024 | #authorlife, #GallianoClub
A mystery author, a knitting pattern designer, a fiber arts store owner and a custom yarn maker all walk into a bar . . . The result is knitting, crochet and weaving kits inspired by the Galliano Club historical fiction thriller series!
Choose your craft and custom yarn color and join the club!
Elizabeth Kay Booth, a knitting pattern designer, is the creative force behind 3 kits based on the Galliano Club books for those who love to knit, crochet or weave. Each kit takes inspiration from a different Galliano Club book, with designs like a delicate cowl scarf and a cloche style hat to evoke the New York setting and 1920’s vibe of the book.
If you love to be part of a creative community, it doesn’t get much better than this!
There will be 3 kits released over the next 6 months. Each includes a Galliano Club book, a pattern and custom yarn to complete the project. Each kit also contains a special gift from me. Check out the Pinterest board here.
Anyone who buys a kit is invited to a series of online and in-person meetups starting in October to talk about the books and the knit/crochet/weaving projects. I’ll be there to chat about the books and Elizabeth will be on hand to answer questions about the pattern and help knitters and crocheters. You will also meet Juli Rathbun, indie yarn dyer of Maple and Barley Fiber Co. and Cynthia Rice, owner of Sunshine Weaving and Fiber Arts who is creating the weaving patterns and selling the kits.
Knitting test by knitwear pattern designer Elizabeth Boothe
Kit #1 is available for preorder now through 20 September from Sunshine Weaving and Fiber Arts.
Kit #1 contains:
- 2 paperback books (prequel ROAD TO THE GALLIANO CLUB, plus MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB, the award-winning first novel in the series)
- The project bag with 2 full-size skeins of custom-dyed yarn of your choice,
- Additional mini-skein,
- Stitch markers,
- Project pattern QR code,
- A surprise gift from the author (me).
Preorders for Kit #1 close 20 September. Given the time needed to stock books and custom dye the yarn, your kit will be shipped 3-4 weeks later, in time for the first meetup on 22 October 6:00-7:30 pm CST.
Here’s the link to order Kit #1 at Sunshine Weaving and Fiber Arts:
https://sunshineweaving.com/product/stitches-secrets-the-galliano-thriller-book-club/
To order, first choose the type of project:
Next, choose a custom yarn color:
- Mohawk River Winter, a pale silvery gray
- Luca’s Olive Groves, a mid-tone muted olive green
- Ruth’s Scarlet Scandal, a deep ruby red
The specially-dyed yarn colors evoke the setting and characters in the books. See all the colors for Kits 1-3 on this Pinterest board.
The sales page lets you toggle through the colors to see each one. Once you have made your project type and color choices, click the button to “Sign Up Today.” You’ll be directed to the checkout page.
Sales close 20 September so order now and mark your calendar for the kickoff on 22 October!
PS: Find Elizabeth’s other knitwear patterns on Ravelry.com.
Aug 17, 2024 | #authorlife, #friends
Summer is the season for author “cons.”
My hands down favorite is Killer Nashville, right in my (almost) back yard.
Killer Nashville
This annual author conference is a 4-day whirl of writing tradecraft seminars and networking opportunities. If you are going 22-25 August, please introduce yourself!
You can find the schedule here: https://www.killernashville.com/
This year, I’m co-teaching a Masterclass on “Presenting Yourself as a Professional Author,” with Lisa Wysocky and Ashley Hagen. It’s sponsored by the Dangerous Pen Society, an author fellowship focusing on networking activities, professional development, and promotional partnerships.
I’ll also be on panels talking about independent publishing, historical fiction, author websites, and creating compelling settings.
Written after the 2022 conference, here’s what I think makes Killer Nashville so special: https://carmenamato.net/killer-nashville-success-story/
Related post: An Excellent Bunch of Murderers
Bouchercon
Bouchercon is a conference for both writers and readers, geared to entertain and promote the mystery genre. This year Bouchercon is also in Nashville, 28 Aug – 1 Sept at the Gaylord Opryland Resort.
You can find out more here: https://www.bouchercon2024.com/
Catch me at the Speed Dating event on Thursday, teamed with Jim Nesbitt, author of the Ed Earl Burch hard-boiled series. We’ll be handing out book swag and meeting new readers.
Finally, I’ll be on two panels (Thursday, Thinking about a Life of Crime; and Sunday, Books that Inspired).
Hope to see you at a “con” soon!
Jul 29, 2024 | #authorlife, #GallianoClub
On 16 July, a tornado barreled through my hometown of Rome in upstate New York. With a population of around 32,000, Rome is near the geographical center of New York state. Summers there are known for humidity, marching bands, and Revolutionary War landmarks.
Not tornadoes.
The twister had peak winds of 135 mph and traveled more than 5 miles through the region. No one in Rome was killed, thankfully.
See an aerial view of the damage, courtesy of Yahoo News https://www.yahoo.com/news/tornado-hits-rome-york-damages-195227998.html
Roots in Rome
I grew up in Rome and was honored to be inducted into the city’s Arts Hall of Fame in 2019. https://www.romecapitol.com/hall-of-fame-directory/
Growing up next door to my grandparents, with my cousins a mile away, the city was a mostly Italian version of Bedford Falls, complete with snow and river. People worked “down ta mill” (as my grandfather would say) meaning the Revere Copper and Brass rolling mill, Rome Cable or Spargo Wire. Or they worked “down ta muck” as in Muck Road, where small truck farmers made a living growing vegetables and running dairy farms.
Inspo for the Galliano Club series
Inspired by my grandfather’s escapades while he was a deputy sheriff of Oneida Country in the 1920s, I used Rome, its mills and farms, and the Italian, Polish and Irish immigrants that grew the city to create the Galliano Club thriller books, which take place in 1926 during the height of Prohibition. Luca Lombardo runs the Galliano Club, a social hangout for Italian mill workers. Karol Dombrowski, a gentle Polish giant, works at the Lido Premium mill. Enzo Russo and Al Genovese have farms on Bell Road, a thinly disguised Muck Road. Chicago interloper Benny Rotolo wants to remake the Galliano Club into a speakeasy and rule his budding bootleg beer empire from it.
Of course, trouble–in the form of murder, blackmail, and revenge–ensues.
You can take a virtual tour of places mentioned in the books, courtesy of this From In Wood Out blog post: Travel Guide to the “Galliano Club Thrillers,” set in Upstate New York https://frominwoodout.com/travel-guide-galliano-club-thrillers-rome-new-york/
BTW, the name of the series is from the original Galliano Club which still stands today.
The original Galliano Club on Dominick Street in Rome NY. Photo by the author.
Tornado damage
Built in 1920, the Galliano Club building escaped the wrath of the July tornado, although so many other locations did not. Just a few blocks away, a newly reinvigorated economic zone anchored by the Capitol Theater was pummeled badly. A mural which I always thought was of Paul Revere, due to the Revere Copper and Brass Rolling Mill which employed scores of Romans–my grandfather included–but was of Revolutionary War hero Peter Gansevoort is gone; the building it was painted on too unstable to be saved. Windows blew out of the theater. Luckily the bookstore was able to salvage much of its stock.
St Mary’s Church in Rome after the tornado. Photo courtesy Elizabeth Martina
Two churches lost their steeples and roof sections. Trees crashed down at the Rome Art and Community Center, where we took our wedding photos. A roof peeled off a major grocery store. Cars were crushed by debris and falling buildings. Over 300 residences were damaged.
A state of emergency was declared. The National Guard rolled in. Governor Hochul came to inspect the damage.
John Clifford, a fellow member of the Rome Arts Hall of Fame, Class of 2019, took these photos of the widespread damage: https://www.romesentinel.com/multimedia/july-17-rome-ny-tornado-aftermath-nws/collection_57d90a3e-446a-11ef-ad39-5bdcf1c21a5f.html#1
More photos were taken by Nancy Ford https://www.romesentinel.com/multimedia/see-rome-begin-recovery-from-ef2-tornado-in-19-photos/collection_77aebef6-4485-11ef-a825-cb4803f354d9.html#1
The storm dampened my excitement over REVENGE AT THE GALLIANO CLUB being named a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award from Killer Nashville. MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB won the award last year.
Please share
The city is moving quickly to get back on its feet but the economy was not robust to begin with. Recovery will be a long process.
Please share this City Hall links so folks in the Rome area know what resources are available: https://romenewyork.com/rome-tornado-recovery/
Featured image snapshot courtesy of Yahoo News.
Jul 19, 2024 | #friends
I had the pleasure of meeting Liese Sherwood-Fabre when we were fellow panel members at a mystery author event organized by the Smith County Library in Wylie, Texas. After the event, we discovered that we have much in common, including having juggled work and family while living overseas in Mexico and Central America.
Although Liese was not in the intel world, our experiences were similar enough to create instant rapport and I wanted to know more. Plus, I wanted to learn how she came to write a new chapter in the Sherlock Holmes story.
Here’s what she told me.
CA: You live in Texas now but previously lived in Mexico and Honduras, both places where history, culture and crime collide. What did you love about living in each place? What didn’t you like? What did you learn there that was unexpected?
LSF: I actually visited both countries before we moved there. I studied at the National University in Mexico City (UNAM) one summer while an undergraduate. That’s how I met my husband. He was a blind date. We hit it off and corresponded (and visited when possible) for four years before we married. After graduate school, we moved to Washington, DC, and among other jobs, I worked for the US Census Bureau.
One of my assignments was to consult with the Honduran government about their upcoming census. I spent time working with government officials in reviewing their plans for the effort.
So, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect when we moved there. The people are extremely open and friendly. While there are pockets of wealth, many live at or below the poverty level. Such poverty leads to all sorts of crime, and being cautious was a part of life in both countries. To me, that is the saddest part of any developing country—the inequality of wealth, which leads to all sorts of other problems.
Perhaps the most unexpected of these consequences is the impact it has on the environment. Deforestation is a major problem in both (even 30-40 years ago). Rural farmers need land to grow food, wood for fuel and housing, etc. All this has supported the climate change we are now experiencing.
The hardest part is there are no easy answers, but if we don’t work on the problems, there are others that will fill the void—the drug cartels, socialists, etc.
CA: What did traveling to and living in different countries teach you about resiliency?
LSF: I have a PhD in Sociology and so I was aware of the concept of culture and its impact on beliefs and customs. I used to provide an orientation to exchange students when I lived in Mexico about how culture forms how we view the world. Things that we would never do or consider wrong in the US is normal and accepted in other places. Not getting hung up on that makes you less judgmental.
One example: Russians prefer odd numbers over even. Odd numbers are good luck. You don’t buy a dozen roses; you buy thirteen—what American would tell you to buy thirteen of anything (well, maybe a baker’s dozen, but otherwise…)?
Also you kiss a person three times on the cheek—not two. Knowing this is a cultural thing lets you say, “Ok. I need to work this way here.” And not “This is wrong.”
CA: What transferable skills from international travel and previous career experiences do you apply to your career as a mystery author?
LSF: I’ve learned to write when I get a chance.(CA: Harder than it sounds!) I started writing while in Mexico. After reading some short stories, I decided I could do one.
I’d wait until my kids were in bed and then write some before I went to bed. It took me weeks, and the rejection was almost immediate, but I was hooked. I started on a novel, finished that one, moved to Russia, and began a second one writing on a bus that carried me from a compound to the American embassy each day.
CA: You write Sherlock Holmes mysteries! How did you get started with Holmes?
LSF: I think most people know about Sherlock Holmes. The Robert Downey, Jr. films created a renewed interest a few years ago. I was on the treadmill one day (an easy place to let your mind wander) and thought about how Sherlock became Sherlock.
There is very little in the original stories about his past. This gave me an almost blank slate to work with.
I decided I wouldn’t make his father (obvious choice) his mentor, but his mother. I gave her a name (not even mentioned in the original works), a background (the niece of a famous French artist who was mentioned in the original stories), and a brilliant mind confined by Victorian conventions. Her sons (Mycroft and Sherlock) are her outlet for her limited life.
Related post: Sherlock Holmes and Friends
CA: If you could invite anyone to dinner, dead or alive, who would it be and what are you serving?
LSF: This question always stumps me because there are so many I’d love to learn from. Some might be too intimidating (Einstein, for example), and I’m not sure what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would think of my work.
I think, in the end, I’d like to have dinner with my parents. They have been gone a long time now, but I still miss them.
They also never had a chance to see any of my works published. My dad was a “meat and potatoes” guy, so I think that’s what we’d have. My mom liked coffee ice cream. That’d be dessert.
Thank you, Liese!
More about Liese: Liese Sherwood-Fabre has won awards for her thrillers, romance, and literary short stories, and NYT bestselling author Steve Berry describes her writing as “gimmick-free, old-fashioned storytelling.” https://liesesherwoodfabre.com/
You can preorder her newest book, MASTER OF THE ART OF DETECTION on Amazon here.
Jul 9, 2024 | #booknews
Today I’m sharing 9 books by friends of the Mystery Ahead newsletter (and 1 by yours truly) that are on Killer Nashville’s list of Top Ranked Books of 2023, as reviewed by judges for the Silver Falchion Award.
You can see the full list here: https://www.killernashville.com/2024-silver-falchion-award-top-picks
It goes without saying that the 10 below are all highly recommended!
Top Ranked Action Adventure
DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT by Jim Nesbitt
Hard living Texas PI tangles with Mexican cartel when he hunts for missing girl.
Find on Amazon: https://geni.us/doubt2023
Top Ranked Comedy
A CRAFTY COLLAGE OF CRIME by Lois Winston
Crafts editor Anastasia Pollack must solve a vineyard murder on her honeymoon.
Find on Amazon: https://geni.us/crafty2024
Top Ranked Western
RECKONING by Baron Birtcher
Small town sheriff in 1970’s Oregon uncovers greed, corruption and dirty cops.
Find on Amazon: https://geni.us/reck2023
Top Ranked Cozy
PUPPY LOVE by Mike Faricy
PI Dev Haskell hunts for valuable dog and her puppies with hilarious results.
Find on Amazon: https://geni.us/pup2024
Top Ranked Historical
REVENGE AT THE GALLIANO CLUB by Carmen Amato
In 1926, widow of a Chicago mobster is determined to find her sister’s killer.
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Top Ranked Historical
POSTER GIRL by Shelley Blanton-Stroud
During WWII, columnist discovers deadly opposition to female welders.
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Top Ranked Historical
ARSENIC AT ASCOT by Kelly Oliver
Downton Abbey meets Agatha Christie in this clever locked-room mystery.
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Top Ranked Investigator
REFLECTIONS IN A DRAGON’S EYE by Bradley Harper
Baltimore cops search for killer using dragon myth to hide crimes.
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Top Ranked Investigator
LETHAL BLUES by Randy Weir
A friend enlists Denver PI Jarvis Mann in the fight against the opioid crisis.
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Top Ranked Mainstream
STOLEN DIARY by Kathryn Lane
A child prodigy uncovers explosive family secrets.
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