August 2023 – Page 3 – Ladies of Mystery

My interest in mysteries may stem from my sister’s attempt on my life when I was young, re-enacted in this photo by my father some time later. Knowing my father, he probably did ten takes of this before he got one he was satisfied with.

I have a series put out by Silverleaf Publishing which has co-protagonists Sean O’Conner a retired boxer and his friend- then business partner then wife, Cindy Matasar, FBI trained private investigator. By book five, “Down for the Count” they are engaged and running their own private investigative service, Sean providing the money and muscle, Cindy the expertise.

The plot for “Down for the Count” originated because I was watching a documentary, “Spotlight” about how the Boston Globe exposed child abuse by local Catholic priests and I thought this subject would be a good back story for a mystery, so I did an intensive amount of research on the history of the problem and the legal proceedings in America. I was surprised to learn that celibacy has nothing to do with it. That had been my original assumption.

In my book, I tried to very hard to be fair, and being a former public defender who believes in presumption of innocence, the priest in my book (spoiler alert) proves to not be guilty of abusing a boy. I tried to balance that out with real victims so as to not give the impression that its common for children to lie about having been victimized, and include both unfair prejudices against priests and some documented bigotry on the part of priests, hoping to cover all the angles. Several of the books I read were by priests who want the church to fix this problem, as well as one book by a woman who was abused as a child, became a nun, and now leads a SNAP (victims of priests) support group. I also added current events since during the time that I wrote this book, there were a number of articles about a formal Seattle archbishop being accused, and a meeting of the American Bishops on this subject and some of the changes they made to address it. There was also a spate of articles regarding a dispute between a cardinal and Pope Francis because the cardinal in question felt the problem would be solved if Pope Francis would kick out all the gay priests, and there were claims that suspected offenders were being moved around so claims against them could be ignored. It was a change for me to see current newspaper articles on my subject since my former subjects have been World War I, World War II, and Victorian England. I did the research of World War II for book four of the series, “Saved by the Bell” because the villain (and I have no idea why I did this) belonged to the Arrow Cross after the Nazi’s invaded Hungary, so I checked out that history and learned about the Gold Train- a train loaded with loot stolen from Jewish Hungarians that the SS tried to sneak out of Hungary when it looked like the Russians were going to win. That train was captured by Allies and the goods redistributed, but there is also believed to have been a similar attempt made in Poland with the “Ghost Train” which so far, no one has found, which I’m thinking of using as a subject for another book.

DOWN FOR THE COUNT

Very reluctantly, retired boxer Sean O’Conner and former public defender investigator Cindy Matasar now running their own investigation firm, agree to look into charges of sexual abuse on behalf of a priest accused of molesting a little boy. Sean hates the idea, but his brother, Father John, knows Father Damien and is confident there is something wrong with the allegations. Sean has his fingers crossed that it’s a simple case of mistaken identity. No such luck

Sean and Cindy set about interviewing men who had been in the Catholic Youth Boxing Program as boys, and other priests who coached in the program, or who will vouch for Father Damien. Just when they think they’ve locked in evidence to exonerate the ninety-year-old defendant, they receive a mysteries missive that heads them in the other direction and just when they think they got that sorted out, Father Damien is found dead in what Sean thinks a clear-cut case of suicide, an admission of guilt, but which the Church insists was an accident.

Dogging their footsteps and filing professional complaints against them, are the investigators who are in-house with the law firm hired by the Church’s insurance company who are investigating the rest of the allegations against all the other named priests. They are supposed to be on the same team, but professional jealous is causing more than just friction. When Sean figures out that Father Damien’s death was neither suicide nor accident but murder, his rivals take credit for the discovery, leading to yet more complications and additional deaths.

Now Sean and Cindy are in a race against time to find out who is responsible before the killer discovers that they are the one’s finding all the clues, and gets to them first.

Buy link:

https://a.co/d/gS0tum3

Deni Starr, a native Portlander and fourth generation Oregonian, a fact she intends to mention prominently should she ever run for office, started devoting her time to writing novels after out-growing the practice of law. She has five novels published by Silverleaf Publishing featuring her ex-professional boxer, Sean O’Conner and his professional investigator friend, Cindy Matasar who investigate boxing themed mysteries set in contemporary Portland. They are “Below the Belt” “Sucker-Punched”, “Throwing in the Towel.”, “Saved by the Bell”, and “Down for the The Count”. She also has “Murder by the Sea” by Launchpoint Press

The author attended Occidental College in Los Angeles and graduated with Honors and Special Distinction majoring in English with an emphasis on creative writing and journalism. The Author then attended Willamette Law School in Salem, Oregon, and practiced law while also obtaining her black belt in Wu Ying Tao karate. Her law practice emphasized representing women victims of gender crimes, appellate law, and indigent criminal defense. She also has a background in private investigation.

She lives in Portland with her two dogs, Ekaterina Vitalia Dementiava, and Alexandretta Elena Dementiava, and her two cats, Mad Max and Mocha.

Denistarrmysteries.com

Deni Starr Author- FB

Unlike the past, today’s mystery fiction has a lot more chit-chat between characters. There was a time when an author would write pages and pages of narrative describing the contents of a room, clothing, or the physicality of a character down to nose hairs. Oftentimes the narrator would describe how the characters were feeling rather than having them say the words for themselves. I’m thinking of Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, which may not be the first detective novel ever written, chronologically, but it certainly is one of the earliest. I can remember reading most of a chapter with nothing but descriptions of a room or an entering character before anyone actually spoke a word.

But even writing has its trends, and today the style for the most part, is to keep narrative to a minimum. It’s often described by instructors as, “Show. Don’t tell.” Speaking of trends, it has become incumbent upon the writer to use the word “that” only when absolutely necessary. No writing “I wish that I could go.” No, no. Today we write, “I wish I could go.” It may be cleaner, it may be neater, but sometimes I miss my “that.”

But back to narrative writing. Today a description of something might go on for a paragraph or two, maybe three, and then it’s time to have somebody talk. Rarely are there rambling, run-on sentences about an overhead chandelier, unless, of course, it’s about to drop on somebody’s head and start our mystery going. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule (and YOU may be one of them). P.D. James, for instance, will turn over two, three, or four pages of a chapter to the victim’s study, even describing furniture in great detail. Carolyn Hart starts out the majority of her novels with elaborate details on the wants, needs, and secrets of every character who may be a potential suspect. And these ladies write one dang, fine mystery.

But for many of us, we like to keep the dialog rolling. That means we are extra careful with the words we choose for our characters to say. Every character speaks differently, has different word choices, and a unique rhythm or cadence. The dialog sets up who and what they are. It also helps to separate one character from another, without having to add “she said, he said.” The words in the sentence tell the reader who’s speaking. I have two distinctively different protagonists and the fact they are both women, roughly the same age, and private detectives means little. These two women are as different as a Schlitz Beer and a shaken, not stirred, extra-dry martini.

At 5’11” tall and 185 pounds, Persephone “Percy” Cole lives in lower Manhattan during the 1940s, is divorced, and has an eight-year-old son. World War II looms overhead. Percy is one of the groundbreaking women detectives of the time, lives in a man’s world, and faces that challenge readily. Whoops! Used the word “that.” Dang. Back to Percy. She is a savvy, street-smart woman, who takes boxing lessons and will sometimes punch out a criminal if they ask for it. And maybe if they don’t. She not only uses the colorful language of New York’s 1940s, she is a woman of few words and a lot of action. She uses phrases like, “Oh, yeah? Sez you.”

Enter Liana “Lee” Alvarez, the other protagonist. Lee sparkles in today’s Palo Alto, California. She is 5’8″ with a dancer’s body, and a face reminiscent of Elizabeth Taylor in her glory days, should anyone be old enough to remember dear Liz. Lee’s now deceased father was a Mexican immigrant who made good, and her mother a blueblood from one of Palo Alto’s first families. Lee’s often torn between who she is, who she should be, and who she wants to be. But she is above all an ace private investigator, albeit in designer clothes, and a credit to the family-owned, Silicon Valley detective agency. Recently married, she has a blackbelt in Karate and can take care of herself. Lee utters things like, “Listen, I don’t mean to be rude, but if you’re going to wave a gun in my face, I’m going to take it personally.”

And then, of course, all the family members, side characters, and people I throw in and out, all have their own way of speaking and their own choice of words. From a one-liner to a major character. I can hear them in my head. Like an earworm.