Category: murder mystery

My Writing List

~ patyjag ~ 8 Comments

Every writer has their mantra, motto, or theme for their writing. I have a list of items I try to hit with each book I write.

The list is:

  • Character endures longer than plot.
  • Action intrigues the reader more than passive language.
  • Scenes excite the reader more than narration.
  • Dialogue interests the reader more than exposition.
  • Nouns & Verbs trump adjectives and adverbs.

I’m not sure where I found this years ago, but the saying has hung either from my monitor or as now, on my whiteboard plotting calendar by my desk. These five things are what I strive for in each book or short story I write.

I want the readers to love my characters whether they are the main characters or the secondary characters. Because if I don’t care or like them why would a reader want to read about them? From the reactions of my readers when I ended the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series, I believe they fell in love with my characters. Which makes me happy and I try to do the same with all my other series characters.

As for action, I like stories that aren’t bogged down with descriptions. I want to know what the characters are doing and have their actions and reactions move the story forward. I like books that carry me along on the ride without distracting me with mundane things.  

Sometimes I wonder if I put too many breaks in some chapters, but they are usually ones where the characters are jumping from scene to scene as they move forward to question someone or look for a clue. All the scenes whether they are long or short keep the story moving.

I prefer to write dialogue that informs the reader either about the past, present, or to show the character’s character. I try not to use too much narrative to inform the reader. It can end up feeling like an info dump. As much as I can, I try to keep information in the dialog and not do any dumps.

There have been times after I’ve written and published a book, I think, “Man, I should have described this or that better.” Then I get a review with how well I showed or revealed an area or place and I think, “I guess I did okay.” I am not a wordy person in real life. I don’t care for small talk and I like to get to the point of things. I’ve found I’m the same way with my writing. I use words sparingly and make sure the words I do use inform without having to add three words for the one. I do use some adjectives but only if they are necessary to show what I want to show, not to flower up the pages. When I read a book with lots of description, I’ll jump over those paragraphs to get to the action.

The books I like to read are ones with strong likeable characters and action that moves the story forward. That shouldn’t come as a surprise after reading this post. If a character grabs me in the first chapter, I will finish the book unless the story is slogging. I came across a book recently that the premise intrigued me but I couldn’t finish the book because I didn’t like the main character and some of the things the character did seemed dumb. I put a book like this down and start another one. I have lots of books on my TBR pile and limited time to read.

So when I read for pleasure, I want the book to make me think about it even when I’m not reading. That is a good book.

What is a good book you’ve read lately?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about my newest release.

Down and Dirty

Book 6 in the Spotted Pony Casino Mysteries

The Spotted Pony Casino’s head of security, Dela Alvaro, receives a late-night call that takes her to a deserted walkway along the river. After confronting a woman babbling about love and bodies being buried, Dela stumbles over a corpse and discovers her knife covered in the victim’s blood.

Dela and Tribal Detective Heath Seaver find themselves working with FBI Special Agent Quinn Pierce when the murder seems to be connected to a drug cartel. Dela nearly becomes the victim of a hit-and-run while someone is trying to frame her for the murder.

Proving her innocence has Dela interviewing past acquaintances and members of a drug cartel, all while trying to decide if the woman she met the night of the murder is truly crazy … or the killer.

Universal buy link: https://books2read.com/u/bagQ66

Guest Blogger ~ Margaret Mizushima

~ patyjag ~ 4 Comments

Moving and Moving On

This is my first guest post for Paty’s Ladies of Mystery, and I’m so happy to be here. I write the Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries, a series comprised of eight published books and a new episode titled GATHERING MIST that launches on October 8th. I’m excited for this book to be released, because it’s set in an entirely different place than the rest of the series, resulting from a move that my husband and I made in 2022.

Our move across country from northern Colorado to the state of Washington began two years prior to the actual event. My husband Charlie is a veterinarian who established his practice of forty-two years on our property outside the city limits of a small town north of Fort Collins, CO. We also raised a herd of Angus cattle, quarter horses, and a multitude of pets there. It was our beloved home, and we planned to stay there forever.

But then…the school district bought the plot of ground next to ours and began to build a three-school campus, complete with football, baseball, and soccer fields. Oh my! The construction noise rocked our home. The atmosphere of our peaceful country life was destroyed. We looked at each other and said, “We’ve gotta move.”

Fortunately, it was time for my husband to retire. It took two years to disperse our cattle herd, sell our farm equipment, close the vet practice and get ready to go. We decided to head to Washington to be closer to one of our daughters. Because of the boom in the real estate market, cash buyers reigned. Since no one would entertain an offer from someone with a contingency, we were unable to buy a place to move to until after our property sold.

The last month before we left was intense. We pared down our belongings and loaded what was left into one stock trailer and a container strapped to our hay trailer, which we stored on our friends’ property. We loaded our two German shorthaired pointers into the car and headed west to Washington State. What a trip! Both dogs and humans were shell-shocked when we arrived.

Our daughter had found a place for us to rent near her home in a beautiful river valley. It was on a rural property surrounded by giant Douglas fir that smelled amazing at night. Our landlady let us bring our dogs and they had a large meadow they could run in each morning. We’ll always be grateful for her gracious hospitality.

Four months later, we found our new home and made the final move. We settled in and I discovered a wonderful setting for the ninth book in my series, a fictional spot on Washington’s Olympic peninsula.

In GATHERING MIST, Deputy Mattie Wray and her K-9 partner Robo leave their home a week before Mattie’s wedding to join a search and rescue mission for a celebrity’s missing son. They face unfamiliar territory and unfriendly locals on the misty, rain-soaked Olympic peninsula, and they uncover secrets that have lain buried in the dense forest. When it becomes apparent that there is something more sinister than a lost child in play, the searchers grow desperate as they strive to find the missing boy before he is lost forever.

We’ve not only found a new home here in Washington, but I found a new setting that I loved using in this book. I invite you to read Mattie and Robo’s adventures that are set in both Colorado and Washington, starting with book one, KILLING TRAIL. Or, if you prefer, start anywhere in the series, because the mystery in each episode stands alone. I hope you enjoy the books!

GATHERING MIST

Secrets hide within the fog deep in the mossy forests of the Pacific Northwest, in this ninth thrilling installment in award-winning author Margaret Mizushima’s Timber Creek K-9 Mystery series.

Deputy Mattie Wray, formerly Mattie Cobb, is summoned to Washington’s Olympic peninsula for an urgent search and rescue mission to find a celebrity’s missing child. With only a week left before her wedding, Mattie is hesitant to leave Timber Creek, but her K-9 partner Robo’s tracking skills are needed.

Dense forest, chilling rain, and unfriendly locals hamper their efforts, and soon Mattie suspects something more sinister than a lost child is at play.  When one of the SAR dogs becomes ill, her fiancé Cole Walker suspects poison. Fearing for Mattie’s and Robo’s safety, Cole joins the search and rescue team as veterinary support.

Secrets that have lain hidden within the rugged terrain come to light and when it is uncovered that the missing child was kidnapped, the search becomes a full-blown crime scene investigation, forcing Mattie, Robo, and Cole into a desperate search to find the missing child before it’s too late.  

Here is a buy link:https://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Mist-Timber-Creek-Mystery/dp/1639108947

Buy Link in Tiny URL:  https://tinyurl.com/5n9xx8un

Margaret Mizushima writes the internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. She serves as past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She is the recipient of a Colorado Authors League Award, a Benjamin Franklin Book Award, a CIBA CLUE Award, and two Willa Literary Awards by Women Writing the West. Her books have been finalists for a SPUR Award by Western Writers of America, a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award, and the Colorado Book Award. She and her husband recently moved from Colorado, where they raised two daughters and a multitude of animals, to a home in the Pacific Northwest. Find her on Facebook/AuthorMargaretMizushima, X @margmizu, Instagram @margmizu, and her website www.margaretmizushima.com.

Guest Blogger ~ Kathleen Donnelly

~ patyjag ~ 8 Comments

Crime Solving K-9s

As a retired K-9 handler for Sherlock Hounds Detection Canines, I spent the last 19 years working to help keep schools safe with my four-legged partners. We used friendly dogs to find drugs, alcohol and gunpowder. When I started this career, I had no idea how much it would influence my writing and genre.

I have so many stories and memories about my experiences with the dogs. One that always comes to mind happened with my first dog, Sammy. Sammy and I arrived at one of our schools and the principal said, “I believe we have a kid dealing drugs here, but we’re not sure where he’s keeping them. Do you mind if we check the parking lot?”

KATHLEEN & SAMMY

I agreed and off Sammy and I went to sniff around some vehicles. I insist on keeping any checks random so that we’re never targeting a student, but I did ask the principal to tell me the color of the car. It was black. So that day, we started checking black cars in the parking lot. After checking a few vehicles, we came upon a black four-door coupe and Sammy’s body language changed. Her tail pointed straight up in the air and her muscles tensed. Even her breathing changed as she inhaled the air and worked to pinpoint a scent. She alerted on the front passenger door.

But she didn’t stop there.

Whipping around, she ran back in front of me and went to the trunk of the vehicle, promptly alerting there as well. The phrase, “trust your dog” kept repeating through my head. I told the principal that we needed to check not only the interior of the car, but also the trunk. Sammy had alerted on both spots on the vehicle for a reason. I would soon find out it was a very good reason.

In the front glovebox, there was marijuana. But what was in the trunk? The student didn’t want to open it and I soon discovered why. When he did, there was a sawed-off shotgun. I rewarded Sammy with her toy and praised her for a job well done. She’d not only helped to keep a school safe and maybe even saved a life, but she had also solved a mystery.

NELLIE WORKING A LOCKER

As I continued to work and gained experience with more dogs, I started to realize how much dogs, or more specifically their noses, could help us solve mysteries. When we would recertify with our trainer in Oklahoma, he would always show us the dogs he had in training for law enforcement. I watched him work the dogs for tracking, apprehension, finding narcotics, and much more. Our trainer had arson dogs and even told stories about training dogs to find human remains.

Meanwhile, I was pursuing my other passion of writing. As I learned more about writing mysteries and thrillers, I thought, why am I not including a K-9 character in my books? They are the ultimate crime solving partners. At this point I had worked K-9s for about ten years and I had a better understanding of the bond between dog and handler. I knew that my next book would have a K-9.

That was the beginning of the National Forest K-9 series. Now, three books in, with the latest release being KILLER SECRETS, I have found as much passion for writing dogs on the page as I did working dogs. In fact, this fall I am not going back to school. I am now a retired K-9 handler. I’m looking forward to continuing to write my stories and let my main character, US Forest Service law enforcement officer Maya Thompson and her K-9 Juniper, a two year old Malinois, solve mysteries in a fictional Colorado forest.

I love weaving in the strong bond between dog and handler. Along with Maya and Juniper, I have a new series coming out in late 2025. This is a romantic suspense series and the first book will feature an FBI Crisis Canine and his handler. As I wrote a new canine character, I enjoyed diving into a different type of K-9 work. They are amazing animals.

I’m not the only one who thinks so. In fact, I think over the past few years, there are enough K-9 crime solvers that I would say it has become its own genre. I’d love to know, do you love K-9s in books? I look forward to hearing from you and I also want to thank the Ladies of Mystery for inviting me to their blog as a guest.

Killer Secrets:

A small town’s deadly past is exposed in the newest installment of the suspenseful National Forest K-9 series by Kathleen Donnelly.

Until an avalanche ripped down a mountainside, exposing a serial killer’s dumping grounds, Antler Valley, Colorado was a quiet town. Now Forest Service officer Maya Thompson and her beautiful K-9, Juniper, must catch the murderer before they become the next targets.

With the neighboring town’s new overconfident sheriff deterring the entire investigation, a murderer on the loose and heartthrob deputy Josh Colton racing through her mind, Maya is at a crossroads. Josh is ready to go all in, but Maya has one foot out the door. As she lets her guard down, she needs to accept that she’s falling deeply in love with him, no matter how risky it may be.

When evidence from the Antler Valley victims links the murders to deaths in other ski towns, secrets long buried are unearthed. Maya and Juniper must run toward an answer, though finding it might lead them directly into a fatal trap…

Where to Purchase:

My Website—Killer Secrets—Book #3 in the National Forest K-9 series

Amazon: https://a.co/d/7e62hR9

Award-winning author Kathleen Donnelly is a retired K-9 handler. She loves crafting realism into her fictional stories from her dog-handling experience. Her debut novel, Chasing Justice, won a Best Book Award from the American Book Fest, a PenCraft Award and was a 2023 Silver Falchion finalist in the Suspense category and Readers’ Choice Award. Her second book, Hunting The Truth, was a Colorado Authors League finalist in the mystery category and a Silver Falchion finalist for the Readers’ Choice Awards. She lives near the Colorado foothills with her husband and four-legged coworkers. You can sign up for Kathleen’s newsletter to receive her free short story eBook collection, Working Tails.

Website:

www.kathleendonnelly.com

Newsletter Sign-up:

https://kathleendonnelly.com/#newsletter

Social Media:

Facebook–@AuthorKathleenDonnelly 

Twitter–@KatK9writer

Instagram–@authorkathleendonnelly

Goodreads–https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22280955.Kathleen_Donnelly

Fact and Fiction by Dwight Holing

~ patyjag ~ 2 Comments

Because I am one day away from taking off on my month-long vacation, my friend and author, Dwight Holing is filling in for me this month.

Spare me the moldy one-liner about journalism being the world’s second-oldest profession and nowhere near as well-compensated as the first or the old saw of never letting facts get in the way of a good story. After years as a freelance writer covering environmental issues and nature travel, I’ve learned that facts not only give fiction more depth, but create greater reader engagement.

     Characters, conflicts, and settings were always the keystones to the articles and nonfiction books I wrote. It’s the same with fiction, but bringing facts about the backdrop of the southeastern Oregon setting for my Nick Drake Mystery Series to the forefront has been a game changer. Be it geography and geology or wildlife and weather, realities about the natural world provide ready-made ingredients for crafting a story’s arc and layering in suspense, action, and mood.

     By doing so, I can pit my US Fish & Wildlife ranger hero not only against villains, but have him battle searing heat, wildfire, snowstorms, and raging rivers. How he deals with nature’s adversity bares his strengths as well as his weaknesses. I also use the sublime beauty of nature to reveal his spirit and that of the other principal characters. All provide insights and revelations that help them continue to develop as “real” people and make them all the more endearing to readers.

     Chiseled on a tablet somewhere is the adage Write about what you know. I’ve found that even more important is Write about what you want to know. Why? Because my excitement of discovering something new and infusing it into my novels is shared by readers. How do I know that? Nick Drake readers tell me by email and in person at book talks and writer conferences.

     Some say they read my mysteries while Googling at the same time to learn more about the subjects I explore, such as why there’s such an abundance of archaeological sites in southeastern Oregon or how come so many different bird species migrate through the national wildlife refuges there or what were the forces that sculpted and shaped such an amazing landscape. Others have sent me photos of the trips they’ve taken that were matched to the settings of my stories. Still more email notes with ideas for the next Nick Drake Mystery. Now, that’s reader engagement!

     I’m certainly not the first author to discover the natural world delivers honesty as well as a roundhouse punch to a mystery story. Raymond Chandler’s opener to “Red Wind” shows—not tells—what I mean:

There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.

     While the high lonesome setting of my Nick Drake Mysteries is the gift that keeps on giving, it’s up to me to listen to all of its natural elements and give them voice. That takes more than online research—it takes being there.

     I need to drive every dirt road that I put Nick Drake and the flinty old county sheriff on as they chase vicious killers. I have to talk to ranchers about caring for livestock so I know what Nick’s romantic partner is up against as she works as a large animal veterinarian. Chatting with long-time residents about everything under the desert sun is a joy while sleeping beneath a blanket of stars that has no beginning or end is a must.

     Most of all, I need to stand atop Steens Mountain and in the middle of Diamond Craters and on the edge of Blitzen Valley so I can feel the wind, watch the birds gather, and admire pronghorns racing across the sage scrub. Like my characters, I rely on the sublime beauty of nature to unlock my own spirit so I can capture the creativity blooming both inside and all around me in order to share it with readers who love learning while kissing their nights goodbye turning the pages of an unputdownable mystery.

+++

Wildlife rangers Nick Drake and Loq take separate paths, but both lead to action, murder, and mystery in a thrilling and emotionally charged chapter in this bestselling series.

When his sister goes on the run with a charismatic Indian rights activist wanted for murder, Loq risks everything to find her. He teams up with a beautiful police officer tracking a member of her own tribe who joined the fugitive too. Danger, desire, and treachery test the pair as they follow a trail through the wilds of Oregon, Idaho, and Montana made famous a century before during a legendary and bloody flight for freedom.

Can they stay ahead of a ruthless federal agent, solve who’s responsible for leaving bodies on the trail, and rescue people who don’t believe they need to be saved?

Meanwhile, Nick Drake embarks on a hazardous undertaking of his own when his adopted son continues to be haunted by his traumatic childhood in war-torn Vietnam and a loved one is stricken with terminal cancer. Father and son go in search of healing and meaning, but deadly forces turn their quest into a fight for survival.

BUY LINK: https://books2read.com/TheBrokenBlood

Dwight Holing lives and writes alongside a river in California. His mystery and suspense series include The Nick Drake Novels and The Jack McCoul Capers. The stories in his collections of literary short fiction have won awards, including the Arts & Letters Prize for Fiction. He is married to a kick-ass environmental advocate; they have a daughter and son, and two black labs who’d rather swim than walk.
Buy Link: https://dwightholing.com/nick-drake-novels/

Website: https://dwightholing.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/dwight.holing

Instagram: @dwight_holing

Guest Blogger ~ Lori Robbins

~ patyjag ~ 7 Comments

It is never too late to be what you might have been. George Eliot

Central to my identity as a writer is that I’m a serial late-bloomer. This pattern began when I was a teenager and decided to ignore conventional wisdom that dictated dancers had to begin training at a very young age. The result of my quixotic effort was a ten-year career onstage that defied the odds. Success as a dancer, of course, meant that I didn’t attend college until long after my peers got their degrees and began their grown-up lives. Luckily, the New York City public university system welcomes nontraditional students like me, and I graduated from Hunter College shortly before giving birth to my third child.

The habit of late starts didn’t end there. I was the oldest beginning teacher at my first job and didn’t publish my first book until the youngest of my six kids graduated high school. This personal history may explain why I love reading and writing stories about people who reinvent themselves. There are many examples of writers who find their voice later in life, but my favorite is Frank McCourt, who published Angela’s Ashes at 66 after spending much of his adult life as a high school teacher. As a former high school English teacher, the trajectory of his career has particular resonance for me.

Reinvention is a central theme in my books as well as my life. I write two mystery series and am in the process of writing a standalone thriller. Series often feature protagonists who deliver a comforting sameness. Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot investigate different crimes but those endeavors don’t materially change who they are. My characters, however, aren’t the same people at the end of the book as they are in the beginning.

The On Pointe series is set in a New York City ballet company and features a ballerina on the wrong side of thirty with two surgically reconstructed knees and an uncertain future. What I didn’t want was an ingenue who triumphantly overcomes obstacles and in the end, becomes a star. Leah is more complex than that. She defies expectations, both fictional and factual. Yes, she’s embroiled in a murder mystery, but the stakes are higher for her than they would be for someone at the start of her career.  Those challenges make her observant, wary, and more than a little cynical. In other words, the perfect amateur sleuth.

The Master Class mysteries leap across the Hudson River to suburban New Jersey and feature an English teacher who also is at a crossroads in her life. Although this marks her as different from someone like Miss Marple, she does share that redoubtable amateur detective’s skill in analyzing personality, means, and motive. Miss Marple draws upon her experiences in the tiny town of St. Mary Mead but Liz Hopewell’s expertise is in literature. It’s her superpower, and she uses it to untangle mysteries when concrete, forensic evidence fails to provide answers. I love puzzles and had a lot of fun integrating clues from books into the narrative. Every chapter title includes a reference to a famous poem or book that might help the reader solve the mystery. Or, it could be a red herring. Teasing out truth from lies is at the heart of these books.

Work is central to the identity of both protagonists. It’s how they define themselves and how others define them. And yet, both rebel against those easy labels to forge an identity filled with the possibilities of what might be next.

Me too.

Study Guide for Murder: A Master Class Mystery

Murder has no place in Liz Hopewell’s perfect suburban life. She left her complicated past behind when she moved from Brooklyn to New Jersey, and she’s determined to forget the violence that shadowed her early years. As an English teacher, wife, and mother, Liz now confines her fascination with dark themes and complicated topics to classroom discussions about Frankenstein and Hamlet. But violence follows her from the mean streets of her childhood home to the manicured lawns of suburbia when Elliot Tumbleson’s head has an unfortunate and deadly encounter with a golf club. Her golf club.

A second murder, a case of mistaken identity, and a rollicking trip back to Brooklyn all point to one prime suspect in each crime. Liz embarks upon a double investigation of homicides past and present, using her gift for literary theory to unearth clues that she finds as compelling as forensic evidence. But the killers, like her students, don’t always read to the end.

Amazon Buy Link: Study Guide for Murder

Lori Robbins writes the On Pointe and Master Class mystery series and is a contributor to The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers Cookbook. She won two Silver Falchions, the Indie Award for Best Mystery, and second place in the Daphne du Maurier Award for Mystery and Suspense. Her short stories include “Leading Ladies”which received an Honorable Mention in the 2022 Best American Mystery and Suspense anthology. A former dancer, Lori performed with Ballet Hispanico and the St. Louis Ballet, but it was her commercial work, for Pavlova Perfume and Macy’s, that paid the bills. After ten very lean years onstage she became an English teacher and now writes full-time.

Her experiences as a dancer, teacher, writer, and mother of six have made her an expert in the homicidal tendencies everyday life inspires.

You can find her at lorirobbins.com

https://www.lorirobbins.com/

https://linktr.ee/lorirobbinsmysteries

https://www.instagram.com/lorirobbinsmysteries/

https://www.facebook.com/lorirobbinsauthor/

https://twitter.com/lorirobbins99

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lori-robbins

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16007362.Lori_Robbins