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By Elaine Viets

    "Five fire engines, two ladder trucks, a portable light truck, a battalion chief’s van, and what looked like every cop car in Chouteau County were fighting this fire. Death investigator Angela Richman knew it was already too late—she was summoned only for death. Tonight, someone had died in that blazing building, choked by the smoke and seared by those flames. Angela oversaw the bodies at Chouteau County crime scenes or unattended deaths. The death investigator reported to the county medical examiner.

    "Who was it? Angela didn’t know yet. The detective’s call was cryptic: "Luther Ridley Delor’s house is on fire. One body so far. They’re bringing it out. Get over there now." Seventy-year-old Luther called himself a financier to take away the sting of how his family made a trainload of money: running a nationwide chain of payday loan companies. People—especially desperate ones—knew the slogan "You get more with Delor." Was the old man dead? Was the victim his young fiancée? Or did a friend or servant die in that hellish fire?"

    That's the opening of Fire and Ashes. My new Angela Richman, Death Investigator mystery is hot off the presses July 25, and this cover tells the story. Showing off a new cover never gets old. I've written 31 mysteries.

Fire and Ashes is the second novel in my forensic mystery series set in mythical Chouteau County, Missouri, thirty miles from my hometown of St. Louis.

The novel opens with a spectacular fire. Death investigator Angela is called to the scene in an exclusive gated community, Olympia Forest Estates. Flames are destroying a mansion, along with Luther Delor, a drunken, bed-hopping rhinestone cowboy.

Luther scandalized Chouteau Forest society taking up with his twenty-year-old manicurist, Kendra Salvato. He gave her two million dollars to wear his engagement ring – and she'll get another two mil when she walks down the aisle.

Luther's murder has united the Forest against the accused – Kendra. The daughter of two successful Mexican immigrants, his fiancee is being railroaded straight to death row as a gold-digging killer.

The case against Kendra looks like vicious gossip and anti-Mexican rage, and both are spreading like wildfire. Angela is sifting through the ashes of a vicious crime—and the guilty secrets of the privileged to save an innocent woman.

Fire and Ashes is a hot read. It will be a book, an e-book, and an audio book, and right now it's on sale. Order your copy here.

 

Back in the Saddle Again

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Picture a horse with an attractive man riding it. So—did you envision a silk-shirted jockey on a sleek thoroughbred? An elegant jodhpur-wearing equestrian in the midst of Olympic dressage? A kilted Highlander galloping across the heathered moors?

My dear pal and incredibly talented writer, the USA Today best-selling Annette Dashofy, is howling with laughter right now. She has a different mental picture entirely.

 

Annette Dashofy

My heroes have always been cowboys.

So goes the old Willie Nelson song. In my case, it does seem to be true. I grew up on a steady diet of westerns thanks to my dad and brother. I met my husband when I worked in a western shop. He says he only came in for a pair of boots. I know better. He came in to pick up the sales girl. He was wearing a cowboy hat and did buy those boots. Never mind that he’d grown up in the suburbs and had never ridden a horse. He looked the part. Close enough.

Not all of my TV heroes were cowboys though. One TV show in particular played a huge part in shaping my life. Back in the 70s, my absolute favorite show was Emergency! It had nothing to do with cowboys (or so I thought). It was about paramedics, which was something new in those days. Firefighter/paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto rescued the sick and injured and transported them to Rampart General where they would be treated by the dashing Dr. Kelly Brackett. I never missed an episode.

And as soon as I graduated high school, I signed up for Emergency Medical Training. Before long, I was out in the field, just like Gage and DeSoto. I loved it! Oddly enough, I never found an ER doc to match Dr. Brackett though. Go figure. Fast forward a few decades.

Although the western genre had largely faded from view, retro television networks started popping up and brought back all the oldies but goodies. I rediscovered a bunch of my old favorites. And I stumbled across one that had run before my time…or at least before I was old enough to be aware of it. The voice grabbed my attention first. No one has a voice like
Dr. Brackett. Except Jess Harper of Laramie. Yes, actor Robert Fuller had a starring role
long before that of Kelly Brackett on Emergency!

I fell in love with my new cowboy hero. Plus by then I was writing my mystery series about a paramedic on an ambulance service very much like the one I had worked on.

  Last summer I had the great privilege to meet Robert Fuller. I thanked him for his influence in what was to become my writing career. I even gave him a set of my first four books.

And I got a hug.

 

 

Earlier this month, my almost-cowboy husband and I attended the Williamsburg Film Festival where I once again got to see Bob. Yes, I can call him “Bob.” The man has a massive fan base known as the Robert Fuller Fandom. Along with them, my husband and I waited in line for hours…just so Hubby could meet my hero...and watch me get kissed by the man I’ve adored for ages. Hubby is a very good sport. He even took pictures. My feet will touch the ground again…in another few weeks. Or months.

Have you ever had a hero who shaped your life? And have you ever had a chance to meet him/her? Was it all you hoped?

HANK: Annette, congratulations on the brand new book NO WAY HOME!! Hurray! And more about that below. As for meeting a hero? I always worry, I confess to you, that I would have no idea what to say.  How about you, Femmes?

 

NO WAY HOME  

A relaxing trail ride turns tragic when Paramedic and Deputy Coroner Zoe Chambers discovers the body of a popular county commissioner in her Pennsylvania woods. Inconsistencies surround the horrible “accident,” but before she can investigate further, she’s pried away by a plea for help from her best friend whose son has been deemed a person of interest in a homicide over a thousand miles away. When he vanishes without a trace, his mother begs Zoe to help clear him and bring him safely home. The task takes Zoe out of her comfort zone in a frantic trip to the desolate canyons and bluffs of New Mexico where she joins forces with the missing boy’s sister and a mysterious young Navajo.

Back at home, Vance Township’s Chief of Police Pete Adams must deal not only with the commissioner’s homicide, but with an influx of meth and a subsequent rash of drug overdoses in his rural community. Bodies keep turning up while suspects keep disappearing. However little else matters when he learns that half a continent away, a brutal killer has Zoe in his sights.

 

 

 

 

ABOUT ANNETTE

USA Today best-selling author Annette Dashofy has spent her entire life in rural Pennsylvania surrounded by cattle and horses. When she wasn’t roaming the family’s farm or playing in the barn, she could be found reading or writing. After high school, she spent five years as an EMT on the local ambulance service, dealing with everything from drunks passing out on the sidewalk to mangled bodies in car accidents. These days, she, her husband, and their spoiled cat, Kensi, live on property that was once part of her grandfather’s dairy.

 Her Zoe Chambers mystery series includes Circle of Influence (finalist for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and the David Award for Best Mystery of 2014), Lost Legacy, Bridges Burned, which was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel of 2015, With A Vengeance and No Way Home, the fifth and most recent in the series.

 Her short fiction, including a 2007 Derringer finalist which features the same characters as her novels, has appeared in Mysterical-e, Spinetingler, Fish Tales: the Guppy Anthology, and Lucky Charms: 12 Crime Tales.

Creating mayhem in the mystery community

Catriona writes: When I read Lori Rader Day's debut novel THE BLACK HOUR, I found it so realistic on the details of academic life that my dark past (as a linguistics lecturer) reached out with icy fingers to clutch me. I thought. But then LITTLE PRETTY THINGS (the award-winning follow-up) had no personal resonance for me as a reader but still chilled me to the bone. And now THE DAY I DIED is here and all I can say is, if you like to be a bit scared and a lot entertained, it's the book for you.

And if you like to be a whole lot entertained and hardly scared at all, then Lori Rader Day is the funny, warm, witty, peppery, biting, but ultimately fab woman for you. Online or irl, you couldn't ask for more fun than hanging out with my guest today. (Are you getting that I'm a bit of a fan?)

And so I can only imagine what joy a convention would be that has Lori's fingerprints on it. Here to tell all . . . Lori Rader Day:

As I write this, I’m recovering from a mystery conference. No, not that one. Save your alohas, bub.

I’m talking about Murder and Mayhem in Chicago, and if you haven’t heard of it, don’t feel too out of the loop. (Loop! That joke’s for you, Chicagoans!) No, it’s not as though everyone you know is on a plane to Honolulu without you or anything. *ahem* Murder and Mayhem in Chicago is a brand-new mystery conference. Unless you were there (and now have Marcus Sakey’s social security number, a joke that only lands if you there), you haven’t met. So let me introduce you.

Murder and Mayhem in Chicago got off the ground when publicist Dana Kaye asked me if I would have lunch with her to talk out some ideas she had. They involved event planning, something I did for my day job at the time.

Warning: if Dana Kaye wants to trade you a lunch for your expertise, you might want to make sure it’s a pretty good lunch. Because the next thing you know, you’ll be co-chairing a conference with her. Or maybe I’m just a girl who has boundary issues, whatever. The short story is that once I heard Dana’s idea to bring Murder and Mayhem to Chicago, I was in. Murder and Mayhem originated in Wisconsin, first in Muskego and then in Milwaukee, created and continued by Jon and Ruth Jordan from Crimespree Magazine and librarian Penny Halle with an assist by Erica Ruth Neubauer and many local volunteers. The reason it was so easy for Dana to talk me into the idea is that it’s a good one. Murder and Mayhem in Milwaukee is a relaxed, one-day, one-track crime fiction conference that brings great authors to its city and highlights local authors to boot.

For Murder and Mayhem in Chicago, we just had to find a big but not too costly space, talk approximately 200 great people into spending the day together, and organize all the ensuing chaos into something entertaining, educational, and photogenic.

Piece of cake.

Not really.

Dana and I spent 18 months planning the event and one mighty fun-filled day enjoying the fruits of our labor. What, you may be wondering at this time, were we thinking? Why would a publicist (full-time job) and a novelist (mmmmmaybe a full-time job, some days more than others) add such a ridiculous bunch of work to their lives?

It may seem like a promotional platform for ourselves, and it is. We were both on a panel apiece during the day, and both our books were on sale at the book table. I had a brand new promotional sign displayed in the book/hangout space.

Or maybe it was a networking thing? Dana was able to give added value to some of her local clients. I was able to slot in quite a few members of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter, of which I am the current president. We parlayed our event into a chance to bring in some sales for a local independent bookseller (we hear they like sales) and some connections with local organizations as sponsors.

But I wouldn’t have done all that work for mere self-promotion or for networking connections. Would you? (You didn’t.) Why put together a new mystery community event in a calendar that is already full?  If you were on a panel, you sold some books and got your name in front of a lot of really serious mystery readers, librarians, booksellers, and other authors. If you were in the audience, you picked up some tips and laughed. You were there the day Sara Paretsky and William Kent Krueger, two major figures in Midwestern mysteries, met for the first time, the day the first Sara Paretsky Award was bestowed upon, yes, Sara Paretsky. You got your hugs in. You saw your friends. You met new ones. You found new books to read. You got ideas for your next one. We did it for all of that, for the magic. A literary writer would have used the word ineffable, thereby transcending the genre. (Another one for those who were there.)

What we get out of the mystery community isn’t a one-to-one transaction. It’s not a vending machine; this isn’t McDonald’s. A lot of times, publishing can seem like a black hole that we throw our lives into: all our time, all our effort, no guarantees of success. Except, if you’re willing to take the writing itself in payment and the friendships you make as the icing on the cake, well... maybe the decision to add to that community isn’t so difficult after all.

Dana and I put in over a year of work to create a thing that hadn’t existed before—something different from what we’d had in Chicago and lost when other conferences came and went, something different from what Milwaukee still enjoys. It was a creative act, and it was also a hell of a lot of fun.

All this to say... see you there next year?

 

Lori Rader-Day, author of The Day I Died, released April 11, The Black Hour, and Little Pretty Things, is the recipient of the 2016 Mary Higgins Clark Award and the 2015 Anthony Award for Best First Novel. She lives in Chicago, where is the president of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter and the co-chair of Murder and Mayhem in Chicago.

Find her at www.loriraderday.com

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Aloha!

by Donna Andrews of the Femmes Fatales.

I'm still recovering from my trip to Hawaii.  It's the six-hour time difference that does you in.  I'm still not back on east coast time, though I'm not still on Hawaii time either.  Pitcairn Island, maybe.

I'd tell you all about the trip, but you've probably already read the reports from other Left Coast Crime attendees. So I'll show you my trip through a few of the photos I took. On Wednesday, before the convention started, I took a tour with Brian of Oahu Nature Tours, who kept our small band of tourists entertained and informed, even on the long drive back from the North Shore.  On Monday, before heading home, Marie of Blue Hawaii Photo Tours not only took me to some of the most beautiful places on the island but taught me some of the things I hadn't yet learned about my camera. And in between I tried always to have my camera or iPhone handy. 

Dang. Wish I could go back for a few more days and a few hundred more photos. It's not like I'd have to make a big adjustment to the time zone.

 

 

5 Ways to Support Women in the Arts

1. Get cozy with the Guerilla Girls. The Guerilla Girls are an anonymous group of art activists who use humor to point out sexism and racism in the arts. Shoot, I’d never heard of them, but when my eighteen-year-old niece saw a scarf by the Guerilla Girls, she fairly shouted, “Oh, I love the Guerilla Girls. They are so neat!” (Seriously, and I thought I was taking HER to the museum so she would have an educational experience. Give me a break.) http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/01/13/art-activists-guerrilla-girls-take-over-the-twin-cities/
2. See nothing, say something. Seriously. If you’re at an art event, and if women artists are MIA (Missing In Action), make a fuss. (All right, be polite about it if you must, but at least make mention of the obvious. “Are there any women here? Helll-oooo???”) In the meantime, take a look at all the cool ways that the Guerilla Girls are drawing attention to how women are underrepresented in the arts: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/artist/Guerrilla+Girls 
3. Discover a new female artist today. I fell in love with The Call (1961) by Remedios Varo. Varo seems to straddle the real and the surreal with this painting. Varo’s characteristic color palette is fiery orange-gold, a visual reminder that powerful women cannot be ignored. This arresting figure walks past the somber relics of those who refuse to step forward. Her energy is other-worldly, and one can only wonder…where is she going? And what is she planning to do?
4. Read a biography of a woman who supported the arts. I just finished The Pope’s Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere by Caroline P. Murphy, about Pope Julius II’s illegitimate daughter, the most powerful woman in Rome in her day. When Julius died, Pope Leo X instructed Michelangelo to cease working on Julius’s tomb. Because the artist felt an obligation to Julius’s heirs, he gave Felice the cartoons from his work on the Sistine Chapel. It is thought that these sketches were later developed as frescoes in the Church of the Trinity in Rome.
5. Visit the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. There’s only one museum in the world that’s totally dedicated to our gender, and if you haven’t seen it, you’re missing a real treat. https://nmwa.org/visit And while you’re there, you can see The Call. I promise that you’ll be amazed at all this museum has to offer.

Do you have a favorite female artist? Who is she? What about her work calls to you?

 

Spring Has Sprung

by Laura DiSilverio

It's March 21, the official first day of spring. For a change, it actually feels and looks like spring--even summer--here in Colorado Springs. The temps have been in the 70s for a week, even touching 81 a couple of days ago. Skies are blue, winds are gentle and allergens abound. Ka-choo. I have entered upon my spring ritual of buying up all the Benadryl and Sudafed at my local drug store to supplement the daily Zyrtec I take year-round. Notwithstanding the fact that we'll have another snowfall or two before summer starts, I have seen enough signs of spring to feel that it's here to stay. What are the signs, you ask? In no particular order . . .

Laura's Top Ten Signs of Spring

1. Bunnies getting frisky (if you know what I mean) on my early morning walks with my dog, Marco.
2. The robins are back, and the flickers are pounding on my chimney in their attempts to attract mates. (The noise drives Marco crazy because he can't figure out what it is.)
3. Mornings are dark--I have to wait until after 6:15 to walk now--but the evenings are longer.
4. Road crews are making the streets impassable as they repair potholes dug by Old Man Winter.
5. I have a pack-a-day tissues habit. Ah-choo!
6. We turned the sprinkler on for the first time, and spent half a day and dug to China fixing broken heads and locating a pesky leak.  
7. Fish belly white legs around town as people try shorts and sandals for the first time in months.
8. I'm making plane reservations for my college daughter to come home for the summer. (Yay!)
9. Catalogs full of summer clothes and cruise line come-ons are clogging my mailbox.
10. An irresistible itch to wash every piece of fabric in the house--bedspreads, curtains, pillows, throws, etc.

 What are your infallible signs that spring is here?

STARTING OVER

Very soon, you’ll see an announcement that has been months and months in the making. I’m starting a new series with a new publisher and a new editor. This is like taking a different job . . . in a new city . . . with a company you’ve never worked for.

It’s not that my doings are such a huge deal. It’s just that in this era of publishing, when money is tight for new projects, and most writers have a publishing record that has a few flaws – including me – any assurance that you’re going to be working for the next three years is very welcome. But also a little scary.

I’m going to be writing alternative history, with a few supernatural elements. The research is a bear. You have to know what DID happen to decide what DIDN’T happen. And there are so many branches leading off from your initial premise that this is a different version of a familiar world. What would the banking situation be? How would boundaries be enforced? How would a once-united country, now broken into pieces, be policed? The answers to those questions lead off into yet more questions, until the project seems impossible.

Maybe I should have thought twice before tackling this project, huh? Especially since it includes two hot topics: guns and cars. Gun people and car people are famous for knowing the minutiae of their enthusiasms, and they will call your bluff with glee if you make a mistake.

I go through this process with some regularity: If gun people are so vigilant, why not just invent a gun? (Rex Stout did, and he invented a car, too.) But I’d almost certainly have to know how it was loaded and how it was fired. Then why not use a gun actually in production? Because it was manufactured in a place that no longer exists, in my new world. Why not just blur over all the details? Because real gun people will want to know. How many real gun people read my books? Maybe not many, but I want them to be happy.

How much research is enough? How much is too much? Have you ever stopped a book cold because you simply didn’t find the research credible?

Charlaine Harris

Double Trouble? Nope. Double Wonderful.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: How many blogs have we all read? Written? And yet, and yet, from time to time, there’s one that special. Heartfelt. Instructional. Educational. Revealing. And universally wonderful.

Take three minutes, do, and just read this.

Into the Woods

By Wendy Tyson

I took my thirteen-year-old sons for haircuts earlier this week. That may sound like a fairly stress-free event.

Show up. Watch some sports television in the waiting room. Check my Amazon rankings while listening to mindless boy banter. Read the news. Pay. Leave.

But in my household, haircuts are time bombs.

My boys are identical twins. And while twinning may be a thing for some sets of identicals, for my kids it’s a constant battle to differentiate themselves from The Other. Haircuts? There’s only so much you can do with short, dirty blonde, pin-straight hair.

Nevertheless, every trip to Sports Clips begins with “please, please give my brother a Mohawk,” and ends with two surly teenagers.

Since they were in utero, I’ve witnessed this competition between them. Baby B flipped positions at 32 weeks, painfully (for me) somersaulting his way to the head of his class. Before that, he was seen kicking his brother in the head during almost every ultrasound. Baby A entered our world calmly, a robust preemie with a pleasant personality. Baby B screamed his way through a week in the NICU, pulled out his IVs, and was so squirmy no one felt comfortable holding him other than his father and me.

We never dressed them the same, and we took pains to show their individuality to the world. Nevertheless, they struggled. At three-years-old, Baby B became obsessed with drawing. He was designing clothes by four and pointing gleefully at his brother’s stick figures. Baby A seemed quite content to draw stick figures. Art belonged to his twin.

At five-years-old, I overheard Baby A tell Baby B he couldn’t play with superhero action figures because “that’s my thing.” Baby B took up Barbie Dolls. I witnessed many a battle between Veterinarian Barbie and Superman.

At age eight, Baby B said to Baby A (quite sincerely), “You know what I love about you? You always know which twin I am.” Ah, love. The word I’d been waiting to hear.

But underlying that simple sentiment was a world of want and need. The desire to be recognized for who he was. The need to be viewed as an individual, not simply half of an appealing set. The truth is, people love twins, especially identical twins. I was warned by another mother when they were born that strangers would stop me constantly. They’ll want to touch them, she said. And they did.

Every stroll through the mall with Baby A and Baby B side by side in their double stroller required vigilance, graciousness, and patience. They were unique. They were a novelty. But not for who they were—for what they were.

As an author, I’m obsessed with voice. How do you make characters sound different? When writing from alternate points of view, how do you craft each character so that they feel part of the fictional world in which they live but still come across as a unique individual? As any fiction writer knows, it’s not easy. But that challenge gave me special insight into my boys’ fight for independence.

How do you have your own voice when you look the same, sound the same…when the world views you as interchangeable?

Their struggle has continued into teenage hood, although in some ways the pressure has eased. Baby B is two inches taller, and firmly entrenched in the art and theater world. He loves swimming, and is an expert on mythological lore. Baby A is more muscular, very justice-oriented, loves history, and he’s a lacrosse player (who still proudly draws stick figures). They share some friends, but have developed separate social circles. And they’re firmly and fiercely attached to one another in their own way.

Recently I was grappling with a book plot. I’d hit an impasse, and my normal tools weren’t working.

“Go into the woods,” Baby B told me. “It will help you clear your mind.”

Baby A agreed. “Go into the woods.”

We were at our home in Vermont at the time, and the woods were snow-covered and peaceful, a hushed wintry oasis full of animal tracks and not much else. Unsure what else to do, I took their advice. Our Labrador, Driggs, and I set out into the forest, wading through snow and climbing over half-buried branches and logs.

The quiet of nature helped, and I found my mind was free to wander, eventually landing on the twist that I needed for Seeds of Revenge. After a while, I spotted the boys, who were playing near a creek at the bottom of our property. I put a hand on Driggs to still him, and spent a moment listening to my sons.

They were creating a story, each taking a turn to add to the plot. Baby B would provide a thread about selkies or mermaids or some other mythological creature, and his brother would add historical context—Germany, around the time of World War I. It was a fascinating activity, this shared fictional world they were creating, so discordant and yet so coherent. I found my heart aching for my boys and their journey. Mostly I was happy that they’d each found their voice, and the courage and creativity to join those voices together.

HANK: This makes me cry. Love you so much.

And hurray for the starred review for your new book BITTER HARVEST! I’ll delightedly offer a copy to one lucky commenter.

SO Femmes—are you a twin? Did you ever with you were? Are the twins you know similar, or different? Gosh, can it be? I don’t think I know any.

 

Wendy Tyson is an author, lawyer and former therapist whose background has inspired her mysteries and thrillers.  Wendy has written four published crime novels, including Dying Brand, the third novel in the Allison Campbell Mystery Series, which was released on May 5, 2015.  The first in the Campbell series, Killer Image, was named a best mystery for book clubs in 2014 by Examiner.com.  Wendy is also the author of the Greenhouse Mystery Series, the first of which, A Muddied Murder, is due to be released in spring 2016.  Wendy is a member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers, and she is a contributing editor for The Big Thrill, International Thriller Writers’ online magazine.  Wendy lives with her husband, three sons and three dogs on a micro-farm just outside of Philadelphia.  

“Tyson’s first-rate second Greenhouse mystery stars big-city lawyer turned small-town organic farmer Megan Sawyer, a kind, intelligent, and spirited woman with great integrity. In short, she’s the sort of person cozy readers warm to and root for." – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Hurricane vs. Blizzards: Which Is Worse?

By Elaine Viets of the Femmes Fatales.

Everyone in my supermarket was shivering. We were bundled up in boots, scarves and heavy coats. All we could talk about at the deli counter was how cold it was.

"How are you?" asked the white-coated man behind the counter.

"Freezing," I said. He was slicing turkey breast for my dinner. "It's 55 degrees out."

He nodded. "The wind's brutal." He expertly wrapped the thick slices and said. "I'm not used to this in March."

"Me, neither."

Quit laughing. I'm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We're weather wimps. If you're one of the thousands in the Midwest and Northeast who got slammed by the March blizzard, you're not going to spare any sympathy for South Floridians. But dang, it's cold here. We don't have your character and fortitude. We've got lizard blood.

"At least it's not as bad as up north," I said piously.

The man behind the counter nodded and dished a hearty helping of mac and cheese into a container. "Now that's bad," he said. "Those poor people. Roofs collapsing, avalanches on the highway, roads closed, electricity off, winds blowing seventy miles an hour."

"Seventy! They were more than a hundred miles on Mount Washington, with gusts of 138."

"We have hurricanes," he said, "and they do damage. But man, the north has been blasted this spring."

We gave our fellow Americans a moment of silent sympathy.

Then he said, "I wonder which is worse – a hurricane or a blizzard?"

"I can answer that," I said. "I've been in both. A blizzard is far worse. Definitely. I was trapped in a blizzard for four days. FOUR DAYS! My husband and I were completely snowed in. Couldn't get down the steps. Couldn't get the car out of the garage, and if we did, we could be arrested for driving. Only emergency personnel were allowed on the streets. And cold? Our big old brick house was impossible to keep warm, and the electricity kept going on and off."

"Sounds terrible," he said, shaking his head and adding up my order.

"I've never been so cold. The wind was whistling through the windows and snow blew under the doors. The weather kept getting worse, day after day. We played Scrabble until we ran out of words. Next we ran out of chocolate. And then we ran out of booze."

His eyes widened. "No booze? That's dire."

"Now a hurricane is bad," I said. "But the last hurricane, we evacuated to a nice hotel inland before it hit. It had a terrific bar."

"So you had booze." He looked relieved.

"Lots. Good food, too. We were lucky and never lost power, so we had air-conditioning. We settled in and watched the storm on TV. Wrangling the two cats was a pain, but the only thing we ran out of was large bath towels."

"I don't think I could stand a storm without booze," he said, still horrified by my suffering during the blizzard. "You gotta drink through a hurricane."

"You know the best part about the hurricane?"

He shook his head.

"You don't have to shovel anything."

Which would you choose: a hurricane or a blizzard?

**********************************************************************************************************************

Stay safe and warm, readers. And happy St. Patrick's Day. Win SHOP TILL YOU DROP, the novel that started the Dead-End Job mysteries. Click Contests at www.elaineviets.com

 

The Ides of March

Not a good day for Julius Caesar... Et tu, Brute? and all that... but possibly a good day to talk about some of my favorite historical mysteries and series. I became fascinated with English history in my teenage years, so much so that I eventually went to graduate school and earned a Ph.D. in medieval history. Medieval England is my favorite, but I also enjoy other periods as well, particularly Elizabethan and Regency England. Then of course there's ancient Rome, the early Middle Ages, and those intriguing Victorians... colonial America, the pre-Columbian world, and, well, lots of history in lots of different places.

But back to the subject of historical mysteries. Here are some of my favorite books and authors.

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters. First in the wonderfully entertaining and informative series starring Amelia Peabody, later to become Mrs. Radcliffe Emerson. Late Victorian and early twentieth-century Egyptian archaeology never had a finer spokesperson than the late, great Dr. Barbara Mertz (aka Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels). The inimitable Amelia plunges headlong into adventure, danger, and romance, and you'll be laughing and turning the pages far into the night.

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters. Meant to be a one-off, this book introduced the twelfth-century herbalist monk Brother Cadfael. The character caught hold of Peters's imagination, and the result was a long-running series set against the civil war waged in England between two grandchildren of William the Conqueror -- Stephen of Blois (King Stephen) and the Empress Maud. Cadfael is one of the great characters of mystery fiction, Peters's finest creation.

Death Comes as Epiphany by Sharan Newman. The first adventure of Catherine le Vendeur introduces readers to the world of mid-twelfth-century France, and a vividly atmospheric world it is. Catherine had intentions of becoming a nun, but plans change, of course, and the result is a fascinating series that brings medieval France to life. Newman expertly weaves a full tapestry, showing many facets of the Middle Ages, both Christian and Jewish.

Catalina's Riddle by Stephen Saylor. Rome in the last years of the Republic is the setting for this series about a man named Gordianus the Finder. Saylor, a Texan with a degree in classics, has become a worldwide bestseller with these finely wrought stories of life in ancient Rome. Catilina's Riddle is the third in the series that began with Roman Blood. Saylor often uses historical events as the bases for his plots, and in this book, that event is the Catiline Conspiracy. The author shows that fact can make an enthralling basis for fiction.

The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry. The author was already well-established as a writer of Victorian mysteries featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt when she launched a new series with this book. William Monk wakes up in hospital having no memory of who he is or what his life was. He quickly discovers that he was a policeman who was badly injured during a case, and he doesn't let anyone realize he is suffering from amnesia. He is quickly forced to the realization that everyone who knows him loathes and fears him, and he wonders why. As he works to solve the case which brought him so low, he explores his own identity. Who was he, and why was he so despised? Does he really want to be that man again? Fascinating reading, and an interesting exploration of identity -- what really makes us who we are.

The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly. Joe Sandilands is a Scotland Yard man who has been seconded to India to share his expertise with the police there. It's the early 1920s, the time known as the "British Raj" when the British still held control in India. Sandilands is presented with a baffling case, and in solving it he will come to learn much about India. One of the things I love about this particular book is that the motive for murder is endemic, so to speak, to its setting. Sandilands solves three further cases in India (all enthralling) before returning to England where the series continues.

A Mortal Bane by Roberta Gellis. Set in mid-twelfth-century England, this book introduced Magdalen la Batarde, madam of a brothel in Southwark, London. Gellis was one of the two writers who introduced me to medieval England in my teens, the other being Anya Seton. Before she wrote mysteries, Gellis was well-known as the author of richly detailed medieval romances, a writer whose books were heavily laced with history along with a love story. Magdalen is unique among medieval sleuths, thanks to her profession, and sadly there are only four books in the series.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King. Fifteen-year-old Mary Russell was walking the Sussex Downs one day when she stumbled across a man who turned out to be none other than Sherlock Holmes. Thus begins an intriguing relationship between the young, outspoken, intelligent Russell and the greatest of all consulting detectives. Mary Russell is a vibrant character who can more than hold her own with Sherlock Holmes. Their adventures together have taken them to far-flung places, like Palestine and North Africa, not to mention India and Japan. This is a great series for anyone interested in strong female characters as sleuths.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Scarred emotionally by her service as a nurse in World War I, Maisie is working as a detective in London ca. 1929 when we first meet her in this book. Her methods are modeled on those of her mentor, Maurice Leblanc, who advocates a more psychological approach to solving crimes. This first book contains a mystery, but the main point of the story is getting to know Maisie and to begin to understand what makes her who she is. Winspear, much influenced by her grandparents' stories of life during and after World War I, weaves history and fiction together in compelling ways.

I could keep writing about historical mysteries until the Ides of March have passed, but that's enough for now. If you enjoy historical mysteries, or perhaps have never even read one, I hope you will enjoy some of these fine writers and their work.