“The job at Marco’s restaurant seemed a godsend. Best of all was the dapper piano player who entertained diners on Friday and Saturday nights. Smitten by his panache, talent, and sleek good looks, Lizzie flirted with him shamelessly. But although he was friendly enough, he never encouraged her affection. It took her longer than it should have to figure out why.” – Running in the Shadows
           
When I started writing Never Try to Catch a Falling Knife, the first book in my Lizzie Crane Jazz Age mystery series set in the mid-1920s, I decided to make the pianist in my protagonist singer’s band gay. That would enable them to work together companionably, without the complications of a romantic relationship. I also saw this as an opportunity to depict a close friendship between a gay man and a straight woman, especially in Running in the Shadows, the fourth book in my series in which the pianist’s former lover is murdered and he’s a suspect. Additionally, I enjoyed creating tension between Lizzie’s beau and her friend, showing the two men’s initial suspicion of each other and their jealousy, but not in the ordinary sense.
 
As the series evolved, I became interested in how people at that time viewed homosexuals–– men and women both––and what challenges they faced. During the early part of the Roaring Twenties in Manhattan, where my characters live, the subject of homosexuality gained popularity in novels, plays, and nightclub acts. Rockland Palace’s Hamilton Lodge in Harlem hosted elaborate drag balls that drew thousands of attendees including high-society notables. New York’s prestigious Savoy, the Astor Hotel, and Madison Square Garden held drag beauty contests. Cross-dressing men and women performed in Times Square and Greenwich Village as well, during what was known as the “Pansy Craze.”
 
Then in 1927, the State Legislature banned the appearance and discussion of gay men and lesbians onstage. Musicians, actors, and others risked having their careers ruined if their sexual preference became known. Anti-sodomy laws had been on the books in all states in the US since the end of the Revolutionary War, but now police earnestly enforced those laws. People found guilty of engaging in non-reproductive sex were sentenced to prison––up to ten years in New York, twenty in Massachusetts. The laws weren’t repealed nationwide until a Supreme Court decision in 2003.
 
When I began writing my fifth book in the series When the Blues Come Calling (scheduled for December 2025 release from Level Best Books), I learned that on June 11, 1926, police raided a Greenwich Village teahouse known as Eve’s Hangout, owned by a lesbian couple, Eva Kotchever and Ruth Norlander. Popular with artists, writers, and intellectuals including Anais Nin, Henry Miller, and Emma Goldman, the nightspot had become a haven for lesbians and counterculture types. Supposedly, a sign at the entrance said “Men admitted, but not welcome.” Police confiscated a self-published book of stories written by Kotchever (aka Eve Adams), titled Lesbian Love. She was arrested, found guilty of obscenity, and imprisoned in Welfare Island’s workhouse. Seventeen months later, she was deported to her native Poland, and in 1943 she died in an Auschwitz concentration camp.
 
Her story became part of my book, for surely if my characters had been real people they would have known Eve Adams and frequented the teahouse. Not only did relating her sad fate allow me to share a story of discrimination unknown to most people outside Manhattan, it also gave me a chance to depict a friendship between my straight heroine and a notorious lesbian, at a time when such relationships could be dangerous.
 
Currently, I’m working on the seventh book in my Lizzie Crane mystery series, which centers on NYC’s fashion industry in 1927. As my tale unfolds, I expect to discover more about the prejudices LBGTQ+ individuals faced a century ago and how some of those problems still exist today.
 
About the Author
 
Skye Alexander is the author of nearly fifty fiction and nonfiction books. Her stories have appeared in anthologies internationally, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. In 2003, she cofounded Level Best Books with fellow crime writers Kate Flora and Susan Oleksiw. So far, her Lizzie Crane mystery series includes four traditional historical novels set in the Jazz Age: Never Try to Catch a Falling Knife, What the Walls Know, The Goddess of Shipwrecked Sailors, and Running in the Shadows. The fifth, When the Blues Come Calling, is scheduled for release in September 2025 and she’s working on the seventh book now. After living in Massachusetts for thirty-one years, Skye now makes her home in Texas. Visit her at https://skyealexander.com 

​A Short History of the Long Road to Decriminalizing Sexuality in the US

Trailblazing: A History of Gay Rights in New York

In the Early 20th Century, America Was Awash in Incredible Queer Nightlife

My debut novel, Blaze Orange, came out in January through Level Best Books. Truly, a dream come true, and I couldn’t be more grateful. After years of writing and submitting multiple manuscripts to agents and publishers—I wrote about this saga in a previous blog on this site—I finally had a manuscript that became a reality.
 
As I reflect back on these past ten months as a newly minted author and realize how many aspects of my life have changed, I am struck by both the highs and the lows.
 
There are many more positive facets, with the drawbacks few and far between, and instead of saving the best for last, so to speak—you may not read that far, anyway—I want you to know the honor upfront.
 
Below are just a few of the experiences for which I’m amazed and grateful.
 

• Getting to know the Maine writing community. The support I’ve received has been remarkable—invitations to events, welcomed into the fold, tips on improving sales, sharing of contacts—one of my best advocates is a fellow Bestie, Matt Cost, but note, Matt was good to me BEFORE either of us were a Bestie. I met him six years ago at a writers’ conference. That’s how you know someone is genuine!
• Being able to finally wear the Author badge. I’ve been writing since I was seven. Having a published work is a validation I craved.
• Knowing that future ideas actually have a home. I find I’m now writing future books in the series with more purpose than simply writing “in the dark” and hoping someone will read them one day.
• Having confidence in additional projects. Besides having my first six novels still sitting “in a drawer,” unsold, waiting for possible rewrites, I also have outlines for completely new works too that I’m excited to start. Being published has only increased my ideas.
• Realizing I can juggle more than I thought. I do still have another “day” job along with writing Book Three and other works, and marketing Book One and the upcoming Book Two. It’s a good problem to have, and who needs sleep anyway?
• Seeing the excitement on friends’ and family’s faces and hearing their kind words. I’m especially awed by friends, both local and away, who have championed my book, securing speaking arrangements and book club invitations, and approaching libraries and bookstores on my behalf. One said to me, “I knew you when you were just ‘Allie.’”  I am still just Allie. I’m grateful they are as enthusiastic for me as I am.
• Having incredible experiences with readers. One person came to an event and whipped my book out of her bag. “I saw in the ad you’d be here. I read it, and loved it. Will you sign it for me?” I was touched. Others have come to speaking events to hear more about my writing process. Without readers, I would be nowhere. I know now more than ever people have to be extra careful on how they spend their money. To everyone who has purchased or read my book, a boatload of gratitude to you all.
• Being asked to be a subject matter expert. I’m now a contributor on a writers’ blog that I’ve admired for years as well as a participant in other events to give writing advice. Yes, I guess I’ve learned much along the way, and I’m happy to pass along what I can. Writing is a craft that can be taught. Patience, tenacity, and the joy of editing also have to be groomed.

 
Now to address the downside of this new author experience. It’s hard to believe there would be any lows, but sadly, some folks have vanished from my life since Blaze Orange came out. Yes, I considered some of these folks my friends. It’s hard to believe that some people actually didn’t want me to succeed. Perhaps they had me pegged to play a certain role in their own life, or they’re not seeing changes for themselves, and thus, they can’t witness someone else’s change. I need to point out that none of these people are fellow writers. All of the writers I know have been amazing.
 
The last note to add, although it’s not a deep low, does gnaw at me. Most people only see the end product. They may not know the struggle to write a novel, and submit it, and then to have it actually be accepted for publication, and then to appear on a bookshelf.  It may look to some like I’m an “overnight” success when it has taken decades of work to get to this place.
 
Overall, however, I am happy with this year beyond words. Thank you, Level Best Books, for being the home that you are for me and many other writers.  I look forward to next year “on the circuit” with two published books, more to juggle, and more ideas to bring to life.
 
 Allison Keeton lives in Maine with her muse, Tom, and their two dogs. 
She has twice been accepted into Rutger University’s invitation-only writers’ conference and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Additionally, she received an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University.
Besides writing mysteries, she has written numerous business articles and published a book on job hunting called Ace that Interview. She also writes a creative non-fiction blog, Largest Ball of Twine.    
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All he world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts….
As You Like it by William Shakespeare
 
There is an old adage among writing teachers that says ‘write what you know” which is perhaps the most limiting thing a writer can listen to. Imagine only being able to write about your MFA program or limiting your story possibilities to your high school experiences? Or stories that take place only in your small town?

The truth of it is that a good writer uses the source material of their own life to inform the human reactions in their fiction and the worlds one builds in those stories but just as a start.

Obviously, someone who has had a limited life experience would seem to be at a disadvantage if you wanted to tell a story in another time and place. Say, if one wishes to write a World War Two tale and were born in the 1960s you sure can’t draw on your own life experience, but you can draw on other people’s lived experience by doing research! First person sources, like diaries, journals, news reports or even old movies that show actual locations become a big help.

But period research only gives you the ‘outside’ of a story, that is, what it looks like, maybe even what it sounded like. It is up to the author to get inside the characters, to imagine yourself in that scenario and to imbue the people with the human qualities you have observed in your own life. Even if the characters are not human.

 This is where the ‘write what you know’ applies—you know what mud feel like under your feet, how rain in your face feels, you can extrapolate fear and joy and terror that one might experience in a combat circumstance. The same applies to any location or experience outside your own personal life—research obsessively (at least I do)-- to give it verisimilitude-- and as if you were an actor imagine yourself in the shoes of your character and inhabit them in this new world you have created.

And less you think this applies to only historical or fantasy worlds, remember—in any story you write you have to create the entire reality for the reader. You have to give them not only the color and shape but the feel of the reality that your character is in. Not everyone knows what being in New York is like, or how walking across the Arizona desert feels.

So, a real world on the page--especially in a world where your writing might be read by a world-wide audience. You have to assume your readers are coming on this journey with you for the first time and give them all they need to know.
How is all this relevant to the whole life-mining process? Isn’t this just simple research, basic writing protocols?

Yes and no. I am one of the writers fortunate enough to have had a, shall we say, a colorful life, before turning my full attention to writing. I’ve been shot, stabbed, set on fire, hit by cars and thrown downstairs.

I worked as a book illustrator, a haunted house barker, a bodyguard, a fight choreographer, teacher, actor, jouster and professional stuntman. Most of that list was in professional capacities, and some of it was for real—I have the scars to prove it.

Somewhere in the middle of a tough stunt years ago I decided that while I could always fall down, eventually I would not be able to get up—so I started writing. Part time at first and over a twenty-year period I had work published in magazines, anthologies and then novels, all in a number of genres. Fantasy, mystery, adventure… and then I decided to combine them all in a new series; The Weird Casefiles of Jack Silence!

In Jack Silence is a former stuntman and actor with a penchant for quoting Shakespeare and lives in a realistically drawn New York where The Convergence has happened—the world of the Fey overlays on ours.

The laws of physics and science no longer apply, and the old magicks have begun to creep back in. Not all at once, mind you, but gradually and with seemingly arbitrary rules. It’s a slow-motion apocalypse where internal combustion engines no longer work but magick carpets do; climate change has nothing on this set of circumstances.

Gargoyles, Pixies, Gnomes, Dragons and all sorts of creatures we’ve taken for granted were fantasy now walk or fly the streets of the Manhattan Island.

Not all smooth sailing as sometimes when the Fey come through the barrier they go mad and become violent—when that happens you have to call a Parafey eliminator and Jack Silence sets himself up in business using his life skills as the Ghostmaker.

In a mix of detective, adventure and fantasy elements Jack gathers a loyal staff—a zombie receptionist, a living stone Gnome office manager and a psychic banisher named Madam Vixen to help with spirit problems.

I can say without lying every character and many of the action scenes in the world of Jack Silence have an analog in my real life (something those in my writing group have noted ‘did you really do that? Or is he based on me?)—I’ll never tell!

So. if you like grounded fantasy adventures then look for Guns, Goons and Goblins, the first Jack Silence book coming out next October from Level Best Books!

To quote the bard—To be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.”

 
Teel James Glenn has killed hundreds and been killed more times—on stage and screen, as forty-plus years as a stuntman, then he decided to do something risky: become an author.

He has dozens of published books in multiple genres, and his poetry and stories have been printed in over two hundred magazines, including Weird Tales, Mystery, Pulp Adventures, Mad, Black Cat Weekly, Cirsova, and Sherlock Holmes Mystery.
He is a Shamus, Silver Falchion and Derringer finalist and won Best Novel 2021 in the Pulp Factory Award and winner of the 2012 Pulp Ark Award for Best Author.
His website is: TheUrbanSwashbuckler.com Facebook: Teel James Glenn  Bsky: @Teelglenn

We’ve all experienced moments when life forces us to change. Maybe it was a job loss, a health crisis, a move across the country, or even a pandemic. These transitions challenge our sense of self and often prompt us to ask: Who am I now?

In my mystery novel Cosplayed to Death, I explore this question through the lens of Claire Fontaine, a former Washington D.C. attorney whose life is upended after surviving a bombing that destroys her law firm. The trauma leaves her with Foreign Accent Syndrome, a rare condition that causes her to speak with a French accent, despite being California-born. As she starts over in a small coastal town as a caterer, Claire becomes a case study in the psychology of reinvention.

Her story mirrors what psychologists call “identity disruption, a psychological "gap" where the old identity no longer fits, but a new one has not yet formed. Claire must write a new story, but like many of us, she isn’t sure how.

Social psychologist Dr. Amy Cuddy’s research on impostor syndrome suggests that when our external identity shifts (new roles, appearances, or careers) we often feel like frauds. Claire feels this tension daily, caught between her old role as a lawyer and her new life as a chef. The problem is also compounded by an online troll who challenges the legitimacy of her French accent and her cooking skills.

Psychologist Erik Erikson’s theory of adult development calls this a battle between “generativity and stagnation” (growth vs. staying stuck in the past). Claire’s transition isn’t just a career change, it’s an identity rupture that forces her to choose between clinging to her past life as a lawyer (stagnation) or embracing the uncertain path of reinvention (generativity). Initially overwhelmed by imposter syndrome, she begins to rediscover herself through food, creativity, and personal expression. In doing so, Claire embodies Erikson’s idea that adulthood requires continuous self-redefinition, turning the kitchen into a space of healing, growth, and authentic transformation.

Other characters in the novel show the darker sides of identity reinvention. Ricky Bingle, a social-climbing narcissist, represents what Dr. Jean Twenge calls “narcissistic self-enhancement.” In Ricky’s decision to buys the captain position reflects an attempt to reshape his identity and create a new, more powerful self-image, even though it’s not backed by his actual skills. Rather than addressing his limitations or genuinely developing his abilities, he seeks to reinvent himself through external status. However, this type of reinvention is more about creating a facade rather than authentic growth.

Renée Efterlig, who completely transforms her body to cosplay as a fictional queen, embodies what researchers refer to as “identity fusion” (when someone integrates the persona of their chosen character into their own identity, feeling a strong emotional connection and sense of belonging to that character). This fusion leads them to embody the character’s traits, values, and actions, sometimes blurring the lines between their real self and the character they portray. Through cosplay, they experience a heightened sense of unity with both the character and the larger fan community.

But Claire’s evolution models something much healthier. Psychologist Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman describes “self-actualization through integration”, the ability to combine different parts of ourselves into a more complete identity. Claire doesn’t reject her past or cling to it; instead, she allows it to inform who she’s becoming: a sleuth, an emergency legal advocate, and a chef. Claire voices this when she says, “I’m not staying in Caper Cove forever,” informing us that she isn’t choosing between versions of herself, but she’s building a broader one.

Psychologists like Dr. Kate McLean call this “autobiographical reasoning” , which is about connecting the past with the present in meaningful ways. It's also central to what researchers term “post-traumatic growth,” where adversity becomes a catalyst for deeper purpose.

As her roommate Torres wisely tells her, “Maybe home isn’t a place. Maybe it’s where you feel like yourself, whatever version of yourself you want to be.” That insight aligns with psychologist Carl Rogers’ idea of congruence—being true to yourself across all life’s changes.

In a culture that glorifies radical makeovers and total reinvention, Cosplayed to Death offers a different message: that growth isn’t about becoming someone new, but becoming more fully yourself.

Elle Jauffret is a French-born American lawyer, former criminal attorney for the California Attorney General's Office, and culinary enthusiast. She graduated from Université Côte d'Azur Law School (France) and the George Washington University Law School (USA) and is an active member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. An Agatha Award nominee, PenCraft Award recipient, and Claymore Award finalist, Elle volunteers as a write-in host for Sisters in Crime and regularly appears as a panelist, moderator, and guest speaker at conferences across the country (including WonderCon, Comic-Con, San Diego Writers Festival, and Southern California Writers' Conference). She has chaired the Pediatric Literacy Program at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (aka Bethesda Naval Hospital), promoting children’s literacy among the military community. Elle is an avid consumer of mystery and adventure stories in all forms, especially escape rooms. She lives in Southern California with her family, along the coast of San Diego County, which serves as the backdrop for her Suddenly French Mystery series.
​
You can find her at https://ellejauffret.com or on social media @ellejauffret.

An interviewer asked me recently which I prefer to write: standalones or series? As I await the Level Best Books re-launch of my “Witch Cats of Cambridge” cozy series, the answer is obvious – but not for the reason you may think.

Before I get into it, I should explain that I love all my books. Asking an author if they prefer one work over another is kind of like asking a parent which is their favorite child. My standalones, which tend to be dark (like Hold Me Down or The Butterfly Trap) will always excite me. In these books, I get to explore adult themes and sexuality and really dig into the dark side of humanity. (Yes, I used to write quite a bit about psychology and mental illness, see: Mad House.) Plus, when those books were finished and off to my agent, I felt done with them – I could clean out my head of betrayal, rape, substance abuse, and characters playing off each other, sometimes unintentionally, in some truly twisted ways.

My cozy series, of which there are several, are a different experience. Over the first four “Witch Cat” books, for example, I’ve come to love spending time with (that is, writing about) dear Becca, a smart, well-intentioned young woman who truly believes she has magical powers. And I’ve fallen equally hard for her three cats – Harriet, Laurel, and Clara – who are the ones who actually have magical power and whose primary duty, as it is with all cats, is to keep their person safe.

People have some misconceptions about cozies. Because they’re gentler than other types of mysteries, some think they’re likely to be cloying or cute. In truth, they deal with real emotions, same as my darker books. If anything, they are more reliant on believable human interactions: nobody is evil in a cozy, although some are misled or confused. (Even my killers tend to either have acted on a misguided impulse or gotten worked up beyond their normal states.) Characters must have honest motivations – even if these are based on misperceptions – if readers are going to relate to them. And in cozies, even more than in, say, thrillers, the relationship between the reader and the folks in the book is vital. We read cozies for the plots, sure. But we love them for the characters.

Even animal characters need to pass muster on this point. True, in our everyday lives we may not know exactly what our cats are thinking. But as we commit them to the page, we have to see them as three-dimensional, with their likes and biases, virtues and flaws – as real as any of us. As I write Becca’s three litter-mate pets, Harriet, Laurel, and especially Clara – who, as Becca’s primary caretaker serves as the heart of this series – I’m particularly aware of how real sibling relationships can play out, and how teasing (and even bullying) give way to the underlying love when push comes to shove.

This is where the writer in me should also point out that cozies are not easier to write than darker books. Do you know the old saw about Ginger Rogers? That she did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in heels? Well, that’s true of cozies, too. Sure, we have to plot carefully and people our books with believable characters (both human and feline). Only in the case of cozies we have to make it all seem as light as a souffle – or one of Rogers’s fancy quick steps, all swirling skirts and pumps, with a smile as bright as the sun.

With both kinds of books, I – the writer – immerse myself in their world. I have to think like my characters and, to some extent, see the world as they do. Hear their voices. For the extent of the writing period, this means they’re in my head, my dreams, and my heart.

Which leads me back to that original question: Which do I prefer to write, standalones or cozies? By now you can probably guess that – at least for now – it’s cozies. You see, I’m not only awaiting the re-launch of A Spell of Murder, An Incantation of Cats, A Cat on the Case, and To Conjure a Killer, I’m finishing up final edits on The Cat’s Eye Charm, a new “Witch Cat” mystery, which should be out in December, and looking forward to starting a sixth “Witch Cat.” And that means I get to live in this particular world for a bit longer, savoring its particular brand of warmth and magic. A blend that I hope you readers will enjoy as well.

Won’t you join me?

Clea Simon is the Boston Globe-bestselling author of three nonfiction books and more than 30 mysteries, including World Enough and Hold Me Down, both of which were named “Must Reads” by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. A graduate of Harvard University and former journalist, she has contributed to publications ranging from Salon.com and Harvard Magazine to Yankee and The New York Times. Visit her at www.CleaSimon.com.

I had to noodle for a while to come up with something about my books that differs from what my fellow Besties have to offer. It seems they cover the bases many times over with strong protagonists and unique voices, clever, devious, and twisty plots, and dynamite settings. I also have a sassy, independent young woman protagonist with a chip on her shoulder who lives in an antebellum inn, an antique train station and a caboose, and who gets into all manner of trouble. But she has one skill that other writers don’t employ: graphology, the use of handwriting analysis for personality evaluation.

I’ve been fascinated by handwriting since I was six and my father was institutionalized in a state mental hospital with manic depression. I could tell by his letters how he was doing. Small, very light, downward slanting writing told me he was depressed, while large, powerful writing that dominated the whole page indicated an upward spiral into mania. Of course, little unicorns in the corners were also a hint.

I began studying graphology in earnest in the eighties, became certified at the professional level, and then worked for thirty years with Barbara Harding Associates. We used graphology to create profiles of candidates for hiring, to profile persons of interest for law enforcement, as a tool in counseling and education, for lawyers in jury selections, to evaluate threat letters…so many varied applications where it was important to understand the unique characteristics of personality. My latest application is to incorporate elements of graphology in fiction.

At a recent book signing event, a noted psychologist stated that the study of graphology had been debunked by multiple well-known studies and was basically worthless as a tool. It’s true that graphology is a soft science and that it is not admissible as fact in a court of law. Graphology doesn’t predict behavior any more than a SAT score predicts academic performance. However, centuries of empirical evidence demonstrate its usefulness in the understanding of personality.

Many resist graphology as a useful tool until demonstrations show how accurately the strokes they make represent them. When I had my writing analyzed, my small script suggested a focused, detailed nature that delved deeply, tending toward the expert side rather than the larger picture. My connectors have angles and garlands, two somewhat contradictory traits. Angles indicate an analytical, problem-solving bent, and the tendency to be critical. Garlands suggest a more giving, open nature. Other traits for humor, communication ability, goal setting, etc. were right on. And then there is the large fu-k-you K-buckle in my first name, Katherine, a strong sign of authority resistance.

Think of handwriting as brain writing. Your hand is dumb until it receives explicit directions from your brain, and your brain is different from anyone else’s brain. Your writing is as singular as your brain and as unique as a snowflake. Court-certified document examiners take physical measurements of various aspects of writing to prove or disprove forgery. In contrast, graphologists will interpret a host of both positive negative traits to create a personality profile.

Casey Cavendish, my protagonist, has studied graphology and uses handwriting analysis to understand other players’ characteristics in all three novels. In The Drinking Gourd, Casey painstakingly traces over the writing of her erstwhile friend Jules, over and over and over again, to feel what it’s like to write like Jules. Casey studies the writing. She knows what she’s doing and pays attention to the size and formation and slant of the letters, the spacing between letters and words and the pressure of the pen on the paper. She practices in order to forge a suicide note to save her brother from prosecution. Readers often comment about how they enjoy witnessing how Casey studies the strokes made by Jules.

Try it. Select a writing that you can see is quite different from yours. If you have little letters, try tracing large letters. You’ll feel as if you’re falling off the page. If you are a fast writer, choose an exact, copybook, careful writing. You will be surprised at how frustrating it is to write slowly and to be so exact. If you usually print, try tracing someone’s cursive script. You’ll get a small sense of what it’s like to be another person just by tracing the writing.

In Church Street Under, Casey recognizes her aunt’s forgery on a critical document and uses her knowledge of handwriting to challenge and foil the aunt’s attempt to steal property.
In Caboose, Casey manages the rental of a large mansion. New tenants appear to be a very successful, wealthy young couple, an illusion that is shattered when Casey compares separate notes left by the husband and wife, one of the first clues that points to serious trouble. The husband’s writing shows him to be a driven, angry individual with a penchant for violence and little compassion for others despite his outward affable, public persona. The wife has a gentler mix of traits, but mixes vanity and an appreciation for the finer things with signs of manipulative tendencies. The partnership leads to a conflagration that causes serious trouble for Casey and threatens the couple’s little boy.

I’ve also used handwriting in short stories. One in particular, “Free Advice” focuses on the tendency of friends and acquaintances to ask for a quick and dirty examination of writings which they expect to be free. This story illustrates the danger of concentrating on a single trait—in this instance “decisiveness”—while ignoring other, equally important traits, that lead to disastrous consequences.

In each application, I hope to provide enough analysis to explain the interpretation without delving too deeply into the weeds. If you read these stories, please let me know if the inclusion of graphology enhances your enjoyment. Thanks for reading, Kat
[email protected]
 
 
Katherine Fast received Professional Level certification from the American Association of Handwriting Analysts, and Master Graphotherapist from the Institute of Graphological Science. Working with Barbara Harding Associates, she has applied graphology in personnel screening, executive search, jury selection, and educational counseling. Using her workbook, Graphology the Fast Way, she’s taught courses in California and Massachusetts.

She’s written three novels in the Casey Cavendish Mystery series, The Drinking Gourd, Church Street Under, and Caboose, and has published over thirty short stories in various anthologies.

Someone once asked me how long I spend doing research for my historical crime novels. In truth, I am not sure, but I replied by saying that perhaps fifty percent of my writing time is occupied using digitised newspapers and other online sources to check the accuracy and authenticity of the settings and detail of The Reggie da Costa Mysteries. My research covers everything from crime and criminals, clothes, cars and architecture, to the political, social and economic landscape of Australia in the 1910s and 1920s. I’ve also come to realise that this aspect of my writing life is something I love doing, not only because it provides the information that I require, but also because it satisfies my love of trivia and the bizarre.
 
So here, for your reading pleasure, are some of those little absurdities that have made me chuckle as I pursue my passion as an historical crime writer.
 
My first novel, The Death Mask Murders, was inspired by my work as a volunteer guide at the Old Melbourne Jail. In the cells are displayed death masks of executed felons. This gave me the impetus for a story line: What if the psychopath in The Death Mask Murders had developed a fixation with death masks and created them as ‘trophies’ of his victims?


Back in the real world of Australia in the 1800s, these death masks were created to prove that criminality could be predicted, by applying the pseudo-science of Phrenology. This theory asserted that a person’s character could be determined by the shape, or contours, of their skull. Although this theory has now passed its ‘use-by date’, I was fascinated to learn that some expressions associated with Phrenology are still used today. For example, describing people as ‘well-rounded’, their interests as ‘high-brow’ or low-brow’, or even suggesting that ‘You should get your head read,’ are derived from Phrenology.

Similarly, there were others in the past who ascribed criminal tendencies to certain physical characteristics. Cesare Lombroso, an Italian criminologist from the late nineteenth century, asserted that most murderers who committed crimes of passion had bright or ‘hard’ blue eyes and persisted in staring. To support his case, examples of serial killers were given: Dr Crippen, Frederick Deeming and George Joseph Smith (the ‘Brides-in-the-Bath’ murderer), amongst them. In Pennsylvania, the killers of Joseph Raber were known as ‘The Blue-Eyed Six’.
Followers of Lombroso also believed that criminals were born with heads smaller than normal, again a variation on the theories of Phrenology: that particular physical characteristics were an indication of criminal tendencies.

My second novel, Deadly Intent, features Squizzy Taylor, Australia’s best-known gangster from the 1920s. My research revealed that Joseph Theodore Leslie Taylor, or ‘Squizzy’ as he was known, was nicknamed for his squint. This diminutive jury fixer, thief, sly-grogger and murderer modelled himself on the bootleggers of America’s Prohibition days. He was a flashy dresser, a dandy, favouring iridescent silk shirts, velvet collared coats, patent leather shoes, fawn gloves, silk socks and diamond rings. It was said that when Detective Piggott raided his home, he was surprised to find Squizzy in bed wearing pink silk pyjamas. Not your usual gangster from the wrong side of the tracks!

Another of Squizzy’s idiosyncrasies was his taste in cars: flashy American models that he would leave parked outside a suburban police station when he committed crimes, giving him the perfect alibi. He was also very disorganised and forgot to organise a getaway car in his first foray into armed robbery, forcing him to hail a taxi. 

On a more serious note, Deadly Intent also features the police strike of 1923, when 600 members (or one third) of the Victoria Police failed to report for duty. The newspaper reports were firmly on the side of the government, even though the strikers had valid reasons to protest. Long hours, poor pay, no pension, working seven days a week with one Sunday off a month, and being required to buy their uniforms, made up the major part of the strikers’ complaints. The final straw was the appointment of four Special Supervisors to secretly monitor or spy on ordinary constables on the beat.

The response of the public to the news that the police were on strike was enthusiastic, to say the least. Thousands poured into the city of Melbourne, smashing windows, looting shops, getting drunk, even upending a tram and setting it on fire. A menswear shop, The Leviathan, had an unfortunate and prescient sign in their front window: ‘GENUINE CLEARING SALE’, ‘WHY GO SHABBY?’ The suggestion was taken literally by the mob who helped themselves to the clothing on display. 

Baton-wielding police and volunteers drove the rioters back with fire hoses. Army, air force and navy leave was cancelled. A detachment of 200 men from Queenscliff Garrison Artillery and Engineers was sent to Melbourne, each man issued with 200 rounds of ammunition and carrying a rifle fitted with a bayonet. At the Victoria Barracks, machine guns were also held in readiness. Soldiers and sailors guarded the banks, the treasury, Government House and other public buildings. It was interesting that the government of the day was prepared to deal with the strikers using lethal force.

Another interesting aspect of my research revealed that although the ensuing Royal Commission recommended that the strikers’ demands be granted, not a single striker was re-employed. Another interesting fact was that the government of the day prohibited the export of newsreel footage so that this embarrassing event should not be viewed overseas.

My third novel, A Deadly Game, will be published in June this year. One of the most interesting aspects of researching the book was discovering that the excavation and discovery of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun prompted an obsession with all things Egyptian. Theme parties, Egyptian style jewellery, décor and artefacts became immensely popular. The downside was that this interest fostered a burgeoning black market in Egyptian treasures throughout the world.

We often think that scam artists and con men and women are a blight on the present day alone, but their presence was felt in the 1800s and 1900s too. In my research for Lies and Deception, I researched some of the more outrageous confidence tricks seen in ‘Scam History’.

Apart from William McCloundy, who sold the Brooklyn Bridge to a tourist, there have been many other examples of infamous scam artists. Not to be outdone, George C. Parker sold Madison Square Garden, General Grant’s Tomb, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Statue of Liberty to gullible buyers. He took up residence in Sing Sing. And then there was Victor Lustig, who became infamous for selling the Eiffel Tower twice for scrap metal. Not to be outdone, Elizabeth Bigley, alias Cassie Chadwick, posed as the illegitimate daughter of industrialist Andrew Carnegie, ripping off the banks for millions of dollars in loans, at a time when women were not allowed to borrow from banks or vote.

On a smaller scale, but just as effective in drawing in the gullible and the naïve, were the snake oil salesmen, peddling patent medicine drugs containing alcohol, morphine, opium or cocaine. Phony claims of their efficacy and lack of government regulation in the late 1800s and early 1900s led to their widespread use. The tragic case of Eben Byers, who took Radithor (radium water) to ease the pain of an injured arm, is perhaps a more extreme example of the effects of pills, salves, lotions and syrups pushed by fake doctors. Byers died of ‘radium poisoning’ in 1932, after his jaw fell off and his bones disintegrated. He was buried in a lead-lined coffin.
​
No doubt, other crime writers apart from me have shaken their heads, chuckled and thought:

‘If I wrote that, no one would believe me!’
 
Laraine Stephens lives in Beaumaris, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. She worked as a teacher-librarian and Head of Library for over 35 years. After retiring at the end of 2013, she became a writer of historical crime fiction. Apart from writing, she is an avid golfer, loves travelling, going to the football and playing Mahjong, and enjoys reading, restaurants and films. For five years she worked as a volunteer guide at the Old Melbourne Gaol.
 
She is a member of Writers Victoria, Sisters in Crime (Australia), the Australian Crime Writers’ Association, the Historical Novel Society of Australasia, the International Thriller Writers and the Crime Writers’ Association of the United Kingdom.
​
Laraine has a six-book contract with Level Best Books (USA).

‘No matter which century, Besties Kathleen Kalb and Erica Miner prove that an opera house is the perfect setting for murder and mayhem—fictional and otherwise.’
 

​Erica Miner believes opera theatres are perfect places for creating fictional mischief! Drawing on her 21 years as a violinist at the famed Metropolitan Opera, Erica’s fanciful plot fabrications reveal the dark side of that fascinating world in her Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series. The three books in the series have been recognized as: finalist, 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Awards and Chanticleer Independent Book Awards; Distinguished Favorite, 2024 NYC Big Book Awards, and Distinguished Favorite, 2025 Independent Press Awards. Erica’s debut novel, Travels with My Lovers, won the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. Her screenplays have won awards in the Writer’s Digest, Santa Fe, and WinFemme competitions. She is also a top speaker and lecturer both nationally and internationally and a frequent contributor to multiple arts websites.
 
 
Kathleen Marple Kalb ​is an Author/Anchor/Mom…not in that order. A Regional Edward R. Murrow award-winning weekend anchor at New York’s 1010 WINS Radio, she writes short stories and novels including the Old Stuff, Ella Shane, and as Nikki Knight, the Grace the Hit Mom and Vermont Radio Mysteries. Her stories (under both names) have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, and prestigious anthologies. She’s been a finalist for National Excellence in Storytelling (NEST), Derringer, and Black Orchid Novella Awards. Kathleen, her husband, and son live in a Connecticut house owned by a large calico cat.
 
EM: Kathleen, congratulations on your series! There are so many things I love about our commonalities. Our strong female opera-connected protagonists for starters, but we’ve both had prominent careers in New York City and are passionate about OPERA—specifically, the one called Metropolitan.
 
KK: Congratulations on YOUR series. Very impressive! I have to tell you, you hooked me with that opening in Aria for Murder. It’s got a great thriller vibe and really draws in the reader! And one of the things I love in the whole series is the way the Met itself is essentially a character. You take us backstage and just immerse us in that world. And I'm in awe of your time at the Met. For the obvious reason of the amazing skill to get there, of course—but also: “There's the Met, and everything else,” The Met is shorthand for the absolute peak of one’s profession. It’s a common expression among some of us news folk to explain why we endure backbreaking commutes and crazy schedules to keep working at 1010 WINS.
 
EM: That sounds a lot like what we crazy musicians do to keep working at the Met! I’m so glad you got the thriller vibe from Aria. I’m rather partial to that opening too. For starters, I’m dying to know how you became interested in writing about the Met.
 
KK: Honestly, I didn’t start off as an opera fan. I started off as a Beverly Sills fangirl. And I still am! Sills got me interested in opera, and “high culture” in general. As a kid growing up in the Western Pennsylvania back country, I read her memoir, and it was a window into a whole different world. I ended up exploring opera and other things because Sills talked about them in this wonderful down-to-earth voice – I figured if “a little Brooklyn girl” could enjoy them, I might too!
 
EM: I love when people are converted to opera! Your Ella Shane mystery series and my Julia Kogan opera mysteries take place in different historical periods: yours at the turn of the twentieth century and mine contemporary. I’m fascinated that our protagonists are both strong-willed, musically talented young women, one a violinist, the other an opera singer, with similar penchants for getting in trouble! Do you find that as extraordinary as I do?
 
KK: It’s pretty amazing! We both landed on characters who enable us to use our backgrounds as performers, as well as the other things we do. You’re an accomplished musician and a journalist, and you bring both to your work. I’m a radio news anchor, which is a much more performance-oriented job than folks might expect, and a lifelong history buff, and both really play into the Ella books. And of course, we’re both mystery fans, so our characters would have to end up in the middle of murder and mayhem!
 
EM: I have no doubt that being a radio news anchor is performance oriented. Ella and Julia are anything but professional sleuths. Yet they both become entangled in murder investigations. Ella sounds like quite the fascinating mix. How would you describe her?
 
KK: Usually, I describe Ella as part Beverly Sills, part Errol Flynn (trouser roles and swordplay!), part Anne of Green Gables, and all her own woman. Ella and the Met have been circling each other for most of the series…in each of the first three books, which were with an earlier publisher, she considers overtures from the Met, but – unlike just about any other opera singer in her world – is in no hurry to get there, because she has a successful touring company. But in the fourth book, A Fatal Reception, she arrives at long last, deciding to settle for her impending marriage. Her best friend, the Met’s resident Queen of the Night, is married with young children, and a major influence on her decision. It's really interesting, because Ella almost fights coming to the Met, but Julia’s actively worked her way there. Tell me how you see her?
 
EM: In some ways similar to Ella, yet very different. Julia is a musical Nancy Drew with a keen sense of justice, who knows nothing about investigating murders. She starts out a naïve, starry-eyed young violinist thrilled to be making her debut in the orchestra of the Met, the world’s most prestigious opera house, with no clue that something terrible is about to happen. Before she knows it, and to her own surprise, she finds herself entangled in a murder investigation. First Julia is devastated to witness the murder of her beloved mentor, the conductor, on the podium during her opening night performance. But when her closest colleague in the orchestra is accused of the crime, and Julia’s sense of justice kicks in, and she is determined to find the real killer. Mind you, she has no idea where to begin. She uses her instincts, much as Ella does, to start the journey.
 
KK: I love that we both integrate the murder mystery into the performance and the life of the company. Okay, I’m going to fangirl a little because we’re pals and I know you won’t judge me. You have to have a good Beverly Sills story or two…


EM: Considering that she was one of the greatest of all divas, Beverly was amazingly down to earth and known for her practical quotes, such as, “There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.” What a gal! For sure she took no shortcuts to get where she was going! I was lucky enough, through some backstage connections, to have met her on a few occasions at New York City Opera, and she was as gracious and natural as they come. But I think my favorite story came from a backstage conductor at NYCO who was in the wings during an opera where Beverly had constant on- and off-stage entrances and exits. When she flounced off the stage after the last one, she gave a huge sigh and declared, “What a way to make a living!” That was Beverly!
 
KK: What an amazing talent – and professional! Did she end up in your characters?
 
EM: I played many performances both at the Met and NYCO with Sills. Though I definitely had her in mind, she didn’t specifically inspire my “diva” characters, most of whom are the “detestable,” like the soprano in Prelude to Murder. But Kathleen, I love that Beverly Sills partially inspired your portrayal of Ella. How much of Beverly is there in your protagonist?
 
KK: Actually, a lot. She’s a New York kid made good, very down-to-earth and aware of herself as a New Yorker, which really chimes with the Sills of her memoirs. And most importantly, everything I’ve read about Sills’ love of the work and professionalism really helped inform the way Ella behaves as a singer and owner of her own touring company.
 
EM: Not to mention Ella’s “Beverly” strawberry blond hair! What are the chances that both Ella and Julia have super close friends who are opera singers? Yours is known as “the Met's resident Queen of the Night.” Is that related in any way to the Queen being one of Sills’s signature roles?
 
KK: It absolutely is! In Sills’ memoir, she talks about what a tough role it is, and how a coloratura who can sing it well can essentially write her own ticket. Which is absolutely perfect for Ella’s friend Marie, who’s married and raising a young family while maintaining a career. That’s a tough lift even in 2025, and it was virtually impossible in 1900, but Marie’s incredibly rare and valuable skill gives her a chance to make it work.  Marie’s deep commitment to both family and opera – an echo of Sills’ values – inspires Ella to go forward with her own courtship and marriage. Tell me more about how you created Julia’s singer friend.
 
EM: I just love your description of Marie! In both Prelude to Murder and Overture to Murder, Marin (what are the chances mine and yours are spelled almost exactly the same—great minds!) and Julia meet at the Met Café, which is virtually the only place we lowly “downstairs” (the orchestra pit is two levels down from the stage) musicians get to hobnob with the “upstairs” performers. The two young women hit it off immediately. Unlike Marie, however, Marin is a mezzo, and was inspired by true stories that some famous opera singers—Frederica von Stade and Jennifer Larmore among them—were kind enough to share with me. As you know from Ella, mezzos have entirely different personalities from sopranos. Less diva, more down to earth. But they’re all fascinating.
 
KK: One of the other wonderful things about your series is the way you weave it into the Met.
This series couldn’t happen anywhere else, with any other characters. You do such a wonderful time of bringing the reader right there.
 
EM: Thank you!
 
KK: Is that all from your experience…or did you have to do any additional research?   
 
EM: For the first book in the series, Aria for Murder, it was one hundred percent Met. After 21 years hanging out all over that opera house, I knew the place inside out and used my experiences to inspire the plot and characters. After a reader asked me for a sequel and insisted it take place at Santa Fe Opera (he was right; it’s a unique and magnificent setting), I combined my Met experiences with the atmosphere at Santa Fe and stories I heard from the people at the opera to create the story. A San Francisco Opera friend made a similar suggestion, and I realized I could add my Met experiences to what I learned at other opera houses and from my research to create the same authenticity as the series moved along. Speaking of research, I had a great time connecting with your story, characters, and setting in Fatal Waltz. What kind of research did you do to authenticate the inner workings of the world’s most famous opera house at the time of your story?
 
KK: I spent incredible amounts of time online tracking down programs and calendars, as well as histories of the Met and earlier opera companies. Prints and photos, too – it took forever to find one with a view from the Met stage, but it was really important so I could have a really good sense of what it was like for Ella. My goal wasn’t absolute historical accuracy, but finding space for my characters inside the known facts. So the timing of Ella’s performances in the fifth book are based on season schedules from the period, as well as current ones…with a little fictionalization to accommodate plot points!
 
EM: What’s next for you?
 
KK: I’m currently finishing the sixth Ella book, which leans a little harder into Victorian melodrama, complete with Ella once again dueling a villain on a catwalk. No spoilers, but this time, the stakes are much higher for her – and everyone else. Regular readers will get the hint here! How about you…and Julia?
 
EM: I’ve discussed a possible Book Four with my publisher. There’s a pivotal character, new to the series in Book Three, who’s been speaking to me and insisting I find new ways for her to get in trouble, and I’m tempted to start exploring those. But we also discussed going in a whole new direction, possibly something historical like a true crime. Or maybe a fictional Met mystery from the past. Now there’s something fun you and I could collaborate on! Meanwhile, there’s a whole new season of Seattle Opera and Seattle Symphony waiting for me to review. So my writing chops will not get rusty by any means.
 
KM: What a wonderful conversation! I think we need to get tickets for the Met the next time you’re in town…or maybe just get together for a virtual Beverly Sills marathon!
 
EM: Or both! Either way, I’ll make sure our foray to the Met will be unlike any you’ve experienced before. You’re on!
 
Connect with Erica and Kathleen on their websites: http://www.ericaminer.com/ and https://kathleenmarplekalb.com/
 

Writers are often asked where they get their ideas. Some ideas—maybe most—begin as kernels. Just a sense of something that could expand. Sometimes, they sit for years before they pop. When they do, one little kernel could set up a whole novel.
 
We should always write them down for future use. It’s amazing what can happen when we light the fire to see if they’ll pop. My third novel, Dead-Handed, was based on the kernel of an idea from thirty years ago. I read about a cursed property and thought, “I’ll use that one day.” My latest book, You Can’t Hide, popped from another one: from a plot around the daughter of a serial killer.
 
I’ve encountered several relatives of serial killers and have found the daughters to be especially interesting. One desperately wanted to believe her father’s lies that he wasn’t as bad as people said. A few helped to hide evidence while others assisted police to find it. Several have used the popularity of true crime culture to establish notoriety and financial support. Some have falsely posed as serial killers’ daughters, accusing their fathers (without evidence) of substantial criminal behavior.
 
Those daughters who’ve gone public often claim they’re victims, too. They go on talk shows and podcasts, and some have written memoirs. Melissa Moore, the daughter of “Happy Face Killer” Keith Jesperson, developed a TV series, Monster in My Family, in which she joined relatives of serial killers with members of families whose loved ones were the killers’ victims. The goal was healing for both parties.
 
Kerri Rawson, the daughter of Dennis Rader, Wichita’s “BTK” serial killer, has wavered between outright rejection and coming to terms. A decade after his arrest in 2005, she described her anguish and humiliation upon learning that the doting father she’d loved had murdered ten people. In A Serial Killer’s Daughter, she describes the difficult process of trying to understand. “It’s horrible to realize that as my dad was raising children, he chose to take another mother away from her own children. He was about to have a daughter yet took two more daughters away from their families.”

As part of a TV broadcast, I once spoke to the daughter of a man who’d killed 13 sex workers. She visited him in prison and believed he was sincerely remorseful (although he said a “disorder” prevented him from feeling said remorse). This made it possible for her to feel close to him as a daughter and believe he was still a good man.

In contrast, the three daughters of Michelle “Shelly” Knotek turned her in. Using beauty and sex to deflect suspicion, Knotek subjected her children and tenants to torment. Using a caretaker’s persona to hide her sadistic cruelty, she manipulated her third husband, David, into covering up her crimes and even killing for her. Knotek was convicted in two deaths and her husband a third.

The nightmares for such offspring often continue. Whether they accept or reject, they’ve been emotionally damaged. Some find solace in religion, community, and family. Some become victim advocates, as if their work can neutralize their parents’ crimes.

So, I had plenty to work with to form my character, Vaughn Ryder. I just had to decide what she’d be like as the result of this jarring change to her life and whether she’d have a relationship with her criminal dad. She decides not only that he’s innocent but also that she must advocate for him. Is it denial, or does she have proof that the real killer is still out there? When my investigative team encounters her, she’s a force to be reckoned with. Non one tells her no, not even her dad.

So, an idea that sat for years waiting to be popped added significant momentum to my crime story. Vaughn was headstrong, determined, and unpredictable but also the key to propelling the plot. To add some twists, I even included that cursed property from Dead-Handed.

Keep track of your kernels! You never know when they’ll become exactly what you need to pop your plot.

With her Nut Cracker Investigations series, Katherine Ramsland injects her expertise in forensic psychology into her fiction. She consults for coroners, trains homicide investigators, and has appeared as an expert on more than 250 crime documentaries. She was an executive producer on Murder House Flip, A&E’s Confession of a Serial Killer: BTK, and ID’s The Serial Killer’s Apprentice. The author of more than 2,000 articles and 74 books, including I Scream Man and How to Catch a Killer, she also has a Substack and pens a blog for Psychology Today. 

Trapped and Tested, the second book in my DeeLo Myer cat rescue mystery series, has a title with a double meaning. The “Trapped” portion brands the series, which features a woman who does TNVR (Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return) for a local animal rescue group in an effort to manage the overpopulation of free-roaming cats. (The first book, Trap, Neuter, Die, was released in November 2024.) It’s the “Tested” part of book two’s title that has two meanings.

When the story opens, DeeLo is talking to her mixed-race niece, Demi, who is like a sister since the women are about the same age and lived much of their childhood under the same roof. Demi is the daughter of DeeLo’s much older sister, Desiree, who wasn’t ready to be a mother at sixteen when she gave birth to Demi and thus left her parents in charge of her daughter’s upbringing.

Demi has no idea who her father is, and all her life, Desiree has dodged the question. Now that she’s grown, Demi gave up asking, submitted her DNA to an ancestry site, and found a match: a half-brother named Kwintone Johnson. Kwintone claims to have a lead on who their father might be. Demi has set up an in-person meeting with Kwintone, and she persuades DeeLo to accompany her.

On the way to the meet-up at a restaurant in Pecan Point, where DeeLo resides, Kwintone gets a speeding ticket. Demi puts DeeLo on the spot, telling her alleged half-brother that DeeLo will help him get the ticket off his record by doing community service. Demi blabs that DeeLo got her start with the Pecan Point Humane Society by doing community service as penance for a D.U.I.

Fast forward a few weeks, and DeeLo is assigned to train Kwintone on TNVR. He’s a difficult volunteer: he shows up late, after DeeLo has already set the traps; he immediately takes a phone call, and then he tells her he has to leave early. She refuses to sign his time sheet since he didn’t do any work.

When DeeLo finishes her cat trapping and drives away, she discovers Kwintone’s car parked on the side of the road. The windows are down, his cellphone lies in the seat, and Kwintone is nowhere to be found. She waits a few minutes to see if he’s coming right back; when he doesn’t, she calls Demi, who has made arrangements to meet him for a drink afterwards.

Demi hasn’t heard from him, so she comes over and together, they search for Kwintone. When they dial the last number in his call log, they hear ringing. The sound leads them to the prone body of a severely wounded man. DeeLo calls 9-1-1, and Demi immediately gets to work trying to stop the bleeding. When DeeLo returns to her vehicle for a blanket with which to cover the victim, Kwintone’s car is gone.

Has Kwintone been taken against his will? Has someone stolen his car? Did he have something to do with the assault on the man they’re trying to save?

DeeLo later learns that the stabbing victim is Aiden Green, CEO of Neuroscience Laboratories, a company that conducts neurological tests on animals—mainly cats. Hence, the double meaning of the word “Tested” in the book’s title: ancestry DNA testing, and animal testing. Also, Kwintone tested DeeLo’s patience throughout the story with his disappearing act and evasive answers.

I often use my stories to explore contemporary social issues, so the reader can learn something along with solving a mystery. In Trap, Neuter, Die, I show how many communities thwart the efforts of rescue groups to control the feral cat population by passing feeding bans and ordinances that effectively render TNVR illegal. In Trapped and Tested, I tackle the controversy over animal testing and the moral question of whether one species has the right to torture another without its consent in order to improve life for the “superior” species.

Regardless of how they feel about the merits of animal testing, readers will enjoy trying to solve two mysteries that overlap. And DeeLo gets involved in local politics in her quest to update the Pecan County animal ordinance to recognize TNVR. Will she succeed this time? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Sharon Marchisello is the author of the DeeLo Myer cat rescue mystery series, which began with Trap, Neuter, Die. She is a long-time volunteer and cat foster for the Fayette Humane Society (FHS) with a Master’s in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California. She also published two mysteries with Sunbury Press--Going Home (2014) and Secrets of the Galapagos (2019). Sharon has written short stories, a nonfiction book about personal finance, training manuals, screenplays, a blog, and book reviews. She is an active member of Sisters in Crime, the Atlanta Writers Club, and the Hometown Novel Writers Association. Retired from a 27-year career with Delta Air Lines, she now lives in Peachtree City, Georgia, and serves on the board of directors for the Friends of the Peachtree City Library.

I love the movies from the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. LBB author Gabriel Valjan had a recent post over at the Criminal Minds blog that talked about what writers do in the “in between” times with writing.  He said:
 
Sure, I read — but I also watch movies like a writer on a secret mission. My favorite? Films from the Thirties. Why? Because back then, writers had to get clever with dialogue, dodging censors left and right. That sharp economy of words is a masterclass in storytelling. Plus, watching how the camera narrates helps me rethink scene construction and pacing in fresh ways.

I think many of us who grew up with the influence of these movies, usually seen on TV, in afternoons and weekends, have a soft spot for these films.  And I certainly think the authors in the recent anthology I edited were inspired by the mood of these classics. 
 
Celluloid Crimes is a collection of stories that have what I would call a “Hollywood Noir” vibe.  I dedicated the book to Myrna Loy, William Powell, Asta, and Dashiell Hammett because The Thin Man to me typifies this.  What is great about the stories is the places the writers take us – yes, some stories are Hollywood and Movies adjacent.  Others are amazing Private Eye tales – with male and female gumshoes.  There are Fixers, Cops, Insurance Investigators, Reporters, Actors, and more.  The time periods range from the 30s and 40s to the present day. One thing you can count on – they each have a strong, distinct voice. 

The storytellers of these works are Colin Campbell, Matt Cost, P.A. DeVoe, Devon Ellington, CC Guthrie, Kerry Hammond, Wendy Harrison, Peter W. J. Hayes, Greg Herren, Deborah Lacy, Robert Lopresti, Nicky Nielsen, M.E. Proctor, Jeff Tanner, Gabriel Valjan, Nina Wachsman, and J. J. White.

If you are a fan of “Hollywood Noir” or just like great stories with a great voice, I know you will love this anthology.  It’s available now in all the usual places: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, and you can ask your local bookstore to order you a copy from Ingram.

​Deborah Well is an editor, marketing consultant, and digital strategist. After working for several decades in the finance realm, she has been happy to see her English degree get put to good use in her “retirement career” in the publishing world.  Deb lives in Boston’s South End with her partner, author Gabriel Valjan, and their much-memed tuxedo cat, Munchkin.

Think Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.”

Can you hear the opening guitar riff?

The bass sneaks in.

Think you might leave? Not your kind of song? Hah! Robert Plant’s vocals invade your auditory canal.

It’s already a big, full song when BAM! Drums. The music explodes.

Music crept into my fiction like that.

As a child, I took piano lessons. In my tweener years, I learned clarinet and participated in band. But I was a retired adult before I discovered the way playing music actually fit into my life. Walking at the Santa Cruz harbor, I encountered a huge ukulele group—with a hundred participants—strumming and joyously singing. And, I had a realization. I didn’t want to play piano alone in my house. I wanted to make music WITH people. And at the beach! What could be finer? Not everyone there played ukulele. They had a bass and drummer. An occasional guitar or flute. Why not a piano?

To reach this goal, I bought a portable keyboard and learned how to operate it, only to realize the group played from fake charts. Where were the notes? I had to learn piano all over again with an emphasis on chords.

Then I worked up the nerve to join the group only to realize after some time that no one could hear me (probably a good thing). The sound from the small built-in keyboard speakers emanated upwards. I needed an amp . . ..

It’s been fifteen years since I started this musical journey. I spent several of them in an honest-to-goodness performing group called All in Good Time Orchestra. I continue to play at the beach on Saturdays. And because I’m an incurable learner, last year I started to teach myself ukulele.

As writers know, everything is grist for the mill. When editor Susie Bright invited authors to submit to Santa Cruz Noir (2018), part of the Akashic Books’ series, she asked each of us to propose a spot and sub-culture of our colorful town about which to write. Without hesitation, I said, “The harbor and the ukulele community.” From that commitment, came “Miscalculation,” my first short story in which music plays an important role.

About this same time, short story collections with music themes snuck into my writing. My story “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” was published in Gabba Gabba Hey: An Anthology of Fiction Inspired by the Music of the Ramones (2021). Although inspired by the song, the story itself doesn’t contain music references, only a bad boy on a motorcycle and a teenaged girl.

When I contributed to the anthology Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead (2024), editor Josh Pachter wanted one story associated with one song from each of the Dead’s albums. I chose “Dire Wolf.” The story evolved from there, with Josh wanting specific allusions to the song and Easter eggs for Deadhead readers.
​
So, BAM! No surprise I found myself developing Zoey Kozinski, the protagonist of my new suspense novel, Crime Writer, by giving her a side hustle of playing keyboards in the band She Cats. I even created a YouTube playlist for the book, which you can find here. Play it before beginning Crime Writer to set the mood or enjoy the songs as they occur in the plot. Rock on!

A Claymore and Silver Falchion finalist, Vinnie Hansen is the author of the Carol Sabala mystery series, the novels LOSTART STREET, ONE GUN, and CRIME WRITER, as well as over seventy published short works. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. A retired high-school English teacher, she lives with her husband and the requisite cat in Santa Cruz, CA.
Learn more at www.vinniehansen.com

Poison-pen [adjective] 
“Composed or sent maliciously, as a letter, usually anonymously and for the purpose of damaging another's reputation or happiness.”
[Dictionary.com] First used 1910-1915.
 
Haven’t we all, at some stage, wanted to put pen to paper and tell someone what we really think of them? And wouldn’t it be good if we could avoid being identified so that there would be no recrimination?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Most of us get over our anger/resentment/hurt/jealousy and move on, but there are some who do not. They want to inflict pain or stir things up. They enjoy the thought of creating chaos; disseminating gossip; disconcerting their chosen victim; putting the cat among the pigeons. And how better than by cutting out letters from a newspaper, sticking them onto a sheet of paper, and sending an anonymous message to their target?

When I was writing my most recent novel, The White Feather Murders, I researched poison-pen letters, particularly those from the early years of the twentieth century. I was curious as to their prevalence, the effects that they had on communities, and the motivation of the writers.

In the process, I discovered that it was possible to make some generalisations about those who wrote them. In most cases, the author was usually anonymous and female. Why the latter? Did society at that time make women feel weak, trapped and powerless, so that the only way they could vent their frustrations was through the medium of anonymous letters?

The language used in these communications was not restrained by the conventions of everyday, normal life. It was often crude or malicious. And the motivation behind the person who wrote a poison-pen letter was often difficult to discern. Was it jealousy, resentment, revenge for a perceived slight, or a desire to inflict pain on the recipient? We can only speculate. Certainly, it is clear that the author was obsessed with their victim.

Enough theory. Let’s cut to the chase. What about looking into some of the fascinating and famous cases from the early twentieth century which made headlines, scandalised communities and ruined lives?

Mrs Pollard and her ‘Serpent Typewriter’

What happens when the authorities find it hard to believe that a fine, upstanding member of society is really the author of malicious and spiteful letters?
In 1909, hostilities were unleashed on the citizens of Elizabeth, a suburb near New York City, when accusations of scandalous behaviour were received in anonymous letters typed on a Remington typewriter. Imagine being the woman who was branded as a prostitute and bombarded with literature on obesity, insanity, alcoholism and drug addiction?

The ‘Poison Pen’ in this case was Mrs Anna Pollard, president of the Elizabeth Ladies’ Aid Society, a member of the congregation of the Christ Episcopal Church and a ‘Daughter of the American Revolution’. Despite overwhelming evidence at her trial, she was found not guilty. After her acquittal, the letters began again, but this time, Mrs Pollard confessed and was fined. Social humiliation was her true punishment rather than incarceration or paying a fine.

The Littlehampton Libels

One of the most famous cases is from the town of Littlehampton, on the south coast of England, which is depicted in the film Wicked Little Letters. The anonymous letter writer, in the period between 1920 and 1923, accused its residents of all manner of disgusting and disreputable behaviour. Reputations were ruined, suspicion abounded, and relationships crumbled. The actual case saw a miscarriage of justice when an innocent woman was incarcerated, while the real culprit escaped conviction until she was finally exposed as the poison-pen writer.

The ‘Unknown Hand’

During the same period, an influx of nasty, anonymous messages were dropped into the letter boxes of Sheringham residents in Norfolk, England. They were written by the ‘Unknown Hand’.

A former Girl Guide leader, Miss Dorothy Thurburn, was charged with 24 counts of sending defamatory letters to some of Sheringham’s most highly respected residents, including claims that the recipients had committed extra-marital affairs and fathered illegitimate children. More bizarre accusations attacked people for ‘walking like a duck’, having ‘yellow-dyed hair’ or having ‘odd hips and twitching eyes’.

Three court cases acquitted Miss Thurburn. Interestingly, in her second trial, she was represented by Sir Edward Marshall Hall, who had been briefed to defend the infamous serial killer, Dr Crippen, and represented the ‘Brides in the Bath’ murderer, George Joseph Smith.

‘Tiger Eye’

Tulle, France was the scene of another Poison Pen infestation.

The [Sydney] Sun April 30, 1922, bore the headlines:

“TERRIBLE TIGER EYE
Strange Tale of Tulle
POISON-LETTERS STAMPEDE TOWN”

Anonymous letters of the most diabolical description were received by prominent townspeople from about 1917, with the author of the poisonous communications growing in audaciousness and daring. The letters, left in mailboxes and churches, on doorsteps and on windowsills, were signed ‘Tiger Eye’. Several suicides and relationship breakdowns were the result, and it was said that two men went mad due to the anxiety of being exposed.

‘Tiger-Eye’ mocked the justice system by claiming that no one would be able to identify their fingerprints because they wore gloves when they wrote. A hypnotist was even called in to expose the perpetrator, but to no avail. Dramatically and sadly, Angele Laval, the prime suspect, attempted suicide, even though the judge believed her to be innocent. Despite this, Miss Laval was incarcerated.

Poison-Pen Letters with a Twist

Poison-pen letters have been inspiration for novelists and film-makers alike. In my latest novel, The White Feather Murders, set in Melbourne, Australia in 1927, the ‘Poison Pen’ is an anonymous newspaper columnist who embarks on a crusade against a disparate group of Melbourne’s citizens: the president of the Melbourne Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a nurse, a politician, a doctor and a priest. But here’s the twist! After each column is published, the subject dies ‘accidentally’. And each is found clutching a white feather. It is up to Reggie da Costa, senior crime reporter for The Argus newspaper, to find the link between the victims and their accuser, and the reason why they have been targeted. Of critical importance is the significance of the white feather.

Poison-pen letters create anxiety and suspicion. They bring about breakdowns in relationships and drive people to suicide. For the recipients, they pose the questions: Who is privy to my secrets? Who is ridiculing me? Who is fabricating these lies about me? And, most importantly, why?

As that famous philosopher and singer, Cher, once sang:
“Words are like weapons; they wound sometimes.”
 
Laraine Stephens
 
Laraine Stephens lives in Beaumaris, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. She worked as a teacher-librarian and Head of Library for over 35 years. After retiring at the end of 2013, she became a writer of historical crime fiction. Apart from writing, she is an avid golfer, loves travelling, going to the football and playing Mahjong, and enjoys reading, restaurants and films. For five years she worked as a volunteer guide at the Old Melbourne Gaol.
 
She is a member of Writers Victoria, Sisters in Crime (Australia), the Australian Crime Writers’ Association, the Historical Novel Society of Australasia, the International Thriller Writers and the Crime Writers’ Association of the United Kingdom.
Laraine has a six-book contract with Level Best Books (USA).

I started out writing literary short stories and that’s all I did for the first five or six years of my writing life and I was lucky enough to have many of them published.
 
Then, I entered a novella competition called The Great Novella Search. I won that and part of the prize was publication and the book was called Drifting, a kind of love story road novel and that was in 2017 and it’s still out there on Amazon and other digital stores.
 
After that, if I wrote a short story and it was published I’d ask myself if the idea was bigger and that’s how I wrote my first crime novel Going All the Way. It’s about a footballer who got kicked out of the big time after fucking up and now works as a Night Manager in a seedy three star motel in Kings Cross. A sex worker is killed in the motel while he’s on shift and he makes a decision to find the killer. And he never gives up no matter what.
 
I kept on writing short stories and published three collections all available through Next Chapter Publishers. I also wrote a crime trilogy that started with a book called City of Sin and includes City of Fear and City of Vice.
 
About this time I also started taking a lot of photographs and entered a few competitions and got shortlisted and commended and I found I loved doing it. I went to Vietnam and Hong Kong a few times and I swear to God my camera was out constantly. I like point and shoot photography. I don’t do much editing at all, maybe a little sometimes but just with the Apple photo app or the Google App, and that’s very rare.
 
There was a story in one of those short story collections called Tokyo Jazz and it was the starting point for my novel The Bangkok Girl, which is the first novel of mine due to be published by Level Best Books in July 2025. The book features Bangkok-based, Australian PI Lee Jenson and there will be a three book series.
 
I’ve started writing another series that features a female PI, the first time a main character of mine has been a woman. I like the Andy Warhol quote, and I’m paraphrasing, where he says while other people decide if your art is good or bad just keep making art. For me, I’ll just keep writing and taking photos and let other people decide if it’s good or bad.
 
Thanks for the opportunity to blog here.

Where do memories go when we, to quote Hamlet, “shuffle off this mortal coil”? I’ve been fascinated by this question for as long as I can remember. One way to preserve the past is to write a memoir while you’re still alive, but most of us lack the time or inclination to do so. Coming from a family of storytellers, my ancestral recollections have been passed down verbally from one generation to the next. Expanding on that tradition, I thought it would be fun to honor some of my stories by incorporating them into a mystery novel.
 
A Dark September Night is the first book in a new series set for release on August 12, 2025. It features Emmaline McCoy, named after my great-grandmother. Emma is the marketing director for a cruise company based in Los Angeles. I also worked for a major cruise company in the past. The story begins when a hit-and-run driver kills Emma’s beloved aunt Lydie, who is named after my grandmother Lydia. Emma travels to Justice Bay, a remote coastal town in Northern California, to settle her aunt’s estate. Don’t look for Justice Bay on a map; you won’t find it. The essence of the town is rooted in my memories of one of my favorite places—Camden, Maine.
 
In preparation for putting her aunt’s house on the market, Emma opens a pop-up store in town to sell the curios, antiques, and souvenirs her aunt collected during her travels around the world. She names the shop after Lydie’s Siberian Forest cat, who bears an uncanny resemblance to my cats, Princess Scootie and Riley. The cat’s official name is Cassandra, but everyone calls her Boo because she’s mysterious, some say scary.
 
As part of Cassandra’s Collectibles’ marketing strategy, Emma writes story cards that explain how and where each item was acquired. She has heard many of these tales from her aunt, but if not, she invents them. One example is the backstory of a weathered wooden decoy she found in her aunt’s house:
 
A merchant found the duck battered and bruised in the Marrakesh souk beside a pile of Berber carpets. There were rumors, but no one could confirm how he got from a Minnesota slough to a vendor’s stall in a Moroccan back alley. If you look deep into his glassy yellow eyes, perhaps he’ll reveal his secrets. But proceed with caution. Outside the well-lit tourist areas of this medieval red city where spies and wanderers dwell, they only whisper his name—Decoy.
 
All items for sale in Cassandra’s Collectibles are located in my home in Los Angeles. Most were either part of my “inheritance” or collected during my travels around the world, including the brown gourd mate cup with the metal straw from a trip to Argentina and the yellow and orange Tahitian pareo I wore to dance the Tamouré on the French Polynesian island of Moorea. The decoy has been passed down through my husband’s family in Minnesota for at least three generations.
 
As I mentioned earlier, while all the items for sale in Emma’s shop exist, not all the stories on her cards are true. I’ll let the reader decide which ones are accurate and which are figments of my imagination. After all, what’s the fun in revealing everything?

Patricia Smiley is the author of eight mystery novels. Her short fiction appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Two of the Deadliest, an anthology edited by Elizabeth George. Patty taught writing at various writers’ conferences in the U.S. and Canada. She is the former vice president of the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America and served as president of Sisters in Crime Los Angeles. 
Smiley earned a BA from the University of Washington in Seattle and an MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She lives in Los Angeles with her two loyal and opinionated Siberian Forest cats, and a backyard after-hours feeding station for possums, raccoons, marauding felines, and other critters in search of a snack and a cool sip of water. Despite the distractions, work continues on her next Justice Bay novel.

As a writer, I am not a big craft guy. Workshops, story arcs, x-act structures, beats . . . I get that they can all help people and perhaps I’d be a better writer if I steeped myself in that stuff. In my formative years (hopefully I can still be formed, or maybe reformed), my favorite contemporary writers were William S. Burroughs, J. G. Ballard, Thomas Pynchon. Did any of them have MFA’s?
 
Of course, I have come to know and read some very good writers who went down that path, so more power to them, to each his own, etc.
 
I remember reading Gore Vidal, an eloquent writer for sure, saying that he tried to write good sentences, one after the other, and that he usually had no idea what was actually going to come out on the page, even if he knew the narrative direction.
 
I saw David Lynch give a talk a few years ago, and he talked about fishing for ideas; and how he had no idea what he would find when he put a hook in the water. Given that the water was Lynch’s unconscious, I think we all would agree that there was no telling what was going to come out. But, Lynch said, you have to bait the hook.
 
To my mind, plot and story are the bait on the hook. And you hope that you catch something real, something true. How to depict reality/truth—or perhaps more properly, how to evoke it—cannot be accomplished by painting by the numbers.
 
One of the most eloquent artists on the creative process was Francis Bacon, whose alarming and grotesque images seemed to come with no precedent. Bacon was dismissive of Abstract Expressionism and abstract painting in general, and believed that art was a duality, that it was reporting/recording. He wanted to find ways to “trap the fact”, as he put it, that he was obsessed by.
He makes a very interesting comment about this Rembrandt self-portrait:

“If you think of the great Rembrandt self-portrait in Aix-en-Provence . . . you will see that there are hardly any sockets to the eyes, that it is almost completely anti-illustrational. I think that the mystery of fact is conveyed by an image being made out of non-rational marks . . . That is the reason that accident always has to enter into this activity, because the moment you know what to do, you’re just making another form of illustration.  . . . In this Rembrandt self-portrait, there is a coagulation of non-representational marks which have led to making up this very great image.” 1
 
Now writing is not painting. William S. Burroughs is almost alone in introducing chance into the writing process through his cut-up and fold-in methods, which mixed up his own prose with those of Kafka, Conrad, Joyce and others, resulting in passages like this, near the close of Nova Express:
 
“The great wind revolving turrets towers palaces—Insubstantial sound and image flakes fall—Through all the streets time for him to forbear—Blest be he on walls and windows people and sky—On every part of your dust falling softly—falling in the dark mutinous ‘No more’— . . . Melted into air—all the living and dead . . .” 2
There are bits of the close of Joyce’s “The Dead” here and who knows what else. When I was quite young, and probably quite stoned, I did some cut-up experiments and actually used a few bits of the result in my first published story, which had a fairly conventional dystopian plot.
 
I do not attempt now to introduce chance or accident into my work the way that Bacon or Burroughs would. Writing is a different modality than painting, Burroughs experiments notwithstanding.
 
But accident plays a part in writing. As you being to write a passage, the hook baited with the scene or character, what comes out on the page reflects the accident-filled operation of your mind as it strings together words. That is where the art—at least a large portion of the art to my thinking—occurs.
 
And even in plotting this occurs. You may be working on the plot in an outline or notes, and you encounter suddenly, coming from nowhere, a new—a truer—formulation of what will happen as the reality of the characters and their situation forces the truth to come out.
 
Joseph Conrad’s Preface to “The Nigger of the Narcissus” is amazingly, touchingly and profoundly eloquent on the writing process and echoes these thoughts:
 
“There is not a place of splendour or a dark corner of the earth that does not deserve, if only a passing glance of wonder and pity.  The task . . . is to hold up unquestioningly the rescued fragment . . . to show its vibration its colour, its form . . . to disclose its inspiring secret: the stress and passion within the core of each convincing moment. 3
 
I urge any writer, and readers for that matter, to read the entire Preface. Conrad never says how this can be done—of course. There is no way to tell someone how to do this.
 
I will leave you with the words of another absolute writing master, Tom Stoppard, from his play The Real Thing. The character speaking is a writer who has been asked by his spouse to punch up the politically-motivated yet artless prose of her protégé. He is exasperated with the task and explains how to think about writing:
 
“This [cricket bat] here, which looks like a wooden club, is actually several pieces of particular wood cunningly put together . . . so that the whole thing is sprung, like a dance floor. It’s for hitting cricket balls with. If you get it right, the cricket ball will travel two hundred yards in four seconds, and all you’ve done is give it a knock like knocking the top off a bottle of stout. What we’re trying to do is write cricket bats, so that when we throw them up an idea and give it a little knock it might travel.”
 
(He picks up the offending script). No what we’ve got here is a lump of wood of roughly the same shape trying to be a cricket bat, and if you hit a ball with it, the ball will travel about ten feet and you will drop the bat and dance about shouting “Ouch!”
(Indicating the cricket bat) This isn’t better because someone says it’s better, or because there’s a conspiracy . . . to keep cudgels out of Lords [a cricket venue]. It’s better because it’s better.” 4
 
Thus, the offending script is not “The Real Thing”. Of course Stoppard’s writer/character, Henry, also accuses Bach of stealing “Air on a G String” from “A Whiter Shade of Pale”:
 
Annie: It’s Bach
Henry: The cheeky beggar.
Annie: What?
Henry: He’s stolen it.
Annie: Bach?
Henry: Note for note. Practically a straight lift from Procul Harum. And he can’t even get it right. Hang on, I’ll play you the original.
 
Well, there you have it. Don’t put your trust in writers. They’ll tell a lie every time in pursuit of the truth.
 
 
Joel E. Turner is the author of WILDWOOD EXIT, a noir tale set at the Jersey Shore, published by Level Best Books in 2025.
 
You can find more of Joel E. Turner’s writing, including fiction and musings on literature, music and movies at joeleturnerauthor.com.
 
Footnotes:
 
1.David Sylvester, Interviews with Francis Bacon 1962-1969, (Oxford: Thames and Hudson, 1975), 58.
2.William S. Burroughs, Nova Express, (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1965), 154.
3.Joseph Conrad, Tales of Land and Sea, (Garden City, New York: Hanover House, [1897] 1953), 106-107.
4.Tom Stoppard, The Real Thing, (New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 1982), 51.
5.Stoppard, The Real Thing, 74.

My father lectured his children on the importance of completing a task. Love it or hate it, nothing in life should be left unfinished. Thinking of this now, at the age of eighty, I smile. The journey that ended with the publication of my first mystery, The Curtain Falls in Paris, began in 1996. (Yes, 1996, that’s no typo!)

After having lived in Paris for nearly five years, I moved back to the States, settling in Silicon Valley. (I was supposed to stay there for three months to study the language, but… well, it was Paris.)  Before Paris, I was earning my living as a freelance writer for high-tech companies, and I was able to fall back into that work within weeks. And why not? I was brilliant at writing with knowledge and authority about new technologies. The fact that I understood absolutely nothing never got in my way.  

I awoke one morning, turned on the PC, and got to work. I think it was a user manual for a new Hewlett Packard integrated software system. It was a total mystery to me, but I wrote as if my financial life depended on it… which it did. As I conjured reader-friendly text, a thought passed through my head. While sleeping, had I dreamed something? A story? I went back to the HP work, but the thought persisted. Had I awakened myself in the middle of the night, turned on the PC and typed the story? I looked at the desktop and there it was, a Word file called mystery…. three single-spaced pages describing a murder that takes place in a Paris theater.  

So, here’s where my father’s advice comes in. Over the next twenty-eight years, I wrote the story, revised, tore it apart, and revised it again… and again. During that time, I created seven anthologies. My agent loved all of them, but not my Paris mystery. She criticized with kindness, but told me with sadness that she couldn’t send it out. She was right. It was disjointed; there was no continuity. I kept editing. Finally, when it was clear she couldn’t get behind the novel, I sought another agent.

It was my great fortune that agent Darlene Chan, from the Linda Chester Literary Agency, loved the story. We both knew something was amiss, but couldn’t decide exactly what. With great hope, it went out to editors. Many of the rejections came with praise about the writing, the story, the characters, and several of these editors noted that something was missing… but they weren’t sure what.  

When it was sent to Level Best Books, everything changed. Shawn Reilly Simmons came back with an offer. And not only an offer, but an editing suggestion. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Chapter Four, describing the murder, should be Chapter One. Who couldn’t see that? Well, for starters, me!

And so my relationship with Shawn and Level Best Books began. On May 13, nearly thirty years after that dream, The Curtain Falls in Paris was published.

Does the final product resemble the 1996 dream? I’d say as much as 90% of the original story is in this novel. Same characters, a few name changes, a few country villages added, but the plot is the same.

So, what’s the story?

San Francisco-based journalist Aria Nevins is on the cusp of international prominence with her series on drug abuse. When she suffers a lapse in judgment and short-cuts the fact-check process, an innocent woman dies. She’s dismissed from the paper, removed from Pulitzer consideration, and faces a civil suit from the victim's family. Georges de Charbonnet, a major player with the Paris police, needs to stop the bleeding after weeks of bad press around the death of a young man in custody. He hires Aria to follow a homicide team, led by Noah Roche, and write about their diligence.

With French parents and much of her life in France, Aria sees a way out of the spotlight, a break from the shame brought upon herself and her family. She learns that Roche has attained a high rank without the benefit of the bourgeois family ties many have used to get ahead. He’s respected, but he is not liked, especially by de Charbonnet. She senses that if she writes about Roche’s failings, de Charbonnet can justify appointing someone more fitting to take his job. Before she even meets Roche, she feels trapped in the middle of the judgments of these two men.

Roche bristles at Aria’s arrival. He resents an outsider—an American, a journalist, and a woman—subjecting his team to round-the-clock scrutiny. And he knows how much de Charbonnet would love to demote him.

At Roche and Aria’s first meeting, there is mutual dislike. And then she mentions attending a play that night and Roche is gobsmacked. It's a one-night-only performance of Hamlet’s Father and the hottest ticket in Paris. The lead actors are iconic octogenarians Solange and Bertrand Gabriel, whose careers were launched in these same roles fifty years earlier—and who happen to be old friends of Aria’s family, as is the play's preeminent director Max Formande. Aria has an extra ticket—her mother is too ill to join her—and hopes that her largesse might soften Roche a bit. She gives him the ticket.

They meet at the theater and the tension remains, not helped when, during a quick intermission, she pulls out her recorder and begins to interview him. As Act II of the play begins, Solange Gabriel throws out a cue for actress Camilla Rodolfo, but it goes unanswered… twice. She exits stage left. Director Max Formande finds Roche and begs him to come backstage. With Aria close behind, they go to Camilla’s dressing room and find her brutally murdered.

Roche gets to work. His first move is to call his two dedicated young detectives, Anuj Kumar and Tenna Berglof. Again, Roche expresses resentment when he sees Aria recording everyone. But how can she not? This has the makings of a big story; she can feel it in her bones. And dogging Roche and his team is what she was hired to do.

The plot, as they say, thickens. (Who “they” are, I’ve no idea!) First there’s the dead actress, and then the attempt to kill young Joseph, the lighting technician. Why is actor Anton Delant making this investigation so difficult? Clearly, he has much to hide. And the elderly Gabriels? Outrageous as it seems, all evidence points to them. As Aria and Roche peel away the layers, they discover that appearances are not only deceiving, they can be deadly.
 
It gives me great pleasure that nearly every reviewer admits to being surprised when they learn who the killer is. I’m reminded of mystery writer Anne Perry’s comment about revealing the murderer: surprise is great, as long as it makes sense. So, the response “I didn’t see that coming, but there were hints all along the way!” is truly satisfying. I hope The Curtain Falls in Paris offers a few good surprises for all readers.

Sometime in my fifties, my mother told me that I was a late bloomer. Now that I’m eighty, and with several novels coming out in the next three years, I wonder what she’d say. As for my father? His insistence that I never quit, never give up, and follow every project to completion has paid off.
 
Victoria Zackheim is the author of novels "The Bone Weaver" and "The Curtain Falls in Paris" (May 2025), with two sequels (2026, 2027).  She is the creator/editor of seven anthologies, including the international bestseller "The Other Woman", adapted to the theater and performed in several dozen theaters across the United States, and Faith. She wrote the documentary "Where Birds Never Sang: The Story of Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen Concentration Camps", which aired nationwide on PBS. She teaches creative nonfiction in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and is a frequent conference speaker and writing instructor in the US and abroad. A freelance editor, Victoria has worked with many authors on their novels and memoirs. She is a San Francisco Library Laureate and lives in Northern California.   

After decades as an art historian, journalist, curator and director of a historic house museum, ten years ago I felt the urge to write murder mysteries. I was not, however, inspired to make them up out of whole cloth. For some unexamined reason, I choose to do away with real art-world characters who are, in fact, dead but who (with one exception) didn’t die when or where I kill them. All of them meet ends different from their actual deaths. 
 
Scholars aren’t supposed to make up stuff like that, so I don’t think my grad school advisor would have approved. Journalists are also expected to be factual, though as a New York Times art critic I had license to express my opinions, but not to be inaccurate. Museum directors and curators need to get their information right, too. Honest mistakes happen, but none of those lines of work tolerate outright liars.
 
So why would I go against the accepted ethical norms? Well, to be honest, just for the fun of breaking the rules and keeping my readers guessing. Locate the fictional crime in an authentic setting inhabited by people who were, or could have been, there at the time, have them interact with imaginary characters, and it’s hard to tell what’s true and what’s false. That’s how I’ve constructed all my Art of Murder mysteries, set in the creative community that migrates between New York City and the Hamptons on eastern Long Island, where my husband and I have lived for nearly fifty years. It’s such a rich source of potential victims and suspects that I’ll never run out of material.  And while the art world may seem opaque to outsiders, its machinations and motivations are entirely recognizable to the average reader.
 
As one of my fictional characters breaks it down, there are five universal motives for murder: jealousy, deception, rivalry, greed and revenge—words to live (or die) by in the world at large. Each of my novels takes a different slant on one of them, with predictably fatal consequences. In the first, An Exquisite Corpse, titled after a Surrealist parlor game, greed is at the forefront. Number two, An Accidental Corpse, hinges on jealousy. Revenge is the motive in the third, An Artful Corpse, while deception is at the heart of number four, An Elegant Corpse, and the latest, number five, A Willful Corpse. I’ll examine rivalry in mystery number six, published in April by Level Best Books. 
 
The Art of Murder series develops chronologically, decade by decade, starting in 1943, when a contingent of Surrealist artists and writers fled Hitler’s Europe and camped out in New York City during World War II. Those who know the true story have asked me why I decided to kill Wifredo Lam, one of the exiled Surrealists, who died in 1982 and who wasn’t even in the city during the war. The answer is, he was the perfect victim to lead the narrative in intriguing directions, and to rope in colorful characters who were his real-life associates. 
 
Two fictional NYPD officers, Brian Fitzgerald and Juanita Diaz—yes, there were female cops back then—who investigate the crime fall in love and marry, and their family story carries forward through the series. By 1956, they’re vacationing in East Hampton with their eight-year-old son, Timothy Juan, known as TJ. He helps solve the mystery of what looked like an accident but may have been the murder of Edith Metzger, a passenger in the car crash that killed the painter Jackson Pollock. (This is the only one of my novels in which the victim dies when and where, though not how, it really happened.) 
 
TJ takes the lead in the next book, set in 1967 New York City amid anti-Vietnam War protests and the heyday of Pop art, when the controversial artist Thomas Hart Benton—who died in 1975 and, like Lam, wasn’t in New York at the time—is stabbed to death at the art school TJ is attending. At age 19, TJ, who’s also studying at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, is torn between a career in law enforcement and life as an artist. He resolves the conflict by giving up on art class, but not on his classmate, Ellen Jamieson. Fast forward to 1976, when TJ, now 28 and a licensed private eye married to Ellen, investigates the murder of his friend and mentor, the wealthy artist Alfonso Ossorio, who is found dead—14 years before his actual demise in 1990—in his East Hampton mansion. Ten years later, TJ is hired by Francis V. O’Connor, the leading expert on Jackson Pollock’s work, to track down an art forger, but winds up trying to find out whether O’Connor’s sudden death was an accident, suicide, or murder. Book number six will circle back to 1939, with Brian Fitzgerald as a rookie cop patrolling the soon-to-open New York World’s Fair, where muralists meet with mishaps—one fatal—that are definitely not accidental.
 
As a New York City native and longtime Hamptons resident who trained as an artist before studying art history, I’m intimately familiar with the milieux in which my mysteries are set. Many of the real characters were my friends or acquaintances, so I have an insider’s view of their personalities and behaviors. I knew Pollock’s long-suffering wife, Lee Krasner, and his lover, Ruth Kligman, as well as several of the artists in their circle. Ossorio and his life partner, Ted Dragon, were much as I describe them, and I was especially close to O’Connor. After reading An Exquisite Corpse, he told me I had a flair for mystery writing—high praise from a very judgmental critic. Sadly, A Willful Corpse, the book in which I kill him, was published in April, more than seven years after his death in 2017, so he will never know whodunit.
 
During her 34-year tenure as director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton, New York, Helen Harrison began writing mystery novels set in the art world of which she’s a denizen. A widely published author of nonfiction books and articles on art, she enjoys making up stories in which fictional characters interact with people from her own background and experience as a New York Times art critic, NPR arts commentator, curator at the Parrish Art Museum, Guild Hall Museum and the Queens Museum, and a practicing artist. Her second novel, An Accidental Corpse, won the 2019 Benjamin Franklin Gold Award for Mystery & Suspense. A Mystery Writers of America active member, she and her husband, the artist Roy Nicholson, live in Sag Harbor, NY, with the ghost of Roy’s beloved studio cat, Mittens.

Since the beginning of recorded time, music, percussive instruments, and songs have played a central role in shaping how people experience, understand, and remember conflict. Deep, additive melodies are used to boost morale, commemorate sacrifice, and, in some cases, protest violence. Often, these songs are only footnoted, yet their impact during that period is profound. Just as love songs help process heartbreak, war music provides the platform for processing trauma, heroism, and political motivations. These songs cross the globe, tracing back centuries.

Music brings people together as a unifying force, creating a crowd mentality and amplifying its impact far more than if soldiers were singing in isolation. Songs were used to unite soldiers in marching and boost their courage while also forging bonds with their comrades. During World War I and II, songs like “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” “Pack Up Your Troubles,” and “We’ll Meet Again” were popular among troops and civilians. They exuded a sense of resilience, national pride, and courage in the face of the unknown.

At home, in the U.S., war songs were just as essential and were heard daily over the radio, taught in schools, and sung at rallies to promote unity, patriotism, and support for the war effort. The song “Over There” became an anthem of sorts, inspiring the young to enlist. The melodies had a magical effect, transforming abstract ideas like duty and honor into emotionally resonant messages, making the war feel tangible for those not directly involved in the fighting.

Over time, as our wars became increasingly controversial, especially during the Vietnam era, war songs underwent a significant transformation. They shifted from themes of unity and resilience to challenge and rebellion, reflecting a society more willing to push back against its leadership. Songs like “The Eve of Destruction,” sung by Barry McGuire, and the works of artists such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Creedence Clearwater Revival exposed the abuse of authority and the horrors of war. This shift transformed war songs from mere tools of propaganda into powerful expressions of dissent, leaving the public concerned about the sacrifices of American soldiers.
​
George Cohan’s song “Over There” represented the critical role of the United States in ending the Great War. An exhausted army of French and British soldiers was buckling under the relentless force of the German army. With the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmerman memo prodding Mexico to attack the US on the Texas border, the US had reached its last straw. It was time for the country to coalesce and demonstrate its might...Over There.


A cancer diagnosis unveiling a genetic defect, together with a lifelong fascination with the history of medicine, propelled Jane Rubin to put pen to paper. In 2009, then a healthcare executive, Jane poured her energy into raising research dollars for ovarian cancer research with the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) while learning more about her familial roots. Her research led her to Mathilda (Tillie), her great-grandmother, who arrived in New York City in 1866 as a baby, at sixteen married a man twelve years her senior, and later died of “a woman’s disease.” Then, the trail ran cold. With limited facts, she was determined to give Tillie an exciting fictional life of her own. Jane was left imagining Tillie’s life, her fight with terminal disease, and the circumstances surrounding her death. 

Her research of the history of New York City, the plight of the immigrants, its ultra-conservative reproductive laws, medicine during that era, and the forces that drew the United States into World War 1 have culminated in a suspenseful, fast-paced, award-winning three-book historical series. Her engaging characters are confronted with the poverty in the Lower East Side of NYC, the shifting role of midwives, the dangers of pregnancy, the infamous Blackwell’s Workhouse, and the perilous road to financial success. These themes resulted in the books, In the Hands of Women, 5/23 (Level Best Books), and its prequel, Threadbare, 5/24 (Level Best Books). Over There, the third in the trilogy, transports members of the Isaacson family into the heart of France during World War 1, challenging the family values they dearly cherish. Over There was shortlisted by the Historical Novel Society for the 2024 First Chapters Competition. 
Jane’s other publications include an essay memoir, Almost a Princess, My Life as a Two-Time Cancer Survivor (2009 Next Generation - Finalist), and multiple magazine articles. She writes a monthly blog, Musings, reflecting on her post-healthcare career experiences and writing journey. 

Ms. Rubin, a graduate of the University of Michigan (BS, MS) and Washington University (MBA), retired from a 30-year career as a healthcare executive to begin writing full-time. She lives with her husband, David, an attorney, in Northern New Jersey. Between them, they have five adult children and seven grandchildren. 

​Way back when I was writing the first book in my first series (Force of Habit, 2011), I realized I needed some hands-on research. Specifically, guns. I'd never even touched a gun, but Private Investigators do, and my main character was a PI. TV shows and YouTube videos weren't enough for what I needed. So I scheduled a private lesson at a local gun academy.
 
The owner took one look at me and suggested a tiny little ivory-colored .22 pistol. I explained why I was there and that I needed to practice on a Glock. Being a smart business owner, he shrugged his shoulders and took me back to the gun range with my choice.
 
I'm fairly decent at archery, and I was surprised at the subtle differences in aiming a gun vs. an arrow. When I said I needed to hear what a shot sounded like without the ear guards, he said he didn't recommend it but it was my choice. We were in a long cement-block tunnel. I moved one ear guard partly off one ear and fired.
 
Remember the scene in The Godfather where Michael Corleone is practicing to kill the corrupt cop? He fires the gun and after the loud report he says to Clemenza, "Madonna, my ears." That was pretty much my reaction. Then I wrote the scene involving gunfire in a closed room.
 
I knew the lesson was worth it when my next-door neighbor, who worked security, came across the lawn and shook my hand. She thanked me for correctly writing about gunfire in closed places.
 
Don't get me wrong, library and online research is great. I can't hop in a plane and fly to obscure places or time-travel to the 1930s. But hands-on is awesome. Like sword fighting.
 
The second novel in my upcoming mystery series from Level Best Books takes place in a theater. There's stage fighting. I watched a lot of videos, but needed more. So I contacted the great folks at Nickel City Longsword Academy for a few private lessons.
 
Swords are HEAVY. Balanced, but heavy. I hadn't thought of that. I learned the basics of the Spanish style and the Italian style, trained with longswords and rapiers, and it was so much fun. Then I rewatched some videos and everything made more sense. Look for some intense stage fighting in the climax of Book 2, everyone!
 
Here's a picture for proof.

The Ella Shane Mystery Series has always had an unusually diverse cast for a Gilded Age historical series. The main character, and narrator, Ella Shane, is the daughter of Irish and Jewish immigrants and confronts prejudice against both as she builds her career as an opera singer specializing in trouser, or male soprano, roles. The principal supporting character, her cousin Tommy, is a former boxing champion described as “not the marrying kind,” and he lives as fulfilling a gay life as is possible in 1900, largely because everyone assumes the Champ couldn’t be anything other than a model of masculinity.

Over the series, we’ve also seen a key character who is African-American passing as white for his opera career, and met people from a wide variety of classes, backgrounds, and experiences. I’ve always looked for ways to include people other than the “dead white people in big houses” that fill many historical mysteries.
All of that to say, it’s entirely within my wheelhouse and the frame of the series to have the character of a man living as a woman in A FATAL WALTZ. Still, it required a lot of research and care. I’d toyed with the idea for some time, but it wasn’t until this book that I had the right plotline to create the character.

It’s actually the second major plot of the book: the “A” plot features Ella’s new husband, the Duke, trying to determine whether the Prince of Wales may have committed a succession-threatening indiscretion during his 1860 visit to New York. Ella and Tommy, meanwhile, are working to break up a blackmail plot against her best friend’s husband, Paul, a civil court judge, who’s just been arrested in a raid on a sporting house – a brothel.

As it turns out, he was at the brothel to visit his sister the madam. “But I thought Paul only had a brother,” Ella says to her friend Marie. “He had a brother, but now he has a sister,” Marie replies. Later, their mutual pal Dr. Silver explains that some people feel they have the wrong body for their soul, and there’s nothing science can do for them right now. They all come to understand it through the lens of a recent story of a Civil War veteran who was found to be a woman after their death.

When we meet Alice LaJoy, formerly Paul’s brother Allen, she appears to be an attractive woman, known as the most ethical madam in Five Points. She’s a person with her own agency who’s found a way to live her truth in the world she has. The blackmail plot is an ugly complication for Alice and her brother, and Ella and Tommy put themselves at considerable risk to help them.

No spoilers – let’s just say Alice’s fate is anything but the stereotype of the poor tragic trans person, while still period-appropriate.

All of this, of course, happens as Ella and friends are sorting out that little mess involving the Prince of Wales. Which is part of the point. People of all different backgrounds and experiences have always been here and always will be.
Both stories, of the Prince, and the blackmail plot around Alice, touch on big themes of privilege and power, which are as relevant in Ella’s world as they are in ours. By the end of the book, you’ll have answers to the big plot questions…but you may have plenty of other questions to consider.
 
 
 
Kathleen Marple Kalb describes herself as an Author/Anchor/Mom…not in that order. An award-winning weekend anchor at New York’s 1010 WINS Radio, she’s the author of short stories and novels including the Ella Shane and Old Stuff series, both from Level Best Books. Her stories, under both pen names, have been in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, and many anthologies, and short-listed for Derringer and Black Orchid Novella Awards. Active in writer’s groups, she’s served as Vice President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and is VP of the New York/Tri-State Sisters in Crime Chapter. She, her husband, and son live in a Connecticut house owned by a large calico cat.
 
 
 
 
 

There are books that stay with you long after you read them. Books that immerse the reader directly into the plot, allowing them to experience the emotions of the main character as they navigate their way through the fictional world created by the author.
Is it the characters, setting, plot, or something more elusive that makes certain books so memorable?

Take one of my favorite classics, Wuthering Heights. Why is it so unforgettable decades after I read it? Wuthering Heights brings to mind the moors, the manor, unrequited love, tragedy, and revenge. But more than that, there is an eerie feel to it that leaves me haunted. It’s the haunting that stays with me. What specifically caused that response?
Perhaps the atmosphere?

How does an author achieve a particular ambiance? For me as both a reader and writer, the setting and the natural environment, along with the main character’s response to it, is integral to the atmosphere of a novel. Deliberate description of the setting, imagery connecting it to the theme of the novel, and the character’s inner thoughts as their surroundings impact them, along with dialogue, creates that atmosphere.

The interaction between characters and the time and space they inhabit brings the setting to life, as though it were a character in its own right. In Wuthering Heights, the desolate moors reflect Heathcliff’s gloomy disposition, and the societal expectations of the times result in a tragic outcome. The moors and this historical slice of society form a character as much as do Cathy and Heathcliff. Without this character we call ‘setting’, the book simply wouldn’t be as remarkable. Emily Bronte was very familiar with both the moors and Victorian society. It was her life. An author’s, and subsequently, the character’s immersion in a particular time and place elevates the plot off the page and into the life of the reader.

Like Emily Bronte, I set my characters into a location I know. Somewhere I’ve lived, a place I’ve visited and loved, a spot similar to one I know, a locale I have researched. The characters themselves are true to the setting, a blend of people I have known, met, or know of. And then there’s the fictionalization of it all where my writer’s imagination takes over from the reality.

In my latest mystery novel, Cold Query, the setting evokes an atmosphere of serenity. Port Ripley is a safe community—a small town set on the shores of Blue Water Lake with beautiful sunsets over the water. The residents are friendly, nodding and waving to passersby. People generally know each other. It’s so different from the bustling cities that are situated more than an hour away. Even the busy summer season attracts families looking for a peaceful day at the beach or unique shops in the downtown core. It’s a place I know well, inspired by a real lakeside town.

But that cozy feeling is threatened when a series of unexplained deaths occur, one on the heels of the other. A sense of unease builds into fear as police caution residents to be wary. When it becomes evident that there’s a serial killer in town, no one wants to believe it could be one of the locals. Because things like this simply don’t happen in the charming town of Port Ripley.

Ivy Rose, who moved to Port Ripley eleven years ago, lives an idyllic life, having escaped a traumatic past that still haunts her. As a respected highschool teacher and emergent writer, she is well-known in the community. The dangers that once pursued her are a distant memory replaced by pleasant thoughts of times spent on the beach, splashing in the water with her kids and soaking up the sun. Walks on the boardwalk and views of the gorgeous sunsets define her life. Calm, peaceful, like the lapping waves of Blue Water Lake. Familiar, safe, like the neighbors and townspeople she encounters on a regular basis.

Explicit description of a setting is crucial to a novel, and yet shouldn’t bog down the plot. And so, the reader sees the lake and town through the eyes of the characters. Their surroundings come to life through their inner thoughts, dialogue with other characters, and the effect of their surroundings on their lives set the scene in the reader’s mind. Ivy’s daily walks on the boardwalk, her weekly book club meetings, her school community, and the writing community in Blue Water Lake form the setting. So does her former friend, Detective Scott Evan’s view of the town and lake as he gets to know the business area, the lakeside, and the townspeople.

Character and setting become intertwined as Ivy’s safe haven transitions to a threatening environment where a murderer may be just down the street. Her past mixes with the present as Ivy realizes that no matter where she lives, danger follows. No matter how beautiful the setting, in Ivy’s world, it takes on a menacing stance. Unlike Wuthering Heights, there is no gothic-like mansion or eerie wind on the moors to define the atmosphere. Cold Query creates a feeling of fear by placing an unexpected danger—a serial killer—in the most beautiful and welcoming of backdrops. And as the threats escalate, the once calm and caressing waves become deep and dangerous undertows. Imagery plays a crucial role in the setting. As with the natural environment, the nature of people can be two-sided. A darkness lies beneath the surface.

Setting greatly impacts the story, leaving behind an aura long after the book is closed. The paradisiacal setting of Cold Query forms a contrast to the community’s terror with a serial killer at large. A fuzzy warm feeling mixes with the revelation that appearances can be deceiving, creating an atmosphere which may leave the reader wondering whether any place or any one can be a safe haven. Welcome to Blue Water. Take the plunge. And immerse yourself in the small-town atmosphere with the autumn chill of the lake that will seep into your bones and stay there.

Ivanka Fear is a Slovenian-born Canadian author. She lives in Ontario with her family and feline companions. Ivanka earned her B.A. and B.Ed. in English and French at Western University. After retiring from teaching, she wrote poetry and short stories for various literary journals. Ivanka is the author of the Blue Water Mystery series and the Jake and Mallory Thriller series. She is a member of International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Canada, and Vocamus Writers Community. When not reading and writing, Ivanka enjoys watching mystery series and romance movies, gardening, going for walks, and watching the waves roll in at the lake.

Hi, I’m Jackie Layton, and today I’m interviewing Ruth J. Hartman. Ruth and I became friends through our agent, Dawn Dowdle. We bonded at Malice Domestic, and our friendship grew through grieving Dawn’s passing. It’s fun that we’re both Level Best Authors, and we both have books releasing this year.

Hairless Hassles was released on April 15.

Ruth, have you ever been a cat groomer, or have you hired one?  Do you give your cats baths? And how many cats do you have in real life?  

Hi Jackie, it's good to be here with you! I've never been a cat groomer or used one, so the research for them was fun. Especially since the groomer in my Mobile Cat Groomer Mysteries goes to see many of her feline clients in her van. I normally don't bathe my cats since they're indoor kitties, but two of them we have now, a brother and sister, had a skin condition when we got them as kittens. 

So, for the next ten weeks, I had to bathe them in special shampoo three times a week. Even though that period was hard on them and me, it bonded us, and even now, four years later, they love to be with me and follow me around.  That time period was a learning opportunity for me too, since it gave me a small picture of what a cat groomer does. Along with the brother and sister cats, we already had an older cat when we got them.
 
I like cats, but because of allergies I’m more of a dog person. I include dogs in all my books. In A Texas Flower Farmer Cozy Mystery Series, my main character, Emma Justice rescues a puppy. In An Organized Crime Cozy Mystery Series, Kate Sloan is rescued by a stray dog. You probably guessed that this becomes her dog. How do you keep up with all your fictional and non-fictional cats?
 
I love the dogs in your books! I'm sorry that you have an allergy to cats but am glad you can be around dogs with no problems.  I understand about the stray and rescued dogs in your mysteries. All of the cats we've had are either strays or rescues. I think it makes them more grateful when they finally get a forever home. For my non-fictional cats, we have three. The two I mentioned, Murray and Molly, are almost four years old. And our Calico, Remmie, is fifteen this year!

As far as the fictional cats, that's more complicated. All of my series have cats in them. In the Mobile Cat Groomer Mysteries, the main character, Molly Stewart, has two of her own - Percival and Jasper. Then, of course, there are lots of others in the stories since Molly spends most of her days grooming and taking care of her fluffy clients. Since every one of my four series has at least one cat in it, I keep track of them in a notebook where I write down all the characters, both human and feline. In my notes, I list the people and cats, their names, appearance, and personality quirks - yes even for the cats! (And the main character in this series was named after our cat, Molly.)

     I include dogs in my stories because I love them. I also think they add a layer to characters' development. Sometimes you can judge a person by how they treat dogs. Also, dogs need to be walked. So, they get my characters out and about in the community.
Why do you write stories that have cats? 

I've never had dogs, but my brothers, as adults, have had them. I've always had cats my whole life. In most of the pictures of me as a little kid, I'm holding a cat or two. My mom was the same way, and so is my sister. Cats are smart, funny, and each has his or her own personality. It's always a joy to get to know each different cat and see what kind of quirks or habits they have.

All my books are set in small towns, and Whitewater Valley is charming. Did you base it on a real place?
​
    Thank you! It's loosely based on the small Indiana town where I live, with people who all know each other, and who are mostly friendly and quirky, with the occasional nut tossed in!
 
Ruth, thanks for answering my questions. Congratulations on Hairless Hassles.
 
 
Ruth J. Hartman loves a good mystery. That’s probably why she happily gave up a life of
cleaning other people’s teeth to write books. With several cozy mysteries under her belt,
her main problem is keeping the characters straight – sometimes they have a tendency to
hop on over to a different series, just for laughs.

Over forty books later, consisting of romances, a children’s book, women’s fiction, and
now cozy mysteries, Ruth still enjoys the thrill of taking the thoughts and images of her
characters from her imagination to her computer screen.
​
She lives in rural Indiana with her husband, Garry, and their family of spoiled cats.
Because of Ruth’s love for felines, every one of her books has at least one cat in it. Her
cats, who’ve deemed themselves her editors, act like they’re supervising her writing,
even though they’re often loafing off or napping.
 

I’ve always been interested in the public’s fascination with unsolved mysteries. In how people become invested in events that happened decades or even thousands of years before they were born. I’m curious about why some mysteries endure while others simply fade away in the sands of time.

Cable television and streaming services like YouTube have fueled our appetite for the truth - or at least some version of it. They’ve sparked our interest in events we may not have known occurred until we saw a clip about it.

There seems to be a niche for everyone. Did aliens build the pyramids of Egypt? Did they later crash in Roswell in the 1940s? Is Bigfoot real? Did Amelia Earhart survive? What happened to Atlantis? How did the Roman Empire fall?

The Kennedy Assassination certainly qualifies as such a mystery. Its lasting appeal is easy to understand. The Kennedy Era was Camelot. JFK was America’s King Arthur. He was the dashing young president with the fashionable first lady and their two adorable young children. He was the first president of the television age and he used that medium to maximum effect. He used it to further his ambitious political agenda.

In the sixty years following his death, generations of researchers and conspiracy theorists have plumbed the depths of that which took place in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Books, documentaries, articles and movies have examined every aspect of President Kennedy’s murder. Did Oswald act alone? Was it a conspiracy? How many shots were fired in Dealey Plaza? Was there an official cover-up? There’s even a recent documentary that said the assassination was a hoax concocted by the president to run off with a mistress. I’m still shaking my head over that one.

I’ve always considered myself a skeptic when it comes to conspiracy theories. I was a government employee for twenty-five years. I know the myth of the hyper-efficient government is more worthy of ancient Greece than modern day. If a government agency had played a role in the assassination, it would have required hundreds of people to maintain their silence for the rest of their lives. It simply isn’t a feasible hypothesis.

But even a skeptic like me must admit that the facts as reported to us simply don’t add up. Even a cursory review of the evidence reveals inconsistencies and oversights in the official findings of The Warren Commission. Important questions went unanswered. Relationships with individuals close to Oswald were glossed over. Evidence and conflicting testimony were simply ignored.

Incongruities are fertile ground for thriller writers like me. They lead to intrigue and conspiracy. Suspense lives in the gray areas of such events. That’s what compelled me to write about it. To relate facts I had uncovered in my own way that would appeal to readers.
Writing about an important historical event can be daunting. The challenge of the Kennedy story is that everyone knows how it ends. Somebody planned to shoot the president and succeeded. The end. What more can be said?

But knowing the destination doesn’t make the journey any less interesting. My research led me down several paths I did not expect to find. I discovered events and relationships that proved to me that we didn’t know the whole story. It is there where my idea was born.
My ‘Dallas ’63’ trilogy doesn’t pretend to be a true crime work. The first book in the series – THE TWILIGHT TOWN - is a hardboiled novel that depicts fictional and historical figures in a factual context. It’s about Dallas in the early 1960s, a place where the criminal underworld mingled with the public overworld. Where corruption was almost respectable and part of the Dallas way at that time.

The book begins in early 1963 where Dallas PD Detective Dan Wilson is secretly working with the FBI to investigate corruption in his own department. When an informant – Lee Oswald – tells Wilson about Jack Ruby’s upcoming arms shipment, Wilson asks his ex-partner, J.D. Tippit to help him track where the weapons are going and why.

Over the course of the next several months, Wilson and Tippit find themselves being gradually pulled deeper into a conspiracy that will change the course of a nation forever.
My goal with this trilogy isn’t meant to inform or entertain, but to hopefully do both. My research has taken me on a wonderful and unexpected journey that I hope the reader will enjoy.

Terrence McCauley is an award-winning, bestselling author of thrillers, crime fiction and westerns. A resident of Dutchess County, NY, he is currently working on his next novel. Please visit his website at www.terrencemccauley.com

By Andrea J. Johnson

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” or as one would write in steno, SKWRA*EUPBLG. What’s steno you ask? My novel’s main character, Victoria Justice, would say it’s the curious little language that has almost gotten her killed and earned her a front row seat to her town’s most heinous crimes. In actuality, steno—also known as shorthand stenography—is an abbreviated symbolic writing method done on a stenotype, which is a machine that increases the speed and brevity of writing compared to a standard computer keyboard. Thus, the goal of a person who uses stenography is to write as fast as someone can speak. But for me, steno is the inspiration for Poetic Justice, the first book in the Victoria Justice Mysteries, which launches its second and third installments in Spring 2025 and Spring 2026, respectively.

The character of Victoria Justice has lived in my brain since 2006—although back then I didn’t know what to do with her. She was inspired by the call for “original action stars” to compete in the reality TV series Who Wants to Be a Superhero? presented by Stan Lee. The premise of the show was for contestants to create characters who could become comic book heroes. In my mind, what better hero could there be than a court stenographer who seeks to undo bad verdicts through vigilante justice? But at that time, I hadn’t discovered my literary passion, so I couldn’t take advantage of the epiphany.

Cut to almost two decades later. By then, I’d left my full-time job as a courtroom stenographer to pursue writing and had started the search for a new novel idea. Luckily, I found my old notes on Victoria, tweaked her persona to read as more human than hero, and matched her up with highly fictionalized snippets of real-life court cases. And, voila, the Victoria Justice Mysteries were born.

Now, if you’re wondering about the tone of these books, they are a cross between traditional cozies and light legal thrillers (think Murder, She Wrote meets The Pelican Brief). Victoria Justice, is the story’s moral compass, so I devised a name that would leave no doubt about her ethics. She will always do what is right, and she will always prevail against evil. Sure, the moniker is a little on the nose as are most of the names in the series. However, I think that’s the best way to help readers quickly acclimate to the setting and identify the conflict. Of course, there’s also some backstory to the name. In the sixth chapter of Book 1, Victoria reveals that she’s adopted and that her birth mother was a teen hooked on drugs. Doctors had expected her to die from a neonatal opioid addiction, but she survived and her adopted mother named her Victoria in honor of her victory over death.

Even though the books are fictional, just about everything I experienced as a court stenographer has been crammed into this series—from brawls in the courtroom to missing evidence to bomb threats to gun-toting attorneys. And yet, the thing that’s had the most influence on Victoria’s characterization is the outward perception of the profession by those unfamiliar with what stenographers do. She’s often ridiculed for being the one person in the courtroom whose job it is to be seen, not heard. People ignore her, call her an overpaid notetaker, and assume she’s not very smart. I played into that a bit with the physicality as well by making her short and meek, but inside she has the ferocity of a panther and tons of snark. And while the thrust of the series is about solving murders, an equally large portion of it is about Victoria finding her voice and learning to stand up for herself. In a way, she becomes the town’s last bastion for morality by using the profession’s tenants of accuracy, honesty, and neutrality in the face of the law to claim her space in the world. She also finds love while maintaining her independence, which I think is a valuable lesson for young people today.

But because I’ve used several personal experiences to craft these books, all of my friends assume that Victoria Justice is my alter ego. After all, she’s a Black female like me, and I spent nearly ten years as a shorthand stenographer. However, that’s really where the similarities end between me and Victoria. If anything, we are polar opposites. Victoria loves her job and, despite the early childhood hardships of adoption and bullying, she is optimistic about working in the court system since that’s all she wants out of life. I, however, wasn’t a cheerful or disciplined court reporter because I knew my destiny lied elsewhere. I am much happier as a writer, but I love that the time I spent in the steno world has been memorialized in this series. Other than that, any crossover audiences think they see between Victoria and me is merely coincidental.

***
 
Andrea J. Johnson is a speaker, editor, book coach, and author of the Victoria Justice Mysteries. She also teaches creative writing at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and her craft essays have appeared in several publications such as CrimeReads, Mystery Scene, and The Romance Writers Report. In addition, she has contributed commentary on popular fiction, films, and television as a freelancer writer for the entertainment websites Popsugar and The List. More notably, she’s authored a series of nonfiction books that include How to Craft a Killer Cozy Mystery, Mastering the Art of Suspense, and How to Craft Killer Dialogue. She has also given writing seminars on these topics through the Mystery Writers of America, Malice Domestic, Sisters in Crime, the International Thriller Writers Association, Women’s Fiction Association, and the Surrey International Writers’ Conference (Canada). When Andrea isn’t writing, teaching, or coaching, she loves dissecting reality television. Join her for those online conversations by visiting ajthenovelist.com or following her on Twitter (X), Pinterest, BlueSky, and Instagram @ajthenovelist.