Sandra de Helen: Till Darkness Comes Tuesday, Jan 24 2017 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:31 am

tilldarkness

Please welcome Sandra de Helen, to talk about her new thriller, Till Darkness Comes, and give us an exciting and suitably creepy excerpt. Don’t miss the buy links for all of her work at the end of the excerpt~

If you’re a thriller lover, I may have just the book for you. Chelsea Cain (she of the famous Gretchen and Archie thrillers) says “I wish I had half the plotting talent that Sandra de Helen has. This is such a terrific and totally satisfying book.”

Till Darkness Comes is set in Kansas City, Missouri, where I used to live. A serial killer first kills a pedophile, then moves on to killing insurance executives. Two young women who were best friends in high school get caught up in the murders. One because her uncle is killed; the other because she’s a young rookie cop with big ambitions.

I had been merrily writing along, working on my Shirley Combs and Dr. Mary Watson mystery series, set in modern day Portland, basing their stories on tales of Sherlock Holmes, when I was seized with a desire to go darker. Much darker.

The first two books in the Shirley Combs/Dr. Mary Watson series are The Hounding and The Illustrious Client. I’m currently at work on the third Shirley Combs book A Valley of Fear, but the next one will be a follow-up to the thriller.

An Excerpt from Till Darkness Comes:

A sliver of crescent moon rises through the clouds as an unseen watcher leans near the closed window of the shed. The ramshackle building is covered with English ivy, honeysuckle, and a wild rambling rose that makes it difficult to see into the one-story woodworking shop. A Coleman lantern is the only light in the building. Even though the sun has set, the Missouri heat is oppressive, the humidity so high the watcher is sweating. Cicadas, tree frogs, and nearby traffic provide the soundtrack. The honeysuckle scent disappeared a month before. The odors of this night are sweat, dust, and cigarette smoke.

Jerry Vogelsang puffs his cigarette while sitting on a stack of burlap bags in his underwear, a can of Budweiser at his side. A small boy is in a heap on the floor, wearing only a tee shirt, his back heaving with sobs.

“Get it together you little shit. You got to go inside and you got to act like everything’s okay.”

The boy jerks away from Jerry, but raises his head and faces him.

“Wipe your face and stuff. Straighten up.”

The boy wipes his nose with the back of his hand, stands up, covering his private parts with his other hand.

Jerry slaps the boy’s hand away.

“Now get dressed and go in the house. Just act like you always do. Everything’s okay as long as you don’t tell. All right?”

The boy scurries to put his clothes and shoes on, and runs out the door, letting it slam behind him. As soon as he is gone, the watcher goes to the door, opens it, steps inside, and locks it.

Before Jerry can express more than surprise, the watcher crosses the room and hits him in the head with a crowbar, knocking him out. The watcher prepares the room. First the window is covered with a black cloth. The door is barred to make it more secure. Next the workbench is cleared to make room for Jerry. The watcher uses the firefighter’s carry to hoist the man onto the bench. He is of average height and weight, but he is unconscious, and of no help. Using a nail gun, the watcher secures him to the table with three-quarter-inch galvanized metal strapping. Jerry is strapped at neck, biceps, wrists, waist, thighs, knees, shins, and ankles. And one across the forehead for good measure. The watcher opens Jerry’s mouth and stuffs it with a sock, wraps a bandana around the back of his head, and ties it over his gagged mouth.

Jerry groans and begins to squirm. The watcher holds up a pair of scissors where Jerry can see them. Jerry tries to yell and when he can’t, he begins to thrash, his eyes wild. The scissors, held in hands encased in black rubber gloves, come at his face, stopping just short of his right eye. Jerry presses the back of his head into the workbench. Beads of sweat pop up on his forehead and a deep growl issues from his throat. The warm building reeks of bodily fluids.

“That’s better. Stay still. I’m going to give you some injections so the things I do won’t hurt so bad. Shh. Be quiet now. You know we like to be quiet. We don’t want anyone to know what you do out here in the shed, do we? I’m going to cut your underpants off, here we go. Don’t wiggle, you’ll make me cut you. Oops, you see? I did cut you, these scissors are really sharp. Let’s cut these all the way off, see what you’ve got down here. Well, that’s not so much, is it? What’s the matter, you cold? All the time I was thinking I’ll bet you hurt that little boy you had in here, but maybe you didn’t hurt him so bad with this little old thing. Oh, but I’m forgetting. It gets hard when you’re around little kids, right? Both little boys and girls, right? You’re equal like that, huh? A real man. Maybe you need to be a bit less of a man. Maybe you need to be castrated. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll give you a shot. Hold still. Here we go. Are you numbing up yet? How about now? Look, it’s not going to hurt that much anyway, right? I’m not going to cut them off with the scissors. No. I’m going to use dental floss. I’ll tie them real tight and they’ll fall off in a couple of weeks. Hold still. Hold still!”

As Jerry twists and turns, the metal banding loosens. At the first sound of the nails pulling from the workbench, the watcher grabs the scissors and stabs Jerry in the stomach, then again higher in the chest, and finally in the throat. Blood is gushing from Jerry’s body, but he is still. The watcher gathers up all the tools, including the black cloth from the window, the bar from the door, the crowbar, the nail gun, and the leftover metal strapping. These items go into the duffel bag they bought at the Army surplus store. With a last look around, the watcher leaves the shed, shuts the door, pulls off the rubber gloves and stows them in a pocket.

BIO:
Sandra de Helen, author of the thriller Till Darkness Comes, also pens the Shirley Combs/Dr. Mary Watson series. She is a poet, journalist, and a playwright. Her plays have been produced in the Philippines, Ireland and Canada, Chicago, New York City, and in thirteen states. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and the Dramatists Guild. Her books are available online, at Another Read Through Bookstore in Portland, Oregon, and Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego. Samples of her work are available on her website.

BUY LINKS:

Till Darkness Comes:
Amazon.com http://bit.ly/TillDarknessComesPaperback
Amazon.com/kindle http://bit.ly/TillDarknessComesKindle
Barnes & Noble Nook: http://bit.ly/TDCNook
The Illustrious Client:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Illustrious-Client-Sandra-Helen/
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/audiobook/illustrious-client-unabridged/id898136443
Audible: http://adbl.co/1TVy2RN
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1Usz8Em
Bookmate: https://bookmate.com/books/JkXPYQbV
Powell’s: http://www.powells.com/book/the-illustrious-client-9780991079209/61-0
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/dehelen
Tanum (Norway): http://bit.ly/1XNueEt
The Hounding:
Amazon: http://bit.ly/TheHoundingbysdh
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/audiobook/hounding-shirley-combs-dr./id797820901
Audible: http://adbl.co/1XdmfSN
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1spt32C
Bookmate: https://bookmate.com/books/xwAeiJ69
Powell’s: http://www.powells.com/book/the-hounding-9780991079216/61-0
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/dehelen
Tanum (Norway): http://bit.ly/1RKyOMP

 

Karen Pullen: Cold Heart Wednesday, Jan 18 2017 

Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and police procedural Auntie M Writes Crime 12:01 am

coldheart

Karen Pullen returns with the second in her Stella Lavender Mysteries, Cold Heart. With her debut, Cold Feet, readers were introduced to the NC State Bureau of Investigations agent, who’s been doing undercover drug work. But Stella keeps hoping for something more. Always on the lookout for a homicide, she quickly becomes involved in an investigation after giving a ride to a hitchhiker.

The teen needs to get to her babysitting job, but once inside the wealthy neighborhood where her employer lives, Stella and the girl find the father in the family lying dead in the backyard. The toddler in question is missing. Stella gets herself assigned to the case and finds it particularly unusual.

Family photos have gone missing. It appears the victim was unconscious for a period of time before being killed. Why does he have a new huge deposit in his bank account? With the toddler’s mother pregnant and due to deliver soon, the child’s disappearance takes on a new urgency, even as Stella strives to find the father’s killer.

Stella’s backstory includes being raised by her very modern grandmother after her own mother went missing when Stella was a baby. This underlines much of her drive and motivation, and it comes into play in this case in an unusual manner.

Pullen creates her North Carolina setting and her characters well. A strong entry in a compelling series.

 

4 UK Treats: Russell, Tope, Mitchell, Ireland Sunday, Jan 15 2017 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:10 am

Auntie M had a ball over the holidays reading on her Kindle between wrapping gifts, having family over and celebrating with friends and family. Here’s four for readers to check out, all set in the UK~

bloodaxe
Blood Axe is Leigh Russell’s newest DI Ian Peterson mystery. As the young detective struggles to adjust to his posting in York, and to the issues in his marriage, he’s confronted with a grisly murder scene.

A Viking axe goes missing after a festival and becomes the tool the murderer uses to carry out what soon becomes a series of murders. Peterson and his team, still adjusting to each other, must go full out to find who could possibly be the perpetrator. This is a canny killer, and it isn’t an easy task.

York springs to life, with plot points carefully worked out, and the gritty tasks, long hours and often frustrating work detectives face nicely illustrated. Russell’s police procedural’s hum with realism and this one is a fine addition to the series.

troutbecktestimony

Rebecca Tope brings back florist Simmy Brown in The Troutbeck Testimony, the young woman’s fourth outing. This time Simmy is walking with her father when an overheard conversation leads to a mix-up that ties in with a local murder. It doesn’t help that they find a dead dog.

Simmy is a most reluctant sleuth. She becomes embroiled in cases, to the delight of her young assistants. There will be changes in those closest to Simmy, too, and a surprise twist that has some of her preconceived notions shaken to her core. There are plenty of red herrings and mixed messages to keep readers on their toes.

getmegrave

The writing duo known as DE Ireland return with Eliza Doolittle, Professor Henry Higgins, and the whole cast of My Fair Lady in Get Me to the Grave on Time.

It’s wedding season, which Higgins abhors, yet when the groom dies at the first one they attend, Eliza and Higgins find themselves sleuthing again. There are plenty of suspects as the plot thickens, and more deaths to come. Several in their close circle will be hurt as things start to get out of control.

The period details, especially the mores and customs, plus the emphasis that was placed on clothing, are detailed and specific, lending an air of plunging the reader back into Edwardian times. A looted Indian temple becomes the basis for the investigation and raises the question of British supremacy and the taking of antiquities for British museums. There are more layers here than first meet the eye.

loveyoutodeath

Caroline Mitchell debuts a new series with a most interesting protagonist in the first DS Ruby Preston, Love You to Death.

Ruby’s unlike most other police detectives. She’s pulled herself up to rise in the police after being raised in a neighborhood known more for its criminals. Her ties to her old life can’t seem to be cut, with good reason. She finds herself involved in complicated relationships at every turn, unable to lose the baggage of her past.

It makes for a very interesting and different approach, as Ruby must decide where her allegiance lies: to her old neighborhood and those she’s loved for years; or to the letter of the law she’s sworn to uphold.

A serial murderer is abducting and killing women after gaining entrance to their homes. It’s soon apparent that the thread connecting them is that each woman gave up a child for adoption.

The killer is looking for the mother who gave her up, and for a fairytale ending to their relationship. A wonderful twist occurs when Ruby receives emails allegedly from the daughter she gave up at birth as a teenager, implying that she is the killer. The child’s father is Nathan, a gangster who is not a part of Ruby’s life any longer–or is he?

An very different kind of character to lead a new series. It will be interesting to see where Mitchell takes Ruby next.

 

Jonathan Moore: The Dark Room Tuesday, Jan 10 2017 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:31 am

darkroom

On the heels of last year’s thrilling Poison Artist, Moore returns with The Dark Room, a police procedural thriller that will leave readers flipping pages long past bedtime.

San Francisco and its communities spring to life in their dreary, rainy season when Gavin Cain, experienced homicide investigator, is pulled from an exhumation surrounding and old case to spearhead one that has the FBI involved: someone has sent the city’s mayor photographs of a beautiful blonde woman being systematically brutalized, forced to swallow a handful of pills, then raped. The accompanying letter hints there are worse photos to follow unless the Mayor, hard-hitting Castelli, commits suicide first.

As he and his team investigate the photos and the cold case that surfaces, it becomes obvious there’s a connection to the exhumation case he was on.
The mayor’s family and staff become entwined, and with the FBI’s help, Cain is on a roller-coaster ride he can’t get off until he finds the evil behind the actions.

Cain’s entire team and his personal life will be affected as one unthinkable action after another occurs. The dialogue-heavy action bring Moore’s realistic individuals to life in this intricately-plotted novel that Stephen King calls “heart-pounding” with good reason. Highly recommended.

 

My Favorite Reads 2016 Sunday, Jan 8 2017 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:14 am

As we welcome 2017, out of 177 reviewed books (!) in 2016, a listing of those that received Auntie M’s coveted HIGHLY RECOMMENDED status:

Colette McBeth: The Life I Left Behind (Minotaur)

Ausma Zehant Khan: The Language of Secrets (Minotaur)

Nicholas Searle: The Good Liar (HarperCollins)

Nele Neuhaus: I Am Your Judge (Macmillan)

Alison Gaylin: What Remains of Me (Minotaur)

Jeannette De Beauvoir: Deadly Jewels (Macmillan)

Elly Griffiths: Woman in Blue (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Noah Hawley: Before the Fall (Hodder & Stoughton)

Kate Rhodes: Blood Symmetry (Macmillan)

Laura McHugh: Arrowood (Spiegel & Grau)

Louise Penny: A Great Reckoning (Minotaur)

Sarah Ward: A Deadly Thaw (Minotaur)

Sharon Bolton: Daisy in Chains (Minotaur)

Tana French: The Trespasser (Viking)

Tony Parsons: The Hanging Club (Macmillan)

 

Marilyn Meredith: A Crushing Death, #12 in the Rocky Bluff P. D. series Sunday, May 1 2016 

Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:35 am

Please welcome author Marilyn Meredith, bringing out #12 in her Rocky Bluff P D series, A Crushing Death. She’ll describe how she’s managed to keep her long-running series fresh. Be certain to read to the bottom and learn how you can enter a contest to be a character in her next book!

KEEPING A SERIES FRESH

In order to keep people wanting to read the Rocky Bluff P.D. series, these are the things that I try to do:

This is a mystery series first, so of course, there must be an intriguing mystery and usually that means someone is murdered, though not always. As with any mystery, there will be several possible suspects and it’s up to my detectives to figure out who is the guilty person.

Because Rocky Bluff is a beach community, there always is something new, as well as reminders, about the setting.

However, what is most important is what happens to the characters. I’ve always said that this series is as much about what happens to the men and women on the Rocky Bluff P.D. and their families as the mystery. Of course, the mystery itself is going to have some affect, but as with all of us, the characters have had life problems, such as: having to care for and make decisions for a parent with Alzheimers’; the birth of a child with Down Syndrome; dealing with a teen’s problems; having had a loved one risk his or her life, disappear, make a decision about the job itself; and so much more.

At times, something unexpected will happen, like when the Milligans moved into a haunted house in Violent Departures.

I’m probably more anxious to know what’s going to happen in the next book than anyone, because I’ve come to know and care about the people who inhabit Rocky Bluff and work for the police department there. Hopefully, my curiosity will keep the series fresh enough that my readers will want to continue on with me.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

A Crushing Death

A pile of rocks is found on a dead body beneath the condemned pier, a teacher is accused of molesting a student, the new police chief is threatened by someone she once arrested for violent attacks on women, and Detective Milligan’s teenage daughter has problem.

Me at Coalesce2

F. M. Meredith, who is also known as Marilyn Meredith, is nearing the number of 40 published books. Besides being an author she is a wife, mother, grandma and great-grandmother. Though the Rocky Bluff she writes about is fictional, she lived for over twenty years in a similar small beach town. Besides having many law enforcement officers in her family, she counts many as friends. She teaches writing, loves to give presentations to writing and other groups, and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, three chapters of Sisters in Crime and on the board of Public Safety Writers Association.

Website: http://fictionforyou.com
Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com
Facebook: Marilyn Meredith
Twitter: MarilynMeredith

Contest: Once again, the person who comments on the most blogs during this tour, can have a character named after them in the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery. Tomorrow you can find me here:
http://www.gumbojustice.blogspot.com/

 

Ava Marsh: Untouchable Wednesday, Apr 20 2016 

debut and great read and mystery to die for , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:04 am

Untouchable
Take one unusual, flawed protagonist, add in the details of her life as an elite London call girl and some explicit sex scenes, wrap it all in a damn good mystery and you have Untouchable, former journalist Ava Marsh’s strong debut.

“Stella” has a complicated past that has made her turn to her life as high class escort. When she’s not working she’s taking night shifts at a rape crisis center. Then one of the escorts she knows is murdered, and it quickly becomes apparent that a group party she shared with the dead woman makes her a likely victim. What is it that she knows but isn’t aware she knows?

The way the women are exploited will make some readers blood boil, but Stella’s unapologetic approach makes this most unlikely woman a striking protagonist as she tries to unravel what happened to the young murdered woman. She knows that the death of a prostitute will not be taken as seriously as would the murder of a society matron or a young mother. And when she feels some of the powerful men in London she’s come across might be involved, it’s only a matter of time before she finds herself on their list for extermination.

What started out as way to explain a death quickly becomes a race to save her own life for Stella.

This is a fascinating look at the life these women live, from waxing and personal appearance woes to the sadistic men they encounter. There are powerful men, too, and others who are lonely, merely looking for a connection to a woman who will listen to them. For that’s one thing Stella is paid to do, besides perform sex acts, and that’s listen. It’s a gift that may end up saving her life before it’s all over.

A gritty, unusual debut Auntie M found highly readable.

 

Maggie Barbieri: Lie in Plain Sight, Maeve Conlon #3 Sunday, Apr 17 2016 

Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:20 am

LiePlainSight

Maggie Barbieri’s father was a New York City policeman whose stories have given the author great background for her Maeve Conlon series. She’s back with the third in this darkly humorous mystery series with Lie in Plain Sight.

Maeve’s a single mom to two girls, one in college now and the other, Heather, getting ready to choose a college. Maeve’s relationship with her younger daughter is strained, as it often is with any teen, and more so when that teen’s personality resembles the parent’s.

But Maeve is doing her best, juggling her beau, a local detective, her remarried ex-husband and his new family, and her busy bakery. She’s so busy she hires a local woman, Trish Dvorak, someone she knew in elementary school, to help out.

Things escalate when Trish is out on a delivery and Maeve finds out she’s been named a school contact by Trish for her own teen, Taylor, when the school nurse calls for Maeve’s permission to let an ill Taylor walk the short distance home from school.

But Taylor vanishes before making it home, and suddenly Maeve is not only feeling hellishly responsible, town gossip is adding to her guilt. With her own investigating history and help from a few friends we’ve seen before, Maeve tries to find Taylor on her own, creating tension in several relationships when it becomes obvious there’s more to Taylor’s disappearance than meets the eye.

One of the delights of this series is that the reader knows that Maeve has her own view of what constitutes justice, one that differs significantly from that of her police boyfriend and most of other legal institutions. And when Heather disappears, all bets are off.

Another delightful entry with a likable and different protagonist, with well-crafted characters, and a look into the community where she lives providing a setting and story that will hook and surprise readers from page one.

 

Jeanette DeBeauvoir: Deadly Jewels Sunday, Apr 10 2016 

Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:42 am

deadly jewels_MECH_01.indd

One of Auntie M’s favorite novels last year was Jeannette DeBeauvoir’s debut Asylum, a chilling and often terrifying mystery that introduced Martine LeDuc, the engaging protagonist who is publicity director for the city of Montreal.

Auntie M recently had the opportunity to ask the author a few questions about her work:

Auntie M: You have developed a backdoor to these crime investigations for your protagonist, PR director Martine LeDuc. What made you choose her position and that approach?

Jeannette de Beauvoir: I was looking for someone whose work would, first of all, allow access to a range of different situations, and secondly, be flexible in terms of how the protagonist spent her time. Public relations could arguably have its hand in a lot of different problems, and the person at the top of the department can come and go with staff to cover day-to-day operations if she needs to be elsewhere.

AM: Everyone’s family has a story, and Martine’s home life is grounding, yet it feels very realistic. How important do you feel it is for readers to see that there are other forces pulling at her that require her attention?

JDB: It’s truly about making her a whole person. We’re all made up of mosaics, aren’t we—no one is *only* their job, or *only* their family life, or *only* anything… so it is always important to me to give characters a backstory and a personal life. Doing that offers so many opportunities, especially for a series such as this one, for the character to grow and change, to make mistakes and learn from them… in other words, to develop fully as a human being. The Martine of Deadly Jewels is different from the Martine of Asylum, and will be different from the Martine of the next book should there be one. If the books were *just* about the mysteries, I think they’d be a lot less interesting.

AM: After growing up in Angers, France, you now divide your time between Montreal and Cape Cod. Do you see a difference between the Canadian mind and the American mind when it comes to readers of crime novels and their questions for you? Between the French and the American?

JDB: I’m half-French and half-American, and I often think that if I were a city, I’d be Montréal… with part of me reflecting each culture. But we’re really talking about three different cultures, and three different ways of approaching literature. Readers from the U.S. tend to want to be plunged directly into the story, whereas French readers are looking for more depth—more philosophy, if that makes sense. Neither book has been translated (yet) so it would be interesting to see people’s reactions to them.

AM: A consistent thread is Martine’s love of Montreal, and a highlight for me as a reader is exploring the city through her eyes. The research you’ve done for both Asylum, a first-rate novel, and Deadly Jewels, another winner, adds so many layers to the books. Have you found it easy to obtain access to what might otherwise be off-limits areas for these projects? I’ve found assuring a contact’s name will appear in the Acknowledgments is often a great enticement. Have you had a similar response to your requests?

JDB: I have found people to be amazingly generous with their time and expertise in every project I’ve undertaken. I’ve asked difficult questions and I have never had anyone refuse to help. And people really are the best resource. One of the classes I teach online is writing historical fiction, and I tell students two things: do your research before you talk to people (so that you are suitably immersed in the subject and you don’t ask the questions whose answers you could have Googled), but then find the experts and ask them. Someone who has lived through an era can give so much more information than just reading secondary sources about it. And the same goes for mystery writing: find the experts, be respectful of their time, and you will be astonished at the results.

AM: Your background includes poetry and plays. What made you decide to write a crime series?

JDB: Ah, the poetry and plays are pretty much accidents: I’m really a novelist. I wrote historical fiction for quite a while but realized at some point that what I love to read most is mystery fiction, and I wasn’t writing it—there was a disconnect there. So I co-authored my first mystery novel (mostly because I didn’t think I was terribly good at plots!), got braver and wrote one on my own, then finally discovered what works for me: combining mystery and historical fiction. Not in the same way that an Ellis Peters does, with a character in the past solving a crime from the past—but rather with someone in the present-day finding that the past doesn’t in fact really go away. I think it makes for good storytelling and has the added advantage of teaching a little history as well.

AM: When you have precious down time, whose books would readers find waiting to be read on your nightstand?

Phil Rickman: he’s a brilliant writer, his stories are intricately plotted, his characters are haunting, and he’s just spooky enough to keep your heart rate up. He writes a series about a female Anglican priest who’s also an exorcist, but also has wonderful standalone books that borrow characters from the series, so that you can follow them from book to book. He is one of the authors I admire most for making the *geography* as much a character as the people: he writes about the border between England and Wales and makes the liminality of such a place intrinsic to the plot.

AM: Thank you for that recommendation. I’ve just ordered his first in the series to try. Now on to the review of DEADLY JEWELS:

De Beauvoir’s sequel brings Martine LeDub back for another adventure that has the same chilling suspense as her first, yet manages to be a different book entirely. It still pivots on moral questions, and she shows her love for the city in its exploration by the main characters as they try to stop what amounts to a cult operation from decades ago that has reached fingers into present day Montreal.

Martine has a mutual dislike relationship with the Mayor who serves as her boss. But this time when she’s called to his office, it’s not to be rebuked, but to be introduced to an graduate student who just may have pulled off a PR coup: she’s found proof that long-held rumors are true and that proof has been found during underground excavations taking place under the city. The British crown jewels were once housed there in Montreal during WWII and then returned to London.

It promises to be a grand revelation for all, until Martine accompanies Patricia Mason to the excavation site. Sure, they do find several diamonds, left behind from the original cache. But they also find the skeleton of man shot execution-style decided ago. It appears he swallowed these remaining jewels.

Now it’s a job of containment, as Martine and her colleagues in several places determine how to handle the scandal. And this won’t be great PR for Montreal or for her job.

But then Mason is shot, and she turns to her detective friend from the first book, Julian Fletcher, to help her out with the cold case. And just as things heat up, her stepchildren arrive for a visit and her husband disappears that same weekend to have a meeting with his ex-wife.

There will be several twists and turns along the way as the case unravels, with surprising results. Along the way, Martine will be introduced to and interview Nazi survivors and their families, and those trying to resurrect that regime in a startling way.

As the action heats up, it’s not just Martine who will find herself in jeopardy.
One of the things that set this apart from the usual series is the way De Beauvoir skillfully weaves the modern with the historical. Flashbacks to two key characters explain the historic journey of the jewels and the men involved with them and add substance and key clues to the action.

The author bio for De Beauvoir states in part: “. . . She finds that the past always has some hold on the present and writes mysteries and historical fiction that reflect that resonance.”
You’ll understand the meaning of that line once you read this fine mystery that evaluates many sides of a situation. Highly recommended.

 

Edith Maxwell: Delivering the Truth Friday, Apr 8 2016 

debut and historical saga and mystery to die for and new series and Series not to be missed , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:28 am

Edith Maxwell is one of the hardest working authors Auntie M knows, juggling now four series and bringing out books that have a wide readership. Today she’s talking about her new historical mystery, Delivering the Truth, the first in her Quaker Midwife Mysteries. Check out that neat cover and discover the mystery inside.

Delivering the TruthCover

Learning about the Past

Thanks for having me back, Auntie M!

My latest venture – historical mystery – involves a level of research I don’t need to do when I write my contemporary mysteries. I had so much to learn about the late 1800s. And there’s nobody still alive to ask.

How would a Quaker speak and act? What did women wear under their outer clothes? Did a modest New England home have indoor plumbing, gas lamps, a coal stove? What were matches like?
MissParloas-2

I’ve found a couple of good reference books for everyday life. Ruth Goodman’s How to Be a Victorian describes everything from toothbrushes to underwear. Miss Parloa’s New Cookbook and Marketing Guide from 1890 has all kinds of handy tips about the kitchen and foods available in the end of the century. Pinterest provides images of clothing. And then there’s Sarah Chrisman – who lives like someone in 1888 and writes about it! http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/

MontWardCarriages
I needed to learn about all the different types of horse-drawn vehicles. Carriages, wagons, buggies, drays, runabouts, broughtons, phaetons, surries – and so many more. Luckily for me, the town where the series is set, Amesbury, Massachusetts, is where I live and it was world-famed for its carriage manufacturing. There are antique carriages all over town, a thriving Carriage Museum, and many enthusiastic history buffs to call on.

MidwiferyBookLeish
Because my protagonist is a midwife, I delved into medical care of the time. Basic uncomplicated childbirth hasn’t changed that much. But did they know about the importance of washing hands yet? I learned that the germ theory of infection was known. Was there a hospital nearby in case of emergency? Yes, the hospital in the next town was eight years old at the time of Delivering the Truth. I found a midwifery textbook from the era. I learned that blood typing wasn’t yet used but that a lab could find out from a snip of hair if arsenic had been ingested.

Reading local newspapers from a hundred and thirty years ago provide much detail about both news and the prices of goods and services, as do the Sear & Roebuck catalog and the Montgomery Ward catalog, both of which are available on Amazon as reproductions. For example, you could buy a two-spring Phaeton (a single-horse kind of buggy with a roof) for $70, a drop-leaf desk for $9.50, and a pair of Irish lace curtains for $2.35. My midwife Rose bought a new bicycle for $45.
PoliceManualCover
And because I write mysteries, there’s the all-important question of police procedure. I’ve found pictures of the local police force in town, and dug up The Massachusetts Peace Officer: A Manual for Sheriffs, Constables, Police, and other Civil Officers from 1890. An officer had to lay a hand on the shoulder of someone he was arresting, for example. I also learned that they didn’t yet use fingerprinting.

There’s more, of course. Local historical societies and museums are a rich resource. But at some point you just have to write the book!

Readers, do you like doing research? Where do you find resources to learn about the past, or about your current passion, whatever it is?

MaxwellCrop

Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and the Local Foods Mysteries, the Country Store Mysteries (as Maddie Day), and the Lauren Rousseau Mysteries (as Tace Baker), as well as award-winning short crime fiction. Her short story, “A Questionable Death,” is nominated for a 2016 Agatha Award for Best Short Story. The tale features the 1888 setting and characters from her Quaker Midwife Mysteries series, which debuts with Delivering the Truth on April 8.

Maxwell is Vice-President of Sisters in Crime New England and Clerk of Amesbury Friends Meeting. She lives north of Boston with her beau and three cats, and blogs with the other Wicked Cozy Authors. You can find her on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, and at her web site, edithmaxwell.com.

 

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