Last
weekend I had the opportunity to spend all day Saturday lost in the world of murder
and mayhem. Mary Joy (co-author On the
Road to Death's Door) and I were guest panelists in the this year's Legends of
the Fall event at the Booked for Murder bookstore here in Madison, an annual
celebration of regional mystery writers and their books.
Sara
Barnes, owner of Booked for Murder, was an incredibly gracious hostess. The store itself is a cozy, one room shop
that is the frequent gathering place for book clubs, author events, and book
launch parties.
Maddy Hunter, author of the wildly entertaining Passport to Peril mystery series, was the emcee. Maddy provided introductions for all the authors, kept transitions running smoothly, and made readers and authors alike feel incredibly welcome.
Maddy Hunter, author of the wildly entertaining Passport to Peril mystery series, was the emcee. Maddy provided introductions for all the authors, kept transitions running smoothly, and made readers and authors alike feel incredibly welcome.
For
our panel in the afternoon, Mary Joy and I were thoughtfully paired with
another local mystery writing couple (and a married couple!) Betsy Draine and
Michael Hinden, co-authors of the intriguing, archeologically-based Murder at
Lascaux. The theme of our conversation
with the audience was "writing with a partner," but we also talked
about how travel and research are keys to creating the mysteries in our books.
All
the other panels were organized into threesomes. The day started with Marshall Cook, a retired
UW professor and author of the Monona Quinn mystery series, set in a fictional
small town in Wisconsin, Molly MacRae, who writes the Haunted Yarn Shop mystery
series, set in Tennessee's Blue Ridge Mountains, and Sarah Wisseman, an
archeologist whose sleuth is museum curator Lisa Donahue. The theme for this panel was setting. It turns out that for many mystery writers
their stories begin with place.
Marshall Cook readily admitted that one of the reasons he created a
fictional town for his books is that the town can "expand or contract
depending on how big I need it to be" for a particular story.
The
second panel, which focused on character, included John Desjarles, a UW alum now
teaching at Kishwaukee College in Illinois and who authors the Selena DeLaCruz
mysteries, Libby Fischer Hellmann of Chicago, author of A Bitter Veil, Toxicity,
Set the Night on Fire and others, and New York Times bestselling author
William Kent Krueger whose Cork O'Connor series is set in Northern Minnesota. All three of these writers are intrigued with
exploring the complexity of culture, bi-culturalism, and racism in their books.
Former
Chicago police officer Michael A. Black, author of several police procedural
series including the recent Sacrificial Offerings, Wisconsin attorney and short
story writer Ted Hertel (My Bonnie Lies…), and former CIA analyst Bill Rapp who
authored Berlin Breakdown provided insights to a grittier side of fiction as they discussed
what it takes to write authentic crime, legal and private eye fiction.
Jerol
Anderson, who currently lives in Cambridge, Wisconsin and writes the Jessica
Tyson mystery series, fantasy writer Sean Patrick Little whose books The
Centurion and The Seven are being considered for film options, and former
priest David J. Walker who has authored 12 novels including Company Orders
offered an eclectic mix of views, backgrounds, and experiences during their
panel.
The
daylong event was capped by writers Raymond Benson, who was commissioned to
write several of the 007 novels between 1996 and 2002 and whose current Black
Stiletto mystery series is being made into a TV series, Chicagoan Sam Reaves author
of Mean Town Blues and who writes also as Dominic Martell, and Madison's own Norman
Gilliland w hose voice is so familiar on WPR and has penned Midnight Catch which
takes place in northern Florida of the 1920s.
That's
a lot of people being murdered in a lot of places under a huge variety of
circumstances with a lot of fascinating sleuths unraveling the clues, righting
wrongs, and setting the world back on its feet…only to go through it all over
again to the delight of readers who love the thrill of the hunt and a bit of escapism.
If
you enjoy a good mystery, check out any of the writers above. And of course…check
out ours! On the Road to Death's Door is available in both paperback and e-format through the usual venues, including at Booked for Murder!