Only the Good Die Young

 

Cindy Davis is back with more adventures of Bliss in that bucolic Texas Hill Country town, Magnolia Bluff.

Today is launch day for

Only the Good Die Young

Book 12 in the multi-author Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series.

Quite frankly, Bliss is one of my favorite characters in the world of Magnolia Bluff, Texas.

She’s a snarky and fun-loving person who will die for pizza and swoons over peanut butter. But most of all, she especially loves being free and independent. A rolling stone with no responsibilities.

In Only the Good Die Young, Bliss is once again back in Magnolia Bluff. Only this time she’s in town willingly — houseboat-sitting for her friend, Olivia, and helping the Doyle family celebrate Easter.

And what a celebration it is: piles of good food, and great music from the popular local band Loco-Motion.

Everything is going along just great until the lead singer picks up her favorite guitar, touches the strings, and turns into a living — and soon dead — fireworks display.

Now that Nina Warren is dead, and the logical suspect pool is Bliss’s favorite family, the Doyles, she wants to be involved in the investigation.

Of course Chief of Police Tommy Jager doesn’t want Bliss’s help.

And of course, Bliss and her friends ignore Tommy and begin poking around in the life of the late singer.

I don’t want to give away the storyline. That would spoil the mystery.

Instead, let me say that with Bliss and her adventures, Cindy Davis has hit the ball out of the park.

These are fabulously entertaining cozy mysteries. Just plain old good clean fun. With a healthy dollop of the paranormal thrown in that really spices things up.

Ms. Davis has a knack for making the paranormal seem so very normal. And she does so with a deft hand. The Bliss books are clearly Cindy Davis at her best.

You will definitely want to get in on the action, the laughs, the fun, the pizza, and especially the noggin-scratchin’ puzzler of a mystery.

Who wanted Nina Warren dead, and why? Count on Bliss to find out and end up dying for her efforts. Well, almost. Maybe.

I love the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series. Eleven writers producing some of the best mysteries and thrillers for your entertainment.

And I especially love Bliss. I think you will too.

Only the Good Die Young by Cindy Davis. On sale right now — on Amazon.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

When Bad Things Happen to Good Mice

 

The Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles keep rolling along.

This month, on March 18th, as a matter of fact, Book 11 launches

When Bad Things Happen to Good Mice

And you can pick the book up on pre-order now.

Cindy Davis gives us another fun cozy mystery, filled with great humor, plenty of suspense, and a touch of the paranormal. After all, who doesn’t like ghosts? And the pizza shop owner knowing what kind of pizza you want?

Bliss seems to be the recipient of bad mojo. Here she is camping under the stars, minding her own business, when Chief Jager hauls her back to town on a charge of murder.

Murder of her boyfriend. Well, ex-boyfriend.

Why?

Because a body, presumed to be Bliss’s ex-boyfriend, was found in the ashes of the Annual Celtic Faire bonfire. 

Of course, Bliss was miles away when he died. But not so, according to a witness, someone Bliss considered a friend. 

The witness claims she saw Bliss in town the day of the bonfire. And no one can prove otherwise.

Chief Jager is getting pressure from all sides to solve the murder. And to catch the petty thief who’s been all over town breaking and entering and stealing cash.

With the help of her ability to see people’s auras, get clues from Tom Chapin songs that pop into her head, and the clues her toucan Diablo drops on her, Bliss thinks the murder and the thefts are related.

Chief Jager, though, doesn’t buy it. Well, not until it’s discovered that the body in the bonfire wasn’t Bliss’s ex-boyfriend after all.

So who was he? And why was he killed? And why have the thefts suddenly stopped?

Bliss, with charges dropped, is on a mission to find out.

It’s not every day that a mystery is filled with suspense and thrills, and is great fun. But that’s what Cindy Davis delivers in this latest installment of the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles.

So if you’re looking to have a good time while taking a break from spring cleaning, or relaxing in the comfy coziness of your favorite chair or sofa on a lazy afternoon, or while sitting in bed before you hit the hay — then pick up a copy of 

When Bad Things Happen to Good Mice

You won’t regret it!

And if you’re new to the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series, you can start your adventure with

Death Wears a Crimson Hat

And you can find all of the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

Meet the Characters of Magnolia Bluff -- The Ghost

 

The sadness in his voice brings tears to my eyes. I procrastinate a minute wondering, Why me?

Once again we are back in Magnolia Bluff talking to the people who make this little town their home.

Today we are meeting a ghost. Yep. Even in Magnolia Bluff we find a friendly Casper.

*

Bliss is a free-spirited young lady who has ridden into a quaint little Texas town.

It’s not where she wanted to be.

But, alas, Magnolia Bluff is where her motorcycle broke down.

She feels like a stranger in a strange town.

She meets some fascinating characters.

One of them is Merrick Doyle.

Bliss discovers him in The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Book 3 in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles.

He’s not like anyone else.

He’s depending on Bliss to help him.

No one else can.

No one else will.

Doyle is desperate.

He has a secret.

He’s not with us anymore.

*

I lean on my elbows, ready to lie back down. “Look, it’s been a long day and I have a splitting headache. Can you either tell me who you are straight-out, or wait until morning and I’ll be happy to play the guessing game with you?” As I lie down, a vivid picture jets into my head and I sit back up. “You’re Merrick Doyle. Ethan and Ciara’s father.”

Correctimundo!

“I’ve seen a bunch of movies, Mr. Doyle. I can guess why you’re here.”

Merrick pops into view near the windows. I use the word pops literally because the sounds are like microwave popcorn, but with a staccato shave-and-a-haircut beat.

The ghost is translucent. I think that’s the right word. Moonlight and details from the alley show through the light colored shirt. He’s got a roundish head and wide nose with deep-set eyes beneath a somewhat overhanging brow. In spite of the sharpness of his features, there’s something handsome about him. He tweaks his beard with his left hand, his head tilted as he waits for my reaction.

“Call me Merrick. Full name Merrick Arthur Doyle.”

“They told me you died last month.”

The eyes shut for three seconds, as though he’s keeping himself in check. When he speaks next, his words are calm but saturated with emotion. I was killed. Murdered.

I get up and move toward him. “How? By whom?”

I don’t know the answer to either question. Be nice, wouldn’t it? I just tell you who did it and you go out and get ’em.

In my almost-concussion-throbbing brain, things grow all-too-clear. “You expect me to figure out who did it?”

Correctimundo again! You’re a very bright girl…ah, woman.

“How do you think I—”

Merrick’s wide shoulders shrug. I see the motion not as body movement but as a ripple of the lighting through the window. Follow the clues.

“You’ve picked the wrong person to ask for help. I’ve never followed so much as a recipe.”

My ghost gives a deep-throated chuckle. You can do this. We’ll do it together.

Together? “What does that mean exactly? Are you going to drive me around town and—”

We use your body and my brain.

“Sounds kinky.”

I love your sense of humor! We’ll use my knowledge of people.

That’s when it dawns on me: he can read my mind.

Exactimundo! He throws back his head and laughs. I wonder if the sound can be heard through the walls.

I doubt it. I’ve spent a month trying to reach someone—anyone. I’ve shouted till I turned hoarse—but you’re the only one who’s been able to hear me. Not even my own children, or any of my friends…

The sadness in his voice brings tears to my eyes. I procrastinate a minute wondering, Why me?

No idea, Sambethe Ursula Watkins. No idea why you.

When he says my name, I’m instantly annoyed. “Do not. I repeat, do not ever say that name. I am Bliss. Period.” Then, reality hits. “Wait. How do you know who I am?”

Did you forget already? I can read your mind.

“I never think about my name. Ever ever ever. So therefore you couldn’t have read my mind.”

Look, I don’t know how I know things about you, but I do. Isn’t that enough? I love the sound of your name, by the way. What a great reference to the Persian Sybil. You know what Sybils were, right?

“Yes. Priestesses, prophets, looked up to by many.”

So, what’s bad about that? It seems like a form of royalty to me.

“I am not a prophet. Nor do I want to be looked up to. As a matter of fact, I don’t even want to be noticed, okay? I just want to follow my free will and do what I want when I want.”

He grows serious. We’ll table that discussion for now. Let’s talk about me.

Please click HERE to find The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy on Amazon.

And you can read the original post on Caleb and Linda Pirtle’s blog.

The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy is a funny and suspenseful cozy mystery, written by an accomplished writer of mysteries. Do yourself a favor: pickup a copy to exercise both your brain and your funny bone.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

For the Weekend 7

 I’m back with more considerations for your weekend reading.

As you know, if you are a regular reader of this blog, I think reading is the best entertainment. It’s not only fun, but reading fiction stimulates the brain in a way watching TV and movies doesn’t. So reading is fun and good for you. We all want healthy brains. No one looks forward to senility.

First up is a cozy mystery by bestselling Texas author Linda Pirtle.

Scrabbled Secrets (The Games We Play, Book 4)

A long and winding road it is to get to the bottom of this mystery. But amateur sleuth Lillian Prestridge (with a little help from a ghost?) is literally up to the task as she drives her motorhome across the middle of the US and into Canada.

There are thrills and spills a plenty in this cozy mystery that isn’t perhaps so cozy! And you’ll learn a whole new way to play Scrabble, too.

If you like cozies, and perhaps a bit of grit, this one’s for you!

You can find it on Amazon!

Or maybe your tastes run to good old epic fantasy. The classic battle between good and evil. If so, you might want to consider another fellow Texan’s book for your reading pleasure: Michael Scott Clifton’s Escape From Wheel (Conquest Of The Veil, Book 2).

This classic tale of good vs evil gets personal in a hurry. Alexandria discovers she must marry Rodric. And bad old Rodric is in league with some big time baddies.

But Alexandria has other ideas. She leaves town on a winged horse. Escaping your fate, though, is never easy.

There’s magic galore in the magical world of Meredith, both good and evil. Which means it’s a good place to get your fantasy fix.

You can find Escape from Wheel on Amazon!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

Mystery vs Suspense vs Thriller One Reader’s View

Crime can pay. Crime writing, that is. Then, again, real crime can pay too. But we’ll leave real crime for others to do. Today I want to talk about crime fiction; specifically about mysteries, suspense, and thrillers.

Thrillers

Thrillers are all the rage these days, but what exactly is a thriller?

A thriller is an action story. Usually fast-paced. The protagonist is in danger from the beginning. There is a bad guy and the protagonist must stop him (or her) from accomplishing his nefarious deed. We usually know the good and bad guys right from the beginning.

The scope of the thriller is often large. The bad guy isn’t playing for pennies. He’s going to blow up a city, poison a country, start a nuclear war. The thriller is about big action and big bad guys. The protagonist, to some degree, must also be larger than life.

The works of Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler are examples of good thrillers.

In the hands of a good writer, the thriller can be a thrilling read. Often, though, the writing is sub-par and the story not plausible, unless I, the reader, exercise a mega-dose of the suspension of disbelief. This is how the Jack Reacher stories strike me.

Many books are labeled as thrillers, which technically aren’t. Why? Money. As one wit noted, the difference between a mystery and a thriller is about a hundred thousand dollars.

Suspense

The suspense novel is often a slow burn story. The focus isn’t on action, although there may be quite a bit of action. The focus is on creating a feeling of suspense in the reader.

In the suspense story, the reader is omniscient. We see everything. We see the bad guy planning whatever it is he is going to do. We see the protagonist completely unaware, at least at the beginning, of the bad guy and his actions. We, the reader, see much more of the danger than the protagonist does and therein lies the creation of suspense.

The scope of the suspense story is generally limited and focused on the main character. Things are happening, usually to the main character, and he doesn’t know why. We, the reader, usually do, however, which adds to the suspense.

Cornell Woolrich was the suspense writer par excellence. Lester Dent also wrote some fine suspense novels.

The Mystery

The mystery is about solving crime, usually a murder. The crime usually happens at the beginning of the story and the sleuth’s job is to solve it. The protagonist (the sleuth) can be a professional or an amateur. And we usually do not learn who the bad guy is until the end of the story.

There are many mystery sub-categories. Right now, the most popular is what I call the chick lit cozy. It is the cozy mystery with the addition of elements from chick lit: a young (or youngish) woman, who is the main character/sleuth; she is divorced or a widow; has moved to a new location, and embarked on a new career; and there’s romance. Along with the regular cozy mystery, these are very clean and non-violent reads.

An indie example is Agatha Frost’s Peridale Cafe Murder Mystery series.

In a mystery, the reader only knows what he or she is told. We see what the sleuth sees. The story is as much a puzzle for the reader as it is for the protagonist.

The mystery can be filled with suspense and it can be thrilling. The danger to the protagonist builds, along with the story. The more the sleuth learns about the criminal, the greater the danger he or she is in.

Personal Assessment

For me, I find the mystery to be the most satisfying reading experience. It combines the puzzle with suspense and thrilling action.

While the mystery is technically a plot-driven story, rather than character-driven, I find that the most interesting mysteries are those which have interesting characters.

Mystery plots are basically all the same. There is a murderer who has killed someone and is trying to cover up the crime while the sleuth is trying to uncover it.

What makes the mystery story interesting is the cast of characters and the twists and turns of the storyline. And quite often the cast of characters can save a mediocre storyline.

After all, we remember Nero Wolfe, Sam Spade, Hercule Poirot, Mr and Mrs North, and Sherlock Holmes. But how many of the actual mystery stories featuring these characters do we remember? I bet not many.

In my opinion, interesting characters make mysteries more interesting reads than thrillers or suspense novels. Which usually have fairly stock characters.

Pacing is another reason I prefer the mystery as a reader. The pacing accelerates with the action in the story. As the clues (and sometimes the bodies) pile up and the more the sleuth knows, the more desperate the killer becomes. And the sleuth finds himself in ever increasing danger.

The action ratchets up in a natural progression. Unlike the thriller where were out of breath by page 2 or 3. The mystery, to my mind, is much more realistic and natural.

Finally, as a reader, I don’t necessarily want to know everything. For me the suspense of knowing there is a killer out there is sufficient. As I learn information with the sleuth, I form a bond with him. We are in this together, as it were. The very nature of the mystery, helps draw me into the world of the sleuth and his dilemma.

There are some fine mysteries being written today by indie authors. Two I especially like are:

Richard Schwindt’s Death in Sioux Lookout trilogy

Joe Congel’s Tony Razzolito P.I. series

Both are very good and very much worth a read.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

The Detective Novel

Last week we looked at the mystery vs the thriller. And we all know the thriller is hot, hot, hot these days. The traditional mystery? Not so much. Although the mystery in its chick lit cozy form is doing very well. This probably has something to do with the chick lit element, more than the mystery.

In any case, I’d like to take a look today at the detective novel. That form of the mystery that started the mystery craze, and in effect defined the mystery genre.

Crime stories go all the way back to the Arabian Nights. However, the crime story as we know it today, comes from the fertile imagination of Edgar Allan Poe, with his creation of C Auguste Dupin in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, published in 1841.

Poe even invented the word “ratiocination” for the thinking process that Dupin used to solve crime.

If Poe invented the detective story, and all detective stories ever since have more or less followed Poe’s formula, it was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes that made the detective story a mainstay of the literary scene.

I find it of interest that Dupin and Holmes are not professionals. They’re amateurs. The police are at best bumblers who know when they’re licked and need to call in the brilliant amateur specialist. And this is a feature of most mysteries that have an amateur sleuth.

Of course CSI-type forensics were a long ways off and the solution of crimes often did require the exercise of those “little grey cells”, whether or not the sleuth was a professional or amateur.

The 1930s are often called The Golden Age of the mystery, by which we mean the detective story. During that time, scores of amateur and professional sleuths appeared and disappeared. A few became household names: such as Sam Spade, Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe, Miss Marple, and Ellery Queen.

Others have faded to near oblivion. Sleuths such as Miss Silver, Mr & Mrs North, The Thinking Machine, Dr Thorndyke, Asey Mayo, and Loveday Brooke.

These sleuths, and many others, used ratiocination to solve the crimes that frequently baffled the police.

Today, however, the amateur is, or seems to be, very much out of his depth. DNA. Advanced surveillance equipment. Hacking of phones and computers. Traffic and surveillance cameras. Highly advanced crime labs. All these things are beyond the amateur sleuth, and even small town police departments.

Which may explain the rise of the modern chick lit cozy craze, that unlikely fusion of chick lit and the cozy mystery, and the vintage mystery, which is set in the pre-CSI past.

The vintage mystery, if well done, can be a very satisfying read, taking us back to The Golden Age — our glamorized view of the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s.

The chick lit cozy, focuses on a small town, or a small circle of people within a large city, crafts and small businesses, women’s issues, and at some point the crime. These reads are very popular. They’re not officially labelled “chick lit cozies”. That is a term I adopted from another writer who used it to differentiate them from traditional cozies. They’re simply called cozies and have essentially taken over that sub-genre.

Personally, I’m not fond of the chick lit cozy. Generally, there is more chick lit than cozy mystery in these books. Particularly the sweet romance element. Which probably explains why the sub-genre is dominated by women writers and readers.

However, they may end up being the mystery genre’s salvation. Mystery readers are aging. A fact brought vividly home to me recently when a Facebook ad for my Justinia Wright mystery omnibus was almost totally served to those 65 and over. And in that group, overwhelmingly to women.

The mystery is essentially a puzzle. A problem, the crime, that needs to be solved. It is a riddle, and we want to know the answer.

Which, to my mind, means that for all the sophisticated data gathering equipment available to the professionals, it still takes ratiocination, those little gray cells, to make sense of all the data and determine motive, means, and opportunity.

This fact actually makes the detective story very modern. A part of our ongoing discussion concerning the role of people and machines. The detective story clearly comes down on the people side of the equation.

The detective story is a human story. It is a story about righting wrongs. Wrongs done to people and society at large. The detective story focuses on a small group of people to find a killer and bring that killer to justice. It’s personal. It’s about bringing balance and order to the world of a group of people that has gotten out of balance and lacks order due to the violent crime.

Which is why I do think the mystery will endure. What it will take to bring it back into popularity, I don’t know. But the success of series such as Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder and Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone give me hope. Lots of hope.

We all know the big names of the mystery genre, even if some of us aren’t mystery fans. Next week, though, I’d like to focus on some of the lesser lights and their creators, and even a few of the new kids on the block.

Comments are always welcome, and until next time — happy reading!

What is a Cozy Catastrophe?

In the book Billion Year Spree: The True History of Science Fiction, Brian Aldiss coined the term cozy catastrophe. He used the term to describe a particular type of post-apocalyptic writing as famously seen in John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids. This form of the post-apocalyptic tale was particularly popular in the UK in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Aldiss’s use of the term was at base pejorative. Coming from what seems to have been a politically radical leftist position, Aldiss dismissed the sub-subgenre as being some manner of wish fulfillment: the return of the Empire, praise of nature and the simple life, or a criticism of science and industrialization.

Time, however, marches on and even if we give Aldiss his due for the fiction published prior to 1973, the cozy catastrophe itself has changed and Aldiss’s observations are no longer accurate for today - if they were even accurate in his own day, which they may not have been.

Blogger russell1200 on his blog reflexiones finales posted a short but important article about the cozy on July 14, 2011. My thoughts have been influenced by his article.

If Aldiss’s description of the cozy catastrophe is no longer relevant, than what are the characteristics that make a cozy a cozy?

Why the term “cozy”?

Let’s begin with the term cozy itself. Why a cozy catastrophe? What on earth can be cozy about a world wide catastrophe? The general consensus is that the term was borrowed from the cozy mystery subgenre.

So what is a cozy mystery? It is a mystery solved by an amateur sleuth. Think here of Miss Marple, Father Brown, Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote, or Sidney Chambers in Grantchester. An ordinary person solves the murder when the professionals cannot. Likewise with the cozy catastrophe, a group of amateur survivalists survive, when others cannot.

The Catastrophe

A group of ordinary people have survived a catastrophe. What kind of catastrophe? In the cozy, the catastrophe, the apocalyptic event must be worldwide and pretty much wipes out most of the human race. Animals and plant life may also be affected, but the emphasis here is on the destruction of people. The rest of the world remains basically intact.

Recognizable Setting

The setting needs to be recognizable and the story plausible as a real world event. Something that could happen right now, today, to us.

This is very much like the cozy mystery. The amateur sleuth comes across a murder in his or her everyday world and for one reason or another must solve it when the police can’t or won’t.

One thing to keep in mind here is that distant future stories must somehow be coherently and realistically connected to our present day world. If not, they fail the real world test. The Time Machine and After London pass this test. The Planet of the Apes, a nifty story in and of itself, unfortunately, does not.

The Small Group

The story generally focuses on the survival of a small group of people or perhaps several small groups. The group comes together, or sometimes is already together at the start of the story, and then sets about trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Conflict can come from both outside sources, other groups perhaps or wild animals, and internal dissension.

A Survivable World

Is the world survivable if the group makes the effort to survive? This goes back to the nature of the catastrophe. The worldwide disaster needs to primarily affect people, leaving much of the pre-catastrophe infrastructure intact, which allows the group a base upon which to rebuild society. Whether or not they succeed is the telling of their story.

In my mind, this is a key feature of the cozy catastrophe. The survivors are not mere survivalists. They are the recreators of civilization. Or they at least make a valiant attempt to recreate the world they lost.

A New World

Society, civilization, at some point is rebuilt. Generally speaking. An exception is On the Beach by Nevil Shute. The new society is hopefully better than the old, but in fact may not be. But the human race does not die off, it survives and a new world is born. Much like at Ragnarok, where the old world of the gods is destroyed and out of the destruction Lif and Lifthrasir survive and begin a new world.

The Message of the Cozy Catastrophe

Frequently the cozy catastrophe is a vehicle for anti-establishment rhetoric. The “evils” of the status quo, the establishment, brought about the catastrophe. Whether those evils be nuclear weapons or biological experimentation, or GMOs not turning out as intended — it is our own messing around with nature or our inability to live in peace with each other that very often causes the demise of our world.

In that sense, the subgenre can be made use of by radical liberals and libertarians alike to promote their agenda. There is often a philosophical underpinning to the cozy. Issues of morality and how we should be as people are very real parts of the story.

Next week, we’ll take a look at what the cozy catastrophe isn’t. Until then, good reading. Comments are always welcome!