It’s February! And it’s time for our second installment of Love and Murder
are in the Air with a special Valentine’s Day treat from cozy Mystery
author, Elisabeth Crabtree! I first came across Elisabeth’s writing last
February when she released THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY
COOKIE MASSACRE. Her cover was gorgeous, and the play on history had me
hooked. Elisabeth’s writing however, captured the fan-girl inside and I’ve
followed (stalked) her ever since.
This year she has another Valentine’s Day treat for us with her
5th book in her Grace Holliday series, CUPID'S
DEADLY AIM. You don’t have to start with the first book of the series,
but I wouldn’t miss one murder if I were you!
Kym: Welcome, Elisabeth!
Elisabeth: Thank you, Kim!
Kym: With two Valentine’s Day cozy mysteries out, I have to
ask which side of cupid’s arrow are you on—the side that loves red roses, or
the side that celebrates the holiday with dead black flowers?
Elisabeth: I’m definitely on the side that loves red roses. I just
think it’s such a fun holiday. I love everything about it. The flowers, the
cards, the candy . . . Especially the candy.
Kym: Can you tell our readers how Grace met hunkie private
investigator Kyle Drake, the man she wants to spend Valentine’s Day with if
they could just get some time alone?
Elisabeth: Grace met Kyle at the toy company she worked at in New
York. She needed a new assistant and she found him working in the toy store
on the ground floor and brought him upstairs to work with her. Little did
she know that he had a pretty big secret he was hiding from everyone.
Kym: Kyle and his partner, Steve, have a hilarious rivalry
going about the name of their investigations company. If you were going to
cast the movie for your Grace Holliday series, who would play the role of
Kyle and who would play his partner, Steve?
Elisabeth: Oh, that’s so hard. I have such a firm picture of them in
my mind that I can’t really see anyone else but if I had to choose I guess
maybe William Moseley and Rupert Grint. They both look similar to the way
Kyle and Steve appear in my imagination.
Kym: William Mosley is perfect! And I can totally see him
bantering back and forth with Rupert Grint. (Harry Potter’s very own Ron
Weasley)
I love the setup of an old fashioned Clue style mystery that you
create in CUPID'S DEADLY AIM when Grace and Kyle bring all of the
potential suspects together, along with the target of the murder plot, to a
remote retreat in the woods. Was that your goal and if so, would you
consider writing other potential endings with different suspects for each?
Elisabeth: I love Clue! I also love getting all my
characters together in one isolated location and then letting them run
amuck. I think it adds to the suspense. In this particular book I decided to
bring characters who reside in another part of the country to where Grace
and Kyle were living instead of having Grace and Kyle go to them. Since they
didn’t live in town I needed some place where they could all get together.
Melodie’s retreat deep in the woods by the lake turned out to be a perfect
getaway and allowed Grace and Kyle to have one or two romantic moments
together. Even though I like drawing all the suspects to one location and
basically stranding them there, I’ve never thought about writing different
endings. There’s just so much that goes into writing a mystery that I’m not
sure I could actually pull it off as effectively as they did in the movie.
It’s an interesting idea though.
Kym: There’s an old murder mystery lurking in the shadows
of the current investigation. Can you tell us if any cold case inspired this
aspect of the book?
Elisabeth: No, Lacey’s story just came to me while I was outlining my
book. It’s funny how inspiration will just suddenly hit. I developed her
story in the third draft of my outline. Once I created her everything
started to come together. Lacey and her fiancé ended up mirroring Kyle and
Grace in a lot of ways.
Kym: CUPID'S DEADLY AIM has a little more romance between
Grace and Kyle than the other books in the series. Did you find this a
natural progression in their relationship, or do you plan to keep the fire
burning?
Elisabeth: Grace and Kyle’s friendship/love with one another has been
steadily progressing from the first book to this last one. In DEADLY MAGIC they met under rather
unusual circumstances and Grace, while being attracted to Kyle, was never
quite sure whether she could trust him or not. In DEADLY REUNION,
which takes place almost a year after the events in DEADLY MAGIC, their
relationship had become that of close friends with the potential for much
more since Kyle was no longer Grace’s employee. It wasn’t until DEATH TAKES A
HOLIDAY and MURDER GAMES
that their romance really began in earnest when they went on their first
date. The latest book takes place a month later. It’s here where we see
just how much they care and love one another.
Kym: Thank you for joining us at The Cozy Corner. Could
you tell us what you’re working on now and give your social media links for
readers to contact you?
Elisabeth: Absolutely! Right now, I’m working on The Mad
Hatter’s Haunted Castle which will be a Hatter’s Cove
Gazette Mystery. I’ve wanted to do a Halloween mystery for the longest
time and decided that now was the time. If anyone is interested in seeing
the cover for the next mystery or just getting in touch with me, I can be
reached through my blog or my Facebook page (Elisabeth Crabtree Cozy Mystery
Books).
Until next time, get cozy and read on!
Kym Roberts is a
retired detective sergeant who looks for passion, mystery and suspense in
every
book she reads and writes. She can be found on the web at kymroberts.com, on
Facebook at Kym Roberts (author) and on Twitter @kymroberts911. Look for her
latest release, DEAD MAN'S CARVE, A Tickled to Death Mystery on
Amazon. (All proceeds will be donated to wounded veterans)
No comments posted.