Chris Rogers | HERE LIES A WICKED MAN

Why is murder so intriguing? Mystery fans are rarely murderers, and mystery writers are some of the gentlest people I know. Unlike cooks who collect cookbooks and readers of romance fiction who often fantasize themselves into each story, very few readers of murder mysteries want to be in such a dangerous situation. They're quite happy to experience danger vicariously while virtually walking in the shoes of their favorite detectives.

Fans of murder mysteries, in fact, cover a broad gamut from those who strictly enjoy the intrigue of solving the puzzle and prefer a story with no blood spilling on the page to those who have a fascination with the abomination of murder. Either way, it's the presence of danger that makes a mystery exciting to read, and murder is the ultimate danger.

I, like every mystery writer I know, have never killed anyone. So how do we research the methods, motives, and opportunities a killer might have? To start with, we probably grew up reading Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys before graduating to Agatha Christie's books or the Perry Mason novels written by Erle Stanley Gardner—at least I did. I read them all. Their methods of storytelling and the step-by-step building of a dangerous situation that keeps a reader fascinated to the end is engrained in our subconscious.

Suspense stories generally focus on the danger of someone being killed and whether the sleuth will come to the rescue at the eleventh hour. Showing the danger that exists, however, usually means someone has to die either at the beginning of a story or before the story opens. Unless we see that it can happen, the possibility of someone being murdered is not quite as real.

In my suspense series featuring bounty hunter Dixie Flannigan, I confess to exploiting my readers' darkest fears. While a certain amount of humor is present, and a four-star romantic thread binds the series together, the murders that take place in those books are often numerous, bloody, and keenly experienced.

We all need a change at times. In my new Booker Krane series, I employ lots of humor with a twist of romance, and I've left most of the blood to my readers' imaginations. And while Booker investigates crime in small-town Texas, a cast of zany characters drive him batty at times.

About HERE LIES A WICKED MAN

When your 16-year-old son drops in on his new Harley, after not speaking to you for four years, a man can be sure something's amiss. To find out what's going on with son Bradley, Booker Krane must refocus his attention away from a murder investigation.

Booker never expected to have a murder laid at his door, anyway. He left Houston and moved to the sticks for tranquility. What could possibly enrage people to murder each other in such a sleepy environment? And how could two equally beautiful but dangerously different women number among the suspects? And how could it happen that Booker would lose his heart to a woman who might be a murderess?

While unraveling the puzzle of Chuck Fowler's death, Booker learns that quite a number of people are neither surprised nor particularly sad about it. Apparently, the late unlamented had a habit of bullying his sons, browbeating his business partner, and was intent on draining the family bank accounts before divorcing his wife. To top all that, he was known to round up stray dogs for target practice.

In Booker's opinion, if a man ever needed killing, Chuck Fowler was it. Why not call it an accident, save the county some money, and let everybody get on with living?

Booker might do exactly that except for two pesky problems. He lost his son once by being too busy for what really matters; now he wants Bradley to look up to him again as a hero. And he before he can commit to the woman he loves, he has to know if she's a cold-blooded killer.

HERE LIES A WICKED MAN

When Booker Krane retired early from his career as a white collar corporate investigator, he was sure of only two things: he was done digging up buried secrets, and he loved being near water. After recovering from the bullet wound from his final case, he settles into a leisurely lifestyle at his new home on Turtle Lake—including his new part-time job as a freelance photographer. But the morning his dog drags a dead body onto the shore, Booker and his camera are commandeered by Sheriff Ringhoffer, and in less time than it takes the elusive perfect lighting to disappear, he’s deeply embroiled within the investigation.

While the deceased, a prominent yet awfully wicked man, had many people who'd likely have motive and opportunity to kill him, Booker wants to believe it was simply an accident. An arrow would be an unusual murder weapon, and he can’t picture any of the suspects—the victim's wife, sons, business partner, sexy mistress, or attractive lessee—as cold-hearted killers. But it turns out more than one of them knows how to draw a bowstring, and Booker’s curious mind can’t ignore the evidence against the victim falling on his own arrow—even when the sheriff rules the death an accident.

Putting his own life at risk, can Booker solve the case for the residents of Lakeside Estates? Or will magazine deadlines, his budding attraction for Roxanna Larkspur, or tension with his only son interfere with his search for the truth?

About Chris Rogers

A lover of art and storytelling since grade school, I opened one of my favorite books one day and wondered if I could ever write half as well as Dean Koontz or Minette Walters or Steven King. How did they create such intricate plots? I started with children’s books – after all – I was a mother … I should understand kids, right?

Well, not so much. So I wrote a romance novel – I’d been married, so I should know a little about romance.

A little was about it. A very nice rejection letter told me there was more mystery in my story than romance. So I owned up to my true calling and, when my suspense thriller Bitch Factor was published, Romantic Times magazine gave it four-and-a-half stars. Rage Factor and Chill Factor also earned high marks for the romantic thread.

The truth is, mystery and suspense novels have always intrigued me, but I also enjoy romance, science-fiction, horror and fantasy, as well as the occasional mainstream novel by such wonderful authors as E. Annie Proulx.

My literary niche, it turns out, is dark and gritty with an occasional humorous twist. If you like that sort of story, you’ll find my books and short stories thoroughly engaging. Visit me at my website.