That’s right, I’m the little blond lady who’s scrunched in the corner of the
coffee shop. I’m watching you carefully and jotting notes. I see what you’re
wearing – I like that paisley scarf, by the way – and I’m scrutinizing the way
you sip your coffee and nibble your scone.
No, I don’t work for the CIA, FBI, or IRS. I’m an author who writes three
different mystery series and I get ideas for my characters by watching all the
fascinating real-life characters around me. From the folks who cross my path at
the driver’s license bureau to the ones who are picking through bins of organic
oranges at the grocery store or kicking tires at the local garage.
You all fascinate me and give me such wonderful ideas because you’re all real,
highly individual, and (this is a good thing) a little bit quirky. You see,
creating literary characters is a tricky thing for an author. You want them to
be loved, reviled, understood, amusing, or even feared. But characters also need
to be larger than life. They need to transcend the pages, worm their way into
your hearts and memories, and stick like a proverbial burr. That way you’ll look
forward to reading my next book.
The interesting thing is that we all tend to respond well to characters who are
a little bit like us – that are relatable. We want a book that tells a
rollicking new story, but we also want that story to reflect some of who we are
and what we’ve experienced in life.
In a mystery, questions drive the plot and narrative. In PEKOE MOST POISON the
reader will want to know – who are these crazy waiters and why are they wearing
rat heads? Who put deadly poison in the tea? Who stashed a box of X-Terminate
Rat Poison in the kitchen cupboard? The same elements that draw us into a story
are the same things that propel characters and story lines. Most important of
all, we are as anxious to solve the murder mystery as Theodosia, the main
character in PEKOE MOST
POISON.
So next time someone watches you surreptitiously, please don’t worry. You might
end up the perfect character in someone’s best-selling novel!
All my very best,
Halfway between a cozy
and a thriller – a thrillzy!
Laura Childs is the New York Times and USA Today
bestselling author of the Tea
Shop Mysteries, Scrapbook
Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries.
PEKOE MOST POISONis her
just-released Tea Shop Mystery. In Laura’s previous life she was CEO of her own
marketing firm, authored several screenplays, and produced a reality TV show.
She is married to Dr. Bob, a professor of Chinese art history, enjoys travel,
and has two Chinese Shar-Pei dogs.
Tea Shop
Mystery
In the latest Tea Shop Mystery from New York Times bestselling
author Laura Childs, Theodosia Browning attends a “Rat Tea,” where the mice will
play...at murder.
When Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning is invited by Doreen Briggs,
one of Charleston’s most prominent hostesses, to a “Rat Tea,” she is
understandably intrigued. As servers dressed in rodent costumes and wearing
white gloves offer elegant finger sandwiches and fine teas, Theo learns these
parties date back to early twentieth-century Charleston, where the cream of
society would sponsor so-called rat teas to promote city rodent control and
better public health.
But this party goes from odd to chaotic when a fire starts at one of the
tables and Doreen’s entrepreneur husband suddenly goes into convulsions and
drops dead. Has his favorite orange pekoe tea been poisoned? Theo smells a rat.
The distraught Doreen soon engages Theo to pursue a discreet inquiry into who
might have murdered her husband. As Theo and her tea sommelier review the guest
list for suspects, they soon find themselves drawn into a dangerous game of cat
and mouse...
INCLUDES RECIPES AND TEA TIME TIPS
Mystery Cozy [Berkley
Prime Crime, On Sale: March 7, 2017, Hardcover /
e-Book, ISBN: 9780425281680 / eISBN: 9780698197398]
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