All my mystery novels have featured amateur detectives. The main reason for this
is that I have always enjoyed mysteries with amateur sleuths, ever since I
discovered Nancy Drew at the age of ten. I like the idea of an ordinary person
stumbling into mysteries and then solving them. Critics often denigrate these
books because they are deemed unrealistic. After all, how many ordinary people
regularly encounter dead bodies?
The answer is, ordinary people donβt, unless they are spectacularly unlucky or
they are undertakers. They would soon come under suspicion from the police. Thus
I will quickly confess that, in this regard, my amateur detective novels arenβt
realistic. They arenβt meant to be, in that regard. Theyβre meant to entertain,
and I hope thatβs what they do.
Readers have enjoyed books with amateur gumshoes for over a century now. Ever
heard of Miss Jane Marple, for example? I happen to think that readers enjoy
amateur sleuths because they are reading about people like themselves who donβt
walk the mean streets of the city every day. I always enjoyed Nancy Drew and the
other teen detectives because I could safely go adventuring in their shoes β
though I certainly wouldnβt relish being hit on the head as many times as Nancy was.
The issue of a constant supply of corpses aside, I do try to ground my
characters in their own reality. They have jobs, responsibilities, families β
and I aim to capture this as I chronicle the lives of my characters as the
series progresses. Most readers want to care about the series heroes and
heroines, and I have to care as well, otherwise I wouldnβt want to spend the
time necessary to write a 72,000 or more word book. Thus when readers tell me
they love Charlie and Diesel, I am thrilled. Making β and sustaining -- that
connection between readers and characters is the key to keeping a series going.
Cat in the
Stacks
The New York Times bestselling author of No Cats Allowed and
Arsenic and Old Books is back with more Southern charm and beguiling
mystery as Charlie and Diesel must find a killer in a room full of
librarians...
Light-hearted librarian Charlie Harris is known around his hometown of
Athena, Mississippi, for walking his cat, a rescued Maine Coon named Diesel. But
he may soon be taken for a walk himselfβin handcuffs...
Charlie is stressed out. The Southern Academic Libraries Association is
holding this yearβs annual meeting at Athena College. Since Charlie is the
interim library director, he must deliver the welcome speech to all the visiting
librarians. And as if that werenβt bad enough, the keynote address will be
delivered by Charlieβs old nemesis from library school.
Itβs been thirty years since Charlie has seen Gavin Fong, and heβs still an
insufferable know-it-all capable of getting under everyoneβs skin. In his
keynote, Gavin puts forth a most unpopular opinion: that degreed librarians will
be obsolete in the academic libraries of the future. So when Gavin drops dead,
no one seems too upset...
But Charlie, who was seen having a heated argument with Gavin the day before,
has jumped to the top of the suspect list. Now Charlie and Diesel must check out
every clue to refine their search for the real killer among them before the next
book Charlie reads comes from a prison library...
Mystery Pet Lovers |
Mystery Cozy
[Berkley Prime Crime, On Sale: February 21, 2017,
Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780425277768 / eISBN: 9780698181991]
Miranda James is the pseudonym of Dean James, a seventh-generation
Mississippian recently returned home after over thirty years in Texas. A mystery
fan since the age of ten, he wrote his first novel at the ripe old age of
twelve. The only copy of The Mystery of the Willow Key vanished years ago, but
since it was highly derivative of the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden mystery
series, thatβs probably a good thing.
Currently a librarian in the Texas
Medical Center in Houston, Dean has published articles on topics in library
science, the history of science/medicine, and mystery fiction.
Dean lives
with two young cats, thousands of books, and thinks frequently about killing
people β but only in the pages of fiction.
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