Location, Location, Location: A Guest Post by Mary Keliikoa

RHYS BOWEN:  We have a plethora of fabulous guests this week! Today's guest, Mary Keliikoa, is writing about the importance of location in her novels--a subject dear to my heart as location is the driving force behind so many of my own books.  Mary reinforces how important it is to know a place well to bring it to life for the reader. I so completely agree!

MARY KELIIKOA:  They say to write what you know, and when deciding where to place my novels, I’ve taken that to heart. I was born in Portland, Oregon and spent many years living in the suburbs—horses, cows, and sheep were part of my everyday experience. As was bucking hay in the summer or walking quiet country roads to and from my friend’s house after school.

As an adult, I spent early mornings and late nights on buses, in and out of downtown Portland where I worked at a law firm. So, when it came time to pen the first novel in the PI Kelly Pruett series, setting it in Portland and the surrounding area felt like the right choice.

One could say that a city is a city. Highrise buildings, public transportation, the hum of people on every street corner. That’s true to some extent, but I’ve found each city carries the distinctive vibe and pulse of the souls who fill it.

Portland has a laid back, grab a cup of coffee or a microbrew, and let’s hang kind of vibe. Preferably at an outdoor café with your dog curled at your feet. The Japanese Gardens are a sight to behold with their cherry blossoms in spring. Council Crest has its twinkling and spectacular view of the city below. The bluish green and sometimes brown Willamette River flows toward the Columbia River, and then to the Pacific Ocean beyond. The park fronting the river is often filled with a mixture of joggers, or women in dresses and tennis shoes out for their lunchtime walk and talk.

Yet what I love most about the city as a crime fiction writer is that it has many facets that are anything but beautiful or chill.

Atmosphere is one of those facets. I know what it feels like to stand and wait for a bus in the pouring rain on Fifth Avenue, lights shimmering off the puddled pavement, and side-eyeing anyone who doesn’t look like they came from a professional office. More than once my pulse quickened at an approaching stranger, and I took a step more fully into the light or out of the confines of the shelter despite the certainty of being drenched. I know what it feels like to have the MAX train whiz past, flicking my bangs, or the screech of the wheels as it came to a stop, conjuring a slew of bad case scenarios in my mind. Or the sound of the bus sighing as it released its air brakes—as if it just dodged a bullet itself.

I know what it feels like to jog down a quiet alley after leaving a bar a little later than recommended. To find my car the only one in a parking garage…on the fourth floor. The echo of my footsteps as I sprint to it, the sound of the car alarm disengaging as I draw closer, its high shrill echoing off the walls, and my heart ricocheting until the engine turns.

I know the smell of a stairway used for more than just traversing from one floor to the next. And to pass a group of homeless camped out on the sidewalk. I also know what it feels like to pass money to someone who needs it more than I do. Or to hand a bagged lunch to a desperate mother and child.

I know all of that from the place where I grew up—Portland. And when it comes time to write those scenes in my novels where paranoia, concern, fear, and empathy are needed, I draw upon that well of emotion to make the scene real.

Write what you know…. I know Portland. It’s dark and shady, and its bright and shiny. Two sides of the same coin.

I write what I know not only in DECEIVED, the most recent installment in my Kelly Pruett mystery series, but also in my upcoming novel HIDDEN PIECES, which is set at the Oregon coast. Now that’s a location that has a beautiful peaceful side, and yet a creepy atmosphere. It’s also where I spent some of my earliest years. Moss hanging off sentinel trees. Breath mixing with the oppressive mist. Long-abandoned World War II structures crumbling with decay. History. A personality all its own—but let’s leave that for another article.

What emotion and memories stir in the location you know well? 

About the author:

Mary Keliikoa is the author of the Shamus finalist and Lefty, Agatha, and Anthony award nominated PI Kelly Pruett mystery series, as well as the upcoming Misty Pines mystery series featuring Sheriff Jax Turner slated for release in September 2022. She has had mystery shorts published in Woman’s World and in the anthology Peace, Love, and Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the ’60s. She spent the first 18 years of her adult life working around lawyers. Combining her love of all things legal and books, she creates twisting mysteries where justice prevails. At home in Washington, she enjoys spending time with her family and her fur-kids. When not at home, you can find Mary on a beach on the Big Island where she and her husband recharge. But even under the palm trees and blazing sun she’s plotting her next murder—novel that is. To learn more about Mary’s life and work, please visit: https://marykeliikoa.com/

About the book:

In Mary Keliikoa’s acclaimed Kelly Pruett Mystery series, a grieving single mother inherits her late father’s PI business, and begins tackling mysteries on her own, leading her into dangerous territory. Following the success of series debut, “Derailed” (2020) and sequel “Denied” (2021), Keliikoa is releasing another installment in the compelling mystery series, which has been praised as “satisfying” (Foreword Clarion) and “enjoyably knotty” (Kirkus).

In the third book, “Deceived” (Camel Press, May 10, 2022), Kelly finally feels like she’s coming into her own. With her personal life well on track, a gig uncovering what drove a client’s granddaughter underground could be good for business. But after her undercover operation at the homeless shelter reveals rampant drug dealing, she's suddenly kicked off the case... just as another girl goes missing.

Can Kelly stop a brutal killer in their tracks before the body count rises?