Annette Dashofy--A Thriller by Any Other Name

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We are always tickled to host one of our regular back bloggers and special Reds friend, Annette Dashofy, and especially when she's here to talk about a new Zoe Chambers mystery, WHAT COMES AROUND! 

And what a great cover! Today, Annette poses an interesting question of identity, with some fascinating criteria... 

A Mystery By Any Other Name…

By AnnetteDashofy

 

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself double booked. I was scheduled to appear at the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books (which is wonderful, by the way; go if you ever get the chance) at 10:30 a.m. on the Thriller Panel. I joined Nick Petrie and Joseph Reid AKA Parker Adams, two fabulous authors, who fit the thriller definition perfectly. Me? I wasn’t so sure, but what the heck.

Then I was scheduled to join Liz Milliron and Joyce Tremel at a library event at 2:00 p.m. The library was less than an hour away, so I wasn’t stressed. The ironic part is that panel was dubbed a Cozy Panel. Joyce is one of the best cozy authors I know. But cozy? Liz and I weren’t so sure we fit.

During the Thriller Panel, Nick explained that a mystery was a whodunit. A thriller was more about why something was happening and could it be stopped? He commented that he wrote thrillers with a mystery in the middle. This made me think. Later during the panel, I mentioned that I write mysteries with a thriller at the end.

Honestly, I hadn’t given it a lot of thought until that moment, but in the majority of my novels, there’s a whodunit for the first three quarters or so of the book, but once the killer is unmasked, he (or she) becomes desperate, and a thrill ride ensues.

As for cozy mysteries, the key prerequisite seems to be an amateur sleuth. I think.

In my Zoe Chambers series, both Zoe and Pete work the front lines as law enforcement, EMS, or with the coroner’s office, depending how far into the series you are. In my Detective Honeywell series, Matthias is a police detective, so no amateurs there either. Still, I find my books labeled as cozies, and if that’s what my readers want, who am I to argue?

Which is the point I’m trying to get at. Does it matter? I know, I know, booksellers want to know where to shelve the novels, and therefore, publishers want to use the right category when listing a title. But my question to the Reds and the other writers reading this is: do you think about what specific genre you’re creating when you’re planning or writing your novel? And readers, how much does it affect your buying choice whether a book is a cozy, a traditional mystery, a suspense novel, or a thriller? 

DEBS: Such an interesting definition from Nick! By those parameters, I definitely write whodunits, and my books are usually categorized as either "traditional" mysteries, or "police procedurals," and either one of those can cover an incredibly broad range. As for reading, I'm game for anything if the story sounds interesting and I like the writing.  Can't wait to hear what our readers think about Annette's question!

Just as Monongahela County Coroner Zoe Chambers-Adams decides to fire her abrasive chief deputy, Dr. Charles Davis, and put an end to his constant undermining of her position, a suspicious car crash severely injures the county’s only other forensic pathologist. To keep the office operational, Zoe has little choice but to keep Davis on staff.

When Zoe and her husband—Vance Township Police Chief Pete Adams—respond to a brutal homicide, they quickly learn the victim had come to town for the sole purpose of sharing vital information with Zoe. And the decedent’s ex-husband is none other than Zoe’s deputy coroner.

As Zoe and Pete dig deeper into the victim’s past, more questions arise along with a tangle of connections between multiple cases, including a very cold one that leads Zoe and those she cares about directly into the crosshairs of a crazed killer.

Annette Dashofy is the USA Today bestselling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series and the Detective Honeywell series. She won the 2021 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for excellence in Thoroughbred racing literature for her standalone, Death By Equine, and has garnered seven Agatha Award nominations. Her short fiction includes a Derringer finalist. Annette and her husband live on ten acres of what was her grandfather’s dairy farm in southwestern Pennsylvania with their very spoiled cat, Kensi.

USA Today Best Selling Author of the Zoe Chambers Mysteries

What Comes Around: Zoe Chambers #13 Now Available!

Keep Your Family Close: Detective Honeywell Mystery #2 Available in digital!

Death By Equine: A Dr. Jessie Cameron Mystery, WINNER of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award

www.annettedashofy.com

https://www.facebook.com/annette.dashofy/

Liz Miliron mines family dynamics for her series #bookgiveaway

 HALLIE EPHRON: It's with the greatest pleasure that I welcome Liz Milliron, a regular presence here on Jungle Red Writers. (I feel a special affinity for Liz since we both from writing (very exciting) technical material to writing crime novels.)

Liz's stories about where she gets her ideas are astounding. We should all have such colorful relatives!

Welcome, Liz!

LIZ MILLIRON: Thanks for hosting me today, Hallie. It’s always fun visiting the “front side” of the blog.

You may be surprised to learn, reader, that I’m in the family way.

No, not like that. I’m way past my childbearing age, at least psychologically speaking. I’m talking in my fiction. Let me explain.

When I sat down to write Thicker Than Water, the sixth in the Laurel Highlands Mysteries and which came out last year, I made a deliberate decision to explore family dynamics. 

It seemed a natural point at which to do so. Jim and Sally were taking their relationship to a deeper level. Once a couple does that, discussion about family comes up. In that book I wanted to explore what makes a family, feelings toward family, the various definitions and types of families, and chosen vs. biological family.

Then came The Secrets We Keep.

In this book, Betty is hired by a soldier home on medical leave. He was raised in an orphanage and was always told he was left in the church. He grew up satisfied with the story, but his brush with death has made him determined to find his biological mother. Of course secrets – and murder – are involved, leading Betty to think about the cost of exposing long-held family truths. Not only that, Betty has to deal with her feelings about her fiancé – and the handsome new man in her life who is definitely interested in more than friendship.

Currently, I’m working on The Lies We Live, the sixth Homefront Mystery, and family secrets and relationship issues again take center stage. Betty’s client is concerned for her brother and Betty has to face her fiancé when he returns from the war, discharged because of an injury.

This intrigued me. I looked at my past books, especially the historicals. The Enemy We Don’t Know explored the relationship between cousins and how it affected the crime. The Stories We Tell involved a character’s grandmother and her potential connections, previously unknown, with the Polish government in exile. The Lessons We Learn revolved around the death of a character’s father and the toll his hidden life took on his family. The Truth We Hide again touched on family dynamics, in this case the estrangement of the victim from his father.

Do you see a pattern here?

None, or very little, of this was planned. My own family history is pretty boring. No deep secrets, no infamous ancestors. My grandfather’s family was full of functioning alcoholics. They owned a bar, which seems to be a bad business model for a family of drinkers. I know my father’s Uncle Fran fell off a dock in Buffalo and drowned (a story I mined for Lessons, although Uncle Fran wasn’t murdered).

My grandfather always described his mother as a “mean old lady,” something my father seconded. There is the story of how she smuggled whiskey into the country from Canada by hiding the bottles in the door panels of her car. One night, the chief of police and the head of Customs at the Peace Bridge showed up at her door. They didn’t want to arrest her. They wanted a drink. (That story may be a tad apocryphal, I don’t know.) But that isn’t a secret.

I know a little about my paternal grandmother’s family. Her brother was a cop and a recovering alcoholic. Her sister-in-law drove a bus. They both told all the stories, though. I know a little more about my maternal grandmother’s family because my aunt has done extensive genealogical research, but she makes all of them sound like saints. Nothing is known about my maternal grandfather’s family. He was a small child when they immigrated from Croatia and he never talked about them.

Maybe it isn’t strange so many of my stories involve family secrets. With a family that doesn’t have secrets, at least that I know of, I want to submerse myself in those that do. Of course, maybe my family is awash in secrets. After all, if I knew about them, they wouldn’t be, well, secret, would they?

Real or fictional, all I know is it’s a great subject to play with. And since my real life is so devoid of secrecy, I guess I’ll continue to make them up.

Reds and readers, did your family have secrets? Were they ever uncovered and, if so, what happened?

***I’ve got three ARCs of The Secrets We Keep I’ll give to three commentators (US only – sorry).***

Liz Milliron is the author of The Laurel Highlands Mysteries series, set in the scenic Laurel Highlands and The Homefront Mysteries, set in Buffalo, NY during the early years of World War II. She is a co-host of the crime fiction podcast “Guns, Knives & Lipstick." Liz is a member of Pennwriters, Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, and The Historical Novel Society and is the current vice-President of the Pittsburgh chapter of Sisters in Crime and the Education Liaison for the National SinC board. Liz lives in Pittsburgh with her son and a very spoiled retired-racer greyhound.

About Secrets We Keep: June, 1943 Betty Ahern isn’t a novice PI anymore. After solving several dangerous cases, she is hired for what she hopes will be simpler one. A soldier home from Europe on medical furlough wants her to find his birth mother. Left at a church and raised an orphan at Father Baker’s Home for Boys, his only clue is a silver St. Christopher medal with a French inscription on the back.

Betty tracks down the unmarried daughter of a wealthy businessman who mysteriously vanished from society for several months in the early 1920s. Against her better judgment, Betty tells her client, who rushes off to meet her. But when the woman is found murdered, and her client is arrested for the crime, Betty must switch from locating a missing mother to clearing his name.

Aided by some new partners, Betty once again delves into the secrets of Buffalo’s elite. What she finds threatens to rip open secrets long buried. Can she find a killer and reunite a family? Or will the hunt cost Betty and her client everything, including their lives?

Choosing Your Words With Care: a guest blog by Liz Milliron

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Liz Milliron is a well-loved member of the Jungle Reds community, and we're always delighted to able to spotlight one of her mysteries. Today, she's back with THE TRUTH WE HIDE, the fourth book in her Homefront Mysteries series, and Liz, I promise I won't make any jokes about Buffalo. After all, in the early '40s it was a vital defense industry and shipping location, and Liz was brilliant to use it as the background for her feisty heroine's investigations into sabotage, class conflict and corruption.

Along with music, clothing, slang and technology, the historical fiction writer has to deal with some of the less-savory aspects of by-gone eras. Even in my youth (which doesn't feel all that by-gone!) we used words and held attitudes I shudder to think of now. How does an author thread that needle? Liz is here to tell us. And for one lucky commenter? A free copy of THE TRUTH WE HIDE!

 

Thanks Julia and all the Reds for welcoming me back. It’s always such fun to be in front of the curtain.

 

Words have power. As writers, we know this. We spend a lot of time searching for just the right word to convey exactly what we mean. Sometimes I think a thesaurus is a writer’s best friend – at least her second-best one. No weak verbs or “almost-but-not-quite-right” words need apply.

 

But what happens when the word you want isn’t, well, nice?

 

I’m not talking about mere profanity. Most of us have that one sorted. Sometimes the boundaries are set by your sub-genre expectations. No character is going to trot out the “F” word in a cozy. In other cases, it might be the preference of the author. In my historical Homefront Mysteries series, I’ve chosen not to use profanity. Not because it didn’t exist in the 1940s, and not because I’m writing a historical cozy, but because it doesn’t fit the atmosphere I want to create. Betty, good Catholic girl that she is, wouldn’t swear. At least not where her mother could hear her.

 

No, what I’m talking about are those words that people use, or maybe used to use, that we know are simply not acceptable.

 

In my latest Homefront book, The Truth We Hide, I deal with the homophobia that existed in the 40s. Part of that is the words straight people used to describe members of the LGBT+ community. I’m not going to write them here because this is a family-friendly blog. We all know the words I’m talking about and we’d never use them.

 

But people in the 40s did. Frequently. Even casually. There was my conundrum. Did I want Betty to?

 

On one hand, I want her to be a product of her time. She’s a young Catholic girl growing up when homosexuality was very much not acceptable. On the other hand, I want my readers to like Betty. If she’s casually spewing slurs, is that possible?

 

To help me out, I turned to friends Edwin Hill and John Copenhaver (if you haven’t read their books, stop reading this blog now and go order them). Both were fabulously supportive. Not only did they support my decision to write the book in the first place, John provided a wealth of research sources for learning about LGBT culture of the times. One of the things he addressed was language. “All the slurs you can think of were used,” he said (I’m paraphrasing).

 

I made my decision. I wouldn’t shy away from bad language. But I’d use it sparingly and wisely. Betty doesn’t at all. Only one character is a raging homophobe – but he’s a murder suspect. I felt good about it — until my editor asked me if I was sure. People would be upset with me. Did I really want to go there?

 

I went back to Edwin and John. I explained how I’d handled it. Had I crossed the line?

 

Once again, they proved the crime fiction community is generous to a fault. Both praised my decision and said (again I’m paraphrasing), “Roll with it.” People were, and continue to be, ugly. Even “good” people use bad language out of ignorance. It’s important to remember the ugliness of the past – and that such ugliness still exists.

 

I asked both Edwin and John for blurbs. I was ecstatic at their overwhelmingly positive responses. Mission accomplished.

 

As a historical writer, I’ve been asked a couple of times what my best tip is. It’s this: Respect your chosen time period. There are lots of good aspects, but there are bad ones, too. Don’t ignore the negative. Deal with it – but in a way that modern audiences will see as respectful. Don’t shy away from the ugly because it’s important to know where we started, how far we’ve come, and how very far we still have to go.

 

Readers, how do you feel when an author uses facts or language of a time period that is no longer acceptable?

May 1943. Betty Ahern is studying for her private investigator’s license when a new client—Edward Kettle—hires her to clear his name after he was dismissed from his job at the American Shipbuilding Company. When Edward is brutally murdered, the dead man’s sister hires Betty to finish the original job and find the killer.

The job hurls Betty back into the world of wartime espionage, but with a twist: Edward Kettle was a homosexual. Did he know something about underhanded activities at American Shipbuilding? Or was his secret life the motive for murder?

Once again, Betty must unravel the mystery, which requires uncovering truths that others would prefer to keep hidden—a job that threatens not only her morals and beliefs, but also her life.

                     

Liz Milliron is the author of The Laurel Highlands Mysteries and The Homefront Mysteries, set in Buffalo NY during the early years of World War II. You can can learn more about her mysteries on her website, and you can friend her on Facebook, trade book recommendations on Goodreads, and follow her on Twitter as @LizMilliron. You can also get a free first chapter by signing up for her newsletter.

Lessons from My Dog by Liz Milliron

JENN: Thrilled to celebrate one of our own in the Jungle Red Community! Congratulations, Liz, on the release of your latest mystery Lie Down with Dogs!

LIZ: As always thanks to all the Reds for hosting me. I hope I don’t wear out my welcome. With two book releases a year, I feel like no sooner have I done a guest post, I’m beginning for another spot.

 

By now, you’ve seen Koda, my retired-racer greyhound. We adopted him in March of 2019 (trivia: Koda was the little bear in the “Brother Bear” movie and I think means “friend” in some Native American dialects). I think I’ve mentioned before, but this was the dog of my heart as I’d been wanting one for years. And make no mistake, Koda is my dog. He loves everyone in the house, but I am the alpha of the pack in his eyes.

 

Koda was three when we adopted him. We had to teach him a few lessons, of course. Like how to go up and down stairs. And that a house is just a bigger version of a crate, not somewhere to potty. And not to chew the furniture (or the power cord to your Roku).

 

But along the way, I’ve learned more than a few lessons from him, as well. (And if you think this post is just a shameless reason to share pictures of my pooch, well, I plead the fifth.)

 

Lesson 1: Get outside

 

Writing is a terribly sedentary pursuit. We sit at desks, on couches, in offices, at car dealerships, at coffee houses. Koda reminds me that you have to get up and move. Get out and catch some rays. Set a timer, use a FitBit, whatever works.

 

Lesson 2: Keep your friends close

 

Friends are essential. They celebrate with you, commiserate, provide advice, and sometimes are just there. Make sure you have a few in your life.

 

 

Lesson 3: But don’t be afraid to meet new people

 

Friends are great, but you need to expand your social circle, too. Networking is, well, maybe not everything in this business, but it’s a lot. I’ve met a lot of people at conferences by simply saying, “Hi! How’s it going?”. Now that we are emerging from our pandemic shells, it’s time to brush off those people-meeting skills (yes, I know most of us writers are introverts, but we manage). You’ll need friends in your corner when you start querying/submitting/publishing/promoting/etc.

 

Lesson 4: Eat well

 

You’d think this would be an easy one to remember, but I’ve been so deep in the zone that lunch completely passes me by. Not until I have an upset stomach and a pounding headache do I remember, “Oh yeah, food.” Koda never misses a meal.

 

 

Lesson 5: Get plenty of rest

 

It’s tempting to power through until the wee hours, especially at a conference when all the action is happening that night, after the sessions, in the bar. But whether you need rest to be your most sparkling self at a conference, or you just need to refresh yourself after a long day of writing, don’t skimp on the z’s.

 

 

Lesson 6: Don’t forget to have fun!

 

Writing is work. Sometimes it’s hard work. All that plotting and coming up with names and marketing and promotion and editing and submitting and deadlines. Whew! But it should also be fun. So never lose sight of that and make sure your hard work doesn’t eclipse your sense of fun!

 

 

Dog owners, any lessons I missed?

 

Book blurb: LIE DOWN WITH DOGS

 

Trooper Jim Duncan’s first day with the Criminal Investigation Division starts off with a bang when he is called to a murder scene with a badly decomposed body. After he finds an abused greyhound in the victim’s garage, the simple homicide becomes more complicated. Why would anyone want an unreliable racetrack employee dead, especially when greyhound racing is illegal in Pennsylvania?

 

Assistant public defender Sally Castle is facing her own career change. When she accepts a position with an old law school friend, her first case seems to be one that is exactly what she wants to do. Then she learns the greyhound adoption group her client may have embezzled from has ties to the shooting victim. What else is her client hiding?

 

Jim and Sally work their respective investigations, which may or may not be related. Along the way, they learn important lessons about themselves, those they work with, and the people they protect. But can they complete their tasks without falling prey to a killer?

 

Author Bio:

 

Liz Milliron is the author of The Laurel Highlands Mysteries series, set in the scenic Laurel Highlands and The Homefront Mysteries, set in Buffalo, NY during the early years of World War II. She is a member of Pennwriters, Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, and The Historical Novel Society and is the current vice-President of the Pittsburgh chapter of Sisters in Crime. Liz splits her time between homes in Pittsburgh and the Laurel Highlands, were she lives with her husband and a very spoiled retired-racer greyhound.

 

http://www.lizmilliron.com/

 

https://www.facebook.com/LizMilliron/

 

https://www.instagram.com/lizmilliron/

A writer for all seasons - Liz Milliron

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Today we are happy to welcome back Liz Milliron, here to celebrate the launch of her new Laurel Highlands mystery, HARM NOT THE EARTH.

Like me, Liz spent years working in high tech churning out user manuals before she unleashed her imagination and turned to crime fiction. It's been a journey and, looking back, she sees a pattern.

LIZ MILLIRON: Thanks Reds for having me back. I check in here every weekday, but there’s something extra special about getting a chance to come to “the front of the class” for the day.

Earlier this year, I read a blog on the Wickeds (another great blog readers should check out if they haven’t) about seasonal changes and whether the authors’ writing moved in seasons. I think it might have been around the time of the summer equinox.

Anyway, at around the same time, publicist Dana Kaye asked about “seasons” in writing.

At first, I wasn’t sure my work went that way. I write two books a year and most of the time I’m focused on my daily word count and monthly goals. I don’t notice seasons. But when I looked more carefully, I could see patterns.

First, there’s a “big” season. I start a new book right around each equinox (January and July, close to each solstice). There seems something almost cosmic that I start a new writing venture as the earth is beginning its journey to points of the longest and shortest days of the year. (I almost said furthest and nearest points to the sun, but then the whole hemisphere thing tripped me up.)

But it breaks into smaller parts. I write at a clip of approximately 50 pages per month. Each finished novel is approximately 300 pages long. That means three months after I start, somewhere around the time of the spring and autumn equinoxes, I’m more or less half done with a book.

(There’s something cosmic about that that kind of gives me the shivers.)

If I want to extend this seasonal analogy so more, the process of writing a book is a series of mini-seasons. Spring would be the beginning, when everything is fresh and new, and I’m full of excitement for where the story might go.

Summer is the second act: hot, steamy, muggy. Even if I have rough daily outlines, I feel weighed down by the humidity, stuck in the “soggy middle,” and unsure if I can survive another day. All I really want to do is escape and take a nap. The third act is autumn: the ending bursts forth in a riot of color. I’m re-energized by the cooler temperatures and excited to see the variety of orange, red, and gold as the story reaches conclusion.

Where’s winter you say? Revision is winter. It’s colder, more clinical. But there’s a beauty there, too, as the story becomes what it’s supposed to be, all the rough edges are polished off, and the rough draft turns into a “real book.” Plus when it’s done, I get to sit in front of a roaring fire with a mug of hot chocolate and savor what I’ve accomplished.

After laying it all out, I guess my writing is more seasonal than I thought. So the next time someone asks if I have seasons in my writing life, I can say, “Yes, as a matter of fact I do.”

Readers, what in your life follows the patterns of the seasons?

LIZ MILLIRON is the author of The Laurel Highlands Mysteries series, set in the scenic Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and The Home Front Mysteries, set in Buffalo, NY during the early years of World War II. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Pennwriters, and International Thriller Writers. Now an empty-nester, Liz lives outside Pittsburgh with her husband and a retired-racer greyhound.

HARM NOT THE EARTH: When Southwest Pennsylvania’s summer rains flood the Casselman River, State Police Trooper Jim Duncan finds a John Doe body in what is initially believed to be a tragic accident. But when a second victim, John Doe’s partner in an environmental group at odds with a nearby quarry operation, is rescued, all thoughts of accidental drowning are abandoned. After Jim is invited to join the official investigation, he begins to think a career shift might be in his future.

Meanwhile, Assistant Public Defender Sally Castle is approached by an abused woman who is accused of murdering her abuser. Although the rules prevent Sally from taking the case, she steps outside her office to help the woman and discover the truth.

As their separate cases become intertwined, Jim and Sally struggle to determine if their new paths can be traveled together or if they will divide their newly repaired relationship. And equally important, will they be able to bring a killer to justice before another innocent life is lost?