It's finally here: FOR BATTER OR WORSE!

Jenn McKinlay: Book releases never get old. It's always a thrill -- like having your birthday, Halloween, and the Fourth of July all mixed into on great glorious day! 

FOR BATTER OR WORSE is the 13th Cupcake Bakery Mystery -- 13th!!! -- which is remarkable mostly because when I started writing the series, I figured three books were about all I could get out of a mystery series set in a cupcake bakery. I've never been so delighted to be so very wrong.

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This particular book finds our amateur sleuth, cupcake bakery Melanie Cooper, attempting to marry her long suffering boyfriend/fiancé Joe DeLaura. Will they finally make it? Yeah, like I'm going to tell you. 

It also follows one of the supporting cast members, Oscar (Oz) Ruiz as he leaves the bakery to go out on his own and become the pastry chef at a posh Scottsdale resort.

Side note: I just read in the paper that Scottsdale is the #2 spot in the country for bachelor/bachelorette parties. We're right behind Nashville. So, there's some inspiration for another book.

The kitchen at my fictional Sun Dial Resort was inspired by the audio book Kitchen Confidential written and read by Anthony Bourdain. I had been listening to it at the gym while plotting out the mystery and the idea of setting my story in an Escoffier inspired brigade de cuisine style kitchen took hold and wouldn't let go. If you haven't read Bourdain's book, I highly recommend it. 

The inside look at the big kitchens in restaurants and resorts was fascinating. So many interesting people are chefs. Which makes sense because high pressure cooking for strangers is a weird occupation if you step away and look at it. The entire restaurant lifestyle is just so different. I worked as a waitress at Jimmie's of Savin Rock in New Haven (West Haven, technically) for a couple of summers in college. That's as close as I want to get to the high pressure restaurant biz, unless I'm a customer!

Now, because of my gym reading, poor Oz has a dust up with the executive chef and when the chef is found murdered with Oz kneeling beside him, Oz becomes suspect number one. Now Mel and Joe have to find the real killer before Oz's new career is put on ice.

If you want to chat more about it, I'll be live tonight at 8 PM EST on the indie Facebook: Fans of Jenn McKinlay page to celebrate the release of the book and answer questions! And I'll be at Murder by the Book on May 6th at 7 PM CST virtually with Mia P. Manansala and Terrie Moran Farley. 

So, Reds, what books have you read that inspired your mysteries? And readers, how much fact do you like with your fiction, because I have to say sometimes it is really hard to pull back on all of the research and just sprinkle the story with pertinent bits!

 

National Dewey Decimal Day! by Jenn McKinlay

 Jenn McKinlay: It's quite possible that only librarian nerds will appreciate this day in all its Dewey glory, but given that I am a recovering librarian, I am full on celebrating today, which is... 

Named after its inventor, the Dewey Decimal System came into being in 1876, developed by Melvil Dewey, who was just twenty-one years old at the time. It's now used in over 200,000 libraries in 135 countries around the world. 

How does it work? Well, Dewey's rage for order broke non-fiction down like this, leaving fiction to be filed by author's last name.

Of course, it's changed exponentially beyond its infancy but can you imagine how they were categorizing books before Dewey? By color? Height? Number of pages? 

Having sat on a reference desk for years where people come in asking for the "green book" or the "blue book", let me just say, I can not imagine my former profession without Dewey. 

Of course the library also makes a fabulous setting for...murder!

There are a host of library based mysteries sure to delight library lovers the world over. I would list them here, but it's a long list and it's already been done by the fabulous website Stop You're Killing Me! (click on their name to go to the full list) but I will highlight a few of my favorites:

The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. Lawrenceton, Georgia, may be a growing suburb of Atlanta, but it’s still a small town at heart. Librarian Aurora “Roe” Teagarden grew up there and knows more than enough about her fellow townsfolk, including which ones share her interest in the darker side of human nature.

 
With those fellow crime buffs, Roe belongs to a club called Real Murders, which meets once a month to analyze famous cases. It’s a harmless pastime—until the night she finds a member dead, killed in a manner that eerily resembles the crime the club was about to discuss. And as other brutal “copycat” killings follow, Roe will have to uncover the person behind the terrifying game, one that casts all the members of Real Murders, herself included, as prime suspects—or potential victims...

The Cat in the Stacks Mysteries by Miranda (Dean) James. Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the good-natured librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash.  He’s returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but soon enough he’s entangled in a real-life thriller...
 
A famous author of gory bestsellers and a former classmate of Charlie’s, Godfrey Priest may be the pride of Athena, but Charlie remembers him as an arrogant, manipulative jerk—and he’s not the only one. Godfrey’s homecoming as a distinguished alumnus couldn’t possibly go worse: by lunch, he’s put a man in the hospital. By dinner, Godfrey’s dead.
 
Now it’s up to Charlie, with some help from Diesel, to paw through the town’s grudges and find the killer before an impatient deputy throws the book at the wrong person. But every last one of Charlie’s friends and co-workers had a score to settle with the nasty novelist. As if the murder wasn’t already purr-plexing enough...

 

The Library Lovers Mysteries by Jenn McKinlay (Hey, that's ME!!! Shocker, I know).      Lindsey is getting into her groove as the director of the Briar Creek Public Library when a New York editor visits town, creating quite a buzz. Lindsey’s friend Beth wants to sell the editor her children’s book, but Beth’s boyfriend, a famous author, gets in the way. When they go to confront him, he’s found murdered—and Beth is the prime suspect. Lindsey has to act fast—before they throw the book at the wrong person.

So, how about you, Reds and Readers? Do you enjoy a library based mystery? And do you love your local library? Give them a shout out if you do! Librarians need love!

Learning Something New about an Old Friend by Kate Carlisle

Jenn McKinlay: How lucky am I have to have both of my plot group buddies releasing books this month? Today, we're celebrating Kate Carlisle's fabulous addition to her Fixer Upper Mystery Series, the one that the Hallmark Mystery channel made into a TV series! PREMEDITATED MORTAR came out on Dec 1st and it is FANTASTIC! But before I spoil it, here's Kate to tell you more about it.

 

Kate Carlisle is the New York Timesbestselling author of two ongoing series: the Bibliophile Mysteries featuring San Francisco bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright, whose rare book restoration skills uncover old secrets, treachery and murder; and the Fixer-Upper Mysteries (as seen on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries), featuring Shannon Hammer, a home contractor who discovers not only skeletons in her neighbors' closets, but murder victims, too. Kate’s newest book is Premeditated Mortar.

 

Have you ever discovered something about an old friend that was so surprising that it changed your perception of them? I don’t mean anything sinister, like they poisoned their first-grade teacher. I’m talking about things such as you found out that your strait-laced, twinset-wearing, PTA president friend used to ride Harleys. Or your friend who eschews makeup and all things girlie was once queened Miss Rutabaga. Or your crotchety next-door neighbor was once a child actor in a popular TV show.

Maybe that only happens in California.

One of the reasons I love reading—and writing—long-running mystery series is because we get to know more and more about the characters as the series goes on. We discover new facets of characters, which makes them all the more real to us.

 

For writers, it’s tricky, because we have to stay true to the characters. We can’t reveal something about a character that contradicts something readers already know to be true. Not without a plausible explanation of the discrepancy that doesn’t invalidate the events and motivations of earlier books. That makes readers feel betrayed.

The way around this is to withhold details of a character’s past unless it’s relevant to the story. That gives writers more freedom in books to come.

AVAILABLE NOW!

In Premeditated Mortar, readers will learn something new about Shannon Hammer’s best friend Jane. (If you haven’t read the Fixer-Upper Mysteries yet, not to worry. You can jump in with Premeditated Mortar without feeling lost. The mystery is self-contained.) All the way back in book two, This Old Homicide, Jane’s last living relative was killed. But I didn’t go into a lot of detail about why she was raised by her beloved uncle Jesse or what happened to her parents. Now, in Premeditated Mortar, readers will discover Jane has a very personal and poignant connection to the abandoned asylum outside of Lighthouse Cove. And a very special reason why she’s determined, with Shannon’s help, to bring joy back to the rundown building by turning it into the premiere luxury hotel in Lighthouse Cove.

With loads of humor throughout.

Here’s a little sneak peek from Premeditated Mortar to show you the kind of friendship Shannon and Jane enjoy. Shannon’s boyfriend Mac has just discovered her behind a half-demolished wall, where she was pushed by unseen hands.

 

“Is she here?” a woman cried out.

 

I groaned out loud. That was Jane. She was going to kill me. 

 

“Tell her I’m not here,” I muttered.

 

Mac laughed. “Sorry, babe. You’ll have to tell her that yourself.”

 

“Damn it,” I grumbled.

 

“Shannon! Oh my God, she’s not moving.” She sobbed. “Is she alive?”

 

“Of course I’m alive, I groused.

 

“Good,” Jane said. “Because I’m going to kill you.”

 

I sighed. “I know.”

AVAILABLE NOW!

Where can you get your hands on Premeditated Mortar? At any bookstore or ebook retailer. To make it easy for you, here are a few links:

 

Amazon - https://amzn.to/39pZqUC

Apple Books - https://apple.co/2PKCKGW

BN - http://bit.ly/3awhht9

Bookshop.org: https://bit.ly/32kjsxE

Google - http://bit.ly/2wsdDlC

Indiebound - http://bit.ly/3cFMk82

Kobo - http://bit.ly/38m4RCP

Murder by the Book - https://bit.ly/33yFQE2

Mysterious Galaxy - https://bit.ly/32zlbjO

Poisoned Pen - https://bit.ly/2FBAtMf

Share an interesting fact about yourself that might surprise people who don’t know you well. I’ll start—for years, I worked in television production. Okay, your turn! I’ll choose five random commenters to receive a Fixer-Upper Mystery measuring tape!!!

 

An Interview with Miranda (Dean) James

           Jenn McKinlay: One of my most favorite mystery series is the Cat in the Stacks mysteries, penned by my friend Dean James (aka Miranda James). In case you don't know, one of the lead characters is a Maine Coon cat named Diesel. Seriously, what's not to love? 

          With his new book CARELESS WHISKERS, the 12th book in the hugely popular series, hitting the shelves on January 21st, I thought it was a good time to have Dean pop in for a visit. We did a little Q & A about his series and his writing life, and I love it so much because he really hits some elemental truths about the writing process. Enjoy!

Available for pre-order NOW!

Jenn: How did you come up with Charlie Harris and Diesel and the Cat in the Stacks mysteries?

Dean: After my Trailer Park Mysteries series was canceled, I was trying to come up with an idea for something new. My editor at Berkley, Michelle Vega, and her boss, Natalee Rosenstein (my editor before Michelle), suggested a series with a librarian and a cat, thanks to the popularity of the book Dewey the Library Cat. I sent them three chapters and a synopsis for the book, they liked it, and a three-book contract got me started.

Jenn: When did you decide to become a writer?

Dean: When I was old enough to figure out that people actually wrote books (and they didn't just magically appear on the shelves out of nowhere), I thought that would be a cool thing to do. Inspired at the age of eleven or twelve by my two favorite sleuths, Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, I wrote a novella (at the time I thought it was a book) featuring a girl sleuth who was half Nancy/half Trixie. My aunt typed it up for me, and I sent to the Whitman, who was publishing the Trixie Belden books at the time. I got a form rejection letter, and that rather daunted my enthusiasm. All the other volumes in the series I planned never got written. Skip ahead to grad school days, and I started writing murder mysteries (you should not assume a direct connection between my being in a Ph.D. program and wanting to kill fictional people).

Jenn:  How long does it take you to write the first draft of a mystery?

Dean: I never really have a "first draft" in the most technical sense. I have a "living draft" because I adjust and change as the story develops. I'm not one of those people who can come up with a minutely detailed outline; that would drive me nuts and I'd never write the book. I like to see what happens while I write. I always get good ideas this way for twists and for character bits. As for how long it takes, it varies. The actual time of fingers on computer keys is many hours, but the writing process also consists of letting the subconscious pull 

things together, and that usually takes a few months.

Jenn: What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

Dean: Schedule? Um, no. I have a full-time day job as an electronic resources librarian in a university medical center, and I spend five days a week at a computer. Mostly I write on the weekends, but as a deadline looms I will 

write before and after work as well.

Jenn: Late night writing when the house is quiet is still my favorite.

Jenn: What do you like to do when you're not writing?

Dean: Sleep. Read. Travel. Watch TV and movies. Sleep some more and read some more.

Jenn: What’s the biggest challenge to writing a long running mystery series? 

Dean: Not repeating yourself. I try to keep the stories fresh with what's happening with Charlie and his family and friends, but also with the characters involved in the murder plots. There are only so many tropes you can use in a conventional cozy mystery, after all. I've read several thousand mysteries, 

many from them the Golden Age of detective fiction, and I think I've absorbed most of the variations you'll find in a traditional mystery. I like to play with the conventions. I had a lot of fun with this, in particular, with my

Simon Kirby-Jones mysteries. He is a gay American vampire who resides in an 

English village and comments acerbically on everything and everyone.

Jenn:  As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

Dean: I went through various stages of career enthusiasms. I babysat younger cousins frequently, so I thought being a pediatrician might be the thing. Then I became fascinated by foreign languages in the fifth grade and decided I wanted to be a translator at the UN. I even wrote to the UN for information. 

So my plan was to go to college and study several languages. Then I ended up getting a degree in history, with minors in English and Spanish. I thought being a college professor seemed like fun, so I went on to grad school and got a Ph.D. in history (specialty, medieval England), and eventually got my master's in 

library science. It was far easier to find a job in a library than a teaching position in history when I finished grad school, lo these many years ago.

Reading over this, I realize that what I wanted to do all along was concerned with languages, speaking them and writing them, and the writing of them came to predominate, I suppose. Where the urge to kill serially came from, I'm not quite sure...

Jenn: LOL, Dean. Thanks so much for joining us today!

What about you, Reds and Readers, any questions for Dean? Also, since I asked Dean I'll ask you, too. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Miranda James is the New York Times bestselling author of the Cat in the Stacks Mysteries, including Twelve Angry Librarians, No Cats Allowed, and Arsenic and Old Books, as well as the Southern Ladies Mysteries, including Fixing to Die, Digging Up the Dirt, and Dead with the Wind. James lives in Mississippi. Visit the author at catinthestacks.com and facebook.com/mirandajamesauthor.

  

What Would You Do with a Billion Dollars? by Kate Carlisle

JENN McKINLAY: I'm thrilled to have my bestie visiting today! And because she won't brag on herself, I will. Check this out: A trifecta of bestsellerness!!! Have you started the Fixer Upper mysteries yet? Don't miss out!

The latest Fixer-Upper Mystery, SHOT THROUGH THE HEARTH, came out on October 29, in paperback and ebook. Coming soon in audiobook. Read chapter 1 for free at www.KateCarlisle.com.

And now here's Kate to tell us more about her latest bestseller!

KATE CARLISLE: What would you do if you had a billion dollars? A billion. A thousand millions. Would you quit your job? Would you start a business? Would you move to a different town, a different part of the country, a different country altogether? Would you have more than one home? What would you do for your family and friends?

A billion is such a big number, it’s hard to wrap one’s brain around. Let’s say you did everything I listed above. Even if you were wildly extravagant, you’d probably still have, oh, nine hundred million dollars.

I think that once you got past the irresistible self-indulgences, you would realize that you have more money than you could possibly need in a lifetime. Then you might start thinking on a grander scale. After you’ve taken care of yourself, your family, your friends, and your community, eventually you might start to think about how you could effect real change in the world.

What would you do with a billion dollars once the newness of wealth wore off?

This was the question that inspired my latest mystery novel, Shot Through the Hearth. In it, contractor Shannon Hammer has been hired to renovate the Victorian farmhouse of and build a barn for a young retired tech billionaire, Raphael Nash.

The size of Rafe’s wallet is matched only by the size of his heart. After moving to Lighthouse Cove and falling in love with Shannon’s friend Marigold, Rafe starts the Marigold Foundation, with the lofty goal of eradicating poverty and saving the environment.

Rafe had the vision, the intelligence and the energy to bootstrap himself from humble beginnings to being one of the wealthiest men in the world. Now he intends to put all of his talents toward saving the planet for future generations. As the book starts, he tells Shannon that he’ll be hosting Future Global Survival Con in their quaint seaside town. Here’s a taste from chapter one:

“I’ve already booked a few dozen speakers,” Rafe said. “We’ll have demonstrations and lectures and workshops on all sorts of future-forward ideas from every area of business, education, arts and sciences, space, communication, food and farming.”

“You’ve already lined up all these people?”

“Yeah. Well, most of them are friends, so it wasn’t too hard to twist their arms.” He sat forward in his chair, getting into the subject. “We’ve got an eco-fisheries expert whose passion is tide pools. And another, my friend Julian Reedy, is a world-renowned plant expert who is determined to prove that plants can communicate with humans.” He grinned. “Oh, and wait ’til you see the Stephanie vine. She’s this huge, fast-growing plant that moves and grows in reaction to human pheromones. She’s extraordinary.”

“Stephanie is . . . a plant?”

“Yeah. You’ll see. It’s very cool. And another buddy, Arnold Larsson, is a pioneer in the field of smart mice studies.”

Mice?I shivered. One of my deepest, darkest secrets was that I was deathly afraid of mice. But I wasn’t about to mention it here and now.

“Everyone who comes to the conference will be invited to submit a grant proposal and give a short presentation on how they would change the world. I’ll be awarding a number of grants to help them finance their projects and ideas, put their words into action.”

But while Rafe’s goals are noble, with that much money up for grabs, not everyone’s motives will be altruistic. In fact, someone will die. . . 

ABOUT SHOT THROUGH THE HEARTH

Contractor Shannon Hammer is measuring murder motives in the latest Fixer-Upper Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of A Wrench in the Works and Eaves of Destruction... 

Shannon's good friend and retired tech billionaire, Raphael Nash, is loving his new retired life but he can't stay unoccupied for too long. He's started the Marigold Foundation that helps fund small companies and individuals who do humanitarian work around the world. It's an exciting time in Lighthouse Cove as Raphael hosts the first ever global conference inviting big thinkers from every area of industry to give presentations on eco-living. 

Raphael's old business partner arrives in town with a grudge and a plan to steal him away from his important new passion project. Shannon knows her friend has no intention of giving up Marigold and is proud of Raphael for sticking to his guns. But when his former associate winds up dead, all signs point to Raphael. 

It's up to Shannon to hammer out the details of the murder before her friend gets pinned for the crime... 

Question of the Day: If you had a billion dollars, what would you do after you had taken care of yourself, your family and your friends?

Kate Carlisle is the New York Timesbestselling author of two ongoing series: the Bibliophile Mysteries featuring San Francisco bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright, whose rare book restoration skills uncover old secrets, treachery and murder; and the Fixer-Upper Mysteries (as seen on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries), featuring Shannon Hammer, a home contractor who discovers not only skeletons in her neighbors' closets, but murder victims, too.

Dressing Up with Susan Shea

INGRID THOFT

Wouldn't you love to take a trip to the French countryside?  Visit with the locals.  Dine on cheese and wine while admiring the landscape.  You can with the added bonus of a cracking mystery if you read "Dressed for Death in Burgundy," the latest from Susan Shea.  Her main character, Katherine Goff, is an expat living in the small town of Reigny-sur-Canne in this second installment of her French countryside series.

Susan is here to give you the scoop on her new book!

SS: I don’t know about you, dear JRWs, but I rarely have an opportunity these days to dress up: long dress, serious jewelry, high heels. I miss it. Used to be, my sweetie and I would dress (he rocked a tux) at least a few times a year and I loved those evenings. These days “dressing up” means leaving the jeans and trainers at home.

But what I miss most is the over-the-top parties where we were invited – no, instructed – to come in costume, and I don’t mean Hallowe’en vampire teeth or Stars Wars outfits. I’m talking about full Elizabethan lady-in-waiting attire with swishing satin skirts and pearl headdresses, or flimsy 1920’s Flapper chemises, page boy bobs, and long cigarette holders.
Have you had the fun of going to a costume shop (do they still exist, I am just wondering?) to browse through Marie Antoinette’s bustiers or try on a Russian Empress’s furs? Practice using a fan with the flirtatiousness of a geisha, or look in the mirror at Paul Revere’s wife with her mobcap? The last time I went full costume was at a party that must have been 15 years ago and, yes, I went as an Elizabethan Lady, my sweetie as a rough character who might have been her stable boy.

All this was on my mind when I visited the Musee du Costume in Avallon, France for the first time and had the inspiration for the murder at the heart of my second French village mystery, "Dressed for Death in Burgundy." The proprietor, whom I fictionalized in the story, has spent decades scouring French flea markets and antique stores to gather thousands of articles of clothing, accessories, and costume-focused art.

The Museum occupies a multi-storied town house on a quiet side street in the town, and Madame has so many costumes that she and her two grown daughters rotate the entire house’s exhibits at least once a year.  She’s getting older, she apologizes, and since she turned 90, it’s a bit harder to showcase a different era. As I explored the salons and display cases, I longed for an excuse to wear a slimming Edwardian dress (think Downton Abbey), or the sheer black stockings with the spiders traveling neatly up the back of the leg, or the elbow length, pale blue kidskin gloves…I mean, really! Too gorgeous, so evocative of a more glamorous time.

Maybe we should plan a full-out costume party, a chance to be anyone from a masked Venetian countess to a woman pirate. We could rent a ballroom, hire a small orchestra, and dance with equally attired gentlemen ‘til dawn. Who would you choose to be for that evening? I have dibs on Veronica Lake in the shimmering, silvery gown.

Do tell, Reds and Readers:  Do you have occasion to dress up?  Have a favorite fancy outfit in the depths of your closet?

Susan is giving away a copy of her latest to one lucky reader!  Just comment to enter.

"Dressed for Death in Burgundy"
After finding herself mixed up in a murder investigation the previous summer, Katherine Goff’s life simply has not been the same. Her husband has been in the U.S. recording a new album, the Burgundy region locals are finally starting to see her as a real neighbor, and Katherine has even started helping out with “tourist” excursions. It seems she’s finally found her place in the small community of Reigny-sur-Canne.

But when Katherine stumbles across a body in the local museum during a tour, she finds herself caught up once again in a whirlwind of gossip and speculation. When the police zero in on her friend Pippa as a suspect, Pippa and Katherine team up to find the real killer and clear her name.

However, the more clues they discover, the more the real killer wants them off the trail. When Katherine and Pippa start receiving threats, they must decide what they are more afraid of―the police getting it wrong, or possibly becoming the killer’s next targets.

Find out what happens next in the second installment in the French countryside murder mystery series the New York Times calls “a pleasant getaway.”

DRESSED FOR DEATH IN BURGUNDY is Susan Shea's fifth mystery and the second in her French village mysteries. Her first series featured a San Francisco professional woman drawn into art-related misdeeds. Susan is on the national board of Sisters in Crime and is a member of Mystery Writers of America. She spent twenty-five years in the not-for-profit world before beginning to write full time. She lives in Novato.

Motives for Murder

RHYS BOWEN:  Some of us Reds find ourselves teaching classes and workshops on mystery writing and one thing I always stress is motive. I find that some mystery books that are otherwise good stories fall down when it comes to motive.  If someone dropped dead into the punch-bowl at a wedding would you instantly perk up and say “Oh goody! A murder for me to solve!”
That would not be me. My first thought would be, “I need to get out of here fast. There is a killer on the loose.”

So coming up with a plausible motive for the amateur sleuth is always a challenge. What would make me get involved? If it was one of my near and dear ones and the police had arrested him and wouldn’t listen, then I’d want to do all I could to save him. But if a friend was accused? A neighbor? Would I poke my nose in then?

And then we come to the more important motive for murder. Unless you are a psychopath, what would make YOU kill?  Would you kill because your daughter didn’t make the cheerleading team? Implausible, you say, and this happened. Would you kill because someone else went to the prom with your dream date thirty years ago? I’ve read that in a book too.

I have to say that the mysteries that work best for me both as a reader and a writer are ones in which I have empathy for the killer. Someone pushed into a corner so hard that the only way out was murder. I am pretty sure I could kill to protect my children.  If a Nazi soldier burst in I could shoot him before he killed my babies. But could I calmly plot to kill someone with whom my daughter was in an abusive relationship? That’s where it gets murky. And I like to play with murkiness. I enjoy working with gray areas of right and wrong. In one of the Evan books three women meet in a shelter for battered women and plot to be each other’s alibi in killing their husbands. Evan solves the case and says to his boss, “But she won’t go to jail, will she? She was being battered by him.”
And his superior looks him in the eye and says coldly, “Not at the moment she pulled the trigger.” And Evan realizes that he’s condemned this woman to an undeserved life in prison.

But the more I think about it, I realize that sometimes I only takes a tiny trigger point. As happened to me on a flight a couple of weeks ago. I sat next to a woman. We got chatting. She asked what I did. When I told her I write two books a year she smiled at me and said, “That’s nice. It keeps you busy, doesn’t it?”
Keeps me busy? Would you say to a brain surgeon: You did five brain surgeries last week? That’s nice. It keeps you busy, doesn’t it?”
I felt like saying it, but instead I thought “I’m taking a good look at you and you’ll wind up dead in one of my upcoming books!”

That’s one of the advantages of being a mystery writer. We can kill off those who piss us off. Kill them in horrible ways and never get caught. We have the perfect career! 
So now I’m thinking of other people who might wind up dead. Those nameless banks and credit card companies who keep me on hold for half an hour and then go through endless “If you want to speak to someone who has red hair and whose last name begins with M press 2!” And call centers in India whose employees speak no known language. And those telemarketers in India who tell me the IRS is after me.....
Those who use the phrase “Twentyfour/seven.” Or the phrase, “Each and every.” Or the word “Irregardless.”  Or use lay instead of lie. I’m sure there are plenty more.

So Reds, confess. Have you ever killed off someone in a book who was a thinly disguised real life person who annoyed you?
And what would be your motive for murder?

HALLIE EPHRON: In "Night Night, Sleep Tight" I killed off a character who's a thinly-disguised version of my dad. I made him a screenwriter (my dad was) who's found floating in his own pool (a la Sunset Blvd). I like to think my dad would have loved it. He's been a character in at least two other books -- my sister Delia's "Hanging Up" and my sister Nora's "Heartburn." But I'm the only one who killed him. The moral: don't raise your children to be writers.

My other murder victims are strangers. Complete strangers. Really,

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I think about this ALL the time. I mean--what would honestly cause someone to actually kill someone? And being a psychopath doesn't count, that's boring. Unless you are Hannibal Lecter.  Then there's self-defense, or defense of another. Those are reasonable reasons. But it would STILL be difficult, right?
Anyway, I analyzed it, so much, before I wrote PRIME TIME for that very reason, Rhys, I wanted the book to make sense.
I got it down to: Power. Control. Love. Money.  And really--all four of those are only Power and Control. And I think there has to be an extra behavioral psychology of--feeling like the world is unfair to you, and you are only doing something to get what's rightfully yours.
Have I killed any real people? No, but--and I will say no more--I have made them into buffoons. Deciding that humiliation and incompetence is more painful than death.

LUCY BURDETTE: figuring out motive is very hard, and I completely agree that a weak motive equals disappointing book. Over the years, I have ended up with a lot of old grudges in my mysteries, nursed by fires of disappointment until they can't be ignored. Also, I think hiding an important secret can end up being a powerful motive. But it has to be a secret that the person feels could ruin his or her life, whether or not that's true. Pure rage and sociopathy are less interesting to me.

DEBORAH CROMBIE : It's so hard to come up with credible motives. I think plain greed is the least interesting. But loss of status and reputation are powerful, and if that includes money that works, too. Protection of secrets and protection of loved ones, or the prevention of another crime are good, too. And then there's always sweet revenge!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hank, I like your formulation of Power and Control. I usually think of it as Money or Love (gone wrong.) In some ways, I think it would be great to write historical mysteries like Rhys and Susan, because not so long ago, Reputation and Scandal were also valid motives for murder, in fiction if not in real life. Nowadays, of course, if you have a terrible scandal, you go on a talk show or release the sex tape. Illegitimacy, secret adoption, being gay, having an affair - I mean, I'm glad they're not life-destroying events anymore! But you have to admit, they did make for some juicy reading in the Golden Age mysteries of the 30s and 40s.

As to killing off anyone real - no. But I have made a real person a wicked villain, and it pleases me every time I think about it!

RHYS:  Julia, this is exactly why I write historical mysteries. So many lovely motives: I love another but I am not free. I am the true heir. I am hiding an illegitimate child etc etc. One motive no one has mentioned so far is FEAR. I think fear is one of the biggest motivators to action, including murder.

So time to confess, dear readers: what would make you kill?