Mystery of the Month: The Body in the Piazza

To celebrate their wedding anniversary, intrepid caterer and sometime sleuth Faith Fairchild and her husband, the Reverend Tom Fairchild, are off to Italy for a vacation filled with exquisite indulgences—the art, the Chianti, the food, the Ferragamos! The plan is to spend a romantic weekend in Rome, before heading to Tuscany for a stay at Cucina della Rossi, a cooking school founded by Faith’s back-in-the-day assistant Francesca Rossi.

Faith is certain that the only intrigue in store for her will be learning the secret recipe for Nona Rossi's ragu. But a thicker plot begins to simmer when the Fairchilds accidentally stumble upon a dying man in the Piazza Farnese. It's clear from the knife in the victim's chest that murder is on the menu.

Mysterious faces from Rome reappear in Tuscany. To Faith, this is no coincidence. And somebody is intent on sabotaging Francesca's new business by spoiling the cream and salting the flour. As Faith struggles to follow a trail more twisting than fusilli, she may be putting both herself and her husband in hot water.
  

Katherine Hall Page was born and grew up in New Jersey, graduating from Livingston High School. Her father was the Executive Director of The Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and her mother was an artist. Page has an older brother and a younger sister. Early on the family developed a love of the Maine coast, spending summer vacations on Deer Isle. She received her BA from Wellesley College, majoring in English and went on to a Masters in Secondary Education from Tufts and a Doctorate in Administration, Public Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard. College had brought her to Massachusetts and she continues to reside there. Before her career as a full-time writer, Ms. Page taught at the high school level for many years. She developed a program for adolescents with special emotional needs, a school within a school model, that dealt with issues of truancy, substance abuse, and family relationships. Those five years in particular were rich ones for her. This interest in individuals and human behavior later informed her writing.

Married for thirty-seven years to Professor Alan Hein, an experimental psychologist at MIT, the couple have a twenty-nine-year-old son. It was during her husband's sabbatical year in France after the birth of their son that Ms. Page wrote her first mystery, The Body in the Belfry, 1991 Agatha Award winner for Best First Mystery Novel. The fifteenth in the series, The Body in the Snowdrift , won the 2006 Agatha Award for Best Mystery Novel. Ms. Page was also awarded the 2001 Agatha for Best Short Story for "The Would-Be Widower" in the Malice Domestic X collection (Avon Books). She was an Edgar nominee for her juvenile mystery, Christie & Company Down East. The Body in the Bonfire was an Agatha nominee in 2003. Page's short story, "The Two Mary's" was an Agatha nominee in 2004. The Body in the Lighthouse (2003) was one of three nominees for The Mary Higgins Clark Award. The Body in the Boudoir was a finalist in the 2013 Maine Literary Awards. The Body in the Piazza, the twenty-first in the series, is out now from William Morrow in hardcover, large print, E-book, and audio editions.

Descended from Norwegian-Americans on her mother's side and New Englanders on her father's, Ms. Page grew up listening to all sorts of stories. She remains an unabashed eavesdropper and will even watch your slides or home movies to hear your narration. Her books are the product of all the strands of her life and she plans to keep weaving.

Bookstores:

http://mysterybooksellers.com/

http://www.barharborbookshop.com/ (signed books, including backlist copies in HC)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=Katherine+hall+page

A BIG NO-NO!

Imagine this. A close friend, one who knows how much you love a good mystery, has told you about a recently released movie. "It's so suspenseful," she tells you, "and you'll never guess the ending. You have GOT to see it!" You decide to go and you're really looking forward to it.

But, while you're standing in line to buy your ticket, you hear a woman who is leaving the theater say to her companion, "I never would've guessed the wife did it."

How do you feel? Did the woman just ruin the movie for you? After all, figuring out whodunnit in a mystery is a big part of its allure. Will you still buy that ticket?

The same situation can apply to buying a book. You go to Amazon, type in the name of the book your friend recommended and you read a few of the reviews. How would you feel if one of the reviewers told you who the killer was? I've seen this happen a couple of times recently and, in my opinion, it's a big no-no!

Thankfully, most readers who review books know better than to spoil the ending for potential readers by giving away the end of a mystery novel and/or revealing the identity of the killer. But, evidently, like the woman in the theater, some people don't stop to think before they talk - or type.

Writers work very hard to produce and promote their novels. We want people to buy our books, not just for monetary reasons (only a few top authors make “that kind” of money), but because we wouldn’t have written the book in the first place if we didn’t feel that we had something important to share.

And, of course, we want readers to review our books because reviews draw attention to them. As with anything else in life, some people will love our book, some will like our book and some will not do either. We’re going to get a wide variety of reviews and we have to learn to take the negative with the positive.

I personally don't believe in writing negative reviews; if I don’t like a book, I don’t review it. That doesn't mean it's not a good book, just that it's not for me. But everyone has their own opinion and they should be allowed to express it, if they choose. However, no one should have the right to give away the ending of a book, thus ruining it for some readers and discouraging others from buying it.

As an author, has this ever happened to you? 
As a reader, would you still buy the book if you already knew the ending?

Getting to know Sandi Webster

Welcome to the first post in my "Getting to know your character" series. We have with us today Sandi Webster, the main character in Marja McGraw's Sandi Webster Mystery series and one of my favorite "people." Let's get to know her.

Patricia: Sandi, where did you grow up and where do you live now?
Sandi: I grew up in southern California, and currently live and work in Los Angeles. There are a lot of people and lots of stories in a city this large. I’ve seen more than my share of crimes and heartbreak, but there’s always an up-side, too. A guy we called The Bogey Man comes to mind (a dead ringer for Humphrey Bogart who wanted to learn the biz from me).
Patricia: What’s your occupation and how did you come to choose it?
Sandi: I’m a private investigator, and I’m almost embarrassed to tell you how that came about. I grew up watching old mystery movies with my mother on TV. I loved the private eyes that always got their man. I’d been working in a government job, in the court system, and I knew I needed a change. I wanted more excitement in my life, and I sure got it. I apprenticed with an agency and eventually quit my job and started my own investigative firm.
Patricia: Tell us about one of your most memorable “adventures.” What drew you into the mystery?
Sandi: There’ve been so many, and they’re all memorable, but I had the most fun when my partner, Pete, and I became stranded in an old ghost town where we discovered records of murders that took place around 1880. Being on vacation and stranded in a ghost town with the old sheriff’s records, what else would a P.I. do but try and figure out what happened? Oh, and there was a mysterious cowboy there who really caused problems for us. I realized then that Old Murders Never Die – not really.
Patricia: What are your favorite things to do when you’re not working?
Sandi: It seems like I’m usually working, but in my free time I enjoy reading and old movies. Pete and I take trips from time to time, too, as evidenced by Wolf Creek, the ghost town. We’ve developed more than just a working relationship. Can you tell? We also have friends, Felicity and Stanley, whom we enjoy spending time with when we can. Stanley also works for me.
Patricia: What are your favorite TV shows and/or movies? What kind of music do you enjoy listening to?
Sandi: I enjoy anything mysterious, and I particularly like mystery movies that include humor. Music? I enjoy oldies, big band, and easy listening. My menopausal mother tells me she sometimes thinks I was born into the wrong generation. But then, she says a lot of things, and they don’t always make sense.
Patricia: Are you married or involved in a serious relationship? Tell us about that.
Sandi: I mentioned my relationship with my partner, Pete, in an earlier question. We’ll be getting married one of these days. After the debacle in the ghost town, and circumstances we discovered there, he asked me to set a date. We realized that putting things off for too long can change your whole life. I’m thinking about it. I keep telling him I have some wild oats to sow. He just laughs. I’ve had to spend a long time making him realize I can take care of myself if I need to.
Patricia: How would you describe yourself, physically and personality wise? How do you think others see you?
Sandi: I asked my friend, Felicity, how she would describe me. I’m about five foot three with dark brown hair, and she says I’m as cute as a button. (Ha! Cute as a button doesn’t help my image.) I’m tenacious, according to her, and I have a strong sense of right and wrong. I love things that make me laugh, because I realize if you take life too seriously, it can drag you down. I frustrate easily, and I sigh a lot. I’m kind of a contradiction, if you really think about it.
Patricia: What’s your favorite color and why? 
Sandi: Yellow, definitely yellow. It’s so cheerful. I see crime and death more often than I’d like, and I need things around me to keep me upbeat. That includes my dog, Bubba, who’s kind of a yellow color, if you squint and don’t look too closely at him. He’s huge and hard to miss though. 
Patricia: Do you like to travel? If so, what are some of your favorite places to go and/or what was your favorite vacation? Have any of your travels involved solving a mystery?
Sandi: Most of my travels have included a mystery. Pete’s friend, homicide detective Rick Mason, calls me a dead body magnet. I can’t really deny his description. I love to travel, but work doesn’t allow me to do it very often. I’d love to see Australia one day, and of course, Hawaii and maybe Scotland. We’ll see how it goes. Pete and I haven’t made honeymoon plans yet.
Patricia: What are your plans for the future?
Sandi: My plans are to just keep on keepin’ on. I don’t have the kind of job which leaves room to make too many definite plans. I never know what’s going to happen next. Barring any problems, Pete and I will marry one day. Other than that, I’m keeping my options open.

Thank you so much for talking to me and letting me explain a little about myself. (My author thanks you, too. Now where did that come from? What author? Huh?)

Marja McGraw 

I almost forgot to include the buy link. It's http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=marja%20mcgraw&sprefix=marja+mc%2Cstripbooks%2C299&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Amarja%20mcgraw

Coming soon: "Death Comes in Threes."

Planning for the New Year

Well, the new year is almost here. Lots of people make resolutions but I’m not one of them. I’ve done that in the past but I’ve found that it doesn’t work for me. I do like to plan for the year ahead though, which includes scheduling posts for my blog. For the past two years, I’ve done a “Getting to know you” post once a month where I’ve interviewed many wonderful authors. I’ve decided to continue my GTKY posts in 2014 but with a change.

Beginning in January, the post will not be an author interview. Instead, I plan to interview the main characters in some of my favorite mystery/suspense novels. My first guest will be private investigator Sandi Webster, the main character in Marja McGraw’s Sandi Webster Mystery series. I’m curious (and eager) to read her answers to my questions.

Another change to my blog is that, although I love hosting other mystery/suspense authors and will continue to do so from time to time, I will no longer post a "Mystery Author of the Month." But, I will continue to post a "Mystery of the Month," featuring some of the books I've read and want to recommend to my blog readers. 

In addition to scheduling posts for my blog, I’m looking forward to the release of my most recent Malone mystery, Desperate Deeds. A new book coming out is always an exciting time. I especially love hosting a book launch event at Higher Ground, my favorite local coffee shop in Cincinnati. I’ll post the date and time when I have that information. And, last but not least, I’ll be busy in 2014 writing the fourth book for my series.

What are your writing-related plans for 2014? Happy New Year!