Mystery Author of the Month: Madeline Gornell

Madeline Gornell

Madeline (M.M.) Gornell is the award winning author of Uncle Si's Secret, Death of a Perfect Man, Lies of Convenience, Reticence of Ravens, and Counsel of Ravens. Her first Route 66 mystery, Reticence of Ravens, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer 2011 fiction Prize, the da Vinci Eye (cover art), and the Montaigne Medal (most thought provoking book). And Lies of Convenience was a Hollywood Book Festival Finalist and along with Uncle Si's Secret, a PSWA Fiction winner. Counsel of Ravens is a London Book Festival(honorable mention) and Los Angeles Times Book Festival Genre Fiction (runner-up). She continues to be inspired by historic Route 66.

M.M. is a lifetime lover of mysteries, and besides reading and writing, she is also a potter with a fondness for stoneware and reduction firing. She lives with her husband and assorted canines in the Mojave High-Desert near the internationally revered Route 66. 

You can visit her online at her website: http://www.mmgornell.com, or her BLOG: http://www.mmgornell.wordpress.com, or email her directly at mmgornell@earthlink.net.

Madeline says:

"Mainly my books are stand alone, with Reticence of Ravens and Counsel of Ravens the only two that are connected. I'm feeling pretty sure at this point, I'm a stand-alone kind of writer, and don’t have any plans to write another sequel—but I’m old enough to know saying “never” is fool hardy, indeed! And I do have a couple raven’s titles running around in my mind.

Route 66 does, though, remain the current “juice” for my imagination, and my next novel again takes place in the Mojave—in a fictional place between Ludlow and Needles I’ve created, called Shiné (shy-knee). The working title is Rhodes —The Mojave-Stone. I thought it would be a thriller, but it’s turning into a mystery. I should have known!"

Amazon Buy link (all listed there) is http://tinyurl.com/okypqsm

Madeline is offering a copy of "Counsel of Ravens" to one lucky commenter.

New Release: What Are The Odds?

What are the odds of buying a house with a history to turn into a bed and breakfast, and discovering it’s the house that just keeps giving - and giving, and giving? Sandi Webster’s parents, Livvie and Frank, are about to find out.

Sandi and her partner, Pete Goldberg, have finally taken the leap and married. It’s an interesting wedding, and things don’t go quite as planned – neither does the honeymoon. Instead of going on a trip, they drive out to her parents’ recently purchased house in the Arizona desert to help begin renovations, where they discover there’s more to the home than meets the eye.

Stanley Hawks and his new wife, Felicity, go along for the ride and Stanley has to face some of his worst fears. The desert hides all kinds of critters and bugs, and they aren’t necessarily cute little lady bugs.

A triple murder and suicide occurred in the house about twenty years ago. Upon Sandi’s arrival a blonde woman starts dogging her steps. Who is she and why can’t Sandi, a private investigator, identify her? How does the intruder disappear so easily, and what does she want? Why doesn’t anyone else see the blonde?

Sandi doesn’t believe in ghosts. Will she be proven wrong? There are plenty of questions with answers just waiting to be found.

Marja McGraw worked in both criminal and civil law enforcement for several years in California. She eventually relocated to Northern Nevada where she worked in the transportation field.  She also lived in Oregon where she worked for a County Sheriff’s Office and owned her own business, a Tea Room/Antique Store. Her next stop was Wasilla, Alaska. The draw to Northern Nevada was strong, and she eventually returned.

She wrote a weekly column for a small newspaper in No. Nevada and she was the editor for the Sisters in Crime Internet Newsletter for a year and a half.

She writes two series, The Sandi Webster Mysteries and The Bogey Man Mysteries, and  says that each of her mysteries contains a little humor, a little romance and a little murder, and that her books concentrate on the characters and solving the crime rather than the crime itself.

Website:          http://www.marjamcgraw.com/

Blog:               http://marjamcgraw.blogspot.com/

Purchase:         http://tinyurl.com/m8s6uux

New Release: Dead in the Water

Sabal Bay consignment shop owner Eve Appel is fit to be tied--family tied. Just as she is basking in the warmth of a renewed relationship with her long-lost Uncle Winston, disaster strikes. He and his less welcome companion, Darlene, have come for a visit, and their request to participate in one of rural Florida's most popular tourist activities, an airboat ride through the swamps, ends with her uncle being shot in the head. The killing looks suspiciously like a mob hit.

Turns out Uncle Winston was "connected." Was he simply a bag man, or something more? Who is Darlene, really, and how did Winston acquire three Russian stepchildren, one of whom has been kidnapped by yet another mob family--this one Russian? Winston claimed to prize family above all else, but what "family" was he talking about: his niece Eve, his relations by marriage, or his mobster employers?

When Eve's best friend Madeleine is kidnapped, Eve doesn't know where to turn. Her mob-boss buddy Nappi Napolitani? Her new Miccosukee Indian friend, the long, lean, and luscious Sammy Egret? Her ex-husband, Jerry, who is in Nappi's employ? With two mob families on her tail and her boyfriend, PI Alex Montgomery, mostly away on assignment, Eve has to act fast. Before whoever wrecked her car and left her to the mercy of the alligators finishes the job they started.

Dead in the Water is the second book in the Eve Appel Mystery series, which began with A Secondhand Murder.

Buy link:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Lesley%20A.%20Diehl&sprefix=Lesley+A.+D%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ALesley%20A.%20Diehl 

Lesley A. Diehl

Lesley retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in the Butternut River Valley in upstate New York.  In the winter she migrates to old Florida—cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office, and gators make golf a contact sport.  Back north, the shy ghost inhabiting the cottage serves as her literary muse.  When not writing, she gardens, cooks and renovates the 1874 cottage with the help of her husband, two cats and, of course, Fred the ghost, who gives artistic direction to their work.

She is the author of a number of mystery series and mysteries as well as short stories.  Dead in the Water follows the first book in the Eve Appel mystery series, A Secondhand Murder.  

Visit her on her website:  www.lesleyadiehl.com