Anywhere you want to go

Whenever I travel to a new (to me) place, I search for a local bookstore where I scan the shelves, looking for mystery novels by local authors. I do this for two reasons. First, I think it's important to support writers everywhere and second, because when I come home and return to my daily life, I can open the pages and escape to the place I've just visited. It's a way to hang on to the "vacation" mode.

One year, I visited Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, my favorite of the three. I found a bookstore there and purchased Murder on Martha's Vineyard by David Osborn, a local writer. Back at home, I read the book and enjoyed it so much that I looked up the author on Amazon and was pleasantly surprised to see that he'd written more books in the series. I read all of his books and was able to "stay" on Martha's Vineyard a lot longer than my vacation time allowed.

Another year, I went to Wilmington, North Carolina and I loved exploring the city. So much history! The old Cotton Exchange, which now houses several delightful shops, including a bookstore, intrigued me as did the horse drawn carriages and the theater where John Wilkes Booth once performed. I bought two mystery novels by Wanda Canada, Island Murders and Cape Fear Murders. When I got home, I read both books and felt as if I were still sitting on a pier, gazing out at the Cape Fear River, watching the boats go by. And, trying to solve a murder.

But I haven't always been able to find a book by a local author while on vacation. When that happens, I try to find one by someone who isn't local but who is very familiar with the area. For example, I purchased Folly by Bill Noel, a resident of Louisville, Kentucky, a couple of months after I got back from Folly Beach, South Carolina and, because the author had spent many summers in the area, it felt like a "local" had written the book.

I could give you many more examples but, in the interest of keeping this post shorter than one of my novels, I won't. Anyway, you get the idea.

Even if you don't travel or can't get away this year, you can still take a vacation in your mind. Although I've never been to Peru, I went on an archaeological expedition there when I read William Doonan's American Caliphate. I explored an old ghost town in Arizona with Old Murders Never Die by Marja McGraw. And, I journeyed to the New England coast with J.R. Lindermuth's The Limping Dog.

I've also visited Bariloche, Argentina with author Evelyn Cullet, seen the heather-covered moors of the Scottish Highlands thanks to Amy Reade and traveled Route 66 through the Mojave Desert with M.M. Gornell's novels. I could list hundreds more.

Books can take you anywhere you want to go at any time of the year and you don't even have to go through airport security or fill your gas tank.