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A Fatal Fondness (Mary MacDougall Mysteries)
by Richard Audry
About A Fatal Fondness
A Fatal Fondness (Mary MacDougall Mysteries)
Historical Mystery
4th in Series
Conger Road Press (November 15, 2019)
Print Length: 300 pages
It’s September 1902, and Mary MacDougall has fulfilled her greatest dream—opening her own detective agency. But this achievement doesn’t come without complication.
Mary’s father insists that an older cousin come to work with her—as both secretary and minder. Jeanette Harrison pledges to keep the plucky sleuth away from danger, as well as from her unsuitable suitor Edmond Roy. This arrangement, embarrassingly, makes Mary the only detective in the state with a chaperone.
The new agency’s first cases hardly seem to portend danger or significance. There’s the affair of the nicked napkin rings…the problem of the purloined pocket watch…and the matter of the four filched felines.
Mary and Jeanette have not the slightest notion that one of these modest little jobs will blow up into the most consequential and perilous case of the heiress-sleuth’s budding career. What begins in triviality mushrooms into disappearance, betrayal, international intrigue, and murder. As she learns more and more, Mary’s prospects for making the acquaintance of an assassin’s blade improve exponentially.
Witty, fast-paced, and enthralling, A Fatal Fondness—the fourth tale in the series—delves deeply into Mary’s world and paints the portrait of an unconventional young woman ever-ready to defy propriety for the sake of justice.
“In the spirit of Nancy Drew and the Corner House Girls… [The author] captures the turn-of-the-century period perfectly, when young women like Mary were trying to burst out of Victorian expectations to become their own person.” —Mary Ann Grossmann, St. Paul Pioneer Press
About Richard Audry
Interview with the Author
What initially got you interested in writing?
As a kid, I was a voracious reader of all kinds of books, particularly science fiction and adventure. In my teens I began to dream about writing my own books. Though I made a career in journalism and later marketing communications, I didn’t get around to tackling a novel until I was in my thirties.
What genres do you write in?
My Mary MacDougall books are historical mysteries set at the turn of the 20th century. I call my King Harald novels “Canine Cozies,” set in the present day. My Johnny Graphic trilogy is a kind of alternative-history-steampunk-science fiction set in the 1930s—where ghosts are quite real, the result of natural laws of physics.
What drew you to writing these specific genres?
I came up with the idea for Mary MacDougall as a kind of mash-up of A Room with a View and Sherlock Holmes—Lucy Honeychurch as a brainy sleuth—and Mary has stuck with me ever since. I’ve done five Mary stories so far. For King Harald, it was liking funny cozy mysteries and big goofy dogs and eccentric small towns. As for Johnny Graphic, I love sci-fi and I wanted to tackle something in the genre.
How did you break into the field?
Back in the ’90s I schlepped three different novels to agents and publishers. I even had a proper agent for my hardboiled PI mystery, Smoking Ruin. But despite years of trying, I never sold any of the books to publishers. When Kindle and the other digital publishing platforms came along, I gave up on mainstream publishing and independently published my own books. I’ll never get rich, but at least my books are out there and getting some positive reviews.
What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?
I hope they’re entertained and occasionally moved, and inspired to read the next book in the series.
What do you find most rewarding about writing?
When all’s said and done, the best thing about wrapping up a novel is knowing that you’ve created a credible world and peopled it with characters whom you earnestly hope your readers will care about.
What do you find most challenging about writing?
What slows me down more than anything is plotting a book. For me it’s like having the parts of a watch strewn out in front of me, and needing to put them together so they all work in sync. You’d think after eleven novels and two novellas I’d have plotting down. But no. Every time is hard.
What advice would you give to people wanting to enter the field?
You may need to write a few novels to get good at it. You can’t treat that first novel as your precious darling that you lavish years on; finish it and move on. Even after you get good at writing novels, selling them is very hard. Expect rejection and develop a thick skin. If writing novels is really important to you, you won’t quit—no matter what.
What type of books do you enjoy reading?
Mysteries and suspense of all kinds, science fiction, fantasy, and military history.
Is there anything else besides writing you think people would find interesting about you?
Besides writing, my other passion is photography. I’ve had several photo shows in galleries and have had my work in national magazines. I’m currently getting my street photography projects ready to go in an online gallery.
What are the best ways to connect with you, or find out more about your work?
I hope folks will drop by my Facebook author page and “Follow” or “Like” it, at www.facebook.com/richardaudryauthor/. I have a website at www.drmartinbooks.com. I also invite readers to contact me by e-mail at drmartin120@gmail.com. If anyone would like a free Kindle or E-pub copy of the first Mary MacDougall novella, A Pretty Little Plot, email me there.
Author Bio
Richard Audry is the pen name of D. R. Martin. He is the author of the Mary MacDougall historical mysteries (four titles) and the King Harald canine cozy series (three titles). Under his own name, he has written the Johnny Graphic ghost adventure trilogy, the Marta Hjelm hardboiled mystery Smoking Ruin, and two books on some of his favorite authors: Travis McGee & Me and Four Science Fiction Masters.
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/richardaudryauthor/ Website – https://drmartinbooks.com/
Purchase Links – Amazon
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
December 2 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – CHARACTER GUEST POST
December 3 – A Blue Million Books – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
December 4 – I Read What You Write – REVIEW, GUEST POST
December 5 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
December 6 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
December 6 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
December 7 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST
December 8 – Baroness’ Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
December 8 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
December 9 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT
December 10 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
December 10 – Ascroft, eh? – GUEST POST
December 11 – The Book Decoder – REVIEW
December 12 – Here’s How It Happened – REVIEW
December 13 – MJB Reviewers – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
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