BLOG TOUR – Killer Tied

AdminMarch 19, 20181 Comment

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Killer Tied (Eve Appel Mystery)
by Lesley A. Diehl

About the Book

Killer Tied (Eve Appel Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
6th in Series
Camel Press (March 15, 2018)
Paperback: 264 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1603813198
Digital ASIN: B0789824WQ

Eve Appel Egret is adjusting to married life with Sammy and their three adopted sons in Sabal Bay, Florida. While still running her consignment stores, she is going pro with her sleuthing by becoming an apprentice to a private detective.
Until her marriage, Eve’s only “family” was her grandmother Grandy, who raised her after her parents died in a boating accident. Now, in addition to her husband and sons, she has a father-in-law who clearly dislikes her. Sammy’s father, a full-blooded Miccosukee Indian long presumed dead, has emerged from the swamps where he’s been living like a hermit, and he isn’t happy about Eve’s marriage to his half-Miccosukee, half-white son.
As for Eve’s family, are her parents really dead? A woman named Eleanor claims to be Eve’s half-sister, born after her mother faked a boating accident to escape her abusive husband, Eve’s father. Then Eleanor’s father turns up dead in the swamps, stabbed by a Bowie knife belonging to Sammy’s father, Lionel. Strange as Lionel Egret is, Eve knows he had no motive to kill this stranger. In order to clear him, Eve must investigate Eleanor’s claims, and she might not like what digging around in her family’s past uncovers.

About the Author

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

What initially got you interested in writing?

I’ve always written, stories and essays when I was a teen as well as poetry. I had a piece published in a college literary journal, and I always wrote for academic journals and texts in graduate school and when I taught and did administrative work in college and university. The fiction bug bit when I retired. I’ve always loved mysteries—I read Nancy Drew as a girl—then graduated to Agatha Christie. Having relocated in retirement to the Southwest, I had no idea what to do with my time, so I began dabbling in constructing a mystery, set, as you would guess, on a college campus. It was long, boring and really terrible. I had to learn to write mysteries. I took online classes and went to writing conferences to learn the art of creating tension on the page.

What genres do you write in?

Having no background in law or police work, I write cozy mysteries with snoopy women sleuths. I make them women I admire for their spunk and pair them with gal pals who help them in their snooping. I also make certain there is a hunky guy who finds them both annoying and interesting. A lot of action, murder and some romance.

What drew you to writing these specific genres?

It would be impossible for me to write about a cop or a lawyer with no background in those fields, but nosy women? Well, that’s no stretch!

How did you break into the field?

I was first published by a small regional press, won a prestigious short story contest, and armed with this newly minted confidence, began writing several cozy mysteries that found their way to small and medium publishers.

What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?

I always have my protagonists deal with social, environmental and criminal issues that confront our society. I’ve intertwined issues such as hydraulic fracturing, floods, fires, hurricanes and tornados, human trafficking, and sexual assault as well as murder into my work. Family issues are the most important conflicts that my protagonists face every day. Cozy mysteries are all about living in today’s world—both the good and the bad aspects of our lives.

What do you find most rewarding about writing?

I instill humor into my work, so I try to make myself smile and laugh as I write. I do not consider writing drudgery. I love it and enjoy creating characters that are unusual and situations that are funny. Away from my computer, the best part about writing is the people I meet who have read my novels and enjoyed them. I find that more rewarding than the money I make from selling my books. Heavens knows I am not a best-selling author, so it’s thrilling when someone writes to me or tells me at a book event that she or he is a fan!

What do you find most challenging about writing?

The nitty-gritty of writing, I mean the actual transferring of ideas onto my computer screen is difficult for me because I am the world’s worst typist. I never learned how to type properly. I still look at the keys! I wish here were some way to hook a cable into my brain and transmit the thoughts to the screen.

What advice would you give to people wanting to enter the field?

Learn how to construct and write a mystery. That way you will know what the guidelines or rules are, and you will understand what you are doing when you decide to break them. Go to writers’ conferences and hang with others who are writing and learn from the workshops offered at these meetings. Join writers’ organizations such as Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America and local groups. Don’t act like the Lone Ranger and think you can easily break into publishing by ignoring advice from experts who can help you accomplish that.

What type of books do you enjoy reading?

Mysteries, of course. My favorite authors are Robert Parker, Agatha Christie, Kerry Greenwood, to name a few. I find mysteries a good intellectual workout to keep my brain in shape. I couldn’t write them without having read many.

Is there anything else besides writing you think people would find interesting about you?

I love to go to yard sales, consignment shops, and thrift stores. My protagonist in the Eve Appel mysteries is a consignment shop owner. Because of my passion for the used, Eve is the genuine article, a woman impassioned about secondhand designer fashions. I research the field almost weekly as I dash off to yard sales on Saturdays and explore consignment shops whenever I run across one. Finding bargains at yard sales is a lot like solving a mystery. So satisfying.

What are the best ways to connect with you, or find out more about your work?

The very best way is to go to www.lesleyadiehl.com and click on the link to my blog or publications. I publish the blog every Sunday with giveaways, contests, guest authors and my own take on the writing life.

Lesley is a country gal through and through, from her childhood on a dairy farm in Illinois to college in a cornfield in Iowa, Lesley creates sassy, snoopy protagonists who embrace chasing killers in country settings. Lesley writes several series: the Big Lake Murder mysteries and the Eve Appel mysteries both set in rural Florida; the Laura Murphy mysteries located on a lake in upstate New York; and short stories, some featuring a few of Lesley’s unique relatives from back on the farm (Aunt Nozzie and the Grandmothers). She is inspired by an odd set of literary muses: a ghost named Fred and a coyote as yet unnamed. Killer Tied is the sixth mystery in the Eve Appel Mysteries. To read more about Lesley’s unusual and humorous cozy mysteries, go to www.lesleyadiehl.com.

Author Links

Visit her on her website: www.lesleyadiehl.com

Blog: www.lesleyadiehl.com/blog

Twitter: @lesleydiehl

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lesley.diehl.1

Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lesley-A-Diehl/522270901254754?fref=ts