K.P. Gresham describes herself as a professional character assassin. She’s the award-winning author of the Pastor Matt Hayden Mystery Series as well as several stand-alone novels. Today we eavesdrop on an interview between her and her rather unusual manager. Learn more about K.P. and her books at her website. The manager and his author
Tipper: This is great! I get to ask you some questions that I’ve always wondered about.
KP: Go for it.
Tipper: What were you thinking when you put that sexual tension between Angie and Matt? I mean, that is a forbidden love—a pastor and a bar owner in a small town—in my opinion.
KP: I wanted to show my readers that Matt is not only a man of God, he is a man. And that pastors are men.
Tipper: Strong feelings there. What’s that all about?
KP: My father was a Lutheran Pastor. Sometimes folks looked at him as God. My father was a steelworker before he came a pastor. Matt was an undercover cop on the Miami docks before going to Wartburg Seminary. Pastors are real people. Unfortunately, some of them forget that.
Tipper: So why a series set in small-town Texas? You’ve lived in Texas for thirty-six years, but in Houston and Austin. They’re not small towns.
KP: I lived in a small town in Illinois for five years when I was growing up. And I loved it. I knew who made the best butterscotch pie, the name of the soda jerk at Woolworth’s, the kind old couple who lived by the river and put corncobs in their stone fence to feed the squirrels. I wanted to bring that familiarity, that coziness, to my stories. But I also wanted to say a few things about concerns which have given me pause. So my characters are deep, with secrets and joys and points of view.
Tipper: Have you written other books about Matt Hayden?
KP: Yes, there are three published books in the Pastor Matt Hayden Mystery Series. This one, Murder in the Second Pew and Murder on the Third Try. Book 4, Four Reasons to Die, is coming out the first week of October. Woohoo!
Tipper: So why are you promoting The Preacher’s First Murder now?
KP: I always like introducing Matt and the Wilks town folks to new readers, and The Preacher’s First Murder is a great way to do that. As the town meets him and he meets the town, the readers meet them. It’s a great way to jump into the special world of Wilks, Texas and Pastor Matt Hayden’s new life.
Tipper: But you’re not stopping at four books. I know, ‘cuz I’m beginning the research for the fifth installment. Seriously. Why would the body of a man who committed suicide be found in a downtown road project?
KP: Why indeed. (Said with a wink!)
A Pastor Matt Hayden Mystery, Book 1
When Matt Hayden, the new preacher for Grace Lutheran Church shows up in the small town of Wilks, Texas, he creates quite a stir. Folks just don't know what to make of him. He is fresh out seminary, but his eyes seem...wizened.
The sheriff considers Matt a little on the naive side, but a nice addition to the few professionals in town. And not too preachy for a preacher.
The Altar Guild matrons at Grace Lutheran think of him as simply another pastor they can push around.
And Angie O'Day, the beautiful redhead who owns the bar across from the church, considers him dangerous.
Only one of them is right.
When Angie's mother is found dead, the dirty secrets of the small town begin to surface. Then a second murder occurs, and Angie becomes the accused. After all, the dead man is the one who caused her mother's death.
Matt is forced to put on an old hat--his cop's hat—to discover the buried secrets of Wilks, Texas, in order to save Angie.
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