AN INTERVIEW AND A CORNBREAD RECIPE FROM MYSTERY AUTHOR M.R. DIMOND'S VETERINARIAN SLEUTH JOHNNY KY LY

Photo:  Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 jeffreyw

Today we sit down for a chat with John “Johnny” Ky Ly, DVM from the Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery Series by M. R. Dimond.

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

Directionless. After melting down during my zoo vet residency, I went to live in an ashram in West Texas. There my grandmother found me and asked if I’d like to take over Gregg House, her mansion in Beauchamp, Texas. 

 

The author became interested in me around the same time, especially after I asked my college roommates JD Thompson and Dianne Cortez to join me in Beauchamp. We live upstairs in the mansion and have offices for a cat vet, lawyer, and accountant on the first floor.

 

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

I take care of cats. Other animals too, like the time a golf course called me in my capacity as assistant animal control officer to remove a snake from their ball dispenser. Not only that, but the snake had swallowed a golf ball, thinking it was an egg. I surgically removed the golf ball and rehomed the snake after it recovered. I can feel compassion and take action, too, which is useful, at least for the cats and snakes.

 

What do you like least about yourself?

Years ago, I would have said my brain, the brain I’ve learned to call neurodivergent. I’ve now learned it has advantages, and I’ve learned how to optimize its function and choose the best environment for me to flourish. 

 

Do I have to think of something else I don’t like about myself? My therapist says I shouldn’t dwell on things like that.

 

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?

There have been so many! There’s the time she had me remove a wild boar from downtown Beauchamp, though wild boars are normal in Texas. Bobcats are, too, but not usually in the pizza parlor. 

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

Mostly I just smile and pretend to agree with her, though if I’ve got a serious complaint, I ask JD to negotiate with her. He’s the lawyer, after all. I do wish she’d pay more attention to the science of detection and cat care and less to people’s emotions, but JD assures me that isn’t going to happen.

 

What is your greatest fear?

Sometimes when I was a child, school and life became too much for me. My parents would send me to my grandparents’ house in Beauchamp, where I’d go with my grandfather to his restaurant during the day. Now I live in Beauchamp, but life could still become too much, and with my grandfather dead and the restaurant sold, where would I go then?

 

I’m also afraid that the author and my friends, not to mention my grandmother, are going to throw an enormous bar mitzvah for me after I complete my conversion to Judaism, even though I informed them that spending all the money you have on a party attended by everyone you’ve ever met is not part of the spiritual process. Grandmother said I was wrong. I said that first I have to read the Torah in Hebrew, read the whole Talmud in any translation, and many, many other writings too. I’m not sure how long I can make those excuses hold.

 

What makes you happy?

Seeing my patients recover after I’ve treated them, especially if they have a loving home to return to. 

 

Being useful in the community as assistant justice of the peace and assistant animal control officer. 

 

Cooking for my friends, seeing them enjoy the meal, especially if they have special dietary needs, like Chantal Gaumont, our band leader, who is diabetic. She gets tired of finding that lettuce leaves (no dressing) are all she can eat at a dinner or restaurant.

I always keep something in the freezer for her, like sweet potato brownies, pumpkin waffle mix, or bread. In her treatment program, she counts carbohydrates, so breads can be a challenge. I’ve found alternative flours like coconut flour, but corn bread seemed impossible. What tastes like corn besides corn?

 

That turned out to be the key question. I’ve discovered two low-carbohydrate foods that taste like corn: corn flavoring and the baby corn used in Asian food.

 

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

I wish my grandfather would have lived long enough to see me here, in his house, serving his community. He died during my zoo vet residency, and I’ve never stopped missing him. 

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

Let’s face it: people in general are too much for me. When I first lived with many roommates in college, I took the apartment over the garage, while the rest had bedrooms in the main house. I don’t have a separate apartment in Gregg House, but its 4000 sq. ft. let me avoid people when I need to.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

You know what? I think I’d rather be myself. I used to want to be JD, the blond, six-foot-three All-American hero. But I’ve known JD ten years and I’ve spent the same ten years getting to know myself, and now I’m happy in my own skin. Usually.

 

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

You can find more about M.R. Dimond and her books at her website. The blog is called Thoughts—you can click the Thoughts tab or the slider of the young Regency woman writing—but she hardly ever writes anything. She leaves that to her characters. I’ve recently written about keeping your cat safe during the holidays, Valentine’s Day (which is not my jam at all), and the Vietnamese Year of the Cat.

 

What's next for you?

I hope it’s not a bar mitzvah. My own plans are to continue my forensic training so that I can be more useful as an assistant justice of the peace, though the sheriff thinks I’m far too useful as it is. He says I wreck his budget every time I ask for an investigation, but I notice that the county hasn’t gone bankrupt yet, and getting to the truth has to be the most important thing.

 

Johnny’s Semi-Keto Cornbread (a work in progress)

(serves 12)

 

Note: This recipe still has real corn meal, but I keep trying to reduce the amount. I still haven’t found the perfect ratio of corn meal, corn flavor, and baby corn to imitate corn bread’s texture and taste. Chantal assures me that she’d rather have a whole piece of my ersatz corn bread than a teaspoon of any other kind. We’ve found it works well in cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving too.

 

Ingredients:

6 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1Tablespoon onion powder or 1/4-cup diced onions (optional)

1 teaspoon Kosher salt 

Corn flavoring according to product instructions or to taste

1/4-cup sifted coconut flour

1/2-teaspoon baking powder

1/4-cup coarse-grained corn meal

1/3-cup chopped baby corn

3/4-cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (optional)

 

For a sweeter cornbread, eliminate the onions and cheese and add 1/2-cup of your favorite sweetener and at least 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon.

 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

 

Mix eggs, oil, onion powder (optional), and salt. If you’re making the sweet version, add the sweetener and eliminate the onion powder.

 

Blend coconut flour, baking powder, and corn meal. If you’re making the sweet version, add the cinnamon.

 

Grease an 8x8x2 pan and place it into the oven.

 

Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.

 

Fold in corn, diced onions (optional), and cheese (optional).

 

Pour into the hot baking dish. Heating it ahead of time makes a nice crust when you pour the batter into the pan.

 

Bake 18-20 minutes, until you can insert a knife and pull it out clean. Cool on a rack. 

 

The Sphynx Who Stole Christmas

A Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery, Book 2

 

Johnny Ly, Dianne Cortez, and JD Thompson are trying to celebrate their first year in business in a small Central Texas town. The weather outside is frightful, and indoors isn't looking too good either, not when a crazed hairless cat invades their Christmas party and leaves a trail of destruction in his wake.

 

The murder in the backyard doesn't help, but Johnny and Dianne are more worried about the cat. After the police reduce the suspect list from the entire town of Beauchamp, Texas, to just the Black Orchids' friends and family, Attorney JD Thompson springs into action to clear them all, preferably before Monday night's concert. Life's hard for a veterinarian, accountant, lawyer, and ABBA tribute band.

 

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AN INTERVIEW WITH HISTORICAL MYSTERY AUTHOR L.M. JORDEN

Today we sit down for a chat with historical mystery author L.M. Jorden, author of the Dr. Josephine Plantae Paradoxes Series. All her mysteries are based on true events and often include a few historical persons making cameo appearances. Each book involves a poisonous medicinal plan, and takes place in a new decade, enabling her main character to age gracefully through the series. Learn more about L.M. and her books at her website.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels? 

My family home had floor to ceiling bookshelves like an old-fashioned library, and I used to climb up the steps and sit there for hours, pulling out books and always finding an entertaining story or knowledge.

 

A house isn’t a home without walls of books! My first novel was in First Grade, when I wrote about a group of children adopting neighborhood cats and dogs, with illustrations. It was a bestseller among my schoolmates!

 

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?  

I was co-editor of my high school literary magazine, writing poetry and short stories, and worked after school for local newspapers writing articles, so my writing career began very early. It continued through college and Journalism school, overseas work, and my professorship. However, I had never written a mystery until now, although I was always a fan of the genre. 

 

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

Traditionally at first, and I now co-own a small press called Solis Mundi, which I took over from another publisher who retired. 

 

Where do you write?  

I can write anywhere, anytime, anyplace, because I was a journalist, often in very difficult situations, and I had to adjust to the local environment and short deadlines. My inspiration for novels comes from being near water or fountains. That’s probably because I’ve often lived near the seaside.

 

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

I tend to choose the music based on the chapter I’m writing. If it’s a romantic scene, I’ll choose classical or pop, and if it’s a thrilling scene, I’ll often choose opera. 

 

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

All of my historical mysteries in the Dr. Josephine Plantae Paradoxes are drawn from real life. I’m lucky in that I can base my series on the life of my grandmother, the first woman doctor in large areas of Brooklyn. The true history is almost unbelievable at times, and you can’t make up anything as good!  There are fantastic plot points, like doctors writing “booze blanks” to prescribe whiskey for their patients during Prohibition, and Fascist meetings in Brooklyn, and plots to storm the White House and overthrow the president — these things really happened. Some might sound familiar, as history often repeats itself.

 

Describe your process for naming your character? 

The first three books in my series have been called “politically astute madcap romps”, so I try to keep the wit flowing when I write and when I name my characters. For example, in Belladonna, which has a cast of opera divas and dons, I have a ship’s captain named “Bevilacqua” which literally means “drink water” in Italian, and other operatic names.

 

Real settings or fictional towns? 

Real settings.

 

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has? 

Dr. Josephine is a smart and feisty first woman doctor, but she was also an orphan. So she knows how to pick-pocket and other useful tricks for a sleuth.

 

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I love wit and satire, so I try to use as much as possible in my novels. My style is Commedia dell’arte for this series.

 

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why? 

The Alexandria Quartet by Laurence Durrell. It’s so poetic.

 

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours? 

I wish I’d stayed living in Europe. It was amazing. Now I only get to spend a month or so there.

 

What’s your biggest pet peeve? 

I don’t understand wanting to follow celebrities or buying luxury brands at all. Seems very shallow to me.

 

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves? 

Books or water, shelter, food.  Remember the Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith when he gets to his safe room with all his books, finally having time to read, but he then steps on his glasses. Ouch!

 

What was the worst job you’ve ever held? 

Jobs with rude angry co-workers: 1. French luxury jewelry store in NYC. Horrible.  2. Connecticut public schools — many special needs directors are IMHO angry and horrid people. If you’re stuck with very bad people, then it’s truly a nightmare. Fortunately, I started my own import-export business, travelled the world, and had a wonderful life. I started a social enterprise for special needs students, too. The best revenge is to live a better life. Be kind to others!

 

Who’s your all-time favorite literary character (any genre)? Why? 

I gravitate towards flawed but well-meaning characters, and there are so many!

 

Ocean or mountains? 

Oceans

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy? 

City with a country escape! I can’t stand the suburban sprawl. 

 

What’s on the horizon for you? 

In book 3, Cinchona, Coney Island Bones, Dr. Josephine is called to examine medical and spiritual artifacts found in an indigenous gravesite in Gravesend, Brooklyn. Cinchona is the featured poison cure.  Book 4 is Digitalis, A Deadly Dame, is a noir and features Chief Detective O’Malley., Finally, Helleborus, Death on the Hudson. Aconite, Queen of Poisons is the first book in the series. Soon, there’ll be a prequel called Gelsemium, available as a free giveaway.

 

Anything else you’d like to add? 

Many people don’t know that Belladonna is one of the most deadly poisons or that Italian fascism was popular and almost took root in Brooklyn just before WWII.

 

Belladonna, Bitter Conduct 

A Dr. Josephine Plantae Paradoxes Mystery, Book 2

 

In this politically astute madcap romp, Josephine sets sail aboard a luxury ship to find out who killed an Italian opera diva on a Brooklyn stage. But it’s the poisonous plant Belladonna that takes center stage. Who's the killer aboard? Could it be one of the priests carrying the relics of the first American saint, a surreal artist and avantgarde fashion designer with shocking behaviors, an austere British lord, a mysterious Mussolini official, a Nazi doctor, or any of the talented but narcissistic opera divas and dons?

 

As events heat up prior to World War II, the bodies pile up along the Promenade Deck, as Josephine seeks to solve these Belladonna crimes with deeper roots. Josephine and her friends must catch a killer in international waters before the ship docks in Fascist Italy and it’s too late.

 

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AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. JOSEPHINE REVA FROM MYSTERY AUTHOR L.M. JORDEN'S DR. JOSEPHINE PLANTAE PARADOXES SERIES

An interview with Josephine Reva, M.D. from the Dr. Josephine Plantae Paradoxes Series by L.M. Jorden. 

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

Not many people knew about the life of a homeopathic doctor in the early 20th century. It was gory, messy and physically demanding. Most people thought a woman couldn’t handle it, and that we should go back to the kitchen. I was the first Lady Doctor in areas of Brooklyn, and I was very busy. I treated everything from broken bones to tuberculous, delivered babies and performed surgeries, sometimes all in a single day! We doctors also made house calls — does anyone remember those? 

 

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

As a Homeopath MD, I have to be inquisitive and investigate a patient's overall health and state of mind, not only specific symptoms. I ask a lot of questions. This trained me to be a good detective.

 

What do you like least about yourself?

As a scientist and doctor, I don't take risks. I need to be professional to save lives. But when I become my alter ego, a jazz age flapper or opera star, I become sexy and adventurous.

 

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?

The author keeps putting me under the covers with an amorous suitor, and he's sometimes even the murder suspect! Things do get steamy.

 

In Aconite, Queen of Poisons, I flirt with the tall blue-eyed chief detective who imprisons me, a debonair but villainous, brown-eyed suspect who dances up a storm at the speakeasy, and my black-eyed gorgeous hunk of a chauffeur. Hmmm, which one would you choose? 

 

Each new book takes place in a later decade, and I live a very long life, into my 90’s, with many lovers. I’m looking forward to that!

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

Whether to include passionate sex scenes! It’s a normal bodily function, and hormonally therapeutic for the endocrine system.

 

What is your greatest fear?

That I can't stop a killer using poison botanicals. in Belladonna, book 2, the world is in danger, so I have to act fast before war starts. Poison flowers should be used by trained homeopaths only — to cure people, not kill them!

 

What makes you happy?

Reading medical journals and experimenting in my lab. Science was full of new discoveries during my lifetime. 

 

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

I'd rewrite how some men gave us women doctors a hard time and were very condescending. They ridiculed us. But I think the author captures this truthfully. In fact, I'd say from my own experience, it was far worse. I’d march more for equality.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

My fellow students from med school who teased me when I was the only female in class. They’re called the Yorkvillains, named after the Yorkville area where our school was. They’re naughty and also comedians, like the Marx Brothers.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

My patients Maria and Sophie. They’re strong women, and they are married and traditional — very different from me. They love to dress up and put on the Ritz, and encourage me to find romance, too. But can a trailblazing early woman doctor have it all — love and a career?

 

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

L.M. Jorden is an award-winning journalist, author, and former professor who has lived on three continents. When not tending her garden, she writes on comparative societies for healthcare, human rights, and the environment. She holds a Master of Science from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and studied medicinal botany.

The Dr. Josephine Plantae Paradoxes is her debut mystery series. You can find L.M. on Facebook and her author page on Amazon.

What's next for you?

My new book in the series. BELLADONNA, Murder at the Opera, is set in the Golden Age 1930’s. Dr. Josephine and her beau are at the Brooklyn Opera when a diva is horribly murdered onstage. Josephine must go undercover as an ensemble singer to discover the links between the opera stars and a Brooklyn fascist group.  She and the gang set sail for Italy to try and stop a sinister international plot involving love, politics and poisons. All aboard on the high seas for a new madcap mystery!

 

Aconite, Queen of Poisons

A Dr. Josephine Plantae Paradoxes Series, Book 1

 

A Madcap Murder Mystery -  Based on a True Life Story

Booze Blanks? Lady Doctors? Poison Cures? Murder!

 

It’s the Roaring 20’s New York, and a feisty orphan rises from the Little Italy slums to become a doctor. Josephine Reva, M.D. is a trailblazing woman on a mission -- she's seeking equality in a male-dominated profession. When no Manhattan hospitals will hire a female physician, she puts out her shingle in faraway Brooklyn as the area’s first “Lady Doctor.”

 

Prohibition forbids drinking, but doctors can prescribe “medicinal” booze. Not surprisingly, Josephine’s patients flock to her, but bootleggers put her on their radar.

 

When an unexpected invitation arrives to join her peers at a conference, Josephine is surprised. Medicine is at a crossroads -- should she choose Allopathy or Homeopathy? Will Josephine renounce her paradoxical homeopathic “poison cures”?

 

Murder intrudes when a fellow doctor is found dead at the docks from Aconite, a purple flower known as the “Queen of Poisons.” But Aconite is also a homeopathic remedy, and Josephine realizes she’s being framed.

 

Chief Detective John O’Malley is a hard-boiled cop who believes poison is a “woman's weapon.” Josephine has no alibi. The two begin a cat and mouse chase along the killer’s trail, meeting some well-known New Yorkers, as the bodies pile up.

 

With help from her patients, Josephine goes undercover as her alter-ego — a sexy Jazz Age flapper — to a speakeasy to spy on suspicious doctors, quacks, and bootleggers. Pulling Josephine out of trouble is Dominick, her brawny and handsome chauffeur with a mysterious World War past.

 

Complications arise when Josephine falls for a debonair suspect. Is he friend or foe? Is the budding romance about to get nipped in the bud?

 

Can Josephine unmask the murderer? Can she unravel her own secrets to follow her heart and her ambition?

 

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--MYSTERY AUTHOR MELISSA YI OFFERS UP STOCKHOLM SYNDROME WITH A SIDE OF PAIN AU CHOCOLAT

Melissa Yi is an emergency physician with an active practice and an award-winning writing career. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

What if you were kidnapped for Christmas?

Dr. Hope Sze, resident doctor on call, runs through the obstetric ward amid tinsel and fake candy canes. One minute, she's arguing with the senior resident over who gets to deliver the next baby. The next minute, a killer presses a gun to Hope's temple.

 

Stockholm Syndrome had two major inspirations. First of all, I'm an ER doctor, and after an incident with a prisoner who escaped police custody, where I could have been injured or killed, I started researching hostage takings at hospitals.

 

The first hit was the crisis at the Budyonnovsk hospital in Russia, where Chechen rebels took 1500 or more people hostage.

 

The second hit was the hostage taking at the Alta View Hospital in Sandy, Utah. A man entered the hospital with a revolver, a shotgun, and dynamite, intent on killing the gynecologist who had performed a tubal ligation on the man's wife. Unable to find the doctor, the man focused on another roomful of hostages: a woman giving birth, her family, and two nurses.

 

Boom. That was my second real-life inspiration. I knew that when Hope stepped on the OB ward, she'd get swept into nightmare scenario #2 at her hospital in Montreal, Canada. But how could I possibly write her out again, let alone the woman in labor, a newborn baby, or any other innocent people?

 

I hope you enjoy reading Stockholm Syndrome as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here’s a recipe to keep your stomach from growling as you turn the pages!

 

Dr. Hope Sze’s Quick and Dirty Pain au Chocolat

 

Ingredients:

1 good quality baguette

an ample amount of excellent chocolate (whatever and however much that means to you.)

 

Cut the bread in half lengthwise. Layer the chocolate inside the bread and put it back together, so that it’s a chocolate submarine sandwich. Wrap the baguette well, put it in your backpack, and either go hiking or, if you’re me, hunt down some murderers. The heat from your body melts the chocolate into the bread, and voilà!

 

Please note that I first heard this recipe on CBC Radio, but I can’t remember which cookbook it’s from. I apologize to the authors.

 

Also, once I brought the bread and chocolate to a potluck, and we baked it in the oven instead of running around with backpacks, and the women wouldn’t eat it. Too scared of carbs and chocolate. But I ate it, because life is short, killers make it even shorter, and dark chocolate contains flavonoids.

 

Bon appétit.

 

Stockholm Syndrome

A Hope Sze Medical Mystery, Book 4

 

A killer infiltrates the obstetrics ward of a Montreal hospital, taking one pregnant woman and one resident doctor hostage at gunpoint. Dr. Hope Sze struggles to deliver her patient’s baby with blood on the floor and death in the air. And when Dr. Tucker tries to rescue their tiny crew, only to end up hostage material alongside them, Hope’s heart just might break, even before the kidnapper drills a bullet through her skull.

 

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--AN INTERVIEW WITH MULTI-MYSTERY AUTHOR JEFFREY JAMES HIGGINS

Today we sit down for a chat with author Jeffrey James Higgins who writes in multiple mystery genres, including thriller, action-adventure, suspense, medical, and military. Learn more about him and his books at his website. 

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

I wrote stories when I was six years old—silly stories about taking animals on adventures—and I drew my cover art with crayons. I would sneak out of bed at night and write stories in a notebook. I have always identified as an author, and I can’t remember a time when I didn’t plan to write books.

 

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?

I retired as a supervisory special agent in 2017 and started writing full time. Since then, I’ve written one nonfiction manuscript and six novels. Black Rose Writing will launch my debut on May 20 and my second novel on August 26. The other five manuscripts are in the editing or submission process. I have also published six creative nonfiction pieces, two short stories, fourteen essays, and one poem. It has taken me just over four years for my debut to hit the market, but my dream has been fifty years in the making.

 

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

I’m traditionally published, but I recently self-published a short story, The Interrogation, on Kindle Direct Publishing, and I plan to be a hybrid author. Traditional publishing offers many advantages, but self-publishing gives me more control.

 

Where do you write?

I have an elegant home office. My wife, Cynthia Farahat Higgins, is also a writer, and she allows me to use our office while she toils away in the dining room. We work within a few feet of each other, separated by French doors. She may enjoy keeping an eye on me.

 

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

I write with the window open so I can hear city sounds and with classical music playing on my computer. I can’t listen to songs with lyrics. My favorite writing music is Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”. It puts me in the zone. 

 

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

My wife is the strongest person I know. She formed an opposition political party in Egypt, and she has fought radical Islam around the world. Dagny Steele, my protagonist in Furious, was inspired by my wife’s courage. 

 

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I’m a little OCD. My wife often calls me Mr. Monk.

 

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

It’s hard to argue with the success of the Harry Potter series or Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch character, but I get the most satisfaction from telling my own stories.

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

I’m a city guy. I grew up in a small New England town with more apple trees than people. We were only thirty miles west of Boston, but it was an effort to get there, especially as a child. I completed my undergrad at Boston University and have lived in cities ever since. The people and constant activity inspire me, and the convenience of walking to restaurants and bars is hard to give up.

 

What’s on the horizon for you?

Furious: Sailing into Terror launches on May 20, and Unseen: Evil Lurks Among Us, comes out on August 26. I’m marketing those and editing my next novel. There’s always a new book on the horizon!

 

Furious: Sailing into Terror

Trapped on a storm-damaged yacht, a grieving woman must conquer her worst fears and fight for her life, in a story described as The Shining on a yacht. Dr. Dagny Steele is on the verge of fulfilling her lifelong calling to become a pediatric surgeon when the sudden death of her daughter sends her into a crushing depression. Grief stricken and desperate to heal, she takes a leave of absence and sails across the Indian Ocean with her husband. Dagny begins to recover from her tragic loss when her voyage turns into a nightmare. Isolated and hunted at sea—can she survive a deadly crucible?

 

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--SOFT-SHELL CRAB MAKI WITH MYSTERY AND THRILLER AUTHOR SOPHY SMYTHE

In her previous life Sophy Smythe was a Dutch medical doctor, specialising in chronic pain and burnout. Like her protagonist Charlie Martens, MD, she reinvented herself, and now writes fact-based mystery-thrillers. The Medical Code is her debut novel. Learn more about Sophy and her books at her website. 

Like my protagonist Charlie Martens, I have a soft spot for sushi.

 

I’d like to share the chef’s recipe from the super-secret three-star restaurant in The Hague as mentioned in The Medical Code.

 

Soft-Shell Crab Maki

Put 1/2 cup of tempura batter mix in a glass bowl and mix it with 3/4-cup of cold water.

 

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of white breadcrumbs (or more, depending on the number of crabs) on a plate. Dip the soft-shell crab in the tempura batter, then roll it in the breadcrumbs.

 

Deep fry until golden brown. This should take two to three minutes or less. Let the fried crab cool on a paper towel. The paper absorbs excess fat.

 

Make sushi rolls

Filling:

Half a tempura soft shell crab

Cucumber

Finely sliced carrot

Avocado

Sauce made of mayonnaise and chili sauce

 

The Medical Code

In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic in Antwerp, Belgium, Doctor Charlotte Martens receives an urgent late-night call from her friend who is a member of the European Medicines Agency. The next day Charlotte learns that her friend was violently murdered and that she herself is now the prime suspect. Because the police find a baffling code beside the murder victim, Charlotte enlists the help of an investigative journalist. She and the journalist discover that her murdered friend was about to expose a conspiracy of fraud and corruption within the pharma industry involving the government, certain reputable doctors, and even the European Medicines Agency.

 

With both the police and the murderer closing in on them, Charlotte and the journalist must stay alive long enough to find the hard evidence necessary to bring down a faceless pharma company that will clearly stop at nothing to protect their secret network.

 

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AUTHOR ALEC PECHE ON THE ORIGINS OF HER FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST MYSTERY SERIES

Alec Peche is the author of twelve books split between two mystery series, her Jill Quint, MD Forensic Pathologist series and her Damian Greene series. Today she joins us to discuss the origins of the former. Learn more about Alec and her books at her website. 

The Origins of Jill Quint, MD Forensic Pathologist

When I set out to write my first mystery story, I didn't know enough about law enforcement to feel comfortable with writing a cop as my main character. I was unaware of the cozy category of mystery novels. If I had heard of that sub-genre, I might have gone a different direction with my character.

Jill Quint, MD lives in the Central Valley of California growing the Muscat grape and producing Moscato wine. She resigned from working in a Crime Lab, tired of the endless paperwork and court testimony to pursue her second passion of being a vintner. Along the way, cases began to be referred to her for an autopsy for a second opinion on the cause of death. Now she gets referrals several times a year across the United States and Internationally. She has three friends who join her on cases bringing their own skills. Jo is an accountant and always looks for the money motive. Marie is a social media maven and does the background checks on the victim and suspects. Angela is the photographer and interviewer, able to ease secrets out of anyone. Marie, Jo, and Angela are based loosely on friends in real life.

In a previous life, I worked in a health care setting, and when we sat down to discuss the quality of care a patient received, there would occasionally be a pathologist in the room. I also have a friend with a niece who is a forensic pathologist and has worked in New Orleans and NYC. I was fortunate enough to have her tour me through the Coroner's office. Plus, I'll admit I loved CSI: Miami.

So now my character has a way to get involved in cases. Through the nine books, she's grown her reputation and along the way studied and obtained a PI license. Some homicide cases begin with Dr. Quint receiving a phone call by a family member to request that second opinion. In a few cases, Jill and her team have been on the scene when a murder is committed.

On the vineyard side, Dr. Quint has released 2-3 vintages, while perfecting organic insecticide and herbicides in her lab on her property that doubles to do analytical work for her cases. She explored opening a tasting room but is holding off on that at the moment. Her latest case takes her to Sicily, which has a hot and dry climate similar to California's Central Valley. While in Catania, she evaluated planting the Nero d'Avola grape. Jill likes the sweetness of Moscato wine, yet the Nero d'Avola grape makes a dry red wine. Fortunately, during the Sicilian case, she sampled lots of wine made from that grape and feels she can make her own Nero d'Avola wine.

Jill Quint has a partner – Nathan Conroy. He's a wine label maker, a job that I thought I'd invented. Dummy me saw an article in the WSJ regarding a woman who was a wine label maker. So I guess the profession exists for real. Jill has a dog, Trixie, while Nathan has a cat named Arthur. In my mind, Jill is in her mid-forties, and I don't know if she and Nathan will ever marry – it hasn't popped into a book yet!

Sicilian Murder

Jill Quint, MD Forensic Pathologist, Book 9

Jill's been called to do an autopsy in Sicily, Italy. The man is an American CEO of a herbal product company and was found dead in a Mount Etna crater. The Italian authorities labeled his death as 'unnatural' but did not perform an autopsy as they assumed his death was due to a fall. Dr. Quint proves that it's not, and the search begins for the motive for his murder. Was it personal, or was it due to a product his company makes?

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AUTHOR MAGGIE FOSTER BRINGS THE HIGHLANDS TO TEXAS IN HER MYSTERY SERIES

Photo courtesy of M. Hollis Hutchinson

In our continuing series on where authors get their ideas, today we feature Maggie Foster. Maggie writes the Loch Lonach Mystery Series, featuring modern day descendants of the Scottish immigrants who settled in Texas. Learn more about Maggie and her books at her website. 

The De’il is in th’ Details

Years ago, when Jurassic Park came out, I realized I had missed a bet. That could have been my novel turned into a blockbuster movie. After all, I had read the same National Geographic article about how some frogs, when in a same-sex environment, can change to the opposite sex, so the species can continue. “Life will find a way.”

I’m not suggesting I had the talent, experience, craft, or courage to write that novel at that point in my life. I’m just saying I noticed the detail, thought it mildly interesting, then put it away. When I saw how Michael Crichton had used that tiny bit of information in his story, it hit me like a punch in the solar plexus.

I write murder mysteries. My background is in healthcare, with an overlay of law, and a smoor of teaching. The combination has served me well in the field of creating crime, but it took me years to realize how critical tiny details were to storytelling. Now, when I read or hear something that is unusual, obscure, or rare, I write it down, then set myself an exercise in brainstorming. What if that detail was the pivotal bit of evidence that cracks the case for my detective?

This requires research, sometimes a lot of it. I don’t limit myself to the Internet, since everyone has access to the same things I can reach that way. Instead, I read. Everything. I read news articles about accidental poisonings. I read FEMA and OSHA regulations. I read dry scientific treatises on why we will never be able to clone a living human being. I read it all. The more obscure, the better. Then I pick out what I want to use and get to work.

The second stage of writing is just that – writing. Get the rough idea down on (electronic) paper and start tinkering. What is do-able, as it stands today? What would I like/need for it to do? What changes can I get away with? (This is fiction so everything is fair game, except there are rules for the genre and I must follow them or be relegated to the fires of hell.)

Plan for the writing to evolve. That lovely little kernel of an idea must become a Percheron, hauling the reader along with it, without anyone really caring how the beer got from point A to point B.

I have thousands of details lined up in my files, simmering. Most will never see the light of day, but some, like the frog sex detail above, could blossom into a classic. If you want to write and you think you can’t come up with ideas, may I suggest that instead of looking for a story that will fit the Hero’s Journey format, you consider letting your ideas grow organically. Let them lead you from the critical bit of knowledge your protagonist needs but didn’t know she had, to the inevitable conclusion of a new classic. Happy writing!

The Arms of Death

Loch Lonach Mystery, Book 1

Everyone dies. Not everyone dies because they chose the wrong ancestors. 

When one of her ICU patients dies unexpectedly, amateur sleuth Ginny Forbes finds herself on the trail of a centuries-old secret that is of no importance and no interest to anyone other than herself. Except, of course, that no tale of secrets is ever that simple and Ginny is about to find out just how dangerous idle curiosity can be.

In the manner of Peter Wimsey, Miss Marple, and Brother Cadfael comes a series of murder mysteries set in a community peopled by evocative characters that read like old friends. The distinctive Scottish voices offer a glimpse into a world not usually open to modern mystery readers and the deftly woven tales of deceit and greed will have everyone cheering the triumph of good over evil. The men in kilts just make it that much more fun.

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