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Alexandra Amor | Mystery Author

Mysteries with character.

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Alexandra Amor

Femme Fatale as Private Investigator with SG Wong

03/01/2021 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

https://media.blubrry.com/its_a_mystery/p/content.blubrry.com/its_a_mystery/Ep127SGWongcomp.mp3

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Welcome to an alternative Los Angeles.

Femme Fatale as Private Investigator SG Wong

The femme fatale is an archetype in literature, especially in crime novels. Think of Cora in The Postman Always Rings Twice or Phyllis in Double Indemnity. (Both those novels were written by James M. Cain. He seems to have had a thing for femme fatales.) These are women who are seductive and usually beautiful who lure men into compromising or dangerous situations.

SG (Sandra) Wong has taken this classic noir mystery trope and turned it on its head, which I just love. Lola Starke is the femme fatale in Sandra’s historical crime novels, and she’s also the private investigator.

Sandra reads to us from book 2 in the series (there are 3 books so far), called In for a Pound which finds Lola Starke and her friend Ria on the scene when a murder takes place.

Today’s show is supported by my patrons at Patreon. Thank you! When you become a patron for as little as $1 a month you receive a short mystery story each and every month. And the rewards for those who love mystery stories go up from there! Learn more and become a part of my community of readers at www.Patreon.com/alexandraamor

Patreon

This week’s mystery author

SG Wong

SG (Sandra) Wong writes fiction across genres, has garnered some crime fiction awards nominations, speaks on writing and publishing topics, and volunteers for important community causes such as Sisters in Crime, which she serves as National President.

Her Lola Starke novels and Crescent City short stories are set in a 1930s-era, fictionalized “Chinese Los Angeles,” with ghosts and magic, in an alternate history in which China established a city-state colony at the start of the Gold Rush.

Sandra’s next book is coming in 2022 from HarperCollins Canada and is a stand-alone suspense novel.

To learn more about SG Wong and all her books visit SGWong.com

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Filed Under: Author interviews, Podcast Tagged With: noir mysteries

Murder and Mayhem in Small Town Ontario with Gloria Ferris

02/22/2021 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

https://media.blubrry.com/its_a_mystery/p/content.blubrry.com/its_a_mystery/Ep126GloriaFerriscomp.mp3

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Small town, big mystery.

murder and mayhem in small town Ontario with Gloria Ferris

Gloria Ferris writes in several genres, but today we’re talking about her Cornwall and Redfern mysteries, specifically book #3 in the series, Skull Garden.

Small towns in Ontario are some of my favorite places in the world. I grew up visiting my paternal grandparents outside Gravenhurst, and now have an uncle who lives in the exact area near Lake Huron that Gloria is writing about in these books. So it was very easy for me to picture the landscape and architecture as Gloria read from her book, which was a delight.

In the introduction, I also mention a class I took recently on using the Enneagram to create characters. I loved the class and it made me reflect that there is always something new to learn about writing, which I love. Sometimes it can be intimidating, but mostly I love learning and hopefully improving my craft.

Today’s show is supported by my patrons at Patreon. Thank you! When you become a patron for as little as $1 a month you receive a short mystery story each and every month. And the rewards for those who love mystery stories go up from there! Learn more and become a part of my community of readers at www.Patreon.com/alexandraamor

Patreon

This week’s mystery author

Gloria Ferris is a former procedure writer at a nuclear power plant, an exciting job to be sure, but it afforded little opportunity for plot and character development. So, she turned to fiction writing and is now the award-winning author of the humorous Cornwall & Redfern mysteries; a co-written Suspense series; and a YA urban fantasy series. Occasionally, she writes a short story just for the heck of it.

Gloria lives in southwestern Ontario and is a member of the International Thriller Writers and the Alliance of Independent Authors.

To learn more about Gloria and all her books visit GloriaFerris.com

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Filed Under: Author interviews, Podcast Tagged With: mystery novel

Bad Decisions Make Good Stories with Mike Faricy

02/15/2021 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

https://media.blubrry.com/its_a_mystery/p/content.blubrry.com/its_a_mystery/Ep125MikeFaricycomp.mp3

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Every goodhearted detective needs a loathsome nemesis.

Bad Decisions make good stories with Mike Faricy

Mike Faricy is a prolific author and has several mystery series on the go. Today we focus on his Dev Haskell series with book #27, Alley Katz. Readers describe Dev as a ‘likeable rogue’ and I think that’s the perfect description. In our interview I mention to Mike that Dev made me think of a cross between Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr and Robert B. Parker’s Spenser. And I love how deliciously nasty Dev’s nemesis/employer, Tubby Gustafson, is.

If you like what you hear when Mike reads to us, there are two Dev Haskell novellas available at Mike’s website for free, Twinkletoes and Dollhouse. You can sign up to receive those books here.

In case you missed it, I shared the first part of one of my monthly short stories yesterday here on the blog. You can read that here.

Today’s show is supported by my patrons at Patreon. Thank you! When you become a patron for as little as $1 a month you receive a short mystery story each and every month. And the rewards for those who love mystery stories go up from there! Learn more and become a part of my community of readers at www.Patreon.com/alexandraamor

Patreon

This week’s mystery author

Mike Faricy was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. He developed his love for books from his parents reading to him at an early age. He currently has written seventy-five books in four crime fiction series; The Dev Haskell series, the Corridor Man series, the Hotshot series, and the Jack Dillon Dublin Tales series.

Mike is the winner of the 2019 Crime Master’s of America Poison Cup Award and the winner of the 2020 Crime Master’s of America Poison Cup Award for the Best Selling series.

Mike lives in St. Paul, Minnesota and Dublin, Ireland, which makes me the most boring guy in two towns.

To learn more about Mike and all his books visit MikeFaricyBooks.com

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Filed Under: Author interviews, Podcast Tagged With: mystery novel

PS I Love You: A Short Mystery Story

02/13/2021 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

Patreon post February

“Arnold is here.”

Blythe looked up from the packages of lentils she was weighing and pricing and shivered. “Let Stella deal with him.”

Freddie, Blythe’s younger sister by two years, did an about-face and walked back up the aisle the way she’d come. Blythe heard her calling Stella’s name and then Walter, their father, answering. “She’s at the front, Freddie. Stop yelling.” He sounded irritated and Blythe recalled the argument she’d overheard the night before coming from her parents room. Today the energy in the store seemed laced with tension. Even Freddie, who was usually unconcerned with such things, seemed affected by it. She was quieter than normal and hadn’t been bugging Blythe as much as usual with questions about where the cans of pasta sauce were shelved.

If it weren’t for the customers, Blythe thought, not for the first time, working in her parents health food store would be entirely satisfying. She loved every aspect of the work the store entailed;  stocking the shelves and straightening them, keeping the bulk foods section tidy, remembering to add items to the order list when they were running low. She even enjoyed sweeping the floor at six o’clock when the doors had been locked and the Lark family was preparing to go home for the night. But being a natural introvert she found the customers exhausting and normally left them to Freddie, the family’s apex extrovert. But even Freddie wouldn’t deal with the man the two sisters had secretly named Arnold after a sloth in a picture book they’d read when they were younger. Like his namesake, Arnold the store’s regular customer, had long claw-like nails. Unlike the sloth, Arnold’s nails were chipped, cracked and perpetually filthy. Blythe’s throat closed over every time she thought about them and she tended to disappear into the office at the back of the store anytime Arnold came through the front door, which he did with annoying regularity.

Freddie and Blythe both worked at the store from 3:30 to 6pm nearly every day after school. Stella picked them up and drove them out of the Dunbar neighborhood and down Alma Street’s steep curve until they turned right into the ally at West Broadway. The store was half a block in and almost before their mother could squeeze her Volvo station wagon in the stall marked ‘employees only’ Blythe and Freddie had their seatbelts off and were waiting to leap out of the car. Sometimes, of course, the girls would spend the afternoon at a friend’s house if they had a school project to work on. But Blythe preferred her afternoons in the store. She was twelve years old going on 35 and Stella swore she’d been born that way. Blythe loved the feelings of responsibility that contributing to the store’s efficiency gave her. At least once a week at supper Stella or Walter asked if they’d rather not help out at the shop. So far, neither of the Lark girls had accepted the offer. 

Blythe heard the bell on the front door jingle and she hoped that meant Arnold had left the building. She tucked her last bag of lentils into the wicker basket on the shelf in front of her and stood up off the stool she’d been sitting on. As Blythe walked to the cash register at the front of the store Joni Mitchell was singing quietly on the speakers Walter had recently installed in several ceiling corners. She found Stella flipping through pages on a clipboard. Beside the cash register, among the small ceramic bowls filled with avocados, jars of bee propolis, and boxes of natural lip balm was a pottery vase overflowing with lilacs.

“Where’d the flowers come from?” Blythe asked her mother.

Stella looked up. She had her distracted face on. “Pardon me, sweetheart?”

Blythe pointed. “Where’d’ya get the flowers?”

Stella glanced at the bouquet. “Aren’t they gorgeous? That smell!” She leaned forward, holding her Botticelli-birth-of-venus hair back from her face and burying her nose into the blooms, inhaling deeply.

Blythe waited until she straightened up again knowing there was no sense interrupting Stella when she was in the middle of a sensory experience. “But where’d they come from?” the tween asked,  always irked when her mother couldn’t answer the most basic questions.

“Oh! Um…” Stella looked startled for a moment but then she seemed to focus again. “They were out front this morning when we unlocked the store.”

Blythe tilted her head to one side. “What do you mean, out front? Like, lying loose on the sidewalk?”

“No, they were wrapped in brown paper with a bit of twine tying them at the bottom.” 

“Like a bouquet you’d get at a florist?”

“Yes, sweetheart, like that.”

“But…” Blythe was confused, and from years of practice knew it might take some time to pry the details out of her mother. She took a breath. “You mean someone left them for you? Or they were just on the sidewalk?”

“They were right in front of the door. Like they always are. And they had the same little card tucked inside.”

Blythe was feeling teenagery about Stella these days; that is, irritated, impatient and superior, so she was just about to turn away. Then, “Wait. What? What do you mean ‘like they always are’?” 

Stella looked up. “Well, they usually have some sort of wrapping. It’s not always brown paper. Sometimes it’s old wrapping paper. Once it was a page from the newspaper. But the card is always there.” Stella smiled at her daughter, convinced she was making perfect sense.

“So this happens often.”

“Not ‘often’, no. I wouldn’t say that. Once a month. Maybe every six weeks.”

“Every six weeks someone leaves a bouquet of flowers outside the shop.” Blythe’s tone was skeptical.

“Yup, that’s right.” Stella nodded, missing the skepticism. She gazed lovingly at the flowers for a moment and then went back to flipping through the pages on her clipboard.

Blythe waited for more explanation but it seemed this event made sense to her mother. “Who are they from? What does the card say?”

Stella looked up again and she almost seemed surprised to see her daughter still standing there. She rallied though and pulled open one of the drawers in the cash desk and began rummaging through it. “I have the cards here somewhere.” She pulled a pair of scissors out of the drawer, then a screwdriver, then a blue hand-knitted mitten with a hole in the thumb. “Ah! Here we go.” She held up a collection of small cards, roughly the size of business cards and handed them to Blythe.

Blythe flipped through them and saw the cards were all plain white with handwriting in black ink. They were all slightly different sizes and had been cut by hand; sometimes the edges were crooked or ragged. Each one said the same thing: P.S. I love you.

To continue reading, and discover who’s leaving gifts for Blythe and Freddie’s mum,
head over to my Patreon page.

Every month I write a short mystery story and release it exclusively to my amazing and generous patrons at Patreon. You can subscribe to the short story for as little as $1 a month and learn about the other rewards available to readers like you.

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Photo by Uljana Maljutina on Unsplash

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Filed Under: Short story Tagged With: Freddie Lark mysteries

Knitting Together Murder with Reagan Davis

02/08/2021 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

https://media.blubrry.com/its_a_mystery/p/content.blubrry.com/its_a_mystery/Ep124ReaganDaviscomp.mp3

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A perfect blend of knitting and cozy mysteries.

Knitting Together Murder with Reagan Davis

Reagan Davis writes cozy mysteries set in small town Ontario. Her protagonist, Megan, owns a knitting shop; the perfect job for an amateur sleuth 😉

In the introduction I mention speaking (via zoom) with a university psychology class last week about my memoir about ten years I spent in a cult in the 1990s. The students were super engaged and thoughtful and it was a joy to chat with them and answer questions. I’m always thrilled to help educate anyone about how cults work and how even smart, self-aware people can get sucked into them.

Today’s show is supported by my patrons at Patreon. Thank you! When you become a patron for as little as $1 a month you receive a short mystery story each and every month. And the rewards for those who love mystery stories go up from there! Learn more and become a part of my community of readers at www.Patreon.com/alexandraamor

Patreon

This week’s mystery author

Reagan Davis

Reagan Davis doesn’t really exist. 

She is a pen name for the real author who lives in the suburbs of Toronto with her husband, two kids, and a menagerie of pets. 

When she’s not planning the perfect murder, she enjoys knitting, reading, eating too much chocolate, and drinking too much Diet Coke. 

The author is an established knitwear designer who regularly publishes individual patterns and is a contributor to many knitting books and magazines. 

To learn more about Reagan and all her books visit ReaganDavis.com

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Filed Under: Author interviews, Podcast Tagged With: cozy mystery

A Tough, Compassionate Hero To Root For with Dharma Kelleher

02/01/2021 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

https://media.blubrry.com/its_a_mystery/p/content.blubrry.com/its_a_mystery/Ep123DharmaKellehercomp.mp3

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Step aside Stephanie Plum!

A touch compassionate hero to root for with Dharma Kelleher

In Jinx Ballou, Dharma Kelleher has created a tough, complex character who is a former police officer, a comic book nerd, and a Wonder Woman cosplayer. Jinx also happens to be transgender.

Dharma herself is trans and in our interview she talks about writing the books she wants to read, something I can totally relate to because I do the same thing. Dharma wanted to read about complex characters with rich lives in a way that wasn’t focused on their gender identity or their transition. Those kinds of books are amazing and have undoubtedly supported and assisted many people, and now there’s room in the publishing space for the type of book Dharma wants to read and write. Thank goodness for that!

In the introduction I also mention that I recently found out that my memoir, Cult, A Love Story, is being used as one of the textbooks in a psychology of cults class at a university in Iowa. Exciting!

Today’s show is supported by my patrons at Patreon. Thank you! When you become a patron for as little as $1 a month you receive a short mystery story each and every month. And the rewards for those who love mystery stories go up from there! Learn more and become a part of my community of readers at www.Patreon.com/alexandraamor

Patreon

This week’s mystery author

Dharma Kelleher

Dharma Kelleher writes gritty crime thrillers including the Jinx Ballou Bounty Hunter series and the Shea Stevens Outlaw Biker series. 
Dharma is one of the only openly transgender authors in the crime fiction genre. Her action-driven thrillers explore the complexities of social and criminal justice in a world where the legal system favors the privileged. 

She is a member of Sisters in Crime, the International Thriller Writers, and the Alliance of Independent Authors. She lives in Arizona with her wife Eileen and a black cat named Mouse

To learn more about Dharma and all her books visit DharmaKelleher.com

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Filed Under: Author interviews, Podcast Tagged With: mystery novel

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