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Mysteries with character.

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Paranormal Mystery

Prohibition, PTSD, and Ghosts with Mary Castillo

11/27/2017 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

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Amazon mystery bestselling author Mary Castillo finds a fine balance in her novels between the paranormal, historical fiction and mystery.

60 Mary CastilloAfter a hiatus that lasted longer than I anticipated (and included a move across the country, a very bad cold, and a couple of weeks of couch surfing with some very dear -and very patient – friends), I am thrilled to be back to broadcasting It’s a Mystery Podcast. Thank you for joining me again.

I’ve got lots of great mystery author guests lined up and I’m very excited to bring you the first of these, Mary Castillo.

Mary and I share a love of history and in this interview she talks about some of the inspiration for her Dori O paranormal mysteries, including growing up in a haunted house (!), San Diego gangsters from the prohibition era, and a nurse from WWII.

You can find out more about today’s guest, Mary Castillo, and all her books on her website MaryCastillo.com. You can also find her on Twitter @MCastilloWrites.

Charlie HorseThis episode of It’s a Mystery Podcast is sponsored by the free novella, Charlie Horse. This is the first book in the Town Called Horse mystery series that fans are calling witty, colourful, engaging and suspenseful.

Charlie Horse is a historical mystery with a modern twist.

This is a book that’s not available at any of the online retailers where the rest of my books are sold. But, for a limited time, it’s easy to get your free copy.

Click here or on the book cover at right and it will be very obvious where to click to grab the free ebook.

Happy reading!

Links and resources mentioned in this episode

  • Click on any of the book covers to go to Mary’s books on Amazon
  • Mary mentions being inspired by Mary Stuart, who is one of my favorites from my teenage years as well. Ms. Stewart passed away in 2014 but you can still find her books online.
  • Mary also mentions the influence of Daphne Du Maurier on her work. Here’s Ms. Du Maurier’s website.

Press play (above) to listen to the show, or read the transcript below. Remember you can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. And listen on Stitcher.

You can also click here to watch the interview on YouTube.
[Read more…] about Prohibition, PTSD, and Ghosts with Mary Castillo

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Filed Under: Author interviews, Podcast Tagged With: author interview, mystery novel, Paranormal Mystery

Cozy Mystery Antique Hunters and a Witch Lost in Time with Vicki Vass

07/31/2017 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

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Have you ever wondered if your favorite characters from books were based on real people?

Podcast with Vicki VassToday author Vicki Vass answers that question for us. Her Antique Hunters cozy mystery protagonists are based on two of her close friends. Now these are ladies I’d love to meet.

Vicki and I also spend time talking about her latest mystery, Bloodline, a book that cozy mystery reviewer Karen Owen named the best mystery she’s read so far in 2017.

You can find out more about today’s guest, Vicki Vass, and all her books on her website VickiVass.com. You can also find her on Facebook at VickiVassAuthor.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode

  • Click on any of the book covers to go to Vicki’s books on Amazon
  • Biltmore Estate Wikipedia page
  • A Cup of Tea and a Cozy Mystery book review site

Press play (above) to listen to the show, or read the transcript below. Remember you can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. And listen on Stitcher.

You can also click here to watch the interview on YouTube.
[Read more…] about Cozy Mystery Antique Hunters and a Witch Lost in Time with Vicki Vass

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Filed Under: Author interviews, Podcast Tagged With: cozy mystery, Paranormal Mystery, reading

African Lions, Jane Austen and a Paranormal Detective with Vered Ehsani

05/23/2016 By Alexandra Amor 2 Comments

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Introduction

Podcast episode 21Today’s podcast episode has all kinds of fascinating connections…with a Michael Douglas / Val Kilmer movie, with turn-of-the-century Victorian England, and with Africa and African mythology. Which, as author Vered Ehsani points out, has much more to it than just the Egyptian mythology we most often associate with Africa.

Vered’s describes her paranormal detective mysteries as a cross between Jane Austen and Lara Croft, which makes for some really fun reading. The books are witty and sharp, and have layers of social commentary, as well as fascinating and mysterious plots. Vered has three novels available for free if you sign up for her newsletter, which is a fantastic way to get to know her detective, Mrs. Knight.

Later in the episode, Vered mentions a photo journal about Nairobi that she’s just released. You can find out more about that here.

You can find out more about Vered and her books on her website VeredEhsani.co.za. She’s also on Twitter and Facebook.

Press play (above) to listen to the show, or read the transcript below. Remember you can also subscribe to the show on iTunes. And listen on Stitcher.

You can also click here to watch the interview on YouTube.

Transcript of Interview

Alexandra: Hello Mystery Readers, this is Alexandra Amor and this is It’s a Mystery Podcast. I’m here today with Vered Ehsani. Hi Vered.

Vered: Hi, how are you doing dear?

Alexandra: I’m good, how are you?

Vered: Good, I don’t actually have electricity right now, but it’s not a normal state of affairs, we just don’t have electricity whenever it rains, so we’re good.

Alexandra: Well, it’s nice that your WiFi is working anyway.

Vered: For a little while, yeah, we’ll see how long it lasts.

Alexandra: You’re the first author I’ve spoken to in Africa, so this is pretty exciting.

Vered: Cool!

Alexandra: Yeah, I’m looking forward to this very much, so let me introduce you to our listeners.

Vered-BooksVered Ehsani has been a writer since she could hold pen to paper which is a lot longer than she cares to admit. Since mid-2000 she’s lived in Kenya with her family and various other animals. When she isn’t writing she pretends to work as an environmental consultant. Her current book series can best be described as Jane Austen meets Lara Croft in colonial Africa. Although she can’t claim to be a paranormal detective, Vered does share a lot in common with the series main character who refuses to let danger and death inconvenience her.

And this series looks like so much fun and I was so excited to talk to you about it today.

Let’s start with Beatrice Knight, your main character, so she’s a paranormal detective. It’s the late 19th century, like 1890?

Vered: Yeah, 1890..she arrives in Kenya in 1899.

Alexandra: Okay, all right, and she was working as a paranormal detective in London, correct?

Vered: Yeah, yeah.

Alexandra: Okay, so take us on a bit of her journey to find Africa.

Vered: Basically the character is a British woman during the height of colonialism and of course as you know at that time Kenya, which was called East Africa, was under British rule. Because of some sort of problem in the family, they had to leave England and go to Kenya, or East Africa at the time, and she thought that she was retiring from investigating the paranormal but it turns out that Africa is actually full of paranormal and mythological stories and I had a lot of fun investigating and researching that.

We tend to hear a lot about Egypt mythology; that’s quite a common. When people think of Africa it’s usually Egypt mythology but there’s actually a lot of beautiful stories and mythology and fantastic characters when you go south of Egypt, yeah, and it’s also in Africa. That’s where my focus has been and what I’ve been exploring.

[Read more…] about African Lions, Jane Austen and a Paranormal Detective with Vered Ehsani

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Filed Under: Mystery authors, Podcast Tagged With: Africa, African mysteries, Jane Austen, killer lions, Lara Croft, Lions of Tsavo, mystery series, paranormal detective, paranormal mysteries, Paranormal Mystery, The Ghost and the Darkness, Vered Ehsani, Victorian England

Ghost Detectives and North Carolina History with Stuart Jaffe

01/25/2016 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

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Introduction

One of my favorite things about the world of indie publishing is that authors can blend genres in ways that create books that are fresh and unique. My guest today, Stuart Jaffe, has done that with his paranormal mystery series set in North Carolina, featuring a ghost detective from the 1940s who makes himself known, and begins to work with, a detective in the present day.

Podcast episode 4Stuart shares two amazing true stories that went on to inspire some of the events in his Max Porter Mysteries. It’s such a cliche to say truth is stranger than fiction, but Stuart has some excellent examples that prove the reason that saying exists.

You can find Stuart and his books on www.StuartJaffe.com.
And on Twitter @StuartJaffe.
And on Facebook.

Press play (above) to listen to the show, or read the transcript below. Remember you can also subscribe to the show on iTunes. And listen on Stitcher.

You can also click here to watch the interview on YouTube.

 

Transcription of Interview with Stuart Jaffe

Alexandra: Hi, everyone. I’m Alexandra Amor. And I’m here today with Stuart Jaffe. Hi, Stuart!

Stuart: Hi, Alexandra.

Alexandra: How are you?

Stuart: Thanks for having me. I’m doing fine. How are you?

Alexandra: I’m great. You’re so welcome. I’m so happy that you’re here. So just by way of introduction, I’ll let everyone know. Am I pronouncing your name, your last name correctly?

Stuart: It’s Jaffe.

Alexandra: Jaffe, okay, perfect. Stuart Jaffe is the author of the Max Porter Paranormal-Mysteries, The Malja Chronicles, The Gillian Boone novels, the Bluesman series, Real Magic, After the Crash, and much more. You’re a prolific guy, Stuart. His short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. He was the co-host of the eclectic review podcast. And for those who keep count, the latest animal listening on his rural farm in North Carolina is as follows, one dog, four cats, one albino corn snake, three aquatic turtles, seven chickens, and a horse. But Stuart says that, thankfully, the chickens and the horse do not live inside the house. And so your black tarantula must have died. Is that right?

StuartJaffeStuart: Yeah, that was a old, old tarantula. It outlived most tarantulas. And we didn’t actually know…I don’t know if you know much about tarantulas. But most spiders, they shed their skin.

Alexandra: Right.

Stuart: And so they do it by…they lay on their back, and then they crawl out of it.

Alexandra: Oh, okay.

Stuart: So when they first start to shed, you think they’re dead because they’re on their back. So it took us about a couple days to realize, “Oh, that’s it.”

Alexandra: Oh no!

Stuart: But yeah, we lost that. We had bunnies. We’ve had other animals. We’re trying to reduce a little bit but I never win that argument.

Alexandra: No, I bet you don’t.

I’m really interested in the Max Porter Paranormal-Mysteries. That’s the thing that really piqued my interest. And since this is a show about mystery novels, I thought that would be a great fit. And the thing that intrigues me about them so much is that they combine several genres. So “paranormal mystery noir,” someone mentioned in one of your reviews. So tell us a little bit about what that’s like for you to combine those genres.

Stuart: A lot of fun.

[Read more…] about Ghost Detectives and North Carolina History with Stuart Jaffe

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Filed Under: Mystery authors, Podcast Tagged With: ghosts, mystery novel, North Carolina, Paranormal Mystery, private investigator, southern mystery, Stuart Jaffe

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