Part of Series
In this month’s issue of page-turners, you’ll have a chance to reconnect with a few series characters, like Dana Cameron’s colonial-Boston innkeeper Anna Hoyt, who treads lightly around extreme violence in an attempt to escape with her reputation, her business, and her life (“Declaration”). Master Chef Auguste Didier returns too, and once again finds himself in the presence of murder, this time at a glamorous dinner party (“Murder and the Golden Slipper” by Amy Myers). Another character you might know—the eponymous star of Michael Guillebeau’s novel Josh Whoever—shows up as a young man coming of age and coming to terms with the social and familial realities of his life as a fisherman’s son in North Florida (“Crimes of Passion”). He’s not the only young protagonist in these pages, as two more fight against quietly deadly foes, one at school (“Ash” by Arthur Piper) and one in his own neighborhood (“Neighbor” by David Dean). In the chilling and poignant “Cold Island” by Brendan DuBois, a defense lawyer is particularly suited to coax a wanted man from a deserted winter cabin. To warm up, we have “Two for the Price of One” by Belinda Bauer, a charming tale about a couple who become particularly enamored with one of their customers. And you won’t want to miss our two puzzle mysteries: “The Ghost of the Badminton Court” by Szu-Yen Lin and “Death in the Pasig,” a special Black Mask story by Raoul Whitfield, writing as Ramon DeColta.
Authors
[From the author's own website] I was born and raised in New England and I live in Massachusetts now, with my husband and benevolent feline overlords. Mine is a quiet, fairly ordinary life. I love that because it's what saves me from an overdeveloped sense of paranoia and a tendency to expect the worst. Combined with an eye for detail and a quirky take on life, these traits give me a vivid internal life, one that's sometimes a little nerve-wracking, but very useful for writing mystery and suspense. My interest in archaeology stems from childhood, where my interest in books and the opportunities I had to travel made me begin to think about cultural differences. The thing I like best about this work is that it is a real opportunity to try and resurrect individuals from the monolith of history. I've worked on prehistoric and historical sites in the U.S. and in Europe, and like to teach, in the field, in museums, in the classroom, and through writing. In my first book, Site Unseen, my protagonist Emma Fielding discovers that archaeologists are trained to ask the same questions that detectives ask: who, what, where, when, how, and why. When I started on these books, I realized that archaeology is also good training for writing because research, logic, and persistence are so important to both endeavors. Naturally, that training worked with the archaeology mysteries—and it also helped with my first short story, "The Lords of Misrule," a historical mystery which appeared in the anthology, Sugarplums and Scandal. But how has it worked when I've tackled subjects as seemingly diverse as werewolves ("The Night Things Changed" in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and "Swing Shift" in Crimes By Moonlight) and noir ("Femme Sole," in Boston Noir)? Easy: it's all about getting into someone else's shoes and walking around for a while. Preferably, getting into (fictional) trouble while you do it. Asking "what if?" and thinking about how culture and subcultures—in addition to personality—shape behavior.
aka Laura Daniels, Harriet Hudson Amy Myers was born in Kent, where she still lives, although she has now ventured to the far side of the Medway. For many years a director of a London publishing company, she is now a full-time writer. Married to an American, she lived for some years in Paris, where, surrounded by food, she first dreamed up her Victorian chef detective Auguste Didier. Currently she is writing her contemporary crime series starring Jack Colby, car detective, and in between his adventures continuing her Marsh & Daughter series and her Victorian chimnney sweep Tom Wasp novels. Series: * Peter and Georgia March * Auguste Didier * Tom Wasp Anthologies edited: * After Midnight Stories
