Author Bumping - a guest post by Barbara Silkstone

Author Barbara Silkstone joins us today in celebration of the release of the first book in her Florence Nightingale comedy mystery series.  If this adventure is any indication of those we'll find in The Giggling Corpse (and I'm sure it is!), we are in for a fun, rollicking mystery ride!  ~Mrs. MRM

Author Bumping

 By Barbara Silkstone

Like most authors, I am often asked where I get my ideas for stories. I must confess I have led a life that often parallels that of Wile E. Coyote. All I have to do is close my eyes and bingo! I’m in trouble.

Author Bumping has provided me with a good number of funny scenes in my comedy mysteries. Exactly what is AB?

Bumping is a talent I come by naturally. I have literally fallen into a full body bump with some pretty big name writers. These unplanned slams usually occur with hilarious results.

Robert B. Parker was a lovely man. Known as the Dean of American Crime Fiction, he was the creator of the wisecracking, street-smart Boston private eye, Spenser. (Spenser for Hire)

My first meeting with him was not the sophisticated event I would have preferred.  I accidentally slammed into the poor man as if he were home base. All one hundred and twenty-five pounds of me hitting his chubby frame with an “umph!” But let me back up and get a running start into this story.

A number of years ago I attended a writers’ workshop in London. We were a small group of dedicated hopefuls there to learn at the feet of PD James, Stephen King, and Bob Parker.

The workshop took place at the London Polytechnic University campus located on Marylebone Road across from Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, and near White Chapel—home of Jack the Ripper. It was summer and the school was all but abandoned. Alighting from a cab, lugging my gear behind me, I gasped at the sight of the red graffiti scrawled over the tall grim buildings. I understand the school has since been renovated but at that time it was pretty eerie.

I took a seat in the old lecture theater, laying my knapsack and duffle bag on the floor. I was pleased I had traveled light and finally got the hang of looking like a mystery writer. I had dropped the pink dresses and kitten heels after my last writers’ conference and now dressed in black slacks, matching top, and ballet flats.

An administrator spoke from the stage telling the small assembly of mostly ladies how to find our room assignments in the dorms. She assured us that someone would be addressing our group shortly. I settled back and admired the carved wood paneling and Phantom of the Opera ambiance.

The lady sitting next to me spoke. “Hi. My name is Shirley. I have really got to find a ladies’ room. Would you mind my bags for me?”

“Sure.” But I needed a loo trip, too. Now was as good a time as any. The lady on Shirley’s far side agreed to stand sentry over our bags. My new friend and I set out in search of a potty.

The halls were silent and resembled a mausoleum. The polished marble floors were slick underfoot and the lighting was dim. There were no attendants and no signs directing us to our much-needed ladies’ loo.

“Maybe they’re on the second floor,” I said optimistically. We walked up a level. Nothing. And the lights grew dimmer. Shirley and I agreed to take this up one more floor. I was mentally kicking myself for not using the loo at the airport as I clung to the railing and hiked up the stairs. With the school unoccupied for the summer, someone had done a rather diligent job of polishing the marble floors. They were as slippery as ice.

No potty. No loo. “One more floor?” I asked. Shirley nodded, her eyes like two giant robin’s eggs behind her thick glasses. It was awfully quiet. We made our way to the fourth floor clinging to the banister to steady ourselves.  A good tinkle was now at the top of my list of most desirable things to do in London.

On the fourth floor, we finally found a ladies loo. The harsh lighting cast the feel of the men’s room scene in The Shining. Jack Nicholson meets the long-dead manager of the Overlook Hotel. Okay… my nerves were a bit prickly.

Shirley grabbed one stall and I hit another. I’d clicked the door shut and was in bladder emptying ecstasy when the cubicle shook. “Open up or I’ll break the door down!” A male voice with a cockney accent growled just outside the door. “I want you. Not the other one!”

Knowing it would do no good to scream, I said… “Absolutely not!”  (I’m notoriously polite.)

“Barbara! What’s going on?” my new friend whimpered.

“We have a problem, Shirley.”

Silence. Not a word. No heavy breathing. Only the sound of Shirley sniveling from her position two stalls down. More silence. He was either waiting outside the door with a Jack the Ripper Knife or he had run away.

I made an executive decision. “Shirley… at the count of three let’s make a run for it. One…”

“Barbara, I can’t run! I can’t get my girdle up. I’m too scared!”

Girdle? Who wears a girdle? I was trapped in a farce with a woman in a girdle, and a guy who wasn’t seeking a pen pal. “Shirley… ditch your girdle. We’re running for it! 2-3!”

We broke out of our stalls like two racehorses out for the Triple Crown. We hit the marble floor with Flintstone feet flying. Funny thing about running on slippery surfaces … you can build up some real speed.

At the second level… Shirley went reeling. “Turn into the skid!” I yelled at her as I grabbed the railing. She squealed and then righted herself.  By the time we hit the ground floor, we must have been going a hundred miles an hour.

A group of people stood at the entrance to the auditorium. Robert B. Parker was among them. I lost control, went into a slide, and bumped hard into his portly belly. Slam!

It wasn’t exactly how I envisioned our first meeting, but I have used versions of the incident in at least two of my stories.

With love & laughter!

Barbara

~*~

Just released! The Giggling Corpse

 A trailblazing figure in nursing, Florence Nightingale faces a series of bizarre mysteries for which she must use her nimble deductive powers while aided by her little pocket owl, Athena, and her sweet but snarky sidekick, Poppy Throckmorten.

In this first book in the series, the ladies journey to Greece on a mission for young Queen Victoria, the successful completion of which will fund the Nightingale School for Lady Nurses—the first of its kind in England.

Armed only with her quick wit and a rock-hard India rubber ball, Poppy is determined to assist Florence in securing the donation promised by a wealthy Greek philanthropist. But before they can return to England, the gift is stolen and one member of their British contingent is dead—was it murder?

Can Florence and Poppy find a possible killer and recover the endowment before they must answer to the Queen? And what’s with the giggling corpse?

Join me as I start my latest series of tongue-in-cheek, fast-paced mysteries that see Poppy Throckmorten chronicle the adventures of the brilliant but eccentric sleuth, Miss Florence Nightingale.

~*~

Connect with Barbara!

• https://www.facebook.com/barbara.silkstone
• https://www.facebook.com/pages/Barbara-Silkstone-Author/156097004489447
• http://secondactcafe.com/barbara-silkstone/
• Barbara Silkstone’s Amazon Author’s page

Coming Soon

The next two books in the Florence Nightingale Comedy Mystery Series:

     

Interview with and Excerpt from Joe Cosentino, author of the Nicky and Noah series

Joe Cosentino kindly joins us today with a Q&A and excerpt from his recently released mystery/comedy/romance, Drama Queen, featuring sleuths Nicky and Noah.   In addition to being an author, Joe is a talented actor and theater professor.  Drama Queen takes advantage of his experience and gives us a funny and entertaining peek into the theater world. Thanks for stopping in, Joe!!

Hello, Joe. Thank you for interviewing with us today.

My pleasure.

When did you start writing?

I’ve always been a storyteller. As a kid I was the star of the plays in my friend’s garage. We forced our poor, unsuspecting parents to watch every one—including the lavish musicals! After college I became a professional actor, working in film, television, and theatre opposite stars like Rosie O’Donnell, Nathan Lane, Bruce Willis, Charles Keating, Jason Robards, and Holland Taylor. Moving on to playwriting and ultimately writing novels seemed like an obvious next step.

How was it acting with all those celebrities?

In each case, I worked with them before they became famous, and in each case they were gracious, hard-working, kind, and very funny. I did an AT&T Industrial with Rose O’Donnell, A Midsummer Night’s Dream onstage with Bruce Willis, Roar of the Greasepaint onstage with Nathan Lane, a Commercial Credit Computer commercial with Jason Robards, NBC’s Another World with Charles Keating, and ABC’s My Mother Was Never a Kid with Holland Taylor.

Is Drama Queen your first novel?

I wrote a mystery/romance series about an ex-child star, the Jana Lane mysteries. Paper Doll is out now. Porcelain Doll and Satin Doll should follow soon. I also wrote the well-received An Infatuation, an MM romance novella published by Dreamspinner Press.

How did Lethe Press come to publish Drama Queen?

I noticed Lethe Press publishes many humorous, theatrically-styled gay books, and the company has been successful for fourteen years. After I submitted the manuscript, Steve Berman offered to publish it, saying he had great fun reading it. I think like all my writing, DramaQueen has amazing crossover appeal and will be enjoyed by gay and straight people alike. A good story is a good story. Funny is funny. A great mystery is a great mystery.

How many books have your written so far in this series?

Three: Drama Queen, Drama Muscle, and Drama Cruise. In Drama Queen, Nicky and Noah have to uncover why college theatre professors are dropping like stage curtains while Nicky directs the college play production—a murder mystery. In Drama Muscle, Nicky and Noah have to find out why musclemen are dropping like weights in the Physical Education department while Nicky directs the Student Bodybuilding Competition. In Drama Cruise, Nicky and Noah go on a cruise to Alaska, and discover why college theatre professors are going overboard like lifeboats while Nicky directs a murder mystery dinner theatre show onboard ship. In the fourth novel (not written yet), Drama Luau, Nicky and Noah will go to Hawaii to direct a luau show, where muscular hula dancers are dropping like grass skirts.

Why did you write a mystery/comedy/romance series?

Can’t we all use a good laugh, a challenging brain twister, and a bit of romance? Drama Queen is the kind of book I like reading. It is funny, theatrical, sexy, wild, and wacky with a solid mystery full of plot twists and turns at its center.

How do you think up all the clues, red herrings, and surprises in the novel?

I’ve read every Agatha Christie novel and play many times. She is a genius at outlining when and where to give the reader what information. I love the inversion in her books, where she uses sleight of hand to lay out all the information, but not in a straight forward manner. The reader becomes the sleuth to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. I tried to do the same in this series.

Since you are a college theatre professor, is the series based on you, your colleagues, and students?

Do you mean if anybody at my college ticks me off, I kill him/her in the series? Hah. To be honest, I like my colleagues and students too much to murder them in my books. Martin Anderson, Nicky and Noah’s department head, is based on me. He’s a loyal, hardworking department head and professor who fully supports his faculty colleagues, office assistant, and the students in his department. Like me, he is also a little bit, well quite a bit, of a gossip. My knowledge of theatre is also very evident in the series. The other characters and the location came from my head.

Who was your favorite character to write in Drama Queen?

Nicky has such amazing wit, perseverance in the face of adversity, and smarts. I love his sense of determination in not only nabbing the murderer, but also getting his man—Noah. Nicky knows that he wants and how to get it. He is genuinely concerned for others, and he wants to help them. He also has no problem taking on the role of hero. Finally, he is a one-man man, and Nicky is proud to admit that man is Noah Oliver.

Which character was the hardest to write?

Loptu Lee, the Playwriting professor is a scream. She has two different personalities, either of which come out at the most inopportune times and places.

What are the rules for writing a good mystery?

Here are my rules. Give the clues early. There’s nothing worse than reading a mystery and not getting any clues until the end. That’s cheating. Camouflage your clues and put in a number of red herrings. A mystery should have more than mystery. Like any novel, it should have interesting characters, a strong plot with lots of twists and turns, and a satisfying ending. In my case, it also needs a heavy dose of wacky humor.

Is Drama Queen available as an ebook and paperbook?

Yes, this gives the reader an option to read it on a Kindle, Nook, computer, or with book in hand on the beach or in bed. The audiobook should be out in about a month.

Do you see this as a TV series?

Yes! And I want to play Martin Anderson. Couldn’t you see Matt Bomer as Nicky and Neil Patrick Harris as Noah? This will give The Hardy Boys a run for their money.

How can your readers get their hands on Drama Queen, and how can they contact you?

The purchase links for Drama Queen are below, as are my contact links, including my web site. I love to hear from readers!!!

About Drama Queen

It could be curtains for college theatre professor Nicky Abbondanza. With dead bodies popping up all over campus, Nicky must use his drama skills to figure out who is playing the role of murderer before it is lights out for Nicky and his colleagues. Complicating matters is Nicky’s huge crush on Noah Oliver, a gorgeous assistant professor in his department, who may or may not be involved with a cocky graduate assistant...and is also the top suspect for the murders! You will be applauding and shouting Bravo for Joe Cosentino’s fast-paced, side-splittingly funny, edge-of-your-seat, delightfully entertaining novel. Curtain up!

Purchase the paperback from Lethe Press or Amazon 

Purchase the ebook from Smashwords

Purchase the Kindle edition from Amazon

Excerpt from Drama Queen

With the student actors and technicians sitting in the front of the theatre (obliviously texting on their phones), my student stage manager, SuCho, screamed for everyone’s attention, and for me to come to the front of the theatre house to give them my notes. This thankfully sent David off to his office in a huff.

After I had given my first few notes, I noticed Noah Oliver standing in the back of the theatre. Noah is tall and lean with curly blond hair, blue eyes, and the sweetest smile I have ever wanted to kiss in an Assistant Professor. While I teach Theatre History and Play Directing, Noah is our department’s specialist in Acting, and for good reason. Noah is a terrific actor, a creative and passionate teacher, and a wonderful colleague. More importantly, I have had a crush on him since the moment he made his entrance into our humble campus three years ago. Noah is single, gay, and seems to really like me. Why don’t I ask him out? Noah is twenty-eight years young. As a junior professor in my department in need of my vote for tenure this year, if I make a pass at him it could be considered attempted coercion on my part.

It was difficult for me to concentrate on giving my notes to the students since Scotty Bruno, my graduate assistant and Assistant Director of the play, was talking, laughing, and obviously flirting with Noah in the rear of the theatre. I had reason to be concerned. Scotty has bleached blond hair, contact lens turquoise eyes, ultra-white bonded teeth, and muscles as if sculpted by Michelangelo, housed in multi-colored, stuffed shorts and tank top (in winter) that were not unnoticed by Noah. Unless I was becoming nearsighted, I could have sworn that Scotty whispered something into Noah’s ear then handed Noah a box. What the heck is in it? Love letters? Condoms? My heart on a silver platter?

“Any notes for me, professor?” Paul Amour, my leading man, sat front row center and winked at me. Identifying as bisexual, Paul uses his charms with men and women alike to get their attention. Tall with shiny, wavy black hair climbing down his neck, chiseled features, and a body like a Greek god, getting attention wasn’t too difficult for Paul.

“You were like terrific tonight, Paul. I really believed you were like the murderer!” Ricky Gonzalez, Paul’s co-star and last onstage murder victim, sat next to Paul like an art dealer admiring the Mona Lisa. Ricky is shorter and darker than Paul with a smaller but equally cut physique. After he graduates from college and gets over his crush on Paul, Ricky will no doubt make some guy a wonderful husband.

“Thanks, Ricky.” Paul squeezed one of Ricky’s abdominal muscles.

Ricky beamed like a floodlight.

Kayla Calloway and Jan Annondale, who play murder victims one and two in the play, sat on the other side of Paul to reward their peripheral visions. Zaftig, giggly, and insecure, they hung on Paul’s every word, wishing they could hang on Paul.

“Your fight scenes were totally awesome tonight, Paul,” said Kayla.

Jan added, “And you really like aced your cool monologue at the end of the play.”

Before Paul could sign autographs, I said, “I have five more pages of notes tonight, people. Can I have everyone’s attention?” 

About the Author

Joe Cosentino is the author of Drama Queen the first Nicky and Noah mystery (Lethe Press), An Infatuation (Dreamspinner Press), Paper Doll the first Jana Lane mystery (Whiskey Creek Press), and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Eldridge Plays and Musicals). He has appeared in principal acting roles in film, television, and theatre, opposite stars such as Bruce Willis, Rosie O’Donnell, Nathan Lane, Holland Taylor, and Jason Robards. His one-act plays, Infatuation and Neighbor, were performed in New York City. He wrote The Perils of Pauline educational film (Prentice Hall Publishers). Joe is currently Head of the Department/Professor at a college in upstate New York, and is happily married. His upcoming novels are Drama Muscle the second Nicky and Noah mystery (Lethe Press), A Shooting Star (Dreamspinner Press novella), A Home for the Holidays (Dreamspinner Press holiday novella), and Porcelain Doll the second Jana Lane mystery.

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New Mystery Release Roundup 3/31/15

Today was another terrific day for new mystery releases, and we have summarized the bunch of them below:

• Jessica Beck's Troubled Treats, the 19th in the Donut Shop culinary cozy series
• Steve Berry's The Patriot Threat, the 10th in his Cotton Malone series
• Blaize and John Clement's The Cat Sitter's Whiskers, the 10th in the popular Dixie Hemingway series
• Judi Culbertson's A Bookmarked Death, the 4th in her series with bookseller/amateur sleuth Delhi Laine
• Kate Dyer-Seeley's Slayed on the Slopes, the second in her Pacific Northwest mystery series
• Tonya Kappes' A Ghostly Grave, the second in her Ghostly Southern paranormal cozy series
• Dixie Lyle's Marked Fur Murder, the third in her Whiskey Tango Foxtrot paranormaly cozy series 
• JB Lynn's Catnapped!, the third book in her Matchmaker cozy mystery series
• Neve Maslakovich's The Bellbottom Incident, the third in her The Incident time travel mystery series
• Dale Mayer's paranormal/romantic mystery/thriller Time Thieves
• Kelly McClymer's License to Shop, the second in her Secret Shopper Mom cozy series
• Liz Mugavero's The Icing on the Corpse, the third in her Pawsitively Organic cozy series
• Ann Perry's historical mystery The Angel Court Affair, the 30th in her Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series
• Carol Perry's Tails, You Lose, the second book in her Witch City paranormal cozy series
• Chris Rogers' Here Lies a Wicked Man, a Booker Krane mystery
• Christine Trent's historical mystery The Mourning Bells, the 4th in her Lady of Ashes series

Let us know if there are any that we missed!

Andrew Peters Guest Post: Breaking the "Fourth Wall"

Mr Must Read mysteries (or Musty, as we famous writers call him) has asked me to write a little something for you all on one of the techniques I use a lot in my brilliant books.  

                   

                           Breaking the “fourth wall”

Goodreads 5 Star review “I really like the way he involves the reader, it’s like he’s sitting in front of you talking to you”

Goodreads 2 Star review “Not really my sort of thing, he keeps addressing the reader directly”

Well, my friends, it appears that you surely can’t please everyone, and one of the things I seem to do which divides opinion on my literary masterpieces is my habit of talking to people. Yes, you. Pay attention.

Maybe it starts with the fact that I’ve never thought of myself as a writer. Before last June I’d never written a story in my life, and certainly never attended a creative writing class or read anything at all about writing technique.  I had done plenty of story-telling, in comedy clubs, folk clubs and when making a living as an entertainer, so maybe that was what influenced me most when I decided to tell some stories via the Kindle machine.

That was what I wanted to do, not write things, but tell stories, and I never really gave much thought to how I should do it. I just thought up a situation, sat down at the computer and told someone about it. You. The reader.

I suppose it’s my Blues Detective stories where the reader's most important, as Otis King the narrator takes you into his world, shares his thoughts with you, helps you along with a clue or two, and quite often expects you to guess the answer before he does.

“Well, you’ve guessed it by now, haven’t you my dears? It’s hardly worth explaining it. What? No? Well, it’s a good thing you’re not trying to make a living in the detecting business. Allow me to elucidate...”

Otis is always at pains to point  out that he’s not writing a book, he’s making a report, and the effect I want is for you to hear his voice in your head, see things through his eyes, maybe even ask the odd question if you’d care to. He’s a helpful narrator too, always happy to gloss over the dull bits, like the coffees, meals and train journeys, but he’ll put them back in if he needs to pad a story out to novel length.

Much the same thing happens in “Joe Soap”, though here the narrator is quite happy to inform you that he’s writing a book, even if it’s one that nobody will ever be allowed to read. He even refers to the clumsiness of some of the construction, since he isn’t able to send it to his editor. Again he tries to anticipate your questions and explain himself to you at critical moments.

No, I don’t always do it, and there are ways to do it without being quite so obvious. In “The Barry Island Murders” the policeman narrator is telling the whole story to a newspaper reporter, who interrupts with questions and points of his own. Not that he’s allowed to speak in the book, you have to infer his contributions from Inspector Williams’ reactions.

I like this technique. It makes the whole story-telling business  a little friendlier. It makes for informality in the narration, and you get to join in with the story a bit. The narrator can use you as a sounding-board for his own opinions.  It can be lonely telling a whole story by yourself. Maybe I should just record them and then you’d really have the voice in your head.

I don’t claim to be the inventor of this technique. I’m not the best-read man on the planet, so I have no idea to what extent other people have used it. Charlotte Bronte did for one...“Reader, I married him”.  PG Wodehouse was prone to it here and there. Damon Runyon too. Maybe most first -person narrations have a little bit of it.

It gets used far more often in film and TV. Any of you remember “It’s Gary Shandling’s Show”? He’d sit down and tell the audience what was going to happen, before walking past the cameras and onto the set. Then there’s “Blazing Saddles”, where Sheriff Bart frequently talks to you.

The important thing about it is to be consistent. Once you start, you have to keep at it, as an occasional one will jar. Remember “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, where George Lazenby finishes the fight, stares at the camera and says, “This never happened to the other feller.”? Didn’t really work, did it? You think? I beg to differ.

Now, I’m not in a position to give you advice on writing technique, and this one has its limitations. You can really only use it with a first person narrator but then a first person narration is the only logical way to tell a story. The third-person idea is a literary invention.I can’t be doing with those telepathic people reading everyone’s thoughts. I mean, you can’t really describe anyone else’s thoughts but your own, you can only infer them from their actions. And all that dashing across to the other side of town to take a look inside the villain’s head? No, it can’t happen...only in books.

The other limitation, is, as you saw at the beginning, some people don’t like it. They much prefer everything kept impersonal. Me, I love it...to the extent that if I ever write anything else, it’ll take a mighty effort to avoid using it. Still, at least you’ll know it’s one of my books.

Andrew Peters is the author of the Blues Detective series of humorous mysteries, as well as the mystery/thriller novels Joe Soap and The Barry Island Murders.  His short story collections Solos and Monophonic are also available for Kindle.

Guest Blog: Mike Faricy on Carl Hiassen

Minnesota native Mike Faricy, author of "Russian Roulette", the recently released "Bite Me", and 7 other funny, quirky crime novels (all available for $2.99 for Kindle), joins us on the blog to discuss authors and characters who have been an influence on his writing.  Up today is Florida author Carl Hiassen.

Thanks again to Must Read Mysteries for letting me share my thoughts on crime writers and characters. Again, demonstrating an authority problem, let me immediately dwell on a writer who is usually featured in the crime/mystery shelves of your local bookstore but is more aptly labeled as the writer of ‘Environmental thrillers’.

Born in Plantation, Florida, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale in 1953, Carl Hiaasen stems from Norwegian heritage. He graduated from the University of Florida in 1974 with a degree in journalism, was hired in 1976 by the Miami Herald where he still writes a weekly column.

Tony Hillerman once referred to Hiaasen as ‘The Mark Twain of the crime novel.’ He has no real series character in his books, although there are two recurring characters, Clinton ‘Skink’ Tyree, the former governor of Florida, now a swamp rat who lives on road kill. The character is actually based on a childhood friend of Hiaasen’s, Clyde Ingalls, who took his life as a teenager, in part over the developmental devastation of Florida. The other recurring character is a homicide detective named Al Garcia (Zorro anyone?) who maintains a vivid memory of every corpse he has ever had to deal with.

He writes wearing a fishing hat and hearing protection muffs. His books dovetail with his concerns as a journalist and native Floridian. He once said that “Florida has always been a magnate for outlaws, scoundrels, and a sort of predatory element.” The Florida of his books is populated by greedy businessmen, corrupt politicians, dumb blondes, apathetic retirees, and intellectually challenged tourists. There’s no end to the bad behavior on the part of characters who theoretically are supposed to hold the public trust.

With few exceptions, his main character is never a PI. They’re usually younger individuals who’ve been kicked around the block more than once. They’ve all either failed at a career or just simply burned out, wandering aimlessly, not really caring all that much. A woman in some sort of difficulty usually raises them to the surface and provides a cause to champion

The film Striptease, based on Hiaasen’s novel Strip Tease starred Demi Moore wearing pasties and Bert Reynolds covered from top to bottom in Vaseline. Hiaasen insists the film represents a high water mark in American cinematography.

Wry humor is one of his trademarks. His tales take place in a world where Florida scams and schemes seem to be par for the course. “None of my novels, I don’t think, are really whodunits. By page 90, everybody knows whodunit. The trick and the fun is trying to figure out how are they going to get out of it?”

Every one of Hiaasen’s novels are different. The characters are always a surprise and they face a number of forks in the road along their madcap journey. Critic’s complain that his work is the same book written over and over again, only with different characters. It’s fair to say the plots follow a familiar line, a beautiful part of Florida is threatened by corporations. The fun part in every Hiaasen tale is the weirdness and quirky behavior of his characters. If you haven’t read him, give him a try, I think you’ll inhale each and every book.

Death and Comedy By Esri Allbritten

Author Esri Allbritten is treating us to a guest post today, sharing her thoughts on striking the delicate balance between humor and the grim reality of murder in mystery writing...

If you ask mystery readers why they read crime fiction, one answer you won’t get is that they love murder – because that would be creepy. No, mystery readers like the exploration of personality, getting to know recurring characters, a good puzzle, and the drama of people dealing with extreme circumstances. Some of us want all of those things, and we also want to laugh.  

Treating death with humor without being tasteless can be a fine line to walk, but there are some proven methods.  One of the most rewarding ways to take the sting out of death is to make the victim so unlikeable that you’re positively gleeful when he croaks. As much fun as that is for the reader, it’s even more fun for the author. Nasty characters are a blast to write, and can also be a great opportunity to fictionally punish annoying people from your past.  Some of my favorite authors who make death funny are Laura Levine, Joan Hess, and Carl Hiaasen. Laura Levine murdered the eponymous victim of Killing Bridezilla by having her fall off a sabotaged balcony and onto the raised arrow of a Cupid sculpture.

Readers can also smirk at a victim who brings it on himself. M.C Beaton, author of the Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin series, is brilliant at the he-had-it-coming death. But the one I remember best is from one of her drolly ridiculous regency romances (Susie, written as Jennie Tremaine). Right at the beginning, a lecherous older man forces the dewy heroine (all of 17 years old) into marriage. He buys a new bed in anticipation of ravishing her. The bed turns out to be so well-sprung that when he jumps on to give it a test bounce, he rebounds out the open window and falls to his death. I remember gasping at the unexpected hilarity of it. The heroine inherits everything and spends the rest of the book trying to convince the love interest that she’s not a murderess.

Of course, the actual death doesn’t have to be funny for the book to deliver laughs. Janet Evanovich is perhaps the most famous comedic mystery author writing today, and while there is often humor in the death (or the handling of the corpse), it’s her stable of regular characters – gun-toting granny, ex-hooker, and horny, hamster-owning bounty hunter – that provide the laughs. 

The biggest challenge with comedic mysteries is finding an author who shares your taste. Drama is dramatic to everyone, but what’s funny to one reader will make another grind his teeth. Because humor is so subjective, there’s a famous quote among actors and stand-up comedians: “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”

I’m going to leave you with a joke Tina Fey uses as an example of really “dark” humor. It also shows how laughter can be wrung from the grimmest scenario. 

A young man and his new wife are on their honeymoon when they have a car wreck. They’re taken to the hospital, where the man’s injuries are declared minor. But his wife’s are not, and she is in surgery for hours and hours. Finally the surgeon comes out, looking solemn. “We were able to save your wife’s life, but she had extensive head injuries. Your marriage is going to be very different than you envisioned. You’ll have to help her get out of bed and dress in the morning, feed her, take her to the bathroom, clean her up afterwards – basically take care of her every need.”

At the sight of the man’s stricken expression, the doctor suddenly grins and claps him on the shoulder. “I’m just kidding. She’s dead.”

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Esri Allbritten is the author of Chihuahua of the Baskervilles (available in hardback and ebook, paperback available June 23), and The Portrait of Doreene Gray, available in hardback and ebook as of July 3. You can read the first few chapters of both these book on her website, EsriAllbritten.com.