Julie Mulhern, author of The Deep End and Guaranteed
to Bleed (October, 2015), joins us today to tell us about the questions she
hears most often since she’s been published.
Tell
me about yourself.
Not exactly a question but those four words strung together
can make me straighten my spine, paste on a polite smile, fold my hands in my
lap, and cross my ankles.
I feel compelled to make a good impression. In that,
I have much in common with the heroine of The Deep End, Ellison Russell. We
might also share a certain tendency toward snark but I’m trying to make a good
impression so we won’t go into that.
How
did you start writing?
Is there ever a clean, easy answer to that question?
I had a dream about a sparkly vampire in a field of flowers…. It’s not so clear
cut for me. The truth? I’m happier when I’m writing. I might even be easier to
live with.
Why
mysteries?
I love a puzzle and I like thinking about the why of murder. What drives someone to
take another’s life? The reasons—jealousy, greed, self-preservation,
love—fascinate me. Hopefully they’ll fascinate the people who read my books as
well…
Chapter Two
I got home and glanced at the clock
on the wall—a quarter ‘til ten, a full fifteen minutes before Frances Walford
ever got up.
Par for the course of my morning—not only was
Mother up, she’d driven to my house and taken up a strategic position in my
kitchen, ready for battle with a helmet of teased white hair and her everyday
armor—diamonds on her knuckles and a serviceable navy dress. Someone must have
called and told her that her odd, artistic daughter had found a body.
I’d wanted nothing more than a quiet moment to
reflect, a shower, and a decent cup of coffee. Instead, I got my mother
demanding to hear about my morning. At least she’d made coffee.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
I stared at her in disbelief. Was I
all right? “I found Madeline Harper floating in the pool, spent a two hours at
the police station dressed in a damp swimsuit and a shirt with frayed cuffs,
and I’m a murder suspect.”
Mother drew in a sharp breath then
her eyes narrowed. “No need to get testy. I’m just trying to help.”
Of course she was. Just like the
Romans were trying to help the Christians when they introduced them to the
lions.
“You look like hell,” she added. So
much for being solicitous. Mother reached into the refrigerator and pushed
things around until she found the cream, then opened the container and sniffed.
“I bought it yesterday.”
She sniffed it again. “Why did they
take you to the station?”
“I told them about Henry and
Madeline.”
My mother froze. The cream spilling
from the carton into her coffee cup froze. Max, who’d padded into the kitchen
in hopes someone would leave food unattended, froze. I’d broken the cardinal
rule of the Walfords. Thou shall not air
dirty laundry in public.
“Why would you tell them that?” Her
voice was arctic.
“It was hardly a secret. They were
going to find out anyway.”
She arched a brow.
“Madeline was murdered.”
She wanted to tell me I was being
fanciful. Her mouth opened, her lips even formed the words—but she couldn’t do
it. The morning’s events supported me. Madeline was dead and I’d been hauled to
the police station in my swimsuit.
In a classic Frances Walford
maneuver, she changed tactics. “I simply can’t believe you wore that to talk to
the police.”
I took a very deep breath and
reached for the coffee pot. “I didn’t have much choice.” All things being equal
I would have preferred to wear actual clothes to a testosterone-filled squad room.
“I blame that woman.”
Yes. It was all Madeline’s fault.
How inconsiderate of her to get murdered.
About the Author
Julie Mulhern is a Kansas City native who grew up on a steady diet
of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her
family, working out at the gym and finding new ways to keep her house
spotlessly clean--and she's got an active imagination. Truth is--she's an
expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog and the dust
bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions. She is a 2014 Golden Heart®
Finalist. The Deep End is her first mystery and is the winner of The Sheila
Award.
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