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I love writing…it’s so much fun! When I started doing this, I knew I couldn’t write romance. Don’t get me wrong—I’m as romantic as the next person. But there’s one thing we all know about romance: the guy and the girl end up together at the end. Oh sure, there’s some twists and turns, maybe a couple of unexpected hiccups, if the writer’s really good. But we’re cheering for the two protagonists to get together, and we’d be angry if they didn’t. But as a writer, I have a hard time writing something when I already know the ending. Which is why I chose mysteries.
I plotted out my first mystery, Muffalettas and Murder, and I knew exactly who the murderer was. A quarter of the way through the book I realized I had a serious problem: I tried so hard to disguise who the murderer was, that I made it so obvious by the lack of clues. In the end I had to change my murderer, but it was a struggle. In my second mystery, Boudin and Bloodshed, I had no idea who the killer was. Strange, you might say, even unorthodox. But in talking to other mystery writers I’ve discovered it’s fairly common.
In my third book, Fruitcake and Fraud (due out the week of Thanksgiving), I had the big revealing clue all planned out. But I had no idea who the clue would point towards until the last three chapters. For me, the book flows better if I’m solving the mystery as I write. And that’s a lot of fun! Which brings me to another fun part of being a mystery writer…learning how to kill people.
Thanks to the internet, I’ve learned the best ways to strangle, stab, and shoot a person. Poisons are a little more complicated, but we’ll get to that. In Muffalettas, I researched handguns versus shotguns, the bullets they use, and which are most effective. I did a deep dive on blood spatter for the crime scene too. I also researched the deepest body of water in Louisiana, to dispose of a dead body (of course). For one of the suspects, I even looked into dealing drugs and laundering money.
In Boudin, I had to find out just how blood pressure medication affects the body, and the best way to administer an overdose. I think Fruitcake has been my favorite though, in terms of research, because the victim was stabbed. I scoured the internet long and hard for useful information on how the height of the killer affects the stab wound, the amount of mess the wound would cause, and how much upper body strength it would take.
For my current writing, Mardi Gras and Mayhem, the victim’s shrimp po’ boy is poisoned. The internet isn’t specific enough for that research! Luckily, I found a class from The Poison Lady herself, Luci Hanson Zalvay. She’s a pharmacist who specializes in poisons. She works with law enforcement and writes books—she even has a locked cabinet full of various poisons and antidotes. I’ve also been listening to The Poisoners’ Cabinet, a podcast about crimes using poison. It’s definitely not for the faint hearted, but it’s a lot of fun.
Oh, by the way, if the FBI comes knocking on your door, asking if you know anything about all the bizarre sites saved on my browser history, just play it cool. Tell them I’m a writer and it’s all research. Well, most of it anyway.