with Lauren Carr
We are delighted to welcome back mystery author Lauren Carr to Omnimystery News.
Lauren's second mystery in the "Lovers in Crime" series, Real Murder (Acorn Book Services; May 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats), features the return of detective Cameron Gates and attorney Joshua Thornton, and we asked her to tell us a little more about her characters. She titles her guest post for us today, "Meet Homicide Detective Cameron Gates".
— ♦ —
Photo provided courtesy of
Lauren Carr
Creating imaginary friends (now I rationalize this insane habit by calling it "character development") has become my favorite part of putting a mystery together. Luckily, most readers enjoy seeing the mixed group of quirky characters that I plop into the midst of a murder mystery.
Just as I thought I had a good handle on this literary chore — Homicide Detective Cameron Gates blasted into my life.
The female half of the Lovers in Crime Mysteries is without a doubt the most difficult and complicated character I have created — which makes her one of my favorite.
The Lovers in Crime Mysteries grew out of my first mystery series, the Joshua Thornton Mysteries. At the request of several readers, I decided to bring back Joshua Thornton in Shades of Murder, the third installment in the Mac Faraday Mysteries.
Shades of Murder is two mysteries in one. Mac Faraday is investigating the murder of a famous artist in Deep Creek Lake, while Joshua Thornton is diving into the cold case of a woman killed in the Pittsburgh area. The two seemingly unrelated cases collide in the middle. That is when my two detectives (Mac Faraday and Joshua Thornton), from two different series, meet.
While resurrecting my first detective Joshua Thornton, several years since my last mystery which featured him in A Reunion to Die For, I realized that now was the perfect time for this widower with five grown children to have a little romance in his life — preferably a homicide detective to share in his love of mystery.
In walked Pennsylvania State Police Homicide Detective Cameron Gates.
The Problem: Creating a strong, savvy, sassy female detective capable of going toe to toe with the big boys while still being likeable to readers.
Big surprise there. Hasn't that been the overall problem of women everywhere for several generations?
Authors who pen mysteries with strong female leads, especially police officers and detectives have to walk a tightrope. If the female detective or lawyer or whatever is too tough, she's perceived by some readers as bitchy. If she's too soft, then readers will claim that she's too weak and unbelievable for the job position that she's in.
Think about it.
If, in the latest Lovers in Crime Mystery, Real Murder, Detective Cameron Gates were to break down into tears when the kindly little old lady across the street is brutally murdered, readers would balk. "She's a trained police officer. What kind of police officer cries at a murder scene, even if she is a nice old lady?"
Or, if she were to back off as soon as the sheriff claims the murder is his case and warns Cameron not to go poking into his case, then readers may sense that she lacks the perseverance that goes with being an ace detective.
However, if Cameron were to launch into a curse-filled debate with the sheriff, declaring that she was on the case whether he liked it or not, then readers would find the female half of the lovers in crime to be less than loveable. How rude! I can hear some readers say.
So, my challenge, as a writer was to find a middle ground — make Homicide Detective Cameron Gates tough, but loveable.
Below is how Cameron Gates negotiated the delicate situation with Sheriff Curt Sawyer outside the murder scene of Dolly Houseman, the elderly neighbor living across the street from Cameron and Joshua's home in the Real Murder, the latest Lovers in Crime Mystery:
Cameron caught up with Tad when he came out of the house after ordering the morgue attendants to prepare Dolly Houseman for transport to his morgue.
"Awful lot of blood on the scene," she said to him.
Tad's face was pale. His eyes met Cameron. "I've known Dolly my whole life," he said with a husky voice.
"I'm sorry, Tad," she said in a low tone. "I've known her less than a day, but we did become friends. I promised her that I would find out who killed one of her girls, and now I'm going to find out who killed her."
"You're out of your jurisdiction, Cameron," Curt said from behind her. "I hate to be territorial, but this is our case."
"Don't you find it to be a pretty big coincidence that on the same day that Josh and I came to talk to you about Ava Tucker's murder, her madam, who asked for my help in finding Ava's killer, gets offed?"
The sheriff planted his hands on his hips. "For the sake of my professional relationship with your husband, I hope you're not suggesting something, Gates."
"Just saying," she replied. "Don't tell me that you don't find the timing interesting. Here's another coincidence. Mike Gardner has been missing for close to twenty years. He told Josh that he was investigating the murder of a prosti¬tute. Dolly confirmed that he was investigating Ava's murder. Now, one day after his body is found, Dolly gets murdered in her own home." She asked the sheriff, "Was there any sign of a break in?"
"Not that we can see."
"That's not such a big clue," Tad said. "I know for a fact that Dolly didn't lock her doors."
"It has to be someone who knew that Dolly had managed to get me interested in the case," Cameron said.
"Not necessarily," Curt said. "She was an old woman who lived alone and didn't lock her doors. That makes her easy pickings for a kid out to rob her."
"She was stabbed multiple times," Tad said. "Clearly it was overkill. That points to a crime of passion. Not your usual type of murder that occurs during a break-in."
"Did you find the murder weapon on the scene?" Cameron asked both of them.
"Yes," Curt said, "it appeared to be a butcher knife from the victim's kitchen. Forensics is still working the scene. If we're lucky, there will be fingerprints on it."
"Weapon of convenience," she said. "Or the killer brought his own weapon but opted for the knife."
"Gates?" Curt asked.
"Yes, Sheriff?"
"Did you hear me say that this is my case?"
"Yes, I heard you," Cameron replied before turning to Tad. "When will you have the autopsy done?"
"I'll get on it first thing in the morning."
"Then I'll be calling you," she said.
How's that for being persistent without being bitchy, loveable without being weak?
I am confident that once you get to know this spunky feminine half of the Lovers in Crime, that you'll fall in love with her just like Joshua Thornton (the masculine half) did.
That's what makes them the Lovers in Crime.
Fall in love with Cameron Gates, Joshua Thornton, and their family in friends in the latest Lovers in Crime Mystery, Real Murder.
— ♦ —
Lauren Carr is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She also passes on what she has learned in her years of writing and publishing by conducting workshops and teaching in community education classes.
The owner of Acorn Book Services, Lauren is also a publishing manager, consultant, editor, cover and layout designer, and marketing agent for independent authors. This year, several books, over a variety of genre, written by independent authors will be released through the management of Acorn Book Services, which is currently accepting submissions. Visit the Acorn Book Services website for more information.
Lauren lives with her husband, son, and three dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV. For more information about the author and her work, please visit her website at MysteryLady.net, read her Literary Wealth blog, or find her on Facebook.
— ♦ —
Real Murder
Lauren Carr
A Lovers in Crime Mystery
When Homicide Detective Cameron Gates befriends Dolly, the little old lady who lives across the street, she is warned not to get lured into helping the elderly woman by investigating the unsolved murder of one of her girls. "She's senile," Cameron is warned. "It's not a real murder."
Such is not the case. After Dolly is brutally murdered, Cameron discovers that the sweet blue-haired lady's "girl" was a call girl, who had been killed in a mysterious double homicide.
Meanwhile, Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Thornton is looking for answers to the murder of a childhood friend, a sheriff deputy whose cruiser is found at the bottom of a lake. The deputy had disappeared almost twenty years ago while privately investigating the murder of a local prostitute.
It doesn't take long for the Lovers in Crime to put their cases together to reveal a long-kept secret that some believe is worth killing to keep undercover.
0 comments:
Post a Comment