True Hauntings and Fictional: Getting Your Mystery Fix with a Spook

The books in Heather Graham Krewe of Hunters series read two ways--as stand alones or as a strong series where a shifting, but continuing cast of characters solve interesting ghostly mysteries. She even adds more value for the reader by using interesting places for her settings.

{In fact, she teased me into buying this book by setting The Hidden in Estes Park, Colorado, a retirement-central extraordinaire if you like a high altitude and cold. [I prefer the flats along I25.]}

Seems like I've read a few books set in my local area, lately. Sometimes, the descriptions have been right on [Lee Child's Midnight Line]. Other times, I had a hard time recognizing the places. Graham got the mountains surrounding the bowl/park right. But, Estes Park is infested by unavoidable elk. Two days after finishing the book, I can't remember one mention of elk. They're one of the prime tourist Estes Park's attractions in addition to the Stanley Hotel.

Copycat murders provides the core mystery for The Hidden. Former Reb soldier, Nathan Kendall, is murdered, shortly after the US Civil War. The crime was never solved. Today, his ranch has become a guest ranch and museum.

When modern descendants [thank the various DNA sites for this] are killed in much the same way as Kendal, the museum director, Scalett Barlow, comes under suspicion for their murders. With a plot hop--a Krewe of Hunters member is her former husband who rushes to prove her innocent. Everyone gathers for the crime-solving fun. 

Of course, there is a romance. Actually, a couple of them, including the runaway marriage of Nathan Kendall and his wife, who lend their ghostly fingers to solving the muders.

The Hidden isn't one of Graham's better books. I thought it lack suspense, the m/c was rather sappy, and the plot predictable. Maybe I have read too many of them, and the well-constructed plot elements have become tedious for me. [Must admit the moose was a surprise.] Or, is it just the romance and bed scenes I find overly similar? 

On the other hand, I always get a good relaxing read from Graham's books, reads that tempt me to read one more chapter, even though it's midnight or after. Bottom line: when you craft a book as well as she does, even your less than stellar books are worth reading. It's not her fault I've usually guessed the perps 2/3rds into the storyline.

Want to read other peoples' reviews? You can also check out some samples on

Amazon/Kindle          Barnes & Noble/Nook         kobo/Rakuten 

~~~~~~~~

Other Interesting Reading

Stephanie Laurens has it made with her Cynster series. Her characters and backgrounds come ready made. She's now working on the grandkids of the first book m/cs, an English duke finding his true love during the French Revolution. The series has reached the Victorian era as she writes the stories of how the varioious members of the Cynster clan find true love. She gets a little explicit on the love scenes, but she really doesn't go overboard. Of course, an evangelical Christian whould probably disagree with me.

What's notable--her female Cynsters are just as strong and dangerous as the males. If you like your romance in period settings you might take a look at A Match for Marcus Cynster. -- Yeah, Laurens has strong non-Cynster ladies in her world--though they aren't as menacing as her masterful males.

~~~~

Have you ever though about writing a blog? Jane Friedman, one of the best bloggers, is holding a webinair [12 April 2018], sponsored by Writer's Digest, on how to do the blogging bit effectively. [Yes, there are ways to write better blogs than I do since I'm a confirmed dillettente.]

~~~~~~~~

My  Writing Rut

Don't think of my blog as a rut, but I do write it. Imagine my surprise when I noticed I've written 500 blogs. 

Actually more. I used to write a separate blog about my Far Isles Half-Elven. But I got in a rut when after writing Night for the Gargoyles. I couldn't get out of Andor. Seems publishers think demons are more interesting than elves. You can download ebook free, for sure, on Amazon , iBooks, and kobo/Rakuten. Don't know if it shows up as free in other countries besides the US, but you might take a look.

Night for the Gargoyles was the inspiration for There Be Demons, the first of a possible Demon War trilogy, which is available at the same places. Had to write a book to find out what happened when Gillen tried to teach for head-strong teens from the projects how to fight demons...and survive. I like to joke that the book has more reviews [good] than sales [bad, though it's approaching the average sales for an indie].

Guilty Pleasures -- Do You Read Them? Write Them?

Guilty Pleasures? What are they any way? Something you consider not worthy of reading but enjoy any way? Something you are ashamed of reading and are glad you have an e-reader so no one on the train or bus knows what you are reading?

No I don't consider Erotica a guilty pleasure. Hey, I read and have kept all the Anita Blake series except for Affliction which hasn't come out in mass paperback yet. I think Laurell K. Hamilton's bed scenes are more exhausting than titillating.

For me guilty pleasures involve Romantica of the Happily-Ever-Afters because I don't think any human should be so stupid as to bank all his/her happiness on one individual. In other words I have a short tolerance level for Idiotica. 

Having said that, I admit that I read romances. Hey I've even read a few Barbara Cartland Regencies in my life... until I ignored them because they lacked the detail of Georgette Heyer's settings and her intelligent heroines. [Yeah, I still have all of Heyer's Regencies on my bookshelves and even re-read them.] 

What kind of romances to I succumb to? Ones with a good mystery, and better yet, an interesting supernatural/real world connection tied to a mystery.

So what did I read while my brain was on meltdown from

There Be Demons edits?

Mary Balough: The Proposal -- Lord Trentham, a commoner [rich], gained his title for battlefield bravery but now reluctantly looks for a wife since he promised his father on his deathbed that his sons would carry on the family business. Hero chances upon Lady Muir, a widow and part of the intricate family networks of the Bedwyn world. The premise: the struggle to reconcile two conflicting worlds. Yeah this is a b/g meets g/b - b/g loses g/b - b/g wins g/b book. Balough makes the book a winner with her command of the Regency era .and the complexities of her characters. -- Five Stars and a Keeper.

Stephanie Laurens: The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh -- At first, the book looks a simple romance where Mary Cynster, the last unmarried Cynster female of her generation, finds her true love with the help of a mystical necklace connected with the Lady, a mystical Scottish entity connected to her family. The story soon complicates into a decent who-done-it as Ryder and Mary try to figure out who is trying to kill them. -- Four Stars since too many of the Cynster heroes blend into an repetitive pattern. Still the series has been enjoyable, if unchallenging, reads.

Last but not least, Heather Graham's Heart of Evil -- Graham's supernatural villains are the topping that makes her supernatural mysteries so enjoyable. In this story, former lovers must reconcile against the background of the "Krewe of Hunters" -- an FBI group of paranormal mystery solvers -- tackling the murder of a Civil War enactor who is found swinging from an angel in a plantation cemetery. -- Five Stars for inventiveness here.

So now you know what I've been reading during the three weeks I've been doing edits of There Be Demons for the Grumpy Dragon Press editors. Yeah it's escapist "literature". But they are all good, relaxing reads. May I be so successful.

Romancing the Supernatural ... or How to Lure a Non-Romance Reader to Your Romance

Okay. I don't have a romantic bone in my body. This doesn't mean my characters don't sometimes get the hots for each other ... or that I haven't written what I consider a tender love scene. I just don't get all gushy and panting about other peoples' doings.

So, imagine my surprise when I realized I've read several Harlequin romances in the last six weeks or so, all of them written by Heather Graham -- The Presence, Phantom Evil, The Uninvited, and The Unholy. 

Read them without looking at the publisher. Graham almost added insult to my ego by being published by Harlequin. You know ... the publisher who prints tons of books with the plot density of a Barbara Cartland romance that used book stores are reluctant to trade. 

[Yes, I know many romance readers still love Cartland's novels, and she was one of the most prolific writers in history ... etc. But remember. I'm not a romance reader ... and have less interest in adolescent sighings. When I was a teen, I thought the girls who went all gushy were silly.]

I love that Graham hit the stereotype out the field. Even Harlequin doesn't follow the formula of simply girl/boy meets boy/girl ... girl/boy loses boy/girl ... girl/boy gets boy/girl ... any more. [Yeah, I know it can be boy meets boy and girl meets girl, now days ... but romance is romance even with a daub of erotica.] 

At the same time, the meets-loses-secures formula follows the basic three-act screenplay, book, and movie story-telling paradigm. What makes your story different is how you embellish the structure. That what makes a story stick in people's minds. The characters, the scenery, the twists, the action, the tension, and a host of other details make or break a book.

I'll even to give you the secret as to why I read the 'romances' up front. Graham mixes her genres up by using a romance as the linchpin holding a paranormal thriller/mystery together. A whole lot of authors do this. Kay Hooper, with her Bishop novels, adds a dose of supernatural with such a liberal hand you can't miss it. Sharyn McCrumb's mysteries take a subtler approach by adding the supernatural with her Nora Bonesteel character as a go between. 

I'm sure you can come up with hundreds of examples with this prompt ... so I don't have to go plowing through the mess on my bookshelves to find examples.

So how does Graham do it besides writing a good mystery with enough twists to keep a reader reading?  Sometimes the supernatural is front and center as the evil impetus to murder. Other books, the supernatural elements are auxiliary help in solving the mystery. In all cases:

1. The Leading men ... is attractive, but more important, is knowledgeable with information that can help the MC master her new psychic/supernatural skills ... plus being good in bed.
2. The villains possess just enough supernatural mojo, however acquired, to keep the good guys hopping as they process the clues to solve the who-dun-it.  
3. Her Main Characters, female, usually have one psychic power which they acknowledge or makes them uneasy when it's pointed out to them. Coping with the "skill" [?] and learning how to use it is one of the subplots which adds depth to the characters.
4. The secondary characters stand out as individuals 

It's embarrassing. But yes I have to admit I'll probably be buying and reading more Heather Graham books. She gets the right mix of supernatural and mystery to tickle my fancy.

===

Need a chuckle? Must share a link I discovered on Twitter on the Behler Blog: When Ms. Inner Editor Goes to Sleep, So Must You. Behler Publications seems to publish writer's books [I didn't spend much time there after I read the blog.] and they're writing about non-fiction. If you send them fiction, the beagle will eat it.

Maybe the beagle ate the submissions I have pending to agents and publishers. Not that it bothers me that much. I rather write. [Yes, the world of Hag Stone Magic is developing quite nicely. Now I have to exhibit the craft skills to make MacKenzie come alive in the mind of the reader ... though I'll probably wait until the revisions to worry about that. First the characters have to do something.]

Paranormal Plus -- Crossing Genre Boundaries

Lots of fiction genres, like mystery or romance, combine paranormal elements. Or, at least they say they do. You know the love the vampire ... or werewolf ... or demon in a will they live-happily-ever-after plot. Truth be told, I find such HEA paranormal romances rather dull. But, combine them with thriller type action and/or a puzzling mystery, you've hooked me.

Heather Graham's The Uninvited crosses genres with abandon and intelligence. Allison Leigh, a history professor, discovers the body of a fellow tour guide, an apparent suicide, in a stately home which also is reputed to be haunted by a Revolutionary War ghost. [The Who-Done-It + Paranormal] After a team of "ghost hunters" led by Tyler Montague investigates, a second murder occurs. [Complication + Love Interest]   Of course, Leigh is suspicious of Montague, but the board of the museum tells her to cooperate to solve the crime. Add twists and turns while various characters are threatened by the supposed mad ghost.

The question: are the murders a spectral manifestation or something more mundane or a combination of the two?

The villains in this case aren't particularly evil -- maybe more like totally selfish in a venial way even though ready to commit multiple murders. Graham does give them well rounded motivations. 

The most amazing was the way Graham wove a large cast of secondary characters into the plot. Most of the people introduced in the first few chapters had something integral to offer in solving the mystery. Making all of the "sidekicks" interesting, likable people is a skill most authors lack.

Rating: Only four stars. While I strongly recommend it. The book didn't make me abandon other tasks to read "one-more-chapter".

===

The revision/edits of Bad Luck Emma continue. I'm a little more than half-way through, but I've already queried a couple agents ... to get in under their holiday deadlines. Not that I expect anything wondrous to happen. Getting a request for a full, though, would be a nice Christmas present.

Did research on cat behavior for Troublesome Mac. The articles made cat behavior so dull and predictable that it's a wonder than anyone would keep a cat lying around. -- I think I'm fixated on "troublesome" situations and people.

Will repeat my offer of a free PDF or epub file of Troublesome Neighbors to any reader who asks for one in December. Send your email to mkkaytheod [at] yahoo [dot] com. Yeah, it'll go in my email files ... I may even get around to sending out a newsletter if something interesting ever happens with my writing. In the meantime, tidbits appear at the Half-Elven Facebook page  or my author page.