Tag: suspense

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“Murder Becomes Mayfair” is hot off the presses!

Few things warm an author’s heart more than seeing the first run of a new novel arrive at one’s doorstep.

The first 200 copies of “Murder Becomes Mayfair” have arrived! Fall colors even, for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere.

Pre-order now, at:

https://murderbecomes.com/purchase-print.html

(You can also order there the books that provide the Dalton Lee Mystery backstory).

These copies will likely be gone by the time our launch party takes place on Sunday, September 30. So reserve your copy now. (RSVP to our launch party in Dallas at:

https://murderbecomes.com/rsvp-mayfair-book-launch.html

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Summer mysteries

It seems summer, more than any other season, ushers mystery and intrigue into our lives. Released from the hubbub of our day-to-day responsibilities the rest of the year, we seem to seek out mystery (or invite it to find us,) during the summer months more than any other.

Who is that new person sitting across from us at the pool and why are they behaving so mysteriously? What do the unusual markings we have stumbled on in the woods during our hike represent? What are those lights we see across the lake from our summer cabin late at night? Does the laziness of summer make us notice, or seek out, intrigue all the more?

Or, have we been trained through years of summer escapism at the movies to expect mystery in the summer months? Just look at this list of suspense films that were released just before, or during, the summer:  Dial M for Murder,  Jaws, The Dark Knight, North by Northwest, Jurassic Park, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Psycho. And, perhaps the greatest mystery film of all time, Citizen Kane.

If you are looking for an intriguing getaway this summer, might I recommend the softcover version of “Murder Becomes Manhattan”, just made available. It’s the perfect paperback to peer over as you study that mysterious individual nearby who is hiding behind their designer sunglasses. Meanwhile, know that this summer I will be hard at work putting the finishing touches on “Murder Becomes Miami,” the second installment in the Murder Becomes series.

How fitting that much of the intrigue in that book will be taking place in . . . summer.

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Meet architect/detective Dalton Lee

Dalton Lee is a connoisseur of QUALITY items. This is not someone who shops at WalMart or drives a Kia.

In Murder Becomes Manhattan, the architect/detective at one point decides to have a drink at The Constellation Room, a penthouse-level lounge in one of the city’s finest hotels. And he asks the server to bring him one of the world’s finest bourbon whiskeys out there, a Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight.

Now this is no paid endorsement, I promise you. I have had a Buffalo Trace and it is truly sublime. So it just made sense to me that Dalton Lee should savor this expertly crafted elixir.

Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is distilled, aged and bottled at the most award-winning distillery in the world. Made from the finest corn, rye and barley malt, this whiskey ages in new oak barrels for years in century old warehouses until the peak of maturity. The taste is rich and complex, with hints of vanilla, toffee and candied fruit.

But don’t just take my word for it.

I received a nice email today from the distillery’s CEO, thanking us for calling them out in the book. So should you look into Buffalo Trace the next time you want to nurse a terrific bourbon, know it will not only help make you as debonair as Dalton Lee — it will also connect you to a gentlemanly organization if ever there were one.

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Embedding the clues

Murder Becomes Manhattan has essential clues to the killer’s identity, and the victim’s connection to The Organization, scattered throughout it. But they are subtly woven in, delivered in passing. At least, I hope they are.  😉

The importance of subtlety in delivering clues has become more apparent to me as I watch such television series as “Scandal” and “Castle” and “How to Get Away With Murder”.

On the latter show, it was a small detail of background wallpaper in an incriminating photograph that revealed the racy photo was actually taken in the home of the character played by Viola Davis. In another episode, house numbers briefly seen in a video turned out to be integral to identifying someone being somewhere they should not have been.

Last night’s episode showed a newscast with a reporter delivering damning information and in the middle of the report, someone runs past the camera behind the reporter and mugs it. I have no doubt that small detail will loom large later in the show.

With mystery readers becoming more and more savvy, I believe it is becoming more and more difficult to embed clues the reader will not recognize as having importance. What deftly hidden clues have you found well executed in the mystery writing you have encountered?

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Murder Becomes eBooks with links

I am very excited that Murder Becomes Manhattan is now available for pre-order at both Amazon and Smashwords.

Available as of October 26 are the eBook versions, which contain links to lots of rich online photos and videos that enhance the murder mystery experience. We expect pre-orders of the hardcover and softcover versions to also be available by November 1.

Downloads of the eBook versions and purchase of the print versions will launch November 11!

Pre-order Murder Becomes Manhattan here.

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Novel Concept?

One of the great challenges associated with writing a mystery is how to make it stand out from the 100 gazillion other mysteries out there. I concocted the angle of letting the eBook versions of Murder Becomes Manhattan contain links to pictures, videos and other content that might enhance the reading experience.

Or does it? Most murder mystery readers I have shown the concept to have found it fun and worthwhile. But I do wonder if some will consider those links distractions to the story.

The entire book contains about 40 links. I have tried to scatter them throughout the book, although some of the early chapters have a greater abundance of them than the chapters near the book’s climax. And I tried to focus on including only those links that I felt might be worth exploring. A video of a popular song that causes one of the characters to have a public meltdown. A recipe to the perfect grilled cheese sandwich the primary detective craves.

And of course links to the murder scenes and the apartment lived in by one of the victims.

But what do you think about this — if you will pardon the pun — NOVEL concept. Beneficial? Or an irritation?

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Architecture for each book’s location

There’s so much groundbreaking architecture in Manhattan. Who can resist the pull of the Guggenheim Museum, the New York Public Library or Grand Central Station? Yet none of those get coverage in my novel Murder Becomes Manhattan. Why is that, a couple of early readers have asked.

My primary detective in the “Murder Becomes” series, Dalton Lee, is a world-renowned architect with projects across the globe. In each book, his knowledge of architecture will help him solve the murder at hand. So I wanted architecture to play a key role in each book.

The architectural form Manhattan is most renowned for is the skyscraper. That is the city in which it debuted and that is the city in which it has been perfected over time. And in the 2010s, it is the city in which a revolution in skyscraper design is underway.

Since I cannot focus on ALL of the tremendous architecture available in my murder locales, I chose to settle on the subset of architecture most important to each place. In my mind, in Manhattan, that should be the skyscraper, and in my next mystery, Murder Becomes Miami, it should be the Deco architecture that city is known for. But do you agree?

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