Blog Tour: An Intimate Murder by Stacy Verdick Case (Review/Guest Post/Giveaway)

Genre:
Mystery

Format:
E-book

Publisher:
Before the Fall Books

Release Date:
October 2014



Detective Catherine O’Brien and her partner Louise are at it again. Jonathan and Susan Luther are found dead in their home by their son, Chad. Chad is completely devastated and heartbroken. It’s impossible to get any information out of him. The detectives have their work cut out for them, especially when they discover that this isn’t the first tragedy to hit the Luther family. Yet, they can find no one with a grudge against this family. Could it really be a coincidence?

To complicate matters even more, after Catherine publicly insults the media, her bosses order her to make things right. She and Louise are instructed to allow reporter Jane Katts to tag along with them as they investigate the Luther murders. The detectives object but their complaints fall on deaf ears and they are stuck with Jane riding along. The last thing they need is a reporter hearing all the gory, as well as juicy, details of a double murder investigation.

To say this book is a police procedural would be an understatement. It’s a police procedural with attitude…a bit of a kick to it. The camaraderie between Louise and Catherine adds so much to this story. Their banter is amusing and realistic. Their friendship shines through the entire book.

This is the third book in the Catherine O’Brien series and my favorite to date. It’s an edge-of-your-seat type of story. I devoured this book. I absolutely could not put it down. There was even a bit of an Agatha Christie type twist thrown in. It gave us an ending I didn’t even expect. This author has a real flair for the mystery genre. More please 

FTC Disclosure: The author provided me with a copy of this book to review for this blog tour. This did not influence my thoughts and opinions in any way. All opinions expressed are my own.

Author Guest Blog

I’m Only Creepy Because I Write

Stacy Verdick Case

Before we decided that building a house was the way to go. My husband and I put our house on the market and diligently set out to find a new home. This required spending several hours a week trapped in a vehicle with a realtor. Realtors are salesmen, they want to bond with you so you will be more likely to keep them as your realtor for all your current and future home buying needs.

During one of these long days of house hunting, my husband happened to mention that I write books. He loves to tell people I’m writer, which God bless him has sold more than a few copies, but it’s always a little awkward for me. It puts me on the spot. People have tons of questions, because let’s face it this is the coolest job ever!

The first question is always, “what do you write?” Then they want to know about what kind of research I do. After a few days in the car and more probing questions about my research the realtor finally turned to my husband and said, “Doesn’t she ever creep you out?”

To which my husband in all earnestness said, “Yeah, sometimes.”

I was shocked. This man, the love of my life, who I had known for fifteen years was creeped out by me? This put a pretty big pout on my face for the rest of the day. That afternoon while driving home I asked my hubby, “Do I really creep you out?”

He said, “Yeah, sometimes.”

I just had to know why. He said, “You research ways to kill people.”

I couldn’t argue with the logic. It’s true I do research ways to kill people, and I ask some pretty creepy questions to doctors, lawyers, police officers, realtors, pretty much anyone I think might have information I might need. But mystery writers should be the person you’re the least afraid of, because we left it all on the page. Writing murder is our catharsis. If we don’t like you we’ll kill you on paper. Heck if we like you we might kill you on paper too, but I certainly wouldn’t off my neighbors and stuff them in their septic tank.

I would be the first person they’d look at, which would make me a pretty stupid criminal, but not a very creepy one. I have to admit that some of the questions I’ve asked during the course of our marriage were eyebrow raising. I have long conversations with doctors explaining why I want certain information, but after the first time they’re more willing to answer questions the next time.

Maybe part of the reason he’s creeped out is the role I ask him to take in my research. I’ve asked my husband to play dead, so that I could find out if a woman my size could lift an unconcious body onto a chair. The answer was yes I could get an unconscious man into a chair, and now I know that for a fact. No one can argue with me. Plus, I can write knowledgably about what it’s like to lift that dead weight. I can also attest to the scrapes and bruises it leaves on the victim. Sorry honey!

On a scale of 1 to Manson on the creepy front, I think I and other mystery writers should be on the lower end of the scale. Personal foibles aside. I think it’s a lot creepier to be a dressing room monitor than it is to be a mystery writer. I also think it’s far creepier to be the person who cleans up road kill, but hey that’s just me. And I bet their spouses aren’t creeped out by them.

Eventually I had to let go of my husband’s creeped-outed-ness and decided that was his little red wagon. I have a job to do; creepy be damned! I will continue to ask my questions and creep people out for as long as I writer mysteries.

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