Crime of Passion by Paty Jager

How many times do you hear that on a mystery show? It was a crime of passion. There are statistics that show most murders are crimes of passion. Lovers kill lovers, husbands kill wives, mothers kill children, fathers kill families. It's not something we want to think about or write about- but it is the world a mystery writer has to think about.

Passion- it can get out of control and cause the loss of life or it can be used to keep readers wanting to know what happens next with your protagonist.

What the statistics do tell us, is no matter what happens in a person's life- romance or lack of romance- plays a part in how that person acts and reacts to others. 

That is why I enjoy reading mystery books that have an element of romance going on either between the main protagonists or the secondary characters. It's that little bit of human interaction that makes me root for them, remember them, and think of them as real people.

Not too long ago at a book signing, I'd just set everything up and five women marched up to my table

and one declared, "Why are you being so mean to Ryan?"  They all agreed and went on to quiz me about when I was going to have Shandra (main protagonist in my Shandra Higheagle mysteries) give in and agree to marry Ryan. The women said they loved the mysteries but wanted to know when I was going to get Ryan and Shandra together. 

I gave them a vague answer, knowing full well which book I planned to give Ryan and Shandra a happy-ever-after. Drawing out their attraction and waiting for the right moment had worked. It kept readers purchasing the books. While my reviews remark about the mysteries, the Native American elements, and the twists, they usually also comment on the romance element too. 

One of my critique partners who writes romance kept telling me to add more romance into the story, but I knew staunch mystery readers wouldn't like that. I tried to keep the romance as much a mystery as the murder they were trying to solve. It was the best way to keep the ones who like romance in the books to keep reading and to appease the ones who don't care for romance in their mysteries. 

If you look back to Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence mysteries there was a romantic/married

couple who solved mysteries. Dame Christie's books also showed a wonderful array of local people who might or might not be involved in a bit of hanky-panky. 

I believe to make a realistic setting for a mystery you have to include romance in either your main characters, secondary characters, or both.  My latest murder mystery series, Gabriel Hawke, I have a man in his 50's who lost his wife the first five years into his career because of his career and has believed he doesn't need another woman in his life. Unfortunately for him, his best friend, other than the couple who are his landlords, is a woman and he's having strong feelings towards another woman. While there isn't a romance, yet. There is ample opportunity for one to happen and for the readers (who have already been telling me who he should go for) to made a wager if he'll crumple and if so with which woman. 

I'm betting that having this will he or won't he fall in love element of romance fluttering on the fringes of the murder mysteries he solves is one of the things along with the cast of characters and the settings and twists that keep the readers coming back for more.  

How about you? Do you like romance with your mysteries or do you want just the facts ma'am and work at solving the mystery on your own? 

Paty Jager is the award-winning author of the Shandra Higheagle and Gabriel Hawke Mystery series. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

This is what Mysteries Etc has to say about her Shandra Higheagle mystery series: “Mystery, romance, small town, and Native American heritage combine to make a compelling read.” And Books A Plenty Book Reviews says this about the Gabriel Hawke Series:"The blend of nature tracking, clues, and the animals makes for a fascinating mystery that is hard to put down." 

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A Little Romance with Your Mystery?

On Writing Mysteries with a Romantic Subplot

by Shéa MacLeod

I admit it, I love mysteries, but I always want a bit of romance (or a lot of romance) mixed in. I remember when I first read Agatha Christie. I loved her novels, but I always thought, “You know, this couple would be perfect together. This is the exact moment that we should get a hint they’re going to live happily ever after. I want more romance!”

You might point out that Christie did, in fact, often hint at romantic involvements, but it wasn’t explicit enough for my taste. I don’t mean explicit in the sexual sense, but rather in the sense of romance. Of giving me, the reader, that wonderful satisfaction of knowing that not only have these two people survived a killer and justice been served, but they are now madly in love and their future is bright.

“But it’s hard to get romantic when there’s a dead body involved.”

I beg to differ! There’s something intrinsically romantic about trying to solve a puzzle together, seeking justice together, protecting each other. Isn’t that the heart and soul of a committed relationship? Isn’t that what we all want? Someone to cherish and protect who will do the same for us?

I suppose that is why when I started writing my cozy mysteries, I wanted to make sure that there was always a romantic subplot. Human relationships are the most fascinating thing to me. In fact, they’re usually the reason the victim is murdered in the first place! Jealousy is the dark underbelly of love, and such an excellent motive for murder. So I wanted to explore the various aspects of human relationships. Not just those that resulted in death or betrayal, but those that resulted in happiness.

The beauty of having a long-term protagonist from book to book is that I get to explore those relationships over time. I’m not focused on getting the Happily Ever After by the end of book one (after all, these are not Romantic Mysteries which would require that!), but rather I’m exploring the process of getting to that Happily Ever After over time. That includes the occasional misunderstanding, bump in the road, or even break up in one instance.

But being a romantic at heart (and a reader and writer of romance), I always keep the rules of romance in mind, even when writing a cozy mystery. I want to give my readers satisfying endings. Not just that the mystery is solved, but that the relationship between my heroine and her hero is moving forward. Maybe the pace is slower, but they’re getting there.

And that’s the key, I think, to meeting reader expectations when it comes to romance in mysteries, whether you are writing a full-on romance with a mystery subplot, or a mystery with a romantic subplot. It must be satisfying, always. Because we all live for Happily Ever After. Even when murder is involved.

Shéa MacLeod is the author of the bestselling Lady Rample Mysteries, a cozy mystery series set in jazz-era London, as well as the contemporary Viola Roberts Cozy Mysteries.

She lives in the rain forest of the Pacific Northwest where she fuels her writing habit with copious amounts coffee, wine, and chocolate.

Website: https://www.sheamacleod.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/sheamacleodcozymysteries/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheamacleodauthor/

The Place of Romance in Mystery by Debbie Young

Debbie Young - Angela Fitch Photograph

In every mystery story I write, there’s a generous helping of romance, in common with many mysteries at the lighter end of the spectrum.

The precedent was set during the Golden Age of Crime-writing. Many of Agatha Christie’s stories require crimes to be solved to reunite lovers parted by accusation and arrest. In Dorothy L Sayers’ Strong Poison, when Lord Peter Wimsey falls in love with Harriet Vane at her trial for poisoning her ex-lover, he must prove her innocence before her date with the noose.

Cover by Rachel Lawston
Lawston Design

In my own novels, the romances aren’t necessarily key to the central mystery, but they are an integral part of the story and its world. The love affair between Sophie and her bookseller boss Hector Munro has its own plot arc running the course of the whole Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series. In Murder in the Manger, the series’ Christmas special, when village shopkeeper Carol Barker confesses her loneliness, Sophie vows to find her a boyfriend, and the resulting relationship develops in the sequel, Murder by the Book.

While the “will they, won’t they?” feeling is a good reason for the reader to keep turning the pages, besides wanting to solve the mystery, perhaps the most important function of romance in mystery novels is to provide comfort and warmth to restore the reader’s spirits after the shock of cold-hearted crimes. It also adds point to the more poignant moments, such as accentuating the sense of loss at a murder.

Cover by Rachel Lawston
of Lawston Design

The strength of the romance in my novels, in tandem with a generous helping of comedy, has led fellow novelist Rosalind Minett to describe them as “feel-good murders”. That might sound like a contradiction in terms, but I believe a murder mystery can and should be life-affirming. Don’t we all want to believe that all will be well, and that justice will prevail, even in our darkest days?

But I don’t weigh up the balance of mystery, romance and comedy as I go along, as if mixing a sponge-cake recipe. I use them instinctively, as a natural extension of my upbringing and personality. Coming from a close-knit, quick-witted, optimistic family, in my household never a day goes by without hugs and laughs. My parents have just this week celebrated their sixty-sixth wedding anniversary. I’m lucky to have been raised to regard happy endings and true love as ideal and achievable. And in my mystery novels, unlike real life, I have the unassailable power to deliver both.

Debbe Young's Sophie Sayers Mysteries
Covers by Rachel Lawston of Lawston Design

Debbie Young lives and writes in a Victorian cottage in  a small village community in the beautiful English Cotswolds, full of eccentric characters and lively events to inspire her cozy mystery novels. Her Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series, currently standing at five books, will on completion run the course of a village year from one summer to the next.

Flat Chance, the first in
Debbie Young's new series,
 will be published in the summer

Her Staffroom at St Bride's series will follow the intrigues of the teachers at a traditional British boarding school for girls, and the first in the series, Flat Chance, will be launched this summer.

She also writes short stories and has published three themed collections. She is founder and director of the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival, a frequent speaker at literary events around the country, co-presenter of BBC Radio Gloucestershire's Book Club, and UK Ambassador for the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Links: www.authordebbieyoung.com

Twitter: @DebbieYoungBN

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDebbieYoung/

Two Mystery Characters I Admire by Paty Jager

This month at RTG is: favorite character any media. This is tough. But as I sat reflecting on the fictional characters in TV, movies, and books, I came up with a tie. Both characters are from books. I spent most of my school years with my face stuck in a book, and many, many hours when my children were growing up reading, which makes my choices seem fitting.

They are: Mrs. Pollifax of Dorothy Gilman's mystery series and Miss Marple of Agatha Christie's mystery books.

Mrs. Pollifax was a widow with grown children who was looking for a way to be useful. She did what any middle-aged widow looking for adventure would do--she joined the CIA. ;) She makes a good operative, with commonsense and the wisdom of living a full life. It is usually the younger person she is working with, who gets her into trouble, but she manages to find a way out and make sure the assignment is executed. I like that she didn't give up when most people feel they've lived enough life. She always has a can-do attitude and pushes on even when it looks like the mission is blown.

Miss Marple is an elderly spinster living in a small community in England. She pretends

at times to be feeble and slow-witted to gain access to information people would not tell a person of clear mind. She also is part of the cog of the gossip in the community and has a keen interest in human behavior. She uses connections with friends and relatives to get into places a woman of her standing in society would not usually be invited. Miss Marple in some respects reminds me of a chameleon. Able to adjust how she is seen, to get the information she wishes.

Both women are of keen intelligence and have learned how to navigate society and people to discover the truths they seek.

As a mystery writer, I try to use bits and pieces of these two characters in my amateur sleuth, Shandra Higheagle. While she isn't as old, she has lived a life that has given her more insight than most her age. And she has the help of her deceased grandmother. What Shandra can't decipher, her grandmother is more than happy to come to her in a dream with a vision to help her put things in their place.
                                                                   

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 30+ novels, novellas, and short stories of murder mystery, western romance, and action adventure. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. This is what Mysteries Etc says about her Shandra Higheagle mystery series: “Mystery, romance, small town, and Native American heritage combine to make a compelling read.

A Tribute to the Queen of Crime

If Daphne du Maurier had written only Rebecca, she would still be one of the great shapers of popular culture and the modern imagination. Few writers have created more magical and mysterious places than Jamaica Inn and Manderley, buildings invested with a rich character that gives them a memorable life of their own.

In many ways the life of Daphne du Maurier resembles that of a fairy tale. Born into a family with a rich artistic and historical background, the daughter of a famous actor-manager, she was indulged as a child and grew up enjoying enormous freedom from financial and parental restraint. She spent her youth sailing boats, travelling on the Continent with friends, and writing stories. A prestigious publishing house accepted her firs...moreHow do you write a blog about a woman who influenced your life—without slighting another woman with equal influence?  And if you don’t write a blog about relatives/family members/friends, how do you honor a single female when there are so many greats who have paved the way for everything from women’s suffrage to females on the space shuttle?

Easy, you write about writing—and get very specific.  Thus, (coward that I am) I pay homage to the Queen of Crime, Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (née Miller). After all, we writers (and readers) of who-dunnits cannot even imagine a world with Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Even if you’re not a mystery-enthusiast, you have to admire a female born in 1890 who became the best-selling novelist of all times (Source: Guinness Book of World Records). Agatha wrote 66 detective novels and has sold four billion (Yes, BILLION) copies of her books.  Her play, The Mousetrap, also holds the record for the longest initial run. It opened in 1952 and as of 2012, is still running.

Of course no woman is worthy of recognition just for selling books, but Aggie was also a humanitarian.  During the First World War, she joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and clocked 3,400 unpaid hours attending wounded soldiers at the hospital in Torquay.

Young Aggie

Like a lot of modern woman, Agatha endured heartache before finding true love. She divorced first hubby Archie (maybe because the cad admitted to being in love with Nancy Neele). But we have our HEA—in 1930 (at the age of 40) she married an archaeologist after joining him on a dig—isn’t that romantic?

But perhaps the thing I like most about Agatha, is her restraint in killing off her popular hero, Poirot. According to Aggie’s diary, our grand dame found Poirot “insufferable.” Although she considered him an ego-centric creep, the author didn’t whack the detective during the height of his popularity.  Aggie felt her job was to give the readers what they wanted (eh, can we learn something here). That said, Poirot is the only fictional character with an obituary in The New York Times.

Despite her greatness, critics have commented that Aggies’s plotting ability  exceeded her literary skill. I say, “Duh—four BILLION books.”

What about you? What authors do you love that critics have panned?

Robin Weaver
Author of Blue Ridge Fear
Now available at Amazon.com and TheWildRosePress.com

Life's Every Day Mysteries

September 14, 2012

The flash of black in the leafy green vegetation didn’t register in my still awakening mind.

What did?

The driver standing next to the vehicle, climbing aboard and getting on his cell phone.

Of course my curiosity was aroused. In the 37 years I’d lived in this house, I’d never seen this happen before. Out on my front porch I watched the driver’s animated face and gestures. Something was certainly up.

He hung up and trotted over to where I still stood on my porch.

“Sorry, mam, they’ll have a replacement out within seven days.”

The look on my face must have been comically confused.

He flashed me a big grin, pointed over his shoulder with his thumb and said, “Your bin fell into the truck and was crushed.”

That scene took place on Friday morning. On Monday morning a clean yard debris bin sat in my yard!

Reading this, you may wonder if this is the most exciting real life mystery I’ve ever experienced. My answer would be ‘it depends’. (Actually ‘it depends’ is one of my most favorite answers to virtually any question).

There was the time when a piece of peacock stone came off my Crone Staff at a Women of the 14^th Moon Ceremony. I looked Every Where for it. The next year I spied something glittering in the grass – a piece of peacock stone.

I used to be an avid reader of mysteries. Sherlock Holmes (I’ve the Complete Unabridged Edition); Agatha Christie, and Lillian Braun “The Cat Who…” were favorites I read and reread. These days the mystery needs to be layered into an Historical or Contemporary Romance for me to have a chance of reading it.

If you think there is no mystery in my life, I will admit there isn’t as much as there used to be. I have one special place for my house and car keys and my purse so I do not spend hours trying to solve the mystery of where they are. I make lists to keep in some semblance of control over the mystery of ‘what was it I was supposed to get done today?’ However, there are still those evenings and mornings when I ask myself “Did I take my pills?” Not remembering, I’m ever so glad I take nothing life threatening – if that were the case, I’d certainly figure out a way to eliminate that mystery.

Over the years I’ve had lots of opportunities to solve problems/mysteries as a child protective service worker, geriatric case manager, professional guardian, and emergency responder nights and weekends for vulnerable adults. These days, while I do still work one night a week and one weekend a month as an emergency responder for vulnerable adults, my main goal is to figure out how to reduce or eliminate the everyday mysteries in my life.

www.JudithAshleyRomance.com

www.JudithAshley.blogspot.com

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© 2012 Judith Ashley