In my new book, An Amateur Sleuth’s Guide to Murder, Meg Gates, not that Gates, is a three-time loser. She dropped out of college to join a tech startup that promised big payoffs, but it went bankrupt. And now, her tech professional fiancé has used their honeymoon to Italy tickets to take Meg’s sorority sister bridesmaid on vacation, breaking up with Meg from the Seattle airport. Now she’s taking the ferry ride of shame home to regroup and figure out her next step.
I get Meg. I’ve had a lot of JOBs that had such promise but turned into someone else’s dream. I’ve made some mistakes like walking away from my master’s degree with only 9 credits left. But like Meg, I finally found my career calling. (And, fingers crossed, the right guy.) Meg finally realizes that the one thing she was good at as a kid was solving mysteries. Lose a dog or a ring? Meg and her friends were the people to call.
On her way home, with her golden cocker spaniel, Watson, by her side, she decides to do something crazy. Write a how-to book on how to investigate crimes without being a police officer or a private detective. Now, she must convince her uncle to let her help solve a case. And for someone to be murdered on the island… Little problems, right?
Meg makes a list of the tips and tricks for a successful investigation. Here’s five cozy mysteries that involve murders that could be part of Meg’s research for her guide.
Tip #1 – Never wear your best outfit to go sleuthing. Or heels.
In Murder at an Irish Wedding, author Carlene O’Connor has both the wedding attire to deal with as well as a fashion model bride. Siobhan O’Sullivan and her family are catering the three-day event. When the best man is disinvited to the wedding, and is later found murdered in the woods, Siobhan is feeling a little protective of her village. When a second member of the wedding party is poisoned by a champagne flute engraved with the new best man, Siobhan’s fiancé’s, name, she vows to clear him, but the suspect list is long. Siobhán needs to watch her step because the murderer is planning a very chilly reception for her . . .
Tip #2 – Everyone’s a suspect . . . including your friends and family.
In Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson, Ernest, our narrator and main character has been invited to the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society’s crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide. He was hoping for some inspiration for his second book. Fiction, this time: he needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out. The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty: the debut writer (Ernest), the forensic science writer, the blockbuster writer, the legal thriller writer, the literary writer, and the psychological suspense writer.
But when one of the writers is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, they should know how to solve a crime. Of course, they also know how to commit one.
Tip #3 -Thinking about committing a crime isn’t the same as doing it.
In The Twelve Slays of Christmas by Jacqueline Frost, Holly White finds herself in Meg’s position – stood up for the wedding she’d planned so carefully. Except when she goes home to lick her wounds, she finds her dad is the one who’s accused of killing someone. She needs to work fast to clear his name so Santa won’t skip their house during his magical sleigh ride.
Tip #4 – If you can get access to the murder site, take pictures of the area. Don’t rely on your memory or sketching skills.
I’m a horrible sketcher, and not much better of a photographer, not like Liv Spyers, the main character in Mugshots of Manhattan. When she scores a career changing assignment, she has her cameras ready to shoot her subject, a Grammy Award-winning pop star as she prepares for her glamorous debut movie premiere. Of course, that’s when the claws come out and the diva’s estranged sister causes problems, Liv finds that the star-studded world she’s joined is filled with images she’d rather delete—especially when the sister winds up dead . . .
Her pictures are not only a memento of the event, but they could also be the clue that solves the killing.
Tip #5 -What doesn’t kill you counts as work experience.
(Especially for a writer.) In The Next Deadly Chapter by V.M. Burns, Michigan bookshop owner and mystery writer Samantha Washington is engaged to be married. And in this fun read, her Nana Jo and friends from the Shady Acres Retirement Village decided to throw her a surprise bridal shower, when all Sam’s worried about is finishing this draft. Worse news, the party is being held at the Four Feathers Casino and they’ve invited her soon-to-be mother-in-law. When the prim and proper mother-in-law finds a dead body in her room the next morning, Sam needs to keep her out of a potential scandal and solve the murder.
A touchy situation, which for Meg Gates, would just be part of the research process for her new book.
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