Mystery Musings

My Jazzi and Ansel novel The Body in the Gravel is on sale now for $1.99.  It was my third title in the series, and I had an especially good time writing it.  First of all, Jazzi and Ansel get married at the end of that book.  Yay!  And we finally got to meet Ansel’s parents and siblings.  His brother Radley and sister Adda are warm and wonderful and were fun to write.  His dad and oldest brother, Bain, are rude and bothersome–so they were a different kind of fun to write.  Sometimes, irritating or even terrible characters are interesting to create.  And Ansel’s mom?  She was more difficult because she’s so weak, it was hard to bring her to life.  She never stands up to her husband.

And then there’s the “body” in the title, Darby.  He’s as self-absorbed as Ansel’s father but a lot more quarrelsome, probably he drinks too much.  He drove his wife and son, Walker, away and regrets it but has too much pride to admit it.  And for whatever reason, Walker became one of my favorite characters in the series.  He walked on the page and I wrote whatever he wanted.

Anyway, I’m glad the book is getting a little extra TLC right now.  I love all my books, or I couldn’t write them, but this one’s characters were so strong in my mind, they made it easy for me.  And that doesn’t always happen.