GIVEAWAY DETAILS BELOW
Author Marlene Bateman follows the success of Motive For Murder, book one in her Erica Coleman Murder Mystery Series, by serving up another quirky murder investigation featuring her charming OCD chef/sleuth in book two, A Death in the Family.
The author is generously offering a free copy of A Death in the Family, to one of my readers, so after reading the post, please leave a comment to enter.
(We'll select our winner at midnight on March 11th. Multiple entries are acceptable. The winner must live in the U.S.)
I'll be doing a full review in April, but
A Death in the Family is debuting right now, and I hopped on the blog tour to introduce my readers to this LDS mystery series.
Marlene is an experienced author with seven LDS non-fiction books, and two previous novels, to her credit. The list of titles can be found below in her bio, or on her
website. (I especially enjoyed
Gaze Into Heaven.) It is my great pleasure to introduce you to Marlene Bateman's heroine, Erica Coleman, in
A Death in the Family, which is available now in Seagull, and Deseret Books stores, and online at these sites:
Enjoy!
Laurie
And now, a Synopsis of
A Death in the Family
Meet
Erica Coleman—a gifted and quirky private investigator with an OCD-like passion
for neatness and symmetry, a penchant for cooking, (ten terrific recipes are
included), and a weakness for chocolate.
In A Death
in the Family, the second in the Erica Coleman series, private eye Erica
Coleman and her family happily anticipate Grandma Blanche’s eighty-first
birthday celebration in the picturesque town of Florence, Oregon. But when the
feisty matriarch, a savvy businesswoman, suspects wrongdoing and asks Erica to
investigate her company, things get sticky.
Before the investigation can even begin, Blanche’s
unexpected death leaves Erica with more questions than answers—and it is soon
clear Grandma’s passing was anything but natural: she was murdered. When another
relative becomes the next victim of someone with a taste for homicide, Erica
uses her flair for cooking to butter up local law enforcement and gather clues.
Erica’s OCD either helps or hinders her—depending
on who you talk to—but it’s those same obsessive and compulsive traits than
enable Erica to see clues that others miss. When she narrowly escapes becoming
the third victim, Erica is more determined than ever to solve the case.
Excerpt from A Death in the Family
“It’s hard to believe she’s gone,” Kristen
said dolefully. “When I moved here, I thought I’d have years with Grandma. She
was always so active—I thought she’d keep going for years.”
“And all the time, her heart was getting weaker,”
Trent said glumly.
Walter commented, “The last time I saw her,
Blanche said the doctor told her she had the constitution of a mule.”
There were a few smiles at this, but Martha’s brow
furrowed in confusion. “But Mom’s death didn’t have anything to do with how
healthy she was.”
“What are you talking about?” Trent’s impatient
voice billowed out and filled the small room.
Martha squirmed but fluttered on, “Well, after
what Mom said when she came to visit me, you know—about how something wrong was
going on in the company—I worried that something might happen.”
Her response reverberated around the room.
Everyone went very still—as if they were holding their breath.
Martha’s eyes went from one to another. “I didn’t
mean—oh, I shouldn’t have said anything,” she stammered. Her voice was pure
distress. “It’s just that . . . well, we’re all family here, so it’s okay,
isn’t it? I mean, no one else knows.”
“No one else knows what?” Trent said brusquely.
Visibly flustered, Martha’s hands twisted in her
lap. “And . . . and Mother was very
old and—and the police haven’t even come, have they?”
Erica wondered what Martha could be getting at.
Everyone darted quizzical looks at each other, trying to make sense out of
Martha’s confused chirruping.
After meeting blank looks all around, Martha
blurted, “I mean, that’s good . . . isn’t it? For the family?”
The room remained deadly silent as Martha’s cheeks
flamed red.
There was a rumble as Walter cleared his throat.
“Why would the police come?”
“Why, to arrest someone.” Martha sounded
surprised—as if he had asked something that was completely and absolutely
self-evident. She stared at Walter, as if he and he alone could straighten
everything out. “Isn’t that why they’re doing an autopsy? I mean, don’t they
always do an autopsy when someone has been murdered?”
Author Biography
Marlene Bateman
Sullivan was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and graduated from the University of
Utah with a BA in English. She is married to Kelly R. Sullivan and they are the
parents of seven children.
Her hobbies are
gardening, camping, and reading. Marlene
has been published extensively in magazines and newspapers and has written a
number of non-fiction books, including: Latter-day Saint Heroes and Heroines, And
There Were Angels Among Them, Visit’s From Beyond the Veil, By the Ministering
of Angels, Brigham’s Boys, and Heroes of Faith. Her latest book is Gaze Into Heaven, a fascinating collection of over 50 documented
near-death experiences in early church history.
Marlene’s first
novel was the best-selling Light on Fire
Island. Her next novel was Motive for
Murder, which is the first in a mystery series that features the quirky
private eye with OCD, Erica Coleman.
Interview Questions for Marlene
How did you learn to
write?
Learning how to write is
an ongoing process. I started in
elementary school, did more writing in junior high, and so on. I’ve spent
countless hours on manuscripts that were never published, but I don’t count
that as a loss, since it helped me improve my writing. I have a bookshelf full of books on writing
and every weekday morning, I try to read 2-4 pages. I underline important parts, then type them
up, which hopefully, sets the ideas in my brain. When I’m done with the book, I
print out up my notes and save them in a master binder so I can look them over
now and then.
Another thing that helps
me is that I try to pay attention when I read. If I don’t like something, I try
to figure out why and then not do that in my own writing! And when I read
something I like, I try to think about why it worked so I can use that same
technique in my own writing. I also
attend a yearly writer’s conference and the wonderful workshops help me learn
more about the craft of writing. Anyone
can write—as long as they are willing to practice and study.
What is the "funnest thing"
about being an author? The most frustrating thing?
The greatest thing is
simply being able to sit down and take time to write. When my children were small, I felt very
guilty about taking time to write, as though it was some nefarious indulgence.
Now that I’ve published nine books, I no longer feel guilty taking time to do
what I enjoy. Sometimes writing is difficult, occasionally it’s a chore, but I
love it. I’ve always felt driven to write. I have such a deep inner desire to
put words down that I sometimes wonder if I’m an addict! It gives me a great sense of accomplishment
and pleasure to write, polish and revise and get the words just right.
The most frustrating
thing for me is usually the first draft.
I’m not sure why, but it’s very difficult for me to get the rough draft
down. I enjoy coming up with an idea and
plotting out the story line, but the first draft is torture. It seems that whatever I write is garbage. I
take heart only in knowing that you have to get something down before you can
revise, and that revising is the essence of good writing. So, I grind my way
through it, and then enjoy the revising process, going through the manuscript
6-10 times until I’m satisfied. I liken revising to taking a nondescript stone
and polishing it until it sparkles.
Life sometimes comes at us like a tsunami, washing away the supports beneath our feet, knocking us over, changing the landscape of the path we were on, or at least we were heading towards.
