Category: New Mexico Mystery

Reviews and Author Interviews

A New Mexico Mystery Author Interview: Amy M. Bennett

Last week, I reviewed No Lifeguard on Duty, and today I have the pleasure of welcoming the author for an interview.

Bio: Amy M. Bennett, author of the Black Horse Campground mystery series, has worked as a cake decorator, vino-slinger, and retail worker in preparation for writing murder mysteries. She consumes way too much coffee, New Mexico wine, and true crime documentaries to be considered normal, but her husband and son love her anyway. She lives in Bent, New Mexico, and is always thinking about, if not actively writing, the next book.

AF: Were you always a mystery writer, or did you start with another genre? I ask because you have such a knack for the romantic elements in a mystery.

AMB: I have always loved mysteries, ever since I was a kid and grew up reading… The Three Investigators! Yes, you probably thought I was going to say Nancy Drew, but she was unrelatable to me, an awkward pre-teen with no illusions about being a pulled-together “titian-haired” 18-year-old with her own convertible! But three young teenage boys with a secret junkyard headquarters and the use of a vintage limo they won in a jellybean guessing contest? Okay, maybe still far-fetched, but more relatable to me! That’s what I’ve always wanted to do: create characters that are relatable. I tried to write mainstream romance, was even encouraged to write for Harlequin, but the mystery-lover in me kept going back to my roots.

AF: I may be able to guess the answer, but I’d like to hear it from you. Why did you choose a campground as the setting? Your background as professional cake decorator and your work at a winery offer more conventional cozy setting possibilities.

AMB: There are SOOOO many mystery series that are centered around food and wine (restaurants, cafes, bakeries, wineries, etc.) that I wanted to think of some setting that wasn’t overdone. After a camping trip with my husband and son to Silver City (NM) where we stayed in a very well-run KOA Campground, I realized I had my setting. I took a lot of notes on that trip and any subsequent vacation we took where we stayed in a campground. Also, my concern about having “Cabot Cove syndrome” was dispelled in part by the fact that campgrounds allowed my characters to interact with strangers from other places instead of the people they encountered in their day-to-day life, so a wider range of suspects and victims. (Incidentally, I’d have been eyeing Jessica Fletcher with a lot more suspicion with all the bodies dropping dead in Cabot Cove and she being the common denominator!)

AF: Do you have connections in local law enforcement in your area? If so, what did you learn from them? The scenes with the sheriff and deputies feel authentic and natural. You seem comfortable writing about them. If this is all from research, it’s good research.

AMB: I know a few police officers but, believe it or not, I’ve never taken advantage of them to do a “ride along” or an interview or anything like that. Back when NaNoWriMo was in its prime, they had a few forums where experts—law enforcement, legal, medical, etc.—would offer to answer questions about almost everything you could think of, so I did ask a lot of questions there. I also did a lot of research online about questions pertaining specifically to New Mexico law enforcement. Having a very small-town setting helps, because law enforcement is a lot more likely to be involved with the locals than in a big city.

AF: Where do you start when writing a book? Do you begin with a plot premise? A situation into which you put your characters to see what they do? A blank page and inspiration? Something else?

AMB: I started my series with a setting and a vague idea of who my characters were. That, and I knew I wanted to write a mystery! Now that I’ve established my setting and characters, I just say, “Okay, guys, now what?” Sometimes, when in the midst of a book, I get an idea that really doesn’t fit in the story I’m writing, I set it aside for a future book. Then I tell myself to throw that situation at my characters and see where it goes.

AF: What is the greatest challenge for you in writing a series, and what is the greatest satisfaction?

AMB: I had so many people tell me, at first, that they HATED love triangles in a mystery because the reasons were always so dumb. I think I was able to pull off the love triangle in a believable manner but I also knew when it was time to settle it and move on. The challenge is in coming up with a mystery that isn’t too easy to solve but also not so difficult that it confuses the reader. I also have to do better at keeping notes … I’m always having to revise names I’ve already used in previous stories!

AF: Is there anything I should have asked you that I didn’t think of? Answer that missing question.

AMB: I do have a story I love to share, and it has to do with getting recognition for my writing in a most unexpected way! I work for a local winery, Noisy Water, based out of Ruidoso. One of their best-selling and best known wines is a sweet white blend called Jo Mamma’s White. One time, my husband and I were working a wine festival in Tularosa and our booth had big banners advertising our wines and one of them had the Jo Mamma’s label printed on it. A woman was walking up to us excitedly and she said, “Oh, my gosh, IT’S REAL! I can’t believe it’s real! There really IS a Jo Mamma’s wine!” She went on to say, “I read a mystery book where the main character drank a wine called ‘Jo Mamma’s White’ and I honestly thought it was made up! I can’t believe there really is a Jo Mamma’s White!” Well, when I told her that I was the author of the book she read, she got so excited, she bought a bottle of the wine and asked me to sign it for her! I think that was the first time I and my books were better known than my workplace and their wines!

AF: Thank you for a delightful interview!

*****

To learn more about Amy’s books, go to

https://www.amymbennettbooks.com/books

 

A New Mexico Mystery Review: No Lifeguard on Duty by Amy M. Bennett

I accidentally started with book two in this series, and once I realized what I’d done, I was already hooked and didn’t want to stop and go back to book one (though you should start there to get acquainted with the cast). It was a pleasure to get the essence of the cozy mystery—an amateur sleuth allied with law enforcement: no onstage violence; a tight-knit community; natural, unforced humor; and strong interpersonal relationships—without cliches or cuteness. The setting at a campground is a change of pace for the genre, with great potential for variety in the series.

The plot is tight and full of surprises. I could only figure out half of whodunnit until a twist near the end revealed the rest. And I loved the characters. They are the lifeblood of the series. The relationships among Corrie and Rick and JD carry a thread of romantic rivalry and competition, and yet the two men with an interest in Corrie respect each other and work well together. There are lighter scenes, such as Corrie’s attempt to aid the investigation by going out to dinner with yet another law enforcement officer. (They dine at a real place that I recognized, the Inn of the Mountain Gods in Mescalero, which added to the fun.) Overall, though, this is not a comedic type of cozy, but a slice of life, an empathic portrayal of loss, healing, and friendship as well as crime in a small New Mexico town.

*****

Next week, I’ll post my interview with the author. That gives you time to start reading the series! https://www.amymbennettbooks.com/books

A New Mexico Mystery Review: Shutter by Ramona Emerson

Unique, breathtaking, intense—and somehow occasionally funny in the midst of tragedy and horror—Shutter is one of the most original books I’ve read in years. Forensic photographer Rita Todacheene is gifted with not only skill in her work but with a spirit world connection. The gift is a burden, provoking concern and conflict in her family and in her workplace and creating profound stress in her personal life, but the ghosts will not leave her alone.

The structure of the book, alternating between Rita’s earlier life on the Navajo  reservation and her work with the Albuquerque Police Department, gives depth and balance to the story. As a reader, I needed the reprieve from the APD. I cherished the time with Grandma, and got to know Rita through her roots, seeing the person she was before she became immersed in some of the ugliest murders in the city.

And those murders are horrific. Normally, I’d have struggled had get through the crime scenes, but Rita’s perspective made them compelling—seeing them through her eyes, through her lens, through her commitment to the dead. The reader can’t look away because Rita can’t. Neither her job nor the victims will let her.

I’ve only seen a ghost once. She chilled me to the bone. At least she went away and never came back. Rita’s ghosts linger, cling, persist, and return. Some are angry and desperate; some are benevolent. They can see her and communicate with her. Emerson makes them as real as the living characters.

I admire her writing skill. She doesn’t explain but allows readers to intuit through immersion. I never sensed Rita talking to an audience in the narration, though it’s first person. There’s a brush with the confrontation-and-confession trope, but it’s short and does no harm to the pace or to the plausibility of the moment. I felt that Rita wasn’t really a smoker, that this habit might have been an afterthought in some stage of revision in order to put her in the right place at the right time, but her flawed coping skills overall make her human and make her surges of strength all the more admirable.

If you appreciate a realistic crime story, a powerful ghost story, and an authentic New Mexico setting, this is your book.

Learn more about the author in this NPR archive interview.

 

A New Mexico Mystery Review: Jemez Spring by Rudolfo Anaya

I wish I could say that Jemez Spring was as good as the rest of the series, but it’s not. I had to finish it because it wraps up the Sonny Baca series, but it doesn’t do the story cycle justice. Even Sonny himself is not as strong a character. He becomes something between a caricature and an archetype. I almost stopped reading early on, when Sonny—a private investigator—and a police detective are in the presence of the murder victim who died in a hot spring bath at Jemez Springs, and they derisively discuss the size of the dead man’s penis. At that point, I no longer liked Sonny. I thought, why is this episode here?

His girlfriend, Rita, was always simply an archetypal female ideal with no depth. None of the women in this book have any dimensionality except Naomi, the Jemez Pueblo potter. She has a personality. She’s original. I love it when she gets in Sonny’s truck and says, “You got spirits in this truck?” (One of the strongest characters is the ghost of Sonny’s late neighbor don Eliseo, riding in Sonny’s truck and giving him advice.) But like other women in the book, Naomi is an object of desire. The power players are all men, unless I slept through a scene that breaks that pattern

Between each important event, there are often three pages of digression on New Mexico politics, history, culture, and food, beautiful descriptions of the land, excessive backstory, discussions of whether or not dogs dream, and reflections on mythology. These side trips are masterful word craft and some could make good essays collected outside of a novel, but keeping track of the plot took patience.

The final confrontation between Sonny and Raven is in an intriguing setting and has some mystical moments, but it’s also full of philosophical discussion at a point when it deflates the tension instead of escalating it.

The outcome of the ongoing threat with the bomb made me feel as if the author had written himself into a corner and couldn’t get out of it, so he wrote it away into a trick. That’s almost as bad as “it was all a dream.”  I found flashes of delight in certain settings, good lines, and the few good characters, like the Green Indians, but I’m still disappointed in this work by an author whose books I normally love.

 

Book Ten Progress Report

I’ve been so busy writing the next book that I’ve neglected to write any blog posts. So, what have I accomplished?

I finished the first draft of Mae Martin Book 10 and have completed the first stage of revision—reading without making changes yet, taking notes as if I were critiquing for another writer. This is challenging. I see things I want to change right away, but why fix it if I might end up cutting it?

I grasped the importance of a theme I had doubts about I while I was writing, a theme relating to Mae, to Jamie, and non-ordinary spiritual experiences. It’s funny, but writing a paranormal mystery series, I sometimes pull back and ask myself, “Was that too paranormal?” But then I read through the work in progress and think, “That’s the best part.”

The book doesn’t have a title yet, but I’m leaning toward Wounded Healer. Here’s my first draft of the blurb:

Birdwatching, blackmail, and out-of-body travel.

A letter from Nashville gives Mae Martin hope that it’s safe to recover her psychic gift. The healing process is precarious and strange, but it’s also urgent. A friend’s two elderly dogs are lost, and another friend’s former lover has vanished. Spirit medium Azure Skye hasn’t seen her son’s father for twenty-one years. Then she hears his voice. Only the dead speak to her that way.

To learn his fate, Mae pushes her limits as a healer and seer, entering aspects of the spirit world she never knew existed—some beautiful, some dangerous. Will she find the missing man alive? What will his enemies do to stop her? And what will the effort cost?

*****

Prices on the whole series remain low on all e-book retailers. The Calling and Gifts and Thefts are $2.99 each, and the other books $3.99.

A New Mexico Mystery Review: The Pot Thief Who Studied Calvin

Like all Pot Thief mysteries, this one is unconventional, entertaining, and educational, with historical and philosophical explorations as well as a mysterious little pot and a sudden death, perhaps a murder. These ingredients are blended and seasoned with insight and humor. If you’re a series fan, you’ll enjoy a reunion with the usual characters as well as another trip to the village of La Reina. It was good to spend more time in Old Town Albuquerque and in Hubie’s shop. As usual, his personal life gets a good share of the story’s pages, as you’d want when catching up with an old friend. After all, he’s a person, not just the person solving a mystery. (Actually, he’s part of a team solving the mystery.)

The solution left me puzzled and questioning. Was this supposed to be like King Solomon and the case of the two women claiming the same baby? Was the reader meant to still be sorting it out, or was the reader supposed to get some hints? I am so bad at getting hints. Nonetheless, I loved the ending. It left me with a smile.

Whole Series Price Drop

 

Book one in the Mae Martin Mystery Series, The Calling, is now $2.99, and the other books are now $3.99. Buy from your favorite store and stock up your e-reader.

Need to keep track of your place in the series? Here’s a guide to the dates and settings and sequence. Follow psychic and healer Mae Martin from North Carolina, where she first discovers her gifts, to her new life in New Mexico. Happy reading!

A New Mexico Mystery Review: Lost Birds by Anne Hillerman

The title refers to Navajo children who were adopted out of the tribe and raised without knowledge of their culture. Joe Leaphorn is hired as a private investigator by such a woman who hopes to find her Navajo family. Another lost bird is a woman nicknamed Songbird, not a lost bird in the sense of an adoptee, but a missing person. She is Leaphorn’s other case, as he’s been hired by her husband. And at the same time, the school where the woman was a music teacher and the husband works as a custodian is struck with an explosion. Bernadette Manuelito is brought in to help investigate.

The weaving of plot threads in this book is extraordinary. Navajo rugs and weaving play an important part—a rug found in the car of the missing woman along with the body of someone who might be her, and a rug in an old photograph that’s a clue to the lost bird, Stella’s, family history.

My sense of the whole book is of a masterpiece of weaving, of stories within the story. There’s the story of Cecil, the custodian, who narrowly escapes the explosion, fearing that someone did it to attack him. He has a terrifying experience, pursued by people to whom he owes money. Then there’s the story of Leaphorn’s beloved friend Louisa and her troubled adult son. When Leaphorn and retired Captain Largo race to be on time for a rescue, I couldn’t stop reading. It’s one of the most intense scenes in a mystery I’ve ever come across.

Though this book is layered with mysteries, chases, and moments of danger, it has none of the clichés, none of the tired tropes, of the mystery genre. It is entirely original.

The characters are, as always, portrayed with great depth. Navajo culture also portrayed with depth and knowledge. The family stories are woven fully into the plot, so you never feel like you’ve gone on a digression. The scenes at a trading post as Leaphorn discovers rugs that may be connected with his client’s Navajo family are quiet but profound and beautiful and just as absorbing as the more intense sections.

I was stunned by the end. I never would have thought that particular person had done that particular crime, and yet, as with any good mystery, it all makes sense.

It was a pleasure to spend so much time with Joe Leaphorn. He’s a character that Tony Hillerman wrote with insight, and Anne Hillerman has gotten to know Leaphorn equally well. I look forward to the next book in the series.

Mae Martin Mysteries Sequence and Settings: A Quick Guide to the Series

When reading a long series, it’s helpful to have a list of the titles in order, and reminders of the years and places in which they’re set.

1. The Calling Winter 2009 – Spring 2010 Bertie County, NC and Norfolk and Virginia Beach, VA
2. Shaman’s Blues August 2010 Truth or Consequences and Santa Fe, NM
3. Snake Face December 2010 Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences, NM and a road trip
4. Soul Loss Spring 2011 Elephant Butte, Hatch, Truth or Consequences, and Santa Fe, NM
5. Ghost Sickness Summer 2011 Truth or Consequences and Mescalero, NM
6. Death Omen August – October 2011 Truth or Consequences and Santa Fe, NM and a road trip
7. Shadow Family December 2011 – January 2012 Truth or Consequences and Santa Fe, NM, Bertie County, NC, and a road trip
7.5 Gifts and Thefts Summer 2012 – Spring 2013 Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Truth or Consequences, Mescalero, and Elephant Butte, NM
8. Chloride Canyon June 2013 Las Cruces, Truth or Consequences, and Chloride, NM
9. Smoking Mirror August 2013 Truth or Consequences and Santa Fe, NM and coastal Maine

Smoking Mirror, Mae Martin Book Nine, Available for Pre-order

The ninth Mae Martin Psychic Mystery

 Is she a good witch, a bad witch, or not a witch at all?

A house healer arrives in Truth or Consequences, claiming to make houses sell by removing negative energy, but disasters follow her healing efforts. Disaster is also plaguing Mae Martin’s former high school teammate Jen. Mae has a few things in common with her: an ex-husband, a desire to run her own fitness business, and a background in sports. But not much else. Mae’s stepdaughters are visiting for a month, and they’d rather never see Jen again. But Jen asks for Mae’s help with what she thinks is a curse—in Maine.

It’s a terrible time to leave town, and not only because of the kids. Important relationships are fraying. Rumors are spreading about Mae not being a real seer and healer. Compelled to act when there are no good choices, she confronts the most powerful enemy she’s yet encountered—and she’s not even sure she can remove a curse. In trying, Mae risks more than she ever thought she could lose.

The Mae Martin Series

No murder, just mystery. Every life hides a secret, and love is the deepest mystery of all.

*****

The e-book comes out Nov. 1 everywhere but Amazon, where the date is Nov.2. (I’m not sure why.) Place your order now and have the book show up in your e-reader as soon as it’s released. Paperbacks will follow soon for sale online and, of course, at Black Cat Books and Coffee in Truth or Consequences.

If the Barnes and Noble link isn’t working yet on Books2Read, fellow Nook owners, click here.