NEW SHORT MYSTERIES WAITING FOR YOU!

Posted on by Diana Deverell

I’m excited to be in a Syndicate of award-winning mystery writers contributing brand-new stories to MCM – Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem – the new themed mystery magazine started by writer Leah Cutter.

For this first year, you can find the first THREE issues already available. And I have stories in two of them!

I wrote both before the end of February 2020. I set them in the contemporary Pacific Northwest and none of my characters have a clue of what lies ahead for the country.

In “Lonesome Whistle”, FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd makes the trip I wanted to take but couldn’t after COVID-19 forced me to cancel.

Dawna travels via Amtrak from Seattle to Eugene to check out the University of Oregon women’s basketball team. She’s sure the Lady Ducks are headed to the Big Dance and will triumph at the NCAA finals in March. Dawna doesn’t know the season will be canceled because of the pandemic.

Still, she’s distracted from all thoughts of basketball when she spots the FBI’s Number One Most Wanted on the same train. Which is how she and her adventure end up in THE CHASE BEGINS, Issue #3. You’ll love Dawna’s action in this one. You can buy your copy from your favorite online retailer by following this universal link.

In “Gone Gold”, Washington State Trooper Kent Harper tackles a minor Spokane heist as a learning experience. The fictional theft is loosely based on the robbery of a friend of mine. From the real-life victim, I learned that though the law may call a theft petty, the victim may still feel she’s lost everything that matters most to her. The story appears in THIEVES, Issue #2. You’ll enjoy learning what Kent actually learns from this case. You can buy your copy from your favorite online retailer by following this universal link.

You may also want to check out PRIVATE EYES, Issue #1: Leah sweet-talked forensics expert Geoff Symon into writing an essay for the inaugural issue.

Leah already has stories on hand for SINS OF THE FATHER, Issue #4, which will come out mid-November.

Leah’d love to send you a free ebook anthology of short stories from eight of us. All you have to do is come to her website and join her Syndicate of readers. You’ll never miss an issue of Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem. So criminal it’s good!

GREAT NEW COVER FOR A FUN MYSTERY!

Posted on by Diana Deverell

Great because the cover above, unlike the old one featuring Kesey’s colorful school bus, doesn’t suggest that readers will time-travel back to the sixties.

Murder, Ken Kesey, and Me happens in the recent past and imagines a movie-making venture in Oregon, depicting the life of the state’s most famous author.

I like that the new cover focuses both on the film and the humor in this modern mystery.

As the story begins, an indie company is coming to Oregon to make Acid Test: The Life of Ken Kesey. Before they arrive, hardworking Eugene location scout Estrella “Star” Stevens stumbles over a dead body and into the crushing embrace of the FBI.

Star is forced to join the FBI’s risky investigation of gangland boss and titty bar owner Oscar Quarry. Narrowly escaping death, she’s suddenly living her own movie.

Will she be a star? Or the next corpse? And which homicidal Oregonian is racking up the body count?

For answers to those questions plus a a virtual tour of my hometown, Eugene, Oregon, click on the cover above or follow this universal link to an online retailer and buy the ebook Murder, Ken Kesey, and Me.