Author Interview: MURDER WILL OUT author Jennifer K. Breedlove

Posted on June 17, 2026 by Gabriela Stiteler

I’m so excited to connect with Jennifer K. Breedlove for today’s Wednesday post.

Jennifer is a composer, conductor, author, editor, and educator based in the Chicago area. A frequent visitor to Downeast Maine since childhood, she has a deep affection for the rugged beauty of Maine’s coastal islands and the people who call them home. Her debut novel, Murder Will Out, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award and was also a finalist for the Killer Nashville Claymore Award.

Jennifer and I will be sitting down together on June 30 at 7:00 p.m. at the Briar Patch to talk about MURDER WILL OUT, her writing process, and what she’s working on next.

GS: One thing that is immediately apparent in your book is the importance of the role of the setting. A mansion on an island in Maine. Did your novel start with the setting first or did that come later? In what ways does your Maine island setting impact character and plot? Where there any challenges you faced with your setting?

JKB: My novel is set on a fictional island, which meant I get to pull from all my favorite places and put them n

ear each other: Islesford Pottery and The Dock Restaurant from Little Cranberry. The village green from Bar Harbor with its shade trees and bandstand, only with more of a cozy local village vibe. Southwest Harbor’s Little Notch Bakery, especially from its early years when it was much smaller. (My fictional version of the bakery doesn’t appear in the final draft in the novel per se, but my brain knows it’s there on the Little North dock next to the gift shop.) And of course, Cameron House, standing in for the Gilded Age summer cottages that once filled the area.

My challenge, of course, is that however much I love the area, I am not a resident; I grew up in Maryland and have lived in my beloved adopted Chicagoland for more than thirty years. My family visited Maine every summer through my childhood, and eventually my parents retired up to the quiet side of Mount Desert Island and became permanent residents. That was when I got to shift from “tourist” to “visiting family,” meeting my folks’ friends, getting to know their church community, and experiencing the little towns in a different way. I’ve always loved this part of the world, the way the air and the ocean seem to make everything feel and taste a little different from anywhere else, and there’s this wonderful New England salt-of-the-earth practicality in the people I meet here. I visit whenever I can; I suppose some part of me hopes that one day Maine will invite me to move up and stay. (If I can handle Chicago winters, I imagine Maine’s would be manageable, right?)

GS: When I read your book, I was struck by the atmosphere. I won’t give away too many details, but this book is a mystery with ghosts. As I was reading, I kept wondering: Firstly, do you believe in ghosts? Secondly, how and when did you decide the haunted mansion was an important part of this story? Do you see the Cameron House as a character in addition to being part of the setting? Did you always know this story would have ghosts or did that come later?

JKB: People ask me ghost question a lot, and I love it and find it intriguing—I enjoy passing it back to my readers: do they believe in ghosts? That question elicits a treasure trove of great stories.

For me, the ghosts in the novel are about memory, and story, and continuity. We are shaped, like it or not, by those who came before us; the stories of our parents and grandparents and ancestors echo up and down our lives and histories. Sometimes they comfort us; sometimes they haunt us. With the spirits of Cameron House, I took that perspective and dialed it up to eleven: this ghostly gathering gives face and voice to the not-really-gone memory of the house, the family, and the island. When the stories don’t get passed down, when the secrets stay secret too long, the family begins to lose cohesion, the memories fade, and so do the ghosts…

(In answer to the first question, do I believe in ghosts?—I honestly don’t know. I don’t disbelieve in them. My approach to the supernatural has always been underlaid by the suspicion that “supernatural” is just another word for “natural but we don’t understand it yet.”)

GS: Willow comes from away and is conditionally welcomed by some people. Which seems about right. As somebody who has married into the great state of Maine, and as somebody who lives in Portland (I might as well live in Massachusetts), I often find myself saying, “But my husband’s family is from Eastport and his mom lives in Orrington.” How important was it for Willow to be from away? Did you ever think she could be somebody from the island itself? And her entourage of friends. Willow may be from somewhere else, but you give her a community. Which of these secondary characters do you like the best? Why?

JKB: Willow’s state as a geographical outsider mirrors her character, a shy young woman who’s never really felt like she fit in anywhere except the little cabin on Little North where she used to visit her godmother every summer. For her, coastal Maine is her heart’s home, because that’s where she spent time with the one person who truly understood her.

It’s the loss of her godmother that brings her back to the island, where she needs to find her way without Aunt Sue—but once there she is embraced, first cautiously and then whole-heartedly, by the four women who had become Sue’s “found family” on the island. I can’t begin to say which of these characters I like best—there’s some of me in all of them, and I’d be happy to be compared to any of them. Diana, the antique store owner, is the de facto “mom” of the group, constantly scanning to make sure everyone’s okay, taking the emotional temperature of the group, able to sniff out a lie at thirty feet; her young adult daughter Mac is the one who voices the thing no one wants to say out loud, as inconveniently and inappropriately as possible. Rina, who had been Sue’s fiancée, is volatile and quick to anger but will be your ride-or-die once she claims you as one of hers. And Catherine, the village librarian, is a logical and pragmatic research nerd who cuts to the center of every problem without being distracted by peripherals.

Then, of course, there’s Finn, Sue’s wicked smart corgi. (Okay, If I’m honest, he’s probably my favorite.)

GS: You have a romantic thread woven through your story. You do that slow-burn romantic tension well. Nick definitely hits that grumpy and gruff with just the right amount of banter. How did you develop their relationship? Did the mystery plot or relationship come more easily?

JKB: I admit it: the whole “will they or won’t they” of Willow and Nick is as much a mystery to me as it is to readers—there is definitely a spark there, but I suspect they’ll need to circle each other warily for a good long time before either feels comfortable taking the next step. They knew each other as young teenagers and couldn’t stand each other back then—someday I’ll write the short story about how all that went down—and now they’re finding their way into trust-based friendship, which to me is an important first step to anything real or lasting.

I also liked the idea of twisting the stereotype of the Love Interest Hot Cop a little. He’s gorgeous, he’s tall and muscular, but he had horrible acne as a teen and is still shadowed by terrible self-esteem from those years. He’s on the police force in Maine, but you can still hear a little Texas in his voice from where he grew up, so he doesn’t quite “fit” either and has that in common with Willow. He watches Doctor Who and has weird taste in pizza. He gets tongue-tied and shy when women flirt with him. He listens more than he talks. Most importantly, he lets Willow be Willow, and doesn’t try to mold her into fitting his or anyone else’s expectations of her.

GS: I love talking to other writers about process. Firstly, let me just say, Wow. Your bio. You are very accomplished outside of writing. I’d love to know firstly, where your stories come from. And then what is your process? When and where do you write? How do you revise and edit? Beta readers? Writing groups? Tell me everything.

JKB: I suspect I’m a bit of a heretic about writing process and timing. Most of the writing advice I read seems to cry out with unwavering confidence, “pick a time and place to write, regularly, every day!”—but that doesn’t work for me. Sometimes I’ll be at my desk, sometimes I’m curled up on the couch with my laptop, and sometimes I go for long walks and dictate into my phone; I find dialogue spins out really easily that way. I’ll write in the morning, or in the afternoon, or after everyone else has gone to bed; as long as I hit my word count goal, it doesn’t matter to me when I do it. If I get stuck, I get up and change the circumstances: I’ll go to the library or a coffee shop, or I’ll switch to pen and notebook, anything to jog loose whatever’s caught in my brain.

I’m fortunate to have a fantastic writing group made up of myself and four other women; we meet online twice a month to read and offer critique and support of each other’s work. Their fingerprints are all over this novel, and I would never have gotten through without them. We came together through our similar approaches to story structure and ongoing editing, and one of my favorite things about our process is how each submitting writer gets to choose what to focus on for any particular day. For instance, I can say, “okay, this is a new scene where the group talks about what Catherine learned about the elderly billionaire; does the shape of the scene work? Is there too much info-dumping? Do you feel like it moves character and plot forward, and if not, how can I fix that?” and that is what they will address when we talk, not whether I used the best adjective to describe the weather. It is amazing and rare to have the freedom to share incomplete or unpolished prose with people who can tell whether the shape of a given scene is solid, without worrying about whether they’ll care if the writing itself is perfect. That takes real trust—to be able to accept the process together, knowing that the writing is going to be sort of clonky before it all smooths into place, and to be able to get deep into the architecture of the building without being afraid someone will criticize the shade of drywall you chose.

GS: Okay. Back to that bio for a minute. You are a composer. I want to know in what ways composing music is similar and different from writing haunted murder mysteries. Do you hear melodies before you write them? 

JKB: Musical composition taught me a lot about structure and flow; it absolutely underpins the way I conceive of my prose writing as well. My composition process is not unlike my writing process, in that I tend to start with some structural core (or, since I mostly compose choral music, with a piece of text or poetry), scaffold the piece around that structure, and then go into sections and phrases and eventually note to note for line and beauty.

Of course I want to tell a good story, but I also want the prose to sing. That part is both the hardest and the most fun, I think, and every time I go back through the work with the metaphorical equivalent of increasingly fine grade sandpaper, it can sing a little more. Of course, then I read The Haunting of Hill House again, or Rebecca, and listen to Jackson’s or duMaurier’s exquisitely singing prose, and realize how far I still have to go.

GS: I’d love to hear a little about what you love most about writing and about what is most challenging for you. 

JKB: I actually love every part of the process, for different reasons—plotting the perfect crime, figuring out who will solve it and how, dreaming up these characters and plopping them down in some amazing setting and setting them loose to surprise me and try to figure things out…and then going back and looking at the structure, shoring it up, balancing it so it hangs together, and then polishing the prose…

The hardest part for me, honestly, is shifting from one piece of the process to the next and knowing when it’s time to do that. One time I over-plotted a mystery, nailing down every red herring and clue and character arc. I sat and looked at this polished scene-by-scene outline, and I realized I had lost all interest in writing the book, because there was nothing left to discover. (I’ll still probably write it one day; I just need some distance.) Another time, I let myself abandon my outline too early and gleefully followed my nose down a couple of sub-plot detours; I realized, thousands of words later, that I’d written myself into an unredeemable plot-hole corner, and I had to back way up to find my way again.

The most difficult thing for me, in a way, is shifting from the fine-grade edit of one piece to the rough text of the next; my sense of taste is still in “singing prose” mode, but drafting a new story is about “just get it out onto the page”; I just have to grit my teeth and do it. But again, I’m still new at this—as with anything, the more I write and the more errors I slam into headfirst, the more I learn how to do better the next time around. Anne of Green Gables is my hero: “But have you ever noticed one encouraging thing about me, Marilla?” she says. “I never make the same mistake twice.”

(Of course, Marilla then responds, “I don’t know as that’s much benefit when you’re always making new ones,” which is also, sadly, as true of me as it is of Anne.)

Thank you so much, Jennifer, for sharing your insights on writing, music, ghosts, mystery, and Maine.

If you’re in the Bangor area, join us on June 30 at 7:00 p.m. at the Briar Patch for a conversation about Murder Will Out, the inspiration behind it, and what’s next for this exciting new voice in mystery fiction.

We can’t wait to see you there!

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Books I’m Dying to Read

Posted on June 16, 2026 by Brenda Buchanan

After an excruciating wait, it’s finally summer, which means long days, plenty of outdoor time and, if you’re me, the joy of choosing the books to read during our vacation in late July-early August when I’m not writing or on the hunt for the best blueberry pie  in Hancock County.

This is Part One of a two-part post. Another on anticipatory book pleasure will follow in July.

Here’s the first half of my summer 2026 list:

♦   JOHN OF JOHN by Douglas Stuart. A gay man adrift after finishing art school returns home to the Isle of Harris in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides and faces age-old conflicts with his father, a strict Presbyterian lay preacher, welcomes the embrace of the salty Glasgow-born grandmother who helped raise him and navigates loneliness and longing in a place where it’s not easy to be his authentic self. I’m assured it’s more uplifting than it sounds. Stuart won the 2020 Booker Prize for SHUGGIE BAIN, another Scotland-set book you might want to consider if the sight of kilt-wearing, bagpipe-playing Scots marching through Boston in support of their World Cup football team moves you like it does me.

♦   While we’re over the sea, I look forward to Maggie O’Farrell’s LAND: A NOVEL, a historical leavened with magical realism from the author of HAMNET. Set in the 1850s after Ireland was devastated by the famine known as the Great Hunger, LAND focuses on an Irish land surveyor and his realizations about the enduring power land has for those who lived and loved on it. The British can claim land and tax it, but its ownership remains with those who made their lives on Ireland’s remote west coast before and after the many depredations forced upon them by their colonial overlords. Again, my description falls short of conveying why I can’t wait to read it. As readers of this blog know, the west of Ireland holds a special and deep place in my heart, so I’m all in.

♦Paul Doiron’s newest novel STORM TIDE will be out on June 30 and as always, I cannot wait. In the 16th Mike Bowditch novel, the determined (some would say dangerously stubborn) Maine Game Warden is investigating two murders. As is often the case, he’s in the doghouse with his bosses at the Maine Warden Service due to his deep-seated tendency to bend rules, not in a way that’s corrupt, because Mike is a deeply honorable man, but as a means to get to the truth. And after Mike’s long personal journey to maturity, his wife Stacey is about to give birth to their first child. STORM TIDE appears to have all of the elements that make this series a success, and I can’t wait to read it in a comfy outdoor chair some lazy afternoon.

♦   Eleanor Morse’s beautiful prose and powerful insights about the human heart draw me to her work. I’m delighted to know my Peaks Island friend will be launching her new novel THIS FOREIGN LAND on July 9 at Print Bookstore in Portland. The story is set in 2018, when the country was shocked by implementation of a governmental policy to separate children from their immigrant parents. A Maine man travels to the southern border to do what he can to support the families in crisis. Early reviewer Neela Vaswani, author of You Have Given Me a Country, said of Morse’s book: “I didn’t know it before I started reading, but I needed THIS FOREIGN LAND’s reminder: love, courage, and endurance are the only things that remain when everything else is stripped away.” That’s one powerful endorsement, especially if, like me, you’re looking for a book that, at its core, is about hope and courage.

♦   Sometimes I just want to escape this time period, a well-timed impulse because Larry McMurtry’s classic LONESOME DOVE is being revived to mark the 40th anniversary of its publication. The story of a pair of retired Texas Rangers leading a cattle drive from Texas to Montana in the late 1870s won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985.  I have a secret about this book, which is that somehow, despite its fame and the allure of its story line, I’ve never read it (!) The time has come, and this summer, when I want to disappear into an absorbing read that has nothing to do with the current state of our world, I’ll be reaching for LONESOME DOVE.

NEXT MONTH, I’ll be writing about five other highly anticipated summer/early fall reads:  Lisa Gardner’s YOU’LL BE SORRY, Robyn Gigl’s ALL WE HIDE, Elizabeth Strout’s THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY, and books due out in September by two of my friends and blogmates, Dick Cass’s HARD AS A HEADSTONE and Jule Selbo’s 6 DAYS.  Until then, enjoy your own reading, and if you’re inclined to share what’s on your summer list, that’s why we have a comments section.

Brenda Buchanan sets her novels and short stories in Maine. Her three-book Joe Gale series features a contemporary newspaper reporter with old-school style who covers the courts and crime beat at the fictional Portland Daily Chronicle. Brenda’s short story, “Means, Motive, and Opportunity,” was included in the anthology Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories 2021 and received an honorable mention in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022.  Her story “Cape Jewell,” appeared in Snakeberry: Best New England Crime Stories 2025. “Crime of Devotion” was included in Murder Most Senior, an anthology released this spring at the Malice Domestic conference and her story “Links in the Chain” will be published in the anthology The Lines We Cross, which will be published in conjunction with Bouchercon this coming October.

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It’s a marathon, not a sprint

Posted on June 15, 2026 by mainecrimewriters

Kate Flora: So many times, over the years, someone in the audience of an author talk or in a class will be looking for the magic answer. What should they do to make the book a bestseller? I heard the answer, or at least a version of it, maybe thirty years ago from a talk Sue Grafton gave. She said there are no shortcuts and there is no magic. She told the room full of writers and aspiring writers that they should expect it to take at least five years to begin making money. I’ve always appreciated hearing the truth from editors, publishers, and other writers. It helps to keep my perspective when things are down and to stay modest when things are up. The truth is that there are no easy answers. Writing is learned on the job and, if you’re serious about being a writer, it’s a lifelong job.

Kate shares a moment with Harlan Coben

Another thing that helps me keep balanced when the book won’t write or the rejections are piling up is the crime writing community. Although we are alone at the desk, we have a peer group to turn to. It was so comforting the first time I heard someone else talk about the characters in her head getting impatient for her to get back to the keyboard and let them out. It’s helpful to know I am not alone when a publisher drops a series that I love, or when an editor hates the title or wants a longer ending or wants the action pumped up in a way that doesn’t feel authentic for the characters. There’s even knowing other writers have had the surprise of an editor taking the book they believed was a standalone and wants to know when the next book in the series will be ready.

As opposed to the person who wants to quickly write a bestseller and become rich, there are those patient and persistent authors who sell their first book after six, eight, ten, or even fifteen years in the unpublished writer’s corner. They never gave up. They believed in their writing and their right to write. And persistence made them better.

I do disagree with Sue about the magic, though. That magic may be rare, and it absolutely requires sitting in the chair for hours when the finding the words or sorting out the plot is painful and painstaking. But there are those moments of flow, when the story comes almost faster than I can type. When it feels like magical writing, some entity telling the story through me. Yes. That’s magic. And there is always the fascination that comes from storytelling at all. What could be more magical than being able to create an entire world and fill it with people who usually do what we tell them and sometimes misbehave? What could be more magical than seeing the whole world as a venue for new ideas? For characters? For settings and dialogue?

I published my first book in 1994 after ten years in the unpublished writers corner and

My first published book

despite the ups and the downs, so far I haven’t stopped. Maybe I’ve slowed down a bit. Some days, I think I could quit running this marathon and regain all those hours at the keyboard and out in the world talking about writing and selling books. But then I think about the books I love that I haven’t sold yet. The book ideas that are still pressing to be written. The sequel to a suspense novel I wrote as Katharine Clark (new publisher/new name) because I’ve always wondered what happened to my characters.

So, in my book (hee hee), there aren’t any quick tricks. There’s good advice: If you want to write a best-seller, read best-sellers. If you want to write an acclaimed mystery, read the past five years of Edgar finalists. Take a book you admire apart and see what the author did that hooked you. Think about character and point of view and setting and pacing and plot. Why did it work for you? Or take a book you didn’t like and do the same. Why didn’t it work? What would you have done differently? Yes, all of that is work. But as anyone who has a good  job knows, the job is compelling, fulfilling, worth doing because it has challenges. Because it’s important. So if storytelling is important to you, recognize that you’re lacing up your writer’s shoes and running a marathon. And if your journey is anything like mine, the finish line will always be moving because you’ll never be ready for the race to end.

 

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Weekend Update: June 13-14, 2026

Posted on June 13, 2026 by kaitlynkathy

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Kate Flora (Monday), Brenda Buchanan (Tuesday), Maureen Milliken (Thursday), and Dick Cass (Friday), with an interview with Jennifer Breedlove on Wednesday.

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

Matt Cost will give a COST TALK at the Hartland Public Library on June 18th at 4 PM. The focus of the talk will be on The Modern-Day Chronicles of Max Creed, the Robin Hood-esque billionaire looking to find justice for those wronged by the ultra-wealthy.

 

This Saturday!

Allison Keeton will be signing her Midcoast Maine Mystery books at Sherman’s in Damariscotta on Saturday, June 13 from 1pm-3pm

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

 

AND DON’T FORGET! One lucky Maine Crime Writers reader who leaves a comment on the blog this month will win a bundle of books!

 

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The Tale of the Clocks

Posted on June 12, 2026 by kaitlynkathy

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, today offering an excerpt from my 2008 Agatha-Award-winning non-fiction book, How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries. Unlike most how-to books, mine isn’t just my take on writing. It also includes numerous anecdotes and bits of advice from other published historical mystery writers and touches on several topics that came up over the course 2005-2007 in the Crime Thru Time (CTT) online discussion group.

 A topic that was addressed more than once on the CTT listserv concerns how people told time in past ages. One discussion started with a question about the accuracy of referring to the quarter hour in a monastery in the 1530s. This struck a good many people as anachronistic, myself included. How would this person know the time to that degree? Clocks were rare, weren’t they? And expensive. Weren’t most people still telling time by the sun or by cock crow? Or perhaps, by the ringing of church bells? But how often did those ring, and how accurate were they?

a water clock

It didn’t take long for members of CTT to chime in with the results of their research. It turns out that sixteenth-century people were familiar with the concept of minutes and that most monasteries in the 1530s probably had water clocks. Simple, inexpensive versions of these had been available since ancient times. Is there a great deal of evidence of this in period writings? There is some, but I couldn’t recall coming across any reference to water clocks in over thirty years of research into everyday life in the era. Why not? The answer, when I thought about it, was simple. People don’t mention the commonplace. You wouldn’t necessarily mention how your character knew it was ten past six if you were writing a mystery set in 2008. Your reader would assume your character glanced at a watch or a clock.

Omitting similar information in a historical mystery, however, can result in a true fact being questioned by readers. It must have bothered some of them quite a bit or they wouldn’t have posted on CTT. So, if you have a situation akin to this one in your novel, what do you do? Do you make some reference to the water clock—or a sundial, or whatever means of telling time is appropriate—to prevent readers from wondering how the character knew? Or do you follow Joan Blos’s test (cited in Chapter Eight), and leave it out because “the equivalent detail” would not be mentioned in a contemporary novel? The only answer I have to offer is that you will have to decide on a case-by-case basis.

How to Write Killer Historical Novels: The Art and Adventure of Sleuthing Through the Past (2008) was also a finalist for the Anthony and Macavity awards. Reviewer Marv Lachman, in Deadly Pleasures, called it “the best book about writing mysteries that I have ever read.” It is available in a slightly revised and updated 2022 edition in both e-book and trade paperback formats.

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. She is currently working on creating new editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.

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The Challenges of Writing an Amateur Sleuth Mystery

Posted on June 11, 2026 by Allison Keeton

There are multiple subgenres of mysteries, such as police procedurals, private investigator mysteries, and legal mysteries. I, however, write “amateur sleuth” on the “cozy adjacent” spectrum, emphasizing community and relationships over violence.

The most famous amateur sleuth is Miss Marple, created by Dame Agatha Christie. Miss Marple is believable because she isn’t out to one-up the police. Her gift is observation and understanding people, not superior detective skills.

Various Miss Marples

But that brings us to the biggest challenge with writing an amateur sleuth. How does the writer answer this simple question:

Why isn’t the police handling this?

Often it is because the amateur sleuth knows the victim or is accused themselves and works to clear their name or the name of a close friend or relative, but there are also other writing challenges such as:

1. Access to Information
A police detective can pull records, officially interview suspects, and examine evidence.

An amateur sleuth can’t.

The writer has to create plausible reasons for the amateur to learn legal and investigatory information. In my series, Raven Ouelette is the main protagonist and is married to the county sheriff, which helps with some information. I also give points of view to one of the deputies and to Raven’s father, a retired police officer. The reader can learn clues and information in a more logical way and without Raven having to be everywhere.

2. Avoiding Unrealistic Behavior
Many amateur sleuths should realistically be told, “Stay out of this.” Raven is definitely told by her husband to stay out of it, but if she listened, I couldn’t have a book.

3. Maintaining Stakes
Professional detectives investigate because it’s their job.

Amateurs need personal stakes:
–A friend is accused.
–A family member is missing.
–Their reputation is on the line.
–The crime threatens their community.

Miss Marple’s motives are rarely personal, however. She comes from a place of justice, a desire to protect her community, and a nosiness, I mean, an intellectual curiosity.

4. Balancing Competence
If the sleuth is too smart, readers will wonder why they aren’t a full-time detective.
If the sleuth is too clueless, readers lose confidence in the story or become bored.

5. Small-Town Problems
My series takes place in Midcoast Maine and is set primarily within a three- to four-town community. Everyone knows everyone else. New people and visitors are noticed. This raises the questions:

—How can the killer operate unnoticed?
—How many murders can one town or area realistically have?
—If it revolves around a secret, why doesn’t everyone already know it?

6. Keeping the Police Credible
Police shouldn’t be portrayed as idiots solely to make the amateur shine. The strongest mysteries usually feature competent law enforcement who simply lack one crucial piece of information that the amateur possesses.

In my series, the characters often know the suspects personally. The amateur sleuth investigation isn’t often about solving a puzzle involving strangers—it’s about discovering that your neighbor, fishing buddy, former teacher, or town selectman may be hiding something. That emotional conflict might even be more compelling than the mystery itself.

If I’m honest with myself, I believe the real reason I write amateur sleuth is that I have always wanted to be one. The first Nancy Drew book I read was The Hidden Staircase. I went around knocking on walls at my parents’ house, only to learn my father had built it. He swore he hadn’t hidden anything. That was a disappointing day.

Until there comes a time when I can actually investigate for real, I’ll live vicariously through my characters.


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Don’t forget! Leave a comment on any June blog post to be entered into a drawing for free books!

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Allison Keeton writes the Midcoast Maine Mystery series. Arctic Green, Book Two, is now available. She can be reached at http://www.akeetonbooks.com. Check out the event tab on her website to see where she’ll show up next!

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GUARANTEED WEIGHT LOSS

Posted on June 10, 2026 by jselbo

Jule Selbo

Monday, May 25, 2026.  Weight: 560 pounds.  I dreamt fat.  I couldn’t get out of bed because extra flesh was weighing me down. My cheeks drooped past my jaw and swung on my shoulders. My toes were too big for my shoes. I went to the doctor, and this is what he said: Finish the damn book.

Monday, June 1, 2026. Weight: 10,004 pounds. Extra heavy fluid on my brain was trying to ooze out my ears. My ass was so big I couldn’t fit through doorways. My ankles looked like an elephant’s. I switched doctors, hoping for a magic pill. This is what she said:  Finish the damn book.

Monday, June 8, 2026:

Weight: I looked like a model. Paris was calling for the next Stella McCarthy show, there was a tube dress that only me – the model with no-extra-body-fat could wear. I felt like renting a billboard on Times Square:  6 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery, coming soon.

MONTHS PREVIOUSLY WHILE IN WEIGHT DENIAL:

I had taken to lying because it was the only encouragement available to me.  “Almost there”. “Two more chapters, know exactly what I need to do, should be quick”.  “Gotta finish the big climax and then I’ll sail to the end”.

I live in a large condo building; there are about 150 plus residents and it’s cool to realize some are Dee Rommel fans. But before June 8, I had taken to leaving the building before sun-up and coming back after normal bedtimes because well-meaning people were stopping me at the mailboxes or in the hallways to tell me of their disappointment that my yearly Dee Rommel book was not ready for their normal holiday-present-giving. But they became kinder when they saw the panic on my face and although their interior voices were saying ‘shame on you’, they would smile and ask for a publication date that I could not give them.

Halfway through the writing of 6 DAYS, I’d realized I had opted for complication and not complexity. I’d put off making necessary decisions that would get me on the “slide to the finish”. I got stubborn and didn’t want to go back into the chapters I had already completed and semi-polished. I was a little kid stomping my foot and refusing to take that much-needed bath.

Finally, I had to go into clean-up mode. The shower took a few months – but that wasn’t  as long as I thought it would be and it wasn’t as painful a scrub as I had anticipated. Water-logged and wrinkly-skinned, I excised two characters and committed to my bad guy being even badder.  That chapter that had become my biggest and heaviest bug-a-boo “wrote itself” (Ha! But you know what I mean -).

I had been walking around with 700-pound barbells on my shoulders and wearing wrist and ankle weights as earrings for too long. I shucked them into the dumpster.

Finally, the day of writing “THE END” manifested itself like the yearly sing-along of the Hallelujah Chorus at Portland’s Blue Room Barroom Messiah.  Thanks to all who put up with me during my oh-so serious weight gain –  see you at the gym!

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Forget AI, Consider BI

Posted on June 9, 2026 by John Clark

Nar getting some rays

John Clark is wrestling with the insidiousness of mortality, and the results, while not pretty, are darkly humorous. Given that, I hope this literary exercise in creative insanity meets your approval.

A few years ago, Kate and I briefly considered creating a series called the Bodice Repair Mysteries, or some such thing. This was partly to parody old time romance pulps, but also in response to the increasing use of profanity and gratuitous sex scenes. Well, both have gotten a lot worse…even in YA fiction, my genre of choice. I think it’s safe to say that this trend is mirrored in current society as well. I’m neither a saint, nor a prude, but I can write a short story or have a conversation without needing to drop any F-bombs. With that said, let me introduce you to Werbshiker and Narpoozle. They, along with some crystal mice who spoke Russian, appeared during an acid trip some 50 years ago. The mice emigrated to Nigeria where they disappeared in the jungle, but Werb and Nar have hung around, hoping I’d give them their own story.

We’ll start with their backstory. Werb is a sentient garden gnome, brought to life by a super powerful lightning strike in San Marino, California. Nar is a six foot tall Banana Slug who escaped from a clandestine research lab at one of the branches of the University of California. As best he can recall, the scientists were trying to create cheap labor, so he believes some of his genetic material came from migrant workers, but since he has a tendency to wax poetic, he suspects some of it came from Alan Ginsberg or Richard Brautigan.

To honor their patience and interest in literary bodice repair, I’ve reanimated them and set these fine fellows up as investigators, somewhat like the Ghostbusters. Please note that they ARE NOT attempting to invoke censorship, but are willing and able to intercede when a work in progress strays into smut and sex where a decently crafted plot would do better. They’re happy to offer one or more alternatives from their arsenal. Read on.

Cut to a dusty office in a rural Maine town. Werb and Nar are in the process of organizing their new operational HQ as soon as the crew from Bubba’s Bait and Broom finishes spiffing it.

Werb stifles a cough as he opens the first box of literary resources. “Dang Nar, I do believe we have a real challenge just to get organized. I can barely believe some of these haven’t vanished from the collective memory.”

Nar, busy applying a fresh coat of Panama Banana Sheen to keep his appearance up to snuff, reaches into the box and holds a barely used phrase up to the light. “”Ooh, I surely like this one. My stars and garters. Best we put it in the drawer, no pun intended, with Don’t get your panties in a twist, and Pantywaist.”

Werb nods in agreement. Shouldn’t Bouncing Betties go in there too?”

Aye, matey, but best be careful or there be Not enough room to swing a cat in that’un.”

Nar, losing patience with Bubba’s crew, shoos them out and proceeds to dump the rest of box one on the table which is splotted with a substance resembling as mix of splooshed deer ticks and pistachio ice cream (It was included in the lease at no cost, so our duo ran with it).

“Jezum crowbar, Werb, We’re gonna be busier than a fart in a mitten if we want to get set up in time to work on our first case come Monday,” Nar shook his head, while sorting out the mess.

An hour later, several more drawers had been partially filled, based upon mutually agreed categories. There was the behavioral description pullout that had a strong Maine flavor. In it were Wound up tighter than a teddy bear, Wingnut, Gawmy, Some hot suppah, Ain’t you cunnin’, Boiled as an owl, Tougher than a bag of hammers, Godfrey Diamonds, and My kitchen table has better legs.

The better sex(ual) description lot was sparser, but Werb hoped he’s find some additional ones at the Wesserunsett literary flea market over the fourth of July. Thus far all they had were, Animated lobster claw, Perfect Johnson, Quivering bosom, His glistening pistil broached her eager petals, Pulsing Virginia, and They caused angels to scream loud enough to shake the windows. He paused before tossing one into the waste basket. “Activated ejaculation system sounds too much like it came from a military training manual.”

The retro sayings required two drawers and threatened to occupy a third. Some inside were more common, but a few were, as Nar aptly put it, as quaint as a hame.”

“I’m still nonplussed by many of these,” Werb said, as he attempted to alphabetize them. He proceeded to read them aloud, shaking his head while doing so. “We’ve accumulated Not enough room to swing a cat, Armed to the teeth, Boil the ocean, By cracky, Jumping Jehoshaphat, Darker than a pocket in here, Go lay in the road and count mufflers, Tight enough to rupture Abe on a penny, That’ll put some red in your rhubarb, Well hemlock tips and buttermilk, If ya cahn’t drive it, park it and throw rocks at it, That smell would make a skunk sick, and Five months of winter, seven months of rough sledding.”

Nar grinned, quite a feat for a Banana Slug given the shape of his mouth. “Good thing we planned a miscellaneous drawer ain’t it. We have some sure Jim Dandies here, like scrid or a dite, muckle onto, pooched, bang a uey, Ayhu, Chummy, dubbin around, all stove to hell, humdingah, ass over teakettle, cattywampus, and lickety split. Guess we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.”

Werb still enjoys getting stoned every so often

Stay tuned to find out how well our derring duo do as literary bodice repairers. While you’re at it, what other replacements might you suggest they stock?

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Sprinting

Posted on June 8, 2026 by Gabriela Stiteler

It’s officially that time of year where we are sprinting. Job stuff. Writing stuff. Kid stuff. Trying to coordinate who is taking whom where. Dinner on the fly. Those blue Takis? Sure. Maybe those have protein. Did you feed the dog? Did we accidentally feed the dog twice? Again? And by the way did you hear the weird noise our car is making?

But even with the breathlessness of right now, I’m trying to savor things.

In a few weeks we’ll be in full summer mode:  a time of irregular schedules, with a million camps, and my kids disappearing to do God only knows what by those train tracks even though I told them a million times not to.

Last year, after an incident that I may write about some day, one of my son’s famously said, “You never told us we couldn’t set things on fire.”

Which gives you a sense of what we’re up against.

In Appreciation of William Collagan from the Moses Wheeler

This year, the Maine Historical Society hosted an afternoon pre-conference workshop for the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Elizabeth DeWolfe (remember THIS post?) shared how she goes about researching and writing. Katie Alleman, the amazing librarian at the Brown Research Library, scoured her archives to find fascinating crime-related artifacts for us to look at.

The artifact that really stood out to me was a Captain’s Log from 1861, in which William Collagan from the Moses Wheeler, accounted for his time. In it, he tracked the stars and storms and sketched the fish and birds and ships he encountered.

Maybe this summer I can drag my kids to that fried clam place and then we can go off in search of William’s grave at the Evergreen Cemetery.

My kids already think I’m a little weird, what with the writing about murder. So this will track.

Little League Majors Finals

Last week my husband and I went with my kids to the Little League Majors Finals at Loring Park. My kids watched the game from the fence. James and I talked to other parents and ate popcorn on the bleachers.

From the field, you can see Back Cove and the playground and the trail along Baxter Boulevard. You can see the joggers and the dog walkers. And you can hear the pickle-ballers.

When the game was over, one of our friends said, “If you would have told me ten years ago that I’d be spending my Friday night watching somebody else’s kid play baseball, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

I agreed.

Until recently, I didn’t know much about baseball.

I watched the Ken Burns documentary to try to keep up with my sons. It was informative but I still don’t really understand what a dropped third is.

I am, however, waiting for an opportunity to reference Merkle’s Boner.

A Noir at the Bar Reading

The Crime Wave Noir at the Bar was a lot of fun. Others might post about it, so I’ll keep it brief. We had 10 readers, five minutes apiece, a hotdog truck and cold brews and colder rain. At peak around 90 people listening and the amazing Jule Selbo and Matt Cost moderating.

I loved all the readings but really enjoyed Rebecca Turkewitz’s story (so sad and creepy!), Mo Drammeh’s story (because his stuff is so unique and unexpected), and Travis Kennedy (so, so funny and weird.)

The piece I read was “Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise.” I’m hoping to have it cleaned up a little more and submitted for publication soon.

It was a great audience and a great group of writers.

Special appreciation to the amazingly talented photographer and writer Lucas Brilliott for snapping this picture of me reading.

Events:

Just in case you’re looking for something to get up to this summer, here are a few things crime writing related you may want to check out.

I’ll be doing a book talk with the amazing Jennifer Breedlove on 6/30 at the Briar Patch in Bangor at 7:00. You all will get a sneak interview with her here on June 17.

Matt Cost, Travis Kennedy, Timothy Queeney and I will sit down to together for a Writers on Writing (WOW) panel at the Windham Public Library on July 29 at 6:00.

Ryan Lowell and I will get together to talk about his debut Freight: A Novel at Longfellow Books in Portland on August 11.

Margot Anne Kelley, Robert Kelley, and I will get together at the Jackson Memorial Library in Tenants Harbor on August 27 at 5:00.

Dick Cass and I will sit down to talk about his latest novel at Longfellow Books in Portland on September 1.

There are a group of us working to organize some more community crime readings in Kittery, Rockland, Bangor, and Portland. More details on these soon.

Be well and hopefully our paths cross soon.

Posted in Gabi's Posts | 9 Comments

Weekend Update: June 6-7, 2026

Posted on June 6, 2026 by kaitlynkathy

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Gabi Stiteler (Monday), John Clark (Tuesday), Jule Selbo (Wednesday), Allison Keeton (Thursday), and Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

Matt Cost will be giving a COST TALK about EveryThing vs. Max Creed, book two in The Modern-Day Chronicles of Max Creed, at the Rumford Public Library on Wednesday, June 10, at 5 PM.

On Friday, June 12, from 4-7 PM, Cost will be hawking his books on the sidewalks of Brunswick for their 2nd Friday of the month festival. Come for the music, enjoy the downtown, have a bite to eat, and go home with a book. Write on. More Info.

 

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

 

AND DON’T FORGET! One lucky Maine Crime Writers reader who leaves a comment on the blog this month will win a bundle of books!

 

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