I need variety in my crime. An assortment of styles is required to keep the pages from growing brittle and the mind stagnant. As of late, that has been accomplished all within the crime fiction genre.

According to AI, Crime fiction is a genre of literature that focuses on the commission, investigation, and motives of crime, typically involving a detective, a victim, and a criminal. It explores themes of justice, law, and social issues, often providing suspense, clues, and a resolution where the perpetrator is caught.

I dabble in four areas of this genre of literature. This is necessary for me to not bog down in my inspiration, my research, my writing, my editing, my marketing, and my promoting. The diversity within my crime is the spice that gives flavor to my life, and therefore, hopefully, my books.

Currently, I am writing a traditional mystery, the seventh book in my Mainely Mystery series. Goff Langdon has been pulled into a murder case to prove the innocence of an immigrant wanted by ICE. The best way to accomplish that is to find the real perpetrator. Detective, victim, criminal. Mainely ICEd delves into current events, follows a colorful cast of characters in their quest for resolution, and even has a dog named dog central to the storyline.

In May, my thriller, Book 2 of the Modern-Day Chronicles of Max Creed, Everything vs. Max Creed, will be published. A thriller differs from a mystery in that it is a race to stop something, rather than something happening, and the race is to find out what that something was. In this book, a social media site that allows for everything is trying to take everything away from humanity, and Max Creed must scramble to stop the mogul who owns it before it is too late.

In October, the first in my new historical series, 1955: A Jazz Jones and January Queen Mystery, will be published. This is a traditional mystery like Mainely ICEd, but it takes us back in time to 1955 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and, like my contemporary book, it is very much a fight for civil rights and the abuse of those rights faced by minority populations in our society.

Currently, out on spec, I have a new humorous mystery looking to find a home. Bob Chicago Investigates is about a former schoolteacher turned struggling writer who is mistaken by an employment agency for a private detective because of the material he writes. Hijinks ensue. There is also a dog, this one named Danger, and a diverse assortment of characters filling contemporary small-town Maine.

As of late, a common theme in all my crime fiction has been justice and what it means. The central tenet of right and wrong is adhered to by all of my protagonists, but the definitions are understood differently by all of them. Goff Langdon, Max Creed, Jazz Jones, and Bob Chicago all pursue justice in different ways.

What say you, readers of Maine Crime Writers? Is there only one justice and one means of achieving justice, or is it a destination of many places and many paths?

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