It’s hard to fathom the confusion of an old west gunfight until you’ve seen a firearm loaded with a full black powder charge spit a round downrange. It’s a full-body experience—shockwaves from the controlled explosion punch your chest, ears ring from the weapon’s report, and billowing thick smoke obscures everything. Only when this haze clears…
A cozy mystery offers a comfort read that allows you to tap into your inner sleuth. It also includes a close (and usually quirky) community. Is there anything better than a pleasant whodunit? Yes, a cozy with a food theme. Culinary cozies, as they’re known, have mouthwatering descriptions and sometimes include tantalizing recipes in the…
Introduction by Sarah Stewart Taylor, author of The Drowning Sea, part of the Maggie D’Arcy Mystery Series set in Ireland When I’m traveling, my favorite moments—and memories—are those when I suddenly see a place in a way I couldn’t have if I’d stuck to the tourist quarter or only visited the highlights in the guidebook.…
In my next book, The Lies I Tell, I explore the world of con artist Meg Williams. However, I also dive deep into the mind and professional desires of investigative journalist Kat Roberts, a woman whose career was derailed by Meg, and who now wants revenge of her own. I spent a lot of time…
For decades, patrons of the New Orleans landmark restaurant Commander’s Palace were greeted by the beaming smile of proprietor Ella Brennan. Prompted by her leadership, the quaint Victorian eatery perched on a picturesque corner of the Garden District across the street from a centuries-old cemetery became an award-winning purveyor of Creole haute cuisine. Ella was…
Writers use many things to subtly establish a character’s personality in a story. The type of clothing a character chooses to wear can paint a vivid picture of the character’s persona, as does the way they style their hair, the type of car they drive, where they live, and how they decorate their home. Their…
A Note from Author Olivia Matthews A Taste of the Caribbean: Inspiration for Against the Currant My family immigrated to the United States from Grenada, West Indies, when I was very young. I have a vivid memory of walking with my father in my childhood neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, in the late 1970s.…
Ballsier than any Clint Eastwood line from the Dirty Harry franchise is one I read in the Robert Crais novel L.A. Requiem. Joe Pike had been framed for murder and, enroute to jail, pulls off a daring getaway. When questioned why he escaped by his private eye partner Elvis Cole, Pike ultimately responds “I don’t…
Writers are often asked if there’s a genre that they want to write but haven’t. For me, it’s historical fiction. There is nothing like a historical novel to whisk me away to another place, another time, another world. So why haven’t I written one? Because I’m not a historian. ☺ Every time I started a…
Alger Hiss, the Soviet spy at the center of my novel, Gods of Deception, hardly fits the mold of his contemporaries, such infamous Cold War agents as Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, Donald Maclean, and John Cairncross (the Cambridge Five), who were all plagued by fears of exposure, alcoholism, and some would say self-hate…
