I survive the Tour de France

In Paris. Fabulous weather.We headed first to the Place de Vosges in honor of my friend Cara Black and her first book Murder in the Marais. It really is one of the loveliest squares in Europe!

Then we walked around the Isle de la Cite but declined to stand in line for hours to get into Notre Dame. I can remember the days when one just strolled into churches and sat in silence taking in the atmosphere. Not any more. Then we went to the Place de la Concorde to watch the finish of the Tour de France. John took one look at the crowd and fled to the hotel to watch it on TV. I decided this was a once in a lifetime experience so I stood and stood. For two hours actually! Since I have only just begun to walk again this was an obvious sign of insanity. But I wasn't going to miss the chance of experiencing this. And they went right by me--in a flash. You have no idea how fast they go. It was like watching a speeding blur. But I did see Bradley Wiggins clearly in hi yellow jersey. Rule Britannia! I tried to take pictures but my pictures are just a blur of color.

And at night we walked down the Champs Elysees and ate moules et frites in a busy seafood restaurant.
It's a tough life! More tomorrow.

Good News and Hitting the Road.

As most of you must know by now, my 11th Molly Murphy novel came out on March 13th. Eleven must be a charm because yesterday I learned that it had made the New York Times bestseller list. As you can imagine I am over the moon at this news. So often I have come close and now I have finally made it.
Was it the great cover? The atmospheric title? All the work I do in social media these days? Probably a combination of all three. I don't care how I did it. I made it. Yipee! Do a happy dance with me.

And tomorrow I set off on an intensive three days speaking and signing around Southern California with my good friend Cara Black. Cara has a new Aimee Leduc novel out, called Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.  If you haven't read Cara's books yet--they are all set in Paris and are so wonderfully suspenseful as well as taking the reader to the different arondissements of Paris.. This one is set in Paris's Chinatown, which is fun because my last year's Molly book, now a brand new paperback, was set in New York's Chinatown, so we'll have a lot ot talk about.

It's always more fun to do a book tour with a fellow author. For one thing she can navigate for me as I find my way across LA to Thousand Oaks, Tustin, Redondo Beach, downtown LA,, Huntington Beach, Paasadena again, speaking at 6 bookstores. Then back up Highway 5 to speak the next night in San Francisco. It's a whirwind tour with little time to breathe and I would love to see some friendly faces if you live in the area.

I'll blog along the way if I can find time and let you know anything fun/strange/exciting that happens to us. Our strangest so far was speaking together at a nudist colony. I believe all events this weekend are to be clothed, but one never knows!

Two Days to Molly

I'm in final countdown mode to the publication of my eleventh Molly Murphy novel, HUSH NOW, D ON'T YOU CRY. It is scheduled for release on Tuesday March 13th and I'm excited about it as I think it's a particularly suspenseful gothic type of plot and it has a great cover.

Spoiler coming if you are not up to date with the Molly books.


It is also the first book since Molly got married at the end of Bless the Bride. Since she promised Daniel that she would give up her detective business when she married, it will be a challenge from now on to find reasons for her to solve crimes without sneaking behind her husband's back (which she'd never do, of course).  Another thing that's different about this book is that most of the stories take place in the gritty atmosphere of New York City, but this one takes Molly and Daniel to the famous "cottages" in Newport R.I. For those who don't know about these cottages, they were really extravagant mansions built as summer homes by the very rich--Vanderbilts and Rockerfellers and Astors. Molly and Daniel are there out of season and expect to have the place to themselves... but it seems the whole family of a New York alderman has been invited and none of them has any idea why.
 

I'm doing a mini-tour this time with my good friend Cara Black who is celebrating her new Aimee Leduc novel, Murder at the Lanterne Rouge. We'll be signing in Scottsdale on Monday 12th, and then at six stores in Southern California on the weekend of the 23rd of March, then a couple of events in the Bay Area and appearing at the Left Coast Crime convention in Sacramento at the end of March. My schedule is on my website.

Who needs a hero anyway?

I was moderating a mystery panel on Saturday (what I meant to say was a panel of mystery writers. There was little mystery about who we are!) when one of the audience asked whether we felt that a female sleuth needed a significant other. Good question and one that has been hotly debated over the years. And particularly interesting to me as I'd just been discussing the dark and brooding hero in my blog.

 Some people love a little romance in their mysteries, others feel that it detracts from the story.

I'm of the former school--I love good romantic tension. I was a fan of Moonlighting, of old Katherine Hepburn movies--a strong woman yet irresistably attracted to a man she shouldn't want. I loved Charade--attracted to the enemy.
You can tell those things from reading my books, can't you? Molly and Daniel have this chemistry from day one, when he is trying to arrest her for murder, when he thinks she is married to someone else. And when she discovers the truth about him in later books, she can't stamp out that fire for him. I think it's part of what makes her an appealing character.

Ditto Georgie and the dangerous Darcy O'Mara (of course I gave him the name on purpose!) He's a man she knows she should stay away from but she can't. It adds another element of tension to the story. Will they, won't they?

On the other hand I've read plenty of mysteries in which the boyfriend cop was shoved into the story only so that the heroine can find out forensic evidence or so that there can be some good sex scenes. Sex in mysteries? Only if it is justified and doesn't slow down the essential plot, which is to hunt down a murderer.

I don't think a love interest is essential. Kinsey Milhone makes a fine loner in the tradition of the noir sleuth. I think the writer has to be true to her characters. If they are loners by nature, they will probably not have stable relationships. Take Cara Black's Aimee Leduc. She goes for bad boys who then break her heart.

But sexual tension does have its limits. One can only go on so far with the will they won't they theme. And then--if they marry and live happily ever after--is that the end of the series? Happy married life is boring, is it not? we're about to see what it does for Molly.

So what do you think? Do you like your mysteries with a touch of romance? Or do you like the tough, loner-broad sleuth, or even prefer Miss Marple for whom the word sex has never entered her vocabulary?