fuonlyknew

It’s always a pleasure to have Lauren Carr back on my blog. I’m thrilled to share her new book, Killer In The Band. I’ve read several of her books and this one lived up to my expectations. I’ll be reviewing it for the tour in November.

For now, I have a wonderful spotlight and interview with Lauren.

And a giveaway, so don’t forget to enter!

Killer In The Band

A Lovers In Crime Mystery #3

by Lauren Carr

Genre: Mystery

Synopsis

Summer of Love & Murder

Joshua’s eldest son, Joshua “J.J.” Thornton Jr., has graduated at the top of his class from law school and returns home to spend the summer studying for the bar exam. However, to Joshua’s and Cameron’s shock and dismay, J.J. moves into the main house at Russell Ridge Farm, the largest dairy farm in the Ohio Valley, to rekindle a romance with Suellen Russell, a onetime leader of a rock group who’s twice his age. Quickly, they learn that she has been keeping a deep dark secret.

The move brings long-buried tensions between the father and son to the surface. But when a brutal killer strikes, the Lovers in Crime must set all differences aside to solve the crime before J.J. ends up in the cross hairs of a murderer.

Praise for Lauren Carr’s Mysteries:

“Lauren Carr could give Agatha Christie a run for her money!”

​- Charlene Mabie-Gamble, Literary R&R

“As always, Lauren Carr brings an action-packed story that is almost impossible to put down. Her mystery plots have so many twists and turns that I didn’t know if I was coming or going. And the action just didn’t stop from the very beginning till the very end.” – Melina Mason, Melina’s Book Reviews

Buy the Book:

Amazon  ~  Barnes & Noble

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Interview with Author Lauren Carr

1. Lauren, Killer in the Band is full of murder and intrigue in what appears to be a more sedate setting than your previous best-selling mysteries of a horse farm and orchard. What made you shift gears with this latest Lovers in Crime Mystery?

LC: For each mystery, I chose the setting after coming up with the murder plot. I tailored the characters to fit with the mystery. Lovers in Crime is a small town setting. I grew up in Chester, West Virginia, and there are quite a few farms in and around the Ohio Valley.

I introduced readers to Joshua Thornton in my first book, A Small Case of Murder. Readers of that book may remember that Joshua’s mother grew up on a dairy farm and I remind readers in Killer in the Band that Joshua comes from a long line of farmers. Therefore, it was destined that eventually, a Lovers in Crime Mystery had to be set on a farm.

2. Did setting Killer in the Band on a farm present any challenges that you didn’t encounter with your other series?

LC: Every book presents its own challenges. As a writer, I embrace them. That’s why I love writing.

The setting sets the tone of the book. I myself grew up on a farm. So I was familiar with the setting in that aspect. However, I did not grow up on a quarter horse farm. Therefore, I had to do a lot of research into that part of the setting.

3. You always have such interesting characters in your series—especially furry four-legged ones. There’s Gnarly in the Mac Faraday Mysteries, Irving and Admiral in the Lovers in Crime Mysteries. Are there any new four-legged characters that readers will meet in Killer in the Band?

LC: What’s a farm without critters! Since I created Gnarly, based on my own Australian shepherd named Ziggy, people are always telling me stories about their animals and animals they have heard of.

Gulliver, an appaloosa horse, is based on a horse who I saw in a YouTube video who would let himself out of his stall and then let all the other horses loose, except for one—a mare who happened to be his mother! Seeing this video, I cracked up and called a friend of mine who has a horse farm to ask about it. She said Houdini horses are really not that uncommon, but suggested that this one must have some mommy issues since he doesn’t free his mother.

Charley, the Watch Rooster, is based on a rooster who used to belong to a friend of mine. Yep, his name is really Charley. My friend said that he was given to her niece as a chick at Easter and grew so big that they couldn’t keep him at their suburban home, so they sent him to live with relatives who lived in a small town in southern West Virginia. I’m sure you heard of the neighborhood dog who chases everyone and who everyone is afraid of. Well, that became Charley the Rooster. She said one day a store keeper decided he’d had it with Charley and went after him with a broom. The fight between the store owner and Charley spilled out into the middle of the street in this small town where the editor of the local newspaper snapped a picture of it. The next day, Charley and the store owner ended up on the front page of the newspaper.

When I heard that, there was no way I couldn’t put Charley in my book.

4. What led to the decision to bring J.J. Thornton, the identical twin of Murphy Thornton from the Thorny Rose Mysteries, by the way, home to Chester? Is he going to remain with the Lovers in Crime?

JJ.’s character came about in my first mystery book, A Small Case of Murder, a Joshua Thornton Mystery. At that time, he was seventeen years old. I knew then that he would be a lawyer, like his dad. As his age, it was time for him to come home. But notice that J.J. is not simply a younger version of Joshua, nor is he a duplicate of his twin Murphy. Yes, he is identical in looks, but that’s it. J.J. is the intellectual of the twins. He is into the arts. We find out that he was a musical prodigy. He’s a bleeding heart, which leads to conflicts between him and both Joshua and Cameron.

5. How about with his twin Murphy? Do you have any plans to bring J.J. and Murphy together in their mystery?

Oh, yes! But you’ll need to stay turned for that.

6. Your Mac Faraday series, the Thorny Rose Mysteries, as well as the Lovers in Crime series, have all garnered a loyal following. We will still be seeing these series continue as well, won’t we?

Each series will continue to grow on their own with interconnecting mysteries occasionally. In January, there will be a new Thorny Rose Mystery, A Fine Year for Murder.

In A Fine Year for Murder, Jessica Faraday and her husband, Murphy Thornton, dive into the cold case murder at a family owned winery.

After ten months of marital bliss, Jessica Faraday and Murphy Thornton are still discovering and adjusting to their life together. Settled in their new home, everything appears to be perfect … except in the middle of the night when, in darkest shadows of her subconscious, a deep secret from Jessica’s past creeps to the surface to make her strike out at Murphy.

When investigative journalist Dallas Walker tells the couple about her latest case, known as the Pine Bridge Massacre, they realize Jessica may have witnessed the murder of a family living near a winery owned by distant relatives she was visiting and suppressed the memory.

Determined to uncover the truth and find justice for the murder victims, Jessica and Murphy return to the scene of the crime with Dallas Walker, a spunky bull-headed Texan. Can this family reunion bring closure for a community touched by tragedy or will this prickly get-together bring an end to the Thorny Rose couple?

As long as readers are clamoring for mysteries, I’ll be writing them.

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Author Lauren Carr

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!

Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, son, and four dogs (including the real Gnarly) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Connect with Lauren: Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook

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