News
Half Moon Bay Review:
Local author turns to murder mysteries
By Stacy Trevenon [ stacy@hmbreview.com ] | Posted: Thursday, April 14, 2011 10:19 am
Kings Mountain author Carol Culver, known for her romance and young-adult novels, is turning over a new leaf. A longtime avid reader of mysteries, Culver is trying her hand at the genre with a new volume, "A Good Day to Pie," (Midnight Ink, 303 pages/$14.95 paperback.) Culver, a 35-year Kings Mountain resident, is already the author of more than 30 books, including several best-selling Harlequin romance novels written under both her name and pseudonyms, and young-adult novels under her name.
Now, she says, it's time for a change. "I wanted to do something different," she said. "I think (mysteries) are fun to read. You can have romance, but that's not the main theme." "A Good Day to Pie" is set in a small California seaside community, where Hanna Denton is taking over the pie shop owned for 30 years by her grandmother, Louise, who made her popular pies from scratch before moving into a ritzy retirement community. But as she rolls dough, chops fruit and hunts for the secret ingredients, Hanna finds herself facing a new challenge - to convince the town's handsome new police chief (once and still her high school crush) that Grannie couldn't possibly have committed murder.
This kind of story, Culver explained, is a "cozy mystery," gentler than conventional hard-edged mysteries, lacking violence and focusing on a sleuth who is not a professional but an amateur with a stake in finding out who done it - like Hanna with her Grannie. It's a scenario that characterized the popular "Miss Marple" mysteries, where the cop who helped the prim Miss Marple nab wrongdoers was not a licensed detective but "one smart cookie," said Culver. Her pie shop mystery is the first of what Culver says will be a two-book series.
Written throughout the first half of 2010 and due for publication in August, it will be followed by another story, written in the second half of the year and set in the same pie shop with some of the same characters. Culver plans another contemporary series next, a three-volume "cozy mystery" set in a small but tony San Francisco boutique. It will begin with "Shoe Done It" and continue with two books set in the same boutique. The town where Culver's pie shop is set may seem familiar, since "it could very well be" Half Moon Bay with its scenery and views, she said.
No book-signings are scheduled for the "Pie" book yet. Culver stays busy cruising the world's seas teaching 45-minute writing workshops on each at-sea day in exchange for cruises for two. Teaching specifically on the Celebrity line, she just returned from the Caribbean and looks forward to Australia and New Zealand this winter. She said she does not know exactly why publishers encourage writers to take on pseudonyms unless to distinguish different novels. Besides her own name, she has published under Grace Carroll (her middle name is Grace) and self-published the romance, "The Prince's Nanny," under Carol Grace. "A Good Day to Pie" is available online through amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
