Tag: #elisesthoughts

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Through the Valley by Patricia Johns

Book Description

Miri Schrock never expected to inherit anything after months of caring for Old Tom Yoder, so upon his passing, she’s stunned to learn he’s left her everything. But Tom’s family is equally shocked, and Miri is not sure she can rightfully accept an inheritance that clearly belongs to Tom’s grandsons.

Moses Yoder thought he knew his grandfather, but his decision to leave the Lancaster County family farm to Miri has Moses questioning everything. Now he’s caught between his family’s demands that Miri surrender what’s rightfully theirs and his own growing romantic attraction toward her. As Moses and Miri are drawn together, they must navigate family tensions, yet discovering the truth behind the inheritance may change everything they thought they knew about love, family, and God’s plan for their future.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Through The Valley by Patricia Johns is a story involving two women who are not traditional Amish. Miri Schrock would rather be out in the field and tending to the cows and the farm rather than be inside cooking, cleaning, and sewing. Tabitha Schrock, years ago during her rumspringa, left the Amish community to become a veterinarian.

Tabitha ended up marrying an Englisher, Michael. Sadly, their marriage ended in divorce. Tabitha never really felt at home with Englishers so she decided to return to her Amish people. The one barrier she couldn’t break down was being a divorced woman. Despite her longtime friendship with Jonas and a growing love between them, she knew she would never be allowed to remarry if her ex-husband was still alive. She needed to move on with her life and she encouraged Jonas to move on, get married, and have a family.

But life takes an unexpected turn when Tabitha finds out her ex-husband has died. A lawyer reaches out to Tabitha to inform her Michael’s widow, Kelsie, wants to speak with her. After some consideration, Tabitha meets with her and the two discover the unkindness in Michael and his manipulative ways.

In another plot line, Tabitha’s cousin Miri Schrock has been helping Tom Yoder whose heath has continued to decline. She’s the one who has been tending to Tom’s daily needs as his grandsons, Moses and Benuel, are outside taking care of the farm. While Tom’s family knew that he was sick, his sudden passing was a surprise. At the reading of Tom’s will, it is announced that he left the farm to Miri.

The story weaves multiple plotlines and characters together. She does a fabulous job in having characters from previous novels in the story continue in this one. Readers will be sad to see this great series coming to an end.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?

Patricia Johns: I knew how the book, the whole series was going to end when I started writing it. This was something that I had planned from the very beginning. So, it was a well-planned series.

EC: There are two heroines in this story: are they alike or different?

PJ: Tabitha from early books is one heroine and Miri is the other. I think they’re similar. I mean, they’re cousins. They both don’t quite fit into the feminine mold that the Amish expect from them. I think they both struggle with a similar situation where they don’t quite fit in in the same way. But, of course, with Tabitha, she’s divorced, and is dealing with the other woman from her marriage, trying to connect with her and make peace. Miri has the community set against her because of this inheritance, which has gone terribly, terribly wrong in the community’s eyes.

EC: How would you describe Miri?

PJ:  She’s a tomboy, inquisitive, good instincts, complex, vulnerable, stubborn, and moral.

EC: What about Moses, one of the heroes?

PJ: He is hardworking and kind, also passionate. I would think he’s moral too, but conflicted about his feelings and what he wants in life. His grandfather was supposed to leave the farm to him, and his brother. Since the death Moses is suffering from a personal loss, and he’s dealing with a personal rejection from his grandfather. He can’t even go and ask his grandfather, ‘Why? What did you do it? What upset you?’ He can’t even ask for query because his grandfather is gone. So, I think he’s dealing with a lot. The family land left to Miri had his father and grandfather grow up on this land, so, there’s family connections to this. He worked this land since he was a little boy. And, suddenly, he’s cut out of it. So, I think he has a lot more that he must deal with. Personally, I had some empathy for him for all of that because he was dealing with a lot.

EC: How would you describe the grandfather, Tom Yoder?

PJ: He had a unique way of looking at the world, and he encouraged Miri. He taught her about cattle and how to run a farm, passing on the passion he had about his farm, which partly explains why he left the farm to her. He’s a little bit of an enigma because he was such a straight talker, yet, he did not talk straight about this with his family, and he should have.

EC:  What about the relationship between Miri and Moses?

PJ: He’s trying not to take it out on Miri, believing this isn’t her fault. He’s trying to protect Mari from his family, who are blaming Miri for what happened. She was supported by her parents. But Moses’ parents questioned his desire just to fulfill his grandfather’s wishes. He resents her in some ways and she’s kind of angry at him. They don’t trust the other person as just being honest and open with their feelings. Especially when the things are overheard.

EC: Did the community play a role with Tabitha and Miri?

PJ: With Tabitha, there is no solution that will please the community, because she’s divorced, and there’s no undoing it. There’s no way of fixing her situation in the eye of the community. But I think with Miri she could do what the community wanted, and she could say, ‘all right, I’ll back out. I’ll hand this back.’ Regarding Tabitha, community has written Tabitha off in a lot of ways. They’re like, ‘well, she’s going to be different. There is no helping her.’ But for Miri, they still think that they can sort of get their hands in there and mold her to their liking. I think there’s more pressure on Miri to change, because they think that she’s young enough, and she can be molded.

EC: What about the Tabitha and Jonas relationship?

PJ: He sees her as accomplished, gentle, and funny. They have feelings for each other, but hide it. She feels she lost his friendship when he possibly will become engaged. They both realize they fell in love with their best friend. And she’s jealous of the other woman, but she kind of hides it. She thinks it’s morally wrong to be jealous of this other woman, but she is very jealous. She has everything that Jonas could possibly want for the rest of his life, and she will be truly happy with him for the rest of her life, because he is a faithful type. They want a happily ever after, but don’t see how they can achieve it.

EC: What is the role of Kelsie, the other woman who broke up Tabitha’s marriage?

PJ: I needed it to bring things back around for Tabitha to deal with, the pain of that divorce. On a personal level, the reason why I brought in the other woman is because I’ve seen this sort of situation, with people that I know, where it’s never just one affair. It’s never just like, ‘oh, he did it once and he would never do it again.’ There’s always a pattern. And even when the woman has been duped and she doesn’t see the pattern yet, there’s normally a pattern there. And so, I’ve sort of seen that with women that I know who have been cheated on by their cheating exes, and have discovered, ‘oh, there was a pattern, and I had no idea when I was in the middle of it.’ I wanted to give Tabitha that opportunity to see the pattern because she sort of blamed herself thinking, ‘I was different. I was Amish. I wasn’t English enough. We didn’t quite connect. I was embarrassing to him.’ I needed Tabitha to be able to forgive herself and to be able to see that she had been enough all along, and she was never the problem. It was always him who was the problem, not her. I really needed Tabitha to see that.  It wasn’t because she wasn’t enough. It was because he had personal issues that made him incapable of fidelity. I wanted to give her that opportunity to really deal with it, and it was a painful dealing, but at the end of it, she could move on with her own love, realizing, ‘I do have a lot to offer.’ She absolutely is the whole package.

EC: Next books?

PJ: Coming out the end of February the book called Her Amish Secret Admirer. This is the last book in the “Amish Chocolate Shop Brides Series.” The setting is a little Amish town and the stories center around the girls who work there. In this book, the owner of the shop receives a secret admirer letter. And she has no idea who this person could possibly be. The secret admirer is her best friend who lives next door. He’s widowed. He was trying to cheer her up. He sends another one, just to try and smooth things over to keep her happy. They end up in the situation where he’s sending these letters and he’s sort of teasing her a little bit. He’s like, ‘ooh, you’re getting letters.’ Mayhem ensues, and it all circles around the right people getting married.

Another book is titled, Amish Country Christmas, and it is about the third sister in the “Honest Antiques Shop miniseries.” Her old friend ghosted her. And they had been best, best, best friends. Now, he’s a cop, he’s back, and he’s widowed. He has a young son. She is his young son’s second grade teacher, and is also running an antiques shop with her sisters. The cops are trying to root out the criminal element, and they need her help. There is a Christmas element and a mystery where the cops are trying to figure out who’s harassing this Amish community. It has romantic suspense. Both the hero and heroine are English but are involved with the Amish community.

THANK YOU!!

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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Unearthed and Betrayed by Anna J. Stewart

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Unearthed and Betrayed by Anna J. Stewart continue the “Circle of the Red Lily” series. Both books have a suspenseful action-filled story.

Book Description

Unearthed’s plot has forensic investigator Dr. Cassia Davis living a life of isolation, after surviving the kidnapping by a serial killer. She has self-imposed to confining herself to her apartment and to online consulting. But after a Hollywood Hills murder mystery exposes a mass grave connected to her past, Cass must confront the man who shattered her trust, FBI Special Agent Mitchell Keaton.

His mistake nearly cost her life. Now, working together on the crime scene investigation, they must unearth the truth about a serial killer tied to The Circle of the Red Lily, a ruthless secret society that controls Hollywood’s darkest corners.

But digging into the past means reopening old wounds. As passion reignites between them, Cass and Mitch must overcome guilt, trauma, and the lies that tore them apart. Because the closer they get to the truth, the more dangerous the hunt becomes.

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Book Description

Betrayed highlights Sutton O’Hara, a good friend of the heroines from previous stories. She is raising her orphaned niece and nephew and working as a nutritionist at a retirement home. But when clues among the residents point to the Circle, a powerful secret network linked to decades of missing girls and murder, she refuses to look away.

Former Naval investigator Blake Redford is determined to keep Sutton safe. Posing as her friend gives him the perfect excuse to stay close while they search for answers, but the attraction they’ve both ignored quickly becomes impossible to deny. For the first time since losing his wife and son, Blake can imagine a future again.

Then, Sutton discovers why he really took the job as a building maintenance man, and it rocks everything she thought about him.

Now, with her trust shattered and the enemy closing in, Blake must prove whose side he’s on before the secrets he kept cost him the woman he loves, the family he never expected, and their only chance to expose the truth.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?

Anna J. Stewart: I knew when I was writing books, one and two, that I was eventually going to have to find the missing women, and they weren’t obviously going to turn up alive. So, I knew that there was going to have to be a mass grave somewhere. And that’s essentially how I came up with the idea for the character of forensic investigator Dr. Cassia Davis (Cass). Although back when I first put her on the page, I didn’t know how complicated she was going to be to write. For me, it was just kind of a natural inclusion into the storyline.

EC: How would you describe the serial killer Jonathan Whittaker, the one in prison?

AJS: Probably a genius and very manipulative. He was powerful because I think there’s an inherent power, good or bad, that comes from believing that you’re always going to get away with something. And I think when he was put away, he always knew he was going to find a way to get out. He managed to find a way to do that.

EC: How would you describe Elliot the dog?

AJS: He’s traumatized and he bonds with Cass. I watch a lot of animal videos on social media just because they’re so healing. There’s a thing in writing called “Save the Cat,” which is how someone knows whether somebody is very good or not, and it usually has something to do with an animal. This allowed me to give Cassia a coping mechanism and another lost soul to bond with to help her through trauma. And dogs inherently know whether or not they can trust you. Elliot himself sensed that Cass needed him as much as she needed him.

EC: What about Mitch, the hero?

AJS: He’s charming, a former FBI profiler, sympathetic, protective, and focused. He’s also dealing with a fair amount of guilt, and guilt is a great motivator when it comes to the rest of your life. Mitch wishes if only he could turn back the clock and make different decisions than he did in the heat of the moment. And this isn’t to say that he made any wrong decisions. When I wrote the prologue to this book and I showed what happened between him and Cass, in the opening pages of that book, that established where she is mentally and even physically. He wishes there was another way he could have done something without breaking her trust, but he doesn’t see it in the same way that she does. He was a safe person for her to strike out against, and to shut out of her life, because it gave her a kind of a sense of control that she needed. But at the same time, I think she really lost something she probably needed.

EC: How would you describe Cass?

AJS: She is reclusive, traumatized, anxious, and wants safety boundaries. She is self-protective, has imprisoned herself, remote, and paranoid. Cass is angry and I think that might even be close to where most of her issues come from is how angry she is. She doesn’t necessarily know what she’s angry at or who she’s angry at. So, I think it all kind of manifests itself in different ways. It is an illusionary control because what she learns through the story is that even though she thinks everything around her is safe, she’s still not safe. And that’s because she’s brought with her the trauma, and she’s been trying to outrun it by locking herself away, but there’s really no way to do that until she faces it.

EC: What about Temple House?

AJS: I think Temple House is honestly the heart of the story, where everybody has built their community. And that was purposeful. I wanted a central location where everybody had a connection to not only the building and the history of the building and the sense of community that it offers, but also a place where everybody who lives inherently becomes family. My stories, no matter what type of story I write, there is always going to be family found including with a circle of friends.

EC: The relationship between Mitch and Cass?

AJS: It’s complicated because they both are keeping secrets from each other. They’re both frustrated and they care about each other. They love each other. But just because you love somebody doesn’t necessarily mean you can be with them, and they really find their way through a lot of previous trauma to make the decision to fight to be together. And that’s really what they do throughout the story.

EC: In all the books the bad guys are in this group, The Circle?

AJS: They’re abusive, they like to kidnap, believe in ritualistic murders, want power and prestige. They’re like a fraternity and a cult. Past stories about events like this really did kind of influence how I approached creating the circle and what it is that they’re about.

EC: Idea for the fourth book, Betrayed?

AJS: This has been the trickiest story to write so far, and I say that getting ready to hit into the last book of the series. Because when I first introduced Sutton O’Hara, she’s a Midwest girl, a cook, a nutritionist, very much a homebody, because she’s built her life and her career around comfort and nutrition and caretaking. And I wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to bring to the story that could equal what the three previous heroines had done. Each of the three previous heroines had an actual role to play in the investigation and were properly motivated to want to see the investigation proceed. It was a puzzle on what to do with Sutton when she’s raising her niece and nephew. And she’s kind of an outlier, and it actually became a plot point of the story where even she’s wondering, ‘well, what do I have to do with any of this,’ even though she’s also being targeted, partly because she lives in Temple House, but also partly because she’s very good friends with the other women who the circle sees as a threat. I really challenged her into stepping up and deciding what she wants to fight for in her own life. Then there was the hero, Blake Redford, who was introducedin the first book of the series, Framed, book one of the series. I knew from the start what his secret was, and that doesn’t usually happen for me because I don’t plot out my books. I’m usually surprised as I’m writing them. Blake’s appearance, when he showed up in that scene in Framed, he was going to be there for reasons other than being there for a job. When I got to the end of book three, and I kind of had that twist ending in the epilogue, that surprised me. I knew there was some connection between Sutton and Blake but I didn’t realize how deep it particularly went.

EC: What about Blake?

AJS: Blake is former military, calm, and strong. He lost his wife and son. He’s honorable. The honorability is really something that was interesting to play with, because he’s extremely honorable, and he’s extremely loyal, but the loyalty shifts as he becomes more involved in the case. The reasons that he’s originally sent to help at Temple House aren’t necessarily on the up and up, but he’s doing a favor for a friend, and he’s the kind of person who’ll always do something for a friend. When he realizes that there’s more to this than he’s been told, his loyalties begin to shift away from his friend and into the new circle of friends that he’s found, that he didn’t expect to find. No matter what he’s done, he always does it with a sense of honor, which is one reason why he really can’t play a victim when the betrayal comes out. He realizes ‘I have to pay the price for what I set into motion.’  And that’s honorable.

EC: How about their relationship?

AJS: When I started with book four, he really is lying to everybody about why he’s there in Temple House and why he came to Temple House. And Sutton is somebody who needs to trust. And that is the one ultimate thing that she would possibly never be able to forgive is being lied to from the start from somebody that she develops feelings for. This book had a heavier romance lean to it than the suspense, but that’s mainly because Sutton’s position within the friendship circle really didn’t lend itself to quite as much suspense and danger as the other three heroines. Their relationship is complicated. She feels disappointed and betrayed by him and he is hurt by her. I think he’s hurt, but I think he also understands because he knew it was going to happen. He was just hoping to stay ahead of it. But as he’s learned through other events in his life, that it doesn’t matter how much he hopes for things, sometimes he just can’t make something happen that he needs to have happen. It was also an element of self- sabotage: ‘if she doesn’t forgive me, then I’m still protected and, I was right to be leery of getting involved.’ But at the same time, he still hopes that something will work its way out for the two of them.

EC: How would you describe Sutton?

AJS: Sutton is impulsive, gives people confidence, organized, smart, snarky, concerned, determined, and must deal with the death of her brother and sister-in-law. Earlier I was talking about trying to figure out the puzzle piece that she has. Her friend tells her, ‘You have a vital part to play in our circle, because you’re who we all come to for logic and reason and stability. You’re the anchor. And if you weren’t here, we’d all be untethered.’ And I think that was an important thing for her to be able to see through somebody else’s eyes, especially since she’s had a lot thrown at her when her brother and sister-in-law died, and suddenly she’s a single parent to two young children. It’s given her a purpose, but it’s also, kind of taken away from whatever she had planned for her own life. But she never resents that. Sutton kind of becomes the soul of Temple House, taking care of everybody. She cooks for them, and she’s always the one who will open the door and say, ‘what do you need?’

EC: There are a lot of quotes in both books from movies. Are you a movie fanatic?

AJS: I grew up on old movies. I grew up with Shirley Temple and Bogey movies and Marilyn Monroe always been a fascination of mine. I have a huge movie collection. I still collect DVDs because I’m a big fan of physical media where I want to watch what I want to watch. I don’t have to find the streaming service that’s on. I love everything about the whole bringing an imagination into the visual world. I was 7 when Star Wars came out, and that’s really the first movie I can remember where I’m like, ‘oh, this is what it’s like to step into somebody’s imagination.’ And that’s really where my lot of storytelling began. When I created this world and set it in Hollywood, it was just a natural fit because I’ve always been so interested in all kinds of things that have to do with Hollywood movie making.

EC: Who is Moxie Temple based upon?

AJS: Moxie Temple, who is Riley Temple’s great aunt, who I kind of created as a combination of Shirley Temple and Debbie Reynolds, because of the way that she moved through Hollywood. She is trying to reinvent herself, starting from the 1940s all the way up to present day and she’s still driving. She’s still trying to find the spotlight, which she always manages to find.

EC: Next books?

AJS: I think the one thing I know for certain is going to happen in book five is Moxie Temple finally going to find that spotlight again. No title yet, but it will be featuring Laurel Fontaine, who’s the character I have been dying to write. She’s the celebrity defense attorney who is very well known nationwide. She has a reputation. She’s very smart. I have no idea right now what her background is. I don’t know how she became what she became or why, so I’m really looking forward to figuring that out. She will be paired off with somebody we meet in book four, Granger Powell. I want to cause as much conflict and tension as I can, and I think putting those two on the page together is going to be really, fun. It should be out next summer, hopefully late June, early July. I am in the dark as much as the readers are right now as far as how the Circle organization is going to work out because the person I thought headed it, that is not the person. But part of the fun of not being a plotter is that I get to be surprised along with the reader. As far as I know, these five will be the only books in the “Red Lily Series.” That said, I am going to be introducing one or two new characters for a new series.

The new series will take a darker turn, and I’m not sure if traditional publishers would be interested in that. I’d really love to write something where I’m untethered and anything is open to what I want to write. The new series is a story about revenge and justice. I am 90% sure I’m going to be self-publishing it, and if I do, it would probably either be late 2027, early 2028. There’s going to be four books in that series.

The McKenna series is going to end with book four. That’s Aidan’s story and that will be out in February. Readers will meet a bunch of characters for my new series with Harlequin Romantic Suspense, which is called “Deep Current Solutions.” It will revolve around a security agency that deals with aquatic situations working on oil rigs or underwater science facilities. I’m really looking forward to writing those. I believe the first deep current book will be out next fall.

THANK YOU!!

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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: DOG and The Girl Who Rode the White Lion by Yishay Ishi Ron

DOG and The Girl Who Rode the White Lion by Yishay Ishi Ron are very powerful novels. Both these novels are mirrored in realistic events including October 7th. They have mystery, good versus evil, revenge and resolution, and are page turners that both inform and entertain.

Elise’s Thoughts

DOG is a poignant and unflinching exploration of the search for meaning after the wreckage of war, told through the eyes of an Israeli combat officer returning from Gaza. Haunted by trauma, he spirals into heroin addiction, finding himself among Tel Aviv’s community of misfit junkies—until a stray dog enters his life and becomes a beacon of hope, guiding him through a transformative journey marked by despair, resilience, and ultimately hope for salvation.

Beyond its deeply personal narrative, DOG offers a raw and immersive examination of PTSD’s mechanisms— how extreme stress, moral injury, and the experience of combat can rewire the brain, making a return to civilian life seem nearly impossible. With sharp social critique and profound emotional depth, the novel sheds light on invisible wounds and those who carry them, while illustrating the therapeutic power of a simple soulful connection, and how the path to redemption can be illuminated in the most unexpected of ways.

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Girl Who Rode the White Lion shows the cruelty of the Nazi SS. It takes place in two timelines. The first begins in the city of Darmstadt, Germany, on November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht, and follows the plight of the young girl Sarah Frank and her escape from the SS officer, Hauptsturmführer Hubert Zimmer. She finds refuge in the marvelous circus of Adolf Frey. Adolf, the circus owner and famous lion trainer, is married to Louis, a Jewish French
woman and elephant trainer. The circus has already committed to performances in German cities, but Adolf’s plans are disrupted when the SS officer, searching for Sarah, shows no intention of giving up.

The second timeline of the book takes place in New York City, on January 6, 1957, when Mark Spencer, a veterinarian at the Central Park Zoo, performs a post-mortem examination on a rare white lion named Christmas, and discovers an SS ring made of silver inside its stomach. The mystery of the story has Mark wondering about the ring and searching for clues that has him meet Sarah in Israel.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: The book, DOG, delves into PTSD; can you elaborate on this issue?

Yishay Ishi Ron: Its theme is the horror of the war and what happens when the war is over. A lot of the public attention in Israel now is the after effects of October 7th because so many civilians and soldiers experienced severe PTSD. Some people say that at least one fourth of the population in Israel now has it. Of course, you can see it with soldiers committing suicide, so many, something like 140 since October 7th, and those are only the formal numbers. And of course, survivors, their families, and those injured also have PTSD. Since October 7th, those with PTSD have more than doubled because they were all traumatized. They remember the memories from October 7th, and the anti-Semitism is not helping.

EC: The book, DOG, does it relate to October 7th?

YIR: Although it was written before October 7th, yes. Everybody in Israel knows a family that had a member kidnapped or injured or killed or their son or daughter were killed in the war. PTSD is so common now, and I think that when people read DOG, they should understand deep in their hearts what it means to have PTSD and how it can pull them easily from being a functional normal person to someone that cannot deal with life. They are so haunted by what they’ve seen or what they heard. So, this is the connection to October 7.

EC:  In DOG you have a dedication that reads, “To the combatants whose eyes have seen things that their minds refuse to forget.”  Does this apply to those who saw the horrific acts against the victims on October 7th?

YIR: I’m a PTSD veteran, and I believe that, for many Israelis, veterans, all Israel was traumatized very deeply. Even for me as a veteran I suffered, because I remember those days as very, very traumatic. And I wasn’t there, but it was enough to watch the news and to hear the people who had been there. I remember in my therapy sessions that I was just crying. I couldn’t even deal with my PTSD because I was so traumatized by what happened to us. And I feel that in a way that is how it is with most Israelis. They can’t sleep. It was horrific, what they saw and who were there and what they had to deal with.

EC:  What do you want to say about DOG?

YIR: It’s not about a war, but it’s about what happens when the war is over. What happened to soldiers and to heroes and to people that experience it. As a PTSD survivor, I started to write DOG before I knew I had PTSD. For years I suffered from PTSD and its many manifestations. I couldn’t admit to myself that I’m suffering from PTSD because I did not want to be perceived as weak. So, I started to write DOG a few years before my psychological collapse. I had a breakdown during COVID after my team had a reunion and I met the soldier, a friend of mine, who I accidentally shot during the combat operation. I really collapsed mentally. And that was the first time I really admitted to myself that I had PTSD. I couldn’t work, I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep. It was very hard for me, very difficult times, so my psychiatrist and my therapist told me ‘You are a writer, go write it to help you to process everything.’ So, I came back to DOG and I started to rewrite it. I wanted to make it more interesting so I wrote it as a novel. I think it’s more reachable for people but also to experience from Geller, my protagonist, his perspective as a Commando officer.

EC: Your other book, The Girl Who Rode the White Lion; how did you get the idea for the story?

YIR: I came upon it many years ago, maybe 10 to 15 years ago, A Jewish acrobat named Irene Danner pleaded for those in the circus to hide her. They accepted to hide her, to give her a job and a new identity. And later, they also took in her sister and grandma. They hid two other families, which was very, very risky for them, because the SS and the Gestapo used to check up on the circus looking for Jews. So, it was very, very dangerous for them, but they decided to do this. As an author I was intrigued by the atmosphere of the circus. I mean, in this insane place that Europe became, and especially Germany, such a place of horrors and of drama and of craziness of what happened. So, it really mesmerized me. I couldn’t get it out of my head and I decided to write the story, but I didn’t want to write the biography so I wrote a fiction novel that deals with this circus, and what happened.

EC: There is a quote in the book that can also refer to today with anti-Semitism. Can you comment?

YIR: You are referring to, ‘The Nazis taught us to stand up for ourselves. They taught us that no one in the world would volunteer to save a Jew.’ On the contrary, many would step up to kill a Jew just for fun. I think that many a Jew was shocked that their non-Jewish friends looked the other way after October 7th. I was not very surprised. Nothing changed. From the beginning of today’s time, and when Christianity and Islam came, Jews were persecuted, everywhere in the world, in all times. 

EC: How would you describe the female protagonist, Sarah?

YIR: She did not believe in love and attachment. She’s quiet, vulnerable and has PTSD. She drinks a lot. She disassociates from herself when she drinks. She can have unattachable sex, but she cannot have long-term relationships because everyone she counted on was killed, was taken from her, and she even says it to Mark Spencer. She tells him that everyone that comes near her is dead, is killed. She’s seen a man being murdered, her house being destroyed, and her father being taken to a concentration camp and killed. She also saw her new parents being killed in Germany during a bombing and animals also killed. So, it’s very, very, very traumatic for her. And I think that she’s has classic PTSD

EC: How would you describe Mark, the male lead?

YIR: He was born with a silver spoon. In the beginning, he is a very successful American, a peacock. He likes to show off. He likes to have many girlfriends, and he cannot stay with one because he feels that he is the alpha man. 

EC: What about the relationship between Mark and Sarah?

YIR: When he falls for Sarah, it’s not only because she’s beautiful because he had many beautiful women before her. When he meets with Sarah, he has a girlfriend in New York who is very beautiful. I think he falls for her because he falls for her honesty and for the feelings and pain that she carries. Like a lot of us, he had sympathy with someone who was suffering. He went on a journey that changes from this person as not being much more sensitive to being sensitive of what happened to the Jews. Then suddenly he finds himself understanding that there is anti-Semitism around. So basically, I think he starts the book as a peacock and finishes it as someone who is much more sensitive and connected to the pain in Sarah.

EC: What do you think the role of the lion was in your story?

YIR: It’s a symbol. It’s a symbol for Jews for strength and for courage. My protagonist, Sarah, found the courage to deal with the situation. I mean, the lion was so frightening, but when she understood the situation, that the real beast is the Nazis, and compared to them, the lion suddenly is not so frightening to her. She understands suddenly that if she does not succeed in riding the lion, she will be dead and everyone she loves will be dead. So, this was the symbol she had to overcome her deepest fears.

EC: How would you describe the Nazi SS Zimmerman?

YIR: He has an inferiority complex, cruel, a control freak, a predator, and a sadist. I saw him in my mind as a combination of Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Eichmann, who were both pathetic, weak physically, and damaged people. So, it was very important for me to show this aspect that the master race was not always such a master race. He became a classic villain, because he’s such a weak person. His hatred for the Jews is based on jealousy of Sarah’s family. His childhood friend was an officer during WWI in the army, and later became a doctor, had a beautiful wife, and a beautiful home, and they were rich. Zimmerman was unsuccessful in his prior life, and became successful as a Nazi, only because he was so extreme and full of hate. He was jealous of the Jews. 

EC: What was the importance of the ring found in the lion’s stomach?

YIR: I read about the Nazi rings, which were given as a present by Himmler to officers in the SS. And the rings were more important than the officers themselves, meaning if an officer was killed, the commands were to bring back the ring. Or when an officer was dead by nature or by accident or by battlefield, the ring had to be brought back to Himmler. It was a gift only to the time the officer was alive. The ring belonged to the SS, and it was a symbol. So, when I looked for a symbol to connect Sarah, to the SS, to the lion, and to Mark Spencer, it was like suddenly as I saw it as a vision that Mark will find the ring in the lion’s stomach. 

EC: Next book?

YIR: It is titled, Jacob the Birdman. It’s about this guy that was feeling that all his life he was a bird. And, suddenly in the park, in Tel Aviv, he goes to the park and meets a strange man that encourages him to take out the bird inside of him and to become a bird. It’s very Salvador Dali, very dreamy, like.

THANK YOU!!

***

BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Beyond Honor by K.B. Brodsky

Book Description

A man forged by war, paramilitary operative Kevin Rhoads is recruited for a solo extraction mission deep inside Siberia. CIA analyst Whitney Skyler’s investigation into a Russian-backed bank on American soil leads to the President of the United States.

Director Cynthia King plays an audacious gambit, leveraging a thirty-year debt of honor to save a captured American agent. But in this world of shifting alliances, even the most careful plans can unravel. Skyler faces an impossible choice: expose her mentor’s dangerous game to protect national security or reveal the truth to Rhoads. Already shattered by loss, Rhoads discovers the devastating betrayal that will transform him into a force of vengeance, leaving death in his wake.

***

Elise’s Thoughts

Beyond Honor by K. B. Brodsky (the pen name for the husband-and-wife team of Karen and Bill Brodsky) is a fabulous debut novel.  It has everything that a Vince Flynn/Mitch Rapp novel had including action, great character development, and timely geopolitical scenarios with themes of loyalty, duty, sacrifice, and revenge.

There are multiple sub-plots in the book. Readers meet Kevin Rhoads in the first chapter as a 17-year-old Alaskan hunting guide and pilot who takes two US army veterans bear hunting. The veterans were so impressed with Kevin’s skills they told him to call when he finished school. He does just that, fast forwarding, to become a Delta working in the Special Activities Center. He and his team, joined by rising CIA analyst Whitney Skyler, are sent on an operation to accompany US technicians assisting Ukrainian forces. At the last-minute, Rhoads is pulled from the mission so that he can head to his father’s side, who has been hospitalized, and Skyler is called back to Washington. After hearing the team’s transport has been shot down by Russian forces with all dead, they both feel guilty for surviving.

The second plot line has real estate developer, Peter Michaels, being blackmailed by Russian spies who bailed him out of financial trouble.  Whitney uncovers a financial trail that leads from Russia back to a Michaels, a close friend of the newly elected US President Kemp.

The third plot line has Skyler also discovering during her investigation that a CIA asset believed dead is alive in a Russian prison. Rhoads is asked to do a solo extraction. Cynthia King, CIA Director of Special Situations, is behind putting Skyler in charge of the investigation and choosing Rhoads for the extraction. Plus, she uncovers a financial trail that leads from Russia and connected to the failed op that killed Rhoads teammates.

The authors have hit the ball out of the park with this debut novel as they pit US and Russian intelligence agencies against each other. Readers will take an emotional journey with the characters as they deal with loss, grief, and complicated relationships. There is a lot of action as the characters are on a quest for vengeance.

Author Interview

Elise Cooper: What’s it like writing together?

K. Brodsky: I think we have a pretty good system where Bill wrote the first draft, and then invited me to join him in the rest of the process. I think we both bring different strengths to it and we have a good system where we write on a Google Doc. All our edits, all our changes, all our thoughts are sort of off to the side in comments and nobody changes anything unless the other person agrees. I think, we got it worked out. What do you think, Bill?

B. Brodsky: I think it’s super fun. You know, putting aside the technicalities of it, we talk about it, and we have a drink over it, and we have a lot of laughs on it.

EC: Idea for the story?

K. B. B: It organically grew, where the components became more complicated, more nuanced as we were going through the story writing process. But we always knew we wanted to make this story about honor and betrayal, and we kind of had the sense that the end of the book will have Kevin and Whitney separated in some way.

EC: What was the purpose of the hunting scene in chapter one?

K. B. B: We wanted to land our character, Kevin Rhodes, in an environment where he can display his talents. We wanted to also show his very deep relationship with his father and the lodge that they work in. The grizzly bears were just a vehicle to show his talents, whether it was the shooting or his resilience when he hurt his ankle, or his confidence in flying a little plane. Once a retired Delta Force and sent to Siberia, readers see a lot of those talents come back, including flying of the plane. So, it was kind of a consistent thing throughout the book. The two hunters he was a guide for were veterans of the army. At the end of the hunt, they were very impressed with him, and they gave him a card and said, ‘When you finish college, call this number, and, there’s a job. We’re in the Delta force.’

EC: How would you describe Kevin, the male lead?

K. B. B: Kevin is determined. A tracker, brave, family minded, calm, laser focused, and went on a mission. He kind of has two sides, one when he’s on a mission, and one when he’s a civilian. We really wanted to show in his character how he is compartmentalized.

EC: Do you think some of the settings was timely?

K. B. B: I think it’s timely, because we tried to paint a geopolitical picture, but we tried to keep it relatively simple and more from the individual’s perspective. In the Ukraine part of the book, while we don’t get into the politics of it, we get into the human cost of it, the people being killed, the toll that it takes on the soldiers, since some of them don’t make it. I think the goal is if you pick up this book 20 years from now, it would still feel relevant, regardless of what was happening in the geopolitical sphere. It would still feel relevant because it’s grounded in characters, versus what was happening in the world at that time. Which is why it wasn’t written to sort of be a rip from the headlines either.

EC: How would you describe Whitney?

K. B. B: She’s is incredibly responsible. I think she carries the weight of what happened to her brother with her, and she doesn’t want to let anybody down. Part of what we really wanted for Whitney was to see growth from her from the beginning to the end. She starts out, not naive, but very earnest, and we wanted her to sort of become more complicated than nuanced as she became more grounded in these situations. But we also made a point to make sure that she didn’t become like a superhero, picking up a gun and turning into a female version of Kevin. We wanted her to have her own skills, which were more of an analyst. She learns from her mentor, Cynthia King.

EC: How would you describe Cynthia King, CIA Director of Special Situations?

K. B. B: She’s willing to do things that go outside of what would be considered good. In all these characters is this concept of being pushed beyond honor. She is pushing people, taking advantage of the debt of honor with Somers, the CIA Director, to get what she believes is necessary.

EC: What role did Daniel Komoroff, CIA asset captured by Russia play in the story?

K. B. B: I think he’s a vehicle to get King really engaged, so that she uses her debt of honor that she feels Somers owes her. So that we really see King manipulating Somers who had no choice but to say yes because of what happened in Berlin 30 or 40 years ago. King pushes Somers beyond her comfort zone. And Komoroff provided a vehicle for King to get passionate, to try to manipulate everybody, because she saw herself in him.

EC: How would you describe President Kemp?

K. B. B: He’s a political animal. I think he’s smart. I think he’s a manipulator and impulsive. He’s a politician, and I think, for better or for worse, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, he’s supposed to be kind of an amalgamation of lots of different politicians, really the worst of our politics. It’s hard to figure out exactly what they really believe in. They kind of blow with the wind, depending on their polling numbers. They are trying to manipulate people to get votes, to get money, and do not ask the right questions. I think what they believe in is power, period.

EC: What about Anya the Russian Agent?

K. B. B: We kind of set her up to be disillusioned but she does things to help Russia against the US.

EC: Next book?

K. B. B: We explore Anya more deeply in book two. We had a cliffhanger in book one because we are setting readers up for the next phase. Kevin and Whitney will be back. There is no official title yet. The setting is in Venezuela

THANK YOU!!

***

BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Buried Lies and Deadly Revenge by Kathleen Donnelly

Buried Lies and Deadly Revenge have a layer of realism that elevates the suspense. Both books are fast-paced mysteries with engaging twists and turns, and are hard to put down. 

Book Description

U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer Maya Thompson and her K-9, Juniper, are both ready for a break. Ever since moving to Colorado, it’s been one investigation after another. Murder, arson, kidnapping…they’ve handled it all. Now that her boyfriend, Undersheriff Josh Colton, is coming home, Maya is looking forward to spending some quality time together.

Until she and Juniper find the body of a woman in a pile of forest debris meant to burn, that is. Then Maya’s just looking forward to having Josh’s help in solving the crime.

But when the victim turns out to be Josh’s volatile ex-fiancée, and all signs point to Josh as the main suspect, Maya and Juniper must dig into Josh’s past to uncover the truth…before the killer, fixated on revenge, finds them.

###

Elise’s Thoughts

Buried Lies introduces Cook County Prosecutor Elena Perez who discovers that an innocent man was in prison for the murder of a senator’s daughter. When she realized that former Chicago police officer Josh Colton might have evidence relating to that crime, she reached out to Josh’s former fiancée, Amber, to get Josh to turn over the evidence. When Amber called to request his evidence, Josh foolishly agreed to meet with her. Unfortunately, things go drastically wrong and Amber ends up dead, with Josh being framed for her murder. Maya and Juniper must dig into Josh’s past to uncover the truth before the killer, fixated on revenge, finds them.

***

Book Description

There’s nothing more terrifying than a trail of smoke over a summer-dry national forest—at least, that’s what Forest Service law enforcement officer Maya Thompson thinks when she and her boyfriend, sheriff’s deputy Josh Colten, spot the first signs of a fire over the Colorado mountains.

But when she learns that a teen girl has been kidnapped and taken deep into the wilderness, a new fear grips her: If she and her K-9 partner, Juniper, can’t reach them fast enough, the fire might not just destroy her beloved forest—it might be the end to an innocent girl’s life.

An innocent girl who is tied to Maya in ways she never could have imagined. And in ways that will upend everything she’s always believed about her family…and the dark past that haunts her.

###

Elise’s Thoughts

Deadly Revenge Maya and Josh are informed that there is a kidnapped girl, Hope. As they try to find her, they are hampered by a raving wildfire. Maya, Josh, and their K9s, Juniper and Finn, need to find the teen before something bad happens to her or the fire catches up to them. However, there is an informant in one of the agencies that are searching for Hope. Worse, the mole is feeding the kidnapper intel that helps them keep one step ahead. Plus, the innocent girl is tied to Maya in ways she never could have imagined.

***

Author Interview

Elise Cooper: With Buried Lies how did you get the idea for the story?

Kathleen Donnelly: It was a mix of several things with just some imagination. And a bunch of what ifs. I knew Josh, the male lead, had a past, and I knew I wanted to have a book that really brought his past into the story. Plus, there was a case here in Colorado with a young man named Timothy Masters who was not only wrongfully convicted, but the prosecution withheld evidence because they felt he was guilty. When evidence came around that proved he wasn’t, they withheld it. He spent 20 years in prison. He’s been in prison a long time. It was another police officer, a detective on his case, who stuck with it and helped overturn the conviction and prove he was innocent of the murder. We always want to think of prosecutors doing the right thing, so just the idea that someone hid evidence was like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ So, it was a mix of that, and then just a lot of imagination with what ifs.

EC: How would you describe Sydney; the victim Josh is accused of killing?

KD: She was stubborn. She was a drug addict. It was interesting because we want to profile them as coming from various backgrounds, but it can be anyone. Anyone can fall into the lifestyle depending on choices. She was a bit of a wild child. And just kind of didn’t want to have rules, and was still young and free, and didn’t think there would be consequences to her choices. 

EC: What role did Amber, Josh’s former fiancé, play in the story?

KD: She’s obsessed with winning him back. She is a manipulator, spoiled, and not a rule follower. She was in Killer Secrets, book 3, so readers can really discover her there. Josh realized his relationship with her was not a healthy one, and he broke it off. But because it wasn’t healthy, Amber wanted to manipulate her way back into his life. Of course, he doesn’t want that. 

EC: Do you want readers to feel sorry for her?

KD: I think whenever you have someone who’s been an antagonist, because she certainly was an antagonist in Killer Secrets, it’s more you want readers to understand their motivation and say, ‘I wouldn’t do that, but maybe I understand where this person’s coming from.’ I heard it from Jeffrey Deaver, and I’m sure he heard it from someone else that said, ‘you know, the antagonist is the hero of their own story.’ But, to be that, the goals and motivations must be understandable. Something we might say, ‘I would never do that, but I get where she’s coming from.’ Maybe we’ve had our hearts broken, but would never manipulate the relationship yet, understand a broken heart, and how hard it is to move on from a relationship.

EC: Why have one of the settings in Chicago, because of the violence?

KD: I had Josh come from Chicago. That’s where he grew up. I think with Chicago, I had, my dad grew up in Chicago, and my mom grew up in Illinois, so we have a lot of roots there. When my dad was growing up, it was the mob. But what’s interesting in Chicago is the mob has kind of moved but the gangs have moved in, and have kind of taken over that criminal activity. The other interesting thing, I read in a Chicago magazine about how gang members were looking for political office and getting elected. It was just so fascinating to think that a leader of a gang could become an Alderman. Because the neighborhoods almost feel like they can protect them or understand their interests. It somewhat planted a seed that I went down my own road. I thought, ‘if they’re in politics, what does that mean for all of Chicago politics? How are they influencing things?’ It was just a little seed that turned into a lot worse, and then, I wanted to make it clear, it’s all fiction and all imagination.

EC: How would you describe Elena, the investigative prosecutor?

KD: She survived the killing of her mother. I had her as a cross country runner to be able to escape the bad guys. She is tenacious. I feel like she might come back in future books, but I don’t really know when. We’ll see what happens with her.

EC: You always put in your books tidbits about a law enforcement working dog.  In this one you mention a muzzle strike?

KD: This was something I was trying to research, and I have some books on police dog training. A muzzle strike is when the dogs are wearing a muzzle so they can’t bite, but they can hit the person. It’s used in a situation where the handler doesn’t want the dog to maybe apprehend the wrong person, but kind of push them. I did a lot of research and reading, and when I found it, I thought this would work for this scenario. 

EC:  Idea for Deadly Revenge, book 5?

KD: Where we live, in Colorado, we’ve had nights where we’ve had several fires burning near us, and you can look to the north and see flames. You can look to the south and see flames, which is scary. I thought we need to have a fire in a book to complicate things, and because it’s become such a part of the West, a reality of the West. Tragically, when this book released, we had lost at least four firefighters. So, it’s become a part of our lives, and I just felt the mountains are their own character, and brings with them their own beauty and conflict. The story also had Abigail’s revenge and after she kidnaps someone related to Maya the fire complicated the team looking for her. 

EC: What about Abigail?

KD: When I wrote Hunting the Truth, I knew, at the end of that, she’d be back. I didn’t quite know when, and then, as I was writing this, I was like, ‘Oh, it’s time for Abigail to come back.’ I also feel like it was time to start wrapping up some of those storylines. I mean, she killed Maya’s mom, and grandmother. She is a corrupt cop. And obviously we meet her in jail. She met Maya’s mother when Maya’s mother ran away from home, and made some bad choices, which is how she ended up getting pregnant with Maya. So, Abigail was one of the cops that Maya’s mother, Zoe, ran across during that time, and Zoe had evidence on Abigail that made it worth Abigail killing to get it back, Abigail, she always had a plan, an endgame. She knows how to work the system. She’s manipulative, thought she was above the law, persuasive, narcissistic, unhinged, likes to extort people and hires people to do her dirty work.

EC: What was the tidbit in this book about working dog?

KD: Dogs overheating and that sometimes they cannot wear a protective vest because of that. I try to put in the tidbits, but it comes up naturally in the story. As a handler, back when I was working, heat was a huge factor when I was working the dogs. Since we worked at schools in the fall and the spring, I had to really watch the temperature. If the tidbits come up naturally and it’s something I can throw in and something that I find interesting, then I hope the reader finds it interesting. So, I don’t necessarily sit down and think, this is the tidbit I’m going put into this book. It just kind of happens organically.

EC: How would you describe the kidnapped victim, Hope?

KD: She’s a loner, doesn’t have a lot of friends, from divorced parents, and her dad is kind of a deadbeat dad. She can be sarcastic, a fighter, survivor, anxious and stubborn. She is close to her uncle. She’s a teenager. 

EC: You said that she has some of Maya in her. What part of her personality, do you think, relates to Maya? 

KD: I think they both are fighters and survivors. When we meet Maya in Chasing Justice, she’s a little bit of a loner at that time. It’s really, Josh and Pops, who help pull her through that, but, after she’s come back from the war, she’s a little bit of a loner, so I see them kind of similar, like, in those ways.

EC: Next books?

KD: Book 6 is called Blood Tracker, and comes out August of next year. The plot deals with poaching. There’ll be a book seven, and we’ll get more info later.

THANK YOU!!

***

BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Murder at Rosecliff by Alyssa Maxwell

Book Description

August 1903. Emma and her husband Derrick are among the men in white tie and tails and the women wearing white gowns from the House of Worth at Tessie Oelrichs’s Bal Blanc, or White Ball, at Rosecliff, her grand cottage on Bellevue Avenue. There to cover the event of the season is young Ethan Merriman, society reporter for the Newport Messenger, the newspaper owned by Emma and Derrick.

It’s an utterly charming affair until a stranger intrudes flaunting a green-striped necktie and matching vest in defiance of their hostess’s theme. But his fashion crime is a mere misdemeanor compared to his intention to blackmail Mrs. Oelrichs by producing a compromising document supposedly signed by Tessie over a decade ago.

Insisting it’s a forgery but terrified of scandal, she agrees to his terms, but the blackmailer will not live to see payday. His body is found face down in a fountain before the party’s end. Beside him stands a very wet Ethan, who was seen being confronted by the man earlier in the evening. Coming to the aid of their luckless cub reporter, Emma and Derrick must sort through the white lies and blackened reputations to discover the identity of the true killer.

***

Elise’s Thoughts

Murder At Rosecliff by Alyssa Maxwell does not disappoint per her other novels. 

In August 1903, Emma and her husband Derrick are among the men in white tie and tails and the women wearing white gowns from the House of Worth at Tessie Oelrichs’s Bal Blanc, or White Ball, at Rosecliff, her grand cottage on Bellevue Avenue. There to cover the event of the season is young Ethan Merriman, society reporter for the Newport Messenger, the newspaper owned by Emma and Derrick.

It’s an utterly charming affair until a stranger intrudes, flaunting a green-striped necktie and matching vest in defiance of their hostess’s theme. But his fashion crime is a mere misdemeanor compared to his intention to blackmail Mrs. Oelrichs by producing a compromising document supposedly signed by Tessie over a decade ago.

Insisting it’s a forgery, but terrified of scandal, she agrees to his terms, but the blackmailer will not live to see payday. His body is found face down in a fountain before the party’s end. Beside him stands a very wet Ethan, who was seen being confronted by the man earlier in the evening. Coming to the aid of their luckless cub reporter, Emma and Derrick must sort through the white lies and blackened reputations to discover the identity of the true killer.

The story is riveting from beginning to end with plenty of twists, turns, and red herrings. A bonus is the vivid depictions of Newport’s focus on class and gender division with real-life historical figures.

***

Author Interview

Elise Cooper: The idea for the story?

AM: As with each book in my “Gilded Newport Mysteries,” to develop story ideas I research the family who owned each house. In this case, Theresa Fair Oelrichs, or Tessie, who owned Rosecliff, was the daughter of one of the wealthiest mine-owners in the country. But before he became a millionaire, the Fairs lived in the mining camps of Virginia City, Nevada—as far away from the elegance and beauty of Newport, RI, as can be imagined. It was in these camps that Tessie spent her earliest years, until James Fair moved the family to one of the most fashionable areas of San Francisco. That meant that when she moved to the east coast, there was a lot people in society who didn’t know about her. In my mind, that meant there could be secrets in her past someone could use to blackmail her. And because mining was a rough industry run by ruthless men, it was easy to envision just the sort of scoundrel who might use her past against her.  

EC: Was the White Ball true?

AM: Yes! Tessie Oelrichs’s White Ball, or Bal Blanc, occurred in 1904, but I moved it up a year to fit my series timeline. The details I describe were taken mostly from newspaper articles written at the time—written by people with the same occupation as my main suspect, Ethan Merriman, who writes the society page for the Newport Messenger, owned and operated by Emma and her husband, Derrick. The expense for the multitude of white flowers, the white ships anchored just offshore, the food, the swans, etc. could have fed numerous poor families for a year. The female guests spent thousands on pure white gowns from Houses of Worth, Doucet, Lucille, and other famous designers of the times. It all would have created a breathtaking scene, especially with Rosecliff’s huge, airy ballroom with its cloudy sky mural painted on the ceiling, and the many doors on two sides that, when open, brought both the breezes from the ocean on one side and the floral scents from the Italian garden on the other to sweep through the room.

EC: How would you describe Solomon Wheeler? 

AM: He is emboldened, insolvent, boorish, rude, unscrupulous, dangerous, no scruples, ruthless, likes to destroy others by using their secrets against them. He is as low an individual as it’s possible to be. He uses people and throws them away without a second thought. He is also a slacker, looking for the easy way to make a buck, along with having a sense of entitlement to a lifestyle he hasn’t earned. He uses his father’s ousting from the Bonanza Kings (made up of James Fair and his three partners who owned the Comstock Lode, the silver mine that propelled them to unimagined wealth), to justify blackmailing Tessie, without ever admitting his father might have deserved what happened.

EC: How would you describe Tessie?

AM: Tessie Oelrichs was very real. She was a renowned beauty and possessed a confidence that paved her way into New York Society. She was a woman who knew what she wanted and how to get it. Although a good twenty years younger than Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and Mamie Fish, she joined those ladies to form society’s “Triumvirate.” As Caroline Astor aged and became less of a leading force in society, the Triumvirate stepped in to take her place. These ladies changed the rules to make society more inclusive (divorcees and people with New Money were more accepted), while at the same time establishing new rules about who would be included and who would be given the cold shoulder. We see examples of that in Murder at Rosecliff where a woman who tries too hard to be accepted is essentially rebuffed.  

EC: What about the mansion, Rosecliff?

AM: Like Alva Belmont did with the building of Marble House, Tessie was involved in the design and construction of Rosecliff from start to finish. She spent many a day at the house supervising the work, often changing her mind and ordering the carpenters to rip out what they’d done and start fresh. On one of those days, a carpenter’s tack went flying and hit Tessie in the eye. As a result, she was blind in that eye for the rest of her life. Despite this, she continued to be involved in the building of her summer cottage and remained a formidable figure among society’s Four Hundred. It’s worth noting that Tessie had married Hermann Oelrichs, a shipping magnate, but after the birth of their only child, a son, they lived basically separate lives. They never divorced, however, remaining married in name only until Hermann died in 1906.

EC: How would you describe Ethan and what was his role?

AM: Unlike Emma, who early in her journalism career chafed at being relegated to the society pages (she wanted to report on hard news), Ethan loves recording the details of Newport’s grand affairs. He is a gentle soul who loves beauty and sees it as being as important to life as the more serious matters covered in newspapers. He attends the White Ball as a reporter. His job is to circulate through the crush, document the details of what people were wearing and such, and interview those guests who wished to be interviewed, describing their latest travels, engagements, and soirees for the reading public. On one hand the Four Hundred wanted their privacy, but on the other they enjoyed displaying their wealth, and society columns were one way to do that. When Ethan is accused of murdering Solomon Wheeler based on rather incriminating but circumstantial evidence, Emma refuses to believe he’s capable of such an act. At times she seems to be the only person whose faith is unwavering, but she remains a fierce friend trying to prove Ethan’s innocence.

EC: Once again, this book goes into societal roles:  how does it fit with Detective Myers appearing to have a chip on his shoulder towards the wealthy?

AM: Like many year-round Newporters, Detective Myers sees the wealthy summer set as frivolous and wasteful. As I mentioned, the amount of money spent on the White Ball could have fed entire families over an extended period. Of course, the wealthy did support many charities and were involved in philanthropic projects to better the lives of the poor, but they also created impoverished populations due to how they treated their workers. The Four Hundred controlled all major industry in America at that time, and by general agreement chose to pay their workers poverty-level wages with none of the benefits we enjoy today. This unfairness was seen as the right of business owners, and employees who if they didn’t like it could work elsewhere. The problem was, the situation would be similar wherever they tried to find employment. 

EC: What about Detective Myers?

AM: I portray Detective Myers as grouchy, arrogant, condescending, and downright mean at times, but part of his attitude is somewhat justifiable. After all, the wealthy came to Newport each summer to party and have fun, and treated Newport as a kind of private country club, expecting the ordinary Newporters to either serve them or stay out of the way. And they weren’t always held accountable for their actions. In this, some things haven’t changed. Newport is like a small town during the winter months, but come summer there is a population explosion of tourists and summer residents who come purely to enjoy – often without much thought for the people who live there year-round.

EC: Did you also want to point out that the Upper Class appears arrogant to those that have a lower-class status, and deems them unfit, not rich enough, not fashionable, and not clever?

AM: It was easy to fall short of the expectations of others—as it still is today. Let’s face it, people constantly judge each other, finding in others the shortcomings they themselves don’t want to admit to having. It creates an “us and them” mentality in which a group will allow itself to feel superior to others. Especially among the women of the Four Hundred, creating social boundaries was like structuring a business, with upper management lording it over everyone else – much like how their husbands ran their businesses. In a world where women didn’t hold positions of power in the business or political spheres, these social structures allowed them to feel empowered and in control of their lives. Unfortunately, as certain individuals rose to positions of social prominence, those lower down on the ladder were made to feel not as good, second best, and of little importance. It wasn’t until the Suffrage movement truly got going during the second decade of the twentieth century that women managed to see past class boundaries and work for a common cause.

EC: Why were people against Emma building a school for girls?

AM: Schools for girls were not uncommon, but most of them were finishing schools where young ladies were taught deportment and etiquette along with “feminine” subjects such as language, art, and music. Such schools were generally approved of. What Emma has in mind is a high school where all subjects are taught, including higher mathematics and the sciences, where a girl can get the same education as a boy. Coed public high schools did exist, and Newport’s Rogers High School was coed at the time (and integrated), but Emma believes the coed environment puts pressure on girls to take home economics classes while the boys take chemistry. Unfortunately, many people take issue with the idea of a completely non-gender-biased curriculum. They don’t see the sense in educating a girl to such standards when she’ll only marry and have children. They don’t appreciate that the young ladies at Emma’s school will have choices in life that don’t necessarily lead to being wives and mothers. 

EC: Is Elizabeth Carter Brooks a real person?

AM: Yes, Elizabeth Carter Brooks was a real person. She was born in New Bedford, MA (not far from Newport) in 1867 to former slaves, and attained degrees in architecture and teaching. She became the first African American woman to teach at a public school in New Bedford, and was involved in local and national organizations to better the lives of African American women and girls, including helping to found the local chapter of the NAACP in New Bedford. In 1897 she helped establish the New Bedford Home for the Aged, the first of its kind in the city, and in 1908 designed its permanent building. 

EC: What role does Elizabeth Carter Brooks play in the story?

AM: As Emma became caught up in the dilemma of male architects being unwilling to work with her, I decided to search for whether there were any female architects at that time. I was delighted to discover Elizabeth Carter Brooks and couldn’t imagine a better architect for Emma to work with on the design for her unconventional school. 

EC: Next book?

AM: The next “Gilded Newport Mystery” will be Murder at Malbone, a July 2027 release. Although the present house dates to 1848, the property goes back to the mid-1700s, to an original house that burned down. It was owned by a Colonel Godfrey Malbone, a wealthy shipping merchant and slave trader. Because of this history, I explore themes of slavery and its consequences, as well as the notion that unsettled spirits might be haunting Malbone, perhaps even responsible for the death of a young man. The back cover blurb:

A fatal Fourth of July fireworks mishap in Newport, Rhode Island, proves to be no accident, and newspaper editor Emma Cross Andrews must sort out who turned a celebration into an incendiary act of cold-blooded murder.

THANK YOU!!

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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.