In December 2000, Derwin Brown, the newly elected sheriff of DeKalb County, Georgia, was ambushed and murdered in his own driveway just days before taking office. He had run on reform—promising to clean up corruption and restore integrity to the sheriff’s department—defeating the powerful incumbent in a bitter runoff.
The case fell to J.Tom Morgan, then the county’s elected District Attorney. Working alongside local, state, and federal law enforcement, Morgan pursued the case through months of dead ends, mounting pressure, and intense public scrutiny. It became a national media sensation, combining political intrigue with revelations of government corruption, murder-for-hire plots, and a never-before-tried legal strategy in the Georgia criminal justice system. Then the case became personal: Morgan learned that his own name was next on the killer’s hit list.
In A Rainy Night in Georgia, Morgan gives readers something almost no one else can—a first-person account of power, danger, and integrity from inside the justice system. What began as a baffling, unsolved murder evolved into one of the most extraordinary political assassination cases in modern American history after a shocking discovery.
A RAINY NIGHT IN GEORGIA by J. Tom Morgan with John Capouya is an engrossing true crime book told in the first person by the then District Attorney of Dekalb County Georgia, J. Tom Morgan who was tasked with bringing the murderers of Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown to justice and proving the corruption in the current Sheriff’s office. This book is written with an excellent balance between personal observations and emotions, investigative facts and deals, and courtroom strategy and drama.
In December 2000, the newly elected sheriff, Derwin Brown, was gunned down in his home driveway. Derwin Brown had run on cleaning up the corruption in the sheriff’s office and accused his successor in public. A corruption investigation had already begun six months previously, but Derwin Brown’s murder brought every alphabet agency into the investigation.
District Attorney J. Tom Morgan worked with local, state, and federal agencies, and while the corruption investigation moved along, the murder investigation hit dead ends at every turn until J. Tom was forced to make a controversial deal and learns his name was next on the hit list.
I love true crime, so I followed this case on the national news, but I lost track of it due to 9/11. While I heard about the verdict later, this book brought me back to that time and filled in all the facts and added the personal views and emotions of J. Tom Morgan. The writing brings this story to life once again with the clear and concise step-by-step retelling of the murder, investigation, and trial. It is a sadly often repeated story that shows how absolute power corrupts and, in this case, results in a senseless murder that results from that corruption.
I highly recommend this captivating true crime book!
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About the Authors
J.Tom Morgan served as the elected District Attorney of DeKalb County, GA, from 1992-2004. He was the first recipient from the United States to be awarded the Special Achievement Award from the International Association of Prosecutors in 2003. Prior to his time as DA, Morgan served as an Assistant District Attorney in DeKalb County for nine years and was the first prosecutor in Georgia–and one of the first in the nation–to specialize in the prosecution of crimes against children. As a nationally recognized expert on criminal justice, he has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, CNN, Court TV, and 48 Hours, among others. Morgan has lectured to prosecutors and law enforcement officials in more than 30 states, Puerto Rico, and Europe, and served on the faculty of the National College of District Attorneys.
John Capouya has written and edited for publications including the New York Times, Newsweek, SmartMoney, and Sport, among others, over his 25-year career in journalism. He taught journalism and nonfiction writing at the University of Tampa, and his developmental editing clients include New York Times bestselling authors. He is the author of Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-Boy Wrestler Who Created American Pop Culture, among other books on yoga and music.
The House for Lost Children and The German Sisters by Marty Wingate take readers on an emotional roller coaster ride. People will realize how kindness, compassion, and security can help in restoring hope to those who have experienced severe trauma and heartache.
The plot of The House for Lost Children has divorced Lady Louisa Brightford and her best friend/cook, Iris, alone in a countryside mansion. David, her son, is away flying Spitfires for the British Air Force. Trying to keep relevant, she learns of a group of children and their two teachers displaced by a bombing in London. Realizing Oxburrow Manor can be a boarding school for the nine evacuee children, she calls the family lawyer and asks for his assistance in moving them to the mansion.
One of the children, Gracie, is traumatized to the point of becoming mute after being buried in the rubble with her dead mother. Louisa adores all the children and does everything she can to give them a good home but takes a special interest in Gracie. She has not spoken since she lost her mother, but clings to Louisa who continues to offer her love. Louisa also finds herself becoming closer to Jack Barry, one of the teachers. So, when the governors of the charity that run the school threaten to take the children away because she is a divorced woman, she will do everything in her power to keep them.
The second book in the series, The German Sisters, was inspired by the true events surrounding Kindertransport. It’s a bitter- sweet story. The girls, Dagmar and Heike, were sent to an unknown country, England, to escape the horrors of the Nazi persecution of the Jews yet while at Oxburrow with Louisa they have fellowship, love, and begin to heal.
Louisa and Dagmar form a bond and offer each other love and understanding, drawing from each other’s strength. Dagmar realizes as the older child she must be responsible for Heike, but once at Oxburrow a lot of that responsibility is no longer needed. Now Dagmar must try to find out what happened to her parents and does so with Louisa’s help.
These stories seem very realistic. They are both heart wrenching and heartwarming. Readers will take the emotional journey with the endearing characters. The only fault with these books is that there are no more books to read in the series.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Did you do research about the evacuees?
Marty Wingate: I had read about the evacuees while doing research for my other book Glamour Girls. I had also, in my own reading that I’m interested in, come across references to evacuees and where they went. I’ve seen stories on television about it. There’s one of my favorite wartime series, “Foyle’s War,” a British series which had a boy featured, who was an evacuating. So, I knew about the evacuees. And I thought this would be fun having her take in a bunch of children and animals. The idea where a lot of different people stuffed in one house is always fun. In the second book, The German Sisters, readers will see how the children adapted during the book. There are a couple of them that stayed including Gracie, Athena and George.
EC: In the first book, The House for Lost Children, there was a scene where Louisa, the female lead, was worried about losing her mansion. Please explain.
MW: I knew houses had taken in evacuees, and some country houses could be used for any purpose in the war. Sometimes the army would take them. That was what she was afraid of. Her ex-husband would want to burn the place down so he could get it back again, get the land back. They could also be used for hospitals as well.
EC: How would you describe Louisa?
MW: She is a very generous person and considered herself a part of the village. She was not a snobby entitled person. When the children came to live with her, she had welcoming arms along with her cook who happened to be her best friend, Iris. Both women were generous, loving people. Her mom had died and her father was not around a lot because he had to work, so she was pretty much left on her own. She missed having that home life. I think that Louisa was always looking for an opportunity to have that big family that she always wanted. The way she fulfilled the need of hers was to invite all these children and adults to stay at Oxburrow Manor.
EC: How would you describe the setting of Oxburrow?
MC: The village Debden Ash is made up, but Suffolk, of course, is not made up. Suffolk is a real county. And a lot of it is very flat. I love Suffolk. We go to England a lot, and we are always staying, either at the coast in Suffolk or in, western Suffolk inland. I saw a manor and like some characters, the setting just came to me. I pictured it as a country house, but early Victorian, and after several generations of not having a whole lot of money around, getting to be a little shabby. Also, there’s a book by Robert Bly titled Akenfield, which is about a village of the same name. There was a reference in that book of how Akenfield was really hidden away, because it wasn’t on the main road, but a Roman road running by it. Where there was a little fold of land, and so people almost didn’t notice it. People wouldn’t even realize they were passing it because it wasn’t on the main road. So that’s how I created my vision of Oxburrow.
EC: What was the impact of Oxburrow?
MW: It was a place to heal, where children could thrive in both books. It became a home and a family to the children. It helped them with their trauma. And it was mystic. The children felt safe and protected there. I wrote how not only the children, but the adults as well, were disparate people who have their own stories and their own secrets and how they interacted within Oxburrow.
EC: What about Louisa’s relationship with one of the children, Gracie?
MW: The House for Lost Children is Gracie’s story too. Her backstory is that in the bombing, several of the children’s mothers died. Gracie and her mother were buried for two days before they were found in the rubble. This was an actual news story I read of the time. It was just heartbreaking, because they find Gracie’s mother dead, and there’s Gracie holding her hand, and will not let go. Obviously, Gracie has an enormous amount of trauma, thinking her mother’s death is her fault. When she first comes to Oxburrow she is not talking. And of all the children, Louisa sees the trauma in her more clearly. The other children miss their mothers, and they act out a little bit in other ways, but Louisa realizes she can help, and that’s how she and Gracie bond.
EC: Did Louisa in Gracie’s mind become her new mom?
MW: Gracie wears Louisa’s clothes because it soothes Gracie and helps her feel safe. Gracie’s mother loved her daughter and now that love, that support, and that security is gone. She knows her real mother died, but has a good replacement in Louisa, realizing she has security and love once again. I can’t say that Gracie would ever get rid of all that guilt, but it becomes understandable, just like grief does after a while, it doesn’t hurt as much.
EC: Why was divorce considered so bad?
MW: I turned in the first draft of the manuscript I had a conversation with my editor who is younger than I am. She said, ‘I don’t understand why that’s bad.’ I realized that I had to paint a better picture about what divorce looked like during those times. Louisa couldn’t get remarried in the Church of England at that time. There was still a huge stigma. Louisa and Jack grow close but she was afraid to commit to marriage. I think she did not face up to her hidden fear. that maybe she was the one that wrecked her marriage. She questions if it was her fault. We take on guilt that we shouldn’t a lot of times, and that’s what had happened to her.
EC: Divorce played a role for Mrs. Harrison, the children’s guardian and head mistress. Do you agree?
MW: Mrs. Harrison did not look beyond the person, because Louisa divorced. I think that she acts in that way because believes she is right. I think she’s a very caring person. She’s a very good teacher and always good with the children. She could not imagine letting the children share a house with a woman who had broken the rules, whether they were moral rules or the rule of law. She’s just too strait-laced, and it was very difficult for her to get through that. She did, but it was very difficult.
EC: What about Jack Berrie?
MW: The First World War was an awful war, where he lost friends, and was traumatized. He got married, had a baby, and his wife died, which certainly didn’t make it any better for Jack. He had a rough life, until he ended up falling into what he had always wanted to do in the first place, and that’s be a teacher. He’s a diamond in the rough.
EC: The second book, The German Sisters, has a powerful scene about the children having to leave their parents. Please discuss this.
MW: There’s a wonderful documentary from a few years ago called “Into the Arms of Strangers.” There were interviews with adults who had been part of the children’s transport coming out of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany. They told amazing stories of how children had to say goodbye to their parents. The scene on the platform and on the train, came from one of those actual stories. The parents were devastated in having to give up their children and send them to a foreign country, England, but they wanted them to be safe. They wondered if they will ever see each other again.
EC: In the second book, Louisa eventually takes in two Jewish German evacuees. Can you describe the older sister, Dagmar?
MW: Dagmar and her sister Heike were two children who were part of the British rescue operation known as the Kindertransport. She’s responsible. She grows up too soon. She’s calm, fearful, a worrier, feels guilty, an observer, and is afraid for her parents. At the beginning of the story, she is ten years old when her parents say goodbye to them on the platform. The parents explained, ‘We must do this, we must get you out, but don’t forget to write the letters.’ Well, Dagmar took this on, literally, feeling she was the only one that could do this. And so that’s what follows her through the story.
EC: How would you describe the younger sister, Heike?
MW: She is sociable, attentive, sweet, happy, and rambunctious. She just bounces back. She’s tearful at first. She misses their parents, yet she thrives at Oxburrow. I think the two sisters are quite a contrast. She just fell in with Gracie and Athena, the two girls from the first book. It’s like, they are a threesome now, that she’s just that kind of girl.
EC: How would you describe George?
MW: I love George. He’s a bookworm. He was quiet in the house when there were a lot of children, but in the second book he gets a bigger part. He and Dagmar both have a way of ordering their world. They want things in the right place. I was so pleased that George had a friend. He and Dagmar are both inquisitive and love to learn, especially about maps. George and Athena have their mothers die in the bombing in the first book, but their fathers are still alive. Athena’s father is a jazz musician in London. Sometimes she thinks she hears him on the radio playing in his orchestra. And George’s father is in the merchant navy on some ship somewhere. They have that hope that they will be a family, but in the meantime, they are quite content to be with Louisa.
EC: What role does Rebecca play in the story?
MW: She has secrets and is too direct at times, can be abrupt. She works for the Jewish Refugee Committee. Her sister, Mrs. Gedge, is a Quaker and Rebecca is not. She is caring and responsible.
EC: Next book?
MW: I got a two-book deal for the historical fiction. So, it looks like these are going to be the only two. I’ve really enjoyed writing them, and I love writing about World War II.
My next book is a Christmas mystery, titled A Murder is Rehearsed, coming out in November. Its set in England and Scotland, maybe in Wales too. There is a tradition going back to early Victorian times to put on a pantomime at Christmas. They’re comedy parodies that are hugely popular even today in theaters at Christmas time. I’ve decided to set this murder mystery at a production of Cinderella in a little town in Kent in England, in 1952. Cinderella’s coach, is on a fly rigging, up above the stage and then comes down when it’s time for Cinderella to look as if she’s getting in her coach to go to the ball. But someone releases the brake on the fly rigging and it falls and hits the actor who is playing the fairy godmother and kills him.
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.
Retired secret service agent Ron Eldon hunts his daughter’s killer, taking on the role of detective in a case that everyone says is suicide. Aided by his ex-colleague Yolanda Reddy, they are confronted by official obstructions, plagued by red herrings, confounded by false information, and tricked by a Russian spy who has history with Eldon from the Cold War. Leaving behind him a trail of bodies and a minefield of revelations, Eldon is beaten and captured before escaping to continue his crusade across London, Bristol, Cornwall, and Yorkshire. Ending with a shocking twist that reframes the story in a new and defining light, this spy thriller delves into Britain’scolonial past, present-day slavery, and Russia’s dirty tricks, uncovering truths that dare not speak their names.
JOVE: A Novel by Jack Davies is an engrossing British espionage/crime thriller mash-up that gives the reader an exciting, action-packed story of a retired secret service father seeking justice for his daughter, Jove, the deception and double cross of British and Russian spies, and a far-right criminal conspiracy.
Retired secret service agent Ron Eldon is sent to identify the body of a young women who is believed to have committed suicide by jumping off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. The young woman is his daughter, Jove, who is currently a secret service asset who followed her father into service. With the help of an ex-colleague, Eldon searches for information, but with official obstructions, kidnapping, murders, and a Russian spy from his past, Eldon will have to use all his experience to discover the truth and survive.
This novel is written with such intimacy and intrigue it is difficult to put down. As we meet and follow our protagonist, retired secret service Ron Eldon you feel as though he could walk right off the page. Eldon is not a super spy caricature, but a very human man. As you follow him throughout the story, the plot contains many red herrings, twists, and surprises that continue through the end of the book. Being a novel of spies, deception, and misinformation, I was continually guessing if what I was reading and being led to believe was true. The tie-in of the historical subplot of Bristol’s part in England’s slave trade is interesting and added to the questions and suspicions around Jove’s investigations into historical slave holders’ compensation, BLM, and right-wing extremists.
I highly recommend this smart and surprising British espionage/crime thriller mash-up!
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About the Author
Jack Davies is an award-winning writer/director/producer based in London. Writer of published short stories, film scripts and poetry, he was shortlisted for the York Poetry Prize in 2020. He lives in London, UK.
In 1929, twenty daredevil women take to the skies in the most dangerous race of their lives.
Florence “Pancho” Barnes—heiress, rebel, and the most colorful pilot in America—can outfly, outswear, and outdrive any man. When Hollywood tries to turn the first-ever cross-country National Women’s Air Derby into a publicity stunt with movie starlets and their male “mechanics” doing the real flying, Pancho rallies the greatest female aviators of the era to fight back.
Alongside aviation legends Amelia Earhart, Louise Thaden, and Marvel Crosson, these fearless women demand the right to fly solo across 2,800 miles of treacherous terrain in primitive, fragile aircraft held together by glue and prayers. But as the race begins, sabotage strikes. Someone wants these women to fail—or worse.
As increasingly serious incidents mount, the pilots realize they’re not just racing for glory. They’re fighting for their lives and the future of women in aviation. United in their determination to finish the derby, they refuse to back down, watching each other’s backs as they barrel across the country in a white-knuckle race that will determine once and for all whether women belong in the skies.
From high-speed car chases to emergency landings, speakeasy showdowns to courtroom battles, Where the Sky Begins is a thrilling ride through one of aviation’s most dramatic chapters—a story of courage, sisterhood, and the unbreakable spirit of women who refused to be grounded.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Where The Sky Begins by Cindy Dees and Mary Wine will take readers on a thrilling ride emphasizing how women aviators displayed courage, sisterhood, and the unbreakable spirit of those who refused to be grounded. It is a reminder of how these women pilots in the late 1920s had to overcome insults, injustices, and obstacles simply because they were women.
The story is based on the National Women’s Air Derby which took place in 1929. The derby was a race of 20 daredevil women flying from San Bernardino to Cleveland, although the authors concentrated on four: Florence “Pancho” Barnes, Amelia Earhart, Louise Thaden, and Marvel Crosson, But, as the race begins, sabotage strikes. Someone wants these women to fail, or worse die. As increasingly serious incidents mount, the pilots realize they’re not just racing for glory but fighting for their lives and the future of women in aviation. They band together in their determination to finish the derby. Undeterred by the dangerous obstacles thrown at them, they refuse to back down and watch each other’s backs.
This exciting and extraordinary story was brought to the forefront in the novel by Dees and Wine. Readers will turn the pages to discover what could possibly happen next. The afterword is a bonus, explaining which parts are fictionalized and which are true.
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Author Interviews
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for this story?
Mary Wine: This is our third collaboration. I was in what’s called WHAM, which is an air museum in the Pacific Northwest. I was walking along in there with its hangars of old airplanes and vehicles and all kinds of bits of history. I enjoy prowling through old dinosaur bones of history. It’s something I really enjoy. I wandered around, and I found this ancient newspaper, and it had a headline that said, ‘Women are naturally handicapped by their dependence on men, and shouldn’t be in the cockpit.’ This was a headline that ran in one of the local papers. I knew I needed to dig deeper. I must know what dinosaur bone this is and when I got the whole idea, I ended up reaching out to Cindy.
EC: What was the writing process?
Cindy Dees: We sat down together and talked out the plot. I am a story structure geek, and Mary has massive experience in the TV and film industry and knows that story structure very well. And, of course, she has written dozens of historical novels and some contemporary stuff. We hammered out the plot. And the plot was kind of written for us by history. But because Mary has a lot of experience writing historical novels, she’s one of those historical writers that gets the historical facts correct. This is unusual, particularly in the romance industry. A lot of the facts are wildly wrong. But she is really gifted at saying, here are the facts. Where is the really good story among those facts? And so, she really, truly found the story. She told me, ‘I think these are the main characters whose points of view are really important,’ and I was like, ‘yep, I totally agree.’ And then we came up with kind of the skeleton of how we were going to cover the race.
EC: How did you narrow down the cast of characters?
Cindy Dees: There were multiple FBI agents and police officers involved in investigating the various acts of sabotage, but we don’t want a cast of a thousand. Let’s create one fictitious kind of amalgam FBI character for that. We also needed some race officials that are acting in bad faith. Let’s just create one.
EC: What was true?
Cindy Dees: We don’t have names of actual race officials that were doing some of the shenanigans but the shenanigans were absolutely happening including the arguments over trying to get the women to land at fields that they were going to crash on because the fields were too short. The argument of how close they were flying to the Mexican border. Those were real arguments. There was clearly bribery happening. I couldn’t tell you who bribed who but it was very clear there was bribery, buyoffs, and payoffs happening for the route of the race. Cities, industries, betters, and all kinds of people were paying to get the race to come through their town. So, Mary did a ton of that research and then we kind of talked through how to amalgamate a lot of that research.
Mary Wine: There was a fair bit of discussion about how to open the book. It took us a bit to find openings and we tried a couple of different openings. We wrote three separate openings to the book. Both of us wanted this to be a filmable opening. An opening sequence that you see when you go to the movies that makes you sit your tail down and stop checking your text messages. I guided the opening to a nice big action scene, and wrote that scene.
EC: Why the four pilots?
MW: We decided because there were so many pilots in this race, over 20 of them, to narrow it down to the story happening between basically four of them.
EC: How would you describe the four pilots? First, Pancho?
CD and MW: They were similar in that they were all passionate about flying, and they were all certainly quite frustrated with the strictures being put on women as pilots. They were four of the strong voices as we did our historical research on the race that spoke out for organizing the women, pushing back against the things that were unsafe, sticking together, refusing to stop the race, and were four of the most dynamic, but that is where all the similarities end. Pancho Barnes was an heiress, big personality, bold personality, and a rebel at heart. Pancho was one of the race organizers. And it’s why she could threaten the boycott that the pilots did. And she was the mouthpiece. She organized all the pilots, and they all agreed to the boycott to make sure only experienced pilots raced. She had that clout, because she was on the organizing committee. She has this big, loud personality. A lot of money and takes no guff.
EC: What about the famous Amelia Earhart?
CD and MW: She was a celebrated pilot, but ‘Lady Lindy’ didn’t fly in that flight over the ocean, that they gave her a ticket tape parade. And believe it or not, Amelia Earhart had a big problem with that. She was the one who called herself a sack of potatoes. She wanted to be in this race because she was going to be at the controls of the aircraft. It was very important to her. This derby was the moment that she got to be an aviator. She was 100% passenger on that famous flight. Amelia was really embarrassed and humiliated by that. The reality is, Amelia at that time was not a particularly experienced pilot. She had crashed a couple of airplanes. She was not considered to be one of the premier aviators of the day, although they all really respected her celebrity and they really appreciated the attention she was bringing to women pilots. They held her no ill will. But they all knew she wasn’t much of a pilot. This was her opportunity to really come out and step into her shoes as a real aviator. She had something to prove. She has a big chip on her shoulder, a big case of imposter syndrome, and then a big tragedy as the race begins, losing her longtime dear friend and mechanic, who died the night the race started in a plane crash.
EC: What about Louise Thaden?
CD and MW: She was by far the most accomplished aviator of all of them at that point. She was the best pilot, and all the women expected her to win the race going in. She was already doing some test flying. She had the first commercial pilot’s license. She was the consummate professional, poised, and self-contained.
EC: Then there was the pilot of who died, Marvel Crosson?
CD and MW: Marvel was young, adorably cute, charismatic, and charming. She was America’s sweetheart material. Even though everybody called Amelia Earhart, America’s sweetheart, because of the Atlantic flight that had already happened, Marvel was setting a lot of records at that time. She was doing altitude records. She recently had set the world altitude record before that race. She was a bush pilot in Alaska, which was known to be exceedingly dangerous. She was kind of the mascot of the race where everybody took her under their wing. Even though Pancho Barnes was only five years older than Marvel, she thought of her as a little sister, and protected her, looked out for her. Everybody felt very protective toward Marvel, even though Marvel was a hot stick pilot.
EC: What role did Blanche Noyes play in the story?
CD and MW: Blanche Noyes, a pilot and an actress was very important in teaching all the women how to be in front of the cameras, and how to give a good interview. Because of her indirectly the name “Powder Puff Derby” came about. The women pilots were getting ready for some press, and they all had brown and black sort of greasy mess all over their faces, sweaty, and then they would take their goggles off and they would have these white eyes staring at you, looking like a racoon. She taught them how to powder around their eyes, to even out their skin tone, so they didn’t look like freaks on camera. After the first race, they were all lined up on a stage and Blanche said ‘everybody, pull out your compacts and powder around your eyes.’ Will Rogers saw them doing it and he called it the ‘Powder Puff Derby.’ It stuck and infuriated the women because it was a derogatory term. It was like calling them petticoat pilots. It was another way of saying arm candy.
EC: Why didn’t the women talk about the sabotage?
CD and MW: They had a pact. They were going to be ladies and they were not going to whine because everybody was waiting for them to whine so they could print horrible headlines about, ‘oh, these poor little women just can’t take it. See, we told you.’ They had a pact that lasted until their dying breath. They never talked about the sabotage. The only time they ever voiced it was during the inquiry meetings. They formed a sisterhood. A scene in the book where Amelia Earhart, busted her propeller. They all waited for her new propeller instead of taking off as they were supposed to get a leg up and winning because she was grounded. They said, ‘We’re here to fly against each other. We are going to wait till you fix your plane, and then we’ll go again.’
EC: What do you want readers to get out of the story?
CD and MW: How to face a challenge. I want people to understand that nothing feels like achievement. I think another really, important theme of the story is what is possible when you work together and you come together as colleagues, respect each other, and bring friendship with hard work. Never refuse to quit, because great things can be accomplished. And this race single-handedly opened the door for women pilots to follow. So, they were really breaking gender walls.
EC: Cindy, did being a former Air Force pilot influence you?
CD: Maybe I would never be a pilot if not for these women. I look at this and I think to myself, these women are amazing. They’re amazing just as they are. And I wanted to write them in full color. I wanted it to be more than a history book. I wanted to bring it out and say, ‘There’s big personalities here.’ These women plowed the road. I see doors where these women were met with walls.I wrote about the flying stuff.
EC: Next book?
CD: The next book on my horizon, will probably be the third Helen Warwick. It’s already sold for television, but that doesn’t mean anything, since I don’t control the timetable or money, all of that is way out of my control.
MW: I am writing a psychological thriller but there is no release date.
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.
Retired librarian Neeti Shah was hoping for a restful life with her chai-loving friends, but when the body of a neighbor, a childhood friend of Neeti’s, turns up dead and the killer’s MO is similar to that of Neeti’s most recent book club read, things start to get out of control.
When Neeti hears a commotion at a neighbor’s house, she finds Rohit’s body sprawled across the bottom of the staircase with Agatha Christie’s Dumb Witness nearby. Blackmailing his neighbors, threatening them with lawsuits, and calling them by nasty nicknames were only some of the hateful things that made him so disliked. But were they angry enough to kill?
Neeti is indebted to her old friend, and she’s determined to find his killer. But she can’t do it alone, so she enlists her mystery-loving friends, the Masala Chai Mystery Club, to get to the bottom of the murder.
But Neeti and her club members need to be careful. As more bodies turn up and more suspects start to appear, they’ll need to find the killer before they end up in hot water!
THE MASALA CHAI MYSTERY CLUB by MJ Soni is an engaging debut cozy amateur sleuths murder mystery which features a cast of multi-cultural characters who come together to solve a murder in their HOA community with the added bonus of descriptions of mouth-watering food from around the world. This is a standalone cozy mystery, but I am hoping it will return as a series with the MCMC (Masala Chai Mystery Club) solving many more cases together into the future.
Neeti Shah has loved reading and books her entire life. She was the head librarian at her local library until she was forced into early retirement. While she feels rudderless without her job, and becoming a widow a few years ago, she does have her niece, Myra and nephew, Ved living with her and wonderful neighbors in her multi-cultural HOA.
As she sits on her porch with her best friend, they hear a terrible scream from across the street and rush over to see what is happening. Rohit, a friend from her childhood in India, lies dead at the bottom of his staircase with his wife nearby. Rohit was not well liked in their community and could be quite mean to his neighbors, but while everyone else feels it is an accident, Neeti feels the scene is not quite what it appears.
Neeti and her mystery loving neighbors form the Masala Chai Mystery Club and with the help of a local police officer begin to gather evidence to prove Rohit was murdered. Will they catch the killer before they strike again much closer to home?
I loved Neeti and her love of reading and books, “real” chai, and how she shared it and many flavorful dishes with her neighbors. As is common with a new cozy mystery cast of characters, especially in a community setting, it takes a bit to get names and descriptions untangled, but it is worth it for the rich cultural mixing pot in this neighborhood. This is a well written debut mystery plot full of red herrings and surprises that kept me guessing and changing my mind on the identity of the killer multiple times. I also enjoyed the homage to Agatha Christie’s The Dumb Witness.
This is an enjoyable cozy mystery read with a great new cast of characters and wonderful food and recipes to try and share.
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About the Author
MJ Soni’s heartwarming debut, the Masala Chai Mystery Club, is to be released in July 2026.
It’s a murder mystery about badass diverse women, featuring a saree-wearing amateur sleuth, warm communities, and a dash of humor, and draws upon her love of the culture and cuisine of her diverse Indian, African, and American background.
She is also the author of DEFYING APARTHEID, her part-memoir about being a doctor activist in apartheid South Africa.
I was not sure how I would handle adding to and posting this article. While sharing blog posts, books, and an on-line friendship, Elise and I have gone through the heartbreaking loss of our dogs, who were so much more, at almost the exact same time.
I lost Athena on 4/10/2026 after twelve wonderful years. She made me fall in love with all varieties in the pitbull family of terriers; their wiggly butts, zoomies, and abundance of kisses. It is still too hard for me to write much without tearing up, but I was happy Elise pulled together this article with her memories of Torii and some of our favorite authors remembering their furry family members.
Athena
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Anyone who had a dog realizes for many pet owners they were more than just a pet. To some they were a friend, partner, child, or encompassed all those qualities. It seems so unfair that they do not live long as we would like. Will Chesney, the dog handler, wrote the book, No Ordinary Dog about Cairo, the Belgian Malinois military working dog who was part of the mission to get Osama bin Laden. He put into words what others who lost a dog are feeling. Anyone who is a dog lover and who has lost a dog can relate to what Will said in the book. “The story does not end on a high note. It never does with dogs, right? Someone once said that buying a dog is like buying a small tragedy. You know on the first day how it all will turn out. But that’s not the point, is it? It’s the journey that counts, what you give the dog and what you get in return.”
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Elise’s Tribute to Torii
Torii was our fourteen-year-old beloved black Labrador Retriever who we had to put down because all her vitals was shutting down. She was a survivor and fighter who always seemed to bounce back, having overcome immune disease, one bout with tick disease, mass cell tumors, heart disease, high blood pressure, torn ACL, gerardia, bitten by a vicious dog that required a drain, and an allergic reaction to a bee sting. Unfortunately, she got a second bout of mass cell tumors and eventually it was too much for her to overcome.
We thought of her as a child because that is how she acted. She made us so very, very happy because of her kind, caring, and loveable ways. Two events stand out for me. One was when I was on the phone with my supervisor and was not a happy camper. Torii jumped on the couch, put her head on my shoulder, and started licking me. It was like she was saying ‘calm down mom things are going to be OK’. The other event is when we were having lunch in an outside restaurant and two children passed by, obviously afraid of dogs. I started talking to them and coaxed them to come up to her. Torii worked her magic and soon the children were enamored with her, crying when their mom said they had to go.
We miss Torii so very much. She gave unconditional love. She always amazed us with her strength and endurance while overcoming life’s obstacles. She was always well behaved except for the times she talked back when she wanted to eat. She made us laugh and smile with her antics. She will always be forever in our hearts and always remembered.
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Below are some authors who wrote about that special dog they lost in their lives:
Linda Castillo is a best-selling author known for writing the Kate Burkholder mystery series with her latest, A Dark Path. She speaks about the special dog she lost and was very attached to. “I had a chocolate lab. Gosh, it was back in the late ’90s, and I loved this girl. Her name was Cinnamon, and she was a dog that we just connected with. Cinnamon was one of those special dogs. If my husband and I were out and about, and we were on our way home, back to the house, I would feel this little leap of joy in my gut, because for a second, I would think that I was gonna see Cinnamon. She was a dark chocolate lab. We got her when she was a puppy from the Humane Society. And she was little, a runt. She was gorgeous. She was a beautiful dark chocolate Labrador. She had the Labrador, everything, the body, the personality, the appetite, and was calm as could be.”
“She was seven years old when she died of cancer. I made myself wait 3 months. I went down to the SPCA and I’m looking and my husband was like, everything that I look at, if it wasn’t Cinnamon, I did not want to get that dog. I had volunteered down there before, previously. So, about three months later, we went back to the SPCA in downtown Dallas, and I found the most unlikely dog. We had seen him before. He weighed 144 pounds, probably a Newfoundland. We did not get him that day but the day I won a writing contest; I drove down to the SPCA. He was still there, I put this 144-pound dog in the back of my Mustang, and I took him home.”
“I know each person is different and realize they must follow their feelings. But I think that the love that people feel for a dog, is a love just as strong as those with children. They always say, you can’t replace them, and you can’t, but a lot of people say, ‘Oh, you have to wait until you get another dog, because, you can’t replace the one that died.’ I think that the best way to mend a broken heart, when you lose a dog, is to get another dog, or two. That’s my theory.”
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J. A. Jance is a best-selling author known for writing three series centering around Seattle police detective J. P. Beaumont, Arizona County Sheriff Joanna Brady, and mystery solver Ali Reynolds who is featured in her latest book Overkill. She speaks of her special dog that she lost. “Sixteen years ago, coming home from a Saturday morning shopping trip to Target with my daughter and grandson, Colt, we spotted a little miniature dachshund running down the middle of a busy road. My daughter pulled over onto the shoulder while I jumped out and gave chase. It was rainy and cold. Eventually two college-aged kids pulled over and helped me corner her.”
“She was tiny, muddy, soaking wet, shivering, and scared to death. She had a collar but no tag and no chip. We spent the better part of two hours trying to locate her owner to no effect. Eventually we came back to the house, Bill, my husband came outside to see what all the fuss was about, and ended up carrying her into the house. On the way, Colt was explaining to Bill how we found this “poor little fella on the street. ‘Colt, Bill said, Fella is a boy name. This is a girl dog.’ ‘Okay’, Colt replied. ‘We’ll call her Bella.’”
“And Bella she became. She had obviously lived in an apartment. She had no idea how to use our doggie door, but her instincts were strong. When it came to moles, she was a killer. The first time she brought one of her bloody prizes into the house, it was right in the middle of a dinner party!”
“Because she was scared to death of our dog sitter, when it came time to go on a book tour, Bella went along and became Bella, the Book Tour Dog. Her first day on the job, she interacted with 2500 people including spending time with one woman. She had recently lost her daughter to cancer, and she had come to the signing to have her daughter’s book signed. Once I finished autographing her book, I passed her along to Bill and Bella, and Bella did her comforting best for the next half hour. But boy was she tired when we got back to the hotel.”
“We had her for eight years. Prior to having Bella, we had been golden retriever-people, but Bella helped us downsize. We’ve since had two more long-haired miniature dachshunds, Jojo and Mary. Jojo is gone, now, too, and I believe Mary is what my father would call our ‘toes-up dog.’ Loving an animal means we’re going to lose them eventually, but I wouldn’t have missed the time spent with anyone of them. I wrote a novella which is, I believe, a fictionalized version of Bella’s history. It’s called A Last Goodbye.”
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Peter James is the best-selling author of the Roy Grace novels. His latest is The Hawk Is Dead. He spoke of the special dog he lost. “Phoebe was a German Shepherd. German Shepherds have a very unfair reputation for being aggressive. In truth, its owners who should have that bad reputation: Yes, an ill-treated and badly trained Shepherd may well turn aggressive – as would almost any breed. But properly trained, loved and nurtured they can be among the gentle breeds of dog in the world. I watched one time an eight-year-old baby crawl across the floor and take a handful of food out of Phoebe’s bowl – and she just lay there, passively, without batting an eyelid. But with sheep that is another thing. I once asked a police dog handler how to stop a German Shepherd from chasing sheep and he told me it was virtually impossible since it was in their DNA! I remember when Phoebe was 12 years old, a great age for a Shepherd, and her back legs were starting to go, as we were walking through a field of sheep, she totally forgot her age and decided she was two again and damn well was going to have herself a sheep!! She almost pulled me over.”
“We’ve always tended to have three dogs of differing ages. Getting a new dog is the only cure I know for the pain of losing a dog. I honestly think losing a dog can hurt more than then losing a human relative. All my dogs are a combination of soulmate, writing companion, and personal trainer. Doesn’t matter how bad the weather might be and how much I do not feel like going out for a walk or a run, all I need is a baleful look from any of my dogs and off we go!”
“My wife, Lara, is a qualified canine massage therapist (a dog masseur) and she works with dogs with serious arthritis. She comes across a wide variety of breeds in her work – and is always falling in love with each of them! Sometimes we will replace a loved dog with the same breed, but oftentimes we may get a rescue. I’m a patron of the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) so I have a big incentive to take on rescue animals – and it is so rewarding.”
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Jenna Blum is a best-selling author whose latest is Murder Your Darlings. She speaks of her special dog Woodrow, a Labrador Retriever. “He was my North, my South, my East, and West. My working week and my Sunday rest. My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song. As W. H. Auden said, ‘He was my daily joy, my pal.’ I called myself (or he called me) “Mommoo,” so he was a fur child of sorts. But he was also The George Clooney of Dogs–not a nickname I gave him. He was a very elegant soul in a dog suit.?
“I have a new black Lab, Henry Higgins, who is a dog in a dog suit, and I love him just as much and fiercely, in a very different way. You can always expand to let a new love into your life! My memoir about Woodrow is Woodrow on the Bench. I hope it helps people who are caring for a senior animal and/ or who have lost one.”
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Melinda Curtis is a best-selling author of light‐hearted contemporary romance. Her latest is The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride and Winning the Bull Rider’s Heart. She speaks of her special dog Calvin, a chocolate lab. “Calvin grew up with our boys and thought he was a boy, too. If they played catch, he demanded to play, too. If they went swimming, he went swimming, too. And if we tried to leave him outside while other kids were over, he’d protest mightily, doing everything from dragging the screen door away from the slider and into the back yard or prying a board off the fence. You never know what personality your child will have. Same goes for animals. Calvin had a big personality and we loved him for it. He could be high energy but also gentle with little kids and our elderly parents.”
“We did get a dog after Calvin but we went smaller, a terrier mix. She’s mellower, tan, but still short hair.”
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Catherine Curzon is a bestselling author of World War Two saga fiction. She writes under the pen name Ellie Curzon with Helen Barrel, their latest, The Lifeboat Orphans and The Lost Orphans. She writes about her dog Pippa. “She was a Jackapoo and she was my everything. Best friend, constant companion, everything. It’s impossible to overstate just how much she meant to me and still does. I think about her with love every single day. I loved that little girl beyond my capacity to even articulate how much. She was everything to me in the world. Pippa was bright, silly, beautiful, and the best pal anyone could wish for. She enriched my life enormously and brought so much happiness to everyone who knew her.”
“Pippa passed a little over two years ago and it’s taken me until now to feel ready to look for a new companion, but I think that time is finally here. My husband and I are trusting to fate to send us the right pup, just as it did with Pippa. We didn’t choose her, she found us.”
“She is featured in my latest books The Lost Orphans and The Lifeboat Orphans. We started writing the series just after she died. Nothing has hit me as hard as her death. I felt like I lost a part of myself. Helen suggested to name the dog in the series after my Pippa. She is grey and peachy. I love having her in the book because that makes her immortal.”
Anyone who lost a furry loved one can agree with the sentiment of Camille Marcotte, “I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you: but instead, I am deeply honored knowing you spent the rest of your life with me.”
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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.
