Slightly Murderous Intent: A Southern California Mystery
Traditional Mystery
4th in Series
Publisher: Level Best Books (October 20, 2020)
Print Length: 323 pages

Synopsis

There’s a shooter on the loose who keeps missing his target. But that doesn’t stop him from trying again…and again. It’s up to Corrie Locke, rookie lawyer and spunky sleuth, to find the gunman before he hits his mark, Assistant Deputy D.A. James Zachary, Corrie’s hunky and complicated frenemy.

When Corrie is stuck with more questions than answers, she enlists a team with various strengths, from weapons to cooking skills, to help her find the shooter. Her computer whiz boyfriend Michael is onboard. So is former security guard Veera. Toss in an over-the-hill informant and a couple of feuding celebrity chefs and Corrie’s got her very own A-Team. Okay, maybe it’s more like a B-Team.

Can Team Corrie hunt down the shooter before he scores a bulls-eye?

Guest Post

Cliff Hanging

I’ve been told that I have a knack for cliffhanging. Not literally, of course, although I might if I tried. I’m talking about ending chapters with a cliffhanger…what’s going to happen next? I have a very good reason for ending the chapters that way, which I’ll explain in a bit.

If you’ve been around the writing world, you’ve likely heard of plotters vs. pantsers. Plotters outline and consider the stages and steps of the book. Pantsers just go for it, compass be damned. They hope to somehow reach those two coveted words, “The End” with a story that makes sense. You’d have to be out of your mind to be a pantser, unless you enjoy torture and confusion. That would be me because I’m a pantser. I fly by the seat of my pants and I enjoy every moment of it…afterward.

When Book #2 in my Southern California Mysteries came along, I sat up and told myself serious writers plot. So I wrote an outline.  It was pretty good. Then I started  writing the book, following the outline. I promptly tossed out the outline…after Chapter One. It took out the excitement of writing. I didn’t want to know what happened next. I wanted the story to unfold beneath my pounding fingers.

I start out nearly every chapter by putting my heroine, Corrie Locke, in a situation that’s shaky and unstable. I end each chapter by putting Corrie on the spot and possibly in danger. Will she or won’t she? That’s where the cliffhanger comes in.

For instance, in my latest installment of my Southern California Mystery series, SLIGHTLY MURDEROUS INTENT, the chapter opens with Corrie attending a celebratory dinner where everyone at her table is served dinner, but her. That pushes Corrie over the edge and she does what many famished diners would do: she hunts down the server. She never does get her meal; she’s served crime a la mode instead, which ignites the first of many action scenes in the novel.  Corrie’s not your average young female attorney. She’s the daughter of a well-known PI, and together they’d cracked a few high profile cases. Even without Dad, she’s become quite the crime-cracker and has the notches (and the weapons) to prove it. Back to the cliffhangers.

When I end each chapter with a cliffhanger, it provides momentum for me to continue writing. Like my readers, I want to know what’s going to happen next. And, as I write, I insert the usual characters: Corrie’s sidekicks who play co-starring roles in helping solve the crime, and in helping me create the cliffhangers. At this stage in my writing life, I don’t know how NOT to end a chapter without a cliffhanger, except for the very last chapter where I need to wrap things up. If I ended with a cliffhanger there, I wouldn’t know where to stop. Which would make me the author of one extra long novel!

About the Author

Lida Sideris is an author, lawyer, and all-around book enthusiast. She writes soft-boiled mysteries and was a recipient of the Helen McCloy Mystery Writers of America scholarship award. Slightly Murderous Intent is #4 in her Southern California Mystery series, published by Level Best Books. Lida lives in the northern tip of SoCal with her family, rescue dogs, and a flock of uppity chickens.

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