Hook, Line, and Sinker: An Ozarks Lake Mystery
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Arkansas
BGM Press (July 14, 2022)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 255 pages

Synopsis

Dubious diamond devotees and a dead loan shark. With the dad she thought dead suspected of murder, can she keep him from doing hard time?

Elizabeth Trout thinks she must have rocks in her head. After receiving a crazy call that the father she never knew is cooling his heels in the local jail, the newlywed graphic designer posts bail and invites him home. But the family reunion loses its luster when she learns her old man is under suspicion for murder after he was found near a corpse.

With the sheriff zeroing in on her dad and no other suspects on ice, Elizabeth starts her own investigation to mine for evidence. But as greedy gem hunters, fossil fanatics, and shady scammers run amok, she must race to solve the homicide before she’s the one shafted.

Can she prove her father’s innocence before a rough-cut killer makes a glittering getaway?

Hook, Line, and Sinker is the hilarious third book in the Ozarks Lake Mystery cozy series. If you like big-hearted but excitable heroines, charismatic rogues, and uproarious plot twists, then you’ll love Marc Jedel’s jaunty jewel.

Buy Hook, Line, and Sinker to get caught up in a carat of crime today!

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Interview with Marc

What’s your background?

After years of working in high-tech marketing, I decided to try writing novels. I figured I had plenty of experience crafting fiction. In my day job, those were just called emails, ads, and marketing collateral. Like my characters Jonas and Elizabeth, in the Ozarks Lake Mystery series, I grew up in the South and spent plenty of time in and around Arkansas. Like my character, Marty, in the Silicon Valley Mystery series, I now live in Silicon Valley, work in high-tech, and enjoy bad puns.

What makes your books different from others out there in this genre?

I’ve become bored by cozies where the protagonist runs a bakery, bookstore, or bed & breakfast and this supposedly amateur sleuth gets extensive help from—often—incompetent police. So I made sure my characters don’t work with the police and have different jobs. Having both a male and female protagonist with different point-of-view chapters in the Ozarks Lake Mystery series also allows me to show very different perspectives on suspects and other characters and go to different places.

My Silicon Valley Mystery series is especially unique with its male protagonist who’s not particularly competent, nor especially brave, as the amateur sleuth. Setting it in Silicon Valley is also unusual for cozies but has worked well. Despite finding himself thrust into challenging situations, Marty isn’t exactly hero material. He has a wonderful combination of wit, irreverent humor and sarcasm mixed in with nerdy insecurities, absent-mindedness, and fumbling yet effective amateur sleuthing skills. He’s got an active inner voice and doesn’t do a lot of advance planning. Instead he throws himself into solving problems. Sometimes, he even succeeds.

What are three things most people don’t know about you?

1) Played professional soccer while completing my year as a Rhodes Scholar, 2) Nominated for both Pulitzer and Nobel prizes for my previous novels, 3) Likes to make up answers when asked questions for which I don’t have a good response.

What is the first book you remember reading?

I’d have to say it’s a tie between Go Dog Go and The Cat in the Hat. This might also explain my love for puns and entertaining word choices. What’s not to love about a story that has great wordplay and shows off awesome party hats?

What books have most inspired you?

I wasn’t originally planning to write mysteries. However a few years ago, I picked up my wife’s copy of a Janet Evanovich novel. She got mad when I didn’t return it until I’d finished. My wife that is, not Janet. Janet would probably be happy because I’ve purchased many of her other books and even consulted her How I Write book when I started my first book. I wouldn’t even mind if Janet decided to tell all her readers that they should try my books too (in case you’re reading this, Hi Janet!) Since then, I’ve read many other mysteries and cozy mysteries and enjoy the good ones for a light, humorous read.

What made you decide you wanted to write novels?

I’ve wanted to write a book since I was young. For the longest time, it seemed I couldn’t come up with a good plot. Yet, my writing research clearly demonstrated that having a plot is critical to a book’s success.

One day, I received this awesome birthday drawing from my nieces. And my kids, or nieces, or one of our friends’ kids had done some crazy things. Probably all of the above. One thing led to another and the idea formed to loosely base a mystery with a self-absorbed, fashion-backward software engineer, his sister, and his nieces on my life. It’s clearly fiction. I mean, I’m not a software engineer.

The Ozarks Lake Mystery series is a completely different series with very different characters, different humor, and different style of sleuthing. This seemed to be a way to keep things fresh for me and my readers. But I’ll continue writing stories in both series and even have a third series in mind to start soon.

Where do the ideas for your books come from?

Most of the ideas came initially from some strange news article that I stumble across. I read an article about diamond hunting at the Crater of Diamonds state park in Arkansas and thought how strange and fun that sounded, especially when I realized it wasn’t far from the casino in Hot Springs and close to the location of my fictional town of Jenkins. As my wife had grandparents who owned a small ranch in Arkansas and I also spent time in and around Arkansas growing up, I thought this would be an interesting location for a series—and very different from Silicon Valley.

Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?

I used to answer this question by saying it was figuring out new, interesting, and plausible ways to kill someone. I’m fairly concerned that my answer seems to have shifted since I began writing. The hardest part recently has been finding new, interesting, and plausible ways for amateur sleuths to investigate a crime without involving the police or skills that would be far beyond my characters.

I just hope no law enforcement officers start wondering why it’s become easier for me to think of new ways to kill a character, review some of my very unusual internet searches, and then knock on my door to ask me uncomfortable questions.

Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you?

Marty Golden, my protagonist in the Silicon Valley Mystery series, is the most similar to me. Family and friends would tell you that he isn’t much of a stretch of the imagination for me to write, but I’m comfortable with the implications of that. Of course, Marty is a younger, funnier, cooler, and more handsome version of myself that I imagine I see in the mirror each morning. But Elizabeth and Jonas Trout in Fish Out of Water also have a disturbing number of similarities to me. I don’t know that I could write a first-person point-of-view novel and not have at least some resemblance between the protagonist and myself.

What’s next on the horizon for you?

I’m planning to start a new series set in the California Wine Country with the first book titled: Rivers and Creaks. The protagonist will be a 65 year-old retiree/recent widower who moves to small river town near the mountains in Wine Country, Northern California. He wants to become a recluse, which doesn’t align well with his wife’s earlier plan for them to buy and run a bed & breakfast. Now the reluctant owner of this property with the last of his retirement savings, his problems include that he doesn’t like people, he’s no good at fixing things, and people keep dying around him. I also have plans to write book 6 in the Silicon Valley Mystery series, titled: Pride and Principal, which will find Marty forced to help school secretary, Mrs. Quarles, to resolve the murder of his nieces’ school principal.

About the Author

Marc Jedel writes humorous murder mysteries. He credits his years of marketing leadership positions in Silicon Valley for honing his writing skills and sense of humor. While his high-tech marketing roles involved crafting plenty of fiction, these were just called emails, ads, and marketing collateral.

For most of Marc’s life, he’s been inventing stories. As he’s gotten older, he’s encountered more funny and odd people and situations. This has made it even easier for him to write what he knows and make up the rest. It’s a skill that’s served him well, both as an author and marketer.

The publication of Marc’s first novel, UNCLE AND ANTS, gave him permission to claim “author” as his job. This leads to much more interesting conversations with people than answering “marketing.” Becoming an Amazon best-selling author has only made him more insufferable.

Like his characters Jonas and Elizabeth from the Ozarks Lake Mystery series, Marc grew up in the South and spent plenty of time in and around Arkansas. Like his character, Marty from the Silicon Valley Mystery series, Marc now lives in Silicon Valley, works in high-tech, and enjoys bad puns. Along with all his protagonists, Marc too has a dog, although his is neurotic, sweet, and small, with little appreciation for Marc’s humor.

Visit his website for free chapters of novels, special offers, and more.

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