Secrets Don’t Sink: A Chattertowne Mystery
Traditional Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Chattertowne, Washington- a small riverfront community in the Pacific Northwest
Level Best Books (July 4, 2023)
Paperback : 308 pages
Synopsis
Loose lips may sink ships, but bodies and secrets will always float to the surface.
Audrey O’Connell has returned from Portland to her hometown of Chattertowne, Washington, a place where gossip is currency but knowing when to stay tight-lipped is priceless. Procuring a part-time job at the local newspaper to keep an eye on her impetuous sister following Vivienne’s latest romantic scandal, Audrey is assigned a feature series for the upcoming festival which has her digging through the town archives in search of anything interesting. When her former boyfriend Marcus is found floating dead in the marina not long after reaching out to her in hopes of utilizing her research skills, her investigation reveals his conspiracy theories about Chattertowne and corruption within its leadership might not have been so crazy after all.
As she plumbs the depths of the town’s 150-year history, she discovers that beneath the façade of this idyllic hamlet lie secrets long-submerged–including within her own family–and finds herself in the crosshairs of those who guard them.
Now with three dead bodies, an intense case of aquaphobia, and a narrow window before her deadline, Audrey looks to City Manager Holden, octogenarian historian Mildred, and her enigmatic almost-boyfriend Darren to help her discover the truth that will forever change her and Chattertowne.
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Guest Post
Creating a Cozy Bubble
Why I love using themes in my books
Hi, I’m Kate (K.B.) Jackson and I write mystery adventure books for kids and mysteries for grownups. My middle grade series is Sasquatch Hunters, about a trio of kids looking to explore the woods near their Pacific Northwest home for evidence of Bigfoot. Book one, The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary released earlier this year. My first adult mystery Secrets Don’t Sink is the first in the Chattertowne Mystery Series. Next year, my new mystery series Cruising Sisters debuts with book one Until Depths Do Us Part.
One of the things I love most about writing these series is that I get to create these cozy bubbles in which everything fits a certain theme. I’ve come to realize I’ve been doing this since I was very young.
When I was six years old, I received a doll house for Christmas. The décor was Edwardian, maybe a little later. The father wore a sweater vest and a tie, the mother wore pearls, and the children were all very well behaved. I spent quite a bit of time (and my allowance) crafting a home for this family where it was Christmas every day. I even made some of my own accessories and decorations.
As I got older, I played less with the doll house and more with my Barbies. In my Barbie land, she was always on vacation in L.A. I mean, she had to be, right? She had the Malibu beach house. She also had an RV and a convertible purple Corvette that she used to travel around. She went swimming in a big bowl I’d taken from the kitchen, she’d sunbathe, get her hair done (Always a mistake), and play tennis.
Of course, in the background, the appropriate music was always playing. Christmas classics for the doll house, Beach Boys for Barbie and pals.
Once I had kids, this morphed into how I decorated their rooms. When my eldest daughter was five, she was really into forest animals, so guess who got an entire room decorated like a forest? We have four children, so there was a lot of decorating and redecorating.
My husband used to say if I had my way, our home would be like Disneyland, where each section represented a different theme. He wasn’t wrong.
In order to keep our home from looking like a carnival funhouse, I shifted my efforts to holidays and birthdays, specifically tablescapes. Each birthday or holiday had an accompanying theme, often with coordinating music and food to go with it.
How does this relate to my writing? I love to write to theme.
My Sasquatch Hunters Series is almost exclusively Pacific Northwest, so there will always be allusions to this area, it’s weather and the vibe that creates, and the scenery. In book two, The Sasquatch of Harriman Lake, the kids explore the woods surrounding fictional Harriman Lake and nearby real-life Bavarian village themed Leavenworth. In book three, they go to Scotland at Christmastime, so I flew to Scotland last spring to research and fully immersed myself in all things Scotland and Scottish Christmas traditions for two months. I also created a playlist for that series that you can find here: Spotify Playlist
For the new Cruising Sisters series, because it’s about two sisters in their fifties traveling the world while living on a cruise ship—think Love Boat meets Murder She Wrote with a touch of Golden Girls—I get to fully explore these global destinations and their culture, food, and traditions. While the first book Until Depths Do Us Part is set in the icy waters off the coast of Alaska, book two takes place on a journey to Yokohama, Japan, and book three is a cruise from New Orleans to Haiti. I’m currently writing book three and have really enjoyed remembering my trip to New Orleans about fifteen years ago, where I literally ate my way across that city full of history and music and warmth. That’s infused in every aspect of the book.
For Chattertowne, much of the theme surrounds the water. Audrey, my protagonist, having aquaphobia while residing in a riverfront community presents a constant challenge, especially when her former boyfriend’s body is found floating in the marina. I’ve played a lot with the idea that secrets—keeping them, sharing them, submerging them—are part of any small town, and people will go to extreme lengths to protect their own, even if they’re happy to share others’.
Secrets Don’t Sink is an homage to small towns…the people, the traditions, the gossip, the beauty, and the ways that being a part of that community can sometimes feel like you’re part of a big messy family. Where bad things sometimes happen, but you can be assured that you’re surrounded by people who’ve known you, who are in your corner and will always look out for you.
Going forward, book two carries on with that theme, this time set in autumn in Chattertowne, where Audrey attends the high school football game and the homecoming parade, and all your favorite characters return, along with some interesting new ones.
I have a sneaking suspicion book three in the Chattertowne Mysteries series will be set at Christmas because I can never get enough Christmas!
I hope you enjoy these cozy bubbles I’ve created in each of my series because I’ve really enjoyed creating them.
About the Author
Kate B Jackson (KB Jackson) is an author of mystery novels for grownups and mystery/adventure novels for kids. She lives in the Pacific NW with her husband and has four mostly grown children. A part-time genealogist, she loves to craft stories with elements of history and family dynamics.
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