The interview only took a couple of minutes but it was fun for the authors, as you’ll see by watching the video below:
Monday, April 23, 2012
TV interview
Margaret Yoder and Johnine Brown, writing murder mysteries under
the pen name Margarite St. John, were interviewed on live television (WANE-TV)
by Adam Widener and Nicholas Ferreri on Sunday, April 22, 2012.
The interview only took a couple of minutes but it was fun for the authors, as you’ll see by watching the video below:
The interview only took a couple of minutes but it was fun for the authors, as you’ll see by watching the video below:
Dupont Valley Times article
Recently we were the subject of a feature article by Kelly McLendon in the Dupont Valley Times. Click here to read the article.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Newest Murder Mystery
Two sisters, using the pen name Margarite St. John -- the Storyteller and the Scribe -- have published their fourth murder mystery, The Girl with a Curl. It follows Murder for Old Times’ Sake, and while both mysteries are set in Fort Wayne and feature many of the same characters, each story stands alone.
Our Novels
Novel 4
The Girl with a Curl is the story of Lexie Royce and Steve Wright (the principals in Murder for Old Times’ Sake) shortly after their marriage. They are consumed with the stumbling stones of everyday life -- furnishing a new house, training a rambunctious puppy, hiring staff, pursuing business interests in a bad economy, and getting pregnant.
When they learn from a newspaper announcement that Antoinette “Tawny” Delamarter died of poison at Scuttlebutt’s, a gentlemen’s club in Fort Wayne, they merely note it in passing. After all, Tawny -- the skank of the Carroll High School class of ’94, an exotic dancer with a “generous” reputation -- was not a friend.
But then, they learn, Tawny is survived by a teen-aged daughter, the wild-child Jacintha Caitlin, who is on a quest to find her biological father. Her only clue is a scrapbook Tawny had hidden for sixteen years. And her only help comes from Dover Pitt, a disillusioned school counselor who thinks of the Amy Winehouse clone as a curse but is always trying to do the right thing for even the most rebellious students. His search for Jacintha’s father leads to a whole new life, not only for the orphan but for himself as well.
The good-hearted Lexie, who like Jacintha lost her mother at a tender age and who favors personal (but anonymous) forms of charity, is always ready to help an orphan. Jacintha’s transformation from the ugly and neglected scullery girl to the beautiful princess ensconced in the tower bedroom is the stuff of fairy tales. But like a fairy tale, the transformation from Jacintha, the trailer-park delinquent who bowls, to JayCee, the country club darling who golfs, is punctuated with evil in all its darkest forms.
Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, chaos follows Lexie’s decision to help Jacintha. The innocent are falsely accused, old friends lose their jobs, loving marriages are torn apart, and murder victims appear in odd places.
The murderer has left a trail of clues but has nevertheless been too clever for the legal system. If the police can’t bring the evil acts to an end, who will? Two silver mementoes that were never meant to be found hold the answer for the unlikeliest of kinsman avengers.
Some of the memorable characters in Murder for Old Times’ Sake figure in this new murder mystery: Phyllis Whitlow, her son Drago and and his wife Lucy Bott; Dave Powers, a police detective, and his wife Sheila; Jean Arnold, Lexie’s executive assistant; Trude Weide, the eccentric Scrapyard maven who raises Shelties; Ed and Jessica Singer, Steve and Lexie’s good friends; and Duke Simmons, the best criminal defense lawyer in northeast Indiana. Even Matilda Royce, Lexie’s acerbic step-mother, makes a brief appearance.
But there are memorable new characters as well, especially Dover Pitt, the disillusioned school counselor who wants to be a golf pro; Todd Fingerhutt, the pool man who knows a lot of facts, some of which are true; Joey DeWitt and Libby Stuart, Jacintha’s attractive new friends; Percy Scutter, the surprisingly respectable owner of Scuttlebutt’s, and Jen Ricky, a pregnant dancer who worked with Tawny; and last but not least, the shape-shifting JayCee Delamarter, the apple of her new dad’s eye.
Novel 3
Murder for Old Times’ Sake introduced 33-year-old Alexandra “Lexie” Royce, who has everything. She’s beautiful, smart, and single again. As a self-made millionaire, her fame extends far beyond Fort Wayne. Best of all, she has just been reunited with her old boyfriend, Steve Wright. So what could go wrong?
The neglect of Fort Wayne in modern popular literature is strange. The ratio of millionaires to the population is one of the highest in the country, so there are lots of readers here who can afford to buy books. The first professional baseball game -- our all-American sport -- was played here in 1871. We know the city has international importance because Hitler reportedly placed Fort Wayne seventh on his list of U.S. cities to be destroyed. Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the world’s first working television system, toiled over his inventions in a basement lab on Pontiac Street. And if “Mad” Anthony Wayne, for whom the city is named, hadn’t crushed the French and Indians in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, we’d all be talking through our noses, smoking without guilt, bathing less often, eating richer food, walking our poodles, and drinking lots more wine at lunch.
Accidentally discovering the truth about one of the men, misled by gossip about another, and kept in the dark about the past of the third, Lily finally makes her choice. Not until she takes a fateful midnight cruise on a cigarette boat named Face Off does she learn the truth about the men in her life -- and her own heart.
Novel 2
In Monuments to Murder, Jerry Lee Beaudry, a rich widow famous for her opulent gardens in Naples, Florida, is on a quest to find the traitor who published a false abortion story about her daughter, Poppy Beaudry McBride, a former beauty queen. The abortion scandal imperils the future of Poppy’s husband, Ferrin, a conservative politician running for reelection against the smarmy Myron Mullett.
Jerry Lee will do anything to find and punish the leaker. She thinks the only people who know about Poppy’s miscarriage are her brother Verlin Grubbs, a savant who knows everything there is to know about herbs; Dr. Collin Lindstrom, who treated Poppy in the emergency room; Dewey Betz, the boy who made Poppy pregnant; and Molly Standardt, Poppy’s beauty pageant rival, now a gossip columnist. Phil Coker, the washed-up Hollywood actor who is her live-in companion, knows too, of course, but he wouldn’t talk. When she finds out she’s wrong about Phil, there’s hell to pay.
Molly Standardt sets out to rehabilitate Poppy’s reputation. And Tom Lawton is hired by Poppy’s husband to find the leaker. Together, Molly and Tom not only plumb the depths of Jerry Lee’s ruthless ambition and find the leaker but also expose an unholy alliance between Hollywood moguls and radical politicians.
The beautiful monuments, the mausoleum, and the deadly herbs in Jerry Lee’s famous gardens, as well as her strange brother Verlin, say more about Jerry Lee than even her daughter knows. When Poppy sets out to expose her mother’s dark deeds, she knows it’s dangerous -- but has no idea of the peril that awaits her. Nor can Jerry Lee, who expects her life to be immortalized in film, guess what kind of film it will be.
Some of the memorable characters in Face Off figure in this new murder mystery: Lily Anderson and the detective Tom Lawton; Molly Standardt, the gossip columnist; Sara Bancroft, Lily’s sister; Matt Bearsall, a detective; Simon Diodorus, a society walker; Verbena Cross, an aging Hollywood actress, and her body-double, Margaret Greer.
But there are memorable new characters as well, especially Jerry Lee, her brother Verlin, and her companion Phil Coker; Poppy McBride and her husband Ferrin, a Congressman running for reelection; Dee Applegate, Molly’s flamboyant mother; Myron Mullett, his wife LuAnn and his mistress Muffy Wayne; Doris Bearsall, Matt’s conservative wife; Virgil Goldstein, a left-wing Hollywood mogul, and his wife Ellen Matter.
The Girl with a Curl is the story of Lexie Royce and Steve Wright (the principals in Murder for Old Times’ Sake) shortly after their marriage. They are consumed with the stumbling stones of everyday life -- furnishing a new house, training a rambunctious puppy, hiring staff, pursuing business interests in a bad economy, and getting pregnant.
When they learn from a newspaper announcement that Antoinette “Tawny” Delamarter died of poison at Scuttlebutt’s, a gentlemen’s club in Fort Wayne, they merely note it in passing. After all, Tawny -- the skank of the Carroll High School class of ’94, an exotic dancer with a “generous” reputation -- was not a friend.
But then, they learn, Tawny is survived by a teen-aged daughter, the wild-child Jacintha Caitlin, who is on a quest to find her biological father. Her only clue is a scrapbook Tawny had hidden for sixteen years. And her only help comes from Dover Pitt, a disillusioned school counselor who thinks of the Amy Winehouse clone as a curse but is always trying to do the right thing for even the most rebellious students. His search for Jacintha’s father leads to a whole new life, not only for the orphan but for himself as well.
The good-hearted Lexie, who like Jacintha lost her mother at a tender age and who favors personal (but anonymous) forms of charity, is always ready to help an orphan. Jacintha’s transformation from the ugly and neglected scullery girl to the beautiful princess ensconced in the tower bedroom is the stuff of fairy tales. But like a fairy tale, the transformation from Jacintha, the trailer-park delinquent who bowls, to JayCee, the country club darling who golfs, is punctuated with evil in all its darkest forms.
Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, chaos follows Lexie’s decision to help Jacintha. The innocent are falsely accused, old friends lose their jobs, loving marriages are torn apart, and murder victims appear in odd places.
The murderer has left a trail of clues but has nevertheless been too clever for the legal system. If the police can’t bring the evil acts to an end, who will? Two silver mementoes that were never meant to be found hold the answer for the unlikeliest of kinsman avengers.
Some of the memorable characters in Murder for Old Times’ Sake figure in this new murder mystery: Phyllis Whitlow, her son Drago and and his wife Lucy Bott; Dave Powers, a police detective, and his wife Sheila; Jean Arnold, Lexie’s executive assistant; Trude Weide, the eccentric Scrapyard maven who raises Shelties; Ed and Jessica Singer, Steve and Lexie’s good friends; and Duke Simmons, the best criminal defense lawyer in northeast Indiana. Even Matilda Royce, Lexie’s acerbic step-mother, makes a brief appearance.
But there are memorable new characters as well, especially Dover Pitt, the disillusioned school counselor who wants to be a golf pro; Todd Fingerhutt, the pool man who knows a lot of facts, some of which are true; Joey DeWitt and Libby Stuart, Jacintha’s attractive new friends; Percy Scutter, the surprisingly respectable owner of Scuttlebutt’s, and Jen Ricky, a pregnant dancer who worked with Tawny; and last but not least, the shape-shifting JayCee Delamarter, the apple of her new dad’s eye.
Novel 3
Murder for Old Times’ Sake introduced 33-year-old Alexandra “Lexie” Royce, who has everything. She’s beautiful, smart, and single again. As a self-made millionaire, her fame extends far beyond Fort Wayne. Best of all, she has just been reunited with her old boyfriend, Steve Wright. So what could go wrong?
Plenty, as it turns out, starting with her fortune. Her step-mother, half-brother, ex-husband, and financial advisor all want a piece of it. And they’ll do almost anything to get it.
Lexie’s romance with Steve doesn’t go smoothly either. Not only is he reluctant to marry again, but two other women are vying for his affections: Vicki Grinderman, a pretty young paralegal who fancies herself a New Age priestess, and Jean Arnold, Lexie’s own executive assistant, who has a drinking problem. When a sexual pervert begins stealing women’s lingerie and then two women are murdered, Lexie suddenly realizes she’s in danger too. In fear for her life, Lexie retreats to the safety of a fabulous but creepy lodge in the Upper Peninsula. Hearing that one of her stalkers left a suicide note confessing to the earlier murders, she begins to relax -- only to be lured into the killer’s trap.
* * * * *
Both Murder for Old Times’ Sake and The Girl with a Curl are set in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the country’s much neglected heartland -- aka fly-over country for the coastal elite. The neglect of Fort Wayne in modern popular literature is strange. The ratio of millionaires to the population is one of the highest in the country, so there are lots of readers here who can afford to buy books. The first professional baseball game -- our all-American sport -- was played here in 1871. We know the city has international importance because Hitler reportedly placed Fort Wayne seventh on his list of U.S. cities to be destroyed. Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the world’s first working television system, toiled over his inventions in a basement lab on Pontiac Street. And if “Mad” Anthony Wayne, for whom the city is named, hadn’t crushed the French and Indians in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, we’d all be talking through our noses, smoking without guilt, bathing less often, eating richer food, walking our poodles, and drinking lots more wine at lunch.
* * * * *
Margarite St. John’s first two books, Face Off and Monuments to Murder, are set in southwest Florida, where the sisters -- and many other Midwesterners -- like to vacation or retire.
Novel 1
In Face Off, Lily Anderson, a pretty, self-assured career woman living in Fort Wayne, is facing problems in the law firm where she’s the office manager. She’s also sick of living so far from her only sister. She wants a better work environment, warmer weather, and marriage before she turns 30.
During Christmas vacation at her sister’s house on Marco Island, she impulsively decides to change everything in her life. Moving to Florida and finding a better job turn out to be easier than choosing the right husband from among three eligible men: Jack Moon, her long-time boyfriend, the lead guitarist in The Fly-Over Boys; Tom Lawton, an ambitious detective, fresh from a broken engagement, whom she meets on the flight to Fort Myers; and Dr. Bruce Blackburn, a rich, widowed surgeon who is also her brother-in-law’s partner and old friend. All three love her, but which one can she trust?Accidentally discovering the truth about one of the men, misled by gossip about another, and kept in the dark about the past of the third, Lily finally makes her choice. Not until she takes a fateful midnight cruise on a cigarette boat named Face Off does she learn the truth about the men in her life -- and her own heart.
Novel 2
In Monuments to Murder, Jerry Lee Beaudry, a rich widow famous for her opulent gardens in Naples, Florida, is on a quest to find the traitor who published a false abortion story about her daughter, Poppy Beaudry McBride, a former beauty queen. The abortion scandal imperils the future of Poppy’s husband, Ferrin, a conservative politician running for reelection against the smarmy Myron Mullett.
Jerry Lee will do anything to find and punish the leaker. She thinks the only people who know about Poppy’s miscarriage are her brother Verlin Grubbs, a savant who knows everything there is to know about herbs; Dr. Collin Lindstrom, who treated Poppy in the emergency room; Dewey Betz, the boy who made Poppy pregnant; and Molly Standardt, Poppy’s beauty pageant rival, now a gossip columnist. Phil Coker, the washed-up Hollywood actor who is her live-in companion, knows too, of course, but he wouldn’t talk. When she finds out she’s wrong about Phil, there’s hell to pay.
Molly Standardt sets out to rehabilitate Poppy’s reputation. And Tom Lawton is hired by Poppy’s husband to find the leaker. Together, Molly and Tom not only plumb the depths of Jerry Lee’s ruthless ambition and find the leaker but also expose an unholy alliance between Hollywood moguls and radical politicians.
The beautiful monuments, the mausoleum, and the deadly herbs in Jerry Lee’s famous gardens, as well as her strange brother Verlin, say more about Jerry Lee than even her daughter knows. When Poppy sets out to expose her mother’s dark deeds, she knows it’s dangerous -- but has no idea of the peril that awaits her. Nor can Jerry Lee, who expects her life to be immortalized in film, guess what kind of film it will be.
Some of the memorable characters in Face Off figure in this new murder mystery: Lily Anderson and the detective Tom Lawton; Molly Standardt, the gossip columnist; Sara Bancroft, Lily’s sister; Matt Bearsall, a detective; Simon Diodorus, a society walker; Verbena Cross, an aging Hollywood actress, and her body-double, Margaret Greer.
But there are memorable new characters as well, especially Jerry Lee, her brother Verlin, and her companion Phil Coker; Poppy McBride and her husband Ferrin, a Congressman running for reelection; Dee Applegate, Molly’s flamboyant mother; Myron Mullett, his wife LuAnn and his mistress Muffy Wayne; Doris Bearsall, Matt’s conservative wife; Virgil Goldstein, a left-wing Hollywood mogul, and his wife Ellen Matter.
Sub-genres
It is hard to say what sub-genre of murder mysteries our books belong to. Some might say cozy mysteries because there’s plenty of romance, not to mention characters from all walks of life, travel to interesting places, and the intimate details of everyday life. Like most writers of cozy mysteries, we only hint at gore and sex and merely sketch police procedure.
Our villains, whether men or women, are blown up by their own evil designs -- in one case, literally.
Some might categorize our mysteries as woman-in-peril tales. All our books feature intelligent, attractive women -- Lily Anderson, Poppy McBride, Lexie Royce -- whose lives are imperiled by people they trust. By the time they spot the evil nature lurking behind a respectable facade, it’s almost too late.
And all our books feature villains who are hoist with their own petard (French for a small bomb used to breach walls in fortifications). Sometimes petards, which were activated with a match used as a slow fuse, detonated prematurely, blowing up the engineer. William Shakespeare used the phrase “hoist with his own petard” in Hamlet to describe the reversal by which the bearers of a death warrant against Hamlet were executed in his place when the letters were altered. Our villains, whether men or women, are blown up by their own evil designs -- in one case, literally.
Perhaps, then, there needs to be a new sub-genre: the cozy bomb mystery.
Book Recommendations
We read widely. Our taste includes not just murder mysteries but many other categories of both fiction and non-fiction. From time to time we will publish book recommendations. Here are a few of the Scribe’s current favorites. All are available through Amazon for Kindle and in paper.
Fiction
* The Devlin Diary, Christi Phillips. The Devlin Diary picks up where The Rossetti Letter left off. The story bounces between Claire Donavan, a modern scholar in Cambridge, and Hannah Devlin, an unlicensed doctor in 17th century London. Both women confront danger, prejudice, and mystery involving the powerful and unscrupulous. The historical research is superb, rendering the 17th century characters, settings, plots, politics, professions, science, morals, mind-sets, and details far more intriguing than the current ones, but both time periods held my interest. Until the last chapters, I was unsure of how either story would end but found both conclusions very satisfying. * I’ve Got Your Number, Sophie Kinsella. Kinsella is the author of the popular Shopaholic series featuring the delightful and unconsciously hilarious Rebecca Bloomwood Brandon. In I've Got Your Number, Kinsella gives us a brand new heroine, Poppy Wyatt, a physiotherapist who loses her precious vintage engagement ring and then has her equally precious cellphone stolen. Without her phone, she'll never find her ring. When she fortuitously spots a discarded cellphone in the trash, Poppy picks it up. The owner on the other end -- a stranger -- turns out to be just the man to waken her mind to the truth about her fiancé and her heart to a love that matters. Kinsella's heroines are lovable and funny, self-deprecating in the most engaging way. The author's subtle critique of the intellectual and business elite is pointed but neither preachy nor cynical. Her prose is hip and engaging, her humor infectious, her plots zany but just credible enough to maintain the illusion of reality. Even though I rarely use a cellphone and never text, I enjoyed Poppy's incessant use of the device. I read this very funny book in two days. I have yet to learn to text, however.
Non-fiction
* The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America’s Future, Jonathan Cahn. Cahn is a messianic rabbi. The author's thesis is that the warning in Isaiah 9:10 given to ancient Israel to turn back to God is the same warning given to this nation by the events of 9/11. The thesis is conveyed in the form of a narrative. The nine harbingers (that is, signs or warnings of judgment to come) prophesied in Isaiah are the breach, the terrorist, the fallen bricks, the tower, the gazit stone, the sycamore, the erez tree, the utterance, and the prophecy. The parallels between God's warnings to ancient Israel and Judah and His warnings to modern America are undeniably striking. Some critics quarrel with the author's thesis that both Israel and America are countries formed under a covenant with God, but to me that's a quibble. God drew both nations to Himself, and both King Solomon and President George Washington dedicated their nations to God with a warning that His blessings would be removed if the people ever turned away from Him. The destruction of the Twin Towers and the fall of the stock market a few days later was the first shaking for America, involving all nine harbingers. The second shaking came exactly seven years later when the stock market crashed again. Both crashes occurred on a significant date in the Hebrew calendar, which Rabbi Cahn explains in detail. As a Christian and amateur student of the Bible who (alas) does not know Hebrew, I greatly appreciate Rabbi Cahn's reliance on Scripture and his knowledge of ancient history, his explanations of the Hebrew language and calendar, and his investigation of conditions at Ground Zero that were treated as peripheral rather than critical by news pundits and politicians.
I realize some pagans, humanists, rationalists, secularists, atheists, agnostics, and End Times skeptics may think this book isn't for them -- but it is so intriguing on the subjects of history and politics, even they will find it riveting and thought-provoking.
I have also watched the DVD based on this book, entitled The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment: Is There an Ancient Mystery that Foretells America's Future? Superbly narrated by Rabbi Cahn, the images are compelling and the production excellent. Until I read the book and watched this DVD, I knew next to nothing about the felling of the sycamore tree or the planting of the erez tree near Ground Zero; the quarrying and placement of the gazit stone where the new tower is being erected; the crack in the foundation of Federal Hall caused by the events of 9/11; the place of the country's dedication in 1789 after the inauguration of George Washington as the first president; the religious nature of the dedication ceremony; or the striking repetition of our national leaders' defiant speeches in reaction to 9/11. The parallels between ancient Israel and modern America are uncanny but precise and far too important to ignore, especially the chance we Americans have to heed the warnings and avoid a terrible judgment.
See Amazon for other book and DVD reviews by Johnine. Also see our web site at www.margaritestjohn.com.
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