The Suburbs Have Secrets--Thanks Mom!
When I was a pre-teen and still dreaming about becoming a
published author, my mother used to suggest I write a story like Peyton Place.
For those of you too young to know what I’m talking about, Peyton Place was a
blockbuster book about small town scandals and secrets that later became a TV
series. It was the 1960s version of Desperate Housewives and Pretty Little
Liars. My mother loved the idea of a novel about a fictionalized version of our
street where everyone had some kind of dirty little secret.
Flash forward a couple years, and Murder She Wrote became a
Sunday night staple in our home. Once again, my mom – who we discovered was a
savant when it came to solving crimes before Jessica Fletcher – suggested that
I write a small town mystery story where
everyone had secrets.
Interestingly, she never thought of writing the story
herself. She only thought I should write one. Apparently, I was to be the
conduit for her imagination. But, that’s an issue for another day (and maybe a
little therapy).
Getting back to the mystery -- my mom continued hanging on
to this idea, long after Jessica Fletcher solved her last case. By this point,
I’d become a successful romance writer, and she was using her crime solving
skills to help Lenny Briscoe on Law and Order, but that didn’t matter. She
would still ask if I ever thought about writing a mystery.
Well, Mom, guess what? I was
thinking about it. The character of Sadie McIntyre had been living in my head
for years, just waiting for a crime plot to come along and inspire her. That
plot became The Suburbs Have Secrets.
The book is my very own Desperate Housewives/Murder She
Wrote mash up in which the residents of Woodbridge, Massachusetts are all
hiding secrets from one another. When an acquaintance is found dead from
mysterious circumstances, Sadie realizes someone in town is willing to kill to
keep his or her secret buried. Will Sadie unmask the killer before her own
secret is revealed?
Or will the killer get her first?
I’m pretty sure Mom would have liked it.
The Suburbs Have Secrets is available on Amazon for $3.99 or
on Kindle Unlimited. http://amzn.to/2AlSJVF Look for it on other book channels in late
December.
Visit Barbara Wallace’s website: www.barbarawallace.com
Follow Barbara Wallace on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BarbaraWallaceAuthor/
Comments