Marilyn's Musings

When I wrote Final Respects I had no idea it would be the first of the long running Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series. If I had, I might have done things differently--or maybe not. It's a tale incorporating the murder of a much loved police officer, a disturbed man wanting revenge, a mortuary, and much, much more. When writing this book, I fell in love with the characters and wanted to know what happened to them next. Hence came Bad Tidings, then the next one and the next. Since it takes about a year to write a book, and sometimes longer to get it published, more time went by in real life than in the series. Major changes happen--at first there are no cell phone or internet and technology develops, making some major changes in our lives and eventually in the lives of the police officers I write about. Because of the fact, the department is woefully undermanned and underfunded--especially in the later books, RBPD must rely on others for help like the coroner and forensics. I am happy ...

Even though I heard people say they didn't want to read any books that had the pandemic in it, I didn't see how I could write the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery without including it. The series unfolds in real time--my real time, at least--and ignoring what has been going on in the world didn't seem logical. Yes, I think it has affected sales of the book--but I'm happy with how it turned out, and it's received some great reviews. The biggest part of the research I did involved my police officer grandson. I asked about the cops wearing face mask in his department, and how they handled the threat of rioters coming into town. I also had to do some research about homes in the foothills of Santa Barbara.  Some other part of this story came from notes I'd taken when a police chief spoke to our Sisters in Crime group. I've included one of the reviews: 5 Stars:  Things get rather rocky for the Rocky Bluff Police Department as they deal with all sorts of problems from...

This is number 4 in the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series. This one is also darker than later books. Much of the bad stuff that happens is based on real crimes--but of course fictionalized. But this is also the beginning of the romance between Detective Milligan and Stacey Wilbur.  The idea for this book and the title came from my cop son-in-law pointing out to me what is left out of most mysteries, TV shows and movies is the smell of death. That has now become more realistic, but at the time I was writing Smell of Death  it was usually absent. One place in this book that is not visited before is the campground on the southern outskirts of Rocky Bluff, and it plays an important part in one of the plot lines. And as always, there is as much about the family lives of the characters as the cases that are being investigated. The reason I'm writing these snapshots of the new revised and edited versions of this series out of order, is because this is the orde...

This could easily be a neighborhood in Rocky Bluff, California as it climbs the hillside. No two houses alike. In this photo, the sky is blue, what fog there was in the early morning has burnt off b the sun. What a pleasant place to live. That is until the body comes ashore in the surf. Yes, that's how Murder in the Worst Degree begins. The pub date for the book is March of 2014, but I'll be dropping little hints about it right here on my blog between book reviews and guest author posts. Stay tuned. And if you haven't read the latest yet, Dangerous Impulses , be sure and get it an catch up with what's going on with the Rocky Bluff P.D. and their loved ones. http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Impulses-Rocky-Bluff-Volume/dp/1610090608/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1386254600&sr=1-1 Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith