About the book (provided by I Read Tours)
Question: What do you get the man with everything?
Answer: When that man is the heir of the late mystery writer Robin Spencer, retired homicide detective Mac Faraday, you get him cold case to solve.
In Shades of Murder, Mac Faraday is once again the heir to an unbelievable fortune. This time the benefactor is a stolen art collector. But this isn’t just any stolen work-of-art—it’s a masterpiece with a murder attached to it.
Ilysa Ramsay was in the midst of taking the art world by storm with her artistic genius. Hours after unveiling her latest masterpiece—she is found dead in her Deep Creek Lake studio—and her painting is nowhere to be found.
Almost a decade later, the long lost Ilysa Ramsay masterpiece has found its way into Mac Faraday’s hands and he can’t resist the urge to delve into the case.
A world away, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; former JAG lawyer Joshua Thornton agrees to do a favor for the last person he would ever expect to do a favor—a convicted serial killer.
The Favor: Solve the one murder wrongly attributed to him.
Joshua finds an unexpected ally in Cameron Gates, a spunky detective who has reason to believe the young woman known to the media only as Jane Doe, Victim Number Four, was the victim of a copycat. Together, Joshua and Cameron set out to light a flame under the cold case only to find that someone behind the scenes wants the case to remain cold, and is willing to kill to keep it that way.
Little do these detectives know that the paths of their respective cases are on a collision course when they follow the clues to bring them together in a showdown with a killer who’s got a talent for murder!
Answer: When that man is the heir of the late mystery writer Robin Spencer, retired homicide detective Mac Faraday, you get him cold case to solve.
In Shades of Murder, Mac Faraday is once again the heir to an unbelievable fortune. This time the benefactor is a stolen art collector. But this isn’t just any stolen work-of-art—it’s a masterpiece with a murder attached to it.
Ilysa Ramsay was in the midst of taking the art world by storm with her artistic genius. Hours after unveiling her latest masterpiece—she is found dead in her Deep Creek Lake studio—and her painting is nowhere to be found.
Almost a decade later, the long lost Ilysa Ramsay masterpiece has found its way into Mac Faraday’s hands and he can’t resist the urge to delve into the case.
A world away, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; former JAG lawyer Joshua Thornton agrees to do a favor for the last person he would ever expect to do a favor—a convicted serial killer.
The Favor: Solve the one murder wrongly attributed to him.
Joshua finds an unexpected ally in Cameron Gates, a spunky detective who has reason to believe the young woman known to the media only as Jane Doe, Victim Number Four, was the victim of a copycat. Together, Joshua and Cameron set out to light a flame under the cold case only to find that someone behind the scenes wants the case to remain cold, and is willing to kill to keep it that way.
Little do these detectives know that the paths of their respective cases are on a collision course when they follow the clues to bring them together in a showdown with a killer who’s got a talent for murder!
And I thought
Lauren just seems to do it over and over. And I seem to enjoy each installment in all of her series more and more.
Shades Of Murder book 3 in the Mac Faraday series was no
exception.
From page 1 this reader is drawn in. When I read one of Lauren's books I am so absorbed nothing else seems to get down. I hate
putting the book down even for a few minutes.
What I really liked about Shades of Murder was the cross-over.
Joshua Thornton and Cameron from the Lovers in Crime series
end up working with Mac and his gang when two different murders happen that are tied together.
I was fun reading book 3 and seeing the relationships in the their beginnings. Mac and Joshua are both in the early stages of their own romances. The two men begin asking each other questions and comparing notes on romancing their women.
Mac's half brother David and officer Bogie of the Spencer police department are all apart of the race to find the criminals before
someone else turns up dead.
And of course Mac's inherited dog Gnarly is a Big main character.
He's a big kind of bumbling at times German Shepherd that gets into trouble from his own little escapades like not allowing delivery people to drive up the road to Mac's house until they give him a dog biscuit! But Gnarly is always a hero defending his master and home when bad guys try to sneak in.
Lauren Carr's Mac Faraday series along with the Lovers In Crime
Series and Thorny Rose Series are great reads. Check them out.
Shades Of Murder book 3 in the Mac Faraday series was no
exception.
From page 1 this reader is drawn in. When I read one of Lauren's books I am so absorbed nothing else seems to get down. I hate
putting the book down even for a few minutes.
What I really liked about Shades of Murder was the cross-over.
Joshua Thornton and Cameron from the Lovers in Crime series
end up working with Mac and his gang when two different murders happen that are tied together.
I was fun reading book 3 and seeing the relationships in the their beginnings. Mac and Joshua are both in the early stages of their own romances. The two men begin asking each other questions and comparing notes on romancing their women.
Mac's half brother David and officer Bogie of the Spencer police department are all apart of the race to find the criminals before
someone else turns up dead.
And of course Mac's inherited dog Gnarly is a Big main character.
He's a big kind of bumbling at times German Shepherd that gets into trouble from his own little escapades like not allowing delivery people to drive up the road to Mac's house until they give him a dog biscuit! But Gnarly is always a hero defending his master and home when bad guys try to sneak in.
Lauren Carr's Mac Faraday series along with the Lovers In Crime
Series and Thorny Rose Series are great reads. Check them out.
An Interview with Lauren
3. What's the one (or two) book/movie/show in the last 5 years that made you say, "I wish I'd written that."?
4. Is there a genre that you particularly enjoy reading, but could never write? Or are you primarily a mystery/suspense/thriller reader?
1.
What would be useful to new readers to know before
picking up one of Lauren Carr’s mysteries?
They’re addictive. At least, that’s what readers tell me. I
know I’m addicted to writing them.
Also, and most importantly, even though I write three murder
mystery series, in which characters cross over into each other’s series, each
installment is written as a stand alone. So readers don’t have to worry about
being lost if they pick up a later installment of a Mac Faraday mystery.
There’s no series arc that forces readers to read each installment in order.
It’s all good.
2. There's an underlying humor running through your murder
mysteries. What led you to inject humor into what many would view as a very
serious subject matter?
Because where would we all be without humor? Studies have
proven that people with a sense of humor are healthier and happier. Life is
much too serious and I’ve noticed that entertainment—movies and books—have
gotten much too dark. That’s one of the reasons that I started writing my own
murder mysteries. I couldn’t find good challenging murder mysteries to read
that weren’t so dark and heavy that I ended up depressed at the end. When a
reader picks up a murder mystery written by Lauren Carr, I want them to be
challenged to figure out who done it, and to smile and feel good when they
reach “the end.”
3. What's the one (or two) book/movie/show in the last 5 years that made you say, "I wish I'd written that."?
Now You See Me. The twists and turns in this movie left me
breathless. I saw none of it coming. I guess you can tell that I love
unexpected twists and turns. Love roller coasters, too.
4. Is there a genre that you particularly enjoy reading, but could never write? Or are you primarily a mystery/suspense/thriller reader?
I am primarily a murder mystery
writer and reader. I always have been and I love murder mysteries. When I was a
child reading the Bobbsey Twins, I would turn the mystery of the missing sea
shell into a kidnapping story.
5. This many books into a series, is it easier or more
difficult to keep going? What challenges are you finding doing this that you
didn't expect?
So far, the difficulty is in keeping up with the various
directions that the characters themselves want to go. I am always one book
ahead in my mind. So, while writing a book, I have a very good idea what
direction that I will be taking my characters further down the road.
For example, right now I am writing Twofer Murder, which is a mystery novel that includes all of my
series characters. Keeping in mind my plot for the next Mac Faraday Mystery, I
am able to plant seeds for that installment and even the Lovers in Crime and
Thorny Rose mysteries that will be following the next book. These droppings
aren’t necessary clues—rather, they are Easter eggs that will make faithful
readers go, “Ahh, I remember Mac saying something about that back in Twofer Murder.”
However, I insist on writing each of my mysteries as stand
alones, even if they are part of a series. So, those readers who don’t pick up Twofer Murder aren’t going to be lost
because they haven’t read it.
The biggest challenge, I have found is characters. I fight
to keep my characters diverse and interesting. Readers may find this hard to
believe, but I look for characters. I’m a people watcher and I’m always on the
lookout for unique personalities who have depth.
There are characters in my books who
everyone loves. But then, sometimes I will introduce a new character who I find
unique and different who some readers object to. This happened with Cameron
Gates in the Lovers in Crime mysteries. Some readers loved her. Others didn’t.
The same thing is happening now with Dallas Walker in the Mac Faraday
mysteries. She appears to be a love her or hate her character with nothing in
between.
Which goes to prove the fact of life—you can’t make everyone
love you.
Giveaway
