Thursday, June 15, 2017

Shades Of Murder by Lauren Carr-Review-Now on Audio-Giveaway-Author Interview

Shades of Murder Audiobook


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!

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.



Available
An Interview with Lauren
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.




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1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much, Sherry! So glad you enjoyed SHADES OF MURDER and I'm certain your followers will enjoy it as well. Here's wishing each of your followers luck in the giveawy for the $100 Amazon gift card!

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