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Guest Post

Romance & Murder | Erin McCarthy

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I love a good mystery. And I love a good romance. So as you can imagine, I truly adore a romantic mystery. What’s not to love? You get the unfolding mystery of a whodunit perfectly meshed with the tension of the growing attraction between the hero and heroine.

As a child, I loved shows like Moonlighting and Remington Steele. These shows were a perfect combination of solving the weekly mystery, while giving me just tidbits of the developing romance between the main characters.

This love influenced my reading choices. I read books like Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. And I eventually found current authors who also handled mystery and romance brilliantly. Authors like J.D. Robb and Janet Evanovich. I’ve even found current romance authors who deliver the gothic mystery and romance I love so much. Authors like Eve Silver and Erica Ridley.

From the gothics, I discovered I also loved a paranormal aspect to my romantic mysteries. Shows like The Originals with mystery, romance and vampires. Awesome! Even Twin Peaks, with its twisted mystery, strange romances and paranormal elements drew me right in.

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Guest Post

Erin McCarthy’s 80s Influences | Silence of the Ghost

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Hello, and thanks for having me at Ever After! When asked the question, “What romance movies and books influenced you?” I immediately three of three in particular from the late eighties.

  1. Nora Roberts’ HOT ICE. I read this book around sixteen years old and I loved the witty dialogue between Doug and Whitney. It had action and adventure and lots of sexual tension interspersed with snarky comments. For me it was a huge and refreshing departure from the gushy-gush.
  2. Moonlighting. This TV show was something I actually watched with my mom and we giggled our way through the whole series back in the day. Watching the byplay between the two leads was amazing. Such great comedic chemistry.
  3. Romancing the Stone. Are you seeing a theme here? I LOVE when a hero and heroine can meet each other on an intellectual level and out-wit each other.

While I love a good romance that features tons of angst, my first love is actually a good mystery paired with a dynamic duo who is working to solve the case, or escape the bad guys, or rescue a friend.

My new release SILENCE OF THE GHOST is book two in my Murder By Design series, and Bailey Burke is both a home stager and a spiritual medium. Yep, she sees dead people. In this book her relationship with sexy cop Marner heats up as they try to solve a new series of murders based on the infamous 1930s Torso Murders.

I hope you’ll enjoy the banter!

Cheers,

Erin

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Exclusive Excerpt

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: Gone with the Ghost by Erin McCarthy

Two things I was obsessed with as a kid- ghosts and murder mysteries. Yes, I was a weird child. Yes, my mother debated therapy for me at one point given my active imagination and macabre hobbies, but she decided to trust her gut and let it play out. Now she’s happy to know I’m not a psychopath, I’m just a writer. Starting a new series and branching into mystery from romance was an easy leap for me. I always loved adding an element of mystery to my romance novels and I’ve been a mystery reader since childhood.

When my daughter was a baby and I had zero money, I went to the library three or four times a week and eventually checked out every Agatha Christie book they had (close to 60, I would guess) and then worked my way through all their cozy mysteries. If it had a kitten or a cupcake on the cover, I was all over it! So when the opportunity came along to create a mystery series, my heroine Bailey popped into my head immediately. An amateur sleuth with a love for fashion and HGTV yet who grows intrigued by mayhem and murder? Very close to my heart. While I’ve always been fascinated by ghost stories, I honestly am not even sure where the idea for the ghostly sidekick came from. Suddenly Ryan was there talking and the first book just about wrote itself.

If your best friend came back as a ghost, what would be the first thing you would do with them?

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