Interview with Author Cathi Stoler

 

Cathi Stoler is an Amazon Best Selling author and Derringer winner. She has written Nick Of Time and Out Of Time, in the Nick Donahue Adventures and Bar None, Last Call, The Silver Falchion finalist Best Suspense Novel 2020, Straight Up, and With A Twist, in the Murder On the Rocks Series, as well as The Laurel and Helen NY Mysteries, plus multiple short stories. She is a board member of SinC, and a member of MWA. and ITW. You can find her at www.cathistoler.com or email her at cathi@cathistoler.com.

Question: What is the title and genre of your novel?  Why did you select them? 

Answer: NICK OF TIME A Nick Donahue Adventure is a fast-paced mystery/suspense story. I’d been writing stories with female protagonists, and I felt it was time for a change, creating a male protagonist as my main character. And I knew I had to make him special enough to stand out in a crowded suspense field.

Question:   What inspired this novel? How did it come about? 

Answer: We were on vacation in Venice and trying out luck at one of the casinos. The people at the high-stakes Blackjack tables were far more dressed up than the people who frequented the casinos in the states. Most of the men wore tuxedos and looked very James Bondish. That gave me the idea to mix some of the elegance and confidence I was witnessing into a smart, sexy, and successful professional Blackjack player and Nick Donahue emerged. I could almost hear him saying “Donahue. Nick Donahue,” when introducing himself.

Question:  Could you tell us a little bit about the heroine and/or hero of your novel? 

Answer: Nick Donahue is very successful as a professional Blackjack player and travels the world playing the game. In NICK OF TIME, his tendency to take risks in life as well as in gambling, is almost his undoing. When he helps a beautiful woman, Marina DiPietro who is in danger, he’s nearly killed. Marina manages to save him, and he is immediately enmeshed in another heart-pounding situation coming to the aid of his younger brother, Alex, who works for the world’s largest Swiss bank who has double-crossed the New York Mob.

Question:   Can you tell us about some of your other published novels or work?

Answer: My latest series is the four-volume mystery/suspense Murder On The Rocks Mysteries, BAR NONE, LAST CALL, STRAIGHT UP, and WITH A TWIST. They feature Jude Dillane, owner of The Corner Lounge on Tenth Street and Avenue B on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. I’ve also written the three-volume Laurel and Helen New York Mysteries, KEEPING SECRETS, TELLING LIES, and THE HARD WAY. I’ve also written several short stories and am a three-time finalist, and winner of the Derringer for Best Short Story.

Question:   What are you working on now? 

Answer: I’m working on the edits for the rerelease of book two in The Nick Donahue Adventures, OUT OF TIME, as well as book three, NO GOOD TIME, and a psychological thriller, HEAR NO EVIL.

Question:   What made you start writing? 

Answer: I’ve always loved reading, especially mysteries and spy thrillers and hoped that one day I would write one. After many years as an advertising copywriter/creative director, I decided to channel my writing abilities into writing a novel, which had always been at the back of my mind. Of course, I chose the mystery crime fiction genre which is my favorite. 

Question:   What advice would you offer to those who are currently writing novels?

Answer: The actual writing is not easy, but it’s not as hard as what comes next: revisions, the search for an agent, an editor, and a publisher for your final manuscript. It can take years to achieve this goal. So don’t be discouraged. And, know you are not alone. Joining a group such as Sisters in Crime, or Mystery Writers of America, gives you access to other writers and experts who share their knowledge and expertise through meetings, readings, panel discussions, and more. 

Question:  Where and when will readers be able to obtain your novel? 

Answer: 

Amazon

https://amzn.to/3MpColu

Barnes & Noble

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nick-of-time-cathi-stoler/1117616743?ean=9781685123567

Kobo

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/nick-of-time-28

Apple

https://books.apple.com/us/book/nickoftime 

Questions and/or comments for Cathi appreciated here.

 

ROMAN FORENSICS by June Trop

 

 

Guest Blog: June Trop, author of The Deadliest Deceptions. (Level Best Books, 2023).

As the author of the Miriam bat Isaac Mystery Series set in first-century CE Roman Alexandria, I regularly research criminal investigative techniques used in ancient times. In writing my latest book, The Deadliest Deceptions, a collection of short mysteries ranging from cozy to noir, I found myself focusing on Roman forensics.

The term forensics—from the Latin word forum because the Romans presented their charges in a public square—became widely used during the second half of the 19^th century. That’s when new techniques in toxicology, fingerprint analysis, and ballistics were used in response to cases like Jack the Ripper in England and the Parker-Webster murder case in the United States. While the Romans did not use the term forensics or know about fingerprints and DNA, some historical examples show they used bloody prints, dental characteristics, and pattern recognition marks to identify the villain.

Perhaps the most famous case based on bloody prints was “The Wall of Handprints”, in which a blind son was accused of killing his father for his inheritance. The prosecution argued that the father was asleep with his wife, his son’s stepmother, when his son stabbed him to death. Furthermore, he argued that the father died instantly without awakening his wife and that the son left an intermittent trail of bloody handprints on the wall from their room back to his own.

The defense attorney claimed that it was the stepmother who killed her husband. Upset that she would lose the inheritance, she framed her stepson. The lawyer successfully argued that the son, being blind, would not have left intermittent prints. Rather he would have dragged his hand along the wall. So, despite their lack of knowledge about the components of blood, the Romans used its prints to reconstruct the crime.

Julia Agrippina, aka Agrippina the Younger, used dental characteristics to confirm that her rival Lollia Paulina was dead. Paulina was Caligula’s beautiful and wealthy third wife. After Caligula’s death, the new emperor, Claudius, began to court her but nevertheless had an interest in Agrippina. To eliminate Paulina, Agrippina accused her rival of witchcraft, had her exiled from Italy, and forced her to commit suicide. To confirm her death, Agrippina asked for Paulina’s head and inspected the teeth herself. She must have been satisfied because she did not have anyone else killed for five more years.

Pattern recognition marks convinced the Roman emperor Tiberius that a murder not suicide had been committed. He saw drag marks and other signs of a struggle to contradict the husband’s claim that his wife had jumped out the window while he was sound asleep. Tiberius referred the matter to the Senate, but alas, the husband opened his veins instead.

Roman forensics may date back thousand years, but even modern evidence from bloody prints, dental characteristics, and pattern recognition marks can be wrongfully interpreted. Just not in my stories. You can depend on Miriam bat Isaac and her assistants to look at bloody prints, dental characteristics, and pattern recognition marks to assess a crime correctly—at least most of the time.

 

Comments for June welcome here!