We are delighted to welcome back author Lily Gardner to Omnimystery News today.
Last month Lily provided us with an excerpt from her new Lennox Cooper mystery Betting Blind (Diversion Books; March 2016 trade paperback, audiobook and ebook formats) and recently we had the opportunity to catch up with her to talk more about the series.
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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about Lennox Cooper. What is it about her that appeals to you as a writer?
Photo provided courtesy of
Lily Gardner
Lily Gardner: Lennox Cooper is a 39 year old former cop, single and childless. At times any or all of these facts bother her. Lennox lives alone, with her investigative office in the back bedroom of her house. This continues to be a problem as the bad guys can always find her when they want to. Her friends urge her to rent an office downtown. Her mother, who could fund said office, urges her to get out of the PI business and go into teaching.
Lennox is small, but tough as hell and no one to mess with. All her friends are male and work in law enforcement. Every Friday they play poker at the Shanty, a cop bar walking distance from Lennox's house.
Why am I so intrigued with Lennox? It all boils down to I'm a wimp dreaming of a tough girl detective. What would it be like to stand up to threats, to face conflict at every turn? I admire her willingness to pursue a goal regardless of the lack of respect or even danger that she encounters. And I'm intrigued with a woman who lives and works in the world of men.
OMN: How has she developed over the course of the series?
LG: It's my hope that Lennox changes from book to book. Maybe the change is subtle. In Betting Blind, Lennox is making a serious attempt to date nice, single, non-felons. And that's progress. Although she still blames herself for her partner's death, she is beginning to heal. Her judgment is shifting from the bad-guy, good-guy cop mentality to something more nuanced. With luck, she'll rent an office and get an unlisted phone number.
OMN: How true are you to the setting of the series?
LG: My stories take place in Portland, Oregon. And maybe I exaggerate how often it rains, although after this last winter, I don't think so. I use a lot of Portland neighborhoods and landmarks, but I do take liberty with their interiors. The Shanty has never been a cop bar, nor does it have a back room for poker. In Betting Blind, Powell's City of Books is just as stated, as is Forest Park, the Silicon Forest, the Cup and Saucer, Felony Flats, the Bijou, PIR, and the Esplanade.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
LG: I read everything as a child. It's all I ever wanted to do even into my twenties. When I was twenty-two I was hired to manage Downtown Book, a large independent bookstore in Duluth, Minnesota. I had the extreme good luck of having an unlimited book allowance, and I admit I was a greedy devil.
But back to my childhood: I read Trixie Beldon, a pre-teen sleuth deep in the suburbs, followed by Nancy Drew. I recently revisited a couple of Nancy Drew mysteries and remembered my experience. The most intriguing part of the mystery was the title: The Hidden Staircase, The Secret of the Old Clock, The Whispering Statue. Basically, Nancy led the mundane life of a popular girl, investigating the mystery only after she finished her homework and helped with dishes. The meaning of the title was revealed in the last couple pages. But who's a critic when they're in grade school?
I dropped the mystery genre until I was in my early twenties and taking a break from Virginia Woolf. I read Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh and Arthur Conan Doyle. And then I discovered the Master: Raymond Chandler. It's been hard-boiled mystery from then on.
OMN: Suppose your books were to be adapted for television or film. Who do you see playing the lead?
LG: Kate Mara would inhabit my detective with the fierceness that Lennox possesses. It's true, Kate is a little younger than my character, but she's small and formidable. I've enjoyed her roles in Transsiberian, American Horror Story and House of Cards. Like Lennox, she's edgy and tough.
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Lily Gardner grew up in Minneapolis longing to be blonde and live in California surfing and writing poetry. Over the years her tastes changed: California became Oregon and poetry became mysteries. She learned to embrace her brunette self. Lily loves all things noir, fermentation, Motown, opera, movies and short-legged dogs.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at LilyGardner.net and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Betting Blind by Lily Gardner
A Lennox Cooper Mystery
Publisher: Diversion Books
For Lennox Cooper, helping out a friend means gambling with her life …
In the rainy city of Portland, Matilda Bauer has been blackmailing her parole officer, Fulin Chen. Just when Fulin's ready to come clean, Matilda disappears. Bad news for Fulin, because once Matilda is arrested for breaking parole she'll show the photos she has on him and end his career. Fulin turns to his longtime friend and poker buddy, Lennox Cooper, P.I., to help him find the beautiful blonde con-woman.
A former cop, Lennox knows how it feels to live and breathe the police life — and to be thrown out of it. She'll do anything to help her friend avoid a similar fate. But three days later Lennox finds Matilda dead, in what looks like a sex game gone terribly wrong. Fulin Chen is the lead suspect. Lennox's search for Matilda, however, causes her to begin turning over rocks, finding that her past lies under many of them — not to mention deadly threats. Matilda Bauer had no shortage of enemies, though, and Lennox will have to sift through the many blackmail victims and jilted lovers to find the real killer.
— Betting Blind by Lily Gardner. Click here to take a Look Inside the book.
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