We are delighted to welcome author Gillian M. Hanson to Omnimystery News.
Gillian's first entry in her Miss Danceforth series is Murder, That's What (Green Door Press; October 2014 trade paperback) and today she writes about mysteries set in Texas.
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One might not think of Texas as the ideal place to set a mystery novel, and if you haven't lived in Texas for a considerable amount of time or were not born here, that might be the case. To the uninitiated, Texas presents an image of wide open spaces, cattle roaming the plains, oil derricks dotting the landscape, and strong, friendly people. All of this is true, but within the bucolic scenery lies a history of violence and mayhem, from double crossings to murders, stunning in the variety of modi operandi. And this is just the beginning of the rich vein of source material for the writer of a Texas murder mystery novel to delve into.
There also exist in Texas, I would argue, perhaps the highest amount of eccentrics — true eccentrics — those who are blithely unaware that they are eccentric — than anywhere else in the United States. And where would one find all of this? you might ask. Well, not necessarily the large cities such as Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or even in the state capital of Austin which has its fair share of unusual people. No, the beautiful and bizarre, the unimaginable and unique, the absurd and abhorrent await you and your burgeoning Texas mystery novel in the small towns and communities that are set off of the major highways. Most of these places are small only in population, for the characters and historical events that lie beneath the surface of the day-to-day existence that goes on in and around them are larger than life.
How do I know this? When I came to Texas from England more than forty years ago, I knew very little, if anything, about the state. It wasn't until I had lived here for ten years that it finally began to grow on me. Up until then, I had assumed, like many people from the old country, that "English was best," especially when it came to the mystery genre. I read only mysteries set in Great Britain written by British authors. Then I began to rethink my ethnocentric assumptions and realized that English mystery writers might be very, very good, but Texas presented a far more interesting and diverse setting — historically, socially, and topographically — to draw on.
I decided to write a series of Texas mystery novels featuring Miss Gladys Danceforth and her business partner, Will Beckett, co-owners of the Danceforth Detective Agency in the little Texas community of Much Binding-in-the-Marsh. I am now writing the fourth book in this series and enjoying every minute of it.
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Murder, That's What by Gillian M. Hanson
A Miss Danceforth Mystery
Publisher: Green Door Press
Gladys Danceforth, a semi-retired English teacher, is ready for a little cerebral excitement, but she gets more than a double dose as she and her two companions are drawn into the case of the "bow and arrow murderer." Soon the three are on the chase for a deranged serial killer who has a penchant for dressing up as literary and historical figures. They race through pastoral scenery to a variety of small, east Texas towns, each with its own colorful, sometimes sinister, history.
Under the guidance of the resolute Miss Danceforth, whose extraordinary perceptions, wealth of lore and literature, not to mention culinary interests, are intriguing and impressive, the trio catches up with the killer, but not before a fair share of thrilling adventures and dangerously close calls.
Rhyming clues, recipes, and ribald humor come together as events unfold and lead to the astonishing denouement.
— Murder, That's What by Gillian M. Hanson
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