We are delighted to welcome mystery authors Rosemary and Larry Mild to Omnimystery News.
Rosemary and Larry's third mystery in their Dan and Rivka Sherman series is Death Steals a Holy Book (Magic Island Literary Works; July 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats) and the authors have a treat for us today, an interview with the characters!
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Photo provided courtesy of
Rosemary and Larry Mild
Rosemary: Rivka, I've heard you joke, "In my next life I'll get it right." I wondered what you meant by that.
Rivka, laughing: That's what I always say when I screw something up. It's how I comfort myself.
Rosemary: Gee, I wish I'd thought of that. Then here's a follow-up. If you could choose what you want in your next life, what would it be?
Rivka: Originally, I was going to ask for gorgeous legs. But then I figured maybe I'd get the legs, but for the sin of vanity I'd be punished and get the face of the Wicked Witch of the West. So I revised my requests. I want two things: I want Dan and I want to be a fast reader. You see, when I was fourteen at camp, a girl in my cabin had a paperback called The Amboy Dukes — sexy hoodlums in New Jersey. We all gathered round her to read it. I was a slow reader (and still am). I only got to read the top half of each page.
Larry: Dan, now that you're the owners of The Olde Victorian Bookstore in Annapolis, how well do you and Rivka get along, spending twenty-four hours a day together?
Dan: We get along just fine, as long as she doesn't try to smother me. She just looked at my hair, and I know what she's thinking — that it's decorating the back of my neck. Sure, I need haircut, big time, badly, but I figure I'll wait another two weeks just to bug her. A guy has to have some independence, doesn't he? By the way, this is good coffee. Hey, Rivvie, get your own cup. Does it always have to be mine?
Rosemary: I have more in the pot. Want some, Rivka?
Rivka: "Oh, no thank you. I just wanted an infinitesimal sip."
Dan: Don't pay her any attention. She does that to me all the time. We're at a restaurant. "No dessert for me!" I'm usually lucky to get three bites of my cheesecake or whatever.
Larry: Dan, when Rivka got kidnapped, what was your first reaction?
Dan: After I called the police and FBI, and delivered the stuff to the drop that SOB ordered me to do, I was back at the bookstore manning the register. The store was teeming with customers and normally I'd have been crazy pleased. But at that moment I had a sense of total cold terror. The idea that I could lose Rivvie … and what she must have been going through. What did success mean now? Nothing, except how do I get her back and safely?
Rosemary: Rivka, I know you tried to escape. What were some of your thoughts?
Rivka: I kept asking myself: What can I do that I'm not doing? Then I prayed. Maybe this will sound silly to you, but I prayed out loud, when Emil was out of the car. I said: Please, God, if you help me escape I'll never ask you for another thing. And I promise not to argue with Dan so much. I'll be nicer. I'll eat a piece of chocolate before opening my mouth. And I'll never again snitch blueberry muffins during Yom Kippur fast.
Larry: Dan, any regrets on leaving your engineering career?
Dan: None whatsoever. I'm still thinking and acting like an engineer and, of course, I have my whydon'tchas to keep my mind technically busy when I'm not selling books.
Larry: Whydon'tchas?
Dan: They're handy little gadgets I'd like to invent that I believe the whole world definitely needs. I'm constantly thinking of these things and not doing anything about them.
Rivka: So whydon'tcha do something about them?
Dan: See what I mean?
Larry: Dan, did becoming a bookseller bring any real surprises with it?
Dan: Sure did. We discovered we're more than just booksellers. We've fallen into a sideline as reluctant sleuths, and the way we talk things out we make a pretty good team. We've tracked down some stolen printing relics. We helped our English clerk, Ivy, search for the man who murdered her mother. We recovered a missing rare Yiddish volume and donated it to a museum. All in all, we've helped put away some really bad guys.
Larry: You say you're a pretty good team. To what do you attribute that?
Dan: It begins with our solid marriage. We complement each other's skill sets. We're crackerjacks at crossword puzzles — we work 'em together at the kitchen table. Besides, she still laughs at my jokes.
Rosemary: Do you really?
Rivka: Oh, yes. I think it keeps our marriage happy. On our first date, during dinner he made a pun and I asked him, "Do you pun in your sleep?" He said, "Absolutely. I was born in the thirteenth year of the Zaniac." I fell in love at that very moment. By the way, Dan, you've got a blob of grape jelly on your T-shirt.
Dan: Of course. My T-shirts need feeding three times a day to keep them alive.
Rosemary: I heard one of you mention Lord Byron. Did you mean the poet?
Rivka: Nope. He's our coal-black watch-cat. He came with the bookstore.
Rosemary: How did he get such a charming name?
Dan: He was spending so much time high up in the poetry stacks where he could watch over the entire store that we thought Lord Byron was an appropriate moniker. Rivvie has His Lordship sleeping in a basket with a tartan plaid cushion.
Rivka: Hey, Dan, did anybody feed Lord Byron today?
Dan: "Anybody" meaning me, of course. He must have been really hungry. His Royal Highness kept winding though my feet until I thought I'd fall over him. He sure is one persistent cat. I cleaned out the box, too, and put in fresh litter.
Rivka: You're such a pushover, dear. You shouldn't let him intimidate you so.
Dan: Look who's talking. Who bought him the Cadillac of scratching posts? And who feeds him gourmet cat food with salmon and turkey in it? I think our own dinners cost less.
Rivka: Not quite, but he's worth it. Remember three years ago? He bit the intruder on the ankle and the blood on the carpet helped the police.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, how could I forget? The burglar turned out to be the killer. It seems like a century ago.
Larry: Anybody up for dinner with Rosemary and me? Our treat. Ribs? Chinese? Greek? Italian?
Dan and Rivka in unison: YES!
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Rosemary and Larry Mild are cheerful partners in crime. They coauthor the Dan and Rivka Sherman Mysteries and the Paco and Molly Mysteries. In 2013 they moved from Severna Park, Maryland to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they are close (but not too close) to their delightful children and grandchildren. They're members of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, both the Chesapeake and Hawaii chapters.
For more information about the author, please visit their website at Magicile.com.
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Death Steals a Holy Book by Rosemary and Larry Mild
A Dan and Rivka Sherman Mystery
Publisher: Magic Island Literary Works
Reluctant sleuths Dan and Rivka Sherman yearn for a tranquil life as owners of The Olde Victorian Bookstore in Annapolis, Maryland. But when they inherit a rare, ancient volume, they find themselves embroiled in a firestorm of deceit, thievery, and violence.
Israel Finestein, renowned restorer of old books in Baltimore, has just finished his work on the Menorat ha-maor, The Candestick of Light. His life is brutally snuffed out and the book disappears. What makes this text so valuable that someone is compelled to kill for it?
Two Baltimore detectives uncover a puzzling number of suspects. Is it the controversial woman whom Israel plans to marry? The rare book agent who overextended himself in the stock market? Israel's busybody cousins who resent his changed lifestyle? Or the wayward lad who thinks a gun is the way to big bucks?
— Death Steals a Holy Book by Rosemary and Larry Mild
