with Amy Korman
We are delighted to welcome author Amy Korman to Omnimystery News today, courtesy of Great Escapes Book Tours, which is coordinating her current book tour. We encourage you to visit all of the participating host sites; you can find her schedule here.
Amy's second mystery in her "Killer WASPs" series is Killer Getaway (Witness Impulse; April 2015 trade paperback and March 2015 ebook formats) and we had the opportunity to spend some time with her talking about it.
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to the Killer WASPs.
Photo provided courtesy of
Amy Korman
Amy Korman: The main character in the Killer WASPs series is Kristin Clark, who runs a small antique store outside of Philadelphia, which doesn't see a lot of foot traffic, so Kristin is barely making ends meet. She's not much of a businesswoman, but Kristin loves her shop, especially because it enables her to take her Basset hound Waffles to work every day.
Kristin gets dragged into helping to solve crimes by her energetic friend Bootsie McElvoy, a newspaper reporter and inveterate snoop, who knows everyone in their small town, and their partners in crime-solving are Joe Delafield, a decorator who knows everyone in town, and Holly Jones, a fashionista and heiress. They've all known each other since high school, so their close friendship was fun to write about.
I love Agatha Christie-style village mysteries, and in Killer Getaway, the second book in the series, Kristin and her friends relocate for a week to sunny Magnolia Beach, Florida, when Holly rents a house there to escape a freezing Philly winter. However, just as the Killer WASPs experienced at home, everyone in Magnolia Beach has secrets, squabbles, and agendas … and, of course, one character will literally kill to one-up a former friend. There's also an angry celebrity chef who's out to ruin his ex-girlfriend's restaurant, and two brothers at odds over a new beachfront condo development. The book is a fun escape to a warm, sunny town that's hiding a few criminals among the palm trees and chic restaurants.
OMN: Have the characters changed any since being introduced in Killer WASPs?
AK: In Killer Getaway, the character of Bootsie takes her nosiness to a new level. She bribes a pizza delivery guy for information, wheedles her way into the town zoning office pretending to be a local lawyer's personal assistant, and steals a housekeeping uniform to ransack a fancy hotel suite. So while Bootsie's innate relentlessness hasn't really changed, it's out of control.
Another Killer WASPs character who joins the group in Magnolia Beach in the second book is Joe's girlfriend, Sophie, who was married to a former Mafia "businessman." Sophie is fun to develop over time, because she's loyal and up for any adventure! She's tiny but fearless, and she has a soft spot for Kristin's dog Waffles, so Kristin loves her.
Chef Gianni, the attention-seeking restaurateur from the first book in the series, also shows up in Killer Getaway, and this time, he's getting his own TV show! His tattoos and tantrums are paying off.
OMN: Into which mystery genre would you place this series?
AK: Killer WASPs and Killer Getaway fit into the cozy mystery genre, but definitely are crime-lite! The characters are all in their 30s, and Kristin, who should be spending all her time running her struggling antique business, finds lots of free moments to snoop at local society events or escape on the road trip to Magnolia Beach when her friend Bootsie offers to drive her to Florida (in a harrowing 17-hour road trip). Bootsie is married, works full-time, and has two toddlers … but never seems to have to do any work, and takes off for vacation in Killer Getaway on a few hours' notice, leaving her husband in charge! That's fiction for you. While the group land in some scary situations and there's a real thread of mystery, there's definitely an element of chick-lit, escapist fun in the Killer WASPs series.
OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.
AK: I love to have a fairly detailed outline to map out where the Killer WASPs stories are headed! Sometimes there are detours along the way, and new characters work their way in. My favorite unexpected characters in Killer Getaway are Andy, a hapless pizza guy who's in the wrong place at the wrong time while delivering a meatball hoagie, and Brian, a zoning officer who's addicted to Tums and donuts and not getting a lot of time to enjoy the fantastic beaches of Florida.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?
AK: Definitely — we have a super-loyal, awesome, and friendly Basset hound, and I couldn't imagine the characters in Killer WASPs without having a Basset sidekick. Waffles, the Basset character, even makes the trip to Florida in Killer Getaway. I love antiquing and road trips like the character of Kristin — and like her, I'm not much of a cook. In Killer Getaway, the group gets to play miniature golf, hit a beachfront crab shack, and drink margaritas, all of which sound like a great day to me!
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Amy Korman is a former senior editor and staff writer for Philadelphia Magazine, and author of Frommer's Guide to Philadelphia. She has written for Town & Country, House Beautiful, Men's Health, and Cosmopolitan.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at AmyKorman.com or find her on Facebook.
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Killer Getaway
Amy Korman
A Killer WASPs Mystery
With a storm brewing in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the Killer WASPs head south to Palm Beach, Florida. And what could be better than fabulous friends, Lilly Pulitzer beachwear, frozen cocktails, and high-society drama?
Kristin Clark and her basset hound, Waffles, are ready to escape the doldrums of winter to bask in the warm Florida sun and dine at her friends' new restaurant, Vicino. But when a rival restaurant undergoes an HGTV makeover and attempts to steal Vicino's spotlight and its patrons, the town is abuzz with gossip, and Kristin and her friends — Bootsie, a nosy reporter; Holly, a chicken nugget heiress; and Sophie, the soon-to-be ex-wife of a mobster — have parties to attend.
Everything is going swimmingly in the glitz and glamour of Palm Beach until a bad batch of clams threatens to shut down Vicino and their vacation for good. When it becomes clear that the clams may be more than an innocent mishap, the ladies must unravel the mystery before there are deadly consequences.
