Murder is Academic by Lesley A. Diehl Giveaway & Interview

Murder is Academic
by Lesley A. Diehl

I enjoyed the book….Well written, will keep you guessing…
~rantin’ ravin and reading

Lesley keeps you hooked from the start. From the murder until finding out who did it, you are on the edge of your seat.
~Shelley’s Book Case

I love a good mystery and this was no exception. It was light and fun …
~The Book Junkie

Diehl writes with wit and an eye for detail and creates believable characters that I would want to hang out with.
~Bea’s Book Nook

I laughed out loud so many times while reading. I couldn’t wait to find out who did what and why. I was eager to read the next page and the next, and so on. That’s why I’d recommend this book to anyone. Friends, family, the stranger looking at me funny when I laughed out loud in the waiting room. Anyone who’d listen. I can not wait for more!
~fuonlyknew
Laura’s Ramblins and Reviews
Murder Is Academic
(Laura Murphy Mystery Series)
File Size: 1626 KB
Print Length: 223 pages
Publisher: Lesley A. Diehl (March 29, 2014)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
ASIN: B00JCV6XG8

Synopsis

Laura Murphy, psychology professor, thinks there’s nothing she likes better than coffee and donuts on a summer morning until she says yes to dinner with a Canadian biker and finds herself and her date suspects in the murder of her college’s president. Laura’s friend, the detective assigned the case, asks her to help him find out who on the small upstate New York college campus may be a killer.  The murder appears to be wrapped up in some unsavory happenings on the lake where Laura lives.  A fish kill and raw sewage seeping into the water along with the apparent drowning suicide of a faculty member complicate the hunt for the killer.  And then things become personal.  The killer makes a threatening phone call to Laura. With a tornado bearing down on the area and the killer intent upon silencing her, Laura’s sleuthing work may come too late to save her and her biker from a watery grave.

About The Author

Like me, my protagonists choose to live their lives close to nature.
From the deep, green river valleys and tree-covered mountains of upstate New York to the palm-treed pastures of the Big Lake Country in Florida, these women have found their homes and their hearts in rural America.
These plucky snoops are joined by a transplant from Connecticut, Eve Appel, who moves to rural Florida to set up a consignment shop with her best friend and partner, Madeleine Boudreau.

All these amateur sleuths yearn for the simple, artless existence of hard work coupled with rustic pleasure.
That’s why they live away from big cities, but murder and violence have a way of stalking us, even our plucky heroines, who think they’ve avoided life’s perils.

Lesley A. Diehl author of cozy mysteries featuring sassy, country gals who enjoy snooping www.lesleyadiehl.com

Interview for Deal Sharing Aunt

Lesley A. Diehl

Murder Is Academic

1.      Where are you from?

I was raised on a dairy farm in northern Illinois and enjoyed the country life until I left there to go to college.  Actually, I always tell people I went to college in the middle of a corn field in Iowa, and there’s a lot of truth in that because it was a small, private school in a tiny Midwestern town.  And it was surrounded by corn fields!  I felt right at home there.

Although I’ve lived all over the United States, I feel most comfortable in small towns.  My husband and I bought a small cottage on the Butternut Creek in New York State.  The town has a bank, restaurant, diner, food store, several churches and a few retail shops, but most important to our needs, the ice cream shop is right around the corner from our house.  It’s the place to go to get really frozen yogurt and to catch up on the town’s happenings.

2. Tell us your latest news?

I’m excited to have self-published the first book I ever wrote from before I was published.  It features a protagonist who is a favorite of mine because she’s a college psychology professor which is what I was for many years before I retired and took up mystery writing.  Laura Murphy is like me in many ways, but she also is different.  This woman has courage, maybe too much courage, and she’s an in-your-face gal who isn’t afraid to speak up and call her colleagues to task when they step out of line.  This time it’s not simply an academic issue that Laura needs to solve, but the murder of her college’s president, a man no one likes, and that includes Laura.  Not only is she under suspicion, but she has begun dating the primary suspect in the murder, a handsome biker and bridge construction worker she met at the murder scene.  What is this woman thinking!  Matching wits with a clever killer is one thing, but can Laura confront the terrible storm that is rolling in and track down a killer who hides in its midst then seems to return from the dead to turn the tables on her?

3. When and why did you begin writing?

I’ve always written, poetry, short pieces in high school and college, but the need to write scientific papers in my career drew me away from fiction until I retired.  At that time I reconnected with the creative side of my brain and began mystery writing.  My first work was really awful, long sentences, a stilted style, and no sense of character development or pacing.  That early work was over 105,000 words, much too long for a cozy mystery which is what I was attempting.  I had to get out of my academic head and learn to write mysteries.  I entered a contest for a short story and won it (Sleuthfest 2009 short story contest sponsored by Mystery Writers of America Florida Chapter).  I was forced by the word count to learn to develop my characters quickly and move the plot along.  It was a great experience and led to my signing my first contract for a book.

4. When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I got some advice early in my writing career to think of myself as a writer even though I was not published.  When people asked what I did, I said I was a writer.  And when they asked the next, inevitable question about what I had published, I would answer, “Nothing…yet.”  I was optimistic and I think all writers should have that can-do approach to their work.

5. What inspired you to write your first book?

I was so passionate about reading mysteries that I knew that was the genre for me.  I loved to think about murder scenes and then consider who might have reason to commit the crime.  I guess I have murder on my mind most of the time.  The first book published featured a protagonist who was a female microbrewer.  The inspiration for her came from a visit I paid to a microbrewery which had a fermenting room with an open fermenting tank.  I had to ask the question of the tour leader, “With all that carbon dioxide, could you kill someone in there?”  I think I terrified everyone else on the tour.

6. What would you like my readers to know?

I write cozy mysteries and most of them are humorous.  I love to laugh and I think laughter just makes a person feel better.  I don’t think murder is a hilarious subject, but I like to put characters in situations other than murder that are funny.  All my protagonists like Laura Murphy in Murder is Academic  are sassy, plucky women, women I think readers will delight in getting to know.  They are gals you’d want to spend time with because they are interesting, clever and entertaining.  Think of girls’ night out—fun.

Tour Participants

May 15 – rantin’ ravin’ and reading – Review, Guest Post, Giveaway
May 16 – Shelley’s Book Case – Review,
May 17 – The Book Junkie - Review, Giveaway
May 19 – Bea’s Book Nook- Review,
May 20 – fuonlyknew ~ Laura’s ramblins and reviews – Review
May 21 – deal sharing aunt – Interview, Giveaway
May 22 – Victoria’s Pages of Romance – Guest Post
May 23 – Traci Andrighett’s blog – Review
May 26 – Melina’s Book Blog – Review, Guest Post, Giveaway
May 27 – Cozy Up With Kathy – Interview
May 28 – Socrates’ Book Reviews – Review
May 29 – Back Porchervations – Review, Interview
May 30 – Community Bookstop – Review
May 31 – StoreyBook Reviews – Review

 Giveaway:

1 e-book copy of Murder is Academic

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