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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

WIP Wednesday - Lesley Diehl

Are you an author with a current work-in-progress? Would you like to tease your work on a future WIP Wednesday? If so, please e-mail Erin O'Riordan: erinoriordan (at) sbcglobal (dot) net

Lesley Diehl: Here are two blurbs on what I'm writing. The first is a manuscript that has been accepted for publication by Mainly Murder Press with a release date of May 2012.

This manuscript is entitled Poisoned Pairings and is the second in the series set in the Butternut Valley.

A student helping set up for a beer and food pairings event in Hera Knightsbridge’s microbrewery dies there under suspicious circumstances. At first the death looks like a suicide, but the medical examiner determines it is murder, and Hera and her lover, Deputy Sheriff Jake Ryan again find themselves partners in searching for the killer. Not only does murder threaten the community, but something more explosive has come to the valley—hydraulic fracturing or fracking, a controversial gas drilling technique whose proponents say can take the poor families of the region out of debt. Hera and her fellow brewers are convinced it will contaminate the water supply, as it had in other places, and change forever the pristine beauty of the valley. Connections among the student, the family of a dead brewer, a religious leader and the gas companies lead Hera and Jake into a maze of confusing and conflicting clues. Before the two can unravel the case’s tangled threads, Jake is called away to another job, leaving Hera alone to uncover the identity of the killer before she becomes the next victim.


The next one is what I'm presently writing and will submit to Oak Tree Press. Working Title: Grilled, Chilled, and Killed

This is the second in the Big Lake Mysteries (the first was Dumpster Dying) featuring Emily Rhodes, retired preschool teacher and bartender turned amateur snoop.

It seems as if Emily is destined to discover dead bodies. This time she finds one of the contestants at the local barbeque cook-off dead and covered in barbeque sauce in a beer cooler. She should be used to stumbling onto corpses by now and the question of who killed the guy should pique her curiosity, but Emily decides to let Detective Lewis handle this one, at least until she figures his theory of who did the deed is wrong, wrong, wrong. Lewis’ denigration of Emily’s speculations is condescending enough to stimulate her dormant snooping skills. As the two of them go on their separate paths to find the killer, Lewis’ old partner, Toby the dirty, tobacco-spitting cop interferes in the investigation leaving Lewis with the wrong man in jail. This time Toby has an international criminal as his partner in a scheme that spins beyond Toby’s control, once again threatening the lives of Emily and Naomi.

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11 comments:

Shah Wharton said...

Love thrilling suspense - and dead bodies. Another intriguing WIP. ;D

Patricia Gligor's Writers Forum said...

Lesley,
Congratulations on your upcoming publication. Your book sounds really interesting and will have to go on my "must read" list.

Sunny Frazier said...

You had me at beer and barbecue. Your WIP's sound like rib-tickling fun. Keep us hungry for more!

john M. Daniel said...

You're a busy, creative woman, Lesley. Here's cheering you on!

Erin O'Riordan said...

John, Sunny, Patricia, Shah, thanks so much for stopping by and commenting this fine October WIP Wednesday!

If anyone else would like to share about a work in progress, next Wednesday is wide open at this point.

Marja said...

Oh, I see two new books in my future. You come up with some of the best story ideas. Can't wait!

Erin O'Riordan said...

Hi, Marja. Yes, Lesley is certainly very creative.

Lesley Diehl said...

Thanks everyone for your comments. This is a great site to get the word out on what you're working on.
Lesley

Erin O'Riordan said...

Thank you, Lesley, for being a great guest. Stop by again when you get to the next book-to-be!

Augie said...

Leslie, thank you for the scoops, I love them both. Congrats again. This site sounds like a keeper augie

Erin O'Riordan said...

Augie, thanks so much for coming by!

Folks, I'm still looking for guests for next Wednesday, so don't be shy about emailing if you have a current WIP you'd like to tease.