The Fourth Black Beacon Book of Mystery will be released on the 23rd of November, but the Kindle version is available for pre-order today at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and the Goodreads listing is up. To get you in the mood for mystery, we’ve interviewed our contributing authors. Are you keen to peer into their minds—a complex world of clues, red herrings, and puzzling plots? This volume of mysteries will be as challenging as ever, but our cast of amateur sleuths, private investigators, and police inspectors will leave no stone unturned!
Hi Robert,
What is it about the genre of mystery that gets the cogs turning in your head?
I’ve always liked to read mysteries. There are always questions to be answered, and that’s what drives you to keep reading, to find the answers.
What ingredients are needed for a great fair-play mystery in which the reader can try to solve the puzzle before all is revealed?
All the clues must be out there for all to see. Hidden, perhaps, but out there. You want the reader to finish the book and say ‘Of course. The clues were right there,’ not ‘There was NEVER ANY MENTION of a knife, or a hidden staircase, or a missing sister.’
What are your protagonist’s strengths and weaknesses, trademark quirks, and bad habits?
Tillie loves her Inn and hates when people call it a hotel. She pretends to be humble, but she is actually very self-assured. An acerbic wit, especially with her high school rival Sheriff Braine.
A great mystery needs a killer plot and likeable—or despicable—characters, but setting and atmosphere are also key. What are your favourite settings for a really mysterious atmosphere?
Isolated places. A dinner party in an isolated restaurant; people in a snowed-in mansion; Agatha Christie’s Calais Coach.
What’s the most mysterious place you’ve ever been?
Elephant Rock in Canada, sadly no longer there. Erosion and the tides have brought it crumbling down.
What was the last mystery you read?
Serial by Casey Hill, about a forensic investigator in Dublin.
What’s one type of mystery you’ve been meaning to write but haven’t got around to yet—locked room, closed circle, police procedural, cold case, historical mystery, art theft?
I’ve always enjoyed locked-room mysteries, but I don’t think I could pull one off.
What are you working on now?
A novel about murder at a honeymoon resort in the Poconos.
Where can we find you online?
X and Facebook @robertpetyo and @rjpetyoauthor
Thanks for playing along!
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