The third Dead Detective book, Dead for the Show, changes setting from Michigan to Toronto, where Seamus investigates the death of a theater's costume designer.

By this time I was into the groove of writing a series, so I'll comment on the differences between series and stand-alone novels. Readers who like series grow attached to the main characters and wait for new books so they can find out what's happening in their lives (or in Seamus' case, their afterlives). Stand-alones have a different...

The third Simon & Elizabeth Mystery takes place in Elizabeth's darkest time. Mary I is on the throne, and Elizabeth will quite possibly be put to death for plotting treason. Mary is one of my least favorite people from that time, though I understand how she came to be as she was.

I feel compelled to say here that I dislike the practice of some authors of turning the people of the Tudor Age into what they were not. Some authors go too far to sell books, making a soap opera out of the lives...

My publisher for the Dead Detective series was small and very approachable, so when I got the idea for the Loser Mysteries, I went to them with it. They loved the first book, Killing Silence, claiming it would be my "breakout novel." A bookstore owner said the same thing once she read it, saying while she liked my other books, this was The One. The hoopla they predicted didn't happen, but it was nice of them to say it.

I know where this story came from. At the time, my daughter faced a bunch...