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 of bad life events and needed me with her in Richmond, Virginia, for several months. There, just a few blocks from her lovely shotgun house, I saw people every day who had no homes. They slipped through alleys looking through garbage cans. They hung out at the local Walgreens. Who knows where they slept. I began to imagine a sleuth among them, a person beat down by life but unable to still her analytical mind.

I made a mistake with Loser, and while I think it added to her character, it made writing the mystery harder. A trauma she faced made her almost silent, and now she limits her words to 30/day. She keeps a count in her head, fearful of what will happen if she exceeds her self-imposed limit. While that's a fun idea, how does a sleuth solve a crime when she's counting every word she utters? (Spoiler alert: she manages.)

Killing Silence: Loser lives on the streets of Richmond, bathing in gas station rest rooms and sleeping in alleys. When a little girl takes a liking to her, Loser can't help but respond. Then the little girl's dad is suspected of murder. Loser wants to help, though she's not sure how an un-housed, unclean, scatter-minded person would do that. This book is available here for $.99.