Scarlet At Crystal River by Randy Overbeck

 Please welcome  Randy Overbook author of  Scarlet At Crystal River

Randy Overbeck will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Scarlet At Crystal River

by Randy Overbeck

 

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GENRE: Mystery

 

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INTERVIEW:

1. What elements are necessary components for this genre? 

In an amateur sleuth mystery, the requisite elements include a dead body, the amateur sleuth (with a credible reason and ability to investigate), viable suspects and of course a fitting setting.  SCARLET AT CRYSTAL RIVER, the third entry in my Haunted Shores Mysteries, brings all of these elements to the table, but with a twist. In my ghost stories/mysteries, my hero, Darrell, first encounters the victim as a ghost (or in this case ghosts) and must discover who they were and how they were killed BEFORE he can begin unraveling the puzzle of whodunit. It makes for even more fun for mystery lovers. Also, I’ve upped the ante on the setting as well for SCARLET. This novel is set on the sunny Gulf coast of Florida and is a Christmas mystery to boot. Much for readers to enjoy, I hope.

2. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?

As I considered how to approach this, the third entry in my Haunted Shores Mysteries, I knew I wanted to do something different. For the first, the #1 Amazon and B & N Best Seller, BLOOD ON THE CHESAPEAKE, I invented a ghost of huge black teen murdered three decades earlier. For the second installment, another Amazon Best Seller, CRIMSON AT CAPE MAY, my ghost became the specter of a young bride murdered on her wedding night, still bleeding on her white dress. For number three, a Christmas mystery set on the Gulf coast of Florida, I wanted to find something fitting, fitting to the setting, to the season, to the story.

                  On a break from my brainstorming, I was thumbing through family pictures and came upon a photo of my grandkids playing on a playground. Staring at the images of the smiling faces, it hit me. What if the mystery was about the death of two kids? Two kids whose ghosts haunt my hero to find justice for them? 

The rest, as they say, is history.

3. What expertise did you bring to your writing?

One of the maxims for writing that I live by is “Write what you know.” That’s why my fiction features teachers as heroes (and they are my real life heroes as well) and originates in the world of school. After more than 35 years of experience in education, I’ve accumulated a great deal of stories, characters, crises and events to draw upon to craft believable and compelling stories. Also, since my Haunted Shores Mysteries take place in different resort locations—none of which is where I live--I spend a good deal time and effort researching the locations to find just the right location for my stories. Research is an expertise I’ve flexed in my career for more than three decades.

4. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

Early on in my adult life, I was involved in different aspects of the theater from acting to directing. (In fact, at one point, I considered heading off to New York City, but wiser heads prevailed.) I think this emersion in the theater—making someone’s else words come alive on stage—have helped me become a better writer, helped me to create more vivid scenes and more realistic characters.

5. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

In between the ever-increasing demands of marketing the first three books in the Haunted Shores Mysteries, I’m completing a new mystery, another amateur sleuth whodunit set in a middle school in the Midwest. Fifth graders have gotten a hold of a new drug and while experimenting, four students are killed. The district tasks the Assistant Superintendent to work with the police to discover who’s behind the drugs killing kids. The only problem is no one is going to like what he uncovers. 

I’m also working on number four in the Haunted Shores Mysteries, set this time somewhere on the Great Lakes. And I’m busy completing research for a new historical thriller set in revolutionary America featuring, you guessed it, at teacher of the times.

6. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?

Without a doubt, that would have to be my hero, Darrell Henshaw, teacher, coach and ghost sensitive. While I’m not thrilled about some of his personal hang ups, like his OCD, his care and concern for students, his love for Erin and his desire to find justice for the unfortunate, I could groove with all of these traits. While Darrell is not me—he is actually a composite of a few teachers I’ve worked with—I could step into his shoes fairly easily.

 
7. Can you give us a sneak peek into this book?

Here’s an excerpt:

 

Darrell ran harder, finishing the loop and circling back to Erin. She was so engrossed in her paperback he managed to sneak up behind her. He leaned and in and grabbed another long kiss.

She kissed him back, smiling. “Now that’s better than a little fictional romance.” She got up and stretched her long legs.

 “You ready for some waves?” he asked.

“If you’re up to it, let’s do a mile or so on the sand first.”

“You’re on.” Darrell gave a gentlemanly wave of his hand.

“I’ll race you.” 

Erin took off like a shot, and Darrell hurried after her. Since the beach was small, they covered the same ground Darrell had a few minutes earlier, passing the family sandcastle builders, another jogger, and the same strolling couples. As usual, she was quick, and he had to hustle to keep up, using some fancy footwork to sidestep sunbathers as they ran. When they got to the north end of the beach where Darrell had turned to double back, Erin headed for a little spit of land that strutted out into the water. He looked beyond and saw what she was headed for. Accelerating, he passed her.

Ahead, at the far end of the beach, a pair of young kids, he’d guess about six, sat in the sand as the waves rolled over their legs. Their small hands busied with a primitive sandcastle. One had long, brown hair tied into pigtails, and the other had a full head of brown hair, unkempt and in need of a trim. He came up to them and stopped, Erin a few seconds behind.

The kids wore street clothes, not swimsuits, but he didn’t think much about it. Then he noticed something about the young boy. His right leg was stuck out at a grotesque angle, as if it had been broken and never set. Both kids giggled at the gurgling water that rolled up around their bare feet and pooled in the makeshift moat they’d dug around their sand creation. The castle was crude, a nearly round construction with seashells sticking up like turrets. The two kids glanced up, caramel eyes wide and pleading with half smiles of white teeth. 

In unison, they said, “Ayudaños?”

“Huh?” Darrell said.

“Cute castle, huh?” Erin stared at the sand and looked up at Darrell. “I wonder who made it?” Her eyes roamed around the area. “Out here on this spit of land it isn’t going to last very long.”

“Those kids—” he started, pointing to the pair. When he looked down, the sandcastle sat alone, the gulf water flowing around the construction and into the crude moat.

His glance darted out to the waves, thinking they’d abandoned their work and ran into the water, even in their street clothes, though he wondered how the boy could have run. 

No girl or boy.

Oh, God! The same two kids? “You vill have two visitors.”

“What’d you say?” Erin asked, her gaze meeting his.

The ghosts. Erin hadn’t seen them! 

Shit, he couldn’t tell her. Not now. Not here.

“Nothing,” he managed around the lump in his throat and glanced back down at the sand.

There at his feet, the crude sand construction they’d been working on, complete with the three blue seashells sticking out of the top, sat alone on the sand. He reached down and grabbed one of the small seashells as the prickle on his neck returned and sizzled. Then he sensed something else, something ominous. No, not ominous, malevolent. More of Natalia’s warning came back to him.

“I see a malevolence, a great danger lurking nearby.”

A big wave rushed in, rolling over their ankles and leveling the mound of sand, leaving the beach empty. As if nothing had ever been there.

“¡Ayúdaños!”

 

 

8. Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?

The answer is an emphatic yes. I’ve been very fortunate to find a great critique group called the Dayton Tuesday Night Writers Group, and believe they have been instrumental in bringing my work to a higher level. I make sure to recognize them in each published novel. In fact, I recommend to new writers to find a strong critique and contribute. I believe they will get much out of the experience

9. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I usual come down pretty much in the middle of the plotter/pantser debate. My stories usually begins with an explosion of an idea that then morphs into some kind of narrative. By the time I start getting my ideas down, I find I have to put together some kind of rough outline—if only to keep plots, characters and events straight. From there, it’s about 50/50. I’ll outline and then write sometimes one ahead of the other. But I’ll always need an outline to make sure I have everything in order. For example, in my second, CRIMSON AT CAPE MAY, I had four different plots and subplots going throughout the book and needed an outline to keep the storylines straight.

10. Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?

My new release, SCARLET AT CRYSTAL RIVER, like the first two in the Haunted Shores Mysteries, is “a cold case murder mystery wrapped in a ghost story served with a side of romance, all set in a beautiful resort location.” Special thanks to the early reviewer who coined this perfect summation.) Also, like the first two entries, the murder (or in this case murders) are entangled with a larger social issue, this time the abuse of migrant workers and the whole debate on immigration. I thought it was important, then, to have a central character who was in fact a migrant and who could speak from an immigrant perspective.I created Luis Alvarez, a twenty-something recent immigrant who helps my protagonist navigate the world of immigrant laborers. But since this character was far out of my personal experience, I needed to be careful to be sure my portrayal was accurate, neither patronizing nor derogatory. It was a major challenge. Needless to say, I had a good deal of assistance in everything from translation to dialect to culture. In the end, I’m satisfied and early reviews have spoken quite well of this character portrayal. I’m now waiting to see how my readers respond—to the story and Luis’ place in it.

BLURB:

 

All Darrell Henshaw wanted was to enjoy his honeymoon with his beautiful wife, Erin, in the charming town of Crystal River on the sunny Gulf Coast of Florida. Only a pair of ghosts decide to intrude on their celebration. And not just any ghosts, the spirits of two young Latino children. Unwilling at first to derail the honeymoon for yet another ghost hunt, Darrell finally concedes when a painting of the kids comes alive, weeping and pleading for his help.

 

When he and Erin track down the artist, they discover the children’s family were migrant workers the next county over. But when they travel there, their questions about the kids gets their car shot up and Erin hospitalized. Torn between fear and rage, Darrell must decide how far he will go to get justice for two young children he never even knew.

 

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EXCERPT:

 

Darrell started, “Like I said back there, it’s complicated. We—”

 

Erin’s side window exploded. The fractured glass shot slivers across the front seat. The sound of an explosion followed a beat behind. Erin screamed. Something stung Darrell’s right arm. He grabbed a cut on his skin and then looked across the seat. Damn. Erin’s arm was bleeding, bad.

 

He couldn’t breathe. “Erin?” He stared at her for a second and then jerked his gaze back to the road and straightened the car.

 

Something hit the rear window. Luis yelped. The glass shattered and a second later, another crack followed. Luis fell forward. Was he hit? Darrell’s gaze jumped from the road to Erin to the back seat. Luis had fallen to the floor. Darrell couldn’t see him.

 

“Luis?” Erin called.

 

No answer.

 

Dragging his eyes from the road, Darrell shot another glance at Erin. Her entire arm was now turning red, the edge of her short sleeve wicking up the scarlet. The fingers of her left hand gripped tight around her right arm, the knuckles turning white. The blood still seeped through.

Dragging his eyes from Erin for a second, he turned in his seat to try to look.

 

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Dr. Randy Overbeck is an award-winning educator, author and speaker. As an educator, he served children for more than three decades in a range of roles captured in his novels, from teacher and coach to principal and superintendent. His thriller, Leave No Child Behind (2012) and his recent mysteries, the Amazon No. 1 Best Seller, Blood on the Chesapeake and Crimson at Cape May have earned five star reviews and garnered national awards including “Thriller of the Year--ReadersFavorite.com, “Gold Award”—Literary Titan, “Mystery of the Year”—ReadersView.com and “Crowned Heart of Excellence”—InD’Tale Magazine. As a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Dr. Overbeck is an active member of the literary community, contributing to a writers’ critique group, serving as a mentor to emerging writers and participating in writing conferences such as Sleuthfest, Killer Nashville and the Midwest Writers Workshop. When he’s not writing or researching his next exciting novel or sharing his presentation “Things Still Go Bump in the Night,” he’s spending time with his incredible family of wife, three children (and their spouses) and seven wonderful grandchildren.

 

Social Media Handles

 

https://twitter.com/OverbeckRandy/media

 

https://www.facebook.com/authorrandyoverbeck

 

https://www.instagram.com/authorrandyoverbeck/

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-KOC0LH2GQRSAjwxOFr5rg

 

Tik Tok @authorrandyo

 

Purchase Links 

https://www.amazon.com/Scarlet-Crystal-Haunted-Shores-Mysteries/dp/1509237879/

 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scarlet-at-crystal-river-randy-overbeck/1139873947

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57841458-scarlet-at-crystal-river

 

https://www.bookbub.com/books/scarlet-at-crystal-river-by-randy-overbeck

 

 

Link to Trailer

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLhuf7RGtCs

 

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

 

Randy Overbeck will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

RAFFLECOPTER:

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f3899