The Lake Templeton Murders
byHS Burney
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GENRE: Mystery / Thriller
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INTERVIEW:
1. What or who inspired you to start writing?
The books that I read as a child. I grew up in Pakistan, in a very patriarchal environment, and spent the first eighteen years of my life there. I read voraciously because books helped me to escape into a new world and to define a new reality for myself. It’s these books that originally sparked the itch to write.
I was always an imaginative child that lived in my own world. I often found myself creating elaborate fictional characters and wild stories in my brain. Writing helped give these stories and ideas life.
2. What elements are necessary components for this genre?
The element of surprise is essential. The worst mistake you can make while writing mystery is to bore the reader. No matter what, you have to keep them turning the page.
Pacing is extremely important. I’ve put down many mysteries myself that were wandering through long descriptions at the expense of moving the story along.
And finally, logic. I love writing murder mysteries because they engage both the left and right sides of my brain. Yes, there’s a strong creative element to these stories. But they also have to make logical sense. The clues need to lead somewhere. The threads need to be tied at the end – or acknowledged, if left hanging. The actions of your main character – and all characters, really – have to make sense.
3. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?
I wish there was an easy answer to this. The truth is, like a lot of writers, my inspiration pulls from multiple sources – my own experiences, people I’ve met, stories I’ve read, shows and movies I’ve seen, etc.
There is a bit about financial fraud in there – that comes from my day job as a banker. The theme around twins – I have a niece and nephew, boy / girl twins with drastically different personalities. My main character was born to immigrant Pakistani parents, which is similar to my own background. One thing that is very important to me is to have strong female characters and to showcase diversity in my books, a diversity I live with and see every day in my beautiful hometown of Vancouver, Canada.
4. What expertise did you bring to your writing?
I’m a lifelong lover and reader of mystery novels and an avid consumer of TV mysteries. The plotline on financial fraud is drawn from actual situations I’ve seen working in commercial banking for my entire career. And I feel any writer worth their salt who writes about police procedures needs to have a consultant or mentor of some sort. I am blessed to have a police detective and a judge within my network who were instrumental in advising me on procedure.
5. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?
I am addicted to supernatural horror movies!
6. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
I am currently working on my second book, another mystery involving Private Investigator, Fati Rizvi. It’s the confounding case of the missing twins, set in West Vancouver, one of Canada’s most expensive zip codes. Similar to The Lake Templeton Murders, this book has themes of family dysfunction, fraught relationships, and secrets that simmer underneath a veneer of perfection.
This is not it for me, though. I have big plans when it comes to my writing. With the Fati Rizvi Private Investigator mystery series, I feel I have discovered my true calling as a writer. I have more ideas than I can execute in a lifetime.
7. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?
Fati’s trusted sidekick, Zed. He’s a footloose, devil-may-care young man who plays video games for a living and dabbles as a spy. He’s unapologetic, easily excitable, and has a unique charm. He occasionally likes to indulge in illicit substances and believes in experiencing life – all of it. He enjoys liaisons with cute boys he meets at the club. His relationships are short-lived but he does not like getting dumped! To Zed, life is a breeze. He doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s the perfect foil to Fati’s somewhat obsessive, hard-charging personality.
8. Can you give us a sneak peek into this book?
Sharon’s body was half-reposed face-down on the wet sand, deposited on the shore like plastic waste. Clumps of hair were caught in the jagged rocks that edge the receding land, one bloated arm flung over a large boulder, as if trying to find a grip. Her legs floated behind her like windsocks. Silk shirt ballooned over the surface of the water like a parachute.
The crime scene has been cleared up. Culver Beach sparkles in the vestiges of the sinking sunlight, sand glinting like diamond dust. The only remnants of the morning’s tragic discovery - dried boot prints in the grassy sand, left behind by the police.
The nearest house is walled off by a thicket of trees and is currently empty, owned by a businessman who only spends a few months here in the summers. The beach is quiet, with not even a dog walker in sight. I walk on the sand for a few minutes, shoes in hand, reveling in the quietude. I breathe in the fresh air, slightly briny, and crisp enough to open up my nasal pathways.
No answers will be found here. Not for me. I have limited experience analyzing crime scenes. Even though, as a beat cop, I elbowed my way to many sites above my pay grade, attaching myself to the most brilliant detectives like a barnacle. Thankfully, you don’t need to be an expert at crime scene analysis to catch a killer.
And catching a killer is what I do best.
I will answer the plea in Sharon’s outstretched arms, still flailing in death as her body collided against the land, unmoored from its watery grave. I will unravel the secrets in the wide eyes and rote responses of Sharon’s colleagues, all identical, parroting one another. The combative non-responses of Mayor Alena Krutova. And the exaggerated sorrow of Sergio Alvarez, Marketing Manager at City Hall, who claims to only know Sharon as a dear colleague.
I will piece together the puzzle of Sharon’s life. Who was she? What was she doing in Lake Templeton? Did she steal a half a million dollars from the City? And did it drag her to an early death, pitched off the deck outside her own home?
What transpired on Sharon’s deck last night after the sun sank behind the heavy winter shadows?
9. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)
Best advice: Plot but don’t let it handcuff you. If your story is any good, at some point, it will take on a life of its own. It will pull you towards something, maybe in a direction you did not intend to go. Let it lead you. If you stubbornly stick to your pre-ordained plot, the story becomes stilted and awkward. And you’ll end up rewriting it anyway.
Worst advice: I don’t really buy into the tropes of avoiding adverbs at all cost and always showing instead of telling. Adverbs can serve a purpose as long as you’re intentional about using them. And sometimes you need to tell so you can keep your narrative tight and your story moving along.
10. Do you outline your books or just start writing?
If there are mystery writers out there who can launch a story without an outline, I applaud them. Mysteries are generally plot-driven so outlining is a huge help, otherwise, I would end up lost in the weeds.
I always flesh out a high-level outline. I don’t adhere to it one hundred percent as the story may go in a different direction but the outline serves as a map to pull me back when I’m really going offtrack.
Having said that, I rarely know my ending. Or who the killer is. As the story progresses, it leads to an inevitable conclusion – and the best, most appropriate conclusion, in my opinion.
11. How do you maintain your creativity?
Everyday situations constantly spark ideas. I try to write them down so I always have an idea bank ready to go when I sit down to write.
I always write first thing in the morning, before work. As a morning person, in the quiet of the early hours, my brain fires on all cylinders. My mind is fresh so I can transport myself to a story world. As the day unfurls and the responsibilities of life descend, I lose the spark. When the real world beckons, it’s hard for me to place myself somewhere else.
BLURB:
A body washes up on the shores of Lake Templeton, a small town on the coast of Vancouver Island. Sharon Reese, the victim, was a dedicated government employee. Everyone liked her, but no one knew much about her. Was she hiding something? Maybe a questionable past riddled with scandal. And did it lead to her plunge to death, in a drunken stupor, off the dock outside her secluded lakefront lodge?
Was it an accident? A suicide? Or cold-blooded murder? Private Investigator, Fati Rizvi, is determined to find out.
Fati arrives in Lake Templeton to find secrets that run as deep as the City’s sewers. Everyone is hiding something and nothing is as it seems. A cult escapee. A corrupt politician. A struggling airline. A multi-million dollar public-private project to revitalize the Lake Templeton waterfront. How are they all connected?
As Fati valiantly unravels the knots, another body is found on the shore. Is it the same killer? And can Fati stop them before they strike again?
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EXCERPT:
It was these waves that carried Sharon once the water besieged her lungs and she stopped breathing. Maybe her killer was hoping that the body would descend to the depths of the ocean, swallowing its secrets. It must have been a rude shock to see the evidence of their crime splashed across the morning papers.
Sharon’s body was half-reposed face-down on the wet sand, deposited on the shore like plastic waste. Clumps of hair were caught in the jagged rocks that edge the receding land, one bloated arm flung over a large boulder, as if trying to find a grip. Her legs floated behind her like windsocks. Silk shirt ballooned over the surface of the water like a parachute.
The crime scene has been cleared up. Culver Beach sparkles in the vestiges of the sinking sunlight, sand glinting like diamond dust. The only remnants of the morning’s tragic discovery - dried boot prints in the grassy sand, left behind by the police.
The nearest house is walled off by a thicket of trees and is currently empty, owned by a businessman who only spends a few months here in the summers. The beach is quiet, with not even a dog walker in sight. I walk on the sand for a few minutes, shoes in hand, reveling in the quietude. I breathe in the fresh air, slightly briny, and crisp enough to open up my nasal pathways.
No answers will be found here. Not for me.
Sergio’s house hibernates, squeezed in the warm hug of the thicket of trees that surround it. They’re evergreens so they hold on to their leaves, even in winter, until the whistling wind snatches them away and showers them on the lawn. Despite Sergio’s gallant efforts with the rake, his driveway is again covered in shrubs and branches.
I pull up behind Sergio’s car, parked in its usual spot in the driveway, the mud cracked and crusting on its back tires, windows streaked with messy wet tracks made when rain intermingled with dust. The killer must have picked him up and driven him to Pebble Beach.
Detective Singh’s police cruiser is parked neatly angled to the side of the road. As I approach the house, I see a shattered window in the front.
I haven’t seen young children living in the neighbourhood. Most houses in Sergio’s vicinity belong to empty-nester retirees and snowbirds. Was this an accident or something more sinister? Did someone smash Sergio’s window?
At the foot of Sergio’s porch stands his city recycling box. It’s filled to the brim with plastic containers and folded up cardboard boxes, as if Sergio had just finished cleaning and decluttering. I move closer for a better look. An empty bottle of Tito’s vodka, several Amazon boxes, soup cans, and yogurt containers. A box for a Blackmagic Design pro camera that costs almost thirteen thousand dollars. A black rectangular tube that housed a Chanel snowboard.
How much was the City paying Sergio?
Zed and I arrive after ten p.m. We park in an underground lot a few blocks away. Granville Street at night is a cornucopia of debauchery. Drunk girls totter on heels and too-tight skirts, giggling and holding each other. The heavy smell of sweat mixed with marijuana mixed with alcohol hangs in the air like a toxic thundercloud. The sidewalk is sticky with spilled drinks and other substances you don’t want to think about. Bedraggled bums cluster in dark corners, their life’s possessions gathered at their feet in duffel bags. They panhandle, lighting their pipes, smoking their cigarettes, and shooting their heroin without apology.
The street is dotted with black-doored establishments that advertise their presence with glowing signs and glowering bouncers. At the most popular clubs, lines of partygoers stretch, smoking cigarettes while waiting for entry. Zed and I blend into the shadows, two travelers that don’t quite belong but don’t stick out either.
This is Caleb’s world. In contrast, the clean-cut Sergio snowboarded on weekends and went running every morning. They had nothing in common besides their desire to sing. And it was this commonality that led their worlds to collide so painfully.
At Legends, the thrum of the music wafting from behind heavy curtain and chain gives away the mayhem brewing inside. The roasting interior is awash in flashing lights. The smell of stale beer and rank sweat overpowers me. I choke back my gag reflex.
Caleb is not hard to find. He is huddled with other youth, all misty eyes and lost faces, in a chemical-induced otherworld.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
HS Burney writes fast-moving, action-packed mysteries set against the backdrop of majestic mountains and crystalline ocean in West Coast Canada. She loves creating characters that keep you on your toes. A corporate executive by day and a novelist by night, HS Burney received her Bachelors’ in Creative Writing from Lafayette College. A proud Canadian immigrant, she takes her readers into worlds populated by diverse characters with unique cultural backgrounds. When not writing, she is out hiking, waiting for the next story idea to strike, and pull her into a new world.
Website:
www.hsburney.com
Email List Sign-up:
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Book Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lake-Templeton-Murders-Private-Investigator-ebook/dp/B09KMDQBQ1/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1639608371&sr=8-1
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-lake-templeton-murders
The book is on sale for $0.99 during the tour.
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:
HS Burney will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f4066
