Christmas Season Excerpts from Two Wrongs by Morgan Mandel

For my Christmas season contribution, I’m offering a few excerpts from my mystery, Two Wrongs, which relate to one of the Christmases in the novel. These excerpts concern the inner battle Danny, the main character, faces as he fights an attraction toward his wife’s sister.

At Christmas, the family congregated for dinner at Cathy’s parents’ home. His wife sparkled in a tartan silk vest over green toreador pants. He caught short glimpses of Dora in a cranberry sweater as she sped back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room.
After a delicious roast lamb and accompaniments, they all retired to the family room and sat contentedly. Dora volunteered to clean up, refusing Cathy and Danny’s offers of help. As soon as she’d rejoined them, Ted, removing his arm from Nancy’s shoulders, asked, “What about those presents?”
“Sit back…I’ll hand them out,” Dora said in a cheerful voice, though her eyes glinted brightly.
Why was she keeping so busy? Did she feel out of place in her own family?
Danny eyed Dora as she reached for the presents beneath the tree. Her earrings sparkled in the semi-darkness. The Christmas tree lights cast a twinkling glow, illuminating her face, making her look sexy and mysterious.
“Here, Danny.”
He let go of his wife’s hand. Dora’s fingers brushed his as she handed over Cathy’s present. Ignoring the unexpected tingle, he turned and extended the gift-wrapped package to his wife.
At home later that evening he and Cathy exchanged their own private gifts beneath the seven-foot tree they’d picked out themselves at the forest preserve. Among its ornaments was one labeled Our First Christmas, which Cathy had discovered at a craft fair. They glanced at it and exchanged smiles.
Pushing aside disturbing thoughts of the lonely figure beneath the other Christmas tree, Danny gathered his wife into his arms. He made love to her amidst the twinkling lights of their own tree, while the aroma of pine needles tickled his nose. Life was good.

And later in the story after Danny suffers an injury:

He loved his wife, yet at this point he felt extremely vulnerable. It was not a good time for Dora to be around. The seeds of doubt had been sown and he was powerless to ignore them. Cathy’s sister understood him. Right now he needed to be with someone like that, someone who’d encourage him and tell him he still had a chance.
He glanced at Cathy, but her innocent face revealed no idea of his torment. He’d keep it that way. She must never guess. There had to be a way out of this. “Doesn’t Dora have law school?”
“Yes, but remember, she’s through early on Mondays, so she can get over here by three-thirty. I told her the key will be under the flowerpot, so you won’t have to get up. You’ll see. It’ll all work out fine. She’ll fix dinner and that’ll give me a break too. I may have to stay late at the shop.”
He almost choked on his food. Feeling like a craven coward, he badly wanted Cathy here to protect him. Appetite gone, he pushed aside his pancakes.
That evening he couldn’t sleep. No matter which position he tried, he was uncomfortable. His foot hurt despite the medication. On top of that, anticipation welled inside of him at the thought of seeing Dora. He hadn’t seen her since Christmas and next week was already Valentine’s Day.
A picture stole into his mind of Dora wearing the cranberry sweater, sitting alone under the McGuires’ Christmas tree. The ornament-shaped earrings glinted in her ears, catching the reflection of the flashing tree lights. Her eyes flashed with unshed tears. Her full breasts strained as she passed over the brightly wrapped presents.
He’d told himself then, as he did now, it’s wrong to lust after your wife’s sister.
He and Cathy had made love that very night under their own Christmas tree. The urge had been strong, but had he given into it to block out the image of Dora? How would it have felt to have Dora beneath him instead?
As soon as the traitorous thoughts slipped into his mind, he wished he could take them back. It wasn’t right to think of Dora as he lay beside his wife.
His ears caught the sound of Cathy’s soft breaths. She was his angel. She’d put up with a lot. To be honest, he had to admit his road trips were rough on her. After a long day at the shop, she had to feel lonesome stepping into an empty house. He shouldn’t blame her if she wished he had another job. Yet he did. And he knew Dora didn’t share Cathy’s feelings. Resentment flared. Why couldn’t Cathy be more like her sister? Swearing inside, he punched the pillow.

You'll need to read the book to see how it ends. (G)

Buy Links - Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Wrongs-Morgan-Mandel/dp/0759940657/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230654947&sr=8-2
or just go to http://www.amazon.com/ and type in morgan mandel in the Search field.

Publisher - Hard Shell Word Factory:
http://www.hardshell.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=0759940657

Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com/
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

A Village Shattered’s Logan & Cafferty Interview

By Jean Henry Mead

Today I’m interviewing Dana Logan and Sarah Cafferty, two main characters from A Village Shattered, my latest senior sleuth mystery/suspense novel. My 60-year-old senior sleuths aren’t too pleased with me at the moment:

Dana, having a serial killer lurking in the San Joaquin Valley fog must have put a damper on your Christmas festivities?

It did, and we received some strange gifts. A friend in Arizona sent me a helmet to protect me from a possible attack. She also sent a neck brace in case the killer tries to strangle me, like he did to two of our club members.

Sarah, did you also receive some weird presents?

My kids sent me a baseball bat and a paint ball gun. The sheriff won’t allow us real guns, I guess he thinks we’ll shoot ourselves in the foot, or each other.”

Guns are dangerous if you don’t know how to use them.

Dana’s late husband taught her to use all kinds of guns. And our friend Micki shot all the game meat for her freezer. Everyone thought her late husband shot the deer, but Micki says he couldn’t hit a barn at five paces. You won’t tell anyone, will you?

I’m afraid I already did. Whoever reads the book will know why you and your surviving club members are being killed alphabetically.

We were doing just fine until you brought that serial killer into our midst. Our So and Sew Club Members were happily meeting each week to do needlework and swap retirement village gossip. Why’d you have to ruin it?

Sarah, you don’t write a mystery/suspense novel without at least one body.

One sure, but your serial killer is trying to send us all to the happy hunting ground. Why so many victims?

I guess it’s because I give my characters free rein and the killer wasn’t satisfied with just one body. . . By the way, Dana, how are you coming along with your sleuthing? Found any clues?

You planted plenty of red herrings but we’re sifting through them. I really think you have a mean streak because you planted us all in the fog. Thank goodness my daughter Kerrie arrived in time to help with the investigation. She’s a journalist, you know, and thanks to you she’s also on the killer’s list.

Which scenes were the most frightening for you, Dana?

When the killer locked us in the closet. He was planning to turn the old farmhouse into a crematorium, with us in it. It was even worse when he kidnapped Kerrie.

What about you, Sarah?

I was nearly scared to death when Dana and Kerri were lost in the fog and had to steal a police car. I didn’t know about it until later. I just knew they were missing.

Well, ladies, are you looking forward to a happy new year?

Fat chance. You’re gonna put us in a motorhome in the middle of a Rocky Mountain blizzard in the next novel, Diary of Murder. Why can’t you leave well enough alone?

Sorry, Sarah. I just can’t help myself . . . It’s time to tell everyone, “Happy New Year.”

Those Dreaded ING Words

With Happy Holiday Wishes from Earl Staggs


I cringe. I shudder. I gnash. I itch in hard-to-reach places. I
scratch.

Still, they come.

I open a book or magazine, and there they are.

...the ING sentences!!!

I suspect some writers use them as a variation in sentence structure.
There's nothing wrong with deviating from standard subject-verb-predicate
arrangement here and there to break the monotony. Variety, after all,
makes life -- and reading -- more interesting. I know that. I accept
it. I do it myself. I can live with it. Most of the time.

But then I read something like this:

"Pulling on her new red sweater, Mary drove downtown."

. . .cringe...shudder...gnash...itch...scratch. . .

In that construction, the two actions (pulling and driving) take place simultaneously and concurrently. Poor Mary. I envision her struggling into her sweater and driving at the same time -- all the way downtown. I hope she makes it to work without a major traffic accident.

If the author had said:

"After pulling on her new red sweater, Mary drove downtown."

or, even more simply:

"Mary pulled on her new red sweater and drove downtown."

Not only would Mary arrive safely at work, look terrific in that sweater
and have a fine day, but I'd be spared a lot of scratch marks.

But no! In the very next paragraph, I read:

"Applying a fresh coat of makeup, Mary stood and gave her speech."

. . .cringe...shudder...gnash...itch...scratch. . .

I'm sure what Mary had to say was worthwhile, but surely the audience
was distracted by the makeover she gave herself as she talked.

Not all ING sentences bring on strange bodily reactions here. This one
doesn’t:

"Gripping the knife in both hands, Mary slashed the ugly red sweater
nineteen times."

The gripping and slashing co-exist in time just fine. (But I pity the
dumb putz who gave her that stupid sweater.)

Here's another ING sentence that works fine because the two actions
(realizing and blushing) can occur at the same time:

"Realizing she had blundered into the wrong meeting, Mary blushed
as red as her sweater."

While I feel sorry for poor dear Mary for the terrible day she's having,
mine is better now that my peeve has been expounded, my rant has been
rendered.

Hoping what I've said makes sense and slipping into my slightly used and
somewhat mutilated red sweater, I await any comments anyone might care to
make.

Earl Staggs

Bang

by Ben Small


Many mystery and thriller writers use guns in their stories. Guns are perceived as simple, deadly and hard to track, assuming the murder weapon is not found.

But that’s not always true, just as it’s not always true that ballistics can match the gun to the bullet. And in some cases, DNA might be a bigger threat to the perp than ballistics.

Many writers don’t use the research tools available to provide realism to their character’s gun use. Ignorance or error may cause the writer to overlook what might be a fascinating plot turn, or worse yet, there's an error that turns off the reader. Trial judges usually give juries a form of the following instruction, “If you find that a witness has been untruthful in one part of his or her testimony, you may disregard the testimony in whole or in part.”

Many readers apply the same rule to the books they’re reading.

So let’s discuss some interesting aspects of gun use, some mis-conceptions, and I’ll toss in some research resources where you can learn other tidbits useful in your writing.

First, DNA may be as large a hazard to the gun-toting perp as ballistics. Probably the most famous and best American gun designer to date was John Moses Browning. The famed 1911 pistol was a Browning design, as are most non-striker-fired semi-automatic pistols. A recent enhancement, most notably developed by Ed Brown, a high-end custom gun manufacturer, is the beavertail, a looping attachment at the butt end of a gun that looks like an extended thumb. (See image on right.)
The purpose of the beavertail is to protect the shooter's hand from slide-bite, caused by a meaty hand or a high grip on many semi-automatic pistols. As the trigger is pulled, hot gases from the discharge rocket the slide backward. Anything caught in this movement, like the webbing of the hand between the thumb and first finger, will be torn, leaving the shooter’s DNA on the slide and the perp wearing a bandage. Slide-bite can occur on any gun lacking a beavertail, even on a Glock or Sig Sauer, but it’s most prevalent with guns that follow Browning’s designs more closely, guns like the Browning Hi-Power, still with a high market share, and the famous Sig Sauer P-210, perhaps the most accurate production pistol ever made.

These babies can take some skin.

For this reason, many shooters use shooting gloves, usually possessing nylon webbing where slide-bite may occur and thinner material for the trigger finger, so the shooting finger will still fit within the trigger guard.

But slide-bite isn’t the only DNA risk. If you’ve loaded many semi-auto mags, you no doubt know how sore your loading thumb gets. If you’re not wearing gloves, you’ll not only leave prints on the cartridge casing, you may leave some skin, too. Saavy shooters use auto-loaders for their semi-auto pistols, little plastic devices that fit over the magazine. A bullet is inserted and a button pushed, then the bullet is slid into place. Easy on thumbs, but no protection against prints.

The shooter may wear gloves as he’s loading the cartridges, but will he wear them when he’s removing the cartridges from the box? Not doing so will leave at least partial prints and maybe some loose skin tissue on the bottom of the cartridge. Wearing gloves will make cartridge removal awkward, unless the shooter just dumps the box out, in which case a cartridge or two may roll away, perhaps rolling under a couch or chair.

Another hazard exists in racking a semi-auto’s slide. While slide grooves or serrations usually exist front and back, to provide traction with a somewhat difficult slide, racking the slide using the front grooves exposes the meat of the hand to hangfire risk. A hangfire is an accidental discharge caused by something striking the primer and causing the bullet to fire when the trigger hasn’t been pulled. Until recently, when Hornaday developed the LeverEvolution bullet, lever guns with tube feed used rounded, soft lead bullets. The guns were loaded in a horizontal position. All this because of hangfire danger, risk that the tip of one bullet might bump the primer of the bullet on top of it. Well, hangfire can occur in semi-automatic pistols, too, which is why experts caution people to only rack the slide using the rear serrations. Needless to say, a semi-automatic pistol hangfire can do serious damage to a hand exposed to an open slide via the front serration pull. The problem is that some guns, especially 1911s, custom guns, and new guns are tight, the slides don’t move easily. Many women and men with small hands have difficulty racking these slides. So they use the front serrations.

That can be an oops the shooter will remember.

Another oops can arise from shooting a revolver the same way one usually shoots a semi-auto. Many semi-auto instructors teach one to use the support hand to point at the target and support the firing hand in anticipating recoil. This positions at least one finger in front of the trigger guard. Do this with a revolver, and you may be missing some fingers, or you’ll at least suffer a bad burn. Why? Because there’s a gap between the cylinder and the barrel, and hot gases explode out of the revolver’s cylinder and leak around the barrel. The preferred support hand positioning for a revolver is below the firing hand, not in front of it. Screw up this rule and your perp will be in a bad way.

And what about ballistics? It’s not foolproof, you know.

First, one must find the bullet. If the perp used a FMJ (full metal jacket) bullet, the traditional ball ammo, the bullet probably passed through the victim and may never be found. If a JHP (jacketed hollow point) bullet was used, it may be a mostly flat blob of metal inside the victim’s body. Some barrel marks may be visible under magnification, but maybe not. If a .223 round was used, the bullet will likely fragment, break up into little pieces. These bullets don’t often pass through windshields or body armor, one of the reasons the M-4 and M-16 rifles aren’t popular with troops.

Did you know replacement barrels are available? Barsto is one company that makes replacement barrels for almost any pistol. And gun manufacturers sell replacement barrels, too. Some of these barrels may have to be fitted by a gunsmith, but others are drop-in. It would be easy for a perp to switch gun barrels, kill someone, then replace his old barrel and dispose of the new one. Ballistics might be able to match a strange firing pin profile on the primer, but they’d never match the barrels. Replacement barrels can be ordered by anybody, and some gun shops have them on hand. Nothing to sign, no background check required. Throw that into your ballistics stew and chew on it.

Another company, Otis Technology, has come out with a ceramic barrel liner. Just coat a bunch of bullets, fire them, and whamo, you’ve got new life in an old barrel. And new life in the old barrel probably means a new ballistics pattern, although there may be some carryover. Can Ballistics determine if this ceramic coated barrel is from the same gun before the ceramic treatment? Stay tuned. This stuff is too new for anyone to say with certainty.

It’s widely believed that hollow point bullets are rare, that usage of them demonstrates intent to kill. This is just false. In fact, hollow points are considered the standard defense round and the round cops carry in their guns. Why? Because they’re safer to bystanders than ball ammo; they tend to keep the damage limited to the target.

Many people don’t believe the 9mm bullet to be a man-stopper. While proponents complain it’s all about aim, and protest that a 9mm bullet aimed correctly will do the job, most people believe the 9mm bullet is not the preferred man-stopper. In fact, the FBI developed the .40 cal S&W cartridge after a fatal Miami bad guy encounter. The bad guys were pumped full of 9mm bullets, but still managed to keep firing and killing FBI agents.

Many people feel the primary risk associated with a .45 acp round is over-penetration, the likelihood that a round will penetrate walls and strike people even at distance. But tests with ballistic gelatin show that .45 acp bullets, because of their mass, travel at slower speeds than 9mm bullets and penetrate less. Make that bullet a hollow point, and there will likely be no .45 acp over-penetration at all.

I’ve often heard the statement made by experts that mystery writers who claim a gun can be identified by a bullet alone are wrong. And in most cases, that’s a correct statement. But as with most things, this isn’t the full story. In fact, in some cases, the crime investigators and CSI folks can come mighty close.

For instance, short barreled pistols are popular for concealed carry, for obvious reasons. But hollow point bullets shot out of a Baby Glock (G26, G27, G28, G29, G30, G33 and G36) for instance, may not open up. Hollow points need to reach a certain velocity to open upon impact, and the extremely short barrel of some guns prevents the velocity from reaching terminal energy limits of the round. These hollow point bullets may perform like ball ammo. An investigator who sees an unopened hollow point will likely determine it was shot out of a short-barreled gun.

That narrows the field somewhat, but let’s carry this scenario further. What if it was a .357 round? Well, the .357 was designed for a revolver. The semi-auto version is the .357 Sig. They’re different bullets. There are very few short barreled revolvers shooting a .357 round; fewer still semi-auto models shooting the .357 Sig round. (A side note is necessary here. If you’re an investigator investigating a .357 indoor shooting, look for someone who’s deaf. Most crimes are spontaneous, and even if not, how many mysteries or thrillers have you read where the gun-shooting perp was wearing hearing protection?)

What if the bullet was lead? Well, if you’re thinking Glock, which has the largest gun market share, lead bullets should not be used. Most guns have lands and grooves inside the barrel. These are used to start the bullet spinning, which like a spiral pass in football, makes the bullet more accurate. But Glocks use a proprietary system, different from the typical lands and grooves. Read your Glock manual; it says not to use lead bullets. Lead bullets in a Glock, even just one firing, will foul a Glock barrel, affecting accuracy and velocity. Only someone who doesn’t know much about Glocks would fire a lead bullet in one.

Issues like these abound in shootings and the investigation of them. If you’re looking for ways to trip up your perp and make your protag more brilliant, knowledge of some of these facts or issues may be of help. In future columns, I may add some more interesting factoids that make your book a little more special.

But you can also research these things yourself. As I said in my last blog here, I got interested in guns when my editor excoriated me for a gun safety error I’d made. So I researched guns, bought some and found I caught the bug. No, I haven’t shot anybody, and I don’t intend to. But the gun is America’s weapon of choice, and I decided if I was going to write about them, I should learn something about them. And I’ve found some really good resources.

I subscribe to many gun magazines. The three best, I believe, are Combat Handguns, Guns and Ammo, and The American Rifleman, the magazine of the NRA. Additionally, Personal Defense, Guns and Ammo, and The American Rifleman are television programs that are broadcast weekly. Another good television program is Tactical Impact, where not only are stalking skills taught but also comparative analysis of the positives and negatives associated with various weapons assigned to various missions. Interesting and useful stuff.

But by far the best resource I’ve found is the internet. My favorite site is SigForum.com. You’ll find over forty-five thousand members talking guns, not limited to Sig Sauers, and most of the members are military or law enforcement. Ask a question, you’ll get an answer. Or use the search function. This site is extremely well run and is focused on being helpful. Jerks are not tolerated.

Other useful sites are GlockTalk.com, The HighRoad.com, WarRifles.com, AR15.com, and ArizonaShooting.com to name a few.

Bottom line: If your perp used a gun, make sure you know what you’re writing about.

Merry Christmas

I'm the lucky writer who gets to post for Christmas and I mean that sincerely. As a regular reader of this blog, as well as one of the writers I've been thinking about Chester Campbell's post "'Tis the Friday before Christmas," and Libby McKinnons' post entitled "The Time of Year." Like Chester, my writing could use some regularity. It's not that I am disorganized. It's not even that I don't want to write. I am just plain too busy. And as for reading being guilt free because I'm a writer, as Libby said? Oh, I only wish.

I think Christmas is just about the only day of the year anymore where I feel able to sit back and just not do anything. Oh yes, there are the family rituals and the feast but what other day of the year is it permissible to sit back and watch snow drift lazily down? On what other day of the year do I tell myself I SHOULD read this book, since it was a Christmas present or go see a movie with the kids?

And that is a shame.

I have just realized that I am always late for something and always feeling as though I should be somewhere else. And it's not a comfortable feeling.

While I'm sipping eggnog today and reading a bit--maybe finding a new mystery to read with that gift certificate I'm hoping for ( Fictionwise for my Ipaq or maybe one to my local indy bookshop Murder by the Book)I'm going to take a second to reflect on all the hurry and bustle we all just got through and ask myself how that is working for me. I think I may already know the answer. But at least I'm finally asking the question.

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone.

The Time of Year

It's the time of year most of us, regardless of what we celebrate, take a bit of time to reflect on the year past, dream of what we may accomplish in 2009, and enjoy the hours we get to spend with family and friends.

And because we're all writers, we also get to take guilt-free time to read! Right now I'm enjoying Elizabeth Peter's new one, The Laughter of Dead Kings, her first Vicky Bliss novel in a decade. Next in line is The Headhunters by Peter Lovesey, a new author to me, but the premise of the story caught my imagination. And then followed by any books that might be under my tree!

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or Solstice, there is a mystery to each that is part of what makes it a special holiday. Enjoy!

Libby McKinmer
Romance with an edge
www.libbymckinmer.com
http://www.twitter.com/LibbyMcKinmer
libby@libbymckinmer.com

Merry Christmas Blogs

Just popping in to wish you all a Merry Christmas. If you'd like to read some Christmas blogs to put you into the Feel Good Spirit, come on over to Double M.



Here's the url:

http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/

Here's the lineup:

Dec 21 - New Fad - You'll never guess what it is
Dec 22 - Christmas Movies - What are your favorites?
Around 4pm today, Dec 23 - What's Cooking? What are you having for Christmas?
More coming as soon as I can think them up.

I'd love to have you over to start celebrating Christmas.
Thanks,
Morgan Mandel