I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a good time discovering a new place for breakfast tacos, eating lots of cold watermelon and of course enjoying some time at the bookstore.

As I promised, I have a review of Karen E. Olson’s book The Missing Ink (click for full review), which is the start of her new mystery series. I thought the mystery was really well done. I kept trying to guess who did it and at one point I think I’d gone through accusing most of the characters. Like her previous series, this one features a strong female lead but what I really liked about this book was that I get the sense that Brett will have some good sidekicks helping her out in future mysteries.

I also spent some time reading Hold Love Strong by Matthew Aaron Goodman which is the story of a young boy growing up in the New York housing projects. It’s a sad story and one I’m reading in bits. I feel for the characters who are trying to get ahead in life but one thing or another keeps them down. Sometimes it’s just bad decisions but not done out of malice, just ignorance and despair. I’m about half way through this one and hope to finish it this week.

I needed a bit more lighter fare in the evenings so I turned to Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand. Well, I thought this was going to be lighter fare but I quickly realized that one of the main characters is a young mother fighting lung cancer. She, her sister and best friend take off to a beach house to get away from it all.

I’m sort of tempted to add another book to my mix, a mystery of course but we’ll see. What about you? How many books are you juggling right now?

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ve no doubt seen some guest posts by Karen E. Olson and I’m thrilled to have her visit my blog again as she tells us about her latest mystery novel which introduces her new amateur sleuth, Brett Kavanaugh in The Missing Ink.

I never thought I’d write a mystery with an amateur sleuth. It seemed too hard. That’s why I wrote a reporter character, because there’s a legitimate reason she’s running across dead bodies and crime. It’s her job to cover them, to get involved. With an amateur sleuth, well, is there a reason?

So imagine my discomfort when I was faced with Brett Kavanaugh, tattoo shop owner, in THE MISSING INK. She’s a nice girl who live with her brother and runs her own business, which is thriving. Why on earth would she get involved in solving a crime?

I figured I should make it personal. It seemed the only way. A woman comes into her shop for a devotion tattoo with the name of her fiancé. She makes an appointment but never comes back. A few days later, a cop comes around with a picture of her, asking if anyone’s seen her. It turns out that the last person to have seen her was Brett.

That’s the basis for the story, for getting Brett immersed in the investigation. I did decide that her brother’s a Vegas police detective, although as I wrote I realized he wouldn’t want her getting involved so he’s not helpful. He’s just concerned about her safety.

A string of events made it even more personal, so I began to think that while I might not pursue a killer, Brett’s got a bit more curiosity than I do—and more than the average person. I don’t have her doing anything that would make her too stupid to live, but she does set things in motion that result in a pretty dramatic finale.

Because I had a two-book contract, I had to do this all over again, and again I made it personal. I would be hard pressed to think that anyone, even one with an overabundance of curiosity, would legitimately investigate a crime if she’s not a cop, a lawyer, a private detective—or a reporter. But those readers who like amateur sleuths might give it a pass if there’s a strong storyline.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the amateur sleuth? Do you suspend disbelief for a good story?

~ Karen

** Thank you Karen for stopping by my blog and telling us about your latest book. While I tend to read more detective fiction, I can definitely get hooked on a good amateur sleuth story. I really enjoyed The Missing Ink so stay tuned for my review!

** You can also find out more about Karen’s upcoming blog tour stops and other projects by checking out her website, www.kareneolson.com and her blog www.firstoffenders.typepad.com.