On Tuesday, May 23, at 4 p.m., at The Country Bookshop, authors Laura Durham, Sharon Short and Heather Webber will delight mystery fans with their tales of murder in all the wrong places.
Laura Weatherly, writing as Laura Durham, whose first book, “Better Off Wed,” won the 2005 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, returns with her second novel, “For Better or Hearse,” featuring wedding planner Annabelle Archer. Weatherly, who is from the Sandhills area, has been writing for as long as she can remember and has been plotting murders since she began planning weddings. After graduating from Duke University with a major in English and a minor in Women’s Studies, she realized she had few practical life skills. Once out in the “real world,” she fell into wedding planning and co-founded a wedding planning company, Engaging Affairs, Inc. Her company rapidly became one of the most highly recommended event planning companies in Washington, D.C.
The idea behind her mysteries featuring a wedding planner was born from the overwhelming desire to murder a particularly unpleasant mother-of-the-bride.
“One of my real-life MOBs was so awful that imaging ways to kill her inspired me to write the first book in the series, ‘Better Off Wed,’” she says. “Only rarely have I had a bride-to-be or a MOB who’s lost her grip on sanity. But they are always the most memorable.”
Since Weatherly found her murderous outlet, real-life brides have been less disagreeable.
“If I’d known that killing off a few clients in a book was all it took to rein in problem brides, I’d have started writing mysteries years ago,” she says.
Sharon Short presents “Hung Out to Die,” the fourth Stain-Busting mystery featuring Josie Toadfern, “Stain Expert and Owner of Toadfern’s Laundromat” in Paradise, Ohio. Short had only one ambition as a child — to be a writer.
“When everyone told me hardly anyone ever makes a living as a writer, I briefly considered becoming a policewoman (because the trench coats looked so cool in all those ’70s police dramas) or a psychologist (with the hope of finally understanding my family),” she says. “Nevertheless, heart won out over practicality, and I became a writer. I can’t stop. It’s like breathing to me.”
Now she delights in mixing humor with mystery, as she did in her previous books, “Death of a Domestic Diva,” and “Death by Deep Dish Pie.” Short also writes a weekly humor column, “Sanity Check,” for the “Dayton Daily News” in Dayton, Ohio, that covers everything from shredding pantyhose for stress relief, to talking refrigerators. Her other fiction credits include short mysteries published in Murderous Intent Mystery Magazine. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and lives in Miamisburg, Ohio, with her husband and two daughters.
Heather Webber is the author of the Nina Quinn mystery series, including her new book, “Digging Up Trouble,” as well as “Trouble in Spades” and “A Hoe Lot of Trouble.”
Webber, who is an admitted procrastinator, writes mysteries about Nina Quinn, owner of Taken by Surprise, Garden Designs, in Freedom, Ohio, in between running her three children to and from various sporting and school events, actively avoiding housework, and wishing someone would give her backyard a “Taken by Surprise” makeover. She is a native of Massachusetts and transplanted to southwest Ohio shortly after marrying her high school sweetheart.
Apex mystery reviewer Molly Weston is bringing the authors to the area and will escort them to The Country Bookshop as well as other venues on the tour.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to meet authors and have them personalize their books,” Weston says. “This is the first time Heather and Sharon have signed in North Carolina. Laura is a Duke grad, and her mother lives in the area, so she’ll be looking for familiar faces!”
To reserve autographed copies or for information, call The Country Bookshop at 910-692-3211.
