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Elena Hartwell also writes under Elena Taylor. When she’s not penning funny private eyes, serious police procedurals, or spooky suspense, she can be found working one-on-one as a developmental editor with writers in a variety of genres. When she’s not writing or editing, expect to see her outside with her dogs and equines at Paradise, the property she owns with her hubby, just south of Spokane. Inside, she loves to read with a cat or two on her lap (or dogs and cats all together). To learn more about Elena, you can find her at www.ElenaTaylorAuthor.com. If you’re interested in working with her as an editor, visit www.AllegoryEditing.com or find her on social media.

The Haunting of Emily Grace launching November 4.

A grieving woman takes a job at an isolated mansion only to become wrapped up in the curse that seems to have befallen its eccentric owner. With vibes of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, fans of Riley Sager will love The Haunting of Emily Grace!

Writing Crime Fiction from Funny PI to Police Procedural to Suspense

 My first series, the Eddie Shoes Mysteries, are funny private eye books in the vein of Janet Evanovich. I like to say that if James Rockford and Kinsey Millhone had a love child, it would be my PI, Eddie Shoes.

Eddie Shoes teams up with her mother, Chava, to solve homicides in Bellingham, Washington. Or, I should say, Chava teams up with Eddie, who has very mixed feelings about working with her mother—a woman who got kicked out of Vegas for card-counting and has a tendency to bend the rules of law that Eddie likes to follow.

Writing that series was a lot of fun. The quirky characters, humorous events (even the shootings make people laugh), and first-person intimacy suited my coming-of-age as an author. I grew up reading that style of mystery and writing books that echoed it felt right.

The Sheriff Bet Rivers series was my second outing as a crime fiction author. The first book, All We Buried, is a dark and atmospheric police procedural. This follows with my own evolution as a reader. One of my favorite subgenres in the crime fiction world are those dark, twisty police procedurals, where we see the intelligence of the investigator balanced against a kick-ass ability to fight their way out of any sticky situation.

The Bet Rivers series requires a more rigorous research process. Although I do plenty of research for Eddie’s books, an increasing reliance on law enforcement officers requires that series be more in-depth in terms of accuracy of process.

Fiction demands that events happen faster than would be true in the real world (DNA testing can take months), but the heart of actual police work needs to be upheld. Police detectives are methodical, with many protocols in place to protect evidence and ultimately support a conviction in the courts.

Luckily for me, Bet Rivers is the sheriff of a tiny mountain town in Washington State, so she’s often on her own, cut off from technology, and may not always be able to follow the rules exactly, providing me with outlets for added drama.

With the second Sheriff Bet Rivers book, A Cold, Cold World, while still a police procedural, it also has thrilleresque characteristics, with the speed of events ratcheting up the tension. I am not a thriller writer, but it was a great experience writing a book with elements from that genre. The third book in the series, Kill to Keep, comes out in the summer of 2026, and combines the feel of the first two books.

My upcoming novel, The Haunting of Emily Grace, was a whole new experience for me, as it’s suspense, with a light-horror/paranormal twist. Perfect for readers of any of those genres, the focus is on the central character and whether she’s in danger from real, imagined, or paranormal events. It was a blast to write in a new-to-me genre, one I’m a fan of as a reader, but hadn’t yet tackled as an author.

Private eye novels have a professional—but not a police officer—solve a crime, typically a murder. Police procedurals include a law enforcement officer, who has an entirely different set of rules to follow as they piece together events. Suspense, on the other hand, may not even have a crime take place. The fun of suspense is the idea that something sinister is occurring, but neither the reader nor the protagonist knows how much real danger exists or where it comes from.

Suspense allows the writer to invest heavily in the atmosphere and environment. There is research, but not, however, into how the police or a private eye would investigate, but rather about the world the protagonist lives in, where they are forced to save themselves.

For The Haunting of Emily Grace, my protagonist is a carpenter hired to finish a mansion on a remote island in the Salish Sea. Recovering from a personal tragedy, the job is a lifeline for her to get herself and her career back on track. Once strange events begin to occur around her, she keeps asking herself what lengths she will take to remain on the island and finish the job.

Each of the genres I write has aspects that I love. I’m fascinated by the procedures that the police use to solve crimes. Private Eyes, with a little more flexibility, and especially writing with a lot of humor, makes for a more uplifting and entertaining experience. Suspense brings a freeing component to the work, allowing for a much more open process as there aren’t any real-world rules to follow.

I’m currently working on Kill to Keep, and it’s great to return to the world of law enforcement and murder, but at the same time, I’m mulling over a new suspense novel, with all that wonderful freedom.

I’d love to hear about your favorite genres and what speaks to you about the books that you love.

Contact Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenataylorauthor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElenaTaylorAuthor
Blog: https://www.themysteryofwriting.com/

Buy links:
The Haunting of Emily Grace: https://www.amazon.com/Haunting-Emily-Grace-Elena-Taylor-ebook/dp/B0F83SXK11

A Cold, Cold World: https://www.amazon.com/Cold-World-Sheriff-Rivers-mystery-ebook/dp/B0CVS93TW7/

All We Buried: https://www.amazon.com/All-We-Buried-Sheriff-Mystery-ebook/dp/B07RQH353V/

One Dead, Two to Go: https://www.amazon.com/One-Dead-Eddie-Shoes-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0CGMRQF99/

Two Dead are Better Than One: https://www.amazon.com/Two-Heads-Are-Deader-Than/dp/1504089405/

Three Strikes, You’re Dead: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Strikes-Youre-Elena-Hartwell/dp/1504089413

James L’Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an influence in his award-winning novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is a former associate warden in a maximum-security prison, a hostage negotiator, and director of California’s state parole system. His novels have been shortlisted or awarded the Lefty, Anthony, Silver Falchion, Macavity, and the Public Safety Writers Award. River of Lies and Sins of the Father are his most recent novels. Look for Illusion of Truth coming in 2026. James also serves as the Executive Vice President of Mystery Writers of America.

The Waiting…

Who knew Tom Petty would have been a prophet when he wrote The Waiting? Because waiting is the hardest part.

If you’ve been in the traditional publishing trenches for more than a minute, you know that the industry moves at a pace that makes a snail look like Usain Bolt. It’s slow—glacially slow. There are points in the lifecycle of a novel where you can’t move forward until something happens that’s out of your control.

And that’s exactly where I find myself with Illusion of Truth, the third book in the Detective Emily Hunter series. The book is done, revised, copyedited, and typeset; each with a series of revisions and edits. Ready for release in January.
So why am I feeling so anxious? And why would the waiting be the hardest part?
Because now the hard part begins. People actually read the novel you’ve dumped blood, sweat, and tears into for months. Blurbs and reviews. Two necessary evils in the traditional publishing game. Trade reviews from the Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, and leading independent reviewers help position a title for booksellers—encouraging them to take a risk on stocking your book on their store shelves.

One of the most stressful things in the business, for me anyway, is asking other authors to blurb your book. That quote or blurb gives readers a connection to the book. If they like an author who gushes about your book, maybe they’ll give it a chance. But they are so hard to ask for. Authors are busy, over-committed people who are going through their own creative hoops. I never take it for granted if an author agrees to read and blurb an upcoming book. And where I can, I try to return that positive energy back out into the universe, by blurbing others.

When you’re waiting to hear from authors you know and admire, your writer brain assembles a story about how nobody will like this one, how you’ve let your readers down, and do you even remember how to tell a story?

Then, just before you’re certain the grammar police are coming to take away your keyboard, the reviews came in and they’re better than you hoped for. Illusion of Truth earned a starred review from Kirkus, one of the toughest reviewers out there.

“Everything you read police stories for is here, and much, much more.” STARRED Review –Kirkus Reviews

Here’s the link to read the whole enchilada: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-letoile/illusion-of-truth/

And then the blurbs arrived from my busy author friends, and I’m incredibly grateful to each and every one of them:

Illusion of Truth is a real deal police-eye view of the mean streets. Bosch and Ballard make room for Emily Hunter. She’s brash, bold, but with a soul and a heart for justice.
—Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author

An absolutely relentless thriller… in ILLUSION OF TRUTH, we find Detective Emily Hunter at her very best: Smart, sharp, and willing to do whatever it takes to solve the case of a renegade bomber. With a frightening, ripped-from-the-headlines story of attacks on her fellow police, and a cast of characters with emotional depth, perseverance, and spouting the best cop talk, L’Etoile has penned another hit in this top-notch series.”—J.T. Ellison, NYT bestselling author of LAST SEEN.

“A high-voltage, high-stakes police procedural, ILLUSION OF TRUTH is crisp and fast-paced, as cinematic as a Michael Mann thriller. On full display here is the unique storytelling sensibility that’s made James L’Etoile’s books beloved among mystery readers: a badass, rock-solid investigation plot with precinct veracity, hostage negotiation expertise, and deep empathy. The world is unfair, yes, and it might feel broken sometimes, but, as Emily Hunter reminds us: ‘We’re all broken in one way or another. It’s how we put the pieces together that counts.'”

–Margot Douaihy, bestselling author of Scorched Grace, Blessed Water, and Divine Ruin 

Was the waiting hard? Oh yeah. Was it worth it? As Tom Petty says, ‘Don’t it feel like something from a dream?’

Preorders mean a world of difference in a publisher deciding whether to continue a series. If you’d care to check out Illusion of Truth, it’s available for preorder at your favorite booksellers, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org. Thanks in advance!

You can find out more at www.jamesletoile.com ` 

Or email me at  jamesletoilebooks@gmail.com

Margaret Mizushima writes the award-winning Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. She served as a past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She and her husband recently moved from Colorado, where they raised two daughters and a multitude of animals, to a home in the Pacific Northwest.

DYING CRY – While Deputy Mattie Walker and her family are snowshoeing in a remote area, a shattering cry pierces the air, dying slowly as it echoes off canyon walls. When further investigation reveals a suspicious death, the Timber Creek County Sheriff’s team springs into action, uncovering a trail of greed that leads to a killer who threatens Mattie’s cherished new family and tests her with the most challenging task she’s faced in her duty as a K-9 handler.

What brought you to writing? I was drawn to writing nonfiction around the turn of the century, and I began with a book about intuitive communication. I planned to weave together my experience in communication disorders, from my career as a speech pathologist, and the study of the Enneagram, an ancient Sufi personality typing system. I aimed to help facilitate team building in business companies and corporations. I finished Chapter 1 and then decided to play with writing a paranormal romance, just for the fun of it. I never went back to the nonfiction book to write Chapter 2. After completing that first terrible romance manuscript, I began attending commercial fiction writing conferences to learn the how-to’s of the writing process. It took several years and several attempts at different genres until I finally produced my first mystery. That was the book that sold, and I’ve been writing the Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries and publishing one each year since. Dying Cry is the tenth book in the series.

Tell us about your writing process. After my veterinarian husband retired, we moved to the Pacific Northwest to be closer to family. I’m lucky to have my own office in our new home. Each morning, I sit down with the goal of writing 1000 words. Sometimes I write more, sometimes less, but the primary goal is to write 5000 words per week. At this rate, I can finish, revise, and polish a manuscript in about six months. I work with my editor at publisher Crooked Lane Books to complete three edits and two proofreads, ensuring we stay on schedule to publish one book per year. So far, it’s worked out well.

If you have subplots, how do you weave them into the novel’s arc? I love subplots! Each book has a theme and a premise central to the first victim and crime scene in the mystery. My protagonists, Deputy Mattie Walker and her K-9 partner Robo, investigate the crime in this major plot. However, my other protagonist, veterinarian Cole Walker, also has work to do in solving the major crime, and his part of the story is woven into one of the subplots. Then, on top of that, Mattie usually has a personal dilemma that she’s working on, and that subplot is also woven in. It’s a lot of fun, and I believe it adds depth to the main plot. My challenge is to make all these plots fit the theme of the book, so they are somehow related. I do spend some time planning each book before I begin writing, so that I can create a cohesive mesh (not mess—LOL) by the time I’m finished.

How long did it take to write your first book, and then how long to get it published? It took about four years to write, rewrite, take months off in discouragement, revise, take more time off, re-revise, polish, and then polish again to complete my first mystery. Then, while I wrote something else, it took another four years for me to find an agent and then a publisher. I’m tech-phobic, so I decided early on that I wanted to go the traditional publishing route. I’m very grateful that I’ve been working with my original publishing team since 2014: literary agent Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management and acquiring editor Matthew Martz of Crooked Lane Books. After many rejections, these two professionals decided to take on a mystery series featuring a spunky deputy, her German shepherd partner, and an overworked veterinarian who is also the deputy’s love interest. I appreciate their support over the years.

Do you base your characters on real people? No, but it helped to have lived with my veterinarian husband for over four decades—I know that life—and to be able to shadow and interview my K-9 handler consultants. The stories they tell, and my observations, have definitely made their way onto the pages of my books. However, my dog character, Robo, was based entirely on a real dog. One of my consultants, a retired K-9 handler, worked with her German shepherd partner until they were both injured in a work-related incident that forced them to retire. The dog had been deafened in a warehouse explosion, but his handler kept him as her pet until he died of old age. The many stories she told me about her wonder-dog partner gave me characteristics for my fictional dog, and she also gave permission to use his name—Robo.

Margaret Mizushima can be contacted at: hello@margaretmizushima.com

Find her on Facebook/AuthorMargaretMizushima,
X @margmizu,
Instagram @margmizu,
and her website www.margaretmizushima.com.