Old Sins received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Lynne Handy.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Old Sins, published August 2022
What’s the book’s first line?
In the summer of 1988 when I was ten, I found a baby girl caught in the cattails of a stream running through my parents’ property.
What’s the book about? Give us the pitch.
Who threw the baby in the creek? Who killed the May Queen before she could be crowned? Who is kidnapping pubescent girls in an Irish village? Two murders thirty years apart plus five abductions confound poet Maria Pell. To solve one, she must uproot painful memories and to solve the others, she must put herself in peril to stop a killer bent on vengeance.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I had written two other books with poet-sleuth Maria Pell as protagonist. A trip to Ireland inspired me to set her next mystery in Ireland.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Old Sins is a solid, traditional mystery, complete with clues and red herrings, and with most loose ends tied up. Reviewers comment on the background of Irish mythology, which has been thoroughly researched.
What is the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Maria Pell has keen powers of observation, which enable her to be a good poet-detective. She is also transported to the past through psychic experiences, though this does not help in solving crimes. Maria reminds me of a grown-up, sensual Nancy Drew.
When did you first decide to be an author?
When I was six years old.
No. I’ve written In the Time of Peacocks, The Untold Story of Edwina, and Where the River Runs Deep.
What do you do for work when you are not writing?
I am a retired library director. I do some editing for others.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
I generally spend five hours per day, seven days a week.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best part of being an Indie is that, although I have an editor, I do not have anyone trying to control my work. I once had an agent who wanted me to turn my stories into cozies, and I don’t write cozies. Protagonist Maria Pell is a flawed woman who has insecurities in her personal relationships and sometimes makes mistakes. The hardest part is marketing my work.
If you can afford it, hire a marketing specialist.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
I don’t know. It all depends on the amount of support a publisher would provide.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
What motivates me is this: I have stories inside my head and want to write them down. It would be nice to make a profit doing so.
Dead: William Shakespeare. Living: A toss-up between Elizabeth George and James Lee Burke
Which book do you wish you could have written?
“Rebecca,” by Daphne DuMaurier