THE SCHEME
Amethyst Drake
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GENRE: Mystery
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BLURB:
Katherine Carson, a former intelligence operative turned private detective, has never been in it for the money. But when a desperate CEO offers double her usual fee to find his missing daughter, she can't refuse.
Set in Baltimore, 2009, what begins as a simple missing person inquiry transforms into a complex case of espionage, financial crime, and deep-seated grudges. For Katherine, this case strikes a personal chord, stirring up haunting memories from her own past. As unexpected connections emerge, she must confront her unresolved guilt.
Can Katherine and her team of private detectives solve the case before it's too late, or will the turmoil of her past consume her?
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Excerpt:
Lee reached up and felt the top of the door frame. “No key. I guess Ames forgot to leave it.”
“He has his own key. He just said Olivia keeps it up there.” Katherine bent down to flip back the welcome mat. Still no key. She sighed. “Should we see if the manager has a spare?”
“The manager isn’t on site.” Lee slouched against the wall. “If only we knew someone who could pick a lock.”
Katherine rolled her eyes, but smiled in spite of herself. “Breaking and entering could lose me my license.” Lee and Jake liked to tease her about some of her skills, although they always stopped short of mentioning the Espionage Services Agency.
“Sure, sure. But we do have permission to enter. And we’d have to drive to Wilmington to get another key from Mr. Ames..." Lee let his voice trail off and studied his fingernails.
Katherine chuckled and pulled out her pocket knife. “You know I don’t carry picks anymore.” She opened the knife and carefully slid the high carbon stainless steel blade between the door and the striker plate. Finding the latch, she pushed it out of the door jam and opened the door.
“Don't tell Sammi.”
“Never.” A huge grin spread over Lee’s face.
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A Minor Character Takes a Major Role
When I create a new character, I usually design it to fulfill a specific purpose--to reveal a clue to the detectives, to become a suspect in the investigation, or to be a counterpoint to someone else's personality. Since each character is designed with a purpose in mind, it’s usually not too difficult for me to get them to behave. I write the character, I tell them what to do, and they do it.
But one character in The Scheme refused to be compliant. I planned for Mrs. Nichols to be the kindly older woman who lived downstairs from the missing woman. I needed her to talk briefly to a detective and reveal what she knew about what happened the night Olivia disappeared. Which, as far as I knew, was not much. She would wring her hands, apologize for not being more help, express concern for the sweet young lady upstairs, and that would be that. Exit Mrs. Nichols. That was my plan when I started writing this scene:
“Lee knocked on the door of apartment 116, located directly beneath Olivia’s apartment. A woman with rosy skin and gray curls pulled the door open until the security chain caught.
"Yes?" She peered at the intruder, clutching the collar of a pink bathrobe to her chest.
Lee flashed his most winning smile. He pulled his credentials out of his pocket and held them so the woman could see. "Mrs. Nichols, I'm a private detective hired to find your upstairs neighbor, Olivia Ames."
The woman didn’t budge. She took her time reading the license in his wallet. Lee swallowed back the impulse to ask her to get her reading glasses. Then she turned her bright green eyes onto the tall detective, looking him up and down. She nodded curtly and pushed the door closed.”
And that's when I realized the this character was not going to be following my instructions.
Ms. Nichols is a vivacious and independent woman. She works at the library with the missing woman and is able to give the detectives a lot of information. The first scene with Ms. Nichols is the longest scene in the book. She commandeers the interview and makes the detective, Lee, slightly uncomfortable. She makes no bones about that fact that she finds him attractive!
In a later scene, Ms. Nichols interrupts a a conversation between Katherine and “her handsome detective friend.” The librarian gives the team what she considers to be an important clue—a stack of books that the missing woman had checked out of the library. This interaction also results in my personal favorite line in the entire book, when Lee reveals that he isn’t a reader: “The librarian sounded deeply disappointed, as if her prince charming had just turned into a toad.”
I found this surprising twist on Ms. Nichols character to be a delightful diversion. I ended up being more pleased with how the story developed when I let Ms. Nichols have her own way with things rather than trying to force her into a mold. Near the end of the novel, I had an important clue that I needed the detectives to find. And I couldn’t think of a natural way for them to come across the missing phone number. I thought about this plot hole for a couple days. Then it hit me.
The phone number could be written on a post it note inside one of the books found by Ms. Nichols. And how would the detectives know to look for it?
Ms. Nichols would tell them, of course!
I had planned for Ms. Nichols to be a minor character, but I love the bigger role she has. And if readers love her as much as I do, I think there is a good chance that she will reappear in a future novel.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Amethyst Drake is a passionate storyteller. She excels at crafting delightful characters and enjoys developing com-plex relationships among them. Mystery has always been her favorite genre to read, making it a natural choice for her writing. She aims to blend her personal experience with mental health and the moral complexities of intricate interpersonal relationships into engaging novels.
Amethyst loves reading all kinds of mysteries, suspense, and thrillers and enjoys watching classic detective and espionage dramas like "Murder, She Wrote," "Perry Mason," and "Mission: Impossible."
She also loves hearing from readers! Connect by signing up for her newsletter at amethystdrake.com or email amethyst@agswordsmiths.com
Links
Author Website https://amethystdrake.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amethystdrake.author
Amazon https://amzn.to/3M5lmJO
Barnes and Noble https://bit.ly/3Z3VsOv
The author will award a $25 Amazon GC and a signed book to one randomly drawn winner, a $10 Amazon GC and a signed book to a second randomly drawn winner, and a signed book to a third randomly drawn winner.
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