RETURNING TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

MARGARITAS AT SUNSET

My guest is Lisa Brackmann. I'm glad to have her visiting Over Coffee again. If you remember, I interviewed Lisa last year when her debut—ROCK PAPER TIGER (Year Of The Tiger in the UK)—was released. 
Lisa's second book, GETAWAY (Library Journal Reviews lists it as a must read this summer), has just been released. Lisa is currently down in Puerto Vallarta (hence the margarita above, directly from her to us) attending a book event and will be checking in from Mexico through out the day.  

I’m here in Viejo Vallarta, a few blocks from the beach, close enough to feel the ocean breezes. To my left is a ravine, where several donkeys stomp on the hillside, waiting for their nightly appearance at Ánadale, a bar down the street in La Zona Romántica.

At this point, some of you who read my latest novel, GETAWAY, may be saying, “Waaait a minute. Didn’t you just write a scary book about an American woman who goes on vacation in Puerto Vallarta, and things go very, very wrong? Aren’t there headless bodies on every street corner?”

It is true that there are some very scary stories coming out of Mexico, largely centered on the violence that has exploded since Mexican President Calderón declared war on the drug cartels a few years ago. This war has claimed upwards of 40,000 casualties, and though most of them are involved in the drug trade, journalists, officials and innocent bystanders have also been targeted or caught in the crossfire.

All of that said, it’s important to understand that this violence is largely localized, focused mainly in the border zone or in other areas where different cartel factions vie for control of the market.

Puerto Vallarta is still a safe destination for tourists and a wonderful place to spend your vacation. In fact, every time I visit, I ponder relocating here. I could live in this town. Write on a terrace cooled by ocean breezes. Take a break on Los Muertos Beach. Have a margarita or two.

So, why did I write a book that made the place seem dangerous?

My primary reason was that I am familiar enough with the location that I felt I could do the setting justice. A lot of readers want to be taken to an unfamiliar place and get a sense of what it might be like, and providing that experience is one of the things I most enjoy when I write books.

The other? It’s the job of a suspense author to, well, provide suspense.

This trouble looks pretty 

good to me, especially after a 

Margarita or two...

So, after deciding that I would set a suspense novel here, I had to figure out where the suspense would come from. I had a sort of vision, of an American woman on vacation, sitting on the beach, watching the passing carnival of tourists and locals, drinking beers, selling trinkets and serapes. She was unhappy, I knew that, but I didn’t know why. I wrote the first chapter, and figured that part of it out. Set up the situation that would get her in trouble.

Then, I had to determine what that trouble was.

You work with what’s plausible, or at least with what you can sell as plausible. Involving the drug trade in protagonist Michelle’s problems made sense. But I hope what people will take away from the story is not, “Mexico is scary!” and that the drug trade is a Mexican problem, one that has nothing to do with us in the US. But rather, that the story deals with corruption in general, and on both sides of the border.

A friend of mine who lives here asked, why would setting a crime novel in Puerto Vallarta be any different than say, setting one in Los Angeles? I think it’s a very good question.

Most Americans wouldn’t hesitate to visit Los Angeles, setting of countless crime novels, or New York, or Navaho country, or Oslo, or Beijing, or most of the places where countless authors have created fictional mayhem. In the case of Mexico, it’s true that there are areas you probably want to avoid, but I think that the many stories of drug violence with little to balance them have created a perception that does not match the reality of the country. Yes, the drug war is one reality. One aspect. And it’s a tragedy of epic proportions.

But, life goes on as well. And in most of Mexico, life is peaceful and ordinary.

So, adiós, for now, from Puerto Vallarta! It’s time for me to walk down to the beach, and have a margarita.

~*~*~*~

GETAWAY  Available in stores and online bookstores.

AMAZON, B&N, BAM, POWELLS

Michelle Mason tells herself she’s on vacation. A brief stay in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta. It’s a chance to figure out her next move after the unexpected death of her banker husband, who’s left behind a scandal and a pile of debt. The trip was already paid for, and it beats crashing in her sister’s spare room. When a good-looking man named Daniel approaches her on the beach, the margaritas have kicked in and she decides: why not?

But the date doesn’t go as either of them planned. An assault on Daniel in her hotel room, switched cell phones and an encounter with a “friend” of Daniel’s named Gary gets Michelle enmeshed in a covert operation involving drug runners, goons, and venture capitalists. Michelle already knows she’s caught in a dangerous trap. But she quickly finds that running is not an option. If she’s not careful, she’ll end up buried in the town dump, with the rest of the trash. Now she needs to fight smart if she wants to survive her vacation. EXCERPT

"Brackmann strikes exactly the right mood in this frantic look at an ordinary woman who can't seem to claw her way out of the mess in which she's managed to land."—Kirkus Reviews

Getaway:  

My Review 

~*~*~*~

Lisa Brackmann has worked as a motion picture executive and an issues researcher in a presidential campaign. A southern California native, she currently lives  in Venice California, with her three cats. Her critically acclaimed debut novel Rock Paper Tiger, was an Amazon best book of 2010.

You can find Lisa: Website, Twitter, Facebook

Kat's Monday Maundering – Toys for the Reader’s Brain

Here's to you Kat! And Thank you.

First of all, no, I’m not Sia. Sia has kindly allowed me to hijack borrow her blog while she takes a well-deserved rest and enjoys the long weekend. With any luck, she’s sitting by a pool with an iced coffee (or other adult beverage!).

Today’s blog topic was prompted by reviews I read on a book I loved, by people kvetching remarking they were unhappy with what they viewed as an unresolved, ambiguous ending. To them, I want to say pffft have you never watched Gone With the Wind? Shane? Read pretty much any literary novels?

I remember seeing Gone With the Wind for the first time when I was 15, as part of a class assignment. Rhett delivers his lovely line and slams the door. Scarlett cries and says she’ll think about things tomorrow. Fade to black. Lights up. I remember standing and yelling “I sat through four hours of boring war scenes and two intermissions for this??? This non-ending?? This…this…” At that point I became pretty much incoherent.

Many years later I watched it again. And discovered that I loved the ending. I loved discussing and debating it with friends. Did Scarlett chase after Rhett? Chase after someone else? Learn her lesson and become a nicer person (pffft!) Margaret Mitchell didn’t spell it out for us because she trusted us, as readers, to be discerning enough to figure it out ourselves. She didn’t need to wrap a pretty bow around it and deliver it on a silver platter. When asked, Mitchell herself said she did not know and said, "For all I know, Rhett may have found someone else who was less difficult."

The movie Shane ends much the same. The hero kills the villain and saves the town, but is wounded in the process. He gets on his horse and rides away into the sunset. Does he die? Find a doctor? Go on to save some other town? Marry Miss Kitty (oops, wrong Western). The thing is, we don’t need to know. The ending is satisfying just as it is, and the discussion/debate around it is even more entertaining.

So long as an author ties up all the major plot points, vanquishes evil (at least temporarily), and has cemented a memorable protagonist in my mind, I’m satisfied. Does the hero live to fight another day? Does the heroine look toward the future—no matter what it may hold—as a changed (or not!) person? I’m good with that.

I look at ambiguous/open/temporarily resolved endings this way: Let’s say on Christmas morning, you are given two presents. The first is all tied up with silvery wrapping paper and tied up with a pretty bow. Inside you find a doll house—the walls are decorated, it’s filled with tiny furniture, and comes with a little doll family all ready to move in.

The other package isn’t nearly as pretty—it’s kind of lumpy and unwieldy and has sharp corners poking out. When you unwrap it, you discover a pile of Legos. OK, so you can make your own doll house with them. Or you could build a skyscraper. Or a rocket. Or a pirate ship. They can be just as entertaining as that pretty ready-to-go gift, but some assembly is required. You’ll need to think. You’ll need to use your imagination.

But Legos—that daunting pile-o-stuff—comes with the best thing of all: possibilities. They can become whatever you want.

And so it is with books that have those open, ambiguous endings. When I read books like that I thank the author for respecting my intelligence, for trusting that I will discern their meaning, and for gifting me with whatever possible ending I can imagine for the characters.

***SPOILER ALERT***

If you’re up for a “flying off into the sunset” kind of ending, one that manages to combine BOTH a wounded hero AND a woman trying to figure out the next step in her life, I highly recommend the newest thriller from Lisa Brackmann, Getaway. Lisa herself will be here to talk with you on Wednesday, but I love her work so much, I wanted to recommend it ahead of time!

• So tell me: do you like your endings wrapped up with a pretty bow, or do you walk on the wild side and play with Legos?

Kat Sheridan is a recovering project manager and business analyst whose hard-bitten persona has always hidden a secret romantic. She likes her stories with a dark and dangerous flavor, so long as—in the end—the villains are vanquished and true love triumphs. She is inordinately fond of glitter nail polish, shiny things, bourbon, and any comestibles on which frosting can be placed.

Kat splits her time these days between the Midwest in the summer and the South in the winter because she dislikes snow, driving on ice, and wearing shoes (except for flip-flops, preferably with rhinestones). Her peripatetic life is shared with her own real life hero who shows her every day what happily ever after means.

GETAWAY

Tropical beaches, too many margaritas, add a sexy tempting stranger, and you have an engrossing tale filled with excitement and danger.

Getaway

Lisa Brackmann

Hardcover, 320 pages

Soho Press

May 1, 2012
5 Stars

WELCOME to gorgeous Puerto Vallarta, Mexico—home of margaritas, sunset beaches, a shady American ex-pat community, and a barely-hidden drug syndicate. This will be the most dangerous vacation of Michelle’s life.

Michelle Mason just came to the resort town of Puerto Vallarta for a short vacation. When good-looking man named Daniel approaches her on the beach, the margaritas kick in and she decides: why not? But the date doesn’t as either of them planned. A break-in in her hotel room, switched cell phones and an encounter with a friend of Daniel’s named Gary get Michelle enmeshed in a covert operation involving drug runners, goons, and venture capitalist, Michelle knows she’s caught in a dangerous trap, and quickly finds that running in not an option. If she’s not careful she’ll end up buried in the town dump, with the rest of the trash. Now she needs to fight smart if she wants to survive her vacation.

My thoughts:  I have been looking forward to reading this book since I first heard about the setting and premise. Getaway didn't disappoint me. It's well written and all too believable. I can actually see where this situation could happen. Getaway was so good it kept me turning the pages and I finished it in one day. If you like thrillers with a plausible setting, realistic characters, and danger, then this is the book to read this summer.

Ms. Brackmann has a knack of creating characters that have faced trauma in their lives and as a result have become somewhat indifferent or ambivalent; and placing them in situations that forces them to pull on inner reserves and strengths to deal with it. 

Case in point, Michelle Mason. Recently widowed, Michelle is facing, thanks to her dearly departed husband, social scandal and financial ruin—the end of the life she has become accustomed to. Puerto Vallarta was supposed to be a vacation and a time to reflect upon what she was going to do with the rest of her life. Instead, like Alice in Wonderland, she gets dropped down the rabbit hole into a world where nothing is what it seems to be. Drug wars, the DEA, and where good guys aren’t always good and trusting the wrong people can get you killed. Michelle’s journey pulls her out of her apathy and into fighting for survival against the odds where she can’t trust anyone but herself. 

What follows is an edge of your seat, believable, tightly woven story of suspense and danger played out in the steamy underbelly of Mexico—where winning means you live.

Lisa Brackmann has worked as a motion picture executive and an issues researcher in a presidential campaign. A southern California native, she currently lives  in Venice California, with her three cats. Her critically acclaimed debut novel Rock Paper Tiger, was an Amazon best book of 2010.


You can find Lisa: Website, Twitter, Facebook

MONDAY MUSINGS: The Quiet Life—Except When Its Not

I'm in a hot spiced tea mode today :-)

My week is off to a good start. I had a quiet, house all to myself, Sunday. No TV going, which tends to drive me nuts. I could think and putter around doing various needed things. It was wonderful. I’m a person who loves my quiet time. It refreshes me.

To top it off, it was a beautiful sunny day. Mild temperatures that made me think of spring which is a good thing because I’m planning out my herb garden, a small corn field so we can be assured of corn without nasty GMOs and built in pesticides—I’ll take bugs, thank you very much. I’m also planning some vertical gardening with tomatoes near my climbing roses. I’m going to try planting my crookneck, acorn, and butternut squash vertically. Did you know that every part the squash plant may be eaten, including the leaves and tender shoots, which can be cooked in omelets or made into soup?

Planning involved new rabbit hutches going in, and where; I need to prepare the area where the lambs and beef steer will be, and make the chicken laying area better and safe from possums and pesky predator types.

What can I say? I lead a rather quiet life, lol! Oh, it has its spurts of excitements, like times when I have a house full of teens, or a weekend of them (such as this past one).  Friday afternoon to Sunday at 10 am. Friday night movies and about anything they can get their hands on to eat and it gets loud and boisterous with guitar hero contests (I’m stuck on medium), water rifle battles, in January no less, I passed on it. Catch me in April, guys.

 

Picture from IMDb

Saturday, we (hubs and I) fixed popcorn and tea and watched Abduction (teens were in another room watching some scary flick). Very good movie. Good cast, great action, and probably a sequel will come to the screen. While I don’t watch a lot of movies this was one that sounded intriguing and would keep my interest and it did. I also want to see: Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman, Unknown, Liam Neeson.

And now you understand why I appreciated having a quiet Sunday.

I've finished up two great reads, The Avenger, a thriller by Jo Robertson, where a very smart serial killer has to be brought down.  Getaway (not yet released), another thriller, by Lisa Brackmann, set in Mexico involving an American who inadvertently gets caught up in a battle between good guys and bad guys set around the Mexican drug cartel trade. If she could only figure out which side really are the bad guys. Both are well written and kept me turning pages.  I also started a very good book, Cassa Fire, by Alex Cavanaugh (thankfully in print form as my Kindle has mysteriously disappeared). I can tell you, I’ll be reading more of his books. I love sci-fi set around space travel and exploration. This one is feeding that love. Contented sigh. Then again, I guess it’s not a big surprise, as I love Star Trek—all except Enterprise, which I couldn’t get into. So Alex’s story fits right in. 

Like I said, my life isn’t exactly the most exciting to most people but it suits me fine (Hey, I did my time living in cities, suburbia, and being on the go a lot).

Honestly, I love the country life and I enjoy peace and contentment that come with it.

• What about you? How was your weekend? 
• Any good books or movies you want to recommend?