Award-winning Author Gayle Carline
Announces
New Peri Minneopa Mystery, Murder Bytes
Placentia, CA –
Acclaimed Southern California author Gayle Carline announces the release of her
fifth Peri Minneopa mystery, Murder Bytes
(ISBN 978-1-943654-14-7). Murder Bytes follows the first four books in the critically acclaimed Peri
Minneopa series: Freezer Burn (ISBN 978-0985506001), Hit or Missus
(ISBN-13: 978-1461093596), The Hot
Mess (ISBN 978-0985506025), and A
More Deadly Union (ISBN 978-1-943654-06-2), along with the short story, Clean Sweep (ASIN B004U37614), and the Willie Adams romantic mystery, Murder on the Hoof (ISBN 978-0985506087). Carline is also
the author of several humorous memoirs, including What Would Erma Do? (ISBN 978-1453818039), and Raising the
Perfect Family and Other Tall Tales (ISBN 978-1-943654-00-0).
In Murder Bytes, 50-year-old private investigator, Peri Minneopa has
had enough. She’s closing her business, marrying her detective boyfriend, and
settling down to a life of ease–until her brother shows up, accused of a murder
he swears he didn’t commit. Now she’s back in the thick of things,
investigating the death of an engineer who may have been stealing
techno-secrets from other companies. Her relationship with her brother is an
icy one, at best, and she struggles with her ambivalence, as well as her desire
to leave investigative work behind. Digging around in people’s lives is
reasonably easy, but when the bullets start flying, will Peri be able to keep
her promise?
“The regular gang is all back for Murder Bytes,” said Carline. “At the end of A More Deadly Union, Peri had decided to close her P.I. business
and retire. In this story, she’s trying to do just that, but her older brother
needs her investigative skills to find out who is trying to frame him for
murder. The police would rather close the book and
let the courts handle it, so Peri must convince the detectives and Chief
Fletcher to keep digging. She, of course, gets a little help from her friends.”
Book Life calls Murder Bytes an “entertaining mystery … perfect for readers who
appreciate a funny and courageous heroine” and finds it “great for fans of Anne
George’s Southern Sisters series and Sue Grafton.”
Gayle Carline
a typical Californian, meaning that she was
born somewhere else. She moved to Orange County from Illinois in 1978 and
landed in Placentia a few years later. Carline began writing journalistic
pieces for California Riding Magazine,
then quickly added the title “humor columnist" to her resume with a weekly
column in her local newspaper, the Placentia
News-Times. What she really wanted to do was write mysteries, however, so
in 2009 she crossed that off her list with the first of her Peri Minneopa
mysteries. In her spare time, Carline likes to sit down with friends and laugh
over a glass of wine. And maybe plan a little murder and mayhem for the next
novel.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Murder Bytes is your fifth Peri Minneopa mystery. What can you tell
us about Peri, and how does this book continue the traditions established by
the other novels in the series?
“In the last book, A More Deadly Union, Peri was left
traumatized after solving the case. In the latest story, she just wants to stop
investigating crime, settle down, and marry her longtime boyfriend.
Unfortunately, that’s not the way her life works. Her brother needs her help,
to prove he did not commit murder. She is reluctant to help him, both because
she is still feeling the trauma of the last case and because her brother does
not want any kind of relationship with her—he is only using her to get out of
trouble. To me, it is a classic question of the thickness of blood and water,
and how much you are willing to go to bat for ‘that relative.’”
2. In Murder Bytes, Peri re-opens her practice to help her
estranged brother. What
keeps Peri from simply referring him to another qualified detective?
“At the end of the day, Dev is her big brother. She wants to
believe that he considers her his little sister, that someday, somehow, he will
realize his familial love for her. There’s a piece of advice, to ‘raise the
child you have and not the one you want.’ In Peri’s case, she wants the brother
who wants to be close to her, and has a hard time accepting the brother that he
is.”
3. Peri’s boyfriend, Detective Skip Carlton, is
now her official fiancé. They have bought a home together, and are selling
their houses. Because Peri’s house sold and Skip’s is still on the market, she is
living in the new place while it’s being remodeled. How is this affecting their
relationship?
“The continual stream of workers and noise in their house
has Peri’s stress dialed up to 11, on top of her PTSD. It creates conflict for
them, in that he wants to defer remodeling decisions to her, so that she will
be happy, and she would like him more involved, to take the pressure off. In
addition, he wants to help her with her brother’s problem, but would like her
to just sit on the sidelines and watch—something she’s never been good at.”
4. There are a number of
familiar characters in Murder Bytes that
readers will recognize from the earlier novels in the series. Who are your
personal favorites, and what happens to them in this particular story?
“I like them all, for individual reasons. Blanche is always
Peri’s rock as her BFF, and I appreciate her good advice. I admire Police Chief
Fletcher—he is the right man for the job. Of course, Benny Needles will always
be my favorite. In this book, he gets his own chapters, and even has a ‘special
friend.’ He and Peri have a lot of warm, connecting moments, and I’m very
pleased with his growth.”
5. Murder Bytes takes place in Southern California, in the Orange
County area. How integral is this setting to the Peri Minneopa mysteries, and
why did you place the series in this environment?
“When I started this series, I wanted a small town feel, but
not so small that I wouldn’t kill off all the residents! They say to write what
you know, and I know Southern California. My hometown of Placentia has a very
small-town feel, even though it is locked into the vast Orange County. That
made it perfect—nonresidents are constantly coming in and out of town, giving
my stories lots of victims. Plus, I’m very proud to live in Placentia (we
sometimes call it P-Town). I might as well do my part to put it on the map.”
6. Are you working on another
Peri Minneopa mystery? If so, what can you tell us about it?
“I am advertising this as the fifth and final installment of
Peri Minneopa Mysteries. I think I’ve taken her to a place where the next book
would be such a completely different flavor, it will have to be a new series of
mysteries. Don’t worry—I’ll start writing them! In the meantime, I have a
sequel to my romantic suspense, Murder on
the Hoof, to write.”
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