A day in the life with Kay Powell by E.J. Copperman

I don’t have a “typical” day. There’s just no such thing. Most days I have a client or two to see, potential clients to consider and sometimes I accompany a client to an audition. I do spend some time walking and cleaning up after my clients as well.

I’m Kay Powell of Powell and Associates (my only associate is actually my office manager Consuelo). I’m a theatrical agent whose clients are all animals. Not the Hollywood kind; the four-legged (usually) kind.

The story of how I got into this business is told elsewhere so I won’t take up your time. Suffice it to say I come from a showbiz family, didn’t want to perform on stage—anymore—and had a law degree with no desire to practice law. So the natural jump was to representing dogs, cats, birds and the occasional snake in movies, TV and theater, right?

Right?

I know it’s a little unusual, but the fact is most of my conflicts in business are with my clients’ human owners, not the animals themselves. Most of the clients—even the snake—are just as sweet as can be. It’s the people who can be problems.

For example, I had this client Bruno, the nicest big shaggy dog you ever met. Well okay, so you never met him, but I did and he was a gentleman and a terrific actor. But his owners, Trent and Louis Barclay, were a little less than charming. In fact, the director Les McMaster (yes, that Les McMaster!) was ready to give Bruno the role of Sandy in his hit revival of Annie on Broadway—but he insisted it be written into the contract that Trent especially could not be in the theater for rehearsals or have any contact at all with Les while Bruno was working in the show.

That became somewhat moot when they found Trent with a knife in his back and his face in Bruno’s water dish.

And that’s when my life started getting interesting. More interesting. No, I’ll go back to it: Interesting.

To tell the truth, I wasn’t that upset about what happened to Trent. But if anybody comes after Bruno, they’re going to have to go through me first.

Perhaps I should rephrase that.

It’s a long story, told elsewhere. Suffice it to say it wasn’t a typical day. Because I haven’t had one of those yet.

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You can read more about Kay in Dog Dish of Doom, the first book in the NEW “Agent to the Paws” mystery series.

Cozy fans and animal lovers alike won’t be able to keep their paws off Dog Dish of Doom. Laugh-out-loud funny, E.J. Copperman’s series debut is “lots of fun” (Library Journal, starred).

Kay Powell wants to find that break-out client who will become a star. And she thinks she’s found him: His name is Bruno, and he has to be walked three times a day.

Kay is the Agent to the Paws, representing showbiz clients who aren’t exactly people. In fact: they’re dogs. Bruno’s humans, Trent and Louise, are pains in the you-know-what, and Les McMaster, the famous director mounting a revival of Annie, might not hire Bruno just because he can’t stand them.

This becomes less of an issue when Trent is discovered face down in Bruno’s water dish, with a kitchen knife in his back. Kay’s perfectly fine to let the NYPD handle the murder, but when the whole plot seems to center on Bruno, her protective instincts come into play. You can kill any people you want, but you’d better leave Kay’s clients alone.

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About the author
Kay Powell debuts in the Agent to the Paws mystery series with Dog Dish of Doom from Minotaur on August 15. E.J. Copperman is the author of the Agent to the Paws series, the Haunted Guesthouse mystery series, the Mysterious Detective mystery series and, with Jeff Cohen, the Asperger’s mystery series. E.J. has a beagle named Gizmo who does not perform on camera or onstage. But he does a heck of an act when he wants some chicken from your plate. Connect with E.J. at ejcopperman.com.

All comments are welcomed.

A Day in the Life of Duffy Madison by E.J. Copperman

My days are varied. Sometimes I have no work, in which case I tend to my personal business and finances. I will research some aspects of missing person cases because that is my specialty.

On days when I am commissioned by the Bergen County (New Jersey) Prosecutor’s Office to investigate such an event, I will confer with my colleague Ben Preston on the particulars of the case and then interview possible witnesses or those with some knowledge of the missing person. This is usually not complicated by the fact that Ben is currently dating Rachel Goldman, the woman who created me.

Rachel doesn’t like to admit it, but when she started writing crime fiction centered on the character Duffy Madison, a man dedicated to finding missing people, she somehow gave life to me. It is the only logical conclusion one can reach, as I have no memories beyond five years ago, when Rachel began the series of novels.

I realize that sounds impossible. It doesn’t seem to make sense in a physical context. But I can find no other theory that fits all the facts, so the conclusion that I am the living manifestation of Rachel’s fictional character is the only one that can be true.

Recently Rachel attempted to disprove my theory by asserting that I had another identity until five years ago. She believed I had been Damien Mosely, a man who had vanished from his home in Poughkeepsie, New York at almost the same moment I must have come into being.

Again, I understand her reluctance to accept my version of the truth and I can certainly see how her theory makes some sense in Rachel’s mind. Here was a man who lived in the town she had written as my birthplace. He had the same initials as I do (which isn’t much proof but is an improbable coincidence). He left his home without any explanation and had not been seen since, and the timing was eerily close. I can see how Rachel would make that mistake.

So I proposed that we go to Poughkeepsie and investigate Damien Mosely’s disappearance. Finding the truth would obviously contradict the notion in Rachel’s mind and she would accept who I really am.

But Rachel refused. She was not interested in anything other than writing her latest Duffy Madison novel, which she said was going badly because now that she’d met me she could no longer imagine the character she’d created accurately enough to make him real on the page. I found this ironic but kept my opinion to myself as it would have no positive effect on the conversation.

Eventually I did convince Rachel to travel with me to Poughkeepsie and we began an investigation into Damien Mosely’s disappearance. While the consequences of that investigation were quite unexpected—including my being arrested for murder—the things we discovered were downright surprising and eventually quite dangerous for both Rachel and myself.

I’m not sure if I will ever truly convince Rachel of my identity. For a novelist who creates fiction completely from her imagination she is surprisingly grounded in the conventional explanations of phenomena. So my existence, in Rachel’s mind, must be the result of some trauma I have suffered which led to hysterical amnesia. She believes she will eventually be able to prove to me that her theory is based more in science than mine and that I will accept it if she can find the person I “used to be.”

But I know the truth, and now, so do you.

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Duffy Madison appears in Edited Out, the latest Mysterious Detective Mystery from Crooked Lane Books.

Mystery author Rachel Goldman is getting used to the idea that her fictional creation Duffy Madison has somehow taken flesh-and-blood form and is investigating missing person cases not far from where Rachel lives. Wait. No. She’s not getting used to it at all, and the presence of this real-life Duffy is making her current manuscript—what’s the word?—lousy.

So she doesn’t want to see Duffy—the living one—at all. To make matters worse, when he shows up at her door and insists on talking to her, it’s about the one thing she doesn’t want to do: Find a missing person. But the man Duffy seeks this time around might be able to solve Rachel’s problem. He might just be the man Duffy was before he became Duffy five years ago. The only problem is she could be letting Duffy lead her into danger yet again. . .

Entertaining and witty, the second in E.J. Copperman’s Mysterious Detective Mystery series Edited Out will delight his fans, both new and old.

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About the author
E.J. Copperman writes Mysterious Detective series as well as the Haunted Guesthouse and Agent to the Paws series, and with Jeff Cohen, the Asperger’s Mystery series. That seems like a lot of series.

Visit E.J. at ejcopperman.com.

All comments are welcomed.

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My Musing ~ Spouse on Haunted Hill by E.J. Copperman

Spouse on Haunted Hill by E.J. Copperman is the 8th book in the “Haunted Guesthouse” mystery series. Publisher: Penguin Random House, December 2016

Alison’s shady ex needs to use her haunted guesthouse as a hideout in the latest from the national bestselling author of Ghost in the Wind.

Where Alison Kerby’s ex-husband goes, trouble follows. This time, unfortunately, he’s brought that trouble right to her doorstep. On the run from a business deal gone bad, Steven, aka “the Swine,” owes some scary people a staggering sum of money. No need to panic, though. He has a plan: Sell Alison’s Jersey Shore guesthouse to pay them off.

Before Alison has a chance to read Steven the riot act, he disappears—after a mysterious man trailing him ends up full of bullet holes. Now the police are next to darken her doorway. For all his faults, Steven is still the father of Alison’s daughter, so with the help of ghosts Maxie and Paul, Alison sets out to find her ex and clear him of the murder. But if the bad guys get to him first, he may not have a ghost of a chance…

This is the best book in this delightfully endearing series. Nothing good happens when The Swine arrives at the airport with Melissa and what follows is an adventure populated with gangsters that darkens the doorstop of Alison’s guesthouse. The author did a great job in setting this well-written mystery with multiple plot that cascaded into a series of escapades that brings out the best in all the characters, especially our heroine. The suspect list was small, but I love that surprising twist that the author put in place and that truly enhance the telling of the story. Everyone played a pivotal role in the narrative and I liked how this book ended with new adventures awaiting the gang. I’m so happy there will be at least two more books in this excellent series.

A Day in the “Life” of Paul Harrison by E.J. Copperman

Lately the days have been getting a little tedious if the truth be known.

Even a pleasant routine is a routine, and when you are facing eternity—as I am—that idea becomes even more disturbing. I am fond of my hostess Alison Kerby and I have a comfortable existence in her guesthouse on the New Jersey Shore, but I am, after all, dead, and unable to leave the boundaries of Alison’s property. That means I’ll be here doing the same thing, day after day, for the foreseeable future. And perhaps after that.

When I first regained a state of conscious thought after my companion in the house Maxie Malone and I were poisoned a few years ago, it took a great deal of adjustment to understand our situation. I had been hired by Maxie as something of a bodyguard and was trying to get my private investigation agency off the ground. Maxie was a budding interior designer being threatened, threats that turned out to be all too real for both of us.

But that was years ago now, and I have agreed with Alison on a bargain: I want to keep investigating for people like myself who have left the mortal life but have not yet moved on to whatever plane of existence comes next. Since I am unable to move outside the property, I asked Alison to be my “eyes, ears and legs” in the living world. She reports to me and we solve cases together.

Her end of the bargain, being a woman running a guesthouse that caters to those who wish to have a “value-added experience,” was that Maxie and I participate in what she refers to as “spook shows” twice a day, giving her guests that contact with us they seem to desire, although it is somewhat demeaning to us and difficult for me to understand. But the guests seem to enjoy it, for their own reasons.

So, a typical day begins with some preparation for the morning spook show. We rattle some furniture, throw fruit back and forth to each other and Maxie, who has something of a vicious streak, will sometimes try to frighten the guests by spreading rubber cement on the walls or ruffling someone’s hair. Maxie is not receiving any part of the bargain and often reminds both Alison and me of that.

After the morning show we are left to our pursuits. When we have a case to investigate Maxie often is involved in Internet research, something she has show a remarkable aptitude for, and I try to make sense of any interviews or information Alison manages to gather.

When there is no case, I am left to contemplate an eternity that offers little variety of experience, and that is not a pleasant thought. So, I amuse myself with experiments and exploration of the realm in which I now exist.

Lately I have been working on a theory that people like Maxie and myself are composed purely of energy. This leaves open many possibilities for progress, including the slightest chance we might be able to move on to the next level of existence if my current experiment is a success. It will require some time and effort, and a large number of electronic devices from Alison’s basement.

All that might be sidetracked, however, when Alison’s ex-husband Steven Rendell (a man she calls “The Swine” when her daughter Melissa is not present) wakes up this morning. He flew in with Melissa from his home in California last night and has been acting in a suspicious manner. Alison is concerned, and I believe she might have some reason to worry. There are unsavory characters meeting with Steven and talk of violence. There could be trouble here soon.

Is it wrong for me to hope I can alleviate the boredom with an investigation involving Alison’s ex-husband? I will have to give that some thought. After all, I have nothing but time on my hands.

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Spouse On Haunted Hill is the eighth book in the Haunted Guesthouse mystery series, published by Penguin Random House, December 2016.

Alison’s shady ex needs to use her haunted guesthouse as a hideout in the latest from the national bestselling author of Ghost in the Wind.

Where Alison Kerby’s ex-husband goes, trouble follows. This time, unfortunately, he’s brought that trouble right to her doorstep. On the run from a business deal gone bad, Steven, aka “the Swine,” owes some scary people a staggering sum of money. No need to panic, though. He has a plan: Sell Alison’s Jersey Shore guesthouse to pay them off.

Before Alison has a chance to read Steven the riot act, he disappears—after a mysterious man trailing him ends up full of bullet holes. Now the police are next to darken her doorway. For all his faults, Steven is still the father of Alison’s daughter, so with the help of ghosts Maxie and Paul, Alison sets out to find her ex and clear him of the murder. But if the bad guys get to him first, he may not have a ghost of a chance. . .

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About the author
Paul Harrison and the full cast of characters from the Haunted Guesthouse series returned in Spouse On Haunted Hill December 6. E.J. Copperman is the author of the Haunted Guesthouse series and the Mysterious Detective series (Written Out), and with Jeff Cohen, the Asperger’s Mystery series (The Question Of The Felonious Friend). You can find E.J. at www.ejcopperman.com.

All comments are welcomed.

My Musing ~ Written Off by E.J. Copperman

Written Off by E.J. Copperman is the first book in the NEW “Mysterious Detective” mystery series. Publisher: Crooked Lane Books, June 2016

Rachel Goldman writes mysteries in which Duffy Madison, consultant to the county prosecutor’s office, helps find missing persons. Rachel is busy working on her next book, when a man calls out of the blue asking for help in a missing persons case. The caller’s name? Duffy Madison.

Is this real or has she lost her mind? She doesn’t have much time to find out because a serial killer is on the loose, kidnapping and murdering mystery authors. And Rachel may just be the next target.

Full of uncanny intrigue and witty humor, E.J. Copperman’s imaginative series debut Written Off is sure to be a new fan favorite for readers of Donna Andrews.

Imagine a character coming to life as a human? Can you? That is what faces Rachel when she meets her protagonist and immediately gets pulled into his investigation which starts this new series that is downright enjoyable. What a great concept that kept me involved in all facets of this narrative that I could not put down until I knew who was after whom. The set-up was brilliantly done and the tone and flow is so comfortable, it felt like I was part of the action. I especially love that while in the throes of trying to solve this mystery, the heroine took time out to talk to me, the reader. Okay, it was her inner voice, but yes, that part was engagingly fun. This was a terrific read and the author did a great job in presenting this mystery kept me intrigued throughout and when I figured out who was behind this, I applaud the author because it was that good. I’m so looking forward to the next book in this fantastic debut series.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) book from the author.

Rachel Goldman’s Character by E.J. Copperman

The thing about writing crime fiction is that your mind never really turns off. You (the author) think about interesting ways to kill people with whom you have no particular argument and then how to conceal the deed in a way that seems impenetrable but has one fatal flaw, because the sleuth you send to catch the dastardly villain has to outsmart him/her in the end.

It’s exhausting.

I’m Rachel Goldman and I write the Duffy Madison series. Duffy, as you’re aware if you’ve been following the four books in the series, is a special consultant to the Morris County (NJ) Prosecutor’s Office whose expertise is in missing person cases. If you misplace a loved one in Morris County, Duffy is the guy you want on the case.

My days as a mid-list author are fairly normal most of the time, and chronicled in some detail in Written Off, a new “novel” (for legal reasons) by E.J. Copperman that depicts my new dilemma: a man claiming to be the real Duffy Madison (as if there were such a person) shows up at a book signing of mine and asks—pleads, if you want to be honest—for me to help him in his current case. It seems someone is abducting, and eventually killing, women of a certain profession.

That’s right—crime fiction authors.

So when Duffy showed up in my life (and I call him “Duffy” because he refuses to answer to any other name) I did what any intelligent, considering human being would do: I freaked out. I mean, it’s one thing to have devoted fans but this was taking it to a disturbing new extreme, don’t you think?

So my routine has become somewhat less normal these days. In addition to revising the fictional Duffy Madison book I have on my hard drive, I’m dealing with the flesh-and-blood “Duffy Madison,” who has the character down so perfectly he’s sort of becoming the man in my head. And he’s leading me into places only a TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) character in a crime fiction novel—the kind I try scrupulously to avoid—would go.

I’m not going into detail because this Copperman person has the rights to the story, but for the sake of clarity let’s assume I am not a completely willing participant in the proceedings, and when the maniac who’s going after crime fiction authors gets wind of my involvement. . . Well, you’ve no doubt read the back cover of a mystery novel before, so you can insert the proper cliché. One that ends with “might be next on the killer’s reading list” or some such hyperbole.

And I can’t count on Duffy Madison to help me out of a jam because, well, who knows if he’s real or a figment of my imagination?

It’s going to be a long week.

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Written Off is the first book in the NEW Mysterious Detective mystery series, published by Crooked Lane Books, June 2016.

Rachel Goldman writes mysteries in which Duffy Madison, consultant to the county prosecutor’s office, helps find missing persons. Rachel is busy working on her next book, when a man calls out of the blue asking for help in a missing persons case. The caller’s name? Duffy Madison.

Is this real or has she lost her mind? She doesn’t have much time to find out because a serial killer is on the loose, kidnapping and murdering mystery authors. And Rachel may just be the next target.

Full of uncanny intrigue and witty humor, E.J. Copperman’s imaginative series debut Written Off is sure to be a new fan favorite for readers of Donna Andrews.

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About the author
E.J. Copperman is the author of Written Off, the first in the Mysterious Detective Mystery series, as well as the Haunted Guesthouse mystery series (Ghost In The Wind) and the co-author with Jeff Cohen of the Asperger’s Mystery series (The Question Of The Unfamiliar Husband). But don’t worry—next year Copperman will add another series to fill the time.

Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Murder by the Book. US and Canadian entries only, please. The giveaway will end June 20, 2016 at 12 AM EST. Good luck everyone!

All comments are welcomed.

My Musing ~ Ghost in the Wind by E.J. Copperman

Ghost in the Wind by E.J. Copperman is the seventh book in the “Haunted Guesthouse” mystery series. Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime, December 2015

Never meet your heroes—especially when they’re dead.

Guesthouse owner, single mother, and reluctant ghost whisperer Alison Kerby is about to sit down to movie night with her family and friends when she’s struck speechless. Floating before her is the ghost of her musical idol, 1960s English rock star Vance McTiernan. He’s in desperate need of help from Alison and her resident ghostly gumshoe, Paul Harrison.

Reports claim that four months ago, Vance’s daughter died from a drug overdose. Vance, however, thinks she was murdered. While Alison agrees to help, Paul is suspicious of Vance’s motives. But after the body of the alleged killer is found in the movie room, Alison and Paul must act quickly before someone else finds a stairway to heaven.

This is one of my favorite series that I eagerly await each year and every time I read a book in the series, it brings me laughter and excitement. Alison sees the ghost of a childhood idol and takes his case against the wishes of her ghostie partner. The author does a wonderful job in setting up this fast-paced, action-filled drama that had me devouring every word on the page. The growth of these beloved characters and the bond they share keeps me coming back to Harbor Haven because I know an adventure awaits me that will put me smack dab in the middle of all the fun. The mystery was well-executed and I love how the author played it out keeping me guessing on other factors, especially that little twist at the end. Good job! I love the internal quips from Alison that keeps me laughing and in this book, the author put together a jam session that OMG, if only I was there, I would be in heaven. This book was both engaging and entertaining and I look forward to the next book in this delightfully charming series.

A Day in the Life of Melissa Kerby by E.J. Copperman

My average day is just like the average day of most other fifth graders: I get up the morning, get ready for school, get some breakfast, get driven to school, spend the day there, then get driven home and cook dinner—okay, that part’s a little unusual, but I like it—and do homework, maybe watch some TV or do online stuff until I have to go to bed.

Typical.

All right, I left out a couple of things. First, my mom owns a guesthouse on the Jersey Shore, so we always have some very nice people visiting in the house and I have to make sure I’m on good behavior when they’re around, because like my mom says, they’re paying for the house we live in.

Second, my mom also has a private investigator license, and every once in a while we investigate a case together. She does most of the driving around and interviewing people and then we talk about it at night and I sort of interpret what a lot of the stuff they said to her meant.

There is one other thing I should tell you: The house is haunted, and I do see ghosts, especially the ones who live there.

I’ve always been able to see ghosts. It took a long time when I was little for my grandma, who also can see them, to explain to me that not everybody does. It was harder because my mom couldn’t see or hear the ghosts all around her until a few years ago when she got hit on the head and then all of a sudden she could.

My best friend Wendy (Mom calls her my BFF, and maybe she is, but nobody says that anymore) knows about the ghosts and can’t see them. She’s totally cool with them, which is one of the reasons I like her so much.

So Maxie and Paul, the ghosts in our house, are part of my day every day. Maxie is so much fun—she likes to be outrageous but she really is sweet and she cares about us, even if Mom doesn’t think so. Paul is serious, but he always knows what to do when we have a case, and he’s really warm and nice for a guy who got murdered three years ago.

Anyway, my day includes school, guests, ghosts and sometimes investigations. I love the cases, and Mom pretends she doesn’t but I think she really does. It’s so cool to think about who did what and why they did it. But when our friend Lt. McElone from the police department asked Mom to help with something, it got a little weird for a while.

Mom tells that story in a book called Inspector Specter. What she says is mostly true.

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Melissa Kerby is featured in Inspector Specter, the sixth book in the Haunted Guesthouse mystery series by E.J. Copperman, published by Berkley Prime Crime. The first book in the series is Night of the Living Deed.

GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 6 p.m. eastern on December 29 for the chance to win a copy of INSPECTOR SPECTER. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

Meet the author
E.J. Copperman is either someone’s pseudonym or the sick mind behind the Haunted Guesthouse mystery series, in which two resident ghosts help a single mom/innkeeper/private investigator solve crimes and entertain guests, or both. E.J. is a screenwriter, freelance reporter, teacher and bon vivant from New Jersey, if such a thing is possible. Visit E.J. at his website.

My Musing ~ Inspector Specter by E.J. Copperman

Inspector Specter by E.J. Copperman is the sixth book in the “Haunted Guesthouse” mystery series. Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime, December 2014

Just when she thought she’d seen everything. . .

Detective Lieutenant Anita McElone is one of Harbor Haven’s finest. She’s also a hard-boiled ghost skeptic. So when she shows up on the doorstep of Alison Kerby’s Haunted Guesthouse to ask for supernatural help in solving the murder of her former partner, it’s hard to tell which woman is more flabbergasted. But McElone is dead serious, so Alison promises to help in any way she can—even asking her resident ghosts, Paul and Maxie, for help with the case.

As Paul’s spirit source reveals some troubling information about the deceased detective, Alison wrestles with what to tell McElone. First, though, she has to find her. . .because the lieutenant has suddenly disappeared.

I enjoy the camaraderie between the living and the ghosts and if it wasn’t for the ghost-like behavior, sometimes the ghosts feel like the living, especially in their actions. This was an enjoyable read and I liked in this light drama we had more insight into the person Lt. McElone is out of uniform. But best of all is the outcome of their association that is a bonus in this fast-paced whodunit. The plot of this mystery kept me engaged in all that was happening and the suspenseful nature propelled me towards a conclusion befitting all the characters. Boasting a great cast of characters, witty repartee and the backdrop of the NJ shore, this is a delightfully wonderful read and I look forward to more adventures with Alison and the gang.