How can a murder/mystery possibly be funny - Murder, Mystery & Dating Mayhem by D.E. Haggerty

Description:

Release Date: March 1st, 2015

My name is Izzy.

I drink too much, am clumsier than a newborn foal, and my brain-to-mouth filter often malfunctions. My daredevil husband killed himself in a parachuting accident five years ago and my best friend Jack has decided it’s time I jump back in the dating pool. He’s perfectly happy to throw me in if I don’t listen. 

Just when things in the dating world start to heat up, my grandma dies.

Only her knitting group of Jessica Fletcher wannabes is sure it’s murder. I’m not convinced but I’m always up for a bit of excitement as long as it doesn’t lead to a night in jail. Well, more than one night anyway. 

Will I miss my chance at love because I’m chasing imaginary killers? 

Did someone really kill grandma or am I and my merry band of geriatric thieves imagining things? 

GUEST POST

Humor & Mystery

by D.E. Haggerty

I think I’m really funny, but then, so does everyone else. Even that stuffy bowtie-wearing college professor thinks he’s funny. Encouraged by a few friends that agreed with me that I was indeed funny, I decided to write a humorous chick lit novel. I normally write stories that are suspenseful or mysterious and I couldn’t leave that genre entirely. I decided to incorporate a murder/mystery into my humorous novel. But how to do that?

A death should be treated with respect and murder is serious business. How can a murder/mystery possibly be funny and treat the murder and deceased with proper respect? We all need light moments to deal with heavy subjects – laughter can after all heal a broken heart. But too many light moments can lead to a disregard for the seriousness of the situation. To be perfectly honest one of my beta readers thought that I didn’t treat the murder of the heroine’s grandmother with enough respect. I was surprised as I thought I’d become too serious (read = boring) in the murder/mystery parts of the book.

It seems then that getting it right will vary with each reader. Some readers will find that I’ve gone over the edge of funniness into the land of crass and disrespect. Maybe even – gasp! – to the realm of slapstick! While other readers may feel that I’ve become stuffy and boring with the murder bits of the story. Sigh. You can’t make all the readers happy all the time.

So, what’s the solution then? I think writing a humorous murder/mystery is about balancing the light-hearted moments with the serious ones. It’s important to not throw a joke into every paragraph when you’re talking about the death of a loved one. Personally, I chose to write two chapters about the initial death and funeral that were pretty serious, although I did end each chapter with a light moment. There will always be a reader that thinks you’ve gone over the edge and not treated the death/murder with respect. Don’t let that stop you. If you’re satisfied you’ve done the best you can, then that’s all there is to it.

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About the author:

I was born and raised in Wisconsin, but think I’m a European. After spending my senior year of high school in Germany, I developed a bad case of wanderlust that is yet to be cured. My flying Dutch husband and I have lived in Ohio, Virginia, the Netherlands, Germany and now Istanbul. We still haven’t decided if we want to settle down somewhere – let alone where. Although I’ve been a military policewoman, a commercial lawyer, and a B&B owner, I think with writing I may have finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up. That’s assuming I ever grow up, of course. Between tennis, running, traveling, singing off tune, drinking entirely too many adult beverages, and reading books like they are going out of style, I write articles for a local expat magazine and various websites, review other indie authors’ books, write a blog about whatever comes to mind and am working on my fifth book.

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