Lauren Carr Interview – Candidate for Murder
Thank you for this interview, Lauren Carr. Can you tell us a little about yourself and how long you’ve been writing?
My whole life. I believe writers are born. I was making up stories before I learned penmanship. When I would read a book, I would re-write it in my mind to make it better—usually by inserting a dead body and a mystery to be solved.
Can you tell us briefly about Candidate for Murder?
It’s election time in Spencer, Maryland, and the race for mayor is not a pretty one. In recent years, the small resort town has become divided between the local year-round residents who have enjoyed their rural way of life and the city dwellers moving into their mansions, taking over the town council, and proceeding to turn Deep Creek Lake into a closed gate community—complete with a host of regulations for everything from speed limits to clothes lines.
When the political parties force-feed two unsavory mayoral nominees on the town residents, Police Chief David O’Callaghan decides to make a statement—by nominating Gnarly, Mac Faraday’s German shepherd, to run as mayor of Spencer!
What starts out as a joke turns into a disaster when overnight Gnarly becomes the front runner—at which point his political enemies take a page straight out of Politics 101. What do you do when you’re behind in a race? Dig up dirt on the front runner, of course.
Seemingly, someone is not content to rest with simply embarrassing the front runner by publicizing his dishonorable discharge from the United States Army, but to throw in a murder for good measure.
With murder on the ballot, Mac Faraday and the gang—including old friends from past cases—dive in to clear Gnarly’s name, catch a killer, and save Spencer!
A dog running for mayor? Where do you get your story ideas?
I get my ideas anywhere and everywhere. This specific idea—of Gnarly running for mayor—came from a feature segment I saw on television. It was about Bosco, the dog mayor of Sunol, California. Between this program and our current presidential election, I thought, “What if …”
Many readers had been asking for me to write Gnarly’s story—explaining how he was dishonorably discharged from the United States Army. I thought this plot, with his political opponents scrambling to discredit him, would be the perfect springboard to explore that mystery.
What was your greatest challenge writing Candidate for Murder?
Writing a murder mystery with a political backdrop without allowing it to come across as political messaging.
Politics is a hot issue button this year and I went into writing Candidate for Murder knowing that I was using a hot backdrop for this story. But, I’m fearless when it comes to a literary challenge. Good writers are like athletes. If you want to improve, you need to write every day, or your writing muscles will get weak. If you don’t challenge yourself, then your writing will get stale, not just for you doing the writing, but for your readers.
Over the last seven years, our country has become so divided, especially in this election year. The purpose of Candidate for Murder is not to tell readers this is how it should be and this party is right and that one is wrong. Readers will notice that some of the political “guest” characters bear similarities to people who are currently in the news, but I make a point to never attach either candidate to a specific party or political viewpoint. Rather, I explore characters and the use of politics to achieve personal agendas.
Readers will see some similarities between local issues addressed during the campaign to national issues. Of course, a mystery with a political backdrop would not be complete without poking fun at how the media handles things.
I’m not a political person—really I’m not. I’m a registered independent!
However, I’m a writer and as a writer, I sit back and observe and ask, “What if ….”
That’s what I did with Candidate for Murder. I looked at how things are in our country right now. How could I not? It’s right there in my face. As a writer, I asked, “What if with so many people so angry, and so many people so unhappy with the current government, and neither political party nominating a candidate that the people want … a hero overflowing with integrity and character rose up to be put on the ballot—and that candidate was a dog?”
Why did you choose to write murder mysteries?
I inherited my love of mysteries from my mother. She used to read Perry Mason to me at bedtime. My first memories were of cuddling up next to her in bed while she was reading and she would read to me to make me go to sleep. I would nod off to the sound of Perry Mason revealing the killer in a dramatic courtroom scene.
What’s next for you?
By the end of summer, September 2016, Lovers in Crime will see the third installment for that series, Killer in the Band. Fans of the Lovers in Crime and the Thorny Rose Mysteries will get to know more about Joshua Thornton Jr (J.J.), Murphy’s identical twin brother and Joshua Thornton’s eldest son.
J.J. has graduated at the top of his class from law school and is returning home to spend the summer studying for the bar exam. However, to the Thornton’s shock and dismay, J.J. decides to move in with Suellen Russell, a lovely widow twice his age. The move brings long buried tensions between the father and son to the surface. When a brutal killer strikes, the father and son must set all differences aside to solve the crime before J.J. ends up in the crosshairs of a murderer.
In November, fans of the Thorny Rose Mysteries will see the second installment for that series, A Fine Year for Murder.
