Coming Up, One More Whiskey

It's been a long time coming. But it is on the way now, just like Whiskey's baby.

That's right--Book #7 in the humorous Whiskey Mattimoe Mystery Series will be released on July 15!

As series readers know, we left off with Whiskey and Soda, in which our protagonist narrowly escapes death by arrow and solves a murder that occurs before her very eyes. She must also cope with the antics of Abra the Afghan hound and a French bulldog named Sandra Bullock, not to mention being six months pregnant.

Fast forward three more months, and you have

Whiskey, Large
by Nina Wright
Nine months pregnant, real estate broker Whiskey Mattimoe is literally living large. She needs a driver now and a nanny very soon. Magnet Springs is re-branding itself as a pet-friendly vacation destination, and the transition is bumpy. Someone is shooting at unleashed dogs, including Whiskey's own escape artist Abra. The shooter could be a disgruntled resident, a crazed tourist, or someone closer to home. More important, why doesn't Whiskey's husband answer his cell phone? Who's going to drive her to the hospital when her water breaks?

When the Wall Street Journal Calls

 

When Sanette Tanaka, Wall Street Journal real estate reporter, arranged a phone interview with me, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

What I experienced during our half-hour chat was a professional journalist asking tough questions but also laughing about my humorous mysteries set in fictional Magnet Springs, Michigan, starring Abra the (untrainable) Afghan hound and, of course, Realtor Whiskey Mattimoe.

Ms. Tanaka was intrigued by my choice of a Realtor as a mystery series protagonist. I explained that a real estate agent has access to properties and people in widely varied conditions. Setting my Whiskey Mattimoe mysteries in a resort town lets me create colorful characters drawn to a charming and expensive setting. If a character isn’t misbehaving on holiday, he or she is probably making a living from those who are.

Humor is at the heart of my series and at the core of many real estate issues. As I told Ms. Tanaka, “When you have a lot of money and a lot of emotion involved in a time-sensitive transaction, things tend to go wrong. Looking for comedy in chaos is what I do.” 

Of course, Abra the Afghan hound helps things go wrong, but almost as often she helps solve the mystery, too. Abra is surprisingly heroic in Whiskey and Soda (Book #6). And she’ll play an unexpectedly vital role in the seventh Whiskey Mattimoe mystery due out later this year.

From Sanette Tanaka's February 22, 2013 article, "In Real Estate, Truth in Fiction":

Nina Wright, author of six mystery novels featuring real-estate agent and sleuth Whiskey Mattimoe, says she often embellishes absurd situations to suit her series. In real life, Ms. Wright, who lives in Oakland County, Mich., found out that one of her tenants was running an underground day-care service. In the fourth book, "Whiskey and Water," agent Mattimoe discovers that her tenant is operating an illegal adoption ring.
 
"There are so many things that can go wrong in real estate," says Ms. Wright. "I've bought and sold a lot of properties, but I haven't seen a single transaction where there aren't colossal screw-ups."

The Payoff for Patience

Here’s a little story about a bigger story: A few years ago, I moved to Dallas, Texas, in order to take a teaching job at a prestigious school. Although I met lovely people there, I deeply missed family and friends back in the Land of the Great Lakes. During my time in Dallas, death claimed someone very near to my heart. A combination of homesickness and grief led me back north, where I intended to resume my fiction writing career. However, my original publisher had made a decision not to continue the Whiskey Mattimoe series.

Then I found a new publisher, Martin Brown/Ampichellis. Together we are extremely pleased to present Book #6 in the humorous Whiskey Mattimoe mystery series starring Abra the Afghan hound, the original Bad Girl of Dog Fiction. The new book, Whiskey and Soda, is due out in both trade paperback and ebook formats at the end of May 2012.

For more information about the new book and insights into the series, I urge you to check my Whiskey Mattimoe blog and/or my Amazon Author Central Page. The bottom line: Abra is coming back, and she’s in more trouble than ever. So is Whiskey, her reluctant “owner.”

Their madcap misadventures continue in Magnet Springs, Michigan, with friends and felons both new and familiar. I urge you to read it. And I sincerely thank my readers for letting me know they wanted more Whiskey. Cheers!