Romance and Mystery – by Denise Swanson

As a reader, I always felt there were two components to a great plot—mystery and romance. And as a writer, I find it darn near impossible not to include both of those elements in my stories. It’s a little like that old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial, I get either mystery mixed up into my romances or romances mixed up into my mysteries.

I blame this on my favorite pre-teen series Trixie Belden. There was always a hint of romance running through those books. Would Trixie and Jim Frayne end up together? Hint. In my Scumble River series, I answer that question how I wanted it to be answered.

Which is why, in the mid-nineties when I started writing Murder of a Small-Town Honey, the first Scumble River mystery, I incorporated a heavy dose of romance. Back in those days, the mystery field was dominated by male authors and their books didn’t include anything close to what I felt was a satisfying love story.

There were a few female authors that were sprinkling tidbits of romance in their mysteries—Carolyn Hart, Earlene Fowler, and Joan Hess, all of which I adored and wanted to emulate as a writer.

That’s why when I submitted my series proposal to agents, I made the romance a major element and infused as much soul into the relationships as possible. This earned me two hundred and seventy rejection letters. They all made it clear there was no place in the genre for what I wanted to write. A couple wrote that while romance readers were willing to read mystery, mystery readers were not willing to read about romances. One offered me representation if I would cut out the vast majority of the relationship component in my book.

After careful consideration, I refused. Those parts of the story were my favorite ones to write. About then, I joined Romance Writers of America, and attended my first local chapter meeting where I heard about things like writers conferences where agent and editors took pitches from authors. I signed up for one, and in the meantime started to write a contemporary romance (with a little mystery thrown in because, as I said, I just can’t stop myself).

Before I could finish that book, the conference date rolled around and because of my agent/editor pitch, I ended up signing with an agent who instructed me to put the contemporary romance aside and turned my attention back to the mystery series.

Ironically, or maybe not, I was the only mystery writer that my new agent represented. All her other authors were romance writers. And as it turned out, the editor to whom she sold my book, Murder of a Small-Town Honey, had mainly handled the romance genre in her previous job.

Fast-forward several years, cozy mysteries have become very popular with lots and lots of authors writing in that subgenre. But cozies were still a bit restrictive especially in the romance department, so when I decided to write a second series, the Devereaux’s Dime Store novels, I decided to push the envelope and not stick to the guidelines of a cozy mystery.

Little Shop of Homicide, the first book in the Devereaux’s Dime Store series, contains a much hotter thread of romance than my Scumble River mysteries. Devereaux Sinclair’s relationship with hunky U.S. Marshal Jake Del Vecchio is front and center in this book and in the narrative, Jake has his own point of view.

At that time, a second POV in a cozy was fairly unusual, but once it worked in that series, my publisher allowed me to introduce it in my Scumble River books.

It was tough convincing the publishing side of the business that there was a readership for more heavily romantic mysteries, but I stuck to my guns, and got great reviews for those books. “Swanson puts just the right amount of sexy sizzle in her latest engaging mystery.” – Chicago Tribune

Which is good because I could never write a book with no romance because to me, there’s not much of a story without a little mystery. And every mystery needs some romance.

Author Bio:

New York Times Bestselling author Denise Swanson writes the Scumble River, Devereaux’s Dime Store, Chef-to-Go, and Charmed mystery series, as well as two romance series and the occasional zompoc. Denise was a practicing school psychologist for twenty-two years and grew up in a small town similar to Scumble River. She is married to her high school sweetheart and they recently moved to Florida.

Denise’s most recent book is Chili Chili Bang Bang, the 4^th Chef-to-Go mystery.

Dani Sloan will have to solve the Chili Challenge murder before she or one of her fellow competitors’ chances of surviving the contest aren’t worth a hill of beans. Once again, it looks like Dani’s best-laid plans have been blown up…

* * *

Things in Normalton, Illinois, are getting hot, hot, hot. When the small Midwest college town is chosen to host the Route 66 Rally’s Chili Challenge, not everyone’s excited by the prospect. Campus activists are upset about the environmental impact, the economic inequity, and the consumption of meat.

And when the contestants’ ingredients and equipment are peppered with sabotage, it becomes clear that there’s someone who’s willing to take a life to get their point across, and Dani must not only cook a killer batch of chili, she also has to follow a trail of clues to save the contest, her fellow competitors… And herself.

Buy Now: https://www.amazon.com/Chili-Bang-Denise-Swanson/dp/B0CHL7W2QB

Visit Denise at http://www.deniseswanson.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeniseSwansonAuthor

Twitter: @DeniseSwansonAu