Nancy Drew Parodies

I found this fake cover for a Nancy Drew book funny.

I write Nancy Drew parodies and The Buried Treasure on Route 66 is the first Nancy Keene Mystery (out of five) that I've written. I hope you'll take a look:

Written as an homage to the Nancy Drew books, this humorous and PG-rated mystery about teenage sleuth, Nancy Keene, especially targets women baby boomers who grew up reading and loving the series. Gently poking fun at Nancy’s obscure knowledge, perfectionism, and need for control, this book concentrates and the relationship between Nancy and her father. Nancy has just turned 18, is in a serious relationship with her boyfriend, and is planning to move out of state to college. How will her father handle letting her go? Find out as Nancy, her father, and her boyfriend take a trip on Route 66, visiting several of its landmarks along the way, in search of a missing will. Not only is “The Buried Treasure on Route 66” a tip of the hat to the Nancy Drew books, it’s also a romance novel about both young love and rekindled old love.

Here's what reviewers are saying about this book:

"Besides being a sort of travelogue, the mystery is good, the solving of it fun, and the ending hilarious!"

"I could not get enough of this amazing story. I grew up reading every Nancy Drew book I could get my hands on. The author does not disappoint in paying homage as Nancy made me fall in love with teenage mysteries all over again. I loved the characters overprotective dad, friends Beth and Hannah, the cuteness of Nancy and Ned, Mrs Wood and mobster stepsons. I found myself wrapped up in the detailed storyline as Mrs Wood shares her story of lost love and who the stepsons are. I have always dreamed of driving down Route 66 and Hathaway made me feel I was there. Truly a nice escape for women baby boomers everywhere."

"I'd recommend this Nancy Keene series to anyone who read, reads, and loves Nancy Drew!"

Here are the links for The Buried Treasure on Route 66:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2NlEuoi

Barnes and Noble: https://bit.ly/2BJV5wn

Apple: https://apple.co/2MMlXSN

Smashwords: https://bit.ly/2PlxsCl

Kobo Books: https://bit.ly/2BHwOHv

Google Play: https://bit.ly/2BONAnO

Do you like to read murder mysteries?

Do you love reading mysteries and trying to figure out whodunit?  If the answer is "Yes", please take a look at these four murder mysteries that my husband and I wrote.  They are part of "The Detective Santy Mystery" series and are about the life and career of Clarrisa Santy, a female homicide detective from Orange County, California. The series begins with the murder of her father. When she turns 18, she looks into the court records of the murder trial, and realizes that the wrong man was arrested. Ivan, the man accused of the crime, is based on a real person I used to know, who was infamously known as "the hammer-murderer". When Clarissa contacts him, she finds out more about her family and learns, the hard way, that there are some questions best left unanswered.  The series has received five star and several four star reviews and each book can be enjoyed on its own without having to read the entire series.  The bestseller among the four books is "Honeymoon in Savannah" and it is our favorite, too.

The books in the Detective Santy Mystery Series are:

The Tustin Chronicles

Murder at the Abbey

Honeymoon in Savannah

The Body on Ortega Highway

All are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Google Play, Kobo, Smashwords, Oyster, and Scribd.  

First Day of Autumn!

Happy First Day of Autumn.  This is my favorite season of the year.  It's a time when I long for fall leaves in Lake Placid, white, steepled churches in Vermont, and covered bridges in New England. So many images come to mind: pumpkin people on the porches of old-fashioned general stores, maple syrup, caramel apples on a stick, cinnamon scented candles from Bath and Body Works, Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and cozying up to the fire with a good book.

When it comes to autumn, this California girl lives on the wrong coast.  The temperatures here are still in the 80s and some days, even the 90s.  It's our season of fires and Santa Ana winds.  I'll never forget the time my husband and I planned a Halloween party that was supposed to take place in our back yard, but had to be moved indoors because ashes from a nearby fire were raining down on us and our decorations.  Forget about small paper lanterns lining the patio; we didn't want to burn our house down.

Autumn also reminds me of the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" which my husband and I have religiously listened to for over thirty years. The Fall is the time when the sun is getting low enough for us to light our candles and turn on our space heater that looks like an old-fashioned coal fireplace.  We lose ourselves in the stories that Garrison Keillor's low, mesmerizing voice weaves.  I love his world of bachelor farmers, Pastor Liz, Dorothy's caramel rolls, The Sidetrack Tap, and the Chatterbox Cafe.  Maybe there really are some places like the Chatterbox Café? Wouldn’t it be fun to go find out?

So after all the years of talking about this town where "the women and strong, the men are good looking, and the children are always above-average," my husband and I finally went to Minnesota on a pilgrimage to find the real Lake Wobegon.  This book is the result. I hope you will enjoy this story about a precocious teenager who talks her father into taking her to Minnesota on just such a quest. Her father  wants to go on a Bob Dylan pilgrimage while there, but she has other plans when a "bachelor farmer" (who was last seen at the "Chatterbox Cafe") goes missing and they join the search party. Part travelogue, this book also contains pictures.  It's only $1.99 and available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Google Play, Kobo, Smashwords, and Scribd.  Also available in paperback at Amazon.

The Missing Bachelor Farmer:

A Nancy Keene Mystery

by Louise Hathaway

Murder at the Abbey

Murder at the Abbey: A Detective Santy Mystery

By Louise Hathaway

In this murder/mystery, the peaceful world of a monastery in Orange County, California is shaken apart when one of its priests is murdered. Who would want to kill him? Tempers have been running high in Silverado Canyon ever since the abbey purchased land to expand its property. Was the murderer an eco-terrorist who feared the expansion might cause the habitat destruction of an endangered toad? Or maybe was it the powerful anti-development lawyer who has fought tooth and nail to stop every construction project in the canyon? Maybe it was the owner of the motorcycle bar, Kline’s Corner, who got fed up with the priest’s complaints about the bar’s live music interrupting Mass and Vespers?

Detective Clarissa Santy is trying to solve the murder, while at the same time, she’s busy reintroducing her father to the world outside of prison, where he’s spent the past 30 years for a murder conviction. Between keeping him out of trouble, babysitting a Criminal Justice Intern from UCI, and dating again after losing her husband several years ago, her life has never seemed so complicated.

Available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Kobo, and Smashwords. Read for free with subscription to Scribd or Oyster.  Also available in paperback at Amazon.

Mystery Series with a Female Detective

The Tustin Chronicles

I never imagined when my husband and I wrote this book that it would be the first in a series about the life and career of a strong and sympathetic female homicide detective from Orange County, California.  "The Tustin Chronicles" starts with her as a child when her father is murdered.  When she turns 18, she starts looking into the court records about his murder and begins to think that the wrong person was convicted.  In the process, she also continues her search for her mother, who abandoned her.

The search for family is the common thread that holds together all four of the Detective Santy Mysteries.  My husband is still upset at me for how I ended the last book, "The Body on Ortega Highway".  He doesn't like what happened to her, but I think that it rings true for the arc of story. You'll have to check it out yourself and see if you agree.

The books are written as stand-alone stories and our readers don't need to read all four of the books to know what's going on.  Here is a brief description of the three other books:

Murder at the Abbey

In this murder/mystery, the peaceful world of a monastery in Orange County, California is shaken to its core when one of its priests is murdered. Who would want to kill him? Tempers have been running high in Silverado Canyon ever since the abbey purchased land to expand its property.  Detective Clarissa Santy is trying to solve the murder, while at the same time, she’s busy reintroducing her father to the world outside of prison, where he’s spent the past 30 years for a murder conviction. Between keeping him out of trouble, babysitting a Criminal Justice Intern from UCI, and dating again after losing her husband several years ago, her life has never seemed so complicated. 

Honeymoon in Savannah

While on her honeymoon in Savannah, Georgia, Detective Clarissa Santy hopes to spend a nice quiet time with her husband in one of America’s most beautiful cities. She and her husband are both big fans of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, so they decide to make a pilgrimage to Savannah to see the sights mentioned in the book. Her time as a tourist is short-lived however when one of Savannah’s famous chefs is brutally murdered. The chef just happens to be Clarissa’s cousin--so this is personal--and Clarissa can’t rest until she finds out whodunit. This book has something for everybody: it’s part murder/mystery; part travelogue; part romance novel; and even includes a search for a buried treasure.

Body on Ortega Highway

This psychological thriller about sexual obsession will keep you on the edge of your seats until the very end. It's a riveting murder mystery about a female homicide detective who investigates the brutal murder of two teenage girls on a rural road in Orange County, California. In the course of the investigation, she begins to wonder if the serial killer is the same person who has been making upsetting phone calls to her. She begins to suspect that not only does she know him: she used to be in love with him. How much danger must she be willing to put herself into in order to capture him? Based on real events.

These titles are available at most online bookstore, including Amazon.

  Click the hyperlink for each book title in this blogpost to purchase directly at Amazon.com

The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery

This murder mystery, about a daughter's search for the truth behind her father's murder, is an homage to the books of T. Jefferson Parker that describe crime in Orange County, California. Focusing on Tustin in the early 1970s and 1990s, this book brings back the bygone days of tractor showrooms; hippies and head shops in Laguna Beach; and a packing house called "The Sunkist Cathedral" where the Catholic Church once held Mass. It's a world of blimp hangars at the Lighter-Than-Air base; orange groves where virginities are lost; and a restaurant that looks like a train station in South Coast Plaza--all set to the music of Bob Dylan and the Eagles.

The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery

By Louise Hathaway

eBook available for $2.99 at most online bookstores

Also Available in paperback at Amazon

Click here to purchase at Amazon
Click here to purchase at iTunes
Click here to purchase at Barnes & Noble
Click here to purchase at Kobo Books
Click here to purchase at Google Play
Click here to purchase at Smashwords

Garrison Keillor and News From Lake Wobegon

I wonder when Garrison Keillor will retire from the show he created, A Prairie Home Companion? When I discovered that he wasn't on last night's broadcast, and that a Minneapolis storyteller would be a guest instead, I started to think about what it would be like without this great American humorist.  He is my generation's equivalent to Mark Twain.  My husband and I have listened to the A Prairie Home Companion almost every Saturday night since 1986. There were so many times that we would say to each other, "One of these days, we have to go to Minnesota and look up all the places where he's based his fictional town of Lake Wobegon upon."

Two years ago, my husband and I left sunny Southern California for the frozen tundra of the North and went in search of Lake Wobegon.  When we went to the bookstore Garrison Keillor owns in St. Paul, we were amazed when we saw him walking across the parking lot by himself with a couple of books tucked underneath his arm.  We had a little chat with him outside our car window and my husband shook hands with him.  There was a car in back of us, so we had to move along; but my husband and I were amazed that we were lucky enough to have this chance meeting with one of our heros.

On the plane home, I wrote this story about a precocious teenage sleuth named Nancy Keene who travels to Minnesota with her father in search of the real life places mentioned in Keillor's stories. I've included some pictures we took on our pilgrimage.

The Missing Bachelor Farmer: A Nancy Keene Mystery

By Louise Hathaway 
It's only $1.99 and is available at most online bookstores.

Also available in paperback at Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com and Createspace.

Purchase at iTunes
Purchase at Barnes and Noble
Purchase at Amazon
Purchase at Kobo
Purchase at Smashwords
Purchase at Google Play

Write What You Know

Most writers like myself have heard the advice, "Write what you know."  I think those are very wise words.  When my husband and I started writing murder mysteries together, I knew that I wanted to talk about Ivan, a convicted murderer.  I used to hang out with him when I was 13 and he was 11. When he was in his mid-twenties, he broke into his girlfriend's house, killed her husband and brutally attacked her.  He gained further noteriety when he escaped from the county jail by climbing down from the roof using tied-together bed sheets. He made it all the way across the country before the cops finally found him.

Ivan is a main character in three of our Detective Santy mysteries.  I've made him the biological father of my female Homicide Detective, Clarissa.  Throughout the series, she struggles with the fact that she is his child and despite her better judgment, tries to help him readjust to life outside of prison when his 30 year sentence is up.  The real Ivan is up for parole right now.

My friends ask me, "Aren't you afraid that he's going to hear about you using his name and story?" I tell them that first of all, I don't use Ivan's real last name. Plus, he'll probably never get out of prison after threatening the judge during his trial.  I've made him a much nicer person in our books than he actually is. He was a nice kid and I don't know where he went wrong.  My husband says, "Even Charles Manson was probably a nice kid once upon a time." Ivan does make a good character for a book.

Here is where the story starts: 

The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery is available at most online bookstores.

  The eBook is $2.99 and the paperback version is available at Amazon.

Click here to purchase at Amazon

Click here to purchase at iTunes
Click here to purchase at Barnes and Noble
Click here to purchase at Google Play
Click here to purchase at Kobo
Click here to purchase at Smashwords

The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery

This murder mystery, about a daughter's search for the truth behind her father's murder, is an homage to the books of T. Jefferson Parker that describe crime in Orange County, California. Focusing on Tustin in the early 1970's and 1990's, this book brings back the bygone days of tractor showrooms; hippies and head shops in Laguna Beach; and a packing house called "The Sunkist Cathedral" where the Catholic Church once held Mass. It's a world of blimp hangars at the Lighter-Than-Air base; orange groves where virginities are lost; and a restaurant that looks like a train station in South Coast Plaza--all set to the music of Bob Dylan and the Eagles.

eBook available for $2.99 at most online bookstores

Click here to purchase at Amazon.com

T. Jefferson Parker

The famous murder/mystery writer, T. Jefferson Parker, graduated in the same class we did in high school.  If you haven't heard of him, he wrote "Little Saigon" and "Laguna Heat" to name but a few. Orange County, California is the setting for most of his books.  We have followed his career through the years and a couple of years ago we told each other, "We should try to write some murder/mysteries that take place in Orange County, too." 

The results are our three books:

The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery

Murder at the Abbey: A Detective Santy Mystery

The Body on Ortega Highway: A Detective Santy Mystery

All are available at your favorite online bookstores

Traveling to Lake Wobegon

I wrote this fictional story last year about my trip to Minnesota in search of Lake Wobegon and fall leaves. Now is the time of year when I wish I wasn't from sunny Southern California.  I want sweater weather, pumpkin spice lattes, and rainy days indoors reading a good book.  The opening chapter of my book has teenage sleuth, Nancy Keene, preparing for a Halloween party by painting headstone epitaphs in her backyard while ashes from a nearby brush fire are raining down on her. This really happened one year when my husband and I prepared for a party.  This book has Nancy and her father listening to "A Prairie Home Companion", like they do every Saturday night.  My husband and I have been listening to the radio show for thirty years.  On our pilgrimage to Lake Wobegon last year, my husband and I met Garrison Keillor while we were there: he was walking out of a bookstore and I saw him in the parking lot.  He wasn't there doing promotions; he was just buying some books to read during his flight to New Orleans, he told us.  He was very gracious and totally in character.  My husband got to shake his hand.  It was definitely the high point of our trip. I write about all these fun times in this book, which also includes pictures of some of the fictional places upon which Keillor bases his Lake Wobegon stories.

eBook available for 1.99. 

Also available in paperback at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Amazon Apple B & N Smashwords

Kobo Google

Common Theme in Literature

When I was an English Major in college, the search for family, for a sense of belonging, was a common theme in some of the literature we read and wrote about.  So, when I started writing novels, I tried to keep that in mind.  One of the first murder/mysteries my husband and I wrote together, "The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery," is about a daughter's search for her parentage. We began the book after my brother passed away and it is loosely based on his relationship with his adopted daughter.

We've written four books with her as a main character.  The second book in the series is about her trying to help her father adjust to life outside of prison; the third is about her meeting her cousins for the first time in Savannah when one of them is murdered; and the last is a psychological thriller about someone from her past stalking her and threatening her family.  We hope you like our characters; many are based on people we know; in fact, the murderer in The Tustin Chronicles, is someone I knew when I was 13.  Art imitating life is what we've tried to achieve in our novels.

Here are the books in The Detective Santy Mysteries:

All are available at your favorite online bookstore for $2.99 and less

The Tustin Chronicles

Murder at the Abbey

Honeymoon in Savannah

The Body on Ortega Highway 

Who loves A Prairie Home Companion?

Just in time for Father's Day, here's a book I wrote about a precocious fifteen-year-old who talks her father into taking her on a pilgrimage to the mythical town of "Lake Wobegon," a city brought to life on the radio every Saturday night by humorist, Garrison Keillor.  My husband and I actually made this pilgrimage ourselves and we've included our photos of the real places that inspired Garrison Keillor's make-believe town.  We even got a chance to meet him when he was coming out of a bookstore!!

This book is told from the point of view of our teenage sleuth, Nancy Keene.  In the story, a bachelor farmer from Lake Wobegon goes missing and Nancy and her Dad are hot on the trail.

It's available in both paperback and eBook formats.



Amazon Apple B & N Smashwords

Christmas Gifts for Book Lovers

Okay, everybody.  The Christmas Season is officially here.  Are you wondering what to buy for that special person in your life who likes to read?  If so, check out our paperback books at Amazon.com.

For baby boomers who grew up loving the Nancy Drew series, we wrote two PG-rated mysteries about our teenager sleuth, Nancy Keene.  These two books are also travelogues.  "The Ghost in the Plantation" takes place in New Orleans and "The Buried Treasure on Route 66" takes place on Route 66.

For readers who like good, old-fashioned, hard-boiled detective mysteries, check out "The Tustin Chronicles" and "The Murder at the Abbey."

For fans of whodunits with multiple suspects (ala Agatha Christie), check out "Death Among the Stacks: The Body in the Law Library."

Merry Christmas and Happy Reading,
Lewis Hathaway

A New Murder/Mystery Set in Orange County, California

T. Jefferson Parker isn't the only one who grew up in Tustin and writes murder/mysteries about Orange County.  My husband and I graduated from Tustin High the same year he did; so there must be something about "The OC" that is inspiring writers of our generation.

We now have two murder/mysteries that show Tustin and its nearby cities as main characters in our books.  People who had read it, have really given us positive feedback about how landmarks in our book bring back so many memories of when they were growing up.  Our readers have told us that they feel as if they are right there with our main characters watching as the plot unfolds. 

So swing on over to your favorite ebook store today and check out our Tustin mystery books! And if that isn't enough, you can get your hands on good old-fashioned print copies at Amazon too! There's no excuse for not getting lost in a good mystery about Orange County!

Murder at the Abbey: A Detective Santy Mystery

by Lousie Hathaway

In our newest murder/mystery, a monastery in Orange County, California is shaken when one of its priests is murdered. Who would want to kill him? Tempers have been running high in Silverado Canyon ever since the abbey purchased land to expand on. Detective Clarissa Santy is trying to solve the murder, while she’s busy reintroducing her father to the world outside of prison where he's spent 30 years for a murder conviction.

The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery

by Louise Hathaway

This murder mystery, about a daughter's search for the truth behind her father's murder, is an homage to the books of T. Jefferson Parker that describe crime in Orange County, California. Focusing on Tustin in the early 1970's and 1990's, this book brings back the bygone days of tractor showrooms; hippies and head shops in Laguna Beach; and a packing house called "The Sunkist Cathedral".

These ebooks are available at Apple's iBookstore, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, or any of your favorite e-reader sites.  They're also available in paperback from Amazon.com.

Our Books Are Now Available In Paper

Five of our books are now available in both paper and e-book formats:

They are:  The Ghost in the Plantation; The Buried Treasure on Route 66; and The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery; Murder at the Abbey: A Detective Santy Mystery; and Death Among the Stacks: The Body in the Law Library.

They are available in paperback at Amazon.com and at your favorite eBookstores (i.e. Apple; Barnes and Noble; Amazon; Kobo; or Sony; to name but a few.