The Murder at the Abbey

Murder at the Abbey: A Detective Santy Mystery

by Louise Hathaway

It's so strange how life sometimes imitates art.  When we wrote our novel, "The Murder at the Abbey" about a priest in California getting murdered, little did we suppose that unfortunately, three months later, a real priest in California would also be brutally killed at a church.  What would cause a person to want to kill a man of God?  From what I've read about the murdered priest in Eureka, everybody in the community loved him.  It's heartbreaking to read that he was beaten to death with a wooden stake and metal gutter pipe.  Was it the act of a crazy man?  What would drive a person to commit such a horrible crime?  My heart goes out to the family and friends of the priest in Eureka.

In the murder/mystery we wrote, we tried to answer "why?".  I'm a Catholic, so I definitely have a bias when writing about The Church and its scandals.  There is a lot of prejudice against Catholics which, unfortunately, has taken on a life of its own because of priests who've abused boys, and then were moved around to other parishes instead of being punished.  This has rightly fueled a lot of outrage.  But, at what point could prejudice make someone turn to violence?  It is one of the questions we tried to explore when we wrote our book. As fiction writers, we tried to include various factions in Orange County, California who might have members with radical beliefs that didn't jibe with the Abbey's expansion plans.  Is our book's killer part of a group of anti-development radicals?  Or maybe he is someone who's angry that the Catholic Church has just bought the Crystal Cathedral and wants to tear up their "walk of faith stones"?  What about Cook's Corner--the biker bar down the street from the Abbey?  Maybe someone there was sick and tired of having to deal with the priests at the abbey complaining about the loud live music coming from the bar?  Or maybe the murderer in our book was just a nutcase?  You'll have to read our whodunit to find out.  It is available at Amazon.com in paperback and eBook formats.  It's also available at iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and Smashwords.

Our books are part fiction/part travelogues.

If you're anything like me, now is the time of year when I start thinking about where I'd like to go on vacation in the upcoming year.  My husband and I have been fortunate enough to do a lot of traveling over the years.  Many of our favorite places show up in our books.  Our favorite U.S. city is New Orleans and we've been there many, many times.  Our mystery, "The Ghost in the Plantation" takes place there and we've tried incorporating as many of the locales of the Crescent City and Louisiana as possible.
We love the lore of Route 66, and after we went to Disney's California Adventure and saw the movie "Cars", we decided to write a story about the famous highway in "The Buried Treasure on Route 66".  We've just come back from a pilgrimage to Minnesota where we searched for the fictional Lake Wobegon, and wrote a book called "The Missing Bachelor Farmer".  Last, but not least, our book "England in the Footsteps of Literary Giants" is pure travelogue, showing pictures and descriptions of the hometowns of our favorite British writers.  Check out our books at your favorite bookstores and we'll take you on a wonderful journey.

The Ghost in the Plantation is our new #1!

We are happy to report that The Ghost in the Plantation is now our best seller! Thanks to all those kind readers who are buying both the paper version and the ebook. Probably our favorite of all our books, The Ghost in the Plantation is still surprising us with it's continued sales.

Set in New Orleans, this little book will transport you to the French Quarter and the Garden District in pursuit of clues to the mysterious death of a docent at Oak Alley Plantation. The famous Lady Chablis even makes a cameo appearance to help our intrepid sleuth solve the mystery. Come along and share in the chase! You won't be disappointed!

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.

How common are husband/wife writing teams?

I received a special package in the mail today: the first paperback version of our book, "Death Among The Stacks: The Body in the Law Library," which has just arrived hot off the press.  This was the first book I ever wrote with my husband.  Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd be writing murder/mysteries, let alone be writing them with my husband.  I'm an English Literature Major and spent years reading long Dickens' novels and complicated essays like Mathew Arnold's "Culture and Anarchy".  I didn't even read mystery novels; but my husband and I both like to watch the PBS Masterpiece/Mystery series. 

We fell in love with the Agatha Christie stories, so I set out to write a mystery about what would happen if someone was murdered in a library by electronic compact shelving.  It's not as far fetched as it sounds: I actually witnessed someone almost getting crushed to death when they malfunctioned.  Even quiet libraries have drama and office politics can get really dramatic, especially when the librarians start pointing their fingers at each other when the police come asking questions.  We tried to make it humorous and a bit of a farce.  Just as in the conclusion in "Murder on the Orient Express," we have our detective gather all the suspects into one room and reveal each person's potential motives in front of everybody else, with the final "big reveal" of "who dunnit" coming at the end.  We asked my niece Allison to pose for the cover as a "sshing librarian". 

Take a look:  Death Among the Stacks: The Body in the Law Library

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.