The Cleo Sims mystery series books,
Too Near the Edge,
Too Far Under, and
Too Many Secrets are mystery novels with a touch of the paranormal. The main character, Cleo Sims, is a grief therapist who has discovered a process that lets grieving people contact the spirits of departed loved ones in an apparition chamber. Cleo's vision for her Contact Project is to help grievers heal by giving them an opportunity to complete unfinished business with friends, family members and lovers who have died.
But Cleo's ability to help people contact the dead gets her involved in possible murder investigations. These are not cases the police are investigating, either because the death has been declared an accident, or because the person has been declared missing rather than dead. Nevertheless, family and/or friends want to know more, so they turn to Cleo.
In
Too Near the Edge, a young widow wants to use Cleo's apparition chamber to contact her husband's spirit to find out more about his death. The husband's fatal fall from the rim of the Grand Canyon was ruled an accident, but his wife believes he was murdered.
In
Too Far Under a wealthy heiress drowns in her backyard. Again, the death is ruled an accident. But the woman's daughters refuse to accept that and beg Cleo to help them contact their mother's spirit to find out what really happened.
In
Too Many Secrets, a Boulder nurse mysteriously disappears while celebrating her fortieth birthday with friends in a mountain wilderness area. The brother of one of the friends is Cleo's benefactor who funds her Contact Project. When he prevails on Cleo to help find out what happened to the missing woman, she can't refuse.
Cleo is a capable mental-health professional who has her own personal issues with her boyfriend and her grandmother with Alzheimer's. She's curious, funny, down-to-earth, caring, and strong-willed; and she won't give up on a problem until she solves it.
An amusing surfer-dude spirit named Tyler, who visits Cleo from beyond, gives her cryptic advice, and pushes her to "ride the wave," enhances the paranormal aspect of the stories. But I was very careful not to let Tyler or any spirits contacted in the apparition chamber solve the mystery. I think that would be "cheating" from a mystery reader's perspective.
The novels are set in Boulder, Colorado, where I live. I use the high-tech, New Age, outdoorsy health-related aspects of Boulder to develop themes such as reality vs. illusion; good vs. evil uses of technology; and use vs. misuse of drugs and herbs. I also use real settings from Boulder to give the stories a rich sense of place.
As a former academic, I'm obsessed with facts, even when I'm writing fiction. I do a lot of plotting, outlining and research before I start. And I write each character's backstory. I spend even more time on research as I write the story, because I like every detail to be as accurate as possible. For example, if I'm going to write about someone picking a lock, I find a site on the internet that gives me details of how to do it. Sometimes I end up spending hours researching details that end up being only a few sentences in the story.
I've asked some readers who love my mysteries what they like and why they read them. My readers are puzzle solvers who like to try to figure out who did the murder. They like to be kept guessing throughout, and they like to be surprised in the end. They like interesting, complex characters; a variety of suspects who have believable motives; and a setting that draws them in and gives them a flavor of the local culture.
