I am delighted to welcome to Nancy Jardine, author of Take Me Now, a fun contemporary romantic mystery. Nancy loves the challenge of writing across different sub-genres of fiction and she was a finalist in The People’s Book Prize 2014, Fiction, for her contemporary mystery thriller Topaz Eyes. She’s an avid blogger; frequently helps to promote the work of other authors; and reads and reviews novels written across many sub-genres of fiction. Over to Nancy . . .
When to call the cops in…
Mystery novels come in all guises. Sometimes the plots are simple fact finding missions with no truly dire deeds involved; others may include hard boiled crime; and yet more may have an incident so bad that it appears to be a criminal act, till proven to definitely be one.
My contemporary corporate-sabotage mystery Take Me Now opens with my very damaged highland hero Nairn Malcolm seeking help. He’s in quite a sorry state after an unexplained motorbike accident and needs someone to support him. He suspects there’s a saboteur on the loose who’s caused his accident, so has he called in the cops because of that.
Is it police detective assistance that he’s seeking? No. He isn’t— at least, not a first.
I could have chosen to write a police procedural novel centred on his mysterious accident but I wanted something a bit different. I also didn’t want to write about an amateur detective kind of story either where a detective agency is involved in solving the crime. My choice was to have my normally alpha hero Nairn Malcolm work through the saboteur problem himself in a story that was light-hearted, humorous at times and more of a romantic comedy than a hard boiled crime mystery novel. A real mixture of sub genres, I agree, but that was my remit in creating the novel.
Yet that strategy posed some issues I had to resolve. I wonder if you can spot what they might have been.
Nairn seeks help, but initially not from the cops to find the saboteur. With his body in a broken state he can’t do his usual which would be to fly his floatplane from his Scottish island base to the mainland and beyond in his small jet. Helpless as a baby, it goes against the grain but he must have someone ferry him around and help with the daily running of Adrenalinn Adventures, his adventure sports business. Aela Cameron will only be needed for the duration of his recovery so time is at a premium—for their romantic relationship to develop, to keep his business ticking over and profitable, and to also gradually uncover the saboteur.
Does that mean they never call in the cops?
Not quite. At the beginning of the novel, the Roads Policing Unit (RPU) have been informed of the accident because it happened on a very popular stretch of road which meanders up the very edge of Loch Lomond in Scotland. That particular scenic route (a single carriageway road in real life i.e. one narrow lane going in each direction) is a very popular twisty-bendy touristy stretch of road and any accident would have been reported to the police because the incident would likely have caused some disruption to traffic. It’s not all that long since I travelled on that route myself and the use of temporary traffic lights on a tiny bit of the road near a corner which was being improved/ straightened out caused huge tailbacks and delays. Till the RPU establish the cause of the incident, Nairn’s motorbike is in a garage workshop being examined to determine the reasons for the motorbike malfunction. The cops know about that…but Nairn hasn’t disclosed everything to them!
It is, however, later in the story that Nairn really needs to call in the cops. His London warehouse and office block are the locations where more damage is inflicted on those close to Nairn. To say more will give the plot away: yet, a read of the novel will provide the answers. All I will say is that Aela has a great time assisting Nairn, and she would make a fabulous police detective or private detective! Actually, I think more than Nairn would. *wink, wink*
Buy Take Me Now from: UK http://amzn.to/1QbhUwn US http://amzn.to/1MdeuCU
Nancy Jardine writes: historical romantic adventures (Celtic Fervour Series); contemporary mystery thrillers (Take Me Now, Monogamy Twist, Topaz Eyes-finalist for THE PEOPLE’S BOOK PRIZE 2014); & time-travel historical adventures for Teen/ YA readers (Rubidium Time -Travel Series –Book 1 The Taexali Game).
Find Nancy at the following places
Blog: http://nancyjardine.blogspot.com Website: http://nancyjardineauthor.com Facebook LinkedIN About Me Goodreads Twitter @nansjar Google+ (Nancy Jardine) YouTube book trailer videos Amazon UK author page Rubidium Time Travel Series on Facebook http://on.fb.me/XeQdkG
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