Interview with Mike Martin, Author of the Sgt. Windflower Mystery Series

Mike Martin was born in Newfoundland on the East Coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a long-time freelance writer and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand. He is the author of Change the Things You Can: Dealing with Difficult People and has written a number of short stories that have published in various publications including Canadian Stories and Downhome magazine.

The Walker on the Cape was his first full fiction book and the premiere of the Sgt. Windflower Mystery Series. Other books in the series include The Body on the T, Beneath the Surface, A Twist of Fortune and A Long Ways from Home, which was shortlisted for the Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award as the best light mystery of the year. A Tangled Web was released in 2017 and the newest book in the series is Darkest Before the Dawn.

Website: www.sgtwindflowermysteries.com

Twitter: @mike54martin

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

Did you like mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels when you were growing up?

I loved the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, a British young boy's series that had lots of adventures and they always had a bag of sweets. Later, I loved Stephen King, until he scared me too much.

What was the first story in that genre that you wrote?

I never wrote horror, but mystery remained a favorite. My first mystery was The Walker on the Cape, the first book in the Sgt. Windflower Mystery series.

What is your favorite part of writing in this genre?

I love the idea of discovering a crime like a murder and then taking the time to not just solve the crime, but to explore why people do these kind of things in the first place.

What do you find most difficult about writing in this genre?

There are some general rules that you have to follow that sometimes stop the flow, but it's also that readers are very smart and point out any errors or mistakes that they find. You have to find a hook or something different every time you kill someone, especially in a series.

Is there an author in this genre that you admire most?

Louise Penny is an author that many of us admire and few of us can hope to live up to. She has created characters and a world that we would all like to live in.

What is up next for you?

I have started a new book in the Sgt. Windflower Mystery series and I'm also working on an audio book for The Walker on the Cape. Both will be out this year sometime.

Do you have anything to add?

Thank you very much for your interest. Keep reading and I will keep writing.

Popular Horror Thrillers

If you Google scary thrillers you'll get a link to a list on Goodreads titled Popular Horror Thrillers. Not surprisingly, Stephen King has several books on the list--he probably has the most on the first page.

Do you like horror thrillers? Is there a particular author you like to read? Have your tastes changed over the years.

Horror Novel Month --- Monster Novels

Whether it be a dead monster....

An invented monster....

A scientifically created monster....

A clown behaving like a monster....

Or a novel about a slightly off-kilter person stalking an infamous murderer...

All of these stories are sure to make you shiver.  Happy Halloween!

Horror Novel Month: End of Watch by Stephen King

Now that it's October, I thought it would be neat to focus on some horror novels. I've never done that here before. We'll see how it goes.

Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room.

Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney, who delivered the blow to Hartsfield's head that put him on the brain injury ward. Brady also remembers that. When Bill and Holly are called to a murder-suicide with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put not only their lives at risk, but those of Hodges’s friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Because Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Bill Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city.

In End of Watch, Stephen King brings the Hodges trilogy to a sublimely terrifying conclusion, combining the detective fiction of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers with the supernatural suspense that has been his trademark. The result is an unnerving look at human vulnerability and up-all-night entertainment.

Series: The Bill Hodges Trilogy
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Scribner; Book Club Edition edition (June 7, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1501129740
ISBN-13: 978-1501129742