Ellen here, welcoming Suzanne Trauth. As a Theatre Arts major, I can totally relate to her post! And she’s hosting a giveaway for a copy of her new book, The First to Die. Read on…

Location, Location, Location!

I’ve spent my life in the theatre—writing plays in grade school, directing the class play in high school, majoring in speech and theatre in college, while performing and directing, and getting graduate degrees in theatre so that I could have a university teaching career. Over four decades I did it all: acting, directing, producing, even writing plays. Both academically and professionally. So, when I began a novel-writing career, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to move on from theatre and focus on murder and mayhem—in other words, crime fiction. To let go of theatre.

Except that theatre wouldn’t let go of me.

When I set out to write my first cozy series, the Dodie O’Dell mysteries, by the time I’d drafted several different approaches to the protagonist and the story and finding none of them working, a wise editor suggested I “try setting the action in the midst of a theatre production.” Did he know something I didn’t know? All those years of endless rehearsals, problematic directors, and occasional divas were about to pay off. Theatre was about to become the gift that would keep on giving. I started to have a good time, poking fun at all of the quirks and caprices of production personnel and processes.

I soon discovered two things. First, that the actual theatre was a wonderful source of murderous bedlam. During the course of my mystery series, I had characters hide in costume storage among the satin and velvet clothes; face off in a scene shop while skirting deadly tools (think table saws and nail guns and drill presses); stash ill-gotten gains in the various nooks and crannies of the sets, such as inside lighting fixtures, tucked behind escape stairs, and concealed in furniture. I even jerry-rigged a hydraulic trapdoor to catch a killer. Technical mishaps abounded to challenge the protagonist and thwart the perpetrators.

My imagination went wild.

Along the way I also learned that the act of creating theatre was akin to the process of creating crime fiction. Both employ role-playing—while theatre has its cast assuming parts, crime fiction characters also take on a variety of roles. That killer is usually pretending to be someone he or she is not. Prime suspects are often caught up in some kind of disguise, and my protagonist was a bit of a diva around the edges. I had a great time reliving my theatrical career with all of the Dodie O’Dell mysteries, choosing a different play for each book as the center of the story and the focus of the action. In my recent psychological suspense novel, The First to Die, a theatre is crucial to the plot—the victim is an actress who disappears during a dress rehearsal. Much of the action is set in the theatre and it becomes a haunting location for the protagonist, the victim’s daughter, who is determined to see her mother’s killer brought to justice.

I have to admit my previous career has proven to be a rich source of material for my crime writing career and has offered me a location filled with wonderful possibilities.

Readers, what is the most interesting place where you’ve seen a mystery located? One copy of The First to Die – print or Epub – will be given away to someone who provides a comment. (US ONLY)

SYNOPSIS: Connie Tucker, a free-spirited beach bartender, has been estranged from her family in New Jersey ever since her actress mother, Simone, disappeared one night during a violent storm at the theatre where she was rehearsing. Uncontrollable and in a rage at the loss of her parent, fifteen-year-old Connie is exiled to California, due to her delinquent behavior, to live with an aunt she doesn’t know. Now, fifteen years later, Simone’s murdered remains are discovered at a construction site and Connie returns to the east coast for the funeral—she owes it to her mother. The cold case unit will take over now and solve the crime. But then she discovers a message her mother left behind. It feels like a dispatch from the grave. Connie must face her tortured past, the guilt of concealing a devastating secret, and the part she played in her mother’s disappearance. Unearthing buried family history and childhood demons, she confronts the agonizing reality that she doesn’t know where she belongs, where to call home. Who to trust. When a second suspicious death occurs, Connie races to unravel the events of the night Simone disappeared. Her mother was the first to die…but not the last.

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BIO: Suzanne Trauth is the author of the suspense novel The First to Die, the Dodie O’Dell mystery series—Show Time, Time Out, Running out of Time, Just in Time, No More Time, and Killing Time—and What Remains of Love, an historical romance (Firebird, American Book Fest, Chanticleer book awards), as well as plays and non-fiction books. In her previous career, she spent many years as a university professor of theatre and when she is not writing, she coaches actors. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Dramatists Guild, and the League of Professional Theatre Women and has appeared on many panels at Bouchercon Mystery Conferences. She lives in Woodland Park, New Jersey. Visit her at www.suzannetrauth.com.