People often ask where my Mick Blake mysteries come from. The short answer? Everywhere.
The longer answer is… mostly from my head while I'm driving, with a healthy assist from history's unfinished business.
Mick Blake didn't arrive fully formed on the page. He appeared as a voice first, modeled after the experiences of my friend Rich Mazur, who was a detective in Crivitz, Wisconsin. We discussed his adventures, and I developed my character based on his personality. He was funny, intelligent, observant, and deeply loyal to his town.
Calder Falls itself came next, because every good mystery needs a place that feels real enough to hide secrets, and as you can guess, it's loosely based on Crivitz.
Once that foundation was set in Chain of Events, the stories started finding me instead of the other way around.
Some of my best plotting happens behind the wheel. No music. No conversation. Just miles of road and unanswered "what ifs."
What if a disappearance everyone accepted as solved… wasn't?
What if a quiet campus carried a secret no one wanted unearthed?
What if time itself were the thing that buried the truth?
By the time I park the car, I usually have a beginning, a turning point, and at least one uncomfortable question that won't let me go until I write it down. And that's where talk-to-text comes in, get it out of my head and record it somewhere until I can get it on paper.
Another major influence on my writing is old crime stories—especially the ones that were never fully solved. The cases that ended with assumptions instead of answers. The ones where official conclusions feel a little too tidy. And the question remains: did someone get away with murder?
Campus Shadows, Book 2 in the Mick Blake series, grew out of exactly that kind of story. A tragedy from more than 100 years ago. A verdict everyone accepted and celebrated, well, almost everyone, the victim's family got no justice, and the victim herself was labeled unstable.
Here's a brief snippet from Campus Shadows:
The woods behind Calder Falls College had always been quiet in a way that made people uneasy, even on a sunny afternoon.
Mick Blake stood at the edge of the clearing, hands in his jacket pockets, staring at the patch of disturbed earth. Seventeen years was a long time for secrets to stay buried, but not long enough, apparently.
"Funny thing about college towns," Mick said quietly. "They like to pretend everyone moves on." Captain Steele grimaced. "And they don't?" Mick shook his head. "Nope. They just get better at pretending."
That moment when the past refuses to stay put is the heart of this book.
Campus Shadows opens directly on the heels of Chain of Events, because life in Calder Falls doesn't pause just because one case closes. There's always another phone call. Another secret. Another reason the town that "never sleeps" keeps Mick busy.