Author Spotlight: CeCe Lamont
Author of the Minxsy Banks Mystery Series
Chesapeake Crime Club and author CeCe Lamont. Image credit: CeCe Lamont
Laura Manning, writing under the penname CeCe Lamont, is the author of Chesapeake Crime Club: A Minxy Banks Mystery. The second book in the series is due later this year.
Cozy Crime Reads Interview with CeCe Lamont
What attracted you to the cozy mystery genre?
I’ve been writing thrillers as a hobby while working in intelligence and national security. Lately, I was looking for something lighter and brighter. When I read the Thursday Murder Club books, I found cozies. From that series I devoured more traditional ones. It reminded me how much I love the combination of murder, mischief, and community.
What are a few of the essential elements that make a cozy stand out to you as a reader?
In addition to an amateur sleuth (see below), the setting is key for me. When I read cozies, I want to be part of a rich and close-knit environment. Although I live in the Washington DC suburbs, I grew up in a small town. Twenty years ago, I bought a tiny beach cottage in North Beach, MD, a town of 2,000 people. Everyone walks down the middle of the street, and the mayor personally rescues citizens from floods. We all know each other, so it’s hard to keep a secret. A perfect setting for a cozy mystery.
Do you have a favorite amateur sleuth?
I grew up reading (and pretending to be) Nancy Drew. My mother and I loved watching Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. My new favorite amateur sleuths are Elizabeth and Joyce in the Thursday Murder Club series. The mix of head and heart, combined with genuine affection, is so compelling—and they are great sleuths, along with the rest of the characters.
What inspired your first cozy mystery?
I couldn’t get the idea of a “Dark Empath” as the protagonist of a cozy mystery out of my head. How do you make such a person lovable? I’m friends with a CIA case officer who has that condition and was exquisitely effective because of it. A Dark Empath knows what people want and need like a narcissist, manipulates like Machiavelli, and is emboldened by psychopathy. That led me to Minxy Banks. Her backstory explains why she became a Dark Empath. Now she’s found a community where she loves pranks and mischief, relies on her friends to model good behavior, and has the skills to unravel a mystery, all while in therapy to be a better person.
How do you research and create the "cozy" elements in your books, like the settings and community?
Because Chesapeake Crime Club is set in a fictionalized North Beach, MD, and nearby towns, I wrote about what I knew. In the sequel, the range of the story is expanded in the small towns and cities around the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay’s a wonderful location because of the area’s rich history and the quirky urban refugees that have moved in among the locals. There are watermen, pleasure boaters, kayakers, small business owners, and DC commuters, all with Old Bay seasoning sprinkled on them. Oh, and I gave Minxy a Basenji dog like one I had. Basenjis are very smart and feisty. They love mischief as much as Minxy does. I named the dog in the book Mr. Magoo, who is as nearly blind as his cartoon character namesake.
What is one key step in your writing process that helps you transform an idea into a finished book?
I think about the crime committed, who did it, and why. Then I imagine how the antagonist hides and misleads people to prevent being caught. Knowing that, I put my protagonist and her friends into scenes that reveal clues, consider suspects, or clear a red herring. My outline is a growing list of scenes I need to write that will move the story forward. If I only have an hour, I flesh out one of those scenes.
What advice would you give aspiring cozy mystery authors who want to start writing their first novel?
After reading a lot of different cozies, imagine a sleuth you’d want to read about or hang out with. Make her unique, with skills that enable her to find clues and identify suspects in the environment where you place her. She also needs the gumption to follow through to unmask the bad guy. After you have your sleuth, start writing scenes about her and a dead body or two in her environment. Pretty soon, you’ll have a story, and after a while, a full manuscript!
How can readers connect with you online?
Website: LauraManning.com
LinkedIn: Laura Manning Author
Facebook: Laura Manning Johnson (not to be confused with “Laura Johnson, Writer” who is not me).
Chesapeake Crime Club
Chesapeake Crime Club is the first book in the Minxy Banks Mystery Series by CeCe Lamont
Former CIA case officer Minxy Banks has a unique talent: she’s a dark empath who is capable of talking anyone into anything. This skill comes in handy when she finds a body on her morning run and decides to activate the Chesapeake Crime Club with Celia, a senior CIA analyst, and Astrid, the techy wife of the Danish Ambassador to the US.
Together, the Chesapeake Crime Club goes from solving neighborhood penny ante crimes involving stolen garden gnomes to attempting to solve a puzzling murder mystery.
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