Cemetery Tales
Casey Daniels has written forty-five books, including historical and contemporary romance, the Cooking Class mysteries (as Miranda Bliss) and of course, the Pepper Martin mysteries.Ā She lives in northeast Ohio and is currently writing Pepper Martin mystery #8.Ā In September, sheāll debut the Button Box Mysteries with Button Holed, a book about a woman who owns a vintage button business.Ā Currently, there are no cemeteries involved in that series, but you never know.
I love cemeteries.
No really.Ā Iām serious.Ā I love cemeteries.
Iām not talking about those modern āmemorial parksā with their uninspired landscaping and flat-to-the-ground headstones.Ā Iām talking about good cemeteries.Ā Old cemeteries.Ā You know, the kind filled with interesting headstones, sculptures, and mausoleums galore.Ā Art, architecture, historyāitās all there in an old cemetery.
In fact, I got the idea for my Pepper Martin mystery series in a cemetery.Ā I started out my writing career in romance, but Iād been itching to write a mystery and hitting a brick wall every time I tried to come up with a detective who was different and interesting.Ā Then I interviewed for a part-time job as a tour guide in a cemetery.Ā Honest!Ā I live in northeast Ohio, and there are plenty of fabulous old cemeteries here.Ā One of them needed a tour guide to work a couple days a week.Ā I needed a break from every day in front of the computer.Ā To me, it sounded like a match made in heaven.
Long story short, I didnāt get the job.Ā But as I was leaving the cemetery that day, I did think about what it would be like to be a cemetery tour guide and well, it sounded like the perfect job for my detective!
Thatās how Pepper Martin was born.Ā Pepper works at a fictional Cleveland cemetery called Garden View and one day, she trips and hits her head on a mausoleum.Ā When she comes back to work the next day, the person buried in that mausoleum is there waiting for her.Ā Yep, Pepper investigates mysteries for ghosts.
The ghostly connection seems a natural to me.Ā I believe that our spirits live on after our bodies are kaput.Ā I also believe that for whatever reason, some spirits stick around rather than cross to the Other Side.Ā As soon as I thought of the concept of a cemetery tour guide heroine, the ghost connection fell into place.
The ghost angle has given me plenty of opportunities to conduct interesting research, including a paranormal investigation in a cemetery the night after Halloween last year.Ā Plenty interesting, especially for a cemetery lover like me.Ā And plenty spooky, too.Ā At one point, we visited a grave marked by an angel statue.Ā Long ago, that statue was 
encased in a plexiglass box (my guess is vandalism had something to do with it, but legend says the angel statue used to leave its spot and roam the cemetery).Ā We asked the young girl buried there for a sign that she was still around and as clear as day, got a series of knocksāfrom the inside of the box!
Fortunately, my cemetery adventures are tame when compared to Pepperās.Ā So far, there have been six books published in the series: Don of the Dead, The Chick and the Dead, Tombs of Endearment, Night of the Loving Dead, Dead Man Talking, and Tomb with a View.Ā In them, Pepper has investigated for ghosts that range from 1970s mobster who demands that she solve his murder, to a rock ān roll star who thought heād died of natural causes, to a prison warden who was once accused of murder and wants Pepper to clear his name.Ā In Tomb with a View, she meets a very special ghostāPresident James A. Garfield.Ā It was the first chance I had to write an actual historic person into one of the stories and it was great fun, and a real challenge, too.Ā Any Garfield history-holics out there?Ā You may recognize actual snippets of the presidentās speeches and letters thrown in with his dialogue along with a subplot that involves the his love life and a little international espionage, too.
The next book in the series, A Hard Dayās Fright, will be out on April 5.Ā In it, Pepper meets a teenaged ghost from the 1960s, a girl who attended a Beatles concert in Cleveland in 1966 and was never seen again.
Having ghosts in the mix adds an interesting dimension to the mysteries.Ā I love the chance it gives me to explore a little history, add a little woo-woo, and allow Pepper to come to grips with her special Gift.
Of course, it also gives me the perfect excuse to indulge my cemetery habit, too!
January 7, 2011
Posted in: Guest Blogs
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11 Responses
I pretty much read only UF and PNR, but I happened upon The Pepper Martin mysteries and got hooked
They are humorous with a good amount of “woo-woo” (Casey’s words), rock solid plot lines and my favorite, a romance with a bull headed male 
Wonderful characters and snarky dialogue, you can’t miss with this series! (do I sound like a fan girl or what? )
As a former bookseller, I first read Casey’s first Pepper Martin, Don of the Dead, as an ARC (advanced reader copy). I live in Cleveland and was first intrigued with the local angle, but soon was gulping down page after page pulled in by a solid plot and charming protaganist. Have looked forward to every sequel since and am eagerly awaiting, Hard Day’s Fright.
Thanks for the good words, Bette and Sharon! Glad you’re enjoying the books. After 7 and a half (almost done with #8!), I’m still enjoying Pepper. She’s grown up a lot, but she’s still got that same fire to her. It’s easy to fall into her voice and into her head. As for that bull-headed male . . . oh, wait until you see what I do to him in “A Hard Day’s Fright!”
PS, Bette, how are your bees? We got our first honey in September and it is glorious!
Casey, I am happy to report that our library, in our tiny city in Canada has four of your books in their catalogue. I am on my way to pick up Night of the Loving Dead.
Jeri
Love that I’m being read in Canada! Thanks, Jeri.
Hey Casey,
Found and finished “Chick and the Dead”. So I’m back in sequence. “Dead Man Talking” will be next. (Finished “Tombs of Endearment” and “Night of the Loving Dead”. At this rate i may be up to speed by April!
Any dates for the 2011 World Tour? Still time to have the T-shirts printed!
JP
Ah, 2011 World Tour! Sounds good to me. Where shall we start? I will be at the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland in April and back to Columbus for the Ohioana Book Festival in May. Does that count?
Casey, thank you so much for stopping by—it has been a real pleasure having you here
Is Pepper MArtin really Casey’s alter ego? Hmmmmmm. Were you not at that Beatle’s concert? Hmmmmmmmmm. And I know how much you enjoy Chicago. Is that why Pepper wandered up there for one of her books? Hmmmmmmmmm. But the James Garfield connection, this has me wondering.
Zz
Casey, I love your Pepper books!
As for old cemeteries, you and I have bonded over those before. There’s just something tangibly magical about the old cemeteries.
Can’t wait for the next book!
Hey, Maureen, is anything cooler than prowling through old cemeteries? So many stories, and the art and architecture is often amazing.
As for Zz, no connection with Garfield. (Unless, like Marjorie, I’m really related to him?) CR made me do it! He’s the one who cornered me when I was on a panel and made me blurt out that I was going to write a Garfield book. After that, I had to do it!
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