Onetime head of the RPGA, back in the 1990s, Jean Rabe now concentrates on her writing, here is info on her latest Piper Blackwell mystery
Sheriff Piper
Blackwell’s first-shift dispatcher is a geek. He collects comic books, likes
roleplaying games, and he’s darn good at collectible card games … he competes
on pre-release night. He’s called Zeke the Geek, embracing the nickname and
making the department a more colorful place. He even has a hand in solving some
of the crimes, as he’s a computer nerd and uses his skills at the young
sheriff’s request.
I’m a geek, and
that’s why I put him in my Piper Blackwell Mysteries. I embrace my geekiness. I
started playing D&D on a regular basis in college (1979 if you’re curious …
I’m an old geek). I collected comic books for a lot of years, too. Collectible
card games? I played for a while, but didn’t wholly embrace them; I’d rather fight
dragons by rolling twenty-sided dice.
Zeke got to
shine in The Dead of Summer, the Piper book I released last year. Much
of the action took place at a comic shop that looks a lot like Scott Thorne’s
on the inside. Scott and I go back a lot of years.
This summer, in The
Dead of Jerusalem Ridge, which comes out July 15, Zeke gets to show off his
dispatching skills. The night dispatcher, Teegan, who has been with the
department for 15 years, gets a chapter all to herself. She’s not a geek, she’s
a goth. Dresses a bit like Morticia, likes to attend conventions, dyes her hair
funky shades, and she wears the kind of sandals I favor. Yeah, I’m sprinkling
bits of myself in the book. Write what you know, eh?
But they’re
minor characters, brightening the grimness of the mysteries and murders the
department solves. They keep my fiction from getting too dark and dreary. They
let me lighten the gory details. It’s a big responsibility my dispatchers have.
With great power
comes … you get the idea.
I’ve been
playing with ideas for the next Piper book, where my goth dispatcher will get a
bigger role. But I’ve a supernatural legal thriller to tackle first, and I’ve
got this outline with dinosaurs in it. I think I have too many stories to tell.
About the book: Sheriff Piper
Blackwell’s three-day vacation with old Army buddies ends in tragedy. At the
same time, a vile hate crime along a county road enrages her department. Their
forces divided, Piper and her deputies must solve both cases before tensions
boil and threaten the rural fabric of Spencer County, Indiana. Only eight
months on the job, the young sheriff must weave together clues to uncover both
a killer and a secret that could scar her soul.
“Piper Blackwell
is a smart and capable small-town sheriff, a thoroughly modern woman who leads
a colorful cast of characters in this entertaining read. Well-crafted and
suspenseful, THE DEAD OF JERUSALEM RIDGE adroitly threads the needle between
Cozy, Procedural, and Action-Thriller. Jean Rabe's fans⸺both old and new⸺won't
want to miss this one.”
⸺ Baron R.
Birtcher, multi-award winner, and LA Times Bestselling author
About the
author:
My home is filled with dogs and books. Lots of dogs and books. I wear worn out
sandals to work every day. I'm a mystery writer living in a tiny Midwestern
town that has a gas station, a Dollar General, and a marvelous pizza place with
exceedingly slow service. I am always working on a new project or three. I have
forty-some books published in the fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy and
mystery genres. But I'm concentrating on mysteries now. In my spare time I
dabble in roleplaying games and boardgames. And at every opportunity, I toss
tennis balls to my cadre of dogs.
Find The Dead
of Jerusalem Ridge here:
Amazon:
paperback
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
I am on Twitter at:
@jeanerabe
