Meg Perry's Blog

My friend (and member of my critique group) Karen has started a podcast, and I was delighted to be her guest a couple of weeks ago. We talk about writing, algorithms, police, communication, and all kinds of stuff. It’s available at all podcast locations, but here is the YouTube link. If you’re watching rather than listening, be sure to watch until the end to see what the cat does with the books.

They’re good things, I promise! First, the next book is up for preorder at all the usual sites. The title is Cut to Death, and here’s the cover and blurb. As usual, you can get an idea of what’s going on in the book by examining the cover.

Who killed Norman Ellis?

Dr. Norman Ellis is a plastic surgeon–the kind that will do any procedure his patients ask for. And the results aren’t always pretty. One of his victims, actor Jonah Gentry, hires Angeles Investigations to find others with disastrous surgical outcomes. But Angeles has just started searching for Ellis’s other mistakes when the doctor is found dead in his office, stabbed and mutilated. It looks like the work of an unhappy patient, and Jonah is an immediate suspect. 

Kevin Brodie and Max O’Brien think Jonah is innocent, and they gladly set out to prove it. But when another of Ellis’s patients hires them to find his killer, their focus shifts. The LAPD still suspects that a disgruntled patient took their anger out on Dr. Ellis. But the Angeles PIs are hearing things that make them think otherwise. 

And Jamie Brodie asks the question that no one else considered.

Why now?

Second, I just got home from an awesome writer’s retreat hosted by Gregory Ashe, and being surrounded by all that motivation and creativity was super exciting! One of the speakers was CS Poe, and one of the many excellent points she made was that we need to stay on top of our website and all our social media. As you all well know, I have been way too slack in the website department, since this site serves as my website. So there are changes coming! More content for you!

The first thing I’m working on is a new page that’s titled Reading Order. It includes everything: all the books, short stories, interviews, and even the Christmas codas for Josh Lanyon. (There are 96 items! I was shocked.) Each title will be linked so you can read–the books to the online bookstores and everything else to where it was published. I think some of the short stories were never published outside of the book Dirty Laundry, so I will publish those here, too.

It might be fun to go back and read everything in order, hm? I should probably do that myself.

I hope you enjoy the new book! The next one is in the works.

Of course you are! LOL. The next Angeles Investigations Mystery is up for preorder. CLINTON IS BACK! The book is called Connected to Death, and here are the links:

Amazon

Everywhere else

Four murders. Four different areas of the city. Four different methods. No apparent connection between the victims.

But one of the victims was Clinton Kenneally’s best friend. When the death is initially ruled a suicide, Clinton hires his old friends at Angeles Investigations to get to the truth. 

What they find makes no sense…until the librarians get involved.

Hi everyone! Sorry I’ve been a bit incommunicado since the release of Annoyed to Death. I spent the first ten days of October in New Mexico, touring practically the entire state and attending the balloon festival. It was amazing, of course. Then, four days after I got back, my car was totaled when I was rear-ended at a red light. I had no injuries other than bruises but my poor car took all the brunt. So that’s been a process, as any of you know who’ve been through a major accident. But all is well now and I have my new car.

Anyway, Influenced to Death, the next book, is up for preorder! Here’s the link for Amazon and here’s the link for everyone else including Smashwords. The publication date is 12/19. It’ll give you something to do when you need to sneak away from your relatives and read for a while over the holidays…

Next season, on Two Days to Solve…

Miranda Abbott is an influencer superstar. With 32 million followers on TikTok, she has built a business empire on filming her shopping hauls, bath routines, and cooking adventures. But when her body double, Emily Fairborn, is found dead in Miranda’s pool, Miranda’s empire is thrown into chaos. Was Miranda the target, or was Emily? Was it even a murder, or just a terrible accident? Miranda doesn’t have time for this, and hires Angeles Investigations to get answers.

But Angeles is in chaos, too. Because the producers of Two Days to Solve are back, and they want one more season featuring their most popular detectives ever, Jon Eckhoff and Kevin Brodie. Never mind that Kevin isn’t even a cop anymore, much less Jon’s partner.

And the rest of the Angeles staff will do whatever it takes to stay out of range of the TV cameras.

Are you ready for a new Angeles Investigations mystery? Annoyed to Death, Angeles #7, is up for preorder and will be published on Friday, 9/26!

Smashwords, Nook, Kobo, and all non-Amazon versions are here.

Amazon versions are here. Print will be coming soon.

Bashed with a bust of Bach.

Brenda Gillette was the most annoying person that everyone who knew her had ever met. She made up arbitrary and absurd rules and regulations then imposed them upon both her husband and her fellow choir members at St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church in Santa Monica. But whose annoyance would have turned to anger? Was it her husband, who spent every day on the golf course to avoid her? Was it the choir director, who battled Brenda for control of the choir? Was it one of the choir members, who’d finally had enough?

Nobody’s talking. But someone knows something. If they won’t talk to the cops, maybe they’ll talk to a couple of new choir members. Angeles Investigations is hired to infiltrate the choir and listen to the gossip about who might have killed Brenda.

The only problem with that? No one at Angeles can read music.

Almost no one.

Jamie Brodie Mystery #24

I have been a terrible correspondent lately, but I promise you, I am writing! As proof, here is the cover for the next book, Introduced to Death, which is a Jamie Brodie mystery. Yep, when I said I was done with the series, I lied. LOL. Introduced to Death is available for preorder at Amazon and, because I messed up, all of you who don’t use Amazon can get the book early! It’s now available at Smashwords, Nook, Kobo, and several other retailers. Here’s the link.

And if you’re a Kindle user or you want print, you can preorder now! Publication date is June 27.

Here’s the link for Amazon.

I am hard at work on Angeles Investigations #7, which has nearly 20K words but no title yet.

Also, Mailchimp has apparently done away with their free accounts, and I’m not paying them to produce a newsletter. I hadn’t put one out for so long anyway, I’m just going to discontinue that for now.

Here’s the blurb for Introduced to Death. Enjoy!

It’s 1997 in Oceanside, California. Jamie Brodie is turning seventeen. His grandfather hasn’t spoken to him for nearly two years, ever since Jamie came out to his family. But Jamie’s concerns are mostly centered on his grades, because it will take a near-perfect GPA to get into Berkeley. He’s busy with Advanced Placement classes; spending time with his “friend with benefits,” Robbie Harrison; and his weekend landscaping job with his best friend, Ali Fortner. 

Then Jamie and Ali find one of their elderly customers, Eugene Vasilaros, dead in his home. 

Everybody adored Mr. Vasilaros. Or so Jamie thought. As he, Ali, and Mel Hayes dig into the history of their beloved hometown, they discover how a long-simmering resentment can explode into violence.

You probably think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. No, I’ve just been disorganized and distracted. I’m allowing external factors to harsh my vibe, and that’s all I’ll say about THAT.

Anyway! Spotted to Death, Angeles Investigations #6, is available for preorder now! Pub date is 3/21, next Friday. Remember, if you’re boycotting Amazon, there are plenty of other choices to buy my books. (And I make a lot more money per book from the other sites, even though you pay the same amount.) Kindle Unlimited has never worked for me and I’ll never use it again.

Spotted to Death everywhere but Amazon

Spotted to Death for Kindle and print

If you’ve ever been curious about airport operations, this is a tiny look into that subject. ALSO. After consultation with others, I didn’t put a content warning at the beginning of the book, but be advised that this one includes a major act of violence.

“LA Tower, Southwest 2298. There’s someone lying on the top deck of the parking garage.”

When a passenger on an arriving flight spots a body on top of a garage at LAX, the mystery seems like a routine whodunit. Then another tragedy draws Angeles Investigations and the LAPD into a web of lies and deceit that extends to Mexico and beyond. The Brodie brothers are forced to face some of their own demons, and the rest of the team wonders – what happens when justice can’t be served?

Tojamilah.daly@angelesinvestigations.com; kevin.brodie@angelesinvestigations.com;  ryan.mckinney@angelesinvestigations.com; avery.roth@angelesinvestigations.com; jamie.brodie@angelesinvestigations.comCcaaron.quinn@usc.edu; anisha.pandit@lacounty.gov; kristen.beach@ucla.edu; brad.foster@santamonica.gov; pete.ferguson@gmail.comBcc SubjectOperations this weekHi everyone,   I would have sent a group text, but figured the message would be too long. I’ve heard from all of you separately, so I just wanted to clarify where everyone is now, since we’re all scattered to the winds (no pun intended) by this fire.  

Jamilah and Anisha’s house is fine, but the air quality in Pasadena is still terrible and the power is out. They’re staying at Jamilah’s parents in South Central until the power is restored.
 
Kevin and Kristen’s house is not in the evacuation warning area, but is very close. Kevin is still at home until the evacuation becomes mandatory, if it does, at which point he’ll stay with Pete. Kristen is already in Oceanside, staying with Kevin’s brother and working remotely since UCLA is all remote this week.  

Ryan and Brad, and Avery, are fine where they are in Venice, and working remotely. Ryan has the Angeles phone forwarded to his.  

Jamie has been at his dad’s in Oceanside since the fires started to protect his lungs. Pete is still at home.  

As you know, the office is in the evacuation warning area. Aaron and I were staying at the apartment, but now we’ve come back to Pasadena. They tell us our power will be on by the end of the day. It’s very smoky.  

Jamilah, Kevin, and I have decided that if someone wants to hire us this week, we’ll meet with them at the LA Central Library downtown. We have the Square terminal with us for payments if needed. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would be in need of a PI this week, but we wanted to be prepared. Most of the city is fine, after all.  

That’s all for now. You all stay safe and keep in touch. If anything changes, please Reply All to this email.  

Let’s hope this is over by next Monday.  

Rob

(Just a note from Meg: don’t try to use any of these email addresses. LOL. You might turn up someone we don’t want to know.)

Is it appropriate to say happy new year? We’re only eleven days in and already surrounded by disaster. I hope your first eleven days has been disaster-free.

Jeff Turner, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

As you know, there are terrible fires in Los Angeles. One reader asked about this, so I thought the rest of you might be wondering. There are a couple of conversations in Stolen to Death (out now, in case you didn’t know) where Jamie and Pete both comment on the fire hazard of living in Mandeville Canyon. I’m cringing now because I don’t like being a prophet. The houses along Mandeville Canyon Road are under evacuation orders, and the fire trucks are on the road, preparing to defend the homes against the Palisades fire which is headed that way. Jim and Rhea Perkins and their neighbors, and St. Chad’s Monastery, have all been forced to find other shelter.

The next stop after Mandeville Canyon for the fire would be Brentwood. (Mandeville Canyon is in Brentwood, if you want to get technical.) The Angeles Investigations office is safe, since it’s in the lower section of Brentwood, but Ali and Mel’s house is in the potential danger zone.

I’ve been trying to find out whether the house I chose for Mike Day and his partner Austin is still standing, and I can’t. Obviously things are still in flux, and part of Pacific Palisades is still in some danger.

The air quality in parts of LA is terrible. As soon as the fires started, I’m sure that Jamie and Ammo headed for Oceanside, where Jamie is now working remotely from his dad’s house. He took Ammo so that Pete wouldn’t have to go outside as often. Pete has stayed to support the Dodgers employees. There are 500 non-player staff, and according to the Dodgers statement, some of them have lost their homes.

And then there’s Pasadena, which is directly south of Altadena, where thousands of homes have been destroyed. I don’t think Pasadena is in any danger of burning, but I believe there are power outages and drinking water restrictions in place. Rob and Aaron are probably staying at the apartment in Brentwood, and Jamilah and Anisha have probably gone to Jamilah’s parents in South Central, which is far away from the fires. I expect that Jamilah is working remotely, too.

I may be nuts, but I’m going to LA next week. I’ll be staying with a friend in Hawthorne, south of LAX, which is in no danger. I’m sure I’ll be breathing some smoke, but that’s no biggie for me. I’ve done it before…

In 1998, we lived through the Florida Firestorm. We had a wet winter, but then it quit raining in March. The fires started at Memorial Day and didn’t stop until mid-July, which is the first rain we’d had since March. My county is 1,000,000 acres; 200,000 of that burned. Twenty percent. The county just to the north of us, Flagler County, ordered the entire county to evacuate. I lived inland then, right across the street from an evacuation zone, and had flaming chunks of palmetto falling on my house and yard. Fortunately, none of the houses burned. Two years later, I moved to the beach, where there is no forest and we’re safe from wildfire.

I’d much rather deal with hurricanes. We can see them coming and get out of the way with days of warning, not minutes.

Anyway! I’m going to LA to look at locations for the next couple of books. We were going to take a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway; I doubt that’ll happen now. One of the locations is Oceanside; I’ll finally get to see the house I chose for Dave, almost 13 years ago. Can you believe it?

The next book takes place this past December, about three weeks before the fires started. It feels so strange, to be writing the book knowing what’s coming but having to ignore it because, in the book, it hasn’t happened yet.

Stuff like these fires is why I don’t publish before the book has “happened” in the Brodieverse.

Wherever you are, stay safe.

Happy Boxing Day! I hope your holidays are treating you well. Good news: Stolen to Death, Angeles Investigations #5, is now up for preorder! Here are the links:

Kindle and Print

All other platforms including Smashwords

Jadon Perkins, age 16, is found dead at his high school track. Jadon ran track and cross-country and was dressed for practice, but there are no witnesses and no obvious cause of death. The autopsy is inconclusive pending toxicology results.

Carlos Maroto, age 28, slides into second base at Dodger Stadium, in front of 56,000 fans, and doesn’t get up. Everyone assumes that he suffered some kind of cardiac event. But the autopsy shows that Carlos was perfectly healthy.

Jadon Perkins’s parents want to know what happened to their only child, and they hire Angeles Investigations to find out.

The Los Angeles Dodgers want to know what happened to their star center fielder, and they hire Angeles Investigations to find out.

Each case will force Jamilah, Kevin, and Rob to seek help from people they hoped they’d never have to see again.

And Pete Ferguson is about to begin the best undercover assignment EVER.