Hi!  Dad Here…

If you are a parent of several kids or are one of several siblings you know that a large family is never dull.  And when teen years come, parental anxieties come with them.  Kids get hurt and your instinct is to protect them.  Though we have six, Arlene and I never lost any sleep over football or boxing injuries. All six are girls. (Before you guy readers start feeling sorry for me remember how daughters love spoiling their dads.) But with dating, girls become vulnerable. At least I thought so. They would go out for the evening agreeing to an 11:00 or whatever deadline and most of the time almost make it. We would go to bed, read for a while and at 10:30 or so kiss good night and Arlene would turn over and soon be sound asleep. I would continue reading with my eye on the clock more than on my book. At five after 11:00 I'd start praying. Sounds a bit naive doesn't it.

Kari, Kristen and Juli, the three murder mystery writers you are getting to know through their writing (the other three are Lynn, Roxie and Diane), are doing delightfully well as authors. Being compared with some of the most popular in their genre, like Janet Evanovich, Lisa Lutz and Lisa Scottoline is really an affirmation of the quality of the results when three gifted women combine their gifts into one. Interestingly, they had never read Janet Evanovich before their editor mentioned it. Of course I immediately got one of Janet Evanovich's mystery books and I personally don't see that much similarity to the Cat DeLuca series.  Liar, Liar's heroine, Cat DeLuca, is a lot more believable and interesting to me. Of course, it is just barely possible that as their dad I'm a bit prejudice. But even though I am prejudiced, if I took a poll I think you would agree with me.  Let's do it. Give me a shout through the sister's website or facebook or twitter.

Thinking back, remembering when they were little kids barely in school, if we had had the insight to interpret what we were seeing, we could have predicted the three would end up doing something much like they are now as they write together. I'll tell you about that but it's getting late and I'm getting sleepy so that will have to wait till another time.  I'll get back to it soon, I promise.

 A very proud dad…

- Harold Larsen