A writer walks into a pub in Lake Placid, New York (spoiler: it’s me). She’s alone, so she takes a seat at the bar. Within moments, a guy with an ill-fitting suit sits on the empty stool next to her, finger in the knot of his pink tie, tugging it open.

“You wouldn’t believe the day I’ve had,” he says.

“Yeah?” says the female bartender.

“I’m here to make a sales call. Slate slabs. Replacing broken pieces around a pool. They’re expecting me at the old Effron place.”

“The Effron place?” I ask.

“Yeah. You know, the mansion left to the spendthrift son by the father who died 30 years ago. Apparently, the son has run out of money and he’s moving back. No one’s allowed in there. No one’s been in for decades. Huge metal fence, four types of locks. Guy wants it fixed by yesterday. They say that place is haunted. How am I supposed to get slate up there by next week?”

Another bar, another female bartender. This time, she has a story to spin in between pouring drinks, about the “camps” on various islands in Lake Placid. They’re not really camps, they’re private Adirondack mansions built by mega-wealthy celebrities, whose homes can only be reached by boat. Their families arrive from all over the world to summer together. She spent several summers at one of them as the private bartender. Stories to tell!

Another trip, yet another bar. Talking about the Olympians who still live there, and train up-and-coming athletes. The ones who are beloved and the ones who…aren’t, so much.

Mysterious deaths on the lake. Disappearing children from decades gone by. Teens who like to party and tragedies that sometimes happen.

Who hears all these stories? Who knows all these folks? The bartender. Well, and also the writer. These are all conversations I heard in the bars of Lake Placid. That’s where it occurred to me, if a bartender knows how to listen, the things she can learn! Or, as the tagline says for the Bartender’s Guide to Murder: No one talks to the cops. Everyone talks to the bartender.

Listening is the superpower of Avalon Nash, my bartender protagonist in the series. She’s moving across the country, changing trains in the Olympic town of Tranquility, New York, when she happens upon the recently-deceased bartender at the Battened Hatch. She is offered his job, with the warning he wasn’t the first bartender at that establishment to die mysteriously.

And so Avalon’s adventures begin. Are there camps and mansions across the lake? Check. Children who mysteriously disappeared? Check. Possible hauntings? Check. Olympians whom the villagers love? Check. And does everyone talk to the bartender who mixes really great drinks? Of course. (Does she share her recipes in the books? Of course.)

I guess what I’m saying is listening is an important superpower for sleuths and bartenders and…writers. I’d love you to sit next to me at the bar next time I’m in Lake Placid. And, if you can’t get there at the moment, meet my friend, Avalon Nash, who will solve any mysteries you might have.Death in TranquilityDeath in Tranquility Death in Tranquility

For fun, here’s a recipe Avalon shares in book 2, Death by Gravity:

CLOSED CASKET

Blueberry Margarita

Blueberry Margarita

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz Espolon Tequila Blanco

1 oz Fresh Blueberry Juice

1 wedge fresh lime

1 1/2 oz Homemade or store-bought sour mix

1/2 oz Triple Sec or any orange liquor of your choice

1/2 oz simple syrup (important to use if you make homemade sour mix)

Ice

Rocks Glass

Salt or Sugar for rim of glass

Method

Fill cocktail shaker with ice and combine tequila, orange liquor, fresh blueberry juice, sour mix, and simple syrup.

Shake all ingredients together.

Take lime wedge and wipe around the rim of rocks glass.

Put salt or sugar on small plate.

Dip rocks glass onto plate until rim is covered.

Pour contents of shaker into rocks glass.

Sip and enjoy!