Death on a Dig by Lois Browne-A Review and Interview with the Author
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date July 12, 2013
Death on a Dig takes place primarily in the Oaxaca valley, in central Mexico, on an archaeological dig. When a neighbour begs Gwen Madden to drop everything and head to Mexico to search for her missing daughter, Gwen has her own compelling reasons for accepting the challenge.
Within 24 hours she is tracking Alicia Lester’s last known activities, exposing lies that others have unknowingly – or perhaps deliberately — ignored and hunting a trove of stolen artifacts.
The investigation of a disappearance becomes the investigation of a murder. Equally disturbing are the warnings to Gwen that the first body may not be the last.
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REVIEW: Death on a Dig is a suspense/mystery novel. The main character is Gwen Madden, a middle aged woman, recently divorced with two step-daughters she has raised from small children.
The prologue begins with the abduction of an unknown woman. Chapter One begins with Gwen’s post-divorce celebration, with some lady friends who presented her with a Swiss Army knife as a gift for her future adventures. I’m a little unclear on why she stayed with a man who it seemed was always depressed and lonely and raised his two little girls as her own if she didn’t want a family…but that’s probably just me! Anyway, that sets up the basis for her being able to travel. She is approached by the mother of a former university friend of her daughters, saying that her daughter Alicia was missing from the dig site she had been working and she was hoping she could get Gwen to go to Mexico to look for her. The other woman couldn’t leave her ailing mother to go herself, but would gladly pay Gwen’s expenses if she would go.
As residents of Canada, the mother had already contacted the government agency and asked them for assistance, but since it was found that Alicia had left on her own and had her passport it was too soon to do anything but a simple inquiry. Gwen tried to tell her that people more qualified should do this as well as the police, but Alicia’s mother just wanted someone to go personally and see if they could find out anything, she felt time was of the essence and her daughter was in danger. She didn’t expect Gwen to confront anyone, just ask around to see if she could find where Alicia may have gone. Gwen, wanting to travel and having not enough resources to do so on her own as yet, reluctantly agreed.
This mystery has some unusual turns and twists. It builds slowly introducing characters and building suspicions. There is ancient treasure involved and stolen artifacts, as well as the kidnapping and a couple of murders. You follow Gwen along on the trip as she tries to find the trail and what may have happen to Alicia. I won’t spoil it by revealing the whole story, but it’s an adventure you need to take yourself.
If you like mystery, intrigue and danger, Death on a Dig, is a great read to take you away. Its pace is good, there is no actual romance but lots of mystery and danger to keep you on your toes! It’s well written, a little complicated, but certainly entertaining!
Copy supplied by the author.
Reviewed by Georgianna S.
TRC: Hi Lois and welcome to The Reading Café. We would like to start with some background information. Please tell us something about yourself?
FOLLOW Lois: Website / Goodreads/ Twitter /
Lois: I’ve spent my life writing, first in journalism and then in corporate communications. I often thought about writing fiction and even started a few stories, but I was never motivated to do the hard work of completing anything.
I’ve also done a lot of travelling in my life, and in recent years I’ve written travel blogs for my family and friends. I’ve always found writing very satisfying, even if not always easy, and it wasn’t until I retired and didn’t have that outlet anymore that I was finally motivated enough to take up writing fiction.
TRC: Your bio states that you have travelled many places as well a spending five years in Mozambique as an international volunteer. Would you please tell us of your experience in Mozambique and what brought you to this country?
Lois: Restlessness was at the start of that journey. I didn’t think life in my 30s was very challenging. I was active in the anti-apartheid movement at
the time and Mozambique, which had recently gained its independence from the Portuguese colonialists, was looking for volunteers. I applied and was accepted.
I arrived there in 1980 and stayed nearly five years. Mozambique was trying to bring education and health care to a population that was more than 95% illiterate, if you can imagine that. It was also leading the political struggle among African nations against the apartheid state in South Africa. At that time, Nelson Mandela was still in prison and his release was years away.
I worked as an English-language journalist for the national news agency and the national radio. It was fascinating and inspiring to begin with, but as South Africa launched an undeclared war against Mozambique, I saw the country’s attempts to build its social and political structure being destroyed.
By the time I left, a lot of its initiatives to bring some level of prosperity and autonomy to the Mozambican people had been crushed.
TRC: *Death on a Dig* is your July 2013 release and first book in the Gwen Madden Mystery series. Would you please tell us something about the premise?
Lois: Gwen Madden is a middle-aged woman who has raised two step-daughters who are now at university. Her marriage is over and she is desperate to make changes in her life. In this first adventure she is offered a all-expenses-paid trip to Mexico to look for a university student missing from an archaeological dig in Mexico and she takes it. She finds the change she is looking for plus lost stolen artifacts and murder. In subsequent adventures I expect her desire for adventure and her need for money will be the primary motives for putting her between a rock and a hard place in various corners of the world.
TRC: Who or what was the influence behind the premise of Death on a Dig? How much of the storyline is based in reality or a combination of fiction and real-life?
Lois: The only reality is the setting and my own fear of a life that never changes. From that I was able to imagine the motivation that would prompt Gwen Madden to follow wherever the challenge led her, no matter how dangerous.
TRC: How much influence have your travels affected your storylines and novels?
Lois: A fair bit. Everywhere I go, I imagine what a great setting it would be for a murder. I hiked Hadrian’s Wall in northern England last year. It’s windy and a bit wild with lots of opportunity to find yourself rounding the corner of a Roman ruin only to discover a corpse. I also spent time in Florence, Italy last year in and out of numerous beautiful, dimly lit museums and churches, some with steps down to near deserted, low-ceilinged, multi-crannied crypts, any one of which could easily hide a number of dead bodies. And the paintings and statuary and jewelry of great value would provide more than enough motive for murder.
TRC: What difficulties or challenges (e.g. logistical, research, etc) did you encounter writing Death on a Dig?
Lois: I wrote a lot of it from my memory of the times that I have travelled in Mexico. I think the first time was in 1976 when I spent six weeks in the Oaxaca Valley, which is where *Death on a Dig *is set. I was there again most recently a couple of years ago when I lived in San Miguel de Allende, just north of Mexico City for two months, taking painting classes and improving my Spanish. All that helped with the setting. The only other challenge I can think of is making sure that details like describing the countryside accurately for the time of year, and these days the Internet helps a lot with that.
TRC: How many books do you plan for the “Gwen Madden Mystery series”?
Lois: I don’t really have a plan. I’m working on a Gwen Madden short story at the moment and have a very basic outline for a novel or novella – I haven’t yet decided how long it will be. I can imagine another two or three books after that. I’d love to set one in Slovenia. I spent a couple of months there last year, mostly in the capital of Ljubljana and its history and architecture would make a great setting.
TRC: How do you keep the plot unpredictable without sacrificing content and believability?
Lois: I think it was Raymond Chandler who said that whenever your plot stalls, have a couple of guys with guns barge into the room. I don’t know if I’ll ever use that precisely, but I do try to follow the spirit of it. I’m writing murder mysteries, after all, so I feel I have quite a lot of leeway.
TRC: Are you a plotter or a panster (write by the ‘seat of your pants’)?
Lois: Primarily a plotter. It’s only if I have an idea of where I will end up that I can relax and enjoy getting there. However, I have just finished a noir-ish short story called *Amends for the Dead *that I am serializing on my web site loisbrowne.com. I wrote that by the ‘seat of the pants.’ I had just finished *Death on a Dig*, and after two years of writing and rewriting, I wanted to be writing something else. *Amends for the Dead *was the result.
TRC: The mark of a good writer is to pull the reader into the storyline so that they experience the emotions along with the characters. What do you believe a writer must do to make this happen? Where do you believe writers fail in this endeavor?
Lois: I think a writer has to see in their mind’s eye how characters manifest their emotions and describe that. ‘He looked afraid’ isn’t as effective as ‘His eyes widened. She heard his sharp intake of breath.’ It takes practice and conscious thought. I’m constantly on the lookout for ways I can improve my writing in that respect.
TRC: Many authors bounce ideas with family and friends or other authors. With whom do you bounce ideas?
Lois: I don’t at all. If I happen to be walking with a friend and we’re passing a spot where I was thinking of placing a body, I might mention it, but only if we’re actually on the subject. I’m superstitious. It’s as though there’s a finite amount of energy for each writing project, and every word I utter about it uses up some of that energy. Writers write, they don’t talk about it.
TRC: If you could select one reality TV show to be a contestant, which show would you choose and why?
Lois: I’m probably most suited to Amazing Race, since I’ve had lots of experience getting around unfamiliar places where I don’t know the language. But the show I would have most enjoyed is *Project Runway*, even though I can’t sew and I spend a lot of time in T-shirts and jeans. I loved the fabrics and the bitchiness – a great combination.
TRC: On what are you currently working?
Lois: I’m almost finished a Gwen Madden short story called *In The Early Hours*. When that’s published, I’ll start on a Gwen Madden novel. I’ve also got a short story for free on Smashwords, *Murder in the Clubhouse*, set in the world of girl pro baseball players of the 1940s, and I wouldn’t mind writing another couple of those.
TRC: Would you like to add anything else?
Lois: I have two web sites – my mystery web site http://www.loisbrowne.com and my *Girls of Summer *web site, http://intheirownleague.wordpress.com, dedicated to my only non-fiction book and my continuing research on the women who played pro baseball in the 1940s and 1950s. As I mentioned, it has inspired a series involving girl detectives so mystery readers will like it. Please visit and think about Following me.
LIGHTNING ROUND
Favorite Food
BBQed ribs
Favorite Dessert
Pecan pie
Favorite TV Show
Inspector Lewis
Last Movie you saw
All’s Well That Ends Well directed by Joss Whedon
Dark or Milk Chocolate
Milk Chocolate
Favorite Flower
Hibiscus
Last Vacation Destination
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Secret Celebrity Crush
George Clooney
Pet Peeve
Cellphone users who turn public space into their personal telephone booth
TRC: Thank you Lois for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the release of Death on a Dig.
I soaked up all the fun stuff, especially about US presidents. Did you know that Grant got a speeding ticket for racing his horse and buggy too fast down the streets of Washington, D.C.? Or that Taft’s 300+ pounds didn’t fit inside the White House bathtub, so they installed a larger one!
I’ve read biographies and history books, along with newspapers. Watched documentaries. Studied old photographs online. Read letters. Looked at maps. Found brochures. Gone to museums. Research opportunities are endless and all around if you’re willing to dig deeply and utilize a variety of sources.
While researching aspects for A Game of Chance, my January 2014 release, I had to understand different poker hands since my hero is an ace gambler. About the only thing I knew about poker hands came from playing Yahtzee with my daughter when she was young. I learned the difference between a flush (any five cards of the same suit) and a royal flush (an ace-high straight of the same suit and the rarest hand in poker). I also studied maps of San Francisco in the 1870s to learn where the best-known gaming halls were located. I wrote about the death of one character, so I even researched cemeteries to see where she might be buried.
