All Things Slip Away,
sequel to Scraps of Paper
(The Spookie Town Mysteries Series) by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Ten years ago Frank Lester, a Chicago homicide detective, thought he had rid himself forever of the Mud People Killer who’d kidnapped and murdered six people. Frank had shot him as he’d fled through a snowy night; had killed him, he believed, though a body was never found.
But the killer wasn’t dead. He’d only been waiting to take his revenge on Frank and those he cares about now…ten years later. Frank retired early and is living back in his hometown of Spookie when the killer resurfaces to take up where he left off. Kidnapping more innocents and tormenting Frank and the people he cares about.
Unless Frank and his artist girlfriend, Abigail Sutton, can find and stop him before he kills more people and perhaps both of them. ***
The Story of Scraps of Paper and All Things Slip Away
A murder mystery series by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
I wrote this murder mystery series, set in this quaint, quirky little town I tongue-in-cheek called Spookie, between 2002 and 2006. Most of my books before were horror novels, so the town's name was a tip-of-the-hat to my horror roots. My first venture into that genre, which I'd always loved. Sherlock Holmes, Murder She Wrote, Inspector Morse and Miss Marple.
I'd written the first book, Scraps of Paper, and then, soon after, a second I called All Things Slip Away (continuing the adventures of Frank and Abigail, this time on the trail of a serial killer) for Avalon Books. I got a small advance up front for each one.
It was 2002. I'd come out of a lengthy publishing dry spell. My seventh paperback novel, Zebra's The Calling, a ghost story with an ancient Egyptian theme, had come out in 1994. Then they dumped a lot of us mid-list horror writers, me included, saying horror was dying; and for eight years I write or sell another book. Well, living my life got in the way during some of that time. I'd lost my long-time good-paying graphic artist job in 1994 and had to find another one. The pay was a lot less. No good for my budget or my standard of living, which really fell. I went from one of five bad jobs to another over the next six years...each worse and lower paying than the one before; each more demanding. I needed to make money. No longer could I live with pie-in-the-sky literary dreams. I had to face reality. So I stopped writing for a while.
When I finally came up for breath and my head was back on straight again I decided to write something different...a mystery. I'd always loved mysteries. I began writing Scraps of Paper. About a woman, an artist named Abigail Sutton, whose husband has been missing for two years, and who's just learned he's been dead all that time-a victim of a gone-wrong mugging. She begins a new life and moves to a small town full of fog, quirky townspeople and mysteries. And right away she's drawn into one of her own when she buys, renovates, a fixer-upper house and uncovers hidden in it scraps of paper written by two young children who once lived there with their mother, and who supposedly drove away thirty years before and were never seen again. The town thought they simply went somewhere else; began a new life. But Abigail suspects they never left the house; suspects they'd been murdered. Then she finds three graves in the back.
Of course, with her history of a missing husband she develops the overpowering urge to find out what happened to them. The scraps of paper she continues to find makes the bond, the desire, stronger. She forms a friendship with an ex-homicide cop, Frank, and together they try to solve the mystery. Only thing is there's someone still living in the town that just as desperately doesn't want them to. Someone who'd kill to keep the murderer's identity secret.
When done I was proud of it. Thought it was good. I sent it to Avalon Books in New York. They loved it and bought it. I signed the contract, though I didn't like some of the things in it. It was a ten year contract. That’s a long time to sell off a book’s full rights. But I hadn't had a book published in a long time and, as my mom always said, beggars can't be choosers.
I sold them the second in the series, hoping it'd help sell the first. All Things Slip Away zeroed in more on Frank, the ex-homicide detective, when a serial killer from his past threatens their peaceful town of Spookie and both their lives. They got great reviews. But I came to regret signing both those contracts more as every year went by.
Then Avalon Books sold themselves lock-stock-and-barrel to Amazon Publishing in June of 2012 and, without their authors' knowledge or permission, including mine, sold away their authors' contracts from under them as well. Scraps of Paper's contract had run out so I took the book back and self-published it, but was happy to let Thomas & Mercer (the mystery imprint of Amazon Publishing) publish the second in the series, All Things Slip Away.
But, all that is in the past, and my rewritten Scraps of Paper-Revised Author's Edition and its sequel All Things Slip Away are both now available, on sale for $3.99 at Amazon Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Kathryn%20Meyer%20Griffith
And I hope people will have the chance to read them this time around and like them.***
An Internet stripper finds fortune, love and murder in New York City after an encounter with a rare first edition book, which opens doors to many possibilities.
Six straight men in the cast plus free Tex-Mex food? My friend Lida Rose sure knew how to persuade me. I signed on the dotted line and dusted off my dance shoes. I knew Bad Business on the Brazos would have them rolling in the aisles and standing up
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