Strong Women: How do you gain strength and independence in the face of danger?
by Anne Macdonald
Samantha “Sam” Monroe is more timid than determined when her
world turns upside down. She arrives
home a little early one day and her life is changed forever. She goes from someone who is feeling
stuck in her life and in her marriage to making decisions about her own working
future. Danger arrives a few months later when Ariella, her husband’s grad assistant
and lover, is murdered and she is a suspect in this murder. After clearing her name, Sam agrees to help
Ariella’s father find the murderer. Since Ariella’s father is a former mob-boss
with a very public presence and many enemies, this is a dangerous choice for
her to make. Of course, Sam does not know this when she takes on this task.
Most people would take a step back, say ‘thank you very
much, but no thanks.’ Sam’s curiosity, and her curiosity about what Rick, her
estranged husband, might be up to has her agree to this offer. Sam curiosity
causes her to leap before she looks.
Danger follows her when she leaves Boston for Vermont, for her brother’s
wedding. Her former best friend and the latest in her estranged husband’s
string of women is will to make any deal to ensure that no one, including Sam,
can testify at her murder trial. While Donna and Rick attempted to kill Sam,
Sam remains convinced that good will triumph in the face of evidence to the
contrary.
These events push and prod Sam to become a stronger, more
determined and perceptive woman. Curiosity continues to draw her into danger
and the only thing saving her is the strength of her crazy family, her own
analytical skills and her ability to put her personal issues aside to solve a
problem. These analytical skills allow
her to step back from her own problems to investigate the problems of others,
and handle her functionally dysfunctional family. Her curiosity causes Sam to
look further each time it looks like one problem is solved, and another more
dangerous problem arises.
My goal is to take Sam, who is a victim of circumstances
beyond her control, extend those circumstances into more dangerous territory
and turn the table around a little bit. Sam is a fictional character who is not
tied to any historical perspective of women but to the current ambiguity of
working women in a world where women are paid less than men for the same job,
and are considered to be more emotional and less analytical than men. Sam’s
life is an emotional roller coaster. She is frustrated by her inability to get
a divorce from Rick and by how her life will change again with Donna’s upcoming
trial. Dealing with a quick and fiery relationship with Pete O’Malley, a Boston
police detective, and a contentious relationship with a bride who doesn’t want anything to happen
that that will mar her perfect wedding, provides more drama for Sam. So when a
murder takes place at the wedding, Sam is more than willing to become involved
since solve it since there isn’t much she can do about her own circumstances.
Sam’s newfound strengths and self-confidence help her face the fact that the
dangers caused by her past relationships with Rick and Donna will not be put to
rest.
Sam Monroe is the heroine of the first two mysteries, Deadlines Are Murder, was published in
2011 and the second Weddings Are Murder
was published in 2016. In the next book in the trilogy, Trials Are Murder, Rick and Donna will stop at nothing to stop Sam,
and anyone else, from testifying in court. They will use their perceptions of
Sam and her weaknesses to build a defense themselves. As she faces even more challenges, Sam will become the best version
of herself that strength and endurance can build. Trails
Are Murder is anticipated to be available in 2018.
BIO:
Anne Macdonald has
worked in higher education, law, banking, and for herself, as an IT project
manager, a webmaster, a freelance writer and an event planner. Writing since
the age of ten, her first short story was inspired by her love of history,
particularly the American Revolution, her love of a good story and an active
imagination. Her love of history led her to a BA and an MA in History. Her
unpublished MA Thesis on Asher Benjamin, architect and builder, is held in
several libraries around New England. Her active imagination and the love of a
good story inspire her novels and short stories. She is working on a biography
of her grandfather, a Manhattan Project engineer.
DEADLINES ARE MURDER is her first book in the Sam (Samantha)
Monroe mystery series. WEDDINGS ARE MURDER, the second in the series, was
released in December 2016, and the third, TRIALS ARE MURDER, is anticipated in
early 2018. Sam Monroe is the protagonist and her extended family members and
friends are featured in each story. Anne currently resides with her husband in
a nice, quiet suburb of Boston, Massachusetts.
You can find Anne at:
follow: @anne_macdonald
BOOK BLURB:
Her plans for a
quiet weekend in Vermont were slowly unraveling . . .
Samantha “Sam” Monroe is a bridesmaid at her brother’s wedding.
She’s anticipating a nice weekend away from her life in Boston; where her
estranged husband is in a coma and her former best friend is in jail awaiting
trial for attempted murder. Complications include her bodyguard boyfriend, her
loving but overbearing family, a bride looking for the perfect wedding, a
missing father of the bride, a car dealer with a side business in drugs, and a
dead body in front of the church.
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FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here.
If you have something to say about the topic of
strong women, contact me on Twitter:
@conniehambley.
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Amber Wolf is a historical fiction tale set in Lithuania during the Soviet occupation of World War II and is a book I will not soon forget. It is lushly written, impeccably researched, and the story is superbly conceived and executed. 
