JEAN RABE LISTENS!

 

People who follow me on Facebook and this blog will know that I am a fan of Jean Rabe’s. She's a generous and wise person and a good and caring friend. But she is also, at her core, a damn fine writer of popular fiction with a well-honed power of description of both people and places that elevates her work above the crowded field of stories on offer out there. Right now she is on a blog tour touting the audiobooks of three of her four (so far) Piper Blackwell Mysteries. So I asked her to drop by and offer her thoughts on discovering the thrill of an author hearing her work beautifully narrated. 

So...ladies and gentlemen...Jean Rabe. 

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Spencer County’s Fancy Frosting

by Jean Rabe

I hadn’t thought much about it, having an audiobook, when I wrote my first mystery, The Dead of Winter. A freelance editor approached me with the notion, said he’d handle it, and that he had a narrator in mind. Okay, I said, let’s go with it.

The narrator was the most magnificent Catherine Wenglowski. 

I watch The Holiday Baking Championship on the Food Network. I am AMAZED at what a group of talented bakers can make … works of art, really. (I am also amazed that they would put that much time and effort into something that would be cut up and eaten … seems like a waste, eh?) Anyway, to my point: sometimes they frost their concoctions with this stuff called “mirror glaze.” It’s bright, shiny, smooth, and pours over a cake or cookies seamlessly.

Catherine’s voice is mirror glaze—bright, shiny, perfect, smooth.

When some of my friends heard my first audiobook, they looked up other things Catherine had recorded so they could buy more. To them, it wasn’t about the story …it was about her voice.

Apparently, Catherine liked Sheriff Piper Blackwell enough to record the next two books in the series: The Dead of Night and The Dead of Summer. All three are featured as part of this blog tour. Yeah, I read the books over and over as I was writing them. And now I’ve listened to them multiple times because she brings Spencer County to vivid, shiny life.

I feel incredibly fortunate that the editor suggested I take The Dead of Winter to audiobook form. I wouldn’t have done it without that nudge … and I wouldn’t have gotten to hear the most magnificent Catherine Wenglowski narrate the adventures of Piper Blackwell.

Before this experience, I’d only listened to two other audiobooks. One a Robert Crais novel (have to love Elvis and Joe), and the other one of my Rogue Angel adventures. Neither were as good … oh, the books might have been. But they didn’t sound as good. I hadn’t purchased more audiobooks because those two hadn’t been TERRIFIC. Once in a while I have Alexa play something Patrick Stewart narrated … but that’s not the same thing as an entire audiobook.

If I’d had heard a book earlier by Catherine or someone as talented, I certainly would not have stopped with Roger Crais and Rogue Angel. It’s nice to sit back and have someone tell you a story. I finally ‘get’ why people appreciate audiobooks.

Steven Paul Levia, who is graciously hosting this blog post, was fortunate with his audiobook, Creature Feature, which was narrated by actors Seamus Dever and Juliana Dever, who were on the Castle television series. I’ve listened to that one twice, and will again during the Thanksgiving weekend.

I’ll also listen to my Dead books again, hearing Spencer County, Sheriff Piper Blackwell, and Deputy Oren Rosenberg reflected in the mirror glaze.

It’ll be grand to curl up next to the fireplace with a few dogs, a blanket, and listen to Catherine pour the fancy frosting over Spencer County, Indiana. 

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Piper Blackwell is the newly appointed sheriff in this intense mystery-thriller series set in a small town in Indiana from Faust Lifetime Achievement winner, Jean Rabe. Narrator Catherine Wenglowski lends her voice to this series of books that will keep you up at night...              

About the Books

BUT FIRST! I hasten to remind you that on Amazon if you buy the ebook you can get the audiobook for around half off. What a deal! Sometimes it's fun to read and hear the words simultaneously. I recommend it. So check out the PIPER BLACKWELL MYSTERY SERIES! I bet you won't hate me for suggesting it.

THE DEAD OF WINTER

In a deceptively peaceful county, a murderer hides in plain sight.

Fifty-eight minutes into her first day on the job, 23-year-old Sheriff Piper Blackwell is faced with a grisly murder, the victim artfully posed amid decorations on his lawn. Drawing on former military training, Piper must prove herself worthy of the sheriff's badge, and that won't be easy.

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Length: 8 hr 47 min

Language: English

THE DEAD OF NIGHT

As Sheriff Piper Blackwell rushes to a clandestine meeting with an aging, paranoid veteran who believes spies are trailing his every move, she is caught in a fierce thunderstorm. Pounding rain drums against the bluff, washing away the earth and revealing a grisly secret someone tried to bury a long time ago.

Putting a name to the skeleton on the bluff, and searching for the thief who robbed the old veteran of his life’s earnings, sends Piper delving into the sleepy towns that dot her rural county. Now she’s digging into pasts perhaps best left alone.

Accompanied by Chief Deputy Oren Rosenberg, Piper seeks to expose a truth someone wants to remain forever hidden. The investigation may have started with a thunderstorm, but Piper aims to finish it and find justice. Uncovering fragments of Spencer County’s history could prove more dangerous - and deadlier - than she ever expected.

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Length: 8 hr 32 min

Language: English

THE DEAD OF SUMMER

Shouts of delight turn to screams of terror when a carnival ride goes berserk at the Spencer County Fair. Sheriff Piper Blackwell must contain the chaos and investigate the possible sabotage, even as she tries to solve a local businessman’s horrific murder.

But managing two investigations with at least one killer on the loose pushes the young officer and her tiny staff to their limits. Can Piper catch the murderer, or will the summer’s body count continue to rise?

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Length: 8hr 19 min

Language:English

                                                                                                  

About the Author

USA Today Bestselling author, Jean Rabe's impressive writing career spans decades, starting as a newspaper reporter and bureau chief.

From there she went on to become the director of RPGA, a co-editor with Martin H. Greenberg for DAW books, and, most notably, Rabe is an award-winning author of more than forty science fiction/fantasy and murder-mystery thrillers.

She writes mysteries and fantasies because life is too short to be limited to one genre--and she does it with dogs tangled at her feet because life is too short not to be covered in fur.

Find out more about her at www.jeanrabe.com

About the Narrator

Catherine Wenglowski is a New York City-based audiobook narrator. With a background in theater and as a classically trained singer, combined with her lifelong love of reading, Catherine uses her trained ear and creativity to add breath and life to characters and to connect with her audience. Visit her website at: https://www.wenglowvo.com/

 

 

The Admirable Detective: Jean Rabe's Latest Piper Blackwell Mystery

I never read a mystery novel for the mystery. I don’t mind the mystery, of course. That is, after all, the reason why the novel was written in the first place. And I do care who done it. I just don’t care to try to figure it out before the denouement. I mean, after all, isn’t that the job of the protagonist detective, whether professional or amateur?

When I do read a mystery novel I usually read them for the characters, especially the character of the protagonist detective, whether professional or amateur. And I prefer my detectives to be larger-than-life or unique, stand-alone, maybe downright strange. I like detectives who are sophisticated, superior, and even supercilious. This being my preference -- some might say, burden -- I tend to prefer detectives from the past. From Sherlock Holmes to Philo Vance to Hercule Poirot to Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey DSO to Ellery Queen to Nero Wolfe, I like hanging out with characters I probably, in real life, wouldn’t like hanging out with -- but who I wouldn’t mind being.

This is not to say that I don’t like other detectives from the past, say the hard-boiled ones from the mean streets. I wouldn’t particularly like hanging out with them in real life either. As for being? Well -- they get beat up and shot a lot.

As to contemporary mysteries -- not that I am an expert -- some of the detectives seem not at all larger-than-life, although not necessarily smaller-than-life. But they do seem somewhat rooted in real life, for lack of a better term. Some come with flaws, mental disturbances from some incident in their past, drinking problems or divorces, PTSD, or what have you. I wouldn’t want to hang out with most of them. Nor would I want to be them.

Given all that, here’s a real mystery: Why have I enjoyed -- and indeed admire -- the first two novels in Jean Rabe’s new mystery series featuring the very ordinary Piper Blackwell?

At the very fresh age of twenty-three Piper Blackwell is elected the sheriff of the rural Spencer County in Indiana. The previous sheriff was her father, Paul Blackwell, who had to resign to fight cancer. Piper left the Army, where she served in the military police, to be there for him his battle. Paul, who had been a very popular sheriff, encourages Piper to run for his position. She does. She wins. She doesn’t stop wondering if she won on her father’s name value alone. Especially since her opponent was Oren Rosenberg, her father’s chief deputy and now hers. Oren is far more qualified for the job. And yet -- here she is.

A nice set-up for a new mystery series. A babe-in-the-woods sheriff (literally, as there are a lot of woods in Spencer County) who everybody is going to question.

But what’s the big deal? Really? The largest crime problem in sleepy Spencer County is a good amount of DUIs. Oh, there are some problems with drugs, which have long ago ceased to be an exclusively urban evil, but there would be state and federal help on that. So what better place to be a babe-in-the-woods sheriff?

And then only minutes into her term murder happens. And then another. Yep, Piper’s got a serial killer on her hands.

The first Piper Blackwell mystery, The Dead of Winter, documents how Piper did with this mystery. I’m not going to spoil that for you here, except to say that Rabe has just come out with her second Piper Blackwell mystery, The Dead of Night, so you can make a good guess.

The second novel takes place only about four months later. Piper is a bit more experienced, but she is still new on the job, still resented by others, still insecure. But at least Spencer County has returned to its normal uneventful self, except for DUIs and other mundane infractions, and the occasional distractions provided by the more eccentric citizens of the community. Such as “Mark the Shark” a paranoid, conspiracy-fearing, Democrats-hating “old fart” in his nineties who insists on meeting with the sheriff alone on a rainy bluff to complain that someone has hacked into his bank accounts and is stealing his money. Piper, who takes a liking -- or at least not a disliking -- to Mark sincerely promises that she’ll look into it. She, of course, assumes it’s all just a mistake. Of course, it isn’t, it is a genuine and somewhat perplexing mystery. And then, after the old man leaves, Piper trips on some bones the rain has exposed. They’ve been buried for sixty-five years. They are the bones of a nine-year-old murder victim.

So, a mysterious internet theft and a cold case. And once again Spencer County seems fully awake.

Jean Rabe calls her Piper Blackwell novels “cozy police procedurals.” Seemingly contradiction in terms, it is actually an apt description of what Rabe has created. But they are cozy not in a tea and crumpets way, but in the way Rabe writes. Her writing is beautifully rendered and effortless to read, if not effortless to achieve. She always puts her readers right in the middle of each scene and gives them observational powers they may not actually have. Her plots flow not only logically, slowly but inevitably revealing the mystery and, of course, the solution, but also moves forward the personal lives of the main characters.

And this brings us back to character.

As I said, Piper Blackwell is ordinary. Not dull or mundane or boring, just ordinary. A person, a person you might want to know. Or a person that shares nothing with you. But a person like you or me and that person sitting over there. She has her likes, she has her dislikes, she has her daily frustrations, and she has joy when it appears. She has no deep personal problems. She has no horrendous past, not that she has much of a past at all. And she is not psychologically tortured. She can be a bit anxious, of course, and she can be a bit insecure in the job, which she is having to learn as she goes, and she misses her military life and would, quite frankly, like to get back to it. This is a real possibility in the second novel as her father has beaten cancer and would like to get back in the saddle --  or police cruiser -- himself. But, as ordinary as she is, Piper has a fierce determination to do a good job, to do her duty, to not let her sex, short stature, or age prevent her from being the best sheriff she can be. She works hard, she works through physical pain, she works out of compassion and a sense of justice. She is most admirable in this.

Piper’s competition, Chief Deputy Oren Rosenberg, who is sixty-five years old and far more experienced than her and, by all rights, should be sheriff, is no less admirable in his sense of duty and in doing a good job. I suspect that this shared quality will bring them closer together in future volumes of the series and, indeed, we can see the birth of that closeness in The Dead of Night.

All the subsidiary characters in The Dead of Night are finely drawn, mainly through Rabe’s excellent ear for dialog. Almost every character speaks in their own manner, with their own cadence, with that natural illogic of spoken word that pays little heed to proper grammar and sentence structure but makes the speaker real and individual.

Jean Rabe’s great skill in her Piper Blackwell novels is to make the ordinary not extraordinary -- that would be too easy -- but to make the ordinary interesting, of the moment, and vital. All while telling, of course, a damn good story.

You can check out Jean Rabe’s Piper Blackwell Mysteries and all her novels on her Amazon Authors Page