Scary stories... crime novels!
The invitation to the crime novelist’s book release party at his home up in the cities sounded interesting.
But I was pretty scared.
Not because of the novel or the author.
I just didn’t know how I would get through the busy traffic.
But all went pretty well. In fact, the author was delayed coming from his previous book launch gathering because of traffic!
Am I in the right house?
We had been told to park on a side street and enter the house on the lower level through the back patio for easier access. I was all alone and with no numbers on the back sides of the houses I wasn’t sure if I was going into the right one! I hoped I wouldn’t be arrested for unlawful entry or possibly surprising someone coming out of the shower!
I heard voices upstairs and headed that way. Among the crowd I finally found the hostess. Then she had her friend from New York City visit with me while she retrieved a surprise for me!
It was a small replica of a Colombian saddle for a horse - that I could hang from the mirror in my car. Yes, I realize that might not be legal to do that in Minnesota but it’s really cute and I’ll find someplace in the car for it.
I was still recuperating from my fear of driving to the party so I got a half cup of coffee and checked out all the folks talking to each other in the crowd.
My next thought was: I might just leave right now!
How to “mingle”?
But then I thought... I drove all the way up here... there must be some way to “mingle”.
Surveying the crowd I finally found two couples who had left a space open that I could quietly shift into.
And it was an interesting conversation.
Then I found another group that had left an empty space - just for me, right?
The guests appeared to be mainly close friends of the hosts. But I was probably the only one who had had a part in one of his novels!
Well, kind of anyway.
“Assassins... drugs... bring your shovel?”
A couple of years ago I wrote about it in my column: “Assassins... drugs... bring your shovel?” Or you can find it on my blog: Along the way by Rosie.
It’s the novel where the drug lord’s assassin was burying bodies on a Paso Fino horse farm outside of Cannon Falls, MN! I didn’t know about this when the book was published. I found it out when I was interviewing several crime novelists from the twin cities!
ACKKKKKK! Not my sweet little farm!
When I told a Cannon Falls Police Officer what I had discovered in my interview he just shook his head and said, “Now I suppose we’ll have to get a shovel and come out and dig.”
Later on at the party another thought worried me. Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned this episode to the guests because who knows if they believed that I was innocent!
Hazardous driving?
Soon I began wondering if the drive home would be as hazardous as coming up and I decided to leave. It wasn’t.
When I got home I decided that because of my concerns about driving in the cities, I would like to let other drivers know I’m not purposely trying to irritate them. I’m just trying to be “careful”!
So I wanted to make a bumper sticker to express this.
I decided that it probably would not be appropriate to make one saying: “F.... YOU TOO!”
So I decided on:
(Thanks to Christopher Valen and his wife Martha. Chris’ latest book was just released: St. Paul Homicide Detective John Santana in “Speak for the Dead”.)
