Mark de Castrique, one of Charlotte’s best-known mystery writers, launched a new mystery series last year with the publication of Secret Lives. The central character in Secret Lives is Ethel Fiona Crestwater, seventy-five-year-year-old retired FBI agent who runs a boardinghouse just outside of Washington, D.C. Secret Lives and its feisty main character attracted a lot positive attention when the book came out. The novel received many rave reviews, and it was nominated for one of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Awards. Readers who want to know more about Ethel and her sleuthing adventures will be pleased to know Dangerous Women, Mark’s second book in his Secret Lives series, will be released this week.
I recently contacted Mark and asked him for more information about Dangerous Women. Here is what he sent to me:
Dangerous Women is the sequel to Secret Lives, which came out last year. The story again features seventy-five-year-old Ethel Fiona Crestwater, an ex-FBI agent who, for over fifty years, has rented rooms in her house to fellow law enforcement officers, collectively known as “Ethel’s Army.” Feisty and fearless, Ethel is who I imagine Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be as an FBI agent. Paired with her only living relative, American University grad student, Jesse Cooper, Ethel pursues her own investigations, especially if she has a personal connection to the victims. Her adversaries underestimate her at their peril.
In creating a plot for Dangerous Women, I was able to tap into current topics that interest me. I was intrigued that with all the leaks in Congress and accusations of “insider trading” by senators and representatives, the U.S. Supreme Court had never had a leak, even though its rulings could impact corporations and their profits. Never had a leak–that is until I finished the first draft and the Dodd decision overturning Roe v Wade was leaked. Revision time.
The other topic I found interesting was the push to convert to electric vehicles. I believe climate change is real, but our effort to combat climate change isn’t a simple matter of plugging in your car. I learned that the United States produces only two percent of the world’s lithium, a mineral critical to the production of batteries. We are dependent upon other countries, some of which are hostile to us. And domestic production of lithium can leave land and water toxic for years that especially impacts ranchers and Native Americans. The question is how much do we destroy the environment in order to save the environment? I create a case before the Supreme Court that could have far-reaching consequences, consequences worth a lot of money to people who can profit from advance knowledge, a profit great enough to kill for.
Ethel and my Supreme Court Chief Justice, Clarissa Baxter, are the dangerous women determined to protect the court’s integrity and uncover the perpetrators behind a murderous conspiracy. I’ve been very pleased with the advance reviews including stars from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. I hope Ethel and her army are as fun to read as they are to write.
For additional information about Dangerous Women and Mark’s other mysteries, please click on the following link: http://www.markdecastrique.com/
Mark will be signing copies of Dangerous Women and talking about Ethel Fiona Crestwater at Park Road Books on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, at 7:00 pm. I plan to be there. Ethel Fiona Crestwater might be from the DC area, but she is an honorary member of Storied Charlotte as far as I am concerned.