Okay, so my mom is famous. I know what you’re thinking—that must be so cool! you probably get to meet all kinds of interesting people! have you been invited to the Oscars yet?—but she’s not that kind of famous. It’s less glitz and glamor, and more muttering to herself in front of her typewriter with white streaks of dry shampoo in her hair and a cup of three-hour-old coffee at her elbow.

Yeah, gross. I know.

It’s not all bad, though. A mom who’s a thriller writer (and one who’s almost always behind on her deadline) has its perks.

Perk 1: She never has time to make breakfast (or lunch. . .or dinner).

When I get up in the morning, there’s no last-minute Pop Tart shoved in my hand as we head out the door or a quick stop at the gas station for a microwaved breakfast burrito. Mom just calls out groggily from her bed for me to bring her something warm and caffeinated. Some teens might be annoyed by this, but believe me when I say that the less she has to do with the kitchen, the better it is for all of us. The cooking is safe in my hands.

Perk 2: She forgets to filter herself.

You know how some parents accidentally swear in front of their kids and then immediately overcorrect themselves for corrupting minors? Yeah. . .that’s not my mom. When I got home from school today, she was so deep in her research on how far you could cut someone’s head off before it officially counts as a decapitation that she gave me a twenty-minute crash course. (In related news, did you know that if you cut the head off a cockroach, it won’t die from the loss of its head, but eventually by starvation?) (Thanks to Mom, I always get As in science class. And English class, but that’s mostly because my teachers hope I’ll send their half-written manuscripts to Mom’s agent, Nancy.)

Perk 3: I get to tie her up and then leave her there.

I’m not gonna lie. . .being fifteen years old in a town like Winthrop is no picnic. My graduating class is a whopping fifty-five students. Our only movie theater is inside a literal barn, and I once had to explain to the manager at the grocery store what a daikon radish is. On the flip side, Mom just asked me to bind her hands with zip ties and shove her in the cellar underneath Grandpa’s old hardware store so she can figure out how to escape using only her wits. I can hear her down there now, grunting and howling as she tries to figure it out.

I give her about ten more minutes before she gives up and begs me to free her. Until then, I’m free to go about my business. So. . .yeah. Mine isn’t always a great gig, but Mom and I make it work. Life as Tess Harrow’s daughter might be annoying sometimes, but it’s definitely never boring.

On Spine of Death, A By the Book Mystery #2
Genre: Cozy
Release: November 2022
Purchase Link

Bestselling author Tess Harrow and her teenage daughter Gertrude have decided to make Winthrop their home. Their cabin is fixed up and now they’re turning to the family hardware store that Tess inherited from her late grandfather into the town’s first independent bookstore.

But when renovations unearth bones from a cold case and send them toppling—literally—onto Tess’s head, the work comes to a grinding halt. With the whole town convinced that her grandfather was a serial killer, Tess has to call in a fellow horror author for reinforcements. Together, they’ll come up with a perfect story to make all the clues fit…and solve a mystery more than thirty years in the making.

About the author
Tamara Berry is the author of the Eleanor Wilde cozy mystery series and, as Lucy Gilmore, the Forever Home contemporary romance series. Also a freelance writer and editor, she has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and a serious penchant for Nancy Drew novels. She lives in Bigfoot country (a.k.a. Eastern Washington) with her family and their menagerie. Find her online at tamaraberry.com.

All comments are welcomed.