Isabel sits down for a question-and-answer session with dru’s book musings so that we, the readers, can get to know her better.
What is your full name?
Isabel Margaret Peabody Puddles.
How old are you?
Age is just a number and mine’s unlisted. Let’s just say somewhere between 49 and the grave.
What is your profession?
Formerly a homemaker and hairstylist. Currently a clerk in my cousin’s hardware store and a freelance private investigator.
Do you have a significant other?
Two; a Jack Russell terrier named Jackpot, and a cocker spaniel named Corky.
What is their profession?
Guard dogs, comedians, squirrel hunters.
Do you have any children?
I also have two kids; Charlie, who lives in San Francisco, is an architect and a Buddhist. Carly, his older sister, is a banker who lives in Boston and is a marathon runner.
Do you have any siblings?
I am an only child. Although for a time I did have an imaginary brother and sister, twins named Gerald and Ginger.
Are your parents nearby?
Buried nearby, yes.
Who is your best friend?
Frances Spitler. Best friends since kindergarten. She’s also known as the town crier. She’s a lot to handle at times but I’ve had years of practice.
Do you have any pets?
Please see above.
What town do you live in and is it small or big?
I live in a quaint little hamlet along the shores of Lake Michigan called Gull Harbor where I have lived all my life. In the summers it becomes a busy resort community, but during the rest of the year it’s a sleepy, close knit village of eccentrics.
What type of dwelling do you own or rent?
I live in a clapboard and river stone cottage that sits on a bluff overlooking Gull Lake — a small lake just a quarter mile east of Lake Michigan, the Big Lake. My mother named it Poplar Bluff. This is the home I grew up in and later inherited from my parents; Helen and Buddy Peabody.
What is your favorite spot in your home?
Sitting in my living room in my old overstuffed orange and red plaid chair next to the fireplace where I can look out a large picture window and see a beautiful view of the lake. I do like my kitchen a lot too though.
What is your favorite meal and dessert?
Yankee Pot Roast, followed by my great grandmother’s chocolate bread pudding with vanilla sauce. OR, lasagna followed by tiramisu.
Do you have any hobbies?
I knit, I love to cook, I do some pickling, I still garden, but roughly half my vegetable crop goes to deer and raccoons every summer, and occasionally I solve murders.
What is your favorite vacation spot?
I’m lucky enough to live in my favorite vacation spot.
What is your idea of a really fun time?
Probably my annual Fourth of July barbeque. My kids almost always come home for it, and there is always an assortment of family and dear friends.
If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
I’m working on it. Not a memoir, that’s just what I would call it.
Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
I’m a hybrid of sorts. Technically I’m a professional because I did recently get my private investigator’s license, but I’m really only a part time sleuth. Jessica Fletcher I am not.
What is a typical day in your life like in general and when you are on a case?
There is no such thing as a typical day in my life, whether I’m on a case or not. My family, friends, dogs, neighbors, clients, my best friend Frances and my community see to that.
Isabel Puddles Abroad, A Mitten State Mystery #3
Genre: Cozy
Release: November 2022
Purchase Link
Feisty senior sleuth Isabel Puddles—Lake Michigan’s answer to Miss Marple—strikes out for new territory across the pond in a cozy mystery full of charm, rich storytelling, and mellow humor, sure to delight fans of Jessica Fletcher and Lee Hollis’s Poppy Harmon series.
Merry old England has a murderous surprise in store . . .
Isabel has crafted a life she loves in her Lake Michigan hometown, but she’s eager to use her golden years to make up for missed opportunities. That’s why she’s traveling to England for the first time to visit her pen pal, Teddy Mansfield, an acclaimed mystery writer who lives just outside the village of Mousehole, Cornwall. First impressions are charming—Isabel is staying in the guest cottage on the grounds of Teddy’s beautiful country manor, and Mousehole is home to an assortment of characters as colorful as any in Teddy’s books.
Teddy’s housekeeper, Tuppence, is a dab hand at baking—her scones are regularly runner-up in the village bake-off, and this year she’s determined to scoop top prize. But it appears that other, possibly more dangerous rivalries have been brewing in Mousehole. And when a resident is found pushing up daisies in a flowerbed, Isabel is drawn into an investigation that will require all of her newly honed skills to solve—and to survive . . .
About the author
M.V. Byrne was born in East Lansing, Michigan and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, although he spent his summers on Lake Michigan with family. He later returned to East Lansing to attend Michigan State University. After years of living in both NYC and LA, he has settled in LA full time where he continues to work as a writer/producer in unscripted TV, though he can now add the job title of “Author” to his resume. He’s currently working on the next Isabel Puddles Mystery.
All comments are welcomed.