Mimi Goodman is the sleuth in the “Chautauqua Murder” mysteries. One of the best ways to learn about a person is by asking questions. So, let’s get to know Mimi.

What is your full name?
Miriam Goldman but everyone calls me Mimi.

How old are you?
If this were a White House press conference, I’d call that a nasty question! But since it’s our beloved Dru asking? I’ll say fifty-something.

What is your profession?
Reporter for The Chautauquan Daily, a tiny, local newspaper where big news is the kids’ annual inflatable swan race in the lake. Haters also call me a “professional busybody.” But I prefer the title amateur sleuth. Or “Chautauqua’s Miss Marple.” It’s possible I miss my years at the New York Post (HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR) where big news was murder and mayhem. But I think it’s more that I can’t stand watching wrongs go unrighted.

Do you have a significant other?
Yes, I got very lucky in the husband department the second time around.

What is their name and profession?
Walt Dellaria. He’s an engineer, a great cook, a worthy Scrabble rival and a total sweetheart.

Do you have any children?
Yes, one grown-up son Jake.

Do you have any siblings?
No.

Are your parents nearby?
No, my parents and the grandparents who raised me are long gone.

Who is your best friend?
Besides my husband and son, my bestie nowadays is Sylvia, a 94-year-old as crazy as I am about crime-solving.

Do you have any pets?
No.

What town do you live in?
The Chautauqua Institution, a quirky, churchy, gated, historic, lakeside summer arts community in far southwestern New York State.

Would you say you live in a small town or a big city?
To me, it’s tiny. About 100,000 people come for its nine-week summer season of lectures, concerts, church services and other stuff. But fewer than 400 live there year-round.

Type of dwelling and do you own or rent?
A Victorian cottage that Walt owns with his two sisters.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
The front porch. I love sitting there in my favorite wicker rocking chair, under Walt’s hanging pots of dragon-wing begonias, staring at Chautauqua Lake.

Favorite meal and dessert?
I love everything Walt cooks but especially his “perfect cheeseburgers” that he pops on the grill right after grinding his own mix of sirloin and strip steak. We’re not big on desserts. But I love Walt’s signature cocktails, including his latest “Good Luck Cocktail” (bourbon, Limoncello, lemon sour and spearmint leaves in sugar-rimmed glasses) that, when someone tried to scare me off a recent case, thankfully, seemed to change my luck.

Do you have any hobbies?
Long walks, Scrabble, watching videos of my 10-month-old grandson Charlie and solving crimes.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
Haven’t taken many vacations. But Walt and I are talking about going somewhere, maybe to the Grand Canyon.

What music do you listen to?
Broadway show tunes and classic rock, especially Bruce Springsteen.

Do you have a favorite book?
Everything by Agatha Christie and Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent.

What is your idea of a really fun time?
Having a picnic or barbecue with Walt, Jake and Charlie in Chautauqua, maybe on the porch, maybe at the beach.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
** It Takes More Than Sheer Luck to Sherlock: How One Amateur Sleuth Used Her Smarts, Guts and Grit to Solve Dozens of New York Murders. **

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
Amateur. I work with my son Jake who is great with computers and my friend Sylvia who is game for anything and also drives—something I never learned growing up in Midwood, Brooklyn, just a few blocks from the Q train.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
I usually eat breakfast early and brew a Thermos full of coffee to last my day. After a 9 a.m. Daily staff meeting, I cover some traditional local sports like softball and tennis but mostly oddball sports like footgolf and Beckyball. Then I often find myself snooping around—lately into how my neighbor Connie de Palma, a thrice-married socialite, ended up dead in a nearby gorge.

Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a digital (Kindle or Nook) copy of Crooked Paths. Giveaway ends July 8, 2020. Good luck everyone!

Crooked Paths is the seventh book in the “Chautauqua Murder” traditional mystery series, released July 1, 2020.

When thrice-married socialite Connie de Palma sashays into Chautauqua, N.Y. in 2019, a neighbor says “Here comes trouble.”

And, boy, was he right.

In less than a week, Connie is found dead in a nearby gorge. Many stand to benefit from her demise. But that doesn’t mean there was foul play, say the police.

Luckily, reporter and relentless snoop Mimi Goldman is on the case. (Book #7 in the popular Mimi Goldman Chautauqua Mysteries).

Mimi questions absolutely everything, including Connie’s cause of death, and absolutely everyone, including Connie’s: new hubby Eddie McCarthy, a garbage tycoon; saintly sister Marie and resentful bus driver bro-in-law Frank Attenborough; boy-toy assistant Jonas Carrington; pothead daughter Lennie and new beau A.J.; and a golfer neighbor with an obsession Bill Johnson.

Mimi and her usual sidekicks—Jake, her computer-savvy son, and Sylvia, her fearless 94-year-old “wheelman”—follow clues. To more clues. To dead ends. And to danger.

In the end, Mimi hopes a long-shot hunch pans out—in time for her to enjoy a visit from her new grandson.

The latest in a series called “an Agatha Christie for the text-message age” offers page-turning suspense. Wit. History. A surprise ending. And the unforgettable setting of Chautauqua, a quirky, churchy, historic, lakeside, Victorian cottage-filled summer arts community that in 1874 launched an adult education movement Teddy Roosevelt called “the most American thing in America.”

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About the author
Deb Pines, an award-winning headline writer for the New York Post, is the author of six other Mimi Goldman mysteries all set in the Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York where they are top sellers.

A former reporter, Pines is also a lover of puns, show tunes and indoor cycling who counts among the highlights of 2019: when her headline (BEZOS EXPOSES PECKER) had a brief cameo on “Saturday Night Live.”

She lives in New York City with her husband Dave.

All comments are welcomed.