Wendy Winchester sits down for a Q&A with dru’s book musings responding to twenty or more questions so that we can learn more about her. Are you ready? Let’s get to know Wendy.

What is your full name?
My full name is Wendy Winchester Rierson now. I recently became married to my sweetheart, Ross Rierson. It was a divine ceremony, held at my childhood home.

How old are you?
I am twenty-seven years old.

What is your profession?
I am an investigative/feature reporter for my local newspaper, the Citizen. Before that, I was the social columnist, longing to do something more than report on weddings and baby showers.

Do you have a significant other?
My significant other is now my husband, Ross Rierson. We had been seeing each other for several years.

What is their name and profession?
Ross’s profession is detective for the Rosalie Police Department.

Do you have any children?
We have no children yet, though we have been trying.

Do you have any siblings?
I am an only child.

Are your parents nearby?
My father, Captain Bax Winchester, lives here in Rosalie where he heads the police department. My mother passed away from pneumonia when I was only fifteen. I miss her so much.

Who is your best friend?
My best friend would have to be my husband, Ross.

Do you have any pets?
Neither Ross nor I have pets.

What town do you live in?
We both live here in the historic Mississippi River port of Rosalie, founded in 1716 by the French.

Would you say you live in a small town or a big city?
Rosalie is a small town, but it has somewhat of a cosmopolitan flair due to its 300+ years of existence. Settlement patterns include the French, the British, Africans brought over as slaves, the Irish, the Italians and Jews.

Type of dwelling and do you own or rent?
Ross and I live in my family home which my father turned over to us when we married. He, in turn, downsized and went to live in the little cottage he bought for me after I graduated from college. Well, just the down payment.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
My favorite spot in my old homestead would be the kitchen. So many warm memories there. I like to cook and do it well. We also have an old fridge that we can’t seem to part company with. It makes the funniest turkey gobbling noises, but it still works.

Favorite meal and dessert?
Our favorite meal is my chicken cacciatore with my homemade brownies for dessert. Close second for dessert would be my home-made pecan pie. We have these two enormous pecan trees on either side of the house which provide us with plenty every year.

Do you have any hobbies?
My main hobby is admiring and collecting art. My mother, Valerie, did some very original work with her acrylics before she died. I have many of her paintings and have taken an interest in other works because of her.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
My favorite vacation spot will forever be Maui because that’s where my husband, Ross, and I spent our honeymoon. We particularly liked the ‘upcountry,’ which has cool nights and definitely not ‘touristy.’

What music do you listen to?
I love to listen to Broadway show tunes. I particularly like some of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals like ‘Carousel,’ and ‘South Pacific’; but I also love Jerry Herman’s work in ‘La Cage Aux Folles’ and ‘Follies.’ The feistiest tune ever is ‘I’m Still Here.’ Sondheim’s body of work is also astounding. I could listen all day.

Do you have a favorite book?
My favorite book is ‘To Kill A Mockingbird.’ It helped prepare us for the civil rights movement to come.

What is your idea of a really fun time?
A really fun time for me is to play a game of Boggle with others who like the power of words.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
If I were to write a memoir, it would be titled: ‘Puzzles Are A Girl’s Best Friend.’

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
I am an amateur sleuth, and I work principally with two professionals: my husband, Ross Rierson, who is a police detective; and my father, Chief of Police, Bax Winchester. (P.S. They let me in on info I probably shouldn’t have when I work my feminine wiles on them.)

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
A typical day for me (since I am an amateur sleuth) but a professional investigative reporter for the local paper is to check in with my editor, Lyndell Slover Winchester, who married my father and is therefore my stepmother; if it’s an old assignment, I’ll bring her up to date; if new, I will begin to formulate a plan to work on the assignment; or I will turn in a finished assignment to her; take and make some phone calls and love, love, love my life.

Cold Reading Murder, Bridge to Death Mystery #3
Genre: Cozy
Release: February 2021
Purchase Link

Who could have predicted it? The daughter of Police Chief Bax Winchester married to a cop—Detective Ross Rierson. It’s a beautiful wedding, and the newlyweds are in bliss—even if they do have to postpone their Hawaiian honeymoon for now. In the meantime, Wendy is teaching a group of newbies the game of bridge so they can join the Rosalie Country Club Bridge Bunch.

One of the newcomers, flamboyant psychic Aurelia Spangler, invites the group to meet at her new home. The historic Overview mansion sits atop the High Bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, and the local lore is that it’s possibly haunted, definitely cursed by the original builder, who fell down the stairs to his death. Unfortunately, the house is about to claim another life.

Following a night of bridge practice and cold readings by their clairvoyant host, Aurelia is found dead in her home by Wendy, a suicide note and cocaine residue by her corpse. But Wendy, an investigative reporter for the Rosalie Citizen, doesn’t buy it. The scene seems phonier than Aurelia’s act, and now Wendy needs to call the bluff of a cold-blooded killer playing a psychic bid . . .

About the author
R. J. Lee was born in Natchez, MS and obtained a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of the South (Sewanee). He is the second generation of his family to write mysteries at the New York level, following in the footsteps of his father, R. Keene Lee, who wrote pulp fiction detective stories for Fiction House after WWII. Lee has had 16 novels published to date, 13 from Putnam and Kensington, taken together. His latest Bridge To Death Mystery series novel–Cold Reading Murder–will be released nationally on February 23rd. They all feature a young, dynamic, amateur female sleuth who solves crimes when law enforcement officers get stumped.

All comments are welcomed.