A Byrd & Crowe Mystery Series, Book 1
Mystery / Suspense
Date Published: 10-15-2022
Publisher: New Atlantian Library
A young woman with a questionable past…
A family struggling to find common ground…
A murder victim with no known enemies…
Determined to overcome the dark secrets she helped reveal three years ago when she rescued a baby from a locked car and ran away, Xandra Byrd is now a student in criminology at the local community college and an accepted part of her biological family. Still, she struggles to escape the demons of her dysfunctional childhood. But when the woman who helped put her family back together is murdered, and she and her brother implicated in the crime, Xandra must return to the dark side of human nature in search of a killer. Will she solve the mystery and clear her name, or will she become the next victim?
Interview with J. E. Irvin
How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
I have six published novels. CARRION is the latest. It is almost impossible to pick a favorite, as each one was written with a specific theme and to honor people and cultures that have influenced my life. For example, A Principle of Light takes place in Turkey as a tribute to a friend of over thirty years who was Turkish and who passed away from ALS. My latest book showcases students at a local community college -Sinclair in Dayton, Ohio, which allows me to shine a light on the good work being done at community colleges across our nation.
If you’re planning a sequel, can you share a tiny bit about your plans for it?
Thank you for asking because, yes, I have at least three sequels planned. My first novel – The Dark End of the Rainbow – introduces the main character Xandra Byrd, but you don’t have to read it first to understand the plot of her first real mystery case. The working title for the next Byrd & Crowe Case is As the Crow Flies. Here is a brief teaser about the plot…Two and a half years into her four-year Army commitment, Xandra Byrd receives emergency redeployment to deal with a family emergency...her father's heart attack and her mother's diagnosis of breast cancer, not to mention the murder of the police chief's wife by a sniper. Her old flame Shawn Crowe now serves on the Hopewell P.D. team investigating the strange death and invites her to collaborate with him. ...
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
I originally intended to have each be a stand-alone, but I found characters insisted on turning up in the next book…although not all of them and not in all the novels. The first three books comprise The Hopewell Mystery Series: The Dark End of the Rainbow, The Rules of the Game, and The Strange Disappearance of Rose Stone. Then I went international for A Principle of Light. After that, I started a new series set in the Adirondacks. The first novel in that series is BROKEN. I’m finishing the draft of the new Adirondacks book – BETRAYED – right now.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
Oof, titles are a bear! I’ve wrestled with them from the beginning. This book had three or four titles before I settled on the one on the cover. So, CARRION and the vulture on the cover have both symbolic and actual meaning in the novel. The victim in the book is a beloved inhabitant of Hopewell left like roadkill by the trash bins of a restaurant. There is also some play on the idea of venture and vulture capitalism.
How long did it take you to write this book?
All my novels take approximately one year to develop. I generally spend three to four months on the draft, then do up to ten revisions, focusing on different elements in each revision. I haven’t found a way to shorten my process and envy writers who can turn out a completed book in a much shorter time. 😊
What does the title mean?
The dictionary definition is “the decaying flesh of a dead body, especially when regarded as food for scavenging animals. Of course, that indicates a death which, extrapolating from the definition, can be used to indicate dying relationships, human scavengers, and a disregard for the sacredness of life.
What did you learn when writing the book?
Wow, I always learn so much. It’s surprising how much research goes into every piece of writing and how much I still might not know. I attended several class sessions in the Criminology Department at Sinclair to learn about their courses. I did a dive into the idea of venture vs. vulture capitalism as well as an exploration of knives, edges, length, materials.
What surprised you the most?
There are several actions that occur in the novel that surprised me, things I didn’t know the characters were going to do, but I don’t want to mention them because I want readers to be surprised the way I was. Let’s just say I didn’t know who the murderer was until two-thirds of the way through the draft!
Have you ever killed off a character your readers loved?
Yes, and it was traumatic. Every time I revised the scene, I cried. The character is in my only serial killer novel – The Rules of the Game, and I hated to do it!
What do you do to get inside your character’s heads?
As I sit down to write, I practice what I used to tell my student actors to do when I directed high school plays. Breathe deep and layer on the character like an onion. Add details. Add emotion. Feel what this character is feeling in the moment. Put ‘you’ aside and become them.
About the Author
J.E. Irvin is the author of five mystery/thriller novels, a two-time winner of the Whodunit Award, and a member of SistersinCrime, Central Ohio Fiction Writers, Buckeye Crime Writers, and the Ohio Writers Association. Irvin, her husband, and their two cats reside on the edge of a nature park which serves as inspiration for her work. For more about the author, check out www.janetirvin.com and sign up for her newsletter as well as updates on future Byrd& Crowe mysteries.
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