As if in a trance, Edith stared at the macabre spectacle with open mouth. Who was she? The smile of the bog Mona Lisa gave no clue. It was a tragic smile, its mystery too old to allure. A woman resting in an unusual grave as though waiting for someone to care…

 

Edith wanted a horse. She ached for a horse. She would work hard to earn a horse. But when she finally received a horse, it had dark memories.

Writing this novel took me close to five years! I had no idea how many thrilling adventures Edith would have with her horse! It was loads of fun to write. I am thrilled to share Little Red Riding Horse with you. Buy it—you’ll love it! It’s a good read! If you like murder mysteries of the puzzle kind with interesting locations and the paraphernalia of the best whodunnits, this is the book for you. I did plenty of research. Central to the story is the peculiarities of bogs and large fires and the effects they have on human bodies…

This book is set in the imaginary village Rhyme, the only remaining town of the pair, Rhyme and Reason. It features an interesting bunch of characters, one of which is Edith’s aunt, Knitty, or Katherine Garn. She is a bit of an amateur sleuth and comic relief. I love people, and I very much enjoy making character sketches. As a mother, character development is close to my heart. So, I paid attention to authentic character development for each of my persons. It made it truly difficult to say goodbye to them, because they had all become good friends.

I believe a murder mystery should have a classic romance: a girl falls in love with a boy. There should be a healthy dose of misunderstandings and—on the boy’s part—a deeply felt declaration of love. My daughter, whose story this is, doesn’t want opera. To loosely quote Bug’s Bunny: “What do you expect from an opera? A happy ending?” My daughter wants a happy ending. But I tweaked it just a little, since the main character is a 16-year-old girl, and I gave it a happy forecast instead… You’ll have to read it to find out more!

 I love maps, and I enjoy trekking very much, and many important events of the story take place outdoors. Like I already mentioned above, the bog is central to the murder mystery, and so is the terrain in general, the forests, fields, and farms. I think a good story should happen somewhere specific that has a touch of romance to it, which allows you to “travel” somewhere. In the second edition, there will be a map attached.

Looking back at the writing of this novel, what took time wasn’t so much the writing as the research. I have a high standard for adventures: they should be possible. I wanted certain events to happen, but how they would come about wasn’t always as straightforward as I had at first assumed. A case in point: when I acted out the parts of an escape from a barn, I discovered that what I had imagined Edith would be able to do would have required supernatural strength! Back to the drawing board! I also wasn’t nearly as well-versed in horses as I needed to be to have the equestrian terms ready as part of my vocabulary.

By far, the largest part of sunk time came from rewrites. This being only my second novel, I was green enough to make the mistake of not adhering to my plot as planned and improvising far too much. It exploded in consequence of rewrite after rewrite. Kudos to me for not giving up. As a Swede would say, “shame to the one who gives up!” In the end, the result was a complicated murder mystery plot with multiple layers that became really interesting. It has elements of mistaken identities, puzzling clues and red herrings, and, of course, coincidences! This book is an excellent proof that effort pays off. It has a tantalizing menu for the murder mystery fan.

A note to authors out there: If you are struggling with a story that doesn’t want to congeal, don’t give up! And if you start another story, do your planning first if you want to save yourself trouble!

The book is wrapped in a gorgeous cover made by my son, Mattias Fleischmann. I couldn’t be happier with it! He, too, learned something of horses, quickly acquiring the skill of capturing the beauty and strength of the equine. I was able to be involved in the creation of the cover and avoided the common peculiarity of book covers that are terribly irrelevant to the actual story they are covering!

And, by the way, we read the story out loud at home, Edith and I, and made sure it was readable. We paid special attention to the conversations, to assure that they would be unlike some of those out there that often are terribly neglected in their readability and make for awkward story time… Neglecting conversations’ readability is a surprisingly common occurrence in novels by the giants. I believe this is because the art of reading stories out loud for people is lost. A story that is written exclusively for private, silent reading never gets the attention and polish as does a book expected to be read out loud.  Anyway, I could rant about that, but this isn’t the place or time! I enjoy the challenge of avoiding both overly constructed conversations a la theater and chopped up small hellos and goodbyes. The balance is there if you read the story to someone out loud. So, that is what I did!

Finally, once again, I am overjoyed to share with you this exciting, thrilling adventure of Edith’s! Can you figure out who killed the woman in the bog? Who started the arson fires? Who trapped Edith and her horse, Little Red Riding Hood, in the barn?

Buy it! Read it! You’ll love it!