{"id":405,"date":"2018-08-03T04:03:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T04:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5379.temp.domains\/~pjmaclay\/mysteryexchange-cathy-perkins\/"},"modified":"2018-08-03T04:03:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T04:03:00","slug":"mysteryexchange-cathy-perkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/?p=405","title":{"rendered":"#MysteryExchange Cathy Perkins"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I know it’s August, but the #MysteryExchange isn’t over. This week I’m pleased to present Cathy Perkins and her Holly Price books.<\/p>\n

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A Different Point of View<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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By Cathy Perkins<\/span><\/div>\n
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When I was young, if you\u2019d asked me for the last place I\u2019d expect\u2014or want\u2014to live, my answer would\u2019ve been, \u201cIn a small town.\u201d Small towns seemed to be cultural wastelands, populated by gossiping neighbors who were all related to each other. And out west? That option never entered my Southern soul. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Fast forward a few years and dangle the right job opportunity at the right time and\u2014you got it in one\u2014we moved to a small town in eastern Washington state. We quickly discovered most of those myths about small towns were simply\u2026myths. <\/span><\/div>\n
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As we settled into our new hometown, I debated whether my novels should make a similar cross-country leap. My South Carolina based mysteries featured a law enforcement protagonist. To get appropriate operational procedures, along with cop attitudes and humor, I drew from a circle of friends at various levels of local, state and federal law enforcement. Curious about procedures in our new town, I participated in the Citizen\u2019s Police Academy and discovered most of the same policies and philosophies I\u2019d encountered back east. (I also learned more than I ever wanted to know about making meth. Nasty <\/span>nasty<\/i><\/span>stuff.)<\/span><\/div>\n
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Volunteering for the Sexual Assault Center as a hospital victim\u2019s advocate provided an intimate view of law enforcement. Other than one cocky, testosterone-laden patrol officer and another older guy I wanted to strangle (except that would be assault and I really had no interest in going to jail), I found the officers professional, well educated and well trained. Nobody\u2019s perfect, but I appreciated what these men and women did on a daily basis. <\/span><\/div>\n
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And those inevitable slow days in a small town? Well, let\u2019s just say the day my in-law\u2019s moving van got stuck at the entrance to the retirement village (blocking traffic on the main road\u2014another relative term), all four patrol cars PLUS the sergeant showed up. Once they finished laughing, they helped a retired mechanic (who was in heaven being the expert, by the way) do something to a suspension part and un-stuck it. For some strange reason, the chief of police was not amused when I relayed this story at a party\u2026 So far, I\u2019ve refrained from using this tidbit in a book. <\/span><\/div>\n
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With only five patrol officers on duty during a shift (and fewer than this in the even smaller nearby towns) reciprocal agreements were a must. Neighboring cities, counties, even Washington State Patrol was a welcome addition when suspects took to the highways to escape. I made use of this mutual support during Holly Price\u2019s carjacking in <\/span>So About the Money<\/i><\/span> (Book 1 in the series). In addition to the local officers, county deputies and state patrol officers joined the chase to catch the villains in that scene. On a broader scale, I\u2019ve used the involvement of outside agencies\u2014the DEA, for example, in <\/span>In It For The Money<\/i><\/span>\u2014to work with\u2014and against\u2014the local law enforcement agencies.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I\u2019d better back up a second. For this series, along with changing locations from South Carolina\u2019s cities to a small town in eastern Washington, I switched from a multiple (hero, heroine, villain) point of view approach and a law enforcement main character, to a single, civilian character. Whew! Talk about stretching and growing as an author. Everything that happened in the story had to come through that one character\u2019s experiences and reactions. (And no cheating with, \u201cWell, Laurie, as you know, this thing you should already know about happened, but let me give you the complete backstory.\u201d) Action and body language became as important as dialogue for revealing character\u2014but that\u2019s a different discussion.<\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/a>Rather than having my new protagonist act as a private investigator or a journalist working the crime beat, I made my heroine an accountant. Curious, bright and loyal to friends and family (hmm, she\u2019s much better at crime solving than my dog) she made a terrific character to \u201cfollow the money.\u201d Of course, when you poke at villains, they have a tendency to poke back, harder. It was fun to write the scenes where Holly bumped up against law enforcement and filter the scene through her impressions\u2014her point of view\u2014rather than another cop\u2019s. <\/span><\/div>\n
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My new law enforcement friends did insist I get the details right. Even if they produced giant eye-rolls from my heroine. <\/span><\/div>\n
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So About the Money<\/i><\/span> romps through eastern Washington with its rivers, wineries, Native American casinos, and assorted farm animals. Add in some wicked fun chemistry between the CPA amateur sleuth and a local detective and Holly Price better solve the case before the next dead body found beside the river is hers.<\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/a>In It For The Money<\/i><\/span>continues Holly\u2019s adventures: <\/span><\/div>\n
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Holly Price traded professional goals for personal plans when she agreed to leave her high-flying position with the Seattle Mergers and Acquisition team and take over the family accounting practice. Reunited with JC Dimitrak, her former fianc\u00e9, she\u2019s already questioning whether she\u2019s ready to flip her condo for marriage and a house in the \u2018burbs. <\/div>\n
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When her cousin Tate needs investors for his innovative car suspension, Holly works her business matchmaking skills and connects him with a client. The Rockcrawler showcasing the new part crashes at its debut event, however, and the driver dies. Framed for the sabotage, Tate turns to Holly when the local cops\u2014including JC\u2014are ready to haul him to jail. Holly soon finds her cousin and client embroiled in multiple criminal schemes. She\u2019s drawn into the investigation, a position that threatens her life, her family and her increasingly shaky relationship with JC.<\/div>\n
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Links <\/u><\/div>\n
Amazon: http:\/\/bit.ly\/In_It_ForTheMoney<\/a><\/div>\n
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Nook http:\/\/bit.ly\/Nook_InItForTheMoney<\/a><\/div>\n
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Kobo <\/span><\/span><\/span>http:\/\/bit.ly\/Kobo_InItForTheMoney<\/a><\/div>\n
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iBooks http:\/\/bit.ly\/iBooks_InItForTheMoney<\/a><\/div>\n
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Thanks for letting me visit today, PJ! I invite your readers to head over to my blog and read your #mysteryexchange post about the story behind <\/span>The Marquesa’s Necklace<\/i><\/span>, The Oak Grove Mysteries, Book 1. https:\/\/cperkinswrites.com\/2018\/07\/paranormal-transformation\/<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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Author Bio <\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
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An award-winning author of financial mysteries, Cathy Perkins writes twisting dark suspense and light amateur sleuth stories.  When not writing, she battles with the beavers over the pond height or heads out on another travel adventure. She lives in Washington with her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd. Learn more at her website, http:\/\/cperkinswrites.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know it’s August, but the #MysteryExchange isn’t over. This week I’m pleased to present Cathy Perkins and her Holly Price books. A Different Point of View By Cathy Perkins When I was young, if you\u2019d asked me for the last place I\u2019d expect\u2014or want\u2014to live, my answer would\u2019ve been,… Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paJdTo-6x","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}