Virtual Book Tour: Patricia Rockwell, Author of "Sounds Of Murder"

Today, we are featuring an interview with a new author, Patricia Rockwell, author of Sounds of Murder.

1.  Patricia, your book, Sounds of Murder, is labeled as a "cozy mystery."  What do you mean by that?

Karen, pretty much just what it sounds like.  A cozy mystery is a particular sub-genre of mysteries that features an amateur sleuth who typically solves a crime--usually murder--with intelligence, perseverance, and common sense.  The emphasis is on the detecting, not on graphic violence, gratuitous sex, or manic chase scenes.  The characters are typically well developed and the style is warm and full of humor.  In other words, a cozy mystery is the kind of book you’d like read when you want to relax and enjoy yourself.


2.  I noticed that your book is published by Cozy Cat Press.  What is the significance of the cat?


Cozy Cat Press is the new publishing company started by me and my writing partner Diane Morlan.  We are focusing totally on cozy mysteries.  We selected a cat as our logo because we believe a “cozy cat” is just the perfect image to convey the warm, by the fire, kind of feeling that readers get from cozy mysteries.  We even had a contest to name our company’s mascot.  My blog readers chose Cozette as her name.  We think it fits her perfectly.  By the way, I notice that you feature a cat prominently on your book review blog.  There must be something about cats and books that go together.


3.  There must be.  Does Cozy Cat Press have any other books published besides Sounds of Murder?


Yes, Diane’s book Too Dead to Dance is our second book.  We will have my second book, tentatively titled Radio Murder, coming out next summer.  I have a third novel underway and Diane is working on a second one.  We are actively looking for a third cozy mystery writer to join our ranks, so if any of your readers knows of a cozy writer who is looking for a publisher, please have them contact us.


4.  I’ll do that.  Does your book, Sounds of Murder, have any unusual features about it?


Most cozy mysteries have a gimmick.  Some have heroines (most have heroines not heroes) who are librarians or school teachers, or tea shop or coffee shop owners.  I read one cozy where the main character created crossword puzzles.  In Sounds of Murder, my heroine is a college Psychology professor and expert in acoustics.  I didn’t just pull this out of a hat.  Before I retired, I was a college professor myself and my research area was vocal behavior and I used acoustic technology in a lot of my studies.  

In my book, my main character uses her knowledge of sound to track down a killer.  This happens when one of her colleagues is found murdered in the department’s computer lab.  The police have no idea who killed the teacher and the only clue appears to be a recording of the actual murder that is accidentally made on one of the computer voice recorders.  My heroine takes it upon herself to investigate, using this recording and she tries to match the sounds on the recording to noises and voices of various suspects.  As she gets closer to finding the killer’s identity, the killer becomes worried and attempts to stop her.


5.  That sounds unusual for sure.  And you say you have another mystery written in this same series?


Yes, my heroine will be back again next summer to solve the mystery of a disk jockey who is murdered on air.  Again, the police have no clues to the identity of the killer, but they ask my heroine to help by examining the recording of the murder as it was committed. 


6.  Do you think that such sound detecting will provide the source for a lot of cozy mysteries?


I hope so.  As I said, the second one in this series is ready to go next summer.  The third one is in the planning stages.  I’ve had some critics suggest that there wouldn’t be enough story lines for crimes that could be solved using sound clues, but I beg to differ.  My brain is just teeming with all sorts of sound-related mysteries. 


7.  Well, I look forward to seeing what you come up with, Patricia.  I want to thank you for telling us about Sounds of Murder.  Where can readers purchase it?
It’s available at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, for print versions, and also Amazon.com in the Kindle version, and Smashwords.com for other electronic versions.You can also check out the Cozy Cat website at:  www.cozycatpress.com and my two blogs:  http://subjectivesoup.blogspot.com  and http://communicationexchange.blogspot.com