Synopsis (from Amazon):
When two
murders strain the police force of a remote Alaskan fishing port, veterinarian
Maureen McMurtry is tapped by Dutch Harbor’s police chief for forensic
assistance. The doctor’s got a past she’d rather not discuss, a gun in her
closet, and a retired police dog that hasn’t lost her chops. All come in handy
as she deciphers the cause and time of death of a local drug addict washed
ashore with dead sea lions and an environmentalist found in a crab pot hauled
from the sea in the net of a fishing vessel.
When her
romantic relationship with a boat captain is swamped by mounting evidence that
he’s the prime suspect in one of the murders, McMurtry struggles with her own
doubts to prove his innocence. But can she? McMurtry’s pals, a manager of the
Bering Sea crab fishery and another who tends Alaska’s most dangerous bar
assist in unraveling the sinister truth.
Excerpt from DEATH IN DUTCH HARBOR
D. MacNeill Parker
By the time
Police Chief St. George and his two deputies, Chet and Michele, drove out the
gravel road and located them on the beach, the two women had thoroughly
examined both sea lions.
Maureen held
up the lead slug she’d extracted and offered it to the chief. “I found bullet
wounds in both the animals. Looks like it might be a .30-06.”
The chief
wore a bulky police parka over jeans. He held out a gloved hand.
She dropped
the bullet in his palm and watched him roll it around there.
“Yeah, looks
like a .30-06 or maybe a .308. Bag it,” he said, passing it to Chet “And get
the GPS readings on the carcass locations before we move them.”
“So, you
know something about ballistics?” he said, turning again to Maureen.
“Brothers,”
she said. “Dad took us deer hunting.”
“Really?”
Maureen
could tell the chief was still trying to size her up. “Nothing worth talking
about,” she said, knowing it was nothing she wanted to talk about.
Michele was
already down the beach taking photographs of the other corpse. They could see
the camera’s flash pop in clusters.
The chief
turned back to Maureen, his eyes getting a bead on her from beneath a
wide-brimmed western hat. . His mouth was pressed shut. Maureen had learned
that meant he was thinking and wanted to get it right before he spoke.
“I’d like
you to remove all the bullets and give me an estimate on time of death.” He
hadn’t asked her to take a scalpel to anything before, so the query was
measured. Sure, she was a vet but the question came anyway. “Can you do it,
Maureen?”
The city
council had hired Ray St. George as its police chief five months earlier. Like
most remote Alaskan communities, the town didn’t have a medical examiner. And
unless the community was lucky enough to have an appointed coroner to determine
cause of death, the state police expected all evidence, including unexamined
corpses, to be sent to Anchorage for forensic analysis. Dutch Harbor didn’t
have a coroner, and its lone doctor worked at the hectic clinic. Chief St
George had learned quickly that once state police took possession of a body,
they also took possession of the investigation, often leaving the local police
out of the loop. To Ray St. George, a retired Army investigator, this protocol
was unacceptable.
“Can you do
it?” he asked again, watching her kneeling in the sand to get her medical kit
back in order.
Looking up,
she stated the obvious. “The cause of death seems pretty clear, Chief.”
The chief
waved it off. “I know these are sea lions, but it’s still a crime I won’t tolerate. I want to know how
many shooters were involved. To do that, I need to know if the bullets were
fired from the same or multiple weapons. And I can’t begin to investigate
properly without knowing if it happened this morning or last week.”
“Well, not
this morning.” She lifted the flipper again and let it drop. “They’ve already
passed through rigor.”
Maureen
closed the kit, stood up, and hung it over her shoulder. “They’re gonna want to
do their own necropsies,” she said, nodding down the beach where Kate still
knelt, taking notes by the other corpse.
The chief
had three inches on Maureen, making him about six feet tall. His face was clean
shaven and his graying hair clipped short. His posture made you want to stand
up straighter. She could tell by his expectant face that he was waiting for the
wheels to turn in her head.
“Let me
think about it,” she said.
Chet stood
over the corpse, entering its GPS location in his notebook. He looked over at
the chief. “What now?” he asked.
The sea edged closer, and the surf shot foam
their way. The chief pointed toward the tideline. “Look for shell casings,” he
said. “And there may be more animals washed up on the beach. I want to collect
as much as we can before the tide takes it away.”
Chet, young
and with a gait that showed he was eager to please, pulled a yellow tide book
from his pocket. “High tide’s in less than two hours. We could lose them.”
“Don’t worry, Chet, we’ll figure it out.”
Michele
offered to call the Northward plant and ask that they send out a flatbed truck
to pick up the sea lions. An Aleut native, she’d served as the senior deputy
for three years. Among her many duties, she penned the police log. Its droll
language made it the favorite section of the town’s weekly paper, The Dutch Harbor News. She’d already
keyed in the fish plant’s number and looked to the chief..
“Ask them to send one with a crane,” he said.
Maureen
joined Kate, who’d begun to walk the tide line again. They were almost to the
river when their roving flashlight beams landed on another mound of seaweed.
Kicking away clumps of kelp, a hideous odor rose to scorch their nostrils.
Half buried
in the sand lay a sneaker attached to a white foot. It lay turned away from a
twisted leg, its bruised skin exposed like a warning. Maureen knelt beside it
and began to strip away the seaweed until she uncovered a shoulder. Following
its sloping angle, she found strings of long hair that clung to a scalp like
seaweed to a rock. The turned head revealed the nose ridge of a man.
Kate moved
the flashlight beam to where the nose met the sand. The beam faltered, quaking
as if the earth moved beneath it. But it was Kate, unable to quell her shaking
hand.
Maureen hollered down the beach. “Chief, over here.
Hurry!”
Their
flashlights bobbing, the chief, Chet, and Michele loped their way to the spot
where Maureen and Kate shined their lights. The chief knelt down. He reached
for the man’s shoulder and rolled him over.
Looking up
was someone they all recognized.
Q&A
D. MacNeill Parker
DEATH IN DUTCH HARBOR
How did you
research your book?
Research was not required. Write what you know, right? As a
longtime participant in the Alaska fishing industry, I couldn’t pass up the
opportunity to use my experience as the backdrop to this book. What could be
more intriguing than creating a world where commercial fishing and murder meet?
However, I knew nothing about police dogs and so made an inquiry with the
Seattle Police K9 Unit. They invited me to their training site. I was so
appreciative, I named the dog in the book after the K9 Unit shepherd, CoCo.
Which was the
hardest character to write?
The arch villain. It was difficult for me to navigate how
to leave clues without giving away the identity of the culprit. The protagonist
was a bit of a struggle, a learning experience really. Because the book is
written in third person, I wrote many revisions trying out ways to best express
what was inside her head.
Which was the
easiest?
The police chief was the easiest character to write. I have
no idea why.
Where do you get
inspiration for your stories?
Aside from my own experience at sea as a fisherman that included surviving a boat that sank off the coast of Kodiak, I’ve heard many sea stories, most
far more interesting than my own. There’s something about living on the edge of
civilization where your life is at the mercy of Mother Nature and your survival
may depend on the skill of your crew mates that is made for drama.
There are many
crime mystery books out there. What makes yours different?
As a former fisherman married to a fishing boat captain,
and with a career as a journalist, fisheries specialist for the State of Alaska
and a seafood company executive, I’ve got the credentials to pull off
authenticity. And along the way, the reader will learn a lot about Alaska and
commercial fishing.
What advice would
you give budding writers?
Just do it! Take creative writing courses on story
structure and join a writing group so that it becomes a hands-on learning
project. It’s fun, so you’ve got nothing to lose.
Your book is set
in Alaska. Have you ever been there?
Our family lived in Alaska for many years and still
participates in the Alaska fishing industry. One of our sons is at sea now.
More specifically, I have been to Dutch Harbor, Alaska where the story unfolds.
Dutch Harbor is a real place, now famous to fans of the television show,
Deadliest Catch. It’s the nation's busiest
fishing port even though it’s located in the remote Aleutian Islands, halfway
to Russia because that’s where the fish swim. I’ve experienced its famous white
knuckler airplane landings and drank my share of beer at a well-known saloon
there famed as Alaska’s most dangerous bar.
Do you ever get
writer’s block?
No, never. Isn’t that terrific? I’m sure my former career
as a journalist helps launch me into my task without much trepidation. But it’s
not unusual for me to go back after
writing a scene and delete the first few paragraphs as if they were just a
warm-up exercise.
What’s your next
project?
I’m currently writing the second book of the series. So if
you like the characters that inhabit DEATH IN DUTCH HARBOR, you can revisit
them.
What is the last
great book you read?
I could not put down the book, HORSE, by Geraldine Brooks.
Its historical fiction, based on a real
racehorse that was trained by a slave. The mystery unravels through the point
of view of different characters, some in the present and some in the past. It
tackles racism in a unique and poignant manner.
What is a
favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
A few friends have called me in the morning after staying
up all night reading the book. They’d been unable to put it down and their
voices still transmitted excitement. It doesn’t get much better than that.
How are you
similar or different from your lead character?
Well, I’m not a veterinarian, my hair is not red, and I
don’t engage in sleuthing about in dark places. But I was about the doc’s age
when I moved to Alaska, so the wonder of beholding the last frontier for the
first time was something I purposely injected into the character.
If your book were
made into a movie, who would star in the leading roles?
Now that’s a fun question! The book is very visual and
would make a great movie so please be sure to send any interested producers my
way. Off the top of my head, Emma Stone comes to mind. It’s not because her
hair is red like Doctor Mo’s, it’s because they seem to share a sassy
intrepidness, smarts and sense of humor. George Clooney as One-Eye Ben. That’s
an inside joke which you’ll get when you read the book.
In one sentence,
what was the road to publishing like?
Because I am a debut author, it was like stumbling around
in a hailstorm, knocking on the doors of strangers in hopes of finding shelter.
What authors
inspired you to write?
There were many authors that inspired me to write like Kurt
Vonnegut, John Irving, Craig Johnson, Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Martin
Cruz Smith, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie and Dashell Hammett but the book
that lit a writing fire under me as a teenager was John Barth’s book, The
Sot-Weed Factor. It’s a wild ride of historical fiction that showed me there
was no limit to using your imagination when crafting a yarn.
What is something
you had to cut from your book that you wish you could have kept?
There was a scene between Dr. Mo and her pal, Patsy, in a
restaurant that was painful to cut. Patsy, one of my favorite characters, used
salt and pepper shakers, hot sauce and catsup bottles and a fork to make a
point about the doc’s messed-up personal life. It was near the end of the book
where the pace had escalated. The scene slowed things down and, gulp, had to
go. I hope to find a place for it in the second book!
Where do you
write?
I have a writing studio in the backyard. It was a shed that my amazing husband upgraded for me,
including installation of a large window at my desk where I can watch the ducks
swim by in the creek. I am a lucky woman.
What is your
writing schedule?
I find that writing in the morning suits me best. I think
it’s because I’m still connected to my subconscious at that time of day. As a
Pantser, I write by the seat of my pants, so it’s important to keep my head
plugged into my imagination rather than cluttered with the banal practicalities
of the real world.
Guest Post:
D. MacNeill Parker
DEATH IN DUTCH
HARBOR
Subject: What I
didn’t know before I wrote my first book.
The most important thing I did not know before writing
DEATH IN DUTCH HARBOR was how much fun it would be to let my imagination loose
from its corral. But I had to tame it.
Not into submission mind you, but I had to maneuver a bridle on that
wild mustang so I could ride her into the sunset after a day of work around the
ranch. Some things came naturally. Others required discipline. None of it is
original, but this was the winning combo for me. Maybe it’ll help you tame your
inner mustang.
Front and center are these three words: Just do it! From that flows hands-on learning.
Another three words: Keep
it simple! Pick a genre that’s not complex. I chose crime mystery, of which
there are several subgenres. What’s better than a whodunnit with an obvious
goal; find the killer? But there are other simple genres like romance, western
and action thrillers. Literary fiction was not my aim. Just fought for a great
story that would keep readers entertained and flipping the pages. And pick a
Point of View that’s simple like first or third person with a single
protagonist. I chose third person. It took me a while to figure out how to get
inside the protagonist’s head using third instead of first person, but that’s
where I was most comfortable.
How about four words this time: Write what you know! I know commercial fishing in Alaska so that
was my backdrop. It gave the book an authentic feel, and no research was
required!
Here’s four more
words: Story structure, learn it!
Kurt Vonnegut is well known for his offered plot line guidance. He throws the
protagonist into a deep hole. The story is how the hero climbs out by the
book’s ending (Kurt Vonnegut, YouTube). Aside from that trek out of the big
hole (a hero’s journey), each scene should have its own set of pot holes that
are navigated using five components (Story Grid, YouTube). This was the light
bulb lesson for me. Start each scene (often a chapter for me) with an inciting
incident that launches your protagonist on a path with progressive
complications or obstacles to overcome until they reach the turning point
complication that forces a crisis
question for the protagonist to answer with an action, the climax. This choice
is never easy because as an author, it’s your job to keep clobbering your hero
with tough choices. The protagonist’s chosen action often reveals something of
his or her character and allows readers to get to know the hero better without
being told (remember, show don’t tell). The resolution is the final scene
segment when you get to see how the choice worked out for the protagonist. I
often dropped inclusion of the resolution in the same scene (allowing it to
crop up later) because I wanted to end it with a cliffhanger. I wanted each
scene to leave readers wanting more. A page-turner…
Are you a Plotter or
Pantser? Plotters draft a detailed outline before they start writing.
They’ve got a roadmap! They know where they’re going! They make fewer wrong
turns than Pantsers. Pantsers write by the seat of their pants. I’m a Pantser.
It’s an adventure because not even I know how the story will unfold. But I’m
not a total empty-head. I know where I am going. To solve the murder! I just
don’t know what’s going to happen along the way. So, for instance, when I
started writing my book, DEATH IN DUTCH HARBOR, I knew it was a crime mystery,
I knew it would take place in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and that it would use
commercial fishing as a backdrop to the action. I knew the protagonist was a
veterinarian working with the local police chief and I knew she had a
three-legged police dog and a couple of close buddies that were critical to the
story. Finally, I knew someone would be killed at sea. I even wrote a prologue
describing the murder (which later became a chapter), but I had no idea who did
it or why. Armed with little else, I began to write. Each time I started, my
brain seemed to relocate to the tips of my fingers, waiting there poised over
the keyboard, for the action to begin. Where would it take me? I couldn’t wait
to find out! By the end of the first chapter another dead body had washed
ashore. After I wrote a few more chapters, I decided it was time to use a
compass and so wrote the last chapter where all the whodunnit stuff was
revealed. No pressure really because I knew I could change it later if it made
for a better story, which I did. With the compass now pointed north, I returned
to writing chapters knowing that each scene must drive the story forward in
that general direction. In the case of a murder mystery, I knew I had to offer
up a clue, a red herring or a complicating factor in every scene. My fingers
marched across the keyboard anxious to see what it might be. I can tell you
that there were a few times when I was so astonished, I stood up, walked to the
bathroom mirror, pointed at myself and raved that I was a genius. “You are
brilliant!” Of course, I’m not a genius but what a fun adventure, sort of like
life itself. But there’s a downside to the Pantser world. It’s called revisions. Without the roadmap used by
Plotters, we Pantsers are likely doomed to writing many revisions because our
plot or characters take a wrong turn and get stuck in the mud somewhere. I’m
not sure if a person is born a Pantser or Plotter or if it’s a conscious
choice. Perhaps something down the middle might be the best course. A Plotser?
Finally, join or start
a writing group. What’s the downside to having a deadline, constructive
criticism of your work and a gang of new friends? I doubt I could have produced
chapters at such a regular pace without my writing group. Thank you, Gang!
So, write the darn book. And take some courses along the way for a hands-on learning experience because I’ve just scratched the surface of what there’s to learn about writing a book. Most importantly, have fun! Hopefully, you’ll get it published. Then write another…
Author
Bio:
D. MacNeill Parker and her family are long time participants in the Alaska fishing
industry. In addition to fishing for halibut, salmon, crab, and cod, she’s been
a journalist, a fisheries specialist for the State of Alaska, and a seafood
company executive. She’s travelled to most ports in Alaska, trekked mountains
in the Chugach range, rafted the Chulitna River, worked in hunting camps, and
survived a boat that went down off the coast of Kodiak. Parker’s been to Dutch
Harbor many times experiencing her share of white knuckler airplane landings
and beer at the Elbow Room, famed as Alaska’s most dangerous bar. While the
characters in this book leapt from her imagination, they thrive in this
authentic setting. She loves Alaska, the sea, a good yarn and her amazing
family.
Website: https://www.dmparkerauthor.com/
Author
Marketing Experts:
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Amazon: http://amzn.to/46fPtGv
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198615907-death-in-dutch-harbor
Praise:
“From the first scene, she evokes the real
Dutch Harbor and the dynamic people who call it home. It’s a roaring mystery
that braids together oil rigs, fishing, sea lions and the kind of Russians we
love to hate. Death in Dutch Harbor
is a must read for anyone who wants to vicariously experience a rugged world on
the edge of an unforgiving sea”
— Lori Swanson, Former Director Marine
Conservation Alliance, Federal Fishery Observer
“Any fan of the Deadliest Catch television
show should reach for this book!”
—Captain
Sig Hansen, FV Northwestern and a star of the Deadliest Catch TV series
“Death
in Dutch Harbor grabbed me at the outset and did not let go. Right away you
can tell Ms. Parker knows the issues facing the fishing industry in the Bering
Sea. She weaves them into the tale and uses her characters to draw the reader
deeper into the murder mystery.”
— Frank
Kelty, Former Mayor of Dutch Harbor/Unalaska
“What a banging beginning for this author.
Parker successfully tied together the multiple themes with strong characters,
especially the women, with a believable and exciting plot. I recommend this
book and look forward to Parker’s next novel.”
— Men
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