Dear Reader…
Ever thought about
the ways to die? In my other life, I’m a physician, not a fiction author, so I
avoid the prospect of death for my patients. However, in plotting and executing
my fifth novel and thriller, The Five
Manners of Death, I decided to play around a bit with the idea. The fun
part was tossing my main character, surgeon Diana Bratton, right in the middle
of all the craziness.
Doctors think they
know everything or can do anything—maybe not everything—but they carry around a
ton of confidence—and that’s a good thing most of the time. (Why do you think I
decided I could write novels?) As bodies pile up around her, Diana sees the
five ways to die—the five manners of death—checked off a list one-by-one:
natural causes, accident, suicide, and undetermined—leaving only homicide.
Diana’s problem is that her aunt Phoebe, one of the sole survivors of her
shrinking family, is suspected of murder and could have completed that list.
What’s worse is that Phoebe makes herself appear really, really guilty.
Research was
required to tell Phoebe’s story and that of the other conflicted characters
around her. Non-fiction writers, biographers, and historical fiction novelists
aren’t the only authors required to dig for facts or explore other time periods
or settings. There is an important backstory in The Five Manners of Death set at the University of Mississippi in
the mid 1960s. I was a student at Ole Miss a decade later, so I interviewed a
couple of friends who preceded me to describe student life accurately in
1965-66. That quest for realism also led me to explore the intricacies of
playing poker and what is required of bee keeping.
Another question
for you, my reader …ever been to a real morgue? If you’re writing a novel about
the ways to die, it stands to reason that you might want to expand the study
and soak up a little atmosphere, so I did. One Friday afternoon a friend and I
visited the Mississippi State Examiner’s Office, a beautiful, expansive
building set in a grove of pine trees in a rural setting off Interstate 20
south of Jackson. From the approach, the place reminded me of the facility in
the movie Coma where the bad guys
stored the organ donor bodies. There were no patients that afternoon in the
autopsy room, but the glistening steel examination tables and the lingering
scent of chemicals were enough to get the idea. And no trip to the morgue is
complete without a peek into the skeleton and bone fragments storage room. The
ME explained that hunting season always turns up more missing bones than other
times of the year and that 2016-17 had yielded a banner crop. He and his staff
still have a lot of sorting out to do.
I hope you’ll enjoy
the “sorting out” I put into The Five
Manners of Death where family loyalty trumps truth every time, and my
protagonist, Diana Bratton, learns that murder is her family secret.
All the best,
Darden North
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About the Author
A board-certified
physician in obstetrics and gynecology, Darden North writes murder mysteries
and medical thrillers. His novels have received
national awards, most notably an IPPY in Southern Fiction for Points of Origin. A native of the Mississippi Delta, Darden lives
with his wife Sally in Jackson, Mississippi, where he practices medicine
Connect with the author
on the web:
Instagram
and Twitter: @dardennorth
Title: THE FIVE MANNERS OF DEATH
Genre: Mystery
Author: Darden North
Website: http://www.dardennorth.com
Publisher: WordCrafts Press
Find out more on Amazon
About the Book: The Five Manners of Death is a taut, tense, and gripping tale about a long-buried
secret that once unleashed will begin a countdown of the five ways to die. For Mississippi surgeon Diana
Bratton, the novel’s protagonist, pages torn from a 1960s
college yearbook reveal that murder is a family affair…
About
The Five Manners of Death: When a construction worker unearths a decades-old human skull on the campus of
the University of Mississippi, he sets in motion an eerie chain of events that
leaves one woman desperate to rewrite
history and another woman desperate to find the truth.
After
the discovery of her Aunt Phoebe’s 50-year-old note detailing the five manners
of death, surgeon Diana Bratton is surrounded by bodies. Suicide, accident, natural cause, and one
death classified undetermined are soon crossed off this grisly list—leaving
Diana to believe that only homicide remains. But the police prove her
wrong: Phoebe is linked to murder—not
only by those skeletal fragments uncovered on the University campus but also to
the recent deaths of two local men. Diana is torn: should she try to prove her aunt’s innocence
or accept police theory that her beautiful, beloved aunt is a woman who harbors
dark and deadly secrets?
Stealing
precious time from her young daughter, her surgical practice, and her hopes for
a renewed romance, Diana launches a pulse-quickening quest to clear Phoebe’s
name. However, as she searches for
evidence, Diana finds that her desire to reach the truth may be eclipsed by
Aunt Phoebe’s need to rebury the past. When reality finally emerges, Diana
faces the cold fact that murder is a family affair. After all, things aren’t always what they
seem. And some things never die…
With
the precision of a surgeon, Darden North has crafted a confident and chilling
tale about lies, secrets, deception and the conflict that erupts when the past
and present collide. Meticulous
plotting, richly-drawn, engaging characters and a shocking storyline combine to
create an extraordinary thriller resplendent with twists, turns, and the unexpected. A unique but realistic story teeming with the
right mix of medical authenticity, The
Five Manners of Death plunges readers
deep into the minds of the novel’s characters as each learns that no one
can be trusted—and that everyone has his own agenda. With this sensational, skillful and highly suspenseful tale,
Darden North claims a solid spot among today’s finest thriller writers.
Thank you for inviting me to guest on "Dear Reader ... Love, Author."
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