Death at Fair Havens by Maria Mankin and Maren C. Tirabassi ~ Character Interview

Death at Fair Havens

Author: Maria Mankin and Maren C. Tirabassi

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Release Date: April 26, 2022, Brain Mill Press, LLC

Pages: 298

Summary:

Wanda Duff is an unconventional New England clergywoman, addicted to chicken wings, high-octane ice cream, and saying yes to anyone in need of prayer, even the folks her town might think don’t deserve one.

When parishioner Niels Pond dies unexpectedly at the Fair Havens assisted living facility, Wanda’s duty to minister to his family is beset by her suspicions about the circumstances of his abrupt passing. Wanda finds an unexpected co-detective in high school vice principal Prudence Rye, who fled town on graduation night a decade ago and returned only recently.

Rye puts her job on the line to investigate the mourning Ponds with the surprisingly edgy Wanda. As they expose difficult family truths and uncover a dangerous conspiracy operating out of Fair Havens, Rye and Wanda discover curiosity has an unanticipated cost.

Comfortably gossipy, with a fresh take on the characters and ethos cozy mystery fans will love, Maria Mankin and Maren C. Tirabassi’s Death at Fair Havens launches a series that celebrates intergenerational women’s friendship and the power of inclusion, curiosity, and love.

 

Character Interview with Rye and Wanda

How did you and your author meet?

Rye: I’ve been taking up residence in the back of Maria’s brain for at least a decade – since she was teaching and working as an admin herself. Of course, I’m much cooler than she ever was doing the job. And she’s never solved a murder.

Wanda: I’ve got you beat by at least thirty years! I’ve been poking around in that jumble Maren calls a brain so long I was starting to feel like a genie whose bottle got lost in a sandstorm.

Rye: I think it was once they sat down together and actually braindumped that we even had a chance at making it out of there. It was an escape room, but the clues were written on the back of “While You Were Out” stickies for more urgent tasks.

Wanda: I never ignore those stickies.

Rye: Me neither.

Why did these writers decide to feature you in a book?

Wanda: Well, I think that they knew this case couldn’t be solved by anyone other than us. What other two professions but clergy and high school admin would have the empathy, the insight, and the accessibility to question both the patients in long term care for dementia and the adolescent daughter of the victim?

Rye: Also, absolutely no one else suspected this was murder, so basically we were really the only options.

Wanda: True. Sometimes you’re forced to use what God gave you.

Rye: I thought the expression was “shake what your mama gave you?”

Wanda: Pretty sure that’s a different expression all together.

Rye: …and I’m pretty sure we did a lot more of the latter than the former.

Wanda: …Fair point.

Do you have any friends or family helping you out?

Rye: Would you call my dad “helpful”?

Wanda: Well, Hardy is the retired sheriff, and he could have actively blocked us, but he didn’t, so I’d say that’s veering on the edge of help, wouldn’t you?

Rye: So, minding your business is the bar here?

Wanda: I’d say so. He certainly reacted better than your boss…

Rye: Or your friend – the undertaker. What was his name again?

Wanda: Luke Fairchild, and he prefers “Funeral Director.” It makes him sound less like a wrestler from the 90s.

Rye: Either way, he wasn’t exactly supportive…he is pretty cute though. Have you two ever…?

Wanda: Rye!

Rye: Hey! Your ex is the current sheriff, so I know you don’t exactly draw professional boundaries around the admittedly small dating pool available to you!

Wanda: What was the question again?

Do you have a regular job and investigate on the side or are you a full-time detective?

Wanda: By the thinnest of margins, we’ve both managed to hold onto our full-time jobs.

Rye: She’s a minister. But, you know, a cool one. Inclusive, funny, single.

Wanda: And she’s the vice principal at the high school. Empathetic, sharp, also single, in case you were wondering.

Rye: I’m sure no one was.

Wanda: Just putting it out there.

What is the funniest thing that happens to you or another character in this story?

Rye: I could name a lot of not funny things…

Wanda: You’re right. It’s gets a little dark.

Rye: You almost lose your job.

Wanda: You do too!

Rye: And people try to kill us, like, a lot.

Wanda: You have to reconnect with an old flame, who comes with a lot of baggage. That definitely didn’t go so well.

Rye: And I have to socialize with a bunch of twenty-year-olds. I get so sweaty when I’m doing that sort of thing. That might be the worst.

Wanda: The funniest?

Rye: My students would probably say so, yes.

Have you solved other cases or is this your first one?

Wanda: This is the first, which is frankly shocking considering how nosy we both can be. There was that grave robbing … but I can’t get our authors to write a prequel yet. No murders.

Rye: We have access to a lot of sensitive information. Our jobs dump it in our laps! It’s not our fault if we get a little curious sometimes.

Wanda: And I am definitely a terrier – once I catch that scent, I’m as bad as Wink on the trail of a rabbit. I don’t give up.

Rye: Wink’s her Jack Russell. He’s pretty cute if you’re into dogs.

Wanda: Do you not like dogs?

Rye: I didn’t say that!

Wanda: You’re not denying it either.

Rye: I like Wink. He doesn’t lick me.

Wanda: I am going to seriously rethink our friendship. How do you not like dogs?

Rye: Stop saying that! I just don’t…I’m more of a people person, that’s all. Why are you laughing?!

Wanda: I strongly suggest you take another pass at becoming a dog person. Or even a cat lady. Because I’m positive your people person ship has sailed.

Do you have a gift or special talent?

Wanda: We all have gifts. One of the best parts of my job is helping others to figure out just what that gift might be and how they can develop and share it.

Rye: I think that question refers more to like, flying or turning into a sparkly, handsome bloodsucking demon or being the super strong Buffy sort…

Wanda: I did not know you were so into vampires. I am learning so much about you today.

Rye: I have layers.

Wanda: I know you do. I just didn’t realize that one of them involved a love for the undead.

Rye: To answer your question, no. We do not have any special talents unless you count annoying others with great efficiency.

Wanda: In which case, we both do. As for crime solving, that is a talent.

Who is the most important individual in your life?

Wanda: Wink, obviously.

Rye: …I’m going to say Wink, too.

Wanda: Really? Not your dad?

Rye: Fine. My dad.

Wanda: You did move all the way back from sunny Texas for him.

Rye: Yes, fine. I’m almost 35 and my dad is the only person I can think of. Not depressing at all. Moving on.

Wanda: I named my dog, so I think you’re doing fine.

Rye: Wink is really cute.

Wanda: Yeah. He is.

What is your ideal vacation?

Rye: I can’t remember the last time I took a vacation.

Wanda: Me neither. When I was younger, I wanted to go to Greece, or maybe Israel. Plenty of sermon material in those experiences

Rye: I’ve always wanted to go to Kauai. I heard there are a lot of chickens there, and the beaches aren’t too crowded. Also, they have shave ice, and I could really go for one right now.

Wanda: Changing my answer. Also, Kauai.

If you could change anything about your life what would it be?

Rye: Can we go back in time for this one?

Wanda: If the authors are listening, I’d have fewer meetings. I like my life, even though parts of it have been rough, but if I could attend fifty percent fewer meetings, it would really improve my day to day.

Rye: And your temper. I’m totally on board with that. If I have one more meeting that could have been an email-

Wanda: Or one more email that could have been an unexpressed thought-

Rye: That would be heaven.

Wanda: That should be my line.

About the Authors

Maria Mankin

 

 

After teaching and working in early education for a decade, Maria Mankin has published six books with Pilgrim Press and has contributed to several anthologies. She is also a co-author of Circ, a mystery set in Skegness England, published by Pigeon Park Press, and Pitching Our Tents: Poetry of Hospitality. She is a regular contributor to Living Psalms, a collection in which the Psalms are reinterpreted in poetry and art as a reflection of God’s work of justice and compassion. She is currently working on a book of poetry and the third novel in the Rev and Rye Cozy Mysteries.

 

Maren C. Tirabassi

After trouping the country in the 70s as assistant manager of theatrical tours for choreographer Agnes de Mille, The National Theatre of Great Britain, The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Black Broadway production of ‘Guys and Dolls,’ Maren Tirabassi changed careers, to the surprise of everyone, to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and later Harvard Divinity School. Ordained in the United Church of Christ, she served as a bi-vocational pastor to seven churches in Massachusetts and New Hampshire while developing her writing career. Maren is the author of twenty-two books, fiction, non-fiction and poetry, the majority published by The Pilgrim Press.

A former Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, NH, and LAMDA Prize nominee for Transgendering Faith, Identity, Sexuality and Spirituality she currently facilitates programs for the NH Humanities Council with New Americans and people with cognitive difference and leads poetry and memoir workshops in prisons, recovery groups, churches and synagogues, hospice and survivor groups. She blogs at giftsinopenhands@wordpress.com.

With frequent writing collaborator, Maria Mankin, she is currently editing Death in the Woods, the sequel to Death at Fair Havens, as well as plotting the third novel.

 

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