by Meg Perry
Do you look up when you hear an airplane overhead?
I do. I’m fascinated by airplanes. Did you know that a fully loaded Airbus A350-900 (my current favorite plane to travel on, thank you Virgin Atlantic) weighs 283,000 pounds? One hundred and forty-one tons. How on earth does that thing get into the air? If you watch one lumber down the runway, it seems impossible that it’s going fast enough to take off. I understand how wings and engines work, but it still seems like magic to me.
When I was a kid, we used to take Sunday drives to our local airport to watch the planes take off and land. I still love to watch them. These days, there are people who make their living doing that! They’re called planespotters (makes sense), and there are many YouTube channels run by planespotters who livestream from whatever airport they cover. The most successful ones do it full time. If I’d known, when I was younger, that a profession as a planespotter was a possibility for me well, my life might have turned out differently.
As a mystery writer, my mind often wanders into “what if?” territory. I was watching a planespotting livestream one day and started to wonder. What if a planespotter was found shot to death at the airport? Who might have committed the crime, and why? I spent some time thinking about that…and Spotted to Death was born.
Spotted to Death is the sixth book in a series called the Angeles Investigations Mysteries.
Angeles Investigations is what happens when you combine three ex-cops, two former research librarians, and a legal secretary into a private detective agency. Rob Jones is the founder of the agency, a former homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who retired after thirty years with the LAPD to open his own PI agency. He was joined by Jamilah Daly, a former Army MP, police officer, and social worker; and Kevin Brodie, another former LAPD homicide detective and social worker. They’re assisted by Jamie Brodie and Avery Roth, who were librarians at UCLA, and Ryan McKinney, their legal secretary and office manager who keeps everything running smoothly.
Rob is bisexual. Jamilah is lesbian. Jamie and Ryan are gay. Avery is asexual. Kevin is their token straight guy.
Angeles Investigations is the answer to another “what if?” question I had. What if there was a queer PI agency? What would that look like? How would they market themselves? What kind of cases would cross their paths?
I set my books in Los Angeles because it seems like a city where anything is possible (including a queer PI agency). It’s certainly possible that an interior decorator could be found stabbed in the back in a home he was staging for sale (Cheated to Death). It’s possible that a hired killer could pick off a pedophile in his own backyard (Hunted to Death). It’s possible that someone could produce a fake video to try to discredit a cop (Deepfaked to Death). It’s possible that a landscaping company planting trees on the property of an estate could hit a skeleton buried years before (Disappeared to Death). It’s possible that a Major League Baseball player might slide into second base and be dead on arrival (Stolen to Death).
And, it’s possible that a planespotter shot to death at Los Angeles International Airport might lead Angeles Investigations into a web of lies and deceit that ends in personal tragedy for the investigators themselves.
The next time you hear an airplane overhead, look up! (Unless you’re driving. That’s not advisable.) Look up and wonder: Where’s it going? Who’s on board? What cargo is it carrying? And how could that innocent airplane possibly be involved in a murder mystery?
For one answer to that question, check out Spotted to Death.
For the answer to “What if there was a queer PI agency in Los Angeles?” check out the entire Angeles Investigations series. Spend some time with Rob, Jamilah, Kevin, Jamie, Avery, and Ryan. I think you’ll like them.
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