by Tracy Condie

This week we have a review of A Ghostwriter’s Guide to Murder by Melinda Mullet, along with an interesting interview with Melinda. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book and a link to purchase it.

A Ghostwriter’s Guide to Murder by Melinda Mullet
Review by Tracy Condie

Maeve Gardner is a writer, not that anyone would know it even if they have read her recent release. You see, Maeve is the ghostwriter for the PI Simon Hill series originally written by Harlon Oak, who has succumbed to dementia. She spends days writing about sleuthing and sometimes mapping out various murder scenarios including her ex-boyfriend, Gavin. So why wouldn’t she be able to piece together what happened to the 50,000 quid which disappears while Gavin, whom she hasn’t seen in weeks, is found floating in the water next to her boat.

This is a great start for a murder mystery and is told from multiple points of view. It starts with Maeve who has a furry sidekick named Captain. Maeve doesn’t live in a typical home, nor does she have typical neighbors. Maeve’s home is a houseboat located in Regent’s Canal, a real place or waterway in London. I am a fan of real and interesting story locations. She has a Wiccan coven of two, neighbors Rowan and Sage to one side, and Ashley Warren, super techy and something of a recluse on the other side. Next is her friend the bookstore maven, India Davis. Last but not least is pub owner Paul Lane. Paul’s pub, The Anchor, is their go-to place to convene in the “nook and cranny” sitting area to visit, compare clues, and come up with sleuthing plans.

The story was easy to follow, and the plot built nicely with clues that gave you just enough information. The four friends have unique personalities that complement each other. India has a caring disposition that puts others at ease, plus she is willing to get inked up in the name of sleuthing. Paul is a great dart player and is willing to do a little covert information gathering with some highly suspect guys who were mates with Gavin. Ash is amazing as an information gatherer not to mention his past experience as a police consultant. I’ve read the “he said, she said” POV and the “sleuth vs killer” POV but never a four-musketeer version. It was different and enjoyable.

I certainly hope that this is not a one-and-done but rather a series starter. There are some unfinished and unanswered questions, plus romance potential. Ms. Mullet did such a good job with her Whisky Business series, an excellent cozy, that I could see this one doing just as well.

Tracy Condie is a paralegal by day and cozy armchair sleuth by night. When she is not working or reading, she enjoys preparing the recipes found in culinary cozies or researching recipes of meal items described therein and sharing reviews of both books and food on Instagram and on KRL. She lives in Corona, California with her husband and dog Zoolie, and looks forward to visiting with their grown sons when their time permits.

Interview with Melinda Mullet:

KRL: How long have you been writing?

Melinda: Truth be told, I’ve been writing all my life. First as a medieval lit major, then as a lawyer, but I only turned to fiction in about 2016. I’d always wanted to be a novelist, but life had rather taken over––career, children, aging parents and such. It wasn’t until my daughters became teens and I found myself spending a lot of time with them and their friends through sports, theatre, and scouting that I noticed how vulnerable so many of them were. It made me feel incredibly sad to see so many of these incredibly smart, driven, personable young women who seemed to have absolutely no self-confidence. I tried to be encouraging, telling them they could do anything they put their mind to, but social media and other external forces seemed to be telling them otherwise. I wanted to give them a living, breathing example of what it means to pursue something you feel strongly about, so I decided to write a novel. Nothing I ever said to them meant as much as watching me go out on a limb for something I was passionate about and ultimately succeeding.

KRL: When did your first novel come out, what was it called, and would you tell us a little about it?

Melinda: My first novel was Single Malt Murder. It came out in 2017. It was the first book in the Whisky Business Mystery Series. I find inspiration in all kinds of places, but this series came from following my whisky-besotted husband around innumerable distilleries in the Scottish Highlands. It is a real passion of his. My first thought was that a steaming vat of mash would be a great place to find a body, but to be honest I found more inspiration in the new generation of women distillers who were struggling to find their way in this incredibly male dominated industry. In the end it came together in a six-part series about a woman named Abigail Logan who inherits a boutique whisky distillery in rural Scotland. Abi’s the first to admit that what she knows about whisky making would fit in a shot glass with room to spare, but she quickly discovers that she is now part of a high-stakes business – more art than science – that elicits deep passions and prejudices. When one of Abi’s employees is found murdered, Abi vows to find out why. But distilling truth from lies is tricky especially when everyone around you seems to have something to hide.

KRL: Have you always written mysteries/suspense and if not, what else have you written?

Melinda: They say write what you know, and mystery is one of my favorite genres. So far it is all that I’ve written. I also love fantasy and sci-fi, but I just didn’t think I would do as good a job of writing those types of stories. At the other extreme I’d actually love to try my hand at children’s books. Who knows – maybe I will try some day.

KRL: What brought you to choose the setting and characters in your latest book/series?

Melinda: My newest book is A Ghostwriter’s Guide to Murder. I have always had a retirement fantasy of living on one of those beautiful, updated longboats along the Regent’s Canal in London. To wake up every morning and look out at the ducks and the trees reflected in the water yet still be in the heart of the city––what could be better? As for the characters, they step in one by one. A frustrated writer living on the canal with her faithful dog. That I could relate to. The other characters appeared as I wrote Maeve’s story. The Wiccans off her aft bow and Ash the lovestruck gamer nerd moored in front of her. Her best friend India runs the Book Boat that is based on a shop called Word on the Water that is an actual bookstore moored on Regent’s Canal and housed on an old Dutch barge. It was a favorite haunt of mine as a kid. Maeve’s other close mate is Paul, former Navy diver and landlord of their local pub the Anchor. They are all part of the eclectic clan that have joined London’s urban armada, and I love writing about them.

KRL: Do you write to entertain or is there something more you want the readers to experience from your work?

Melinda: I write to entertain, and I write to provide an escape from the stresses and strains of everyday life. I hope that reading my stories helps people to relax and escape for a bit. Whether it’s floating on a canal in London or exploring the hills around a boutique whisky distillery in Scotland, I think it really helps to step away from social media and the endless chains of texts and emails. To surround yourself with places and people that feel like old friends and to escape.

KRL: Do you have a schedule for your writing or just work whenever you can?

Melinda: I usually spend my morning working. I try to stop by 1:00 and move on to other things but when I’m on a deadline all bets are off, and I can wind up working well into the night.

KRL: What is your ideal time to write?

Melinda: I usually like to write first thing in the morning when I’ve had some sleep and some coffee. Sometimes inspiration strikes after I’ve had dinner and a glass or two of wine and I’ll settle down to write then. I suppose the moral is I don’t do well with low blood sugar.

KRL: Do you outline? If not, do you have some other interesting way that you keep track of what’s going on, or what needs to happen in your book when you are writing it?

Melinda: I am a plotter from way back! I sketch out the story in a notebook first then I go to outlining scenes on large index cards. Once I have the bones of a story I’ll spread the cards out on the floor, try to stop the dogs from stealing them, and then I add scenes and move them around as needed. Kind of a free-flowing storyboard. When I’m satisfied that the story is running like a movie in my head, I’ll gather up the cards and head for my computer. At that point I start on a first draft fleshing out the details of each scene. If I write something I want to be sure to pick up on later, I make a note on the appropriate card. My fellow writers who fly by the seat of their pants think I’m nuts, but it works for me.

KRL: Did you find it difficult to get published in the beginning?

Melinda: I am not a good example. I was lucky to find an amazing agent right off the bat. (Abby Saul at the Lark Group). She worked with me to make my story the best it could possibly be then shopped it around. I had a deal with a large traditional publisher for the Whisky Business Mysteries quite quickly.

KRL: Do you have a great rejection/critique or acceptance story you’d like to share?

Melinda: My favorite is always submitting a manuscript to a number of publishers and having one come back and say this book is much too cozy and the next day getting a rejection from a different publisher that insists the same story is not nearly cozy enough. You have to have a thick skin. On the positive side, I’ve had great experiences with the audiobook producers. Audible has a marvelous reader for the Whisky Business series. All six books are read by the same woman and my readers adore her. A Ghostwriter’s Guide to Murder is being done by Spotify and released simultaneously with the book. Each of the four points of view in the book are voiced by a different reader. Rather like a play. I’m really looking forward to hearing how it comes out.

KRL: Most interesting book signing story-in a bookstore or other venue?

Melinda: I’ve signed books at a whisky distillery in Scotland. They supplied me and their customers with a great deal of first-class whisky during the process. Not sure how legible my signature was in the end, but it was a delight.

KRL: What are your future writing goals?

Melinda: I am working on a historical mystery that focuses on my family in pre-WWII London, and a police procedural. Most of all I’m looking forward to continuing the Maeve Gardner mysteries. There’s still a lot to be sorted out for our canal dwellers.

KRL: Who are your writing heroes?

Melinda: Agatha Christie, (I’m reading Lucy Worsley’s biography at the moment, and Christie is a fascinating woman.) Christie was such a master of her craft and all without any specific training. I also admire Richard Osman who’s made a real second career out of writing – not to mention lifting us all out of the COVID doldrums. I also love Michael Bond. I mean the man wrote Paddington and a rather saucy cozy mystery series for adults. So much range.

KRL: What kind of research do you do?

Melinda: Standard internet searches of course, (what did we do before Google?) but I also love to travel to the locations in my books. I spend a lot of time in both Scotland and London, and I snap photos and take notes all the time. It’s wonderful to have photos to refer back to when you are writing. The visual prompt can bring you right back to the sights and sounds and smells of a place.

I’ve also frequently made use of a lovely woman known as the Poison Lady. She’s a nurse who’s happy to answer those tricky questions that you don’t really want anyone finding embedded in your search history like how much vape juice is needed to kill a 200-pound man? Answer, not as much as you’d think. I still live to regret my search of Can you photograph a dead Amish woman? It came up in the course of discussing a story involving a murdered Amish woman. Since the Amish discourage photographs in life, would they also object to the police photographing the body in death? Legitimate enough, but it didn’t help my online algorithm one bit.

KRL: What do you like to read?

Melinda: Mystery and fantasy and I love books with a thread of humor running through them.

KRL: What are your favorite TV shows or movies?

Melinda: Movies: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, the Marvel franchise. Recently The Ballad of Wallis Island.
TV Shows: Ted Lasso, The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, Stranger Things, Dr. Who, Severance, so many Brit Box Mysteries and Taskmaster.

KRL: Have you any advice for aspiring or beginning writers?

Melinda: Relentlessly practice your craft. Scenes, short stories, longer pieces––whatever you have time for and feel comfortable with. Once you’ve got something you think is good start editing, and editing, and editing. Take advice without rancor and be willing to keep making changes to make improvements no matter how painful.

KRL: What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

Melinda: I’m a con woman! Not the Ocean’s 8 variety, but the kind I never knew existed until my daughters began attending a variety of fan conventions up and down the Eastern seaboard. You meet fascinating people. It provides me with endless fodder for character sketches and it’s fun to step outside yourself for a day or two and run around in wild costumes. Hella the Goddess of Death was a personal favorite.

KRL: Do you have any pets?

Melinda: We have two crazy Covid Canines. Jack and Bailey. Bailey is a soft coated Wheaten terrier, and he makes an appearance in the Whisky Business Mysteries as Liam. (All our Wheatens are named after whiskies. Sadly, Macallan left us a few years back.) Jack is a black and white Aussiedoodle and he appears as Captain Jack in Ghostwriter’s Guide. (Jack was jealous that his brother was in a book and he wasn’t.) Jack has a black patch over one eye and was named after notorious sea pirate Jack Sparrow, or space pirate Jack Harkness depending on which member of the family you ask. Both pups are absolutely insane. Poorly socialized because of Covid and spoiled rotten and I love them beyond all sense and reason!

KRL: Is there anything you would like to add?

Melinda: Well, first of all it’s a pleasure to get to talk to everyone through this interview. For those of you that want to write, keep it up. Discipline and diligence will pay off. For those of you who are readers (or listeners!) THANK YOU. We’re told so often these days that people aren’t interested in books anymore and I just don’t believe that. For all of you that enjoy my stories, and the stories of my fellow writers, please know that you mean the world to us. You are why we do what we do. We appreciate you. If you are kind enough to read my new book, A Ghostwriter’s Guide to Murder, (or one of my older books) I’d love to hear from you.

KRL: Thanks for joining us here today. Where can our readers find you online?

Melinda: You can find me at MelindaMullet.com or on Facebook and Instagram at MelindaMullet, author.

You can click here to purchase this book from Amazon.

To enter to win a copy of A Ghostwriter’s Guide to Murder, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Ghostwriter’s Guide” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen August 23, 2025. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email and want a print copy please include your mailing address in case you win. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

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