ONE MOM LIFE…TWO SERIES! by Kathleen Marple Kalb

It took me a long time to become brave enough to write about motherhood.

The first mystery I tried to sell featured a main character who was a young single woman, a lot like me a couple decades ago. Writing a mother seemed too personal and too close to home. I never thought I’d write not one, but two mystery series involving mothers in suburban Connecticut. 

It started to change one afternoon at school pickup. I was nattering about weather with one of the other moms, and, as usual, feeling like a secret agent because of my weekend work as a New York City radio news anchor. And it hit me. What a great idea for a story: a suburban mom with a secret life! Grace the Hit Mom was born right there, though she took a very long time to evolve from dark and scary to snarky and screwball. 

Grace, as you’ll meet her in the series, is always doing just a little too much: driving the school run, chaperoning field trips, dusting off her law degree to help her defense-counsel husband…and, occasionally, poisoning an evil man who’s escaped human justice. With the help of her colorful pals, she somehow always manages to use her unique skills to solve the case and protect her secret life.

And she’s tremendous, transgressive fun. Sometimes, at brain-numbing PTA meetings, Grace half-jokingly considers whipping out the poison. Other times, she muses that some arrogant functionary wouldn’t dismiss her if he knew what she really was. 

A very non-traditional cozy sleuth.

The other mom I write is much more conventional. Or as conventional as I get, anyhow. Christian Shaw of the Old Stuff Mysteries is a former professor and current head of the Unity Historical Society, solving mysteries with her knowledge of antique and historic household items – i.e. old stuff. She’s a widow with a young son, surrounded by a quirky cast of friends, and dating a prosecutor. All fairly standard cozy, well, stuff. But: that cast includes “the dads she should have had,” her mentor and his husband; her rabbi, who often brings her own historic insight…and Christian’s young son has a photographic memory and Type-1 Diabetes. Plus, everyone is involved in the solution of the crime, even the little boy.  

While Grace and Christian are both suburban moms, they’re very different, and they have very distinct voices. Grace is a bit edgy and snarky, a tougher character in some ways because of her secret profession. But there’s also something innocent and sheltered about her, because she’s happily married and cocooned in a very safe life. Christian is more bookish and goes on little tangents about historic cookware or 16th century men’s underwear (basically, the long end of the shirt, tucked around everything…sorry!) But she’s also wounded and cautious in ways Grace is not, far less protected because of her widowhood and her son’s illness. 

They sound completely different in my mind, and hopefully on the page. But both come from the same place: my life as a weekday suburban mom and weekend professional.

The writing has enabled me to tell my own, and other suburban moms’ stories. And it’s allowed me to give my son a very special gift: the new Grace book, Murder on the Sea Otter Express, is dedicated to him. 

Hands-down my best day as an author/anchor/mom.

Kathleen Marple Kalb aka Nikki Knight, is an author/anchor/mom…not in that order. The Agatha-nominated author of short stories and more than a dozen novels, she’s also a longtime weekend anchor at New York’s 1010 WINS Radio. Her book series include the Grace the Hit Mom, Old Stuff, Vermont Radio and Ella Shane Mysteries. Active in writers’ groups, she’s currently a Marketing and Communications Liaison on the National Board of Sisters in Crime, and a past VP of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and NY/Tri-State SinC. She and her family live in a Connecticut house owned by a large calico cat. 

Links:

Website: https://kathleenmarplekalb.com/ 

Grace the Hit Mom Mysteries: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C73QK89C?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=saga_dp_bnx_dsk_sdp 

Old Stuff Mysteries: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKWLLGF6?binding=paperback&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk