Right Here in River City (Walk)

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  So--yesterday? We all boarded the tiniest plane in the universe in Phoenix, for the one hour flight to Santa Barbara. We buckle in, we stash our stuff. I try to indicate to the guy sitting next to me that I am not interested in chatting.

Yeah, I know. But I had to work.

Then, the pilot comes on the PA.
He says "We have a little situation." He says: "Apparently, LAX is reorganizing its flight patterns. Which, they're telling me, will have an effect on flights into regional airports.

(Like where we're going, Santa Barbara.)

He says: so it looks like we'll have a bit of a delay.
TWO AND A HALF HOURS.
We are ON THE PLANE.

The energy in the passengers plummeted. Thudded to earth so profoundly I'm surprised the plane didn't sink into the tarmac.

When they announced we'd only be 90 minutes late, we were thrilled.
(Remember that in your next marketing class.)

But! Santa Barbara, when we finally arrived, is gorgeous. GORGEOUS! I don't mind the delay..as long as I can be here.

So it's perfect that Nancy West is here  to talk about another fabulous destination. WITH a giveaway! (oh, someone wins Brunonia Barry's THE FIFTH PETAL. I'll post soon.) 
But now, without delay :-)-- another wonderful destination.  

The San Antonio River Walk
But is it:  TOO IDYLLIC FOR MURDER?

By Nancy G. West

Aggie Mundeen, author of the column “Stay Young with Aggie,” is single and pushing hard against forty. She’s fearless until she thinks about aging, which drives her into a cold sweat. She moved from Chicago to San Antonio a couple years ago to start over, and worked out at Fit and Firm to shape up before anybody learned she wrote the staying-young column. Things went swimmingly until she saw a girl floating face down in the pool. (Fit to Be Dead) Naturally, she tried to help and wound up involved in a murder investigation, made more palatable by the arrival of SAPD Detective Sam Vanderhoven.

I, her author, was blissfully writing a suspense novel when Aggie, a supporting character, wormed her way into my brain and demanded that I write about her. It seems she had ideas about helping the San Antonio detective with future investigations, which would require multiple stories.

After the health club investigation, Aggie convinced Sam to accompany her and a friend on a dude ranch vacation in the Texas Hill Country, incognito so he wouldn’t put a damper on their fun. Their getaway morphed into murderous Home on the Range. (Dang Near Dead) The threesome managed to oust the snake-in-the-topsoil and set things right. In the process, Aggie and Sam learned to work together. After a fashion.

When Aggie heard a San Antonio university professor would teach a course on the effects of genetics on aging, she blasted to the campus to register. Unfortunately, she discovered a dead academic. (Smart, But Dead) Sam cautioned her to avoid the investigation. But dangerously curious and programmed to prod, she raced to solve the crime, wound up prime suspect and was on target to become next campus corpse.

Aggie’s brush with oblivion made her and Sam realize they truly cared for one another despite their contentious approaches to crime solving. Perhaps they were ready for a long weekend together away from the distraction of felonious deeds. But where? A cruise? Skiing in the mountains? An escape to Tahiti?

Why not a hotel on the San Antonio River Walk? Aggie was right there in River City, but she’d never lingered on the River Walk for an extended stay (so far as I knew). Not with Sam.

They could marvel at the history of how a river came to ramble through the heart of a city. How did La Villita, the original little city, come to be perched alongside the river? How did Arneson River Theater find a resting place on one side of a meandering river while its theater seats hovered across the water on the other bank? What was the story behind three bells that hung behind the Arneson stage?

 

River City was also Military City, USA with its multiple military bases and active duty personnel. How were these thousands discharged into the active life of a thriving city? What was the significance of Day-of-the-Dead skulls that popped up at Fiesta events?

What started Fiesta Week, the annual citywide party, that began a hundred years earlier? Was it true the event began with ladies tossing flower petals at a visiting president and that the parade grew to be the largest procession run exclusively by women?

What if crime descended on the hotel, bursting with conventioneers, where Aggie and Sam met? With thousands of Fiesta Week revelers in River City, suspects were everywhere. Aggie and Sam had avenues to explore and challenges to face. Right there in River City.

                                                          ------------

I’m delighted to give a copy of RIVER CITY DEAD to one interested commenter. What intrigues you about the San Antonio River Walk?

HANK: Or, Reds, what city are you in love with?  River City Dead to one lucky commenter!

(I am still in the amazing Santa Barbara--at a wonderful event--I will check in when I can! Whoa. Time Zones.)

    

Nancy G. West was a University of Texas business major who decided that writing mysteries was more fun than accounting and decided to pursue an MA in English literature.

RIVER CITY DEAD is the fourth book in her award-winning series. She lived in Missouri, Kansas and Florida but has spent the most time in San Antonio.

Aggie Mundeen Mysteries: www.nancygwest.com

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/authorNancyG-West

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/river-city-dead-nancy-g-west/1124917721?ean=9781635111330

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/river-city-dead/id1169107209?ls=1&mt=11

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33002829-river-city-dead

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorNancyG.West/

Sometimes Nancy and Aggie clash brains at https://stayyoungwithaggie.wordpress.com/

RIVER CITY DEAD

Advice columnist Aggie Mundeen and SAPD Detective Sam Vanderhoven plan their first rendezvous at a San Antonio River Walk hotel during Fiesta Week—sumptuous sights, sounds, and festivities in the middle of America’s Venice. A vacation from crime and a reset for their tumultuous relationship. But murder descends on Casa Prima Hotel. Disturbing revelations surface about Aggie’s new friends holding a convention, the Fabulous Femmes. Evil emerges at parties in La Villita. Calamity plagues Aggie’s debut dance performance at Arneson River Theater, the celebration skewed by carousing, crazies, and corpses. Even in idyllic River City, crime complicates relationships.