What We’re Writing: Lucy’s Got a Cover!

LUCY BURDETTE: So much happening in my writing life right now! Last week, I completed reviewing the page proofs for the 15th Key West food critic mystery, THE MANGO MURDERS. That will be out on August 12! I have the finished cover—isn’t she gorgeous? I’m so lucky to have those artists working on my books. Meanwhile I’m writing like mad on #16. (Yes, I buried that lede—there is now almost a contract for two more books in the series.) But most fun of all, The Friends of the Key West Library are hosting one of my favorite crime fiction writers this weekend: Ann Cleeves. We will perform her murder mystery for libraries on Saturday, and she’ll be the guest of honor at our author talk and gala on Monday. I don’t expect to get much else done!

Setting all that excitement aside for a moment, today I’ll share a snippet from The Mango Murders. One of the subplots in this installment is the celebration of Miss Gloria’s 85th birthday over the period of a week. (Here’s a bit from a former post about that party.) Hayley Snow grows worried when her friend doesn’t show up for the opening event and goes to the cemetery (where Miss Gloria gives tours) to track her down. This scene gave me a chance to think about the meaning of the big birthday from the perspective of two characters—Miss Gloria herself and Hayley. The cemetery that lies in the center of the town is chock full of wonderful history and atmosphere, so I love setting scenes in that space.

The cemetery was a big space right in the middle of Old Town. It was laid out in a giant grid, identified with street names, and contained the resting places of many Key West residents, along with elaborate family crypts and various celebrity graves with oddball inscriptions. “I told you I was sick,” was a very popular destination, along with “I’m just resting my eyes” and “I always dreamed of owning a small place in Key West.” There were more serious gravesites too, of course, including the section devoted to the victims of the U.S.S. Maine, and a trove of local eccentrics and heroes. A tall, black metal fence surrounded the cemetery so it could be locked up at night, leaving only iguanas and chickens as company for the dead.

I hurried down the biggest street, headed toward the Jewish section of cemetery that I knew my friend favored as a place to sit and think. She liked the idea of visitors leaving stones on a grave, as she thought it must remind the inhabitants they weren’t forgotten or alone.

Minutes later, I spotted her perched on a concrete bench under a big gumbo limbo tree. I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to gather myself so I wouldn’t appear like a worried and hovering mother. She looked sad, and that made me feel glad I had come.

I sat beside her on the bench and tucked my arm around her shoulders. “I got a little concerned about you because we’re due at Salute in an hour or so. I hope you don’t mind that I came to give you a ride home.”

She looked at me, seemingly puzzled, her expression a million miles away.

“I thought you might have been hit by a car or one of those crazy people drinking beer in golf carts with the right-hand turn signal permanently on.” That was a joke she loved to tell about how some tourists behaved on our island.

Miss Gloria smiled briefly and patted my knee. “We can’t really know when our time is up, can we?” she said in a wistful voice. “I don’t think mine is anytime soon. Though with a murder or a freak accident, those are impossible to predict.” She paused and I suppressed the urge to fill the silence. She needed to talk, and I needed to listen. “The one thing I don’t like about getting older is remembering and missing all the friends and relations who’ve passed before me. I love my life and my new friends, but I miss the old ones too.”

“Of course you would, that seems only natural.” She had a melancholy look on her face that I’d rarely seen. I wondered if she was thinking about her husband, Frank. He’d been gone for many years, but they’d had a happy marriage full of adventure and love, and I knew how much she still missed him.

LUCY again: How do you feel about time spent in cemeteries—I don’t mean in a permanent way, but rather, visiting?

(Of course, The Mango Murders is available for pre-orders now...)