Quirky Characters, Eerie and Isolated Locale, Slightly Paranormal...

-- Review of In Dulce, Disturbed #1 in the New Mexico mystery thriller series

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Short Story, July 23, 2012

By 

Todd A. Fonseca (Minneapolis, MN)
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: In Dulce, Disturbed: A New Mexico Mystery (#1 Cinnamon/Burro Top Mystery) (Kindle Edition)

In Dulce, Disturbed: Great Short Story

Author: Tower Lowe
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Format: Kindle

Following up on a civil rights compliant regarding specialized education for a middle school boy, Cinnamon and her partner Burro Wesote travel to Dulce, New Mexico to investigate. Upon their arrival, however, they learn that the young boy they've come to help has gone missing. They also find the area educators to be less than cooperative when it comes to boy blaming him and his family for any issues related to his education. When a beaten body is found in the local cemetery, rumors run rampant that it is the missing boy and Cinnamon vows to get to the bottom of what is really going on in this small northern border town.

Tower Lowe's, In Dulce, Disturbed, is a short story, but you would never know it by the depths of Lowe's characters. Remember the early 1990s TV show, Twin Peaks, with its quirky characters, eerie and isolated locale, and slightly paranormal bent? There is something reminiscent of that series in Lowe's work. Consider some of the more interesting characteristics in "Dulce" - the main character's name is Cinnamon - an unexpected name for a civil rights investigator - and what is the story behind her long lost mother who left her family when Cinnamon was just six? What is the deal with her partner Burro, whose visions are easier for him to manage with the medication? And what is with all the hostility from the locals at the school? All curious characteristics of a short but engaging story that I quickly found myself engrossed in and couldn't put down.

Great stuff.

I can't wait for this to be turned into a full blown novel. Watch out David Lynch.

Note: A complimentary copy of this work was provided in return for a review.

Cinnamon/Burro Top Mystery Series #1 - #5

Quirky and Convincing Characters

Top Mystery Series

In Dulce, Disturbed #1

Beaten to death by his teacher, a young native boy is found by the side of the road in Dulce, New Mexico. Cinnamon,a woman sleuth, joins her pal Burro to face down the school and the teachers and solve the first crime story in this top mystery series. Cinnamon collects the first clues to the lost Momma, who abandoned her in childhood. Defined by this loss, Cinnamon pursues these New Mexico mysteries with one eye on the crime and one eye on finding Momma. Burro assists with visions that contain clues to the crime, if only the two of them can figure out what they mean. Full of quirky characters, this story keeps you in your seat.

In Zuni, Zymotic #2

A dead teacher on the front porch of a Zuni, New Mexico home sends Cinnamon, a woman sleuth, on the trail to solve this cozy mystery. Quirky characters, including an Aunt and a girlfriend provide clues to the crime and to the whereabouts of Cinnamon’s elusive Momma. The exotic location includes a controversy over Zuni kachinas (spirit beings) in ancient New Mexico mystery. Follow the trail to Momma and the killer in #2 of the top mystery series.

In Santa Fe, Salacious #3

Salacious, silly, sad, and sanguine, In Santa Fe, Salacious takes Cinnamon, a female sleuth, and her pal Burro into the underside of Santa Fe, New Mexico,  the city different.  In this salacious mystery, a man dies of a blow to the head in St. Francis Cathedral, and a cast of sexually confused characters vie for the role of lead suspect. This crime story continues the tradition of quirky characters that define this top mystery series.  Who killed the hairdresser Marco as he prayed quietly in a chapel in downtown Santa Fe?

In Roswell, Re-Abducted #4

Aliens abduct Danny and force him to kill Juan, his only real friend. Or that’s what Danny thinks. Danny's alien abduction story gets him arrested in this cozy UFO mystery. Cinnamon, the female sleuth, and Burro, her assistant, travel through New Mexico amid alien abduction stories, drug deals, and lost love to find out if Danny is guilty or innocent. The quirky characters also provide another tantalizing clue in Cinnamon’s search for the elusive Momma. Let an hour disappear while you mingle with the Roswell residents and their alien guests in this top mystery series.

In Carlsbad, Cavernous #5

Coming in October, In Carlsbad, Cavernous, finds Cinnamon and Burro in the middle of a crime based on bitter resentments simmering for years in the Carlsbad heat. Visions, the usual cast of quirky characters, and Burro's hallucinations follow many twists and turns in the fourth installment of the New Mexico mystery series.

In Gallup....Five more are on the way, and a paisano (New Mexico Roadrunner) peeped in my ear that the next story will take us to Gallup, where Momma recently lived, and where a good friend of Cinnamon's is convinced she murdered her own brother in an alcoholic blackout. Stay tuned...

Personal Note from the Author
I started this mystery series when my job required traveling around New Mexico. Mysteries and quirky characters floated to the surface. In Dulce, New Mexico, I felt the presence of spirits, hidden in the hills, on every visit. Truly, I was disturbed. My own mother died when I was 13, and I spend most of my life chasing her, so, in this cozy mystery series, I created the woman sleuth, Cinnamon, who chases her momma while she solves crime stories in picturesque locations in the Land of Enchantment.

Free for 3 Days: In Roswell, Re-Abducted

In Roswell, Re-Abducted is going free on amazon.com kindle for August 2,3,4.  I'll be featured on Flurries of Words as  Free Book Find and listed on numerous other author promotion sites.

Hope any cozy mystery readers out there will take a few minutes to read the story and let me know what you think on amazon.com or goodreads.com.

Thanks for your support.

In Carlsbad, Cavernous

My next story is well underway.  Below is a quote from page 2, after Magda's body is discovered and her sister, Emma, knows that Magda is dead.  What's with Zookie?  And why doesn't Emma comfort him?

Stay tuned....Cinnamon and Burro are solving mysteries again...

Yellow police tape fluttered in hot wind. Emma seemed to flutter at the same rate, leaning first into Burro and then me. Two police cruisers, blue lights intense against the heated May sky, were parked parallel to each other, facing the crowd.  Emma slumped fully against Burro, and we used her condition to carve a path through the crowd to a low wall near the entrance.             

“Magda,” she whispered.  “My only family.”

            A skinny man, about 5’2”, all in black, dropped to the ground and grabbed Emma by the knees.  His long black hair fell in front of his face, and he began a desperate monologue.

“You sister was a wonderful woman.  Nobody alive was as good as her, as kind, as generous, as giving.  She taught me in 9^th grade, you know that?  She treated me like a son, her own child, a boy she cared for and cared about.  Nobody could hurt an angel like her.  Nobody, not even that weird Rein.  She loved him, too, she did.”

Emma readjusted her body, throwing the fellow off her knees.  He fell on the pavement, looking up at her now, his hair off his face. I saw a scar running from his left lip to her ear.  His eyes were cat-green, and a sour smell fumed off his clothes.

 “Don’t be so dramatic, Zookie.”  Emma put her hand up to hold the man away.  “You know Magda didn’t like that sort of display.  Think of her, for goodness sake.  She was an angel – everyone thought so.  But maybe someone robbed her or…she caught somebody robbing the lunch room and they whacked her in the head. We don’t know the whole story yet, is all.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, Emma,” Zookie stood up.  “There’s no reason for our Magda to be down at the bottom of the caverns at night.  She was dragged down there by a cold-blooded killer, I say.”           

Zookie’s green eyes were showing red around the edges, and I realized he was drunk or stoned, or both.  Emma followed my look, and explained Zookie.

“He was one of Magda’s students, “ Emma flipped a hand in his direction, “when she taught high school here in Carlsbad.  Magda helped her students out when they…they had problems.”

Zookie took offense at this.  “She saved my life, is what she did. She said so herself, over and over again.  I’d be dead without her.”

“Zookie,” Emma stood up now, looking the black clad man in the face. “You can’t save someone’s life over and over again.  The truth is you manipulated…”

The Restaurant Inside Carlsbad Caverns

The Restaurant Inside Carlsbad Caverns, a photo by SuperPope on Flickr.

This is the location of the murder of Magda in the story In Carlsbad, Cavernous.

In Roswell, Re-Abducted, New Release

At last, the 4th in the Cinnamon/Burro series is ready for publication.  There will be ten short stories altogether that send Cinnamon and Burro all across New Mexico solving mysteries and searching for clues to Momma.  In story ten, they find out what happened to Momma.

Here's the set-up.  In an alley behind the UFO Museum in Roswell, Danny kills his best friend, Juan.  Or so it appears.  Cinnamon and Burro don't know what to think, and they tour the quaint town, encountering UFO aliens and aliens of other kinds.

My editor calls this, "Your best story yet," so I hope readers will feel the same.

Click the cover on the right and buy it for 99 cents...it's out of this world...

Kindle Free-for-All: My Turn

New to Indie publishing, I need to get my name out there, and, in the end, the Kindle Direct Publishing and the KDP Select giveaway presented the best option.  I tried it, with some success, and I'm glad I did.  I write short stories, so "book" is used loosely here.

FIRST:  Since I was a shy, modest, unassuming type (or so I liked to think) -- the first step involved letting go of this person as quickly as possible. So, when people say to me, "I'd never share on Twitter," I profess to be an exhibitionist, unconcerned about privacy.  "Privacy is passe," I declare.  Do I believe this -- no.  But I can say that if I want to publicize my writing and, thus, me, I must have an online presence.  So I throw away my metaphorical robes and let it all hang out -- metaphorically, of course. 

SECOND:  What do I know about online promotion?  Virtually nothing.  I begin to explore the efforts of others.  I read blog posts.  I follow Twitter links, peruse Facebook pages.  I find out the answer to two burning questions:  What is Stumbled Upon?  Is Google+ as creepy as it feels? Here are a few things I learn.

• How to sign up for a Twitter account
• How to Tweet and get followers
• How to Retweet
• How to schedule tweets (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Twuffer.com)
• How to say TY (Thank you) and be happy about it
• How to schedule a free book and promote it.
• Thousands can't be wrong.  It's easy to follow the step by step directions on kdp.
• Keep track of websites that list your books and list the free offering early
• Keep track of websites that list your books and list it the same day (varies by website)
• How to boldly ask to be chosen and get chosen as a featured free book
• How to join goodreads.com
• How to start a reading list on goodreads.com
• How to get MY books on goodreads.com
• How to get friends on goodreads.com
• Finally, how to promote my free book (invite friends to an event)
• How to meet great people and get tired of the tiresome on LinkedIn (such as the gentleman who suggested he can name call because he's right -- new idea).
• How to ask for help and get it on LinkedIn
• How to soak up writing tips on LinkedIn
• How to tweet 'til you drop, follow your downloads in real time, find out your free book ranking on amazon.com, and how to accept that I didn't become a paid best seller the first time around.  I did make #5 in the Top 100 Free Best Sellers for mysteries. One day, I told myself, that will be in the top paid best sellers, one day.  Such is the stuff of a writers' dreams.

Third:   Before my free book giveaway, I was selling five short stories a month.  I am now selling one a day.  That may not last, but it's nice for now.  But, more than that, I am more confident about promoting my work. I am improving my blog, and now my book covers link to the amazon.com buy page, a small victory for a struggling newbie. The most important thing the kdp select free promotion taught me: I know I can learn what I need to learn.  I have hope, and hope keeps me writing.

Tomorrow, I'll be releasing my next short story, In Roswell, Re-Abducted.  I'll tell you about it then.  (Promotion, you know, promotion...)