PUYB Virtual Book Club Chats with 'A Tangled Web' Mike Martin @mike54martin

Mike Martin was born in Newfoundland on the East Coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a longtime freelance writer and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand. He is the author of Change the Things You Can: Dealing with Difficult People and has written a number of short stories that have published in various publications including Canadian Stories and Downhome magazine.

The Walker on the Cape was his first full fiction book and the premiere of the Sgt. Windflower Mystery Series. Other books in the series include The Body on the T, Beneath the Surface, A Twist of Fortune and A Long Ways from Home.

A Long Ways from Home was shortlisted for the 2017 Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award as the best light mystery of the year. A Tangled Web is the newest book in the series.

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Welcome to PUYB Virtual Book Club, Mike! Can we begin by having you tell us how you got your start as a mystery author?

I kind of fell into the mystery genre when I started to write fiction. I needed a box, a formula to fit into, and the mystery genre gave me that. I really just wanted a vehicle that would allow me to write my stories and the mystery genre has fit the bill perfectly. Six books later, I’m happy with my choice.

In A Tangled Web, Sgt. Windflower is such a character! Can you tell us more about him? What makes him tick?

Sgt. Windflower is basically a social worker in a police uniform. He wants to do good in the world and tries to see the best in everybody, until they prove him wrong. He is an interesting character because he is quiet and reserved, yet deep in both intelligence and spirituality. He is also naïve about the ways of the world and in particular, in dealing with the opposite sex. Luckily, he has a partner to help him with that.

Can you tell us about his love interest?

Sheila Hillier knew that Windflower was her man, long before he realized it. She even proposed to him, when he started to linger a little too long on the other side of the altar. She is also a self-made and sufficient woman who has already run a successful business and is currently the Mayor of Grand Bank. She is Windflower’s anchor in the many storms in his life and the place he loves to come home to.

I’m curious to know why authors choose a certain locale for their book. Why did you choose yours?

I did want to write a book based in Newfoundland because of its colorful past and interesting present. The ocean and the weather and the fog make it the perfect setting for a murder mystery. But it wasn’t until I was in Grand Bank one year on a vacation that the whole thing came to me. It was like Sgt. Windflower walked out of the fog and started telling me his story. All I had to do was to write it down.

All books of fiction have a pivotal point where the reader can’t put the book down. What’s one of the pivotal points in A Tangled Web?

There are many points on which the story turns in A Tangled Web, starting right from the beginning when a little girl goes missing. But there are also pivotal points when someone is found dead in a snowbank and another where somebody is at risk of being shot. Chapter 40. That’s all I can say.

What’s next for you Mike?

More promo for A Tangled Web, and at least one more Sgt. Windflower Mystery. I have to find out what happens with Sheila and her pregnancy and whether Windflower wants to continue being a Mountie. Don’t ask me what happens. I don’t know until Sgt. Windflower tells me.