Death Checked Out: A Larkspur Library Mystery by Leah Dobrinska

Thanks for sharing!

Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Death Checked Out: A Larkspur Library Mystery by Leah Dobrinska. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

Death Checked Out: A Larkspur Library Mystery

by Leah Dobrinska

Death Checked Out: A Larkspur Library Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Wisconsin
Level Best Books (December 6, 2022)
Number of Pages ~300

She’s used to checking out books. A death? Not so much.

Greta Plank, resident librarian in the small, lakeside town of Larkspur, Wisconsin, prefers her rose-tinted glasses extra rosy, thank you very much. Ever since a family tragedy landed her in Larkspur, she’s kept a happy-or-bust outlook. But Greta’s cheery resolve takes a hit when she finds the town recluse dead at the base of the stairs leading from his deck to the lake. What she assumes is a terrible accident Greta soon learns is something more sinister, and to make matters worse, new-to-town Detective Mark McHenry cites her as not only his primary source for the case, but his top suspect.

To clear her name and return to life as she knew it before the murder, Greta decides to do some clue cataloging of her own. After all, she’s got her master’s degree in library science with an emphasis in research methodology…how hard could a criminal investigation be? With the help of her fellow librarians and her lawyer mom, Greta begins checking out the pages of the murder, uncovering details about the recluse’s rare book collection and Larkspur’s real estate market as she tries to understand why anyone would have authored his death.

But with friends and neighbors stacking up as both victims and suspects, Greta must cross-reference the facts and put a hold on her idyllic worldview if she wants to get the full story without paying the fine of her life.

Author Guest Post: Where Do Your Ideas Come From? by Leah Dobrinska

At my very first in-person author event last year, we held a question and answer session. One of the people in attendance asked me, “Do you ever base characters off of people you know in real life?”

“Only the good parts,” I quipped.

Everyone laughed, but this question raises a good point.

Have I ever based a character off of someone I know? Taking it a step further—where do ideas for books—the characters, the settings, the conflict—come from?

I’ve given this a lot of thought in my own work and in observing others. What I’ve determined about writing and creating in general is that there’s no one answer to where a person gets an idea. Inspiration will strike me in a different way than it’ll strike another author.

Let’s talk first about characters and the mood of a story.

Some authors I know are deeply inspired by photos and visuals. They’ll spend hours upon hours putting together the perfect Pinterest mood boards and making collages with images that trigger an idea or help them develop a vision for a character or scene.

Some authors think first of famous people who match the characteristics they’re envisioning for their main characters. They set photos as their phone and computer backgrounds so that they’re constantly inspired and have a quick reference when describing physical features.

Some authors are inspired by certain colors or color pairings. One author I know finds sticky-tabs that are the same color scheme as her book’s cover, just because it makes her feel happy and close to her story.

Other authors really like having a certain candle or incense that they burn during the entire drafting process. That particular scent gets associated with a book and helps to both inspire ideas and get words flowing.

Like I said, there’s not just one form of inspiration when it comes to writing!

As for me, and to answer the question above, I don’t think I’ve ever intentionally based a character off of someone I know. There are bits and pieces of people I’ve interacted with in all of my stories, though. I’ve learned a lot about how to write decent dialogue and believable characters by observing the way real people engage with each other.

I also take inspiration and glean ideas from music. In the early stages of developing a new story
idea, I start to compile a playlist. Sometimes the songs I add to it are tied to specific scenes that pop into my head or are driven by plot points. In other cases, the vibe of a song or its melody is what connects it to the story for me. With Death Checked Out, my story playlist includes the songs “Die Alone” and “Far Away” by Ingrid Michaelson as well as “I Know Places” and “Out of the Woods” by Taylor Swift and “Head Above Water” by Avril Lavigne. If you read the book, I’ll let you try to parse out what songs are tied to specific moments and what songs have more to do with the over feel of the book.

I usually put together my story playlists before I start the drafting process, and I add to them and remove songs as I go. I have these playlists on constantly—not while I’m writing, but pretty much any other time of day. This is one of my favorite ways to stay connected to my story—mulling over ideas and scenes—even when I’m not actively working. Hearing music and lyrics that call me back to what I’m creating makes me all the more excited to get to work on my projects.

I want to say a quick word about settings, too, because to me they are instrumental in crafting a cozy mystery that keeps readers coming back for me.

My settings—at least to this point—are inspired by places I’ve either lived or visited. In my experience, I can make a place seem that much more vivid and real if I can draw on my own experiences to bring it to life.

Larkspur, the small lakeside community where the events of Death Checked Out take place, is based loosely on a small, unincorporated town in northern Wisconsin. Growing up, my extended family would gather at a resort of log cabins where we’d spend a week each summer. This place holds some of my most cherished memories of family and togetherness. We still laugh about our time spent on that lake to this day.

When I set out to write a cozy mystery, it was after I had returned from a visit to the Wisconsin Northwoods as an adult. There, I came across a log cabin on a cove in a lake, not far from where I had spent summers as a kid. I knew in an instant it would be the setting for my mystery.

I took the vision of that cabin and my love for the town where we used to vacation and built up my cozy mystery world around it. I had to embellish a bit, to be sure, but the bones of Larkspur were all there! I tried to infuse my fictional setting with my real, sensory memories as much as possible, and as a result, I hope Larkspur rings true for cozy mystery readers.

I’d love to hear what you look for in cozy mystery characters and settings. Feel free to share with me in the comments below. And if you get a chance to read Death Checked Out, I hope you enjoy your visit to Larkspur!

About Leah Dobrinska

Leah Dobrinska is the author of the Larkspur Library Mysteries, a cozy mystery series set in the Wisconsin Northwoods, and the Mapleton novels, a series of standalone small town romances. She earned her degree in English Literature from UW-Madison and has since worked as a freelance writer, editor, and content marketer. As a kid, she hoped to grow up to be either Nancy Drew or Elizabeth Bennet. Now, she fulfills that dream by writing mysteries and love stories. Death Checked Out is her debut cozy mystery.

A sucker for a good sentence, a happy ending, and the smell of books—both old and new—Leah lives out her very own happily ever after in a small Wisconsin town with her husband and their gaggle of kids. When she’s not writing, handing out snacks, or visiting local parks, Leah enjoys reading and running. Find out more about Leah, join her newsletter community, and connect with her through her website, leahdobrinska.com.

Author Links

Website: https://leahdobrinska.com/

Newsletter: https://leahdobrinska.com/newsletter

Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/3zB9eeg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatleahwrote

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatleahwrote/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@whatleahwrote

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/leah-dobrinska

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/leahdobrinska

Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N