Dumpster Dying: A Hazardous Hoarder Mystery by Michelle Bennington

Thanks for sharing!

Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Dumpster Dying: A Hazardous Hoarder Mystery by Michelle Bennington. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

Dumpster Dying: A Hazardous Hoarder Mystery

by Michelle Bennington

Dumpster Dying: A Hazardous Hoarder Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Kentucky
Independently Published (September 7, 2022)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 270 pages

Birdie Harper is a widowed hoarder who lives with her husband’s ghost. The only thing she enjoys more than a good yard sale is a good dumpster dive. When she finds her latest treasure—a ceramic angel— she knows just who to bring it to.

Jenna Lawson is a cashier at the Blue Market convenience store where Birdie often shops. The two women have formed a strong bond to assuage the losses in their lives, and Birdie thinks of Jenna like the daughter she lost long ago. So, when Jenna goes missing, Birdie is determined to find out what happened to her.

As she works to unravel the mystery, a man at church, Neville Miller, shows interest in Birdie, leading her to wonder if the lonely days are finally coming to an end. But her ghostly husband, Walter, sure isn’t going to like it.

Birdie is on a hunt that may claim the ultimate price—her own life.

Author Guest Post: A Delicate Balance: Where Cozy Meets Southern Gothic

I’ve noticed that people like playing with the boundaries of the cozy genre: paranormal, urban settings, fantasy, and so on. There’s no end to authors’ imaginations when it comes to twisting and mixing their favorite genres. That’s why I wanted to write a cozy with a hint of the Southern Gothic. I thought it would be a fun experiment to see if I could take these two seemingly contradictory genres and blend them cohesively.

Perhaps we should start with a definition of what Southern Gothic is. One of the primary characteristics of Southern Gothic is the characters’ state of mind. Characters might have irrational, horrific, and transgressive thoughts, desires, and impulses, a dark sense of humor, or an angst-ridden sense of alienation. (Hello, Edgar Allan Poe). There is often, also, a juxtapositon of the romanticized south to its historical realities and how that history shapes the characters and culture in the story. There’s a marked Freudian return of the repressed so that the region’s historical realities take concrete forms in the shape of ghosts or other supernatural or disturbing elements, horrific or frightening settings, or grotesque characters. Very often the setting itself becomes a character. More modern writers like Faulkner took the Southern Gothic genre to a whole new level by using language (The Sound and the Fury) to create a feeling of alienation or disturbance in the reader.

That’s some pretty deep, complex, and heavy stuff, for sure. Right about now, you may be thinking Southern Gothic completely contradicts cozy. Well, it could, if not handled properly. I’m hoping I was able to strike a delicate balance where I lightened up the Southern Gothic elements, while keeping them in tact but while maintaining the cozier aspects of the story.

How does Dumpster Dying, a story about a hoarder who lives with her husband’s ghost and solves mysteries, fit both of these genres?

First, the cozy aspects are easier to explain: Birdie Harper comes from a small, tight-knit community where everyone seems to know each other. She enjoys a “cozy” or charming pasttime (yard sales, puzzles, and game shows) and good food (hey, it is the south). She is also an amateur sleuth. There is no foul language or sex on the page and very little violence. So far, so good for the cozy.

Now for the Southern Gothic elements. These were more difficult to achieve, but let’s see how the story fits.

So, Dumpster Dying is set in the south (Kentucky), though I will admit that I could’ve made her surroundings a little creepier to really grab that Southern Gothic vibe. I do plan, though, to increase the creepy factor of the setting in subsequent books.

However, because Birdie’s a hoarder, I think this behavior creates an “irrational” or somewhat disturbing environment for her. There are no clear paths in her house. She has to climb over things. It’s uncomfortable to live in such an environment with clutter in every corner. It causes fights with her family.

Further, when we look at the psychology behind hoarding, the Southern Gothic elements become more apparent. Hoarding behavior is often triggered by trauma, abuse, or familial dysfunction and Birdie has certainly experienced trauma with the loss of her daughter. Now, initially, I had considered ramping up the trauma by adding an abusive past, but decided against that since I wanted to maintain the cozy atmosphere. But I digress. For people who turn to hoarding, without proper coping mechanisms in place, without therapy, they can experience disturbed, disordered, irrational thinking patterns, and once their hoard becomes unmanageable it can completely alienate and isolate the hoarder from healthy friendships and relationships, and destroy them financially, effectively destroying their whole life.

In addition, when confronted with their condition or when faced with a clean up of their space, the hoarder often becomes more erratic, defensive, angry, upset or flies into tantrums, rages, and breakdowns. So, in Dumpster Dying when someone threatens to mess with Birdie’s treasures, we get a glimpse of her dark side, defensiveness, and irrational thinking. Such behavior, I believe, would be enough to place Birdie in Southern Gothic characterization, albeit in a “cozy,” less threatening way.

Then, of course, we have the ghost of her late husband. Supernatural elements abound in Southern Gothic stories, but they have a complex psychological foundation for their presence. Based on the earlier definition of Southern Gothic presented, we can see that Walter’s ghost is a physical manifestation of their repressed shared trauma, their marital difficulties, and their love. His presence gives her an opportunity to play out that repression and either confront her issues or run from them.

Finally, there’s the matter of the crime presented in this novel. Most cozies have murders. So, that’s not very unusual. But I’ve added another crime that is not typical to cozies. I don’t want to say anything here for fear of spoiling the plot, though I want to be clear: the crime does NOT involve children or animals! Nor is it deeply disturbing or traumatic. Nevertheless, it is a crime that some might find unsettling enough to inch into Southern Gothic territory. Yet, I believe I’ve managed to handle the crime with a light touch, creating quite a delicate balance between cozy and Southern Gothic. But I suppose the reader will need to decide if I’ve managed it.

Whether I was successful in combining cozy and Southern Gothic or not, I had a great deal of fun writing this story. Birdie has managed to charm most of the people she meets and I loved spending time with her and her sister, Oda Dean. I had one editor say: “I’ve never met a character so flawed that I’ve liked so much.” High praise, indeed.

So, I hope you’ll stop by Miltonville, Kentucky and sit a spell with Birdie, Oda Dean, and Walter as they try to solve the latest mystery in their small town and don’t forget to follow me at www.michellebennington.com so you can stay up-to-date on the next release and my other series or just to say “Hi!”

About Michelle Bennington

Born and raised in the beautiful Bluegrass state of Kentucky, Michelle Bennington developed a passion for books early on that has progressed into a mild hoarding situation and an ever-growing to-read pile. She delights in spinning mysteries and histories. Find out more on her website: www.michellebennington.com

Author Links

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

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelle.bennington.author/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22406377.Michelle_Bennington

Webpage: www.michellebennington.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichelleAuthor/with_replies

Purchase Link – Amazon