Lauren Carr-Blast from the Past

Lauren is such a great writer that I had to have her on my blog again when she started her blog tour for her new release; Blast from The Past.
Here she tells us about some of her favorite things from this latest novel in the Mac Faraday Mysteries.

Do you have a Favorite Character in Blast from the Past & Why?

For all of the Mac Faraday Mysteries, readers have loved Gnarly, Mac’s German Shepherd. Gnarly was dishonorably discharged from the United States Army. Let’s just say, he has issues. He is incredibly intelligent and has a mind of his own. He’s also a hopeless kleptomaniac.

However, while writing Blast from the Past, Archie Monday jumped out at me to become my favorite character in this book. In the previous books in the series, I purposely gave Archie a hint (only a hint) of mystery because I knew there was a secret to her past that would be revealed. This is the book where her secret comes out.

Readers discover that Archie Monday witnessed a horrible murder while she was a graduate student at the University of Maryland. In the prologue, readers learn that Kendra Douglas (whose name is changed to Archie Monday) was a hopeless romantic, who fantasized about the Mickey Forsythe, the fictional detective created by Robin Spencer, Mac Faraday’s birth mother. She had become friends with Robin Spencer while working as her teaching assistant when the famous author taught a special course at the university.

In a blast, Kendra’s life changes. She witnesses the brutal murder of a university professor. Shivering in the bushes, she thinks, “What would Mickey Forsythe do?”

Ten years later, Kendra Douglas is now the sophisticated, lovely Archie Monday, who has been placed by the Witness Protection Program to work as the late Robin Spencer’s assistant. When two paid assassins try to ambush her, Archie takes them out single-handedly with her pink handgun.

One of my favorite scenes in Blast from the Past (besides the scene where Archie takes down the gunmen with her pink handgun) is where she explains to Mac Faraday the transformation that she had gone through since that night that she witnessed mobster Tommy Cruze killing a professor who he had thought was sleeping with his wife:

Archie stood up. “I’m not locking myself in this mansion and closing the blinds and never leaving again. If I do, then he wins. We’re not going to let them scare us out of living our lives.” She pointed at the shepherd on the bed. “I’m taking Gnarly to see Misty tomorrow, and then we’re going to lunch at the Spencer Inn.”

Yet, while Archie is capable of taking care of herself, she is still a soft feminine woman with a very gentle side. After the attempted hit on her life, she breaks down when she is forced to reveal her secret to Mac. She loves gardening, fine wine, gourmet food, and the color of rose. (Police chief David O’Callaghan calls it pink, which infuriates her.) She wears designer suits and expensive perfume, and insists on taking Gnarly to only the hottest dog groomer in town. She enjoys the finer things in life that her mentor Robin Spencer had introduced to her.

Simply, Archie Monday is who I want to be when I grow up.

Thank you Lauren for your time and let me just say this...for me, the best line in the book was: “a girl who prefers guns to diamonds.” Because it shows us just what us girls can do.

We Rock!

So there you have it. Lauren Carr's newest novel will intrigue you and make you fall in love with the good guy. Be sure to pick up your copy today.