Hi. I’m Heather.
I write mysteries.
Cleopatra Almost Slept Here, Book 11 of the Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries Debuted August 15, 2026. Yippee! This is my favorite book. But, of course, I would say that! Like a proud mama, I love all my books as I give “birth” to them. As to writing this story with the Alvarez family in Egypt, it was huge fun. Anything that can go wrong does and nobody knows why! Until …
| THE ALVAREZ FAMILY IS ON THE VACATION OF A LIFETIME – IF IT DOESN’T KILL THEM FIRST! |
| When the entire Alvarez family – including private investigator Lee Alvarez and the rest of the members of the family’s P.I. business, Discretionary Inquiries, Inc. – is offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to volunteer on an archaeological dig, they’re airborne in hours. It’s billed as “a nice, relaxing family vacation”— all they have to do is identify Cleopatra’s mother! But they’ve barely landed in Cairo when someone tries to run their van off the road. |
| Author Haven hasn’t missed a trick in this modern-day interpretation of the classic mystery-at-a-dig genre.It’s got everything – pyramids, train rides, a Nile cruise, the requisite cobra, exotic history, mysterious messages, and, of course, there’s a haboob! (That’s “sandstorm” to us boobs.)Naturally, Haven adds her own delightfully off-center flourishes: imagine the witty banter of the statuesque P.I. and her hunky ex-SEAL husband dropped into Death on the Nile with a world-class chef, a computer genius, hovering in-laws, two cats, a toddler, and a hat maker. Dame Agatha meets Nick and Nora Charles, if you will. If Nora had a blueberry yogurt stain on her shirt. And a charming camel called KFC standing in for Asta. What is nearly unimaginable is Alvarez matriarch Lila loosening up enough to wear Birkenstocks – in public. Otherwise, the extended Alvarez family is up to their usual hijinks: brother Richard, the computer genius, has the answer before the question is asked; Tugger the cat inadvertently reveals the culprit(s); hunky husband Gurn needs rescuing; Lee goes rogue; and Tío the chef, as always, plies them with delicious food.As spoofy and goofy as the set-up is, the danger is real: two waiters have disappeared from the hotel boat housing the dig crew. The boat is peopled almost entirely by eccentric and suspicious characters who are hiding something – right up to and including Lee’s father-in-law! At the heart of the mystery, as always when ancient treasures are involved, is a solution as old as time: greed, running rampant in every imaginable form in a witty and refreshing tale that would make even the Dame laugh out loud. |
Fans of PI stories, cozy mysteries, and women sleuths will lose their own heads over Lee Alvarez and her adorable (and vexing) family of investigators, including Tugger the cat! Lee’s sharp and funny like her fellow female protagonists Kinsey Millhone (Sue Grafton) and Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich), but she cleans up better – say, Nora to her dapper husband’s Nick. And the rest of the large, loving, interfering, and resourceful Alvarez family will delight lovers of Lisa Lutz’s family series, The Spellman Files.
A Wedding to Die For, Book 2 of The Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries is still under development by a major original programming production company (no names) for a series of television movies. However, my advice to anyone trying to do this is to start when you are very young. It’s been five years in the making with still no signs of going forward, backward or dying. But you know what? The thrill is still there. And I’m still in the game! It’s hard to say how these things go, but the fact that someone wants to turn my stories about the Alvarez family into movies for television makes me jump for joy.
Hotshot Shamus, book 4 of the Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries, won the second place Insipere Award for Best Clean Mystery 2023. Go Percy! Percy Cole is one of the first female detectives in New York City’s history, and a woman very comfortable in a man’s world. It was a joy getting back to this series. Percy’s my kinda gal. Sort of how I’d like to be if I had the nerve.
Lucky me. I get to travel the world in my mind and be all the characters in my books, including the cats! As Confucius once said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
While I love a funny mystery, I tend to read anything of interest to me, especially if it’s well-written. Most of the time, though, when I read a book, I like it to be on the lighter side of life. If I want to cry, I only have to step on a scale. l tend to write about what I consider to be some of the important things in life: the recently immigrated, one of America’s natural resources, the family unit, relationships, and the seeking of justice. They may be wrapped around a mystery and a laugh, but those subjects will always be there.
Or visit my blog below where I muse upon occasion.
Thanks,
Heather
A Mystery Writer’s Musings
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TACOS AND MURDER, MY FAVORITE KINDA EVENING
On Tuesday evening, May 28th, I’m going to be jawing about my books, their content, the writing of them, and what it’s like to be a mystery writer to a women’s book club, hosted by Mhaire (Mary) Fraser and Karen Lesyna. Thank you, ladies! Mary and I go back to our writing classes days, studying…
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Traveling is Not For Sissies
We are in Europe, Germany to be exact, on the first leg of our vacation. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Germans. They are a gregarious, charming lot. They are not my problem, travel is. I mean, I don’t like to complain, but getting from A to Zed ain’t what it used to be. First…
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The Wives of Bath Press
The Wives of Bath Press. That’s us. Trying to starting your own book publishing business? Step close. So far, the technical stuff is killing us. The ‘us’ is my writing buddy and biz partner, Baird Nuckolls, and me. Or is it I? Once we claw our way out of the basement of the Learning Curve, we’ll…
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The Books We Love Blurbathon Continues
Deadly Secrets by Jude Pittman Welcome to Indian Creek, Texas, where you’ll meet some amazing characters. Kelly McWinter, a retired cop who suffered a personal tragedy that caused him to quit the force. Kelly’s dog, Jake, a German Shepherd who has fought some battles of his own, and Cameron G. Belscher III, owner of…
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Ginger Simpson’s First Degree Innocent Carrie Lang’s sheltered life ends with a prison sentence for involvement in a bank robbery. Her arrest comes on the day she’s called in sick and stayed inside, so she can’t explain how an eye-witness describes her in great detail, down to the make and model of…
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Books We Love Blurbathon Continues!
Her Proper Scoundrel by A.M. Westerling A disgraced duchess, a sea captain with a secret and an impossible love. Or is it? Buy this Regency set romance at:http://www.amazon.com/Her-Proper-Scoundrel-ebook/dp/B008MEV1BS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1361385628&sr=1-1&keywords=a.m.westerling http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/247280 Find all of her books at www.bookswelove.net Rita Karnopp’s blurb will appear on February 24. Please come by and check it out! 🙂
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Books We Love Blurbathon Continues with Roseanne Dowell’s Ring Around the Rosy!!
After writing her first big byline about a murder, journalist, Susan Weston is plagued with phone calls from the killer. Available from Amazon at: http://amzn.to/PjLvDp A.M. Westerling’s blurb will appear on Feb. 22nd. Come back and check it out.
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BWL BLURBATHON CONTINUES!
CURSE OF THE LOST ISLE, Medieval Fantasy Romance series, by Vijaya Schartz http://www.amazon.com/author/vijayaschartz From history shrouded in myths, emerges a family of immortal Celtic Ladies, who roam the medieval world in search of salvation from a curse. For centuries, imbued with hereditary gifts, they hide their deadly secret… but if the Church ever suspects what…
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Books We Love Blurbathon Continues
The Dark Series (The Color of Seven and The Color of Dusk) by Gail Roughton A Books We Love Special Edition – Two Complete Novels “Whut I knows, son, is dat dis world, it be ringed with worlds on worlds….” Deep in the woods that slide off into Stone Creek Swamp, teenage drug dealers retrieve…
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BOOKS WE LOVE BLURBATHON CONTINUES
Welcome our wonderful Pat Dale!! Magic of the Chimes What’s a gal to do? Cassie Sizemore is a thirty-four year old divorcee with a pair of teen/’tween kids and a burning need for male companionship. Her philandering husband dumped her for a teenager, leaving her with a nice house and not much else. In her…
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BOOKS WE LOVE BLURBATHON CONTINUES
Welcome Jane Toombs One decent man, an attractive young woman, and a teen-aged boy obsessed with a legendary bad man–all caught in the crossfire of the West’s bloodiest range war. After Billy the Kid and Mark Halloran rescue what’s left of the Nesbitt family from an Apache attack in the New Mexico Territory, the fate…
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BWL BLURBATHON CONTINUES WITH…ME!
Persephone Cole, A Vintage Holiday Mystery Series by Heather Haven It’s 1942 and Persephone ‘Percy’ Cole is bucking the odds and pounding the pavement of Manhattan as one of its first female private detectives. Joining the ranks of other gumshoes such as Sam Spade, Lew Archer, and Phillip Marlow, this five-foot eleven, full-figured gal has…