Sue McGinty's appearance at SJ SinC Meeting

At 5 a.m. in the morning, or late in the afternoon when the sun is at ‘just the right angle’ for that certain glow conducive for writing, you will find Sue McGinty in her office or deck overlooking the ocean, writing her Bella Kowalski cozy mystery series. Sue left the corporate world of McGraw-Hill in LA and escaped 200 miles north to the Central Coast hamlet of Los Osos where she is now a writer. Not the Cabot Cove of "Murder She Wrote," but close.

Sue came to speak Saturday at San Joaquin Sisters in Crime and we loved having her. She was engaging and answered all the questions flung her way.

Her character Bella, a former nun turned sleuth, gets entangled in all sorts of situations—always having to do with a dead body discovered usually somewhere on the California Central Coast.

Asked where she gets her ideas, Sue mentioned standing on one of the cliffs on the coast, looking down and wondering, what if a body were found down there on the beach below? And so as any good mystery writer, she began the ‘what if’ questioning: what if the person had not just fallen but were pushed, or dumped, or? Then, after the where is decided, the other mystery questions follow: who, why, when, how of the murder.

Though most of Sue’s mysteries are set at the fictional small town of Los Lobos, it’s based on the real Los Osos, but she doesn’t limit where Bella can do her sleuthing (you may find her following the clues of a drug death to the doors of Detroit’s crime families). 

Sue has recently started working on another series, but whether Bella has any more adventures and sleuthing to do is still undecided. She might get herself mixed up in sussing out yet another murder.

Sue’s Books can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sue-McGinty/e/B001JS1XRQ

Book 1: "Murder in Los Lobos:" Introduces readers to former Detroit nun, Bella Kowalski, now a Central Coast obituary writer who can't help getting involved in murder investigations.

Book 2: "Murder at Cuyamaca Beach:" Bella volunteers for the homeless program at her church and people start dying on her.

Book 3: "Murder in Mariposa Bay:" Bella takes on the Mafia when they try to muscle in on a controversial Los Lobos public works project.

Book 4: "Murder in a Safe Haven:" On a quick trip to Detroit, after Bella witnesses a murder at the airport, she is stalked by a mysterious woman with a raven on her shoulder.

Sue’s website: http://suemcginty.com/

--reported by Cora Ramos