Publisher: Beacon Publishing Group (January 21, 2022)
Categories: Mystery Thriller, Detective/Police Procedural
Tour Dates April and May, 2022
ISBN: 978-1949472400
Available in Print and ebook, 388 pages
Description Song Girl by Keith Hirshland
Detective Marc Allen is ready to leave the Raleigh, North Carolina, Police Department. Two murders that happened on his watch have apparently been solved thanks to a suicide note confession written by a distraught father. But Allen isn’t buying it. He’s convinced that the man’s adopted daughter, Teri Hickox, is the one responsible for the heinous crimes. With his personal life a muddle and his professional career unsettled he decides the best thing for him is a change of scenery.
The detective, now in Colorado Springs, is working new cases and making new friends. One of those friends is Hannah Hunt who, after suffering a freak accident, finds herself only able to speak in song titles. Another is a mysterious drifter who lives out of an old Dodge van and goes by “the champ”. But as Allen builds a new future, events unfold showing him that he can’t escape his past.
Song Girl is…
Part sequel to The Flower Girl Murder
Part stand-alone mystery
All entertaining
Praise for Song Girl by Keith Hirshland
Review Song Girl by Keith Hirshland
Reading the summary for this book, you may think it sounds a little wacky. A mystery about a girl who can only speak in song titles? Huh? But rest assured, 'Song Girl: A Mystery in Two Verses,' takes what might seem like a strange premise and makes art out of it.
This is the story of a detective, Marc Allen, who
leaves Raleigh, North Carolina after a case that he was working on for his old
department is closed in a way that he feels was too hasty.
Starting over at a different department in Colorado
Springs, Allen gets to know his neighbors, particularly a woman named Tracey
who introduces him to a brother and sister named Rampart and Hannah. Rampart,
named for the line in 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' was only a small child when
his parents agreed to take in Hannah after her parents were killed in a car
accident.
Being raised as brother and sister, the two became
close, even while Rampart began traveling the country as a professional boxing
champion. Hannah, herself an ice skater, eventually suffers a strange accident
on the rink which leaves her with only the ability to communicate in song
titles.
Meanwhile, Allen begins looking into other cases, most
notably the case of a local homeless man who overdosed in a way that strikes
the coroner as suspicious. Allen begins to wonder if the man was murdered, and
if this case might just have something to do with the case that made him leave
Raleigh.
A varied story with enough twists and turns to make
for a rollicking mystery, 'Song Girl' is just the type of book to curl up with
on a cold evening. Keith Hirshland has created something really special here--
a book that leaves you unable to stop thinking about it for a long time after
finishing!
Interview With Keith Hirshland
Suzie: Which character in ‘Song Girl’ is your favorite?
Keith: Hi Suzie. First let me say thank you for allowing me to spend some time with you and your readers. I appreciate the opportunity. Now on to your questions.
Am I allowed to say Lettie the Pyredoodle puppy? Just kidding of course but this is a very difficult question. I like all my characters, even Teri who I love to hate. But if I had to pick one, right this second, I think it would be Song Girl herself, Hannah Hunt. One because that character was the impetus for the book in the first place. I wanted to see if I could write an entire mystery around a character who could only speak in song lyrics. Obviously that idea had to take on a few transformations. The second reason is I love the way she ultimately deals with everything life throws at her including the anomaly that begets the book’s title.
Suzie: How long did it take you to complete ‘Song Girl’?
Keith: I have found that it takes me a little more than a year to write one of my mysteries from start to finish. It starts with the idea and the concept and finishes with the sign off on the final edit. My first book, Cover Me Boys, I’m Going In (Tales of the Tube from a Broadcast Brat) was about five years in the making mostly because I was still working in the TV industry full time. But the mysteries, including Song Girl, all have taken twelve to fourteen months.
Suzie: Where did you get the inspiration for your cover?
Keith: Isn’t it a beauty? I, actually, can’t take any credit for the cover. The folks at Beacon Publishing Group did all the work on that. My original idea had a background featuring Pikes Peak here in Colorado Springs and the words “Song Girl” written diagonally across the cover. The “r” in Girl was a gun. Thankfully the creative people at Beacon went in a different direction.
Suzie: Using the title, ‘Song Girl’ as an acrostic, describe your work or yourself.
Sceptical
Observant
Nimble
Genuine
Grateful
Inquisitive
Reliable
Loquacious
How did I do?
Suzie: You did great!
Suzie: You are covering a golf tournament where something goes terribly wrong. Tell us about it. (This can be fact or fiction)
Keith: Gosh I am afraid this happened more times than I’d like to admit. I’ll give you one that is particularly memorable.
We were in the middle of a telecast and the power went out in the announcer booth. Our set up featured two announcers in a trailer looking at monitors in front of them on which they could see the action that was being transmitted across America. They were wearing headsets so they could hear me, themselves, and the other announcers on the show. Suddenly the power to the monitors went out so they were, in effect, broadcasting blind. When it happened the first thing I did was go to a commercial which gave our technicians 2 and a half minutes to figure out what the problem was and fix it. When they couldn’t we came back from break and I described the action on the screen to them in their headsets and they basically repeated what I was saying to make it seem like they could actually see it too. I would say something like, “Tiger Woods is on the green, crouching behind his ball, reading the line of the putt. Looks like it breaks a little from his right to left. He rises and circles the green to get a look from the other side of the hole. He heads back to his ball, readjusts the position and settles in to strike the putt. One look at the hole, then another, and a third. Now he’s ready. He brings the putter back and strikes the ball. It’s on a good line and it’s in! Birdie for Tiger Woods. Now let’s go back a hole for the second shot of Jason Day.”
The announcer, Brian Anderson, knew people could see what was happening on the screen, simply said something like, “At 11, Tiger looking over an eight footer for birdie. He’s giving it all of his attention but he’s one of the best in the world at these right to left putts. It’s on the way and he’s made it. Tiger to within one of the lead.”
Thankfully it was only a few minutes before we got power to the monitors and could resume business as usual.
Suzie: What words do you use over and over that drive your editor crazy?
Keith: Hah, great question. I think I tend to use “that” a lot and it’s an easy one for my editor to point out and for me to eliminate. Even though it’s not a word the editors and I go back and forth a lot with regard to the use of the oxford comma. I am a fan but I’ve had editors who think differently.
Suzie: If you could be somebody else for a day who would you choose and why?Keith: For just one day? I’m a huge sports fan, baseball and the San Francisco Giants in particular, so I would choose to be Buster Posey before he retired. He was the Giants’ catcher and a certain future member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I would love to know, first hand, the feeling of being among the best in the world at a particular position and to not only stand in the batter box and face a 100 mile an hour fastball but be able to hit it over the fence 400 feet away. That would be cool.
Suzie: What do you do when you are not writing?
Keith: I guess first and foremost I spend a great deal of time thinking about writing. Whether it’s my current WIP or coming up with ideas for what’s next. I walk the dog (we have great trails and dog parks here in Colorado Springs), and most importantly I do whatever I can to support my wife and kids with regard to their lives and careers.
Suzie: What was your first job?
Keith: The first job I can remember was picking up the golf balls from the driving range at our local golf course. As kids my mom would drop me and my brothers off at the golf course in the morning every day during the summer. It was essentially our “camp”. We’d pick up the range in exchange for being able to play for free.
My first job in which I actually earned a real paycheck was working for National Car Rental at the Reno airport. We’d clean the rentals upon return, fill them up with gas, and get them ready for the next customer.
Suzie: What are you currently working on?
Keith: I am writing the sequel to Murphy Murphy and the Case of Serious Crisis. This time our intrepid detective has found himself embroiled in a case involving the fictious Commission on Cliches. My original plan was to make the Murphy Murphy series a trilogy with redundancies first, then cliches, and finally finish it up with Murphy Murphy somehow involved with the Pun Police. At the same time, I’m starting to think about another Detective Marc Allen book. (Mark Allen is the detective in Song Girl)
Suzie: Thanks so much for the interview and all the thought you put into answering my questions! I wish you the very best!
Awards and Recognition for Keith Hirshland
Book Talk Radio Club Book of the Year 2020 (Murphy Murphy and the Case of Serious Crisis)
Top Shelf Award First Place (mystery) for Murphy Murphy and the Case of Serious Crisis
New Apple Awards Solo Medalist True Crime Category (Big Flies)
Shelf Abound Award Winner Indie Book Competition (Big Flies)
About Keith Hirshland
Keith Hirshland is an Emmy Award–winning sports television producer with more than three decades of experience producing live and pre-recorded programs that aired on ESPN and ESPN2. Among the first forty people to be hired by the Golf Channel in 1994, Hirshland was in the middle of the action when that network debuted in 1995. He provided his talents for Golf Channel, as its live tournament producer, for two decades.
Cover Me Boys, I’m Going In: Tales of the Tube from a Broadcast Brat is a memoir about his experiences in the television industry. Published by Beacon Publishing Group, Cover Me Boys was recognized as the Book Talk Radio Club Memoir of the Year. Hirshland’s second book, and first work of fiction, Big Flies, was published in 2016 and is the recipient of the New Apple Awards “Solo Medalist” in the True Crime Category. Hirshland followed that success with his third book, The Flower Girl Murder. In 2020 Beacon Publishing Group released Murphy Murphy and the Case of Serious Crisis, Hirshland’s third mystery novel. It was a Top Shelf Magazine First Place award winner and was named the Book Talk Radio Club Book of the Year for 2020.
Song Girl Hirshland’s fifth book is the sequel to The Flower Girl Murder and was released in January of 2022. All five books are available at www.keithhirshland.com, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other bookstores.
Keith Hirshland lives in Colorado with his wife and their Pyredoodle Mac.
Website: https://www.keithhirshland.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/khhauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KeithHirshlandAuthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/khhauthor/?hl=en
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I'm so glad you enjoyed 'Song Girl' Suzie! Thanks for hosting Keith!
ReplyDeleteGreat cover
ReplyDelete