Savannah authors pen novels that offer something for everyone this summer

The series

Lois had already found success with her first mystery, Liquid Lies, when she launched an award-winning cozy mystery series that mixes mystery, suspense and humor. As she described them to the paper, the books are light, quick escapes: a mystery, a cast of quirky characters and a beautiful Savannah backdrop.

The recognition came quickly. Dying for Dinner Rolls won a 2014 Readers’ Choice award and was nominated for 2014 Georgia Author of the Year, and Murderous Muffins was in the running for the same honor in 2015. Both books, like Liquid Lies before them, climbed into the Amazon Kindle top 100. More entries were already on the way: Homicide by Hamlet, Killing with Kings and Puzzled by Purple.

A writer’s road

Lois’s path to fiction wasn’t a straight line. She worked her way through college to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees, then wrote for magazines and newspapers and developed technical training programs for a Fortune 500 company. Along the way she also waited tables, taught as a college adjunct, led aerobics classes and cheered professionally for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls.

Characters and chaos

Readers hoping to spot real people in her books will be disappointed. Lois told the paper that each of her characters is a blend of dozens of people, with perhaps the smallest trace of herself.

“My characters lead fast-paced, action-filled lives.”

What readers can count on is momentum. In Dying for Dinner Rolls alone, Cat ends up at gunpoint, trapped in a burning dumpster, chased out of a grocery store, caught posing as a police officer and nearly run down by an out-of-control car. However dangerous things get, Lois promises a happy ending, with the culprit caught.

Murderous Muffins centers on Bezu, a Southern belle whose troubles are anything but genteel. Buried in debt, she quietly takes in lodgers she isn’t supposed to have: a kind-hearted stripper and her bodybuilder boyfriend, a man learning English by singing along to pop songs, and a mysterious stranger with striking blue-green eyes and a secret. When one of them dies and her muffins look like the murder weapon, Bezu and fellow Chubby Chicks Club member Cat have to find the real killer before Bezu lands in jail, or worse.

Always learning

Lois keeps sharpening her craft through local writing groups and national organizations including Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She told the paper she’s always taking classes; most recently, she completed a 14-week Citizen’s Police Academy course.

Savannah, her muse

After more than 3 decades in Savannah, Lois says she’s in love with the city’s history and beauty, and the ideas keep coming, often faster than she has time to develop them. Her secret for keeping up? Multitasking and organization, plus flexibility and a sense of humor when plans go sideways. With four children, she said, she has learned to laugh a lot.