Blog Archives
Unique Crimes
Better Off Dead follows an amateur sleuth who gets drawn into a case that is initially ruled an accidental swimming death, but a darker theory soon surfaces. Trisha notices social awkwardness and emotional cracks as much as clues. Why was that perspective important?
Trisha is just an ordinary person. She’s not a high-flying private investigator wearing designer clothes and shoes or a whip-smart police detective. Her mother dies while she’s in high school, and her father leaves, so she has to bring up her younger sister. Trisha’s dreams of further education go down the drain when her father walks out the door. But she is determined to keep her sister out of the “system” and focused on college. Although her intellectual education stops early, her natural street smarts become highly developed. She sees what most people miss. She’s innately intuitive, and she uses that ability to ask questions that nobody else wants to. With that instinctive capacity, coupled with her pushiness, she can solve some unique crimes.
The Barlow brothers have a deeply uneasy dynamic. Were you interested in rivalry, resentment, or something subtler?
The Barlow brothers grew up and worked in exclusive, rich Marin County, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. They were always competitive. Both liked money and what it could buy them. But Andy, the dead brother, lived in a fantasy world, which translated into living beyond his means. His unrealistic goals pushed him to gamble and put his shared financial advising business with his brother, his marriage, and his athletic targets at high risk. And the risks eventually killed him. Was the remaining brother overwhelmed with grief? It certainly doesn’t seem so.
Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Trisha and the direction of the next book?
Trisha is dusting off the day’s work at the San Francisco Giants ballpark with a walk at San Quentin Beach, right around a point of land from the infamous prison. She notices a white object floating at the tideline. As she approaches, the strange ball-like object comes into focus. It’s a skull. Within the following month, more body parts wash ashore at different beaches in Marin County: the skeletal hands of a child and the skeletal feet of an adult. What does the local paper say about the remains: not much. But Trisha is riveted when she learns that all three body parts are from different people and all were female.
The working title for book five is Dead and Gone.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky | Website | Amazon
Trisha digs into the man’s history and finds fractured relationships in his family, his business and his marriage. There’s clearly more than one person who had reason to seek a deadly revenge, but would they go as far as murder?
Better Off Dead
Better Off Dead drops us straight into the foggy, moneyed world of Marin County and follows Trisha Carson, an amateur sleuth with sharp instincts and a stubborn streak, as she tries to untangle the suspicious death of Andrew Barlow. What looks like a tragic open water swimming accident begins to feel like something darker, especially once Andrew’s son Harrison insists his uncle murdered his father. From there the book expands into a layered mystery involving family secrets, financial ruin, and a Shakespeare-inspired sense of emotional chaos. It’s a contemporary mystery, but it leans into the psychological side of the genre, especially as parallels to Hamlet surface in clever ways.
What struck me first was the tone of the book. Trisha’s voice feels grounded and natural. She’s observant in a way that made me feel like I was riding shotgun with her, listening to her mutter under her breath about everything from funeral etiquette to suspicious boat owners. The writing is clean and steady. When it settles into a moment, it stays just long enough to let me feel the tension before moving on. Carroll lets the humor breathe, too. Trisha gets itchy rashes at funerals, complains about open water temperatures, and has a talent for stumbling into awkward situations. Those small quirks soften the edges of a story built around death and betrayal, and they made the darker turns hit harder.
I liked how the mystery is shaped by relationships instead of just clues. Harrison’s shifting behavior, the uneasy dynamic between the Barlow brothers, and Justine’s brittle elegance give the story texture. I found myself leaning in whenever Trisha pushed past her own nerves to ask the uncomfortable questions. Some scenes felt almost cinematic to me, like peeking through the Barlow family’s glass walls at night and catching the flicker of something you’re not meant to see. The Shakespeare thread could have felt gimmicky, but instead it adds a quiet echo beneath the plot. Not overwhelming. Just a subtle reminder that families have been falling apart in dramatic fashion for centuries.
If you enjoy contemporary mysteries with an approachable narrator, tangled family dynamics, and a backdrop of Northern California that feels lived in rather than postcard pretty, this one will hit the mark. Fans of character-driven mysteries or anyone who likes their crime fiction with emotional undercurrents will especially appreciate Better Off Dead.
Pages: 317 | ASIN : B0DVZQW36T
LITERARY TITAN 