by Francine Paino, a.k.a. F. Della Notte

Readers, what’s your pleasure? Do you prefer romance, adventure, family sagas, historical fiction, or fantasy? The list goes on and on, but in most cases, the mystery of not knowing what will happen is a strong underlying driver of any story.  

Revelations in any genre can be uplifting or not. It may be frightening, too, but the power of the unknown draws us. In the words of Albert Einstein, in his essay The World as I see it, “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”  Read the full quote of Einstein’s essay, The World as I See It. https://history.aip.org/exhibits/einstein/essay_text.htm#:~:text=%22The%20most%20bbeautiful%20experience%20we,and%20his%20eyes%20are%20dimmed. 

Even simple, everyday decisions contain elements of the unknown.  Before we contemplate the mysteries of the universe, or at least of the day, we wonder what should we eat for breakfast?  What outfits should we wear?  And even those close-in unknowns can sometimes create a sense of wonder when we decide.  A new recipe that tastes surprisingly good. An outfit that is more flattering than expected. We can wonder if something out of the ordinary will happen to us today? Will we meet someone new? What new experiences will we encounter? Will we learn anything new and valuable before we lay our heads down at the end of this day? 

Each of us has our own never-ending list of conscious and unconscious questions. And our wonderment is not limited to the higher questions of life. A little gossip goes a long way. We often enjoy the delicious anticipation of learning the answers to other people’s secrets. That’s why exposés of celebrity lives are so popular. And that’s the stuff novels are made of. 

Bestselling author Nikki Erlick takes a unique approach to creating suspense in her book, The Measure, which is not a mystery.   She presents the lives of eight individuals in a world of 7.9 billion people. Their days begin like any other, except that all over the world, everyone over the age of twenty-two wakes one morning to find a mysterious, little wooden box at their front doors, addressed and waiting for them whether they live in a tent, an apartment, or a house.  Inside these boxes are strings of varied lengths, representing the time left for each recipient to live.  The first response is, is this a joke?  Once it’s established that it’s not some universal joke, shock and disbelief come. And then the questions. Where did these boxes come from? Who sent them?

When it’s learned that the strings accurately correspond to the length of life, how many will choose not to look inside the boxes?   How do those who chose to look and find short strings cope with impending death? What impact does this knowledge have on societies worldwide, and specifically on these eight lives? 

The publisher’s synopsis calls The Measure an “ambitious and invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny.” Such tales can be found in many other books and in more depth. It wasn’t the philosophical questions these characters faced that held me. It was the enigmatic circumstances created by Ms. Erlick.  

If you haven’t read the book, by now you’ve developed your own questions about where the boxes came from, what it all meant, and the mystery of the denouement.  The questions of life are intriguing and found everywhere in fiction, regardless of genre. I love to read stories that may not be mysteries in the traditional sense ,because there will always be elements of the unknown and questions to be answered.   Will you read it? That’s the new unknown for me.

In my Housekeeper Mystery Series, the characters must face all the usual questions and problems of life, including health issues and the loss of friends and family. Still, they must find answers to the who, what, where, when, how of criminal situations. Any the why – which means delving into the darker side of human nature. 

In book one of the Housekeeper Mystery Series, I’m Going to Kill that Cat, protagonists Father Melvyn and Mrs. B. are drawn into solving the murder of a parishioner and finding her missing cat. Their discoveries threaten to unleash a major scandal for the parish, and they find their own lives on the line.

In book two, Catwalk Dead, Murder in the Rue de L’Histoire Theatre, Father Melvyn and Mrs. B. must use all their powers of logical deduction to unravel the case and prove it’s not the Macbeth theater curse at work before anyone else dies and her son’s ballet company is destroyed. 

  The Church Murders and the Cat’s Prey is book three. It begins on Easter Sunday when a sinister and deadly plot to destroy Austin’s religious communities begins with Father Melvyn being shot as he celebrates Mass.  Panic grips the city. Will evil prevail, and will Mrs. B. and Father Melvyn help find the answers? Will they survive?