Introducing Alina Adams

Although some technical difficulties still have to be ironed out (dratted Typepad), it’s expected that sometime tomorrow, Alina Adams will take over the joint for the rest of the week, freeing me up to indulge in my obsessions, take care of pressing business, and rest an aching wrist.

Alina and I go way back. Put it this way: when we first met, I was a figure skating-mad, romance-reading college student and she had just published her first single title romance novel. Things are just a little different for both of us now. Alina’s turned her attention to writing a mystery series that began with last year’s MURDER ON ICE and continues with ON THIN ICE, forthcoming in October. Both books are set in the backstabbing, gossipy, murderous world of skating as seen through the eyes of Bex Levy, a young researcher for a major network that covers the skating world at all major international events, nationals, and worlds. For some reason, the sheer nastiness of that world surprises some folks, but not me–below the surface of the frilly costumes and the artistic movements is competitive drive, stage mothers from hell, and people who will stop at nothing to win. And controversy. Lots of it. Need I bring up the 2002 Olympic judging scandal? Not really, except to point out that Alina used the pairs-skating judge brouhaha as a jumping off point for MOI, only she killed off the offending judge and had poor Bex solve the murder in a week in order to get maximum ratings. As soon as she told me the setup, I was hooked. The Bex books are, for lack of a better term, “cozies with attitude”–an amateur sleuth series with a very satirical, slightly sarcastic voice. No wonder they work so well for me.

Once again, see you on the backblogs. And stay tuned next week for another special guestblogger.