A Book Twenty-Two Years in the Making

              How does a writer put away a manuscript for twenty-two years only to find it again and finish the story?  It’s a mystery fit for August Summerfield, the fictional detective in Allen Boyer’s newest release, Morning Mist and Murder.  It’s also the story behind his latest novel’s journey from idea to story.

            “Twenty-two years is a long time,” Boyer laughs.  “I got married, became a father, and became a published author.  The idea of writing a mystery in Mount Gretna was something I thought about long before any of those events.”

            While Mount Gretna is the setting for Boyer’s story, it’s also a real place in Southcentral Pennsylvania.  Mount Gretna was established in the 1890s.  In the early 1900s it was a vacation retreat for wealthy families from New York.  Toward the latter half of the century, it became a small community that featured some year-round residents and some summer renters.  Traditionally, the community celebrates academia every summer with lectures, art shows, musical concerts and stage plays that are open to the public.

            “Mount Gretna is such a serene place,” Boyer explained.  “I just thought it would be interesting to drop a murder mystery into that tranquil setting.”

            He began work on the idea for a murder mystery in Mount Gretna back in 1997.  The original idea was a straight-forward detective fiction during the 1960s.  The story featured an alcoholic detective investigating a murder with racial overtones.

            “At the time I was reading a lot of James Lee Burke,” Boyer explained.  “I think his writing style had influenced my writing back then.”

            However, Boyer eventually reached a point in the story when he became stuck.

            “There was this one plot point that I kept thinking about,” Boyer recalled.  “Eventually, I just put the manuscript away and moved on to another story.  It was my only experience with writer’s block.  So, during the Covid lockdown, I found this manuscript and started playing around with some ideas.”

Was it hard to pick up with writing a story after twenty-two years?

  “At first, it was a bit nerve racking,” Boyer confessed.  “It was hard to think about where I wanted to go and what main character I wanted to go there with.  While thinking about these ideas, I began to worry about whether I’d run into the same writer’s block again.”

            Fortunately, that didn’t’ happen.  The result of his efforts is Morning Mist and Murder, his newest novel.  Set in the 1960s, it follows a retired Secret Service agent named August Summerfield who is asked by the mayor of Mount Gretna to help the local sheriff with an investigation into a dead body that turns up at the Gretna lake.  The challenge, according to Boyer, was creating a character that was different from the one featured in the first draft from twenty-two years ago.

            “I wanted to create a more light-hearted main character then in the first draft,” Boyer said.  “In the story, August has come to Mount Gretna to retire and be himself.  He enjoys bird watching.  He likes chewing tobacco but has bad aim when trying to connect with his spittoon.  At this point in his life, he also says what he thinks and isn’t too concerned with how it affects others.”

            However, retirement isn’t what brings August to Mount Gretna.

“I also wanted to make him a vulnerable character,” Boyer stated.  “He lost his sister to cancer and she lived in Mount Gretna.  When he moves to Mount Gretna it’s to buy a home near his niece, Grace, who has moved into her mother’s house.  His relationship with his niece gives August another side to his character for readers to experience.”

So why set the story in 1960s America?

“I was a kid growing up during this decade,” Boyer said.  “Information wasn’t as readily available back then.  You couldn’t click a phone’s screen to find an answer.  That was one factor for a mystery.  The other thing about that period was that President Dwight Eisenhower retired and was living in Gettysburg, which is about an hour away from Mount Gretna.  I wanted to explore August’s ties to President Eisenhower.  In the second book, I’d like to explore August’s relationship with Eisenhower even more.”

Morning Mist and Murder is the first book with August Summerfield as the main character.  Boyer already writes two other cozy mystery series for his publisher, Cozy Cat Press.  If this book is successful, would he be ready to writer another story featuring August?

“I have another book I’m working on for another series right now,” Boyer stated.  “In my head, I do have another mystery for August to investigate with his niece.  If readers enjoy his story, there would be another story that I’d love to tell.”

Morning Mist and Murder is now on sale.