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Dead Wreckoning - Sylvia Dickey Smith
Dead Wreckoning
Sylvia Dickey Smith
ISBN: 9781603181389
L&L Dreamspell
Reviewed By Renee Washburn
Official Apex Reviews Rating:
Sidra Smart is looking to start over...fresh from divorcing her husband of thirty years, she inherits a detective agency from her late brother, Warren, and begins life anew as a private investigator. Over the course of her ensuing cases, she gets exposed to her fair share of danger – but nothing can prepare her for the daunting mystery soon to become the focus of her entire world...
When she agrees to help the diminutive, elderly Boo Murphy as a favor for a friend, what begins as a simple case of alleged murder evolves into a twisted, complex scheme of daring heists, shady characters leading double lives – and, on top of all else, a not-so-secret legacy of pirate smuggling. As Sida wends her way through the multi-layered mystery, she is forced to depend on her own wits, as well as the assistance of the unlikeliest of allies – her dead brother – as she strives to stay one step ahead of the nefarious characters behind the sinister plot – not to mention friends who aren’t quite as innocent they appear...
Calling Dead Wreckoning an action-packed suspense thriller is making a huge understatement. Sylvia Dickey Smith’s compelling tale of drama and intrigue pulls you in from the first few pages and keeps you spellbound as she weaves the tapestry of her tantalizing tale in masterful fashion. Her characters are full-blooded and three-dimensional, and she does an excellent job of preserving the mystery of the storyline, ensuring that you remain transfixed from one chapter to the next.
Moreover, Dead Wreckoning succeeds at pulling off the difficult feat of telling a story within a story, specifically by treating the reader to a little-known fact of history while still maintaining its mystery/suspense thriller edge. For readers who don’t know much about the prominent role that some women played in the piracy trade, Smith’s tale will come as an enlightening, edifying treat.
Taut and engaging, Dead Wreckoning takes its rightful place among the ranks of other truly outstanding contemporary mystery thrillers. Highly recommended.
Official Apex Reviews Interview: Sylvia Dickey Smith (Dead Wreckoning)
Apex Reviews: Thanks for joining us for this interview, Sylvia. We're looking forward to learning more about your book.
What inspired you to craft this compelling tale of drama and intrigue?
Sylvia Dickey Smith: Family stories! Aren’t they great? What would an author write about if it weren’t for such tales recounted down through the generations! I was in the midst of writing my second book, DEADLY SINS DEADLY SECRETS, when I chatted on the phone one day with my brother. Now my brother has lived in Orange, Texas all his life, over sixty years now, and has never had the desire to leave home—unlike his sister! Orange is one of those towns that has its own gravity. You either get out early or you don’t get out at all. I left shortly after high school. But brother’s roots grow down through that area, straight to the core of the earth. Anyway, as we chatted, he mentioned a tale told him by his father-in-law, many years ago now, of how he fished out in the swamp one day and spotted the bow of a brass-bowed schooner sticking up out of the water. He claimed he even climbed up on it and stayed for hours, hoping someone would come by and see him. No one came, and he finally climbed off and went home. He went back later, but never could find it again. The story so whet my imagination I knew from that day on what my third book would be about.
AR: Sidra spends thirty years as the wife of a staid Christian pastor. How does that factor into her decision to become a private investigator?
SDS: Wow, good question! Sidra is going through both a delayed teenaged crises and a mid-life crisis at the same time. She must push the limit on some things. Sidra is ready to let go of what to her has been a shackled past. A past so staid, so controlling, so spiritually suppressive, that she’s lost who she is—or ever was! She is on the very edge of extreme personal growth, trying to find out who she is, what she stands for, and what she absolutely won’t stand for. She has no answers, nor will she accept answers from anyone else. She knows she must embrace the questions of the world and allow them to guide her down her path to self-discovery. She is clueless how to begin this journey when along comes a young woman with a tale so horrific Sid can’t help but be drawn into it. As she plunders the pain of others, she begins the process of healing hers, and discovers her own passion for social justice.
AR: Ben seems like an all-around wonderful guy - so why does Sidra have reservations about marrying him?
SDS: Coming from a marriage that so controlled her, so put her in a box, so marked her to be the “perfect” example for the whole wide world has left Sid with a deep fear of being controlled by a spouse. Being told how she should think, how she should believe, how she should dress, how she should act in front of others. She loves Ben, but refuses to marry anyone who tries to tell her what to do and what not to do. She holds out for a man who respects her for who she is. Not one who wants to mold her into who they want her to be. She’s been there and done that, and almost lost herself in the process.
AR: Our reviewer commented on how fully-fleshed and three-dimensional your characters are. How were you able to breathe such realistic life into them?
SDS: That’s good to hear.
I guess the secret in breathing life into these characters is because to me, they do breathe! I hear them talk. I feel what they feel, taste what they taste, fear what they fear.
My training and experience as a counselor helps me know what to look for, such as facial expressions and gestures. I know how to dig deep inside a person and uncover the why of who they are. And my appreciation for life teaches me how to tap into what makes a person who they are and what they say. What circumstances, what life experiences caused them to develop into the unique individual they are at this moment in time.
Most folks who read my work guess that I was once married to a preacher. They are correct. That life helps me identify with Sidra. Plus, my personal roots in the setting of my books gives me an appreciation for the strong, beautiful, colorful characters who live there.
AR: Our reviewer also mentioned how great a job you do of managing the pace of the story, revealing just enough of the overall mystery to keep readers hooked. How were you able to preserve the suspense of the tale and not give away too much too soon?
SDS: Oh wow! What fun it is to develop the rhythm of a story. I think what helped me is that I knew upfront what I wanted the outcome to be. I researched the life of Privateer Jean Lafitte until I discovered what the ‘treasure’ was and his connection with southeast Texas. I knew I couldn’t reveal that treasure until the very end. Combining that information with the story handed down by my brother brought Boo Murphy to life. (I love that woman!) I knew her past and her passion. What I had to figure out was how to tap into that passion and how to involve Sidra in that process. It took lots of rewriting!
AR: Did you perform extensive research on the role of women in the pirate trade prior to writing the book?
SDS: Oh yes! There isn’t a lot of information out there about female pirates, and what is there is often derived from one or two sources. So you get the same information over and over again. I was lucky enough to find an out of print copy of John Cordova’s, nonfiction book “Mistress of the Seas,” the story of Anne Bonny, the woman pirate who rode with Calico Jack in the 1700s. Fun, marvelous book that kept my appetite whetted for the tale I wanted to create! That book gave me the idea for Mary Anne Radcliff, my mythical—but maybe not so mythical—descendant of Anne Bonny that comes to Sid’s aid in DEAD WRECKONING.
AR: Please share more with our readers about your publisher, L&L Dreamspell.
SDS: L & L Dreamspell—Lisa and Linda—are two marvelous women who created their own publishing house just three or four years ago and have blasted onto the small press scene, quickly making a name for themselves in the publishing world. They are marvelous to work with and truly support their authors with everything they have. They continue to blaze a new trails in the industry. Can’t say enough good about them.
AR: How can aspiring authors learn more about them, in case they'd like to submit work to them?
SDS: They have a website at www.lldreamspell.com. On that site, they give guidelines for submission. I encourage anyone interested in submitting their work to them to follow the guidelines as closely as possible. Another important topic to include in your submission is the fact that you have a detailed marketing plan. Marketing is crucial and Linda and Lisa need to know that you are aware of this and plan to be proactive in making sales happen.
AR: We noticed that you've traveled to quite a few interesting places while conducting research for your books. Please share more with our readers about some of the venues that you've visited.
SDS: The thing I enjoy most about writing is the research it takes to create the work!
In the first book, DANCE ON HIS GRAVE, I drew on the years (in the 70s) when I lived on the island of Trinidad, West Indies to develop that setting. My family and I spent over six years there as missionaries. I fell in love with the people and the culture. So when it came time for Emma to live somewhere else, Trinidad drew me back.
The second book, DEADLY SINS DEADLY SECRETS, was inspired by the Sabine Pass Lighthouse and a true life heroine named Kate McGill Dorman who lived there during the 1800s. I went to Sabine Pass and traveled by motor boat across Sabine Lake and tromped through waist high swamp grass, not knowing whether at any minute I might step on the back of an alligator. We, the Linda-half of L & L, walked around the base of the fabulous lighthouse that looks like a missile ready to launch, to capture first hand pictures of the structure for the book cover. The lighthouse has withstood countless hurricanes, a civil war, and people who are drawn to it like I was, since it was built in the early 1800s. On another occasion, local historian, the late W. T. Block and I traveled the area, and visited the grave of the heroine, Kate McGill Dorman, as he shared with me his fascination with “Scrappy Kate,” and of his desire for her heroism to not be forgotten.
Research for DEAD WRECKONING saw me spend hours with volunteer marine archaeologist, Bruce Lockett, plying our way down the rivers and through the swamps and bayous of the area, swatting at mosquitoes, wading through thigh high water collecting potshards left behind by the Paleo Indians called the Atakapa, while Bruce pointed out ancient shell mounds lining the swamp, the history of hundreds of sailing vessels believed buried beneath the waters, what the vessels would look like today, and what I’d see if I found one. Fascinating!
AR: What's next for you?
SDS: Two things: The fourth book in the Sidra Smart mysteries, which will involve her discovery of a nude, very dead, very decomposing female, her skeleton in an obviously sexual position.
The other is a historical novel called A WAR OF HER OWN. This is a stand-alone book set in Orange, Texas during World War II when shipbuilding contracts—hence much needed jobs—exploded the population, and with this explosion, a war effort to end all war efforts. Yet one woman fought another war, and the unnamed enemy resided within her.
AR: How can people learn more about you and your writing efforts?
SDS: I maintain a website at www.sylviadickeysmith.com. A brand new website is in development and should go live in the next couple of weeks, so be sure and come back to see the latest and greatest! I also blog at http://sylviadickeysmith.blogspot.com. I Twitter at http://twitter.com/SylviaDSmith, and I maintain a page on Facebook as Sylvia Dickey Smith. I have just started a “Sidra Smart mystery series” group on Facebook and hope fans will come join and start a conversation and ask questions about the books! I’m on Goodreads, Shelfari, Bitten by Books, Pyratecon.com—you name it, I’m out there and easy to find! Folks can do a Google search and find me most anywhere—and I hope they will, and tell others about my books!
AR: Also, how can they contact you directly?
SDS: Easy, at sylvia@sylviadickeysmith.com. And I love hearing from mystery fans!! Or anyone else who loves books and likes to talk about them!
AR: Any final thoughts you'd like to share with our readers?
SDS: I’d like to encourage anyone out there who has ever had the desire and passion to write a book to apply their seat to the chair and write! Our world is full of marvelous stories just waiting to be told.
I believe stories connect us to our past and inspire us for the future. That stories reflect life's lessons and connect us one to the other. They humanize us, reflect our joys, our passions, our sadness, our spiritual path. Stories create a civilization and hold it together. They provide full-spectrum color in an otherwise black and white world. Get out there and tell yours!
AR: Thanks again, Sylvia, and best of continued success to you in all your endeavors!
Sylvia Dickey Smith
ISBN: 9781603181389
L&L Dreamspell
Reviewed By Renee Washburn
Official Apex Reviews Rating:
Sidra Smart is looking to start over...fresh from divorcing her husband of thirty years, she inherits a detective agency from her late brother, Warren, and begins life anew as a private investigator. Over the course of her ensuing cases, she gets exposed to her fair share of danger – but nothing can prepare her for the daunting mystery soon to become the focus of her entire world...
When she agrees to help the diminutive, elderly Boo Murphy as a favor for a friend, what begins as a simple case of alleged murder evolves into a twisted, complex scheme of daring heists, shady characters leading double lives – and, on top of all else, a not-so-secret legacy of pirate smuggling. As Sida wends her way through the multi-layered mystery, she is forced to depend on her own wits, as well as the assistance of the unlikeliest of allies – her dead brother – as she strives to stay one step ahead of the nefarious characters behind the sinister plot – not to mention friends who aren’t quite as innocent they appear...
Calling Dead Wreckoning an action-packed suspense thriller is making a huge understatement. Sylvia Dickey Smith’s compelling tale of drama and intrigue pulls you in from the first few pages and keeps you spellbound as she weaves the tapestry of her tantalizing tale in masterful fashion. Her characters are full-blooded and three-dimensional, and she does an excellent job of preserving the mystery of the storyline, ensuring that you remain transfixed from one chapter to the next.
Moreover, Dead Wreckoning succeeds at pulling off the difficult feat of telling a story within a story, specifically by treating the reader to a little-known fact of history while still maintaining its mystery/suspense thriller edge. For readers who don’t know much about the prominent role that some women played in the piracy trade, Smith’s tale will come as an enlightening, edifying treat.
Taut and engaging, Dead Wreckoning takes its rightful place among the ranks of other truly outstanding contemporary mystery thrillers. Highly recommended.
Official Apex Reviews Interview: Sylvia Dickey Smith (Dead Wreckoning)
Apex Reviews: Thanks for joining us for this interview, Sylvia. We're looking forward to learning more about your book.
What inspired you to craft this compelling tale of drama and intrigue?
Sylvia Dickey Smith: Family stories! Aren’t they great? What would an author write about if it weren’t for such tales recounted down through the generations! I was in the midst of writing my second book, DEADLY SINS DEADLY SECRETS, when I chatted on the phone one day with my brother. Now my brother has lived in Orange, Texas all his life, over sixty years now, and has never had the desire to leave home—unlike his sister! Orange is one of those towns that has its own gravity. You either get out early or you don’t get out at all. I left shortly after high school. But brother’s roots grow down through that area, straight to the core of the earth. Anyway, as we chatted, he mentioned a tale told him by his father-in-law, many years ago now, of how he fished out in the swamp one day and spotted the bow of a brass-bowed schooner sticking up out of the water. He claimed he even climbed up on it and stayed for hours, hoping someone would come by and see him. No one came, and he finally climbed off and went home. He went back later, but never could find it again. The story so whet my imagination I knew from that day on what my third book would be about.
AR: Sidra spends thirty years as the wife of a staid Christian pastor. How does that factor into her decision to become a private investigator?
SDS: Wow, good question! Sidra is going through both a delayed teenaged crises and a mid-life crisis at the same time. She must push the limit on some things. Sidra is ready to let go of what to her has been a shackled past. A past so staid, so controlling, so spiritually suppressive, that she’s lost who she is—or ever was! She is on the very edge of extreme personal growth, trying to find out who she is, what she stands for, and what she absolutely won’t stand for. She has no answers, nor will she accept answers from anyone else. She knows she must embrace the questions of the world and allow them to guide her down her path to self-discovery. She is clueless how to begin this journey when along comes a young woman with a tale so horrific Sid can’t help but be drawn into it. As she plunders the pain of others, she begins the process of healing hers, and discovers her own passion for social justice.
AR: Ben seems like an all-around wonderful guy - so why does Sidra have reservations about marrying him?
SDS: Coming from a marriage that so controlled her, so put her in a box, so marked her to be the “perfect” example for the whole wide world has left Sid with a deep fear of being controlled by a spouse. Being told how she should think, how she should believe, how she should dress, how she should act in front of others. She loves Ben, but refuses to marry anyone who tries to tell her what to do and what not to do. She holds out for a man who respects her for who she is. Not one who wants to mold her into who they want her to be. She’s been there and done that, and almost lost herself in the process.
AR: Our reviewer commented on how fully-fleshed and three-dimensional your characters are. How were you able to breathe such realistic life into them?
SDS: That’s good to hear.
I guess the secret in breathing life into these characters is because to me, they do breathe! I hear them talk. I feel what they feel, taste what they taste, fear what they fear.
My training and experience as a counselor helps me know what to look for, such as facial expressions and gestures. I know how to dig deep inside a person and uncover the why of who they are. And my appreciation for life teaches me how to tap into what makes a person who they are and what they say. What circumstances, what life experiences caused them to develop into the unique individual they are at this moment in time.
Most folks who read my work guess that I was once married to a preacher. They are correct. That life helps me identify with Sidra. Plus, my personal roots in the setting of my books gives me an appreciation for the strong, beautiful, colorful characters who live there.
AR: Our reviewer also mentioned how great a job you do of managing the pace of the story, revealing just enough of the overall mystery to keep readers hooked. How were you able to preserve the suspense of the tale and not give away too much too soon?
SDS: Oh wow! What fun it is to develop the rhythm of a story. I think what helped me is that I knew upfront what I wanted the outcome to be. I researched the life of Privateer Jean Lafitte until I discovered what the ‘treasure’ was and his connection with southeast Texas. I knew I couldn’t reveal that treasure until the very end. Combining that information with the story handed down by my brother brought Boo Murphy to life. (I love that woman!) I knew her past and her passion. What I had to figure out was how to tap into that passion and how to involve Sidra in that process. It took lots of rewriting!
AR: Did you perform extensive research on the role of women in the pirate trade prior to writing the book?
SDS: Oh yes! There isn’t a lot of information out there about female pirates, and what is there is often derived from one or two sources. So you get the same information over and over again. I was lucky enough to find an out of print copy of John Cordova’s, nonfiction book “Mistress of the Seas,” the story of Anne Bonny, the woman pirate who rode with Calico Jack in the 1700s. Fun, marvelous book that kept my appetite whetted for the tale I wanted to create! That book gave me the idea for Mary Anne Radcliff, my mythical—but maybe not so mythical—descendant of Anne Bonny that comes to Sid’s aid in DEAD WRECKONING.
AR: Please share more with our readers about your publisher, L&L Dreamspell.
SDS: L & L Dreamspell—Lisa and Linda—are two marvelous women who created their own publishing house just three or four years ago and have blasted onto the small press scene, quickly making a name for themselves in the publishing world. They are marvelous to work with and truly support their authors with everything they have. They continue to blaze a new trails in the industry. Can’t say enough good about them.
AR: How can aspiring authors learn more about them, in case they'd like to submit work to them?
SDS: They have a website at www.lldreamspell.com. On that site, they give guidelines for submission. I encourage anyone interested in submitting their work to them to follow the guidelines as closely as possible. Another important topic to include in your submission is the fact that you have a detailed marketing plan. Marketing is crucial and Linda and Lisa need to know that you are aware of this and plan to be proactive in making sales happen.
AR: We noticed that you've traveled to quite a few interesting places while conducting research for your books. Please share more with our readers about some of the venues that you've visited.
SDS: The thing I enjoy most about writing is the research it takes to create the work!
In the first book, DANCE ON HIS GRAVE, I drew on the years (in the 70s) when I lived on the island of Trinidad, West Indies to develop that setting. My family and I spent over six years there as missionaries. I fell in love with the people and the culture. So when it came time for Emma to live somewhere else, Trinidad drew me back.
The second book, DEADLY SINS DEADLY SECRETS, was inspired by the Sabine Pass Lighthouse and a true life heroine named Kate McGill Dorman who lived there during the 1800s. I went to Sabine Pass and traveled by motor boat across Sabine Lake and tromped through waist high swamp grass, not knowing whether at any minute I might step on the back of an alligator. We, the Linda-half of L & L, walked around the base of the fabulous lighthouse that looks like a missile ready to launch, to capture first hand pictures of the structure for the book cover. The lighthouse has withstood countless hurricanes, a civil war, and people who are drawn to it like I was, since it was built in the early 1800s. On another occasion, local historian, the late W. T. Block and I traveled the area, and visited the grave of the heroine, Kate McGill Dorman, as he shared with me his fascination with “Scrappy Kate,” and of his desire for her heroism to not be forgotten.
Research for DEAD WRECKONING saw me spend hours with volunteer marine archaeologist, Bruce Lockett, plying our way down the rivers and through the swamps and bayous of the area, swatting at mosquitoes, wading through thigh high water collecting potshards left behind by the Paleo Indians called the Atakapa, while Bruce pointed out ancient shell mounds lining the swamp, the history of hundreds of sailing vessels believed buried beneath the waters, what the vessels would look like today, and what I’d see if I found one. Fascinating!
AR: What's next for you?
SDS: Two things: The fourth book in the Sidra Smart mysteries, which will involve her discovery of a nude, very dead, very decomposing female, her skeleton in an obviously sexual position.
The other is a historical novel called A WAR OF HER OWN. This is a stand-alone book set in Orange, Texas during World War II when shipbuilding contracts—hence much needed jobs—exploded the population, and with this explosion, a war effort to end all war efforts. Yet one woman fought another war, and the unnamed enemy resided within her.
AR: How can people learn more about you and your writing efforts?
SDS: I maintain a website at www.sylviadickeysmith.com. A brand new website is in development and should go live in the next couple of weeks, so be sure and come back to see the latest and greatest! I also blog at http://sylviadickeysmith.blogspot.com. I Twitter at http://twitter.com/SylviaDSmith, and I maintain a page on Facebook as Sylvia Dickey Smith. I have just started a “Sidra Smart mystery series” group on Facebook and hope fans will come join and start a conversation and ask questions about the books! I’m on Goodreads, Shelfari, Bitten by Books, Pyratecon.com—you name it, I’m out there and easy to find! Folks can do a Google search and find me most anywhere—and I hope they will, and tell others about my books!
AR: Also, how can they contact you directly?
SDS: Easy, at sylvia@sylviadickeysmith.com. And I love hearing from mystery fans!! Or anyone else who loves books and likes to talk about them!
AR: Any final thoughts you'd like to share with our readers?
SDS: I’d like to encourage anyone out there who has ever had the desire and passion to write a book to apply their seat to the chair and write! Our world is full of marvelous stories just waiting to be told.
I believe stories connect us to our past and inspire us for the future. That stories reflect life's lessons and connect us one to the other. They humanize us, reflect our joys, our passions, our sadness, our spiritual path. Stories create a civilization and hold it together. They provide full-spectrum color in an otherwise black and white world. Get out there and tell yours!
AR: Thanks again, Sylvia, and best of continued success to you in all your endeavors!