The Chocolate Labradoodle Caper by Phyllis Entis

Also, much like Sue Grafton, I didn’t want to have to deal with rapidly changing technology (smart phones, iPads and the like).

I chose the 1979-1980s (the 4th book is set in 1983) as an era with which I was very familiar. What led you to select that date for your books? Your books, starting with The Green Pearl Caper, are set in 19. The newest release, The Gold Dragon Caper, is the ‘noir-est’ of the four books thus far. I like to think of them as classic PI fiction (some people have referred to them as ‘retro’ detective novels).

They fall somewhere between cozy and noir. I use CreateSpace for the paperbacks and ACX (royalty share program) to produce the audiobook editions. After a while, I decided to self-publish and haven’t looked back. I tried to go the traditional publication route for the first book, without success. Something about the characters stuck with me and I decided to try and expand the flash fiction into a book and The Green Pearl Caper was born. One of the prompts triggered a scene where a slinky dame enters the office of a downtrodden PI and hires him for a job. We would be given a ‘prompt’ and scribble furiously for 20 minutes or so, then read our rough work out loud to the rest of the group. After I ‘officially’ retired, I decided to exercise my brain by joining a drop-in writing group. Like most girls, I cut my detective teeth on Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton, and other teenage detectives. I’ve always been a voracious reader of both general fiction and the mystery/crime genre. How did you get interested in writing fiction, and how did you first get published? When she’s not writing, Phyllis usually can be found walking around town, browsing in the local library, or enjoying her garden. Phyllis lives in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California with her husband and their Australian Cobberdog, Shalom. In 2007, ASM Press published her non-fiction book, Food Safety: Old Habits, New Perspectives. Phyllis is a free-lance writer and retired food safety microbiologist with degrees from McGill University and the University of Toronto. Her debut novel, The Green Pearl Caper, was a Library Journal SELF-e Selection. Phyllis Entis is the author of the Damien Dickens Mysteries series, which includes The Green Pearl Caper, The White Russian Caper, The Chocolate Labradoodle Caper and The Gold Dragon Caper.

The Chocolate Labradoodle Caper by Phyllis Entis