Monday, May 13, 2013

Inventing a New Shape-shifter in a Paranormal Mystery


My first paranormal mystery, The V V Agency, has recently been published. This represents a departure for me since all of my previously published books have been geezer-lit mysteries featuring older characters.

The tagline for this novel is: A touch of Philip Marlow wrapped in an urban fantasy. It spoofs the private investigator (PI) sub-genre. When jumping in to write a paranormal mystery, I didn’t want to employ the much used vampires and werewolves, so decided to invent my own form of shape-shifter called a transvictus. Van and Vanna run a private investigation agency, but you never see them together for a simple reason. A sexual encounter changes one into the other. This presents some interesting challenges for their love lives.

There is another characteristic of a transvictus. Nudity renders Van or Vanna (whichever is in existence at the time) invisible. This provides some advantages when needing to sneak into police headquarters to review a case file or to enter a suspect’s house unobserved.

Although Van and Vanna transform into each other and retain shared memories, they have very different personalities and idiosyncrasies. Vanna can tame wild animals, but even pussy cats attack Van. Vanna has a directional disability that forces her to rely upon her trusty GPS, while Van can navigate with his eyes closed. Cigarette smoke makes Van horny but causes Vanna to puke. Vanna can drink any guy under the table, but Van passes out with one sip of alcohol. Needless to say, these attributes lead to a variety of interesting problems.

I had fun writing this and giving readers some laughs along with a good mystery.



Mike Befeler

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