Terry Ambrose

Home of Mysteries with Character

Award-winning author focuses on spunky disabled characters

By

Death of a Crabby Cook by Penny WarnerPenny Warner has published more than sixty books for both adults and children. The latest release in her current mystery series, dubbed the Food Festival Mystery Series, features food trucks and is set at the San Francisco Seafood Festival, where someone is steamed enough to commit murder. “Death of a Crabby Cook” was inspired by the popularity of food trucks and the controversy they engender.

“Their popularity intrigued me,” said Warner. “I thought it would make a great venue for a murder mystery. There’s a lot of controversy about the food trucks vs. brick-and-mortar restaurants, so it’s ripe for trouble.”

Warner, who creates fund-raising murder mystery events for libraries across the country and teaches child development at Diablo Valley College, likes to include a character with a disability in her mysteries. She said, “My first series featured a deaf woman, the second ‘How To Host A Killer Party’ series offered a party planner with ADHD and a mother with Alzheimers, and in my current series, ‘Death of a Crabby Cook’ serves up a computer hacker who has Asperger’s Syndrome. My disabled characters are very empowered and coping well with their disabilities.”

So, how did Warner become so dedicated to helping those with disabilities? She said, “During high school I did volunteer work in a multi-handicapped class. One student in particular had an impact on me. He was diagnosed as being developmentally delayed until they later learned he was only deaf. Once they realized this and put him in a school for the deaf, he made remarkable progress. I became so interested in deafness that I learned sign language and went on to become a sign teacher.”

Warner received her MA in Deaf Education. “I taught infant and preschool deaf children sign language. I stopped teaching briefly when I had my children, and that’s when I began writing. I thought a deaf protagonist would make a fascinating sleuth, since she’d have to use other senses to solve a crime, rather than hearing.”

When she wrote that first mystery featuring a deaf protagonist, Warner was very concerned about acceptance in the deaf community. “It was challenging, since I wasn’t deaf myself, but I got a nice review in a deaf periodical saying, ‘I can’t tell if the author is deaf or hearing, but she’s captured the deaf experience.’ I breathed a sigh of relief and kept writing about the deaf community.”

In addition to being accepted in the deaf community, “Dead Body Language” won a Macavity Award for Best First Mystery, and was nominated for an Agatha and an Anthony Award. Warner’s children’s mystery series, The Code Busters Club, won an Agatha Best Children’s Mystery Award and is nominated for an Anthony.

As for the Food Festival Mysteries, Warner said, “This is a cozy series featuring Darcy Burnett, recently down-sized from her job as a restaurant critic, who goes to work in her Aunt Abby’s food truck. It offers a fun story, a little romance, inside information on the food truck world, and lots of recipes.”

In “Death of a Crabby Cook,” Darcy discovers that someone’s been trafficking in character assassination—literally—when a local chef turns up dead and her aunt is framed for the murder. The victim was an outspoken enemy of the food trucks—and now Darcy wonders if one of the other vendors cooked his goose. With her aunt’s business—and freedom—on the line, it’s up to Darcy and Dream Puff Jake Miller, to put the brakes on a crabby—and out-of-control killer . . . before time is up.

With the San Francisco Seafood Festival behind her, Warner has set her sights on dessert. She said, “I’m working on the next book in the series set at the San Francisco Chocolate Festival, ‘Death Of A Chocolate Cheater,’ and making myself drool over all the chocolate recipes.”

More information

She writes a column for the local newspaper on family life in the Valley. Learn more about her on her website at www.pennywarner.com.

 

About Terry

I started out as a skip tracer. Just in case you don’t know, that’s the guy who finds the people who don’t want to be found. It was the little things—getting paid to lie—that made skip tracing the fun part of the job.

Those years of chasing deadbeats taught me many valuable life lessons, such as liars come from all walks of life, and always keep your car in the garage.

Find me on: Amazon Bookbub Instagram Facebook

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Margaret R. says

    Sounds like a great series to check out. I’m a fan of the Connor Westphal mysteries, so I can’t wait to read this series with food trucks.

  3. Barbara Tobey says

    Thanks for the intro to this author. I am eager to read the latest book, plus I want to locate the ones with the deaf lead character.

  6. Amanda Ray says

    This sounds like a great new cozy for me to add to my TBR list! Looking forward from more from Penny

  7. admin says

    I want to send out a big Mahalo (thank you) to everyone who’s left a comment. I’m so pleased at the response and the comments show that there’s a great deal of empathy in the reading world for disabled characters. I agree with everyone who has said that they can add a great deal to a story. And Penny, thank you for being my guest! We really have to stay in touch more often than every x!*? years (I know, I don’t want to think about how long it’s been either!) I also want to thank everyone for reading my newsletters. You guys are great!

  8. pennywarner1 says

    Thanks for all your wonderful comments about including disabled people in my mysteries. Writing Connor Westphal, the deaf reporter in the Gold Country, was a challenge since I’m not deaf, but worked with deaf people. I thought it would be interesting to see how she might solve a crime without being able to “overhear” pointed conversations. And she’s a deaf person living in a hearing world, which makes her a fish out of water – and a great sleuth.
    In the Killer Party books, I tried to include a disability or health issue in each one. The main character has ADHD, another has Aspergers Syndrome, another is dealing with a stroke, another has Early Onset Alzheimers, and so on. In my current Food Truck series, one of the main characters has undiagonsed Aspergers–and he’s a brilliant computer hacker. I think people with disabilities are more interesting to write about because they have to overcome these challenges.
    Thanks so much for opening this forum, Terry.
    – Penny Pike AKA Penny Warner

  10. BookLady says

    The Food Festival Mystery Series sounds great. I love books set in San Francisco and I think it is wonderful you have added characters with disabilities to your stories.

  11. Deb Brown says

    I enjoy cozy mysteries and will pick them based on theme, locale, character or, once familiar, author name. This fits 2 of my criteria. I love SF and I enjoy food trucks (which are pretty popular in New Haven,CT). Thanks to Terry Ambrose for introducing me to Penny Warner!

  13. Maxie Lloyd-Hamilton Anderson says

    A good job. Very interesting that you taught sign language. My granddaughter talks to her babies before they can talk by teaching them signs. Funny how fast they learn these signs. I would love to win your new book. Thanks for the give-away. Maxie

  15. Marcia Berbeza says

    I love the way you include the disabled in your stories. They are a part of real people’s live, they are real people and they should be included in real stories! Thanks! 😉

  16. martha lawson says

    You are a new to me author, love finding them and their books!! They really sound great, I like the idea of handicapped persons in books. They are very deserving.

  19. JackieW says

    Would like to read your book. I enjoy cooking so would like to see how you have put it into your story.

  21. SHELLEY S says

    THANKS FOR WRITING ABOUT THE DISABLED SINCE IM IN THAT GROUP FOR 2+ YEARS NOW. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR BOOK AND THANKS FOR THE GIVEAWAY!

  23. Karen H says

    I am so happy I read this interview. I really am impressed by how caring the author is and really want to read this book.

  24. KarenM says

    Ah – another alias to remember. I have great expectations for this newest Penny book. I hope to remember Pike and not Warner…

  25. Laura says

    I’ve never read a Penny Warner book before but this one sounds like a great read and I’d love to give it a try. Thanks for the chance to win a copy.

  26. Susan Wilkinson says

    I have enjoyed the Killer Host Party series, did not take the time to realize how involved the author was with different disabilities. I am curious about the food truck idea as it is beginning to become somewhat popular where I live.

  27. Ronna Lord says

    What a wonderful concept for a murder mystery!! Food trucks are definitely the “in” thing these days. Love the idea of including a disabled character. Our nephew has Aspergers and is finding success in little league baseball. I am also partially handicapped from a couple of things today, but in my healthy days I worked with abused and neglected children and their families. Often the issues stemmed around some sort of disability on the children’s or the parent’s part. Interested to see how you work this into your story!!

  28. Cynthia E. Blain says

    This book is one that I really must get. I used to be a very cheerful cook myself, but after going on 8 months of being confined to bed for 23 hours a day due to leg and foot infections from severe vascular problems and ulcerations, I have become a bit “crabby” but luckily my husband is now doing food prep and cooking for us; he is doing well with his new chores and also incorporated take out or take IN as part of his plan. A food truck in our area would be a big Blessing. We do have one small half a day a week movable place but nothing full time which we would love to have close by. Have been reading a lot with having to be off my legs so much and this book just seems as though it is calling to me. 🙂

    Thank you.
    Cynthia

  34. peggy C. says

    I think that it was a wonderful write up and I can’t wait to read the book. The title is very catchy!

  35. anne harris says

    as a disabled person who is an ordinary person, i thank you for not presenting disabled people as noble persons. guh! I hate that! we are not noble! having just heard of you, i can’t wait to read as many of your books as i can!

  37. clynsg says

    I think it is great that you include characters with problems that they are coping with quite well. Definitely a change from the all-too-common title character who is depressed/alcoholic/anti-social,etc!

  38. pennywarner1 says

    Thank you all for your great comments! I have to admit, it was a fun book to write, especially with all the “research” I had to do. Shirley, I used to work with deaf and blind students and taught courses at the local college. Every year we put on a haunted house for the blind students at the nearby school for the blind, and they LOVED it. We made it very tactile, not too scary, and each student had a partner to explain the truth behind the frights. I miss doing it.

  43. Grace K. says

    I have enjoyed reading Penny’s mysteries. This new mystery sounds like fun: food trucks, San Francisco & murder.

  51. Missi Svoboda says

    The title alone is very intriguing….cant wait to read it and if I win it thats a double win !! Thanks !!!

  54. Robbie B says

    I think Penny Warner is a very gifted and caring person. I have not read one of her books but I am going to start.

  57. Shirley Cochran says

    Great interview with a lady who has it together. Each October I work at a haunted attraction and from the very beginning we have been 98-100% wheelchair accessible as well as inviting to the deaf and blind communities. They love the fact that we don’t treat them any differently (within reason) than those without disabilities and come back each year. This will definitely get on my “to read” list.