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Barbara Barrett started reading mysteries when she was pregnant with her first child to keep her mind off things like her changing body and food cravings. When she’d devoured as many Agatha Christies as she could find, she branched out to English village cozies and Ellery Queen. Now, she’s written eleven full-length romance novels and one novella, and has she returned to the cozy mystery genre using one of her retirement pastimes, the game of mah jongg, as her inspiration. Here’s the story behind the latest in the Map Jongg Mystery series, Beware the East Wind.

The beginnings of Beware the East Wind

Barbara said the inspiration for this book occurred when a hypnotist presented at a Sisters in Crime meeting. “I almost didn’t attend this one. Why would I want to hear a hypnotist? How was hypnotism related in any way to a murder mystery? Most important, would she be demonstrating and I’d have to get hypnotized?”

The idea didn’t appeal to Barbara, who claims she was worried she might be one of those susceptible enough to bark like a dog. “To my delight and for the benefit of my next Mah Jongg Mystery, her presentation was informative and fun, and on top of that, she was personable and authentic. I expected a magician with a cape and baton; instead, she was middle-age with short hair wearing pants and an overshirt. Just like me, except she could hypnotize people.”

Barbara decided to include a hypnotist in her next book—as her next victim. “I made the hypnotist a victim who may have triggered her own death by blackmailing her clients about the secrets they revealed while under. It took a bit of creative gymnastics to figure out how my amateur sleuths would identify client suspects when their identities were supposed to be confidential, but I eventually got there.”

An underlying theme

An underlying theme of the Mah Jongg Mystery series is that senior women, though they may face many difficult issues associated with aging, are still smart, capable and productive. Of course, the main way this is demonstrated is how my four protagonists are able to identify suspects, gather intel about them and solve murder cases without benefit of law enforcement training, the evidence collected, or the authority to make suspects and other parties talk to them. They’re not infallible, and they’re the first to admit that when approached by friends and acquaintances to take on a case.”

Like my four protagonists, I’m a retired senior living in a central Florida community similar to Serendipity Springs. A whole new life began for me when I moved to Florida. I never dreamed life could be so good. I try to make my contentedness shine through in my characters. Although I keep them positive and active, I’ve also included some of the challenges of aging to their stories.”

When simple isn’t easy

“This past summer I took advantage of a short program on Tai Chi offered by my local library. I’ve never been much into any type exercise/meditation like this, but the time seemed right. The class took place in one of their meeting rooms. There were ten of us, all women, all of a certain age. How did it go? I was overwhelmed. The movements look deceptively simple, but they are harder than they appear. At least for me they were. Slowing down and coordinating hand and foot movements took a lot of concentration and focus. It didn’t help that the instructor wore a flowing white garment supposedly typical of this Chinese martial art. It added a certain ambience to the day, but it threw off my concentration. The truth is I just didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t keeping up as well as the others in the group, but I’d sure like to get one of those costumes!”

Learn more about Barbara Barrett at barbarabarrettbooks.com