KAREN’S KILLER BOOK BENCH: Welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench, where readers can discover talented new authors and take a peek inside their wonderful books. This is not an age-filtered site, so all book peeks are PG-13 or better. Come back and visit often. Happy reading!

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NEGATIVE GIRL
A PI Organized Crime Thriller Novel
BY LIBBY CUDMORE

Blurb

For fans of Cottonmouths by Kelly J. Ford comes Negative Girl: an evocative, moody, neo-noir thriller that explores obsession and people dying across America’s forgotten spaces. Martin Wade lived hard in his youth, but unlike many of his former bandmates and roadie friends, he didn’t die young. Instead he hit the recovery path, cleaned up his life, and became a private investigator in a dying city in upstate New York. When his heavily tattooed and scarred assistant Valerie sets up an appointment with a young woman who needs help keeping her biological father away from her, none of the three realize that the father is Martin’s old bandmate, still using, and on a destructive path that will soon be headed straight for Martin’s clean life. As Martin struggles, Valerie becomes increasingly obsessed with their new client’s life.

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Before we get started talking about your writing, tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from, what you do for a living (if you’re not a full-time writer) what hobbies you have, etc. Whatever you’d like to share to introduce yourself.

I’m Libby Cudmore, author of Negative Girl (Datura 2024) and The Big Rewind (William Morrow, 2016) as well as the Wade & Jacks PI series in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Tough. I live in Upstate New York, where I am the Staff Writer at Hartwick College. I collect records & rockabilly clothing, teach short fiction writing workshops, and sing little songs to my cats, Bosco & Mr. Mustard.


1. What genre(s) do you write and why?

I write mysteries, specifically PI-based mysteries, as well as contemporary short fiction, flash fiction and the occasional horror short story. I’ve always written short stories, and been in love with the PI genre since I read Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye in college. Writing horror is a recent development, but I can’t explain why. Ghosts, probably.

2. If you were to choose one superpower, what would it be?

Slow down time. I feel like my writing time always goes too fast.

3. Do you ever get stuck when you’re writing a book? What do you do to get “unstuck”?

I get stuck all the time! Any author who says they don’t is lying. But I’ve found a few ways of getting unstuck. One is to go for a walk with my husband and try to talk out the plot point I’m trying to unravel, and the other is to sit down and write a scene of the character just doing…anything. Washing the dishes. Picking up take-out. Just something that gets me thinking about their life, and that usually is enough to get me back to where I need to be.

4. What is your least favorite part of writing?

I don’t love typing. I typically write by hand, in a notebook that I’ve made, so having to take all of that onto a screen is something I really have to force myself to do. Being in a .doc feels like playtime is over. It’s a little daunting to me.

5. If we came to your house for dinner, what would you prepare for us?

I’d probably set up a taco bar, complete with my by-popular-request guacamole and multiple types of fillings, shells and toppings. I’m a big fan of giving my friends options when it comes to feeding them.

6. What is your typical day like?

Wake up at 6a.m. to snuggle with my husband Ian and our two cats, Bosco & Mr. Mustard, then come downstairs, make coffee, put on a record (lately, a lot of 60s cocktail party jazz and exotica) and get as much writing done as I can before work. Then I go to work, come home, write a little more if I can, make dinner and hang out with Ian and the cats. On weekends replace work with visiting friends, going to antique malls to look for midcentury kitsch, or cycling.

7. What is most difficult for you to write? Characters, conflict or emotions? Why?

Setting and details. My first drafts tend to be very dialogue-heavy, but sparse on physical details of the characters and what the spaces they occupy look like. I have to go back and add them in. I’m also not good at writing sex or fight scenes, so I tend to avoid them.

8. How likely are the people you meet going to end up in your next book?

Unlikely, although sometimes someone will say something in just such a way that I have to use it as a jumping-off point in a piece of short fiction.

9. Tell us about your hero. Give us one of his strengths and one of his weaknesses.

I actually have two heroes! Martin Wade is the lead detective and the owner of the Wade Agency, but he’s also a former rock star and a recovering addict. He’s very smart and difficult to faze, but the flip side of that is that he’s pretty hard-headed at times. His assistant, Valerie Jacks, is the more emotional one and tends to be the scrappier of the two – she was a former boxer, but those fists can get her into trouble. They balance each other out nicely.

10. Tell us about your next book & when is it being published?

Please provide links to your website, blog, books, etc.

In addition to Negative Girl (Datura Books), you can pick up my first book, The Big Rewind (William Morrow 2016)

About Author Libby Cudmore…

Links to Libby’s websites, blogs, books, #ad etc.:

Amazon Kindle: https://amzn.to/3XIxtmz

Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/4gp0rzc

Website: www.libbycudmore.com

BlueSky, Twitter and Instagram.