Oak Park Writer and Author Alex Matthews.
Wedding’s Widow
The 7th Cassidy McCabe Mystery
by Alex Matthews
"Oak Park Journal Highly Recommended"
Book Review: by Erica Du Lac
When the groom is killed on his wedding day, the bride’s
ex-husband is the prime suspect. She wants to clear his name so that
her daughter doesn’t have to grow up
thinking the worst. Cassidy McCabe, the bride’s
therapist, and her investigative reporter husband are talked into solving
the mystery. Characters are twisted and
untwisted and just when you think you know “who done
it” the story takes another turn.
The mystery is loosely set in Oak Park and, like watching
a movie filmed in your hometown, it is fun to look for real and created
details about our town as you read.
Another unexpected perq was seeing marriage portrayed
in a positive and realistic light. The investigating couple struggles
to deal with jealousy, concern for each
others welfare, and differing outlooks on human nature
while working together.
A great read! Suspenseful, intriguing, warm.
The author, Alex Matthews, is a psychotherapist in private
practice with her husband, who is not an investigative reporter.
Matthews has received the Reader’s Choice Best Series Character Award and
the Cat Writers’ Muse Medallion. Wedding’s Widow is published by
Intrigue Press and is available locally at Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore,
other books in the series are also available. Barbara’s Bookstore
has none in stock, but can order and will take 20% off purchases in July
for Mystery Month!
Matthews says, "Selfishness has such a bad rap that
many people bend over backward to put others first.
Most people can create more balance in their lives by
learning to be selfish at least some of the time." Several characters
in Wedding's Widow must learn this lesson,
the hard way.
The novel opens with therapist-sleuth Cassidy McCabe attending
the nuptials of Claire, one of Cassidy's clients, when the groom is felled
by a hitman's bullet. After weeks pass without an arrest, Claire begs Cassidy
to investigate.
Cass must draw on all her skills as a therapist as she
uncovers the secret motives of the wedding guests, all of whom profess
to have loved the man whom Claire was about to marry.
Matthews can personally relate to her fictional sleuth.
Both she and Cassidy are clinical social workers operating in private practice
from their homes in Oak Park, Illinois. The fictional Cassidy confides
in her feisty calico cat and investigates crime in partnership with her
husband, newspaper reporter Zach Moran.
"The insights I've gained as a therapist enable me to
create the characters and plots in my books," says Matthews, whose practice
focuses on women's issues and relationship dynamics. "I set out to develop
a female protagonist who is a realist woman with the same feelings of insecurity,
guilt and self-doubt that many women experience."
Wedding's Widow
It's a beautiful
spring day, and a wedding party is gathered under the trees in a park.
Gentleflute music fills the air as the bride and groom take their places.
As the minister begins the words of the service, a crack rips the air,
blood splatters onto the bride's creamy white dress, and the groom falls
to the ground, shot through the head.
This vivid
mental image was all I had when I started working on my new mystery novel,
Wedding's Widow. As my husband Alien—my chief plot consultant—and I struggled
to grow this seed into a book, we needed to come up with suspects, a villain,
clues and red herrings. And we needed to answer the toughest question of
all; why would someone commit murder at a wedding?
"A wedding
doesn't make sense," Alien said. "It's much easier to bump somebody off
in a dark alley or a parking garage."
"But whacking
someone at a wedding has far more panache," I replied. Still the question
hovered in the air: Why kill someone at a wedding?
We devised
suspects and motives and subplots, but I couldn't put a word on paper because
I still didn't know the answer to that question.
Then it came
to me. I knew who had hired the hit and why it was necessary to kill the
groom at that particular time and place. Now I could start writing.
However, there
are other nuts that need to be cracked with each book. I write a mystery
series
featuring three characters: Cassidy McCabe, a psychotherapist
who sees clients out other Oak Park
home; her husband Zach Moran, an investigative
reporter for a Chicago paper; and Starshine the cat,
who is not magical and doesn't solve mysteries.
Cassidy is
an amateur, not a P.I. or cop, and that in itself is a problem. I mean,
how many people do you know who feel a compulsion to investigate murders?
For that matter, how many people do you know who stumble over a body every
few months—aside from Jessica Fletcher, who performed her murder-solving
tasks on a weekly basis.
The concept
of an amateur sleuth is, in itself, not believable. Yet I strive to write
serious books with realistic characters, and so I have to devise plausible
reasons for Cass and Zach to investigate murders. Having Zach as a character
helps, since he's a crime-beat reporter. But Cass is the prime actor, so
with each book I have to come up with a new and credible answer to the
why-doesn't-she-
just-call-the-cops question.
Another nut
that has to be cracked is figuring out ways to keep the series fresh. Wedding's
Widow is my seventh book, and I have to make sure that each story is different
from all the ones that came before it. One of the primary ways I do that
is through character growth and development. Both Cass and Zach are far
better people now than they were in the first book, when Cass was jealous
and insecure and Zach was a jerk. Now that they're married, their relationship
is fairly solid, but that
doesn't mean new problems won't arise. If there were
no problems, my happily married couple would get boring.
And that's
the biggest nut of all to crack. I have to grab my readers by the scruff
of their necks and keep them riveted until the final sentence and
never ever let my books get boring.
Alex Matthews
Oak Park, Illinois
Praise for the Cassidy McCabe series:
Secret's Shadow
"A frisky brew, to be sure."
—The Chicago Sun Times
"Alex Matthews is a terrific writer: This book has it
all—fine characters, a puzzling plot, and real
suspense. Buy it."
—Barbara D'Amato
Satan's Silence
"Matthews delivers another well-crafted page-turner:
Once you start, you won't be able to put it
down until you reach the last page.
—Cats Magazine
Vendetta's Victim
"This third Cassidy McCabe novel offers a devilish mystery,
realistic Chicago ambiance, and crisp
pacing. "
—Booklist
Wanton's Web
"The tough mystery and
Matthews' suspenseful writing will keep the readers reading. "
—Booklist
"A successful mix a/relationships, passion, and revenge.
"
—Library Journal
"Matthews mesmerizes us with lots of action, a doubled-edged
love story, crimes of passion,
nefarious police goings-on, and a tight plot with good
tension and emotion in this great read. "
—Midwest Book Review
Cat's Claw
"Infectious prose, concurrent his-and-her plots, and
a spunky little likes-to-help grandma place this at the top of the list.
—Library Journal
"The suspenseful and heart-wrenching fifth Cassidy McCabe
mystery ....
Death's Domain
"Matthews has once again created a fast moving,
thought provoking adventure while at the same time adding more depth and
personality to a series of characters that you will feel you know by the
end of the book."
—Kathy Thomason,
The Butler County Post
"Death's Domain is one intense rush. "
—Tracy Farnsworth,
The RomanceReadersConnection.com
THE CASSIDY MC CABE MYSTERY SERIES
by Alex Matthews
Cassidy - 37, divorced,
a psychotherapist conducting a small private practice out of her Oak Park,
Illinois, home - struggles to develop her career, retain her
independence, create healthy relationships, and get her
mother's voice out of her head.
In Secret's Shadow,
a stray cat takes over her house, she is faced with an apparent client
suicide, and she joins reporter Zach Moran in a strained partnership to
find out what really happened to her dead client.
ISBN 0-9643161-3-7, $22.95 HC 1996, ISBN 1-890768-03-0, $5.50 PB 1998
In Satan's Silence,
Cass and Zach are faced with solving an old mystery when a client recovers
a childhood memory of Satanic abuse. The cat continues in her role of
confidante and protector.
ISBN 0-9643161-5-3, $22.95 HC 1997, ISBN 1-890768-04-9,
$5.50 PB 1998
In Vendetta's Victim,
a psychopath savagely victimizes women, then refers them to Cass for counseling.
Cass and Zach race to find him as kittens swarm through the house.
ISBN 0-9643161-9-6, $22.95 HC 1998, ISBN 1-890768-14-6,
$5.50 PB 1999
In Wanton's Web,
Cass's life becomes a nightmare when Zach receives a letter from a woman
he was obsessed with in the past, the woman turns up dead, and Zach becomes
the chief suspect in her murder. The cat, avoiding pill pushers, transfers
her affections to a house guest.
ISBN 1-890768-12-X, $22.95 HC, 1999, ISBN 1-890768-12-X, $6.99 PB 2001
In Cat's Claw, Cassidy
investigates the murder of a neighborhood cat lady, rescues feral cats,
and watches her husband turn into a stranger when he goes undercover. The
resident cat is at war with a feral brought in by her humans.
ISBN 1-890768-22-7, $22.95 HC, 2000, ISBN 1-890768-22-7,
$6.99 PB 2001
In Death's Domain,
a terrible secret from Cassidy's past causes a stalker to seek revenge
by plotting to kill her husband. The cat brings her humans unwanted tokens
of her affection.
ISBN 1-890768-37-5, $23.95 HC, 2001
In Wedding's Widow,
Cassidy's client is standing at the altar when the groom is felled by a
sniper's bullet. After the client begs Cassidy and her husband Zach to
investigate, a thug begins following Cass. The cat tries
to run away when a kitten is brought into the household.
ISBN 1-890768-49-9, $24.95 HC, 2003
Intrigue Press, Denver, CO 800/996-9783
ALEX MATTHEWS
BIOGRAPHY
Alex Matthews' recently
published book, Wedding's
Widow, is the sixth in her mystery series featuring Cassidy
McCabe, a psychotherapist-sleuth who sees clients and solves mysteries
out of her Oak Park, Illinois, home. In Cassidy, Matthews set out to create
a character most women will identify with: a woman who struggles to
develop healthy relationships, succeed in her career,
retain her independence, and get her mother's voice out of her head.
Matthews, a psychotherapist
in private practice with her husband, writes mysteries that reflect her
interest in feminism, relationships, and cats (her fictional cat is a character,
not a pet.) Matthews has received the Readers' Choice Best Series Character
Award and the Cat Writers' Muse Medallion.
