Interview with Mary Keliikoa, author of Deceived (PI Kelly Pruett mystery series)

Today it gives the Indie Crime Scene great pleasure to interview Mary Keliikoa, whose novel Deceived (PI Kelly Pruett mystery series) is our featured new release on May 11. 

Deceived is the third book in your series about PI Kelly Pruett. What can you tell us about Kelly and how she emerged into your imagination and your life?

 

At the time I had the idea to write a PI novel, I was reading Sue Grafton quite regularly. So that love of the PI genre is what sparked my interest in writing PI in the first place. But Kelly herself, she came in fully formed. It was 1999, and I sat down at my desk and wrote the word Kelly on a notepad. It’s like she entered the room at that point. I knew everything about her. That she would be the single mom to a deaf daughter. That she’d live next door to her ex-mother-in-law and have a few conflicts in the journey of co-parenting with her ex-husband. Who, by the way, had a one-night-stand with Kelly’s former BFF. Very little has changed about Kelly since that first moment…although I found out later she had an obsession with peanut butter and that was a surprise!

 

Your bio says that you spent eighteen years of your adult life working with lawyers as a legal secretary. How did that influence your interest in crime and the law?

 

I was born with the curiosity of wanting to see what goes on behind the curtain so-to-speak, and in law, there is plenty of what you think you see, and how it’s being framed for you to see. Kind of like social media… My legal career started first, but I soon gravitated into a love of mystery books. The desire to see more in depth the crimes, the psychology of why, and how they were solved, went hand in hand with what I was doing in my day job and it fed that curiosity part of me.

 

As a woman and a writer, how important was it for you to feature a protagonist who is a strong female character - and what does that mean to you?

 

I have a love of both male and female characters, and I’ve written both as central protagonists. But when it came to writing a woman, I wanted that character to have plenty of her own strength. In the Pruett series, Kelly is grappling with living in the shadow of her father, but her quest is to carve her own pathway in the investigative field. And that was important to me that she find her own way, separate from a man. 

 

I also believe it is important to show young girls and women that they do not and should not be defined by what the world says they can or cannot do. In male-dominated careers, that can often happen and I aimed to change that in the series. That said, I enjoy exploring the diversity and the approaches of both male and female in my writing because they offer such different perspectives. 

 

Where do we find Kelly at the start of Deceived, and where does she go? To what extent is the title key to her adventures and the plot?

 

Kelly has now successfully solved two cases, and she’s feeling a bit like a legit PI at this point. However, being called to a current client’s home who used her father extensively has her feeling, once again, like she has some big shoes to fill. In the beginning of the book, Kelly sets out to do that by going undercover at a woman’s homeless shelter, trying to find out what drove her client’s granddaughter underground and soon, why another young woman at the shelter appears to have gone missing.

 

Deceived speaks to the way people present themselves to Kelly throughout the novel, and how they might not be what they present at all. (Likely felt by every investigator in every mystery/suspense novel!) But I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll leave it at that 😊 

 

You have mentioned that you are a big fan of the writer Sue Grafton. What do you enjoy about her writing, and what do you hope readers will find in yours?

 

I always enjoyed Ms. Grafton’s ability to marry not only a wonderful plot, but characters you truly cared about. (Kinsey and her landlord Henry’s relationship was one of my favorites.) I also loved Kinsey’s heart and that she never needed rescuing. She used her smarts and tenacity to figure things out, and that was important to me. 

 

I hope that people who pick up my novels do the same—enjoy the plot but connect with the characters. And hopefully relate in some ways. Kelly is very much like many women. Trying to balance career and being a good mom, trying to satisfy the needs of those around her, and yet still be true to herself. It’s never easy in real life or in fiction, and I’d love for my readers to enjoy Kelly’s quest to find the right mix.

 

Are there any other writers of crime fiction whose work you enjoy, and any must-reads?

 

There are so many—obviously Sue Grafton and Mary Higgins Clark, J.A. Jance, Faye Kellerman, Lisa Unger, Lisa Gardner, and Janet Evanovich. But so many great writers are up and coming in the crime fiction world: Dianne Freeman, Kellye Garrett, Tracy Clark, Edwin Hill, Matt Coyle, David Heska, Wanbli Weiden, Heather Redmond, Jaime Hendricks, Jessica Payne, Lissa Marie Redmond… There are just so many good ones the list truly is endless.

 

How important is the Oregon setting to the novels?

 

I was born in Portland, Oregon, and spent many of my work years downtown. Even though I have lived in Washington far longer at this point…once an Oregonian, always one. But the importance of staying in the area really is that it’s what I know. Portland is such a diverse city with its incredible gardens, parks and waterways, and yet so gritty, that it makes a wonderful backdrop for a PI novel. And as I’m writing a story, being able to visit and visualize exactly where the scene is unfolding helps me bring it alive in a much more real way than if I didn’t know the area.

 

In Deceived, Kelly is helped by her half-sister. Who is her half-sister and how does she help or hinder the investigation?

 

You meet Kelly’s half-sister in book 1, so I don’t want to say too much about that and create a spoiler, but I will say that Kelly was an only child until she found out about her sister. That moment changed everything about how Kelly viewed her father and her place in the world. She fights the new truth at first, not sure she wants to accept her half-sister, but letting people in is one of Kelly’s arcs in the series. As Kelly grows, she learns what family is and realizes it’s okay to rely on others. In this case, she will find her sister is more help than hinder.

 

What can you tell us about the upcoming Misty Pines mystery series featuring Sheriff Jax Turner and slated for release in September 2022?

 

I’m really excited about this series! It’s set at the Oregon coast, which is an area in which I lived with my parents for several years. And the inspiration for the novel was from an event that happened in my hometown where two girls were out walking, a car pulled up, and only one girl came home. As you can imagine, the crime around that resonated with every young person that took walks out on country roads, and I was able to use some of that in this book.

 

I also really enjoyed writing a male character and approaching not only an investigation, but his relationships and how he views the world around him.

The pitch for Hidden Pieces is: “A small-town sheriff emotionally debilitated from the loss of his child and marriage, answers the call for one last case of a “runaway” teen; but when it’s clear the girl has been abducted, & ties to a tragic cold case emerge, he must confront his own ghosts before another child is lost.” 

Deceived concerns a missing-person case - the search for the granddaughter of a client. But soon the plot thickens. What made you look at this theme of a missing person and homeless shelters?

 

Some that make up the homeless population are young people fleeing from abusive homes, and homelessness for various reasons has touched the lives of some of my family. In Kelly’s third book, I wanted to find a creative way to challenge her and to address the issue in a way that added some clarity of why it happens, and who it touches.

 

When you sit down to write, how do you proceed? Do you plot every detail or do you prefer to discover what happens - or both?

 

I’ve always been a pantser, and for a while, I listened to people who said I needed to plot instead. In fact, I tried to be that person, and went on to judge myself when I just sat there with a headache and no real progress on a book. The minute I allowed myself to go back to what worked for me, I found my joy again. 

 

I love to discover what happens, the same way the reader does. It adds to the fun of writing and the excitement. And I think best with my fingers in motion. Stuff I would have never come up with if I tried to plan it just shows up. Dialogue. New characters. Plot twists. While I might be able to give you a paragraph of the general idea of what’s about to happen before I start, the real story doesn’t appear until I begin typing.

 

What is your ideal writing day?

I’m a creature of habit, so you will find me in my office at 7:30 every morning and the ideal day is when I can work, completely uninterrupted, for 3-4 hours. Of course, the next ideal is that those 3-4 hours lead to a completed chapter or scene, but I’ve come to learn that showing up and putting in the time is of equal importance, regardless of the quality of the work. At least they’re words on a page that can be edited. And that’s something to work with for the next day!

 

How does Kelly balance the demands of being a PI and a single parent?

 

Kelly shares custody with her ex-husband: he has her Monday afternoon through Friday, and Kelly picks her daughter up from school on Friday and has her until she returns to school on Monday morning. This at least gives Kelly some time to work her business during the week, and give Mitz her focus on the weekends.

 

Unfortunately, Kelly’s desire to succeed oftentimes has her juggling and her balancing is not always great. As you can imagine, that lands her in trouble with the family and it’s part of her learning process to ask for help. 

 

Will there be more books in the series? Will Kelly Pruett appear again?

 

Deceived is the third and for the moment, the final installment of Kelly Pruett. That doesn’t mean she won’t be back at some point though. I have many more cases for Kelly to solve, but her current arc is complete with this third book.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Apple Books

About Mary Keliikoa:

MARY KELIIKOA is the author of the Shamus finalist and Lefty, Agatha, and Anthony award nominated PI Kelly Pruett mystery series, as well as the upcoming Misty Pines mystery series featuring Sheriff Jax Turner slated for release in September 2022. She has had mystery shorts published in Woman’s World and in the anthology Peace, Love, and Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the ’60s. She spent the first 18 years of her adult life working around lawyers. Combining her love of all things legal and books, she creates twisting mysteries where justice prevails. 

At home in Washington, she enjoys spending time with her family and her fur-kids. When not at home, you can find Mary on a beach on the Big Island where she and her husband recharge. But even under the palm trees and blazing sun she’s plotting her next murder—novel that is. To learn more about Mary’s life and work, please visit: https://marykeliikoa.com/

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram