Fifteen Years for Jolie Gentil and Friends

By Elaine L. Orr

Sixteen represents coming of age -- beginning early adulthood, learning to drive, getting a later curfew, and for many, that first job. 

For Jolie Gentil and friends at the Jersey Shore, fifteen is the big year. Why? September 25, 2026 will be the 15th anniversary of publication of the first Jolie Gentil book -- Appraisal for Murder. She'd been around for a while. I finished the first version in 2005 and decided to write the second book, Rekindling Motives, and look at the two together. Good thing I did. Both books benefitted from that synergy. Gads, in a sense, she's 21.

The book didn't start with the characters. My friend Barbara lived in Ocean Grove, New Jersey and I spent a weekend with her. I fell in love with the town,  Founded in 1869 as a permanent seaside camp by Methodists, its Victorian architecture has changed little. No honky tonk. 

Having spent a lot of time at Maryland's large, touristy towns (think Ocean City, MD) it would not have occurred to me to set a book there. I love the place, but it wasn't a setting for a small-town mystery. I don't like to use real places as primary cities in my work, so instead of Ocean Grove there is Ocean Alley, called that because it is two miles long and only twelve blocks deep.

Who knew there would be fourteen books, two novellas, and a long short story? Not me. The third book was originally called "Justice for Scoobie" and Jolie would solve the murder of her good friend. He ended up being everyone's favorite character and I liked him, too. Their relationship evolves.

Characters have time to evolve in a long series. I finally decided to leave Jolie, Scoobie and friends in their mid-thirties with four-year old twins. In part it's a great age for all and the twins can be in the story some but don't need to be cared for as much as one-year-olds. Still time for Jolie to get in trouble. The biggest reason was that if Jolie and Scoobie aged more, Aunt Madge would 'age out,' so to speak, and have to be gone. Nope, no way.

I often wondered if Sue Grafton kept Kinsey Milhone in her 30s in the 1980s because she wanted to keep Kinsey's landlord around. The baking 90+ man was, IMHO, a key part of the stories. And I loved his dry humor and perspectives on life.

Now, how to celebrate the anniversary? I'll definitely make all ebooks 99 cents for a time. It'll have to  be for a couple of weeks, because it'll take me ages to change the prices on all those book on all sites!

I need a 'grand prize' for readers. Any ideas?

                                                 *                *                *                *

To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.