In Her Sixth Dave Cubiak Mystery, Patricia Skalka Conjures Door Camelot in Door County!
By Doug Moe

      
When you are a popular mystery author, people say things to you they wouldn’t necessarily say to others. For instance, not long ago, there was a major storm in Door County. The wind and waves deposited rubble on the beach, including a small boat, flipped upside down. Patricia Skalka has had a cottage in Door County for many years and written half a dozen mystery novels set on the peninsula. After the storm, Skalka was chatting with a neighbor who mentioned the boat. “Wouldn’t it be funny,” he said, “if there was a body under it?”

“I kind of dismissed it,” Skalka said in a recent phone interview. “But the more I thought about it, I thought, ‘Why not?’”
So begins – with the dead body dressed like a medieval knight – Skalka’s new novel, Death Washes Ashore, her sixth featuring Door County sheriff and former Chicago homicide detective Dave Cubiak. Skalka and I will discuss the new book, the Cubiak series and her writing life in a virtual Mystery to Me event April 22 at 7 p.m.

Skalka, long a resident of the Chicago area, had been set to start a new chapter in that writing life in September 2019, when she moved to Milwaukee. “I was just kind of plugging into [Milwaukee’s] writing community,” she said. “I knew some of the people already, but I was looking forward to becoming more involved face to face. Then the pandemic hit and brought it to a halt. That was hard.”

The writing itself became a refuge, Skalka said. “I felt almost privileged,” she said, “that I could escape into my own little world. I could go to a different place in my mind, a place I had created, and just forget this ugly reality we were all dealing with. And live in this other world three or four hours a day.”

The pandemic did provide additional quiet hours for reading. Asked if she had any recent recommendations, Skalka, like many writers I speak with, began enthusiastically ticking off books and authors, starting with The King of Confidence, Miles Harvey’s 1800s true-crime tale of an Easterner who moves to the Midwest and declares himself a king. “A fantastic book,” Skalka said. “I was blown away by it. What a crazy country we live in! The notion you could move 200 miles and reinvent yourself.”

She’s also high on Citizen Vince by Jess Walter; Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore; and Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson. (Those titles were just what she mentioned on the phone. After our conversation, Skalka sent me a note hoping she could include kudos for the following: Temper by Layne Fargo; Murder at the Mena House by Erica Ruth Neubauer; The Second Mother by Jenny Milchman; and Best Kept Secrets by Tracey S. Phillips.)

No surprise: Most writers are voracious readers. Skalka read mysteries growing up – Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes – and credits the English mystery novelist Dorothy L. Sayers with inspiring her by shining a light on character in crime stories and bringing more than simply “whodunnit” to the genre.

As a Chicago-based writer of nonfiction – she spent 20-years on staff with Reader’s Digest – Skalka continued to read mysteries. She didn’t try to write one until after a spooky night on a Door County beach. There was thunder, no stars were visible. Suddenly her beloved Door County – with its travel brochure veneer of perfection – had her feeling apprehensive. Could sinister forces be lurking? A mystery author was born.

From that launch, it makes sense Door County itself is a powerful character in all the Cubiak novels. Another distinguishing feature is how Skalka enjoys setting herself a research challenge for each book. There’s usually a plot point that requires it. In the fourth in the series, Death Rides the Ferry, it was an obscure musical instrument, the viola da gamba, that preceded the violin. “It makes it harder, but it makes it interesting,” Skalka said of the research. “And I hope it brings a freshness to each one. I’m not writing the same story over and over.”

For Death Washes Ashore, the new novel, Skalka dove into the world of live action role playing – larping, which she knew about vaguely having seen pictures of Civil War reenactments. “My sense of larping was that you get together for a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon and play act a fantasy,” she said. “Then I was talking to one of my daughters, and she knew people who did week-long events. They’d fly to Iceland and have this elaborate script someone had written out with everyone having a role. I was amazed by that.”

Skalka continued: “I was becoming more and more intrigued by it, and I kept thinking, ‘What can I do with this?’”
She had the kind of epiphany that occasionally visits talented authors: What if Door County had a larping site called Door Camelot, complete with King Arthur and company? “As soon as I thought of Door Camelot,” Skalka said, “I thought, ‘That’s it!’”

Her protagonist, Sheriff Dave Cubiak, has changed, too, book to book. In the series opener, 2014’s Death Stalks Door County, he arrives in Wisconsin from Chicago, battered by guilt and grief, and as the books progress, he rebuilds his life.
“He was in a very bad place,” Skalka said. “I remember thinking, ‘If I’m going to make a series out of this, I can’t leave him stuck here.’ The only way I could think of changing things for him – changing his life – was to have him move through time and have things happen to him. Other challenges, other circumstances.” She concludes: “I couldn’t leave him stuck. I really had no choice.” Grateful readers will be glad to know Skalka is currently in the home stretch of writing a seventh Cubiak novel. 

April Events!

The Collective is a dramatic coming-of-age novel about a boy's divided loyalty: can Elwyn resist the pull of tradition as well as the allure of the new to forge his own path? 

As spring comes to Badfish Creek, the natural world bursts with life and excitement. But Elwyn is dreaming of a different change, of a place far away that he hasn't yet seen. Lured by urban life and all it has to offer - education, progress and opportunity - he doesn't think twice when his uncle invites him to stay in Liberty, a dazzling city he longs to call home.

Yet soon Elwyn realizes that all that glitters is not gold: there is a sinister side to Liberty that he can't ignore, which threatens to erase his old way of life completely. With past and present pitted against one another, the path to Elwyn's future is cast in doubt - for change always comes at a price.

Thursday, April 8
7:00 pm CST in partnership with Kismet Books of Verona
Tizrah Price, Pride and Premeditation, a Jane Austen Murder Mystery
Register for the Crowdcast Event Here
Tirzah Price grew up on a farm in Michigan, where she read every book she could get her hands on and never outgrew her love for YA fiction. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is a former bookseller and librarian. Now, she’s a contributing editor at Book Riot, where she can be found recommending books on the site, newsletters, podcasts, and social media accounts. When she’s not writing, reading, or thinking about YA books, she splits her time between experimenting in the kitchen and knitting enough socks to last the fierce Michigan winters.

Pride and Premeditation:  When a scandalous murder shocks London high society, seventeen-year-old aspiring lawyer Lizzie Bennet seizes the opportunity to prove herself, despite the interference of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, the stern young heir to the prestigious firm Pemberley Associates.

Wednesday, April 21
7:00 pm CST
Erica Ruth Neubaur with Doug Moe, Murder at Wedgefield Manor
Register for the Crowdcast Event Here
Erica Ruth Neubauer spent eleven years in the military, two years as a cop and one year as a high school English teacher before finding her way as a writer. She has reviewed mysteries and crime fiction for several years at publications such as Publisher’s Weekly, the Los Angeles Review of Books and Mystery Scene Magazine and is a member of both Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. When she’s not writing her next novel or curled up with a book, she enjoys traveling, yoga and craft beer. She lives in Milwaukee, WI with her husband.

Murder at Wedgefield Manor:  In the wake of World War I, Jane Wunderly--a thoroughly modern young American widow--is traveling abroad, enjoying the hospitality of an English lord and a perfectly proper manor house, until murder makes an unwelcome appearance... England, 1926: Wedgefield Manor, deep in the tranquil Essex countryside, provides a welcome rest stop for Jane and her matchmaking Aunt Millie before their return to America. While Millie spends time with her long-lost daughter, Lillian, and their host, Lord Hughes, Jane fills the hours devouring mystery novels and taking flying lessons--much to Millie's disapproval. But any danger in the air is eclipsed by tragedy on the ground when one of the estate's mechanics, Air Force veteran Simon Marshall, is killed in a motorcar collision.

Thursday, April 22
7:00 pm CST
Patricia Skalka with Doug Moe, Death Washes Ashore
Register for the Crowdcast Event Here
Patricia Skalka is the author of Death Stalks Door County, Death at Gills Rock, Death in Cold Water, and Death Rides the Ferry, the first four books in the popular Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery series.  See above. 

Death Washes Ashore: In the wake of a brutal storm that lashed the Door County peninsula, Sheriff Dave Cubiak assesses the damage: broken windows, downed trees, and piles of mysterious debris along the shoreline. He leaves the comfort of his home and heads out into the aftermath, checking in with folks along the way to offer help. His assistant, marooned at the justice center overnight, calls with an ominous message about a body discovered on the beach. When the medical examiner discovers the man didn’t simply drown during the storm, Cubiak searches for answers.

Saturday, April 24
Independent Bookstore Day! 
10:00 am to 5:00 pm CST (open an hour later than usual). 
Come join us at Mystery to Me to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day! We'll have special Bookstore Day only merch, fun deals, and maybe even a few more surprises....   And, if you like listening to books, you may want to check out Libro.fm and learn how to get a free audiobook! 



More events are scheduled throughout the summer. Click here to check out what's coming in May!  And, if you've missed any of our virtual events, you can always click here to watch them on your own time. 

Walk for Dyslexia! 
Saturday, May 15

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