20 Things about my Sleuth – Delanie Fitzgerald of Falcon Investigations


1.        


Thank you so much for letting me visit your blog today. I write mystery novels and short stories. The Tulip Shirt Murders is the second in the Delanie Fitzgerald mystery series. She is a private investigator who lives in Central Virginia. And I’m often asked about what my protagonist is really like. Here’s my list of twenty Delanie facts.

1.      Delanie is a redhead like 1-2% of the human population. She has grit, determination, and a spunky spirit.
2.      She drives a Mustang, and she calls it “Black Beauty.”
3.      She used her share of the money from her father’s estate to open Falcon Investigations.
4.      Delanie chose the name for her company in honor of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.
5.      My private investigator graduated from VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) with a degree in business.
6.      Though she prefers the comfort of jeans and T-shirts, Delanie has a wardrobe full of outfits and shoes to create just the right look when she’s sleuthing.
7.      Her partner is computer guru (and hacker), Duncan Reynolds.
8.      She lives in a Sears catalog home from 1939. Back then, people ordered kits from the catalog, and all of the pieces arrived by rail, ready to assemble. Hers is the Yates model. Many of the boards in her bungalow still have the Sears catalog number stamped on them.
9.      She shares her office space with Duncan and his English bulldog Margaret.
10.  One of Delanie’s guilty pleasures is her junk food habit. She also orders a lot of take-out from the nearby restaurants.
11.  When she’s not sleuthing or trailing a suspect, she likes to stay home in her comfy jammies and watch reality TV.
12.  Delanie has two older brothers. Steve is a Chesterfield County police lieutenant, and Robbie is a bouncer at a club in downtown Richmond.
13.  Her client, Chaz Wellington Smith, owns a strip club in the downtown area near where Edgar Allan Poe worked at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond.
14.  Delanie spent most of her summer in Secret Lives and Private Eyes trying to clear Chaz’s name after he was accused of murdering the mayor. In The Tulip Shirt Murders, Chaz is back, and he drops the bombshell that he wants to run for mayor. He also wants Delanie and Duncan to do some opposition research for him.
15.  Her favorite drink is iced coffee, and her go-to treat is always chocolate.
16.  Delanie and Duncan usually investigate cheating spouses. In Secret Lives and Private Eyes, she is thrilled when she lands an assignment from tell-all author, Tish Taylor, to track down leads on rocker Johnny Velvet, who purportedly died in a fiery car crash in the ‘80s.
17.  While the story is fiction, many of the locales that Delanie visits are real. Some of these include:  Bon Air, Brandermill, Carytown, Farmville, Maymont, Monroe Park, The Poe Museum, The Richmond Folk Festival, and VCU. Readers who have been to Central Virginia will recognize some of the street and place names.
18.  Delanie tends to get herself into unusual situations. In The Tulip Shirt Murders, she learns about larping (Live-Action Role Playing) and its popularity.
19.  Her murder investigation leads her to a roller rink in southside Richmond, and she is surprised to find herself exchanging elbow jabs with a team of roller girls.
20.  Music is an important part of my life, and it usually finds its way into my stories and novels. In Secret Lives and Private Eyes, Delanie gets to investigate an 80s rock star who purportedly faked his death. And in The Tulip Shirt Murders, she lands a case from a music producer who thinks his catalog is being bootlegged.


The Tulip Shirt Murders –  Heather Weidner

Private investigator Delanie Fitzgerald, and her computer hacker partner, Duncan Reynolds, are back for more sleuthing in The Tulip Shirt Murders. When a local music producer hires the duo to find out who is bootlegging his artists’ CDs, Delanie uncovers more than just copyright thieves. And if chasing bootleggers isn’t bad enough, local strip club owner and resident sleaze, Chaz Smith, pops back into Delanie’s life with more requests. The police have their man in a gruesome murder, but the loud-mouthed strip club owner thinks there is more to the open and shut case. Delanie and Duncan link a series of killings with no common threads. And they must put the rest of the missing pieces together before someone else is murdered.
The Tulip Shirt Murders is a fast-paced mystery that appeals to readers who like a strong female sleuth with a knack for getting herself in and out of humorous situations such as larping and trading elbow jabs with roller derby queens.



Author Biography:

Heather Weidner’s short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series and 50 Shades of Cabernet. She is a member of Sisters in Crime – Central Virginia, Guppies, and James River Writers. The Tulip Shirt Murders is her second novel in her Delanie Fitzgerald series.
Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.
Heather earned her BA in English from Virginia Wesleyan College and her MA in American literature from the University of Richmond. Through the years, she has been a technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She blogs regularly with the Pens, Paws, and Claws authors.
Author Links:
Website and Blog: www.heatherweidner.com


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