CHARACTER INTERVIEW WITH GEMMA HALLIDAY & KELLY REY'S MARTY HUDSON

ABOUT THE BOOK

If there's one thing Martha "Marty" Hudson can't say no to, it's her best friend Irene Adler. So when Irene's little white lie about a fake detective named Sherlock Holmes turns into a real case from an actual paying client, Marty is all in. But their simple missing person case takes a deadly turn when the missing "person" ends up being a missing corpse.

Rebecca Lowery was an opera singer in life and, according to her sister, who hires the famous detective to find her, a diva with capital D. When her body goes missing after a supposedly accidental fall, Marty and Irene can think of several people who might want the diva to disappear permanently—especially if her missing body is actually hiding evidence of her murder. Is it the boyfriend with a temper and a shady record, the jealous understudy who's now stealing the show, the creepy undertaker with possible ties to the underworld, or the estranged sister herself who now inherits everything?

Marty and Irene aim to find out, even while trying to keep cool around the hot ME, Dr. Watson, and dodging questions from the Irregulars blogger, Wiggins, about the mysterious man behind the name Sherlock Holmes. Will the ladies be able to pull this one off? Or are they in over their heads . . . and possibly about to take their own final bows?

BOOK DETAILS:

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Disappearing Diva

Author’s name: Gemma Halliday and Kelly Rey

Genre: cozy mystery

Series: Marty Hudson Mysteries, book 2

Publisher: Gemma Halliday Publishing (August 14, 2018)

Print Length: 316 pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours

ABOUT CHARACTER MARTY HUDSON

Martha "Marty" Hudson is a 20-something (please don't ask her real age. Chances are it will be 29. For several more years) whose day job is as a barista at the Stanford University Bookstore Café, even though her best friend is pushing her to moonlight as a private investigator. While Marty definitely has the eclectic knowledge and skills to work as a private investigator, having sat in on or crashed almost as many college classes as a PhD candidate, what she lacks is an actual license. Or office. Or experience. Not that that has stopped Martha's bff from pushing her into solving more than one case. At average height and average weight (at least on a good day when she's had less than three doughnuts), most days would find Marty in comfy jeans and a T-shirt, riding her bike from her small apartment in Palo Alto to the Stanford campus. Except, of course, when her best friend wrangles her into a case. Then she's more likely to be a zipping around the city of San Francisco in an expensive borrowed car, wearing incredibly high heels and fabulously stylish dresses, and taming her mane of frizzy blonde hair into something out of a shampoo commercial. Marty's favorite reason to play dress-up? San Francisco's busiest, and according to Marty the hottest, medical examiner, Dr. John Watson.

INTERVIEW WITH GEMMA HALLIDAY AND KELLY REY'S MARTY HUDSON

Q: Marty, how did you first meet Gemma and Kelly?
A: The first time anyone wrote a book about my life was last year when my great-aunt passed away. In Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of The Brash Blonde, you can read all about how my life went from average to anything but when I found out I had a great-aunt and that she had passed away all in the same day. I also happen to inherit a dilapidated Victorian home in the heart of San Francisco from her. Oh and one more thing I inherited from my great-aunt? A mystery surrounding her death. Turns out my great-aunt wasn't very well-liked by those around her. And her quiet little corner of San Francisco was teeming with more deviant characters than I ever would've imagined.

Q: Tell the truth. What do you think of your fellow characters?
A: Of course I adore my best friend, Irene Adler, who was probably the most prominent character in my life. Irene and I go way back to when I first met her on the Stanford university campus during a lecture about social media's impact on political and economic culture. I'd been crashing it. She'd been giving it. That about sums up our relationship. Irene is brilliant in every way—brilliantly intelligent, stunningly beautiful, and the best friend and partner-in-solving crime run any girl could ask for.

Who do I wish played a more prominent role in my life? Dr. John Watson. Though, who could blame me? He's an adorably hot doctor. It's the stuff that overbearing mother's dreams are made of. There's also the fact that he's kind, caring, professional, and well let's just say he's a bit of a good kisser. Shoot, did I just kiss and tell? You aren't actually going to print this are you? Like, where Dr. Watson could see it?

Maybe we should just skip onto the next character now. If there was one person I could write out of my life at the moment it would have to be Wiggins. No first name, no last name, just the screen name Wiggins. He's a reporter for the Irregulars blog, and when this guy has a story he's like a dog with a Tyrannosaurus-sized bone. He's been following me all over town trying to get the deets on my employer, Sherlock Holmes. But here's the thing… Sherlock Holmes doesn't actually exist. He's a figment of Irene Adler's imagination, created for the sole purpose of making Irene and me look legit as we tried to investigate my great-aunt's death. You'd be surprised how many doors get slammed in the face of two young, female civilians . . . and how many of those doors magically open up when you say you're working for a prominent private investigator with a funny name.

Q: Do have any secret aspirations that Gemma and Kelly don’t know about?
A: Okay, just between you and me? I actually kind of like this private investigator stuff. And while I've had my bumbling moments, and there is a bit of a learning curve to this, I think I might actually be good at it. My secret hope is that more cases come my way, and someday I might actually be a legitimate private investigator. Of course, it may be difficult to go legit the longer Irene and I keep up this little white lie of working for the fake PI Sherlock Holmes. But we'll see where this journey takes us…

Q: What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?
A: On the surface, most people just see your average barista. No college education, at least nothing formal on paper with a degree or anything. I live in a small apartment, in a rundown building, with rundown cast of characters around me. And my love life? Let's just say it would be awesome if I actually had one. I would say that on the surface, I'm probably not someone you would look at twice. At least not if you are looking to hire a famous detective. But the truth is I probably have a larger and more eclectic knowledge base than most of the students I sling coffee to on a daily basis. I'm not in school for the degree . . . I actually really enjoy the lectures, and surprisingly I have an uncanny ability to remember everything I read. You never know when some tiny bit of seemingly useless information will come in handy!


Q: What's the worst thing that's happened in your life? 
The worst thing that ever happened to me? I think you'll have to read about it in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Disappearing Diva. Let's just say that it involves a coffin, a dark scary place, and me nearly hyperventilating. *shudder* I don't even want to think about it anymore. On to the next question . . .


Q: Tell us about your best friend, Irene.

A: Irene Adler is my best friend in the entire world, and you could say that we're a case of opposites attract. While I blend in perfectly with the average woman on the street, Irene is the type of stunning woman that you could swear you hear angels singing around as she walks into a room. Long, glowing auburn hair, perfect skin, and a naturally sized two body even though I've never seen her work out a day in her life. I've often said that Irene is the type of woman they model Barbie dolls after . . . Except Irene's days aren't spent lounging in her Malibu dream house while Ken doll supports her. Irene is a brilliant computer prodigy, and one of the Silicon Valley's most sought after venture capitalists, who started her career at age 12 by hacking into a government mainframe. By age 14 she had a degree from MIT, and she'd sold her first start-up company at age 21, making her multimillionaire before she could buy a beer. While I might be into this Sherlock Holmes lie for the cash, Irene is definitely in it for the kicks.


Q: How do you feel about your life right now?
A: While I do find some of my eclectic elderly neighbors endearing, I would love to be able to fix up the dilapidated Victorian home I inherited from my great-aunt at 221 Baker St. in San Francisco. She's got great bones, and she's just begging for someone to restore her to her former glory.

Unfortunately the list of repairs seems to grow the longer she's in my care. I'm trying to think small and focus on patching the holes in the roof. The truth be told? She needs just about a new everything. It's one of the main reasons that I have gone along with Irene Adler's harebrained scheme of pretending were private detectives. One more fat retainer, and I might be able to replace the hot water heater . . .

Q: If your story were a movie, who would play you?
A: In my dreams I would be played by Scarlet Johansson. Composed, intelligent, and always sleek and stylish. In reality? I'm more of a Kaley Cuoco, lucky to stumble through life on to the right track now and again.

Q: What makes you stand out from any other characters in your genre?
A: I've heard there have been a lot of different stories about a famous detective named Sherlock Holmes. In some of these he's an older, English gentlemen, and some of the stories have even been about a more modern reincarnation. But I think there have been very few books where Sherlock Holmes has actually been a woman. Well, I guess you could say two women in our case, as Irene and I are equally the brains behind our operation. I don't know how much longer we will be able to keep up the charade of our fake detective, but it sure has been a fun ride so far!

Q: Will you encourage Gemma and Kelly to write a sequel?
A: I have mixed feelings about this. Every time Irene and I solve the case, I swear to myself it will be my last. And Irene swears up and down it's just the beginning. So far Irene has won that battle, mostly because my Victorian money pit demands to be fed, and there's no way my salary as a coffee barista would ever cover it. The famous "Sherlock Homes" on the other hand is starting to fetch quite a price for his services. Go figure. Well, I guess we are testing out the old theory of fake it 'til you make it, because Irene told me the other day that Sherlock Homes has received several more requests for his services via the website she's put up for him. Maybe one more case wouldn't hurt . . .

ABOUT GEMMA HALLIDAY

Gemma Halliday is the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Kindle bestselling author of the High Heels Mysteries, the Hollywood Headlines Mysteries, the Jamie Bond Mysteries, the Marty Hudson Mysteries, and several other works. Gemma's books have received numerous awards, including a Golden Heart, two National Reader's Choice awards, a RONE award, and three RITA nominations. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her boyfriend, Jackson Stein, who writes vampire thrillers, and their four children, who are adorably distracting on a daily basis.

Connect with Gemma:
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ABOUT KELLY REY

From her first discovery of Nancy Drew, USA Today bestselling author Kelly Rey has had a lifelong love for mystery and tales of things that go bump in the night, especially those with a twist of humor. Through many years of working in the court reporting and closed captioning fields, writing has remained a constant. If she's not in front of a keyboard, she can be found reading, working out or avoiding housework. She's a member of Sisters in Crime and lives in the Northeast with her husband and a menagerie of very spoiled pets.

Connect with Kelly: Website  |  Facebook 

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