CHARACTER INTERVIEW WITH JO-ANN RECCOPPA'S COLLEEN CARUSO

ABOUT THE BOOK

Has our Jersey Girl finally bitten off more than she can chew? 

Crime reporter Colleen Caruso has an appetite for romance . . . and trouble. When someone tries to poison Ken Rhodes (her handsome boss and boyfriend), Colleen vows to hunt down the culprit and serve them up to the police. She's whisked away into the scrumptious world of restaurants and gourmet food as she tangles with four culinary divas from Ken's past. 

Trouble is, Colleen doesn't know when to turn down the heat.

ABOUT COLLEEN CARUSO

Colleen Caruso is a mom of two dreading an upcoming birthday. She’s a reporter for a local newspaper, Town Crier, a job she sort of stumbled into. Her main man is also her boss – but she’s a reluctant lover (an ugly divorce will do that to a gal). She lives in a small, quaint New Jersey shore community and is surrounded by good friends and a pushy family. Colleen rarely goes looking for trouble. She doesn’t have to. Somehow trouble always seems to find her.

INTERVIEW WITH COLLEEN CARUSO

Colleen, how did you first meet Jo-Ann?
I first became acquainted with Jo-Ann many years ago while she was working on a book called Community Service. The book never did pan out, but I certainly did! She used a beach town as the setting for that story, and because the Jersey Girl mysteries take place in Tranquil Harbor, New Jersey, I was sort of recycled into the series.

What do you like to do when you are not being actively read somewhere?
Time off during the summer is the perfect opportunity to stretch out on a towel near the water and wait for the sun to make me tan.

If you could rewrite anything in your book, what would it be?
I would rewrite my lousy ex-husband and delete him from the picture, though without him I wouldn’t have my two beautiful, sometimes caustic kids, so I guess that’s not such a great idea.
Tell the truth. What do you think of your fellow characters?
I love them. That’s not to say I’d like to kill them off at times. But love is love.

Do have any secret aspirations that Jo-Ann doesn’t know about?
I can’t give that kind of information away. Jo-Ann reads everything, and she already knows way too much about me!

If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?
I’d spend most of the day in front of a slot machine with a gin and tonic in my hand, then go out and eat a dinner big enough to put me into a coma.



What are you most afraid of?
I’m afraid one day I’ll fall into a comfort zone and my life will be boring. Every day of my life is hectic, crazy, and as my mother keeps reminding me, it’s never normal. The older I get, the more I fear normal.



What’s the best trait your author has given you?
Jo-Ann made me resilient. I always bounce back, scathed but functional. I don’t give up and never have.
What’s the worst? 
Small boobs!

What do you like best about James O'Reilly?
I absolutely love Officer James O’Reilly. He always turns up and offers inside information whenever I hit a road block. I don’t even mind that he treats me like a senile great-grandmother most of the time. Least? I have to switch characters to tell you what I like least about someone. That would have to be my smart-ass sister! Kate is showy and inexplicably lucky. She appears so delicate and feminine that guys can’t do enough for her. But I’m not jealous or anything. Oh, no! Not me!

What’s your author’s worst habit?
When this chick hits a glitch while she’s writing, she switches from working on the manuscript to playing computer games! I mean, what’s up with that? Is she kidding?



How do you feel about your life right now? 
Life is chugging along and going great at the moment. If I could change anything, I’d like to be the top reporter at my newspaper, the Town Crier – not number two. Coming in second isn’t in my nature, though for some odd reason it happens fairly often.

What aspect of Jo-Ann’s writing style do you like best?
I like the way my creator sees humor in everything I do, even if I don’t consider my day-to-day life to be particularly humorous.

If your story were a movie, who would play you?
I want Sofia Vergara to be me, but she’d have to practice her Jersey accent.

Describe the town where you live.
Tranquil Harbor is a mostly quiet shore community. There’s a lovely little beach for sunning and swimming. Our summers revolve around the weather. The town isn’t garish like some of the shore towns further south, with rides, games, food stands and a ton of tourists. We’re small and mostly close-knit. We all know each other’s business. We’re polite, well behaved, but there’s always something sinister brewing just below the surface of our ordinary, day-to-day lives.

What makes you stand out from any other characters in your genre?
Not being a stand-out sets me apart from the many women in my genre. I’m not devastatingly gorgeous. My figure isn’t perfect. My mothering skills need some work. My reporter instincts are a bit off at times. I’m every woman!

If you could be “adopted” by another writer, who would you choose?
Susan Isaacs maybe. I’ve read her work and I think she would truly understand me.

Will you encourage Jo-Ann to write a sequel?
I’ll do my best. My life is an ongoing slapstick comedy/disaster, and everyone needs a good laugh.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jo-Ann Lamon Reccoppa is the creator of the Jersey Girl Cozy Mystery series, which includes New Math is Murder, Hide Nor Hair, and the latest installment, Another Man’s Poison, released in August, 2017. Reccoppa has worked for many years as a newspaper stringer, writing everything from serious medical pieces to restaurant reviews. Her short stories have appeared in several genre magazines, in addition to a mystery, which appeared in the Barnes & Noble Crafty Cat Crimes anthology.

Connect with Jo-Ann:                          Buy the book:
Website  |  Goodreads                       Amazon   |  Barnes & Noble  

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Featured Author: Jo-Ann Lamon Reccoppa

About the book

For this Jersey girl, big hair means big trouble!

Newspaper reporter Colleen Caruso just wants her unruly curls tamed into smooth, sleek locks. Instead, she finds her stylist dead, face down in a shampoo sink. Faster than you can say Aqua Net, Colleen starts investigating. The case gets even hairier when the owner of a local fitness studio seems to have jumped from a plane … without a parachute.

Meanwhile, her suave editor, Ken Rhodes, steps in to help. And he may be looking for more than just a good story from Colleen.

Add in a missing bracelet, some suspicious husbands, and a little breaking and entering — and this Jersey girl is heading for a real blowout!

Can Colleen tie up these split ends? Or does she have an appointment with disaster?

Guest Post by Jo-Ann Lamon Reccoppa

Cozy Character Quirks and Small, Quiet Settings

When I first started writing cozy mysteries, New Math is Murder and my latest, Hide nor Hair, I did it because I thought it was a clever way to introduce unusual characters and off-the-wall crimes. Reading them was always satisfying, and I fell in love with the basic structure of the cozy mystery. What I didn’t realize was the amount of work involved to get the story just so. I have always enjoyed them, without fully understanding the reason why. After so many years, it finally dawned on me.

Cozy mysteries are fun! Without any in-depth, scientific explanation, I think most readers love them because they all have a bunch of quirky characters, and the action tends to take place in quiet communities that represent thousands of towns across the country. Crimes that occur in these microcosms of larger towns and communities are shocking and disproportionate to a cozy’s setting. You can expect plenty of murders, suicides and burglaries in the big city, but in small, more gently civilized areas these crimes are appalling and are more apt to traumatize the locals. What it amounts to is a small group of people who are nervous and anxious about whatever crime has taken place – with the added joy of the group coming under suspicion for committing the crime.

The characters in a cozy investigate or have a stake in the crime itself. These people tend to have lots of eccentricities that become endearing to readers. Take Stephanie Plum for instance, in Janet Evanovich’s series. She’s a regular gal with an odd profession. She also has a highly aggressive personality and a thing for looking good (so relatable because, after all, most women do). Her parents, though not necessarily living in a small town, are part of a small Trenton neighborhood – which is Stephanie’s childhood home. We can all identify with this scenario (okay, maybe we’re not all as aggressive as Ms. Plum simply because we’re all not lucky enough to be from New Jersey!), and that familiarity makes for a fun read. The setting, the character, and the crime are all ingredients that are combined in meticulous proportions to produce a delightful cozy mystery.

Though not as precisely adhering to the small, quiet cozy setting, you have to love Agatha Christie’s Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Talk about personality quirks! He’s fastidious almost to the point of anal retentiveness, so self-confident that he borders on obnoxiousness, and, best of all, Poirot has the ability to be both quaint and endearing. 

As for the settings, three of Christie’s works come to mind that at first seem to fly in the face of small town crime. In Death on the Nile, the subdued action takes place on a paddle steamer in Egypt – not exactly a small town setting. Considering that all the suspects are temporary residents on that paddle steamer though, it does become a small community. It’s the same with Murder on the Orient Express. There is Poirot, of course, who is the perfect character to build a novel around, and the travelers as part of the train’s small enclave. The passengers, as well as the railway’s employees, are all suspects in Ratchett’s murder – and they’re all quirky too. And Then There Were None, another famous Christie novel, had the wonderful setting of Indian Island and a house filled with odd “guests” who were being eliminated one by one – perfect for a cozy.

You can probably come up with dozens of examples of cozy mysteries that fit the bill. I hope my series and the characters I have created in my Jersey Girl Cozy Mystery series can be even half as entertaining as these very famous novels. If nothing else, they were so much fun to write. And with a cozy, it’s all about fun.

About the author

Jo-Ann Lamon Reccoppa lives in Old Bridge, New Jersey, and uses her experience as a freelance correspondent as the basis of her protagonist’s career. Several of the incidents within these pages are actual occurrences. They have been shamelessly embellished and are not a blow-by-blow account of a few really bad days on the job. Hide Nor Hair is her second novel.

Connect with Jo-Ann:
Website  |  tour page 

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