When former celebrity chef Laura Harris is accused of murdering her mentor, she must uncover the real killer amidst a web of small-town secrets and scandals.
Title: A Hush at Midnight
Author: Marlene M. Bell
Pages: 368
Genre: Mystery
Marlene M. Bell brings distant friends together in the rural South only to have one of them become the victim of a brutal crime of passion.
Once celebrated for her show-stopping pastries and irresistible desserts, former celebrity chef Laura Harris is now making headlines for a far darker reason.
Laura has been accused of murder.
How could this petite chef have brutally smothered the beloved small-town matriarch, World War II ferry pilot veteran, Hattie Stenburg? Hattie wasn’t just a pillar of the community; she was Laura’s confidant and mentor. The shocking twist? Hattie had made recent changes to her will, bypassing next-of kin and leaving her entire fortune and historic estate to Laura.
As Laura scrambles to clear her name, she uncovers sinister secrets lurking beneath the town’s idyllic surface. The real murderer is always one step ahead, leaving taunting clues and threatening Laura to leave Texas—or face deadly consequences. With time not a luxury, Laura must untangle the web of deceit before the killer makes her the next victim.
A Hush at Midnight is available at Amazon.
INTERVIEW:
Can you tell us when you started writing?
I’m a natural artist and find painting in oils and taking photographs much easier. Being an author is the most difficult avenue I’ve ever been down, but I like a challenge! In 2008, our 4H club members asked me to write a book on how to raise sheep. (My husband and I have raised sheep together for 40 years.) When I published the book the following year, I enjoyed the process so much that I considered writing fiction. The learning curve took an incredibly long time, something I hadn’t considered.
Can you tell me who or what the inspiration for the book was?
Frankly, it was an exercise. I had just finished my fourth Annalisse series book COPPER WATERS in 2022 and felt my characterization skills slipping. Backstory had become more comfortable than showing new readers who my people were in the stories. Writing a new book with different characters made me think about each of them and work harder on characterization. Writing Laura Harris, and how she found herself involved in a murder allowed personalities and goals to shine through in A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT, refreshing the basics for writing fiction.
Can you tell us how you came up with your title?
Simply, the title reflects the approximate time the murder victim’s crime occurred.
Can you tell us a little about your story and main characters?
A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT is a mystery in two fictional towns, Coldspell and Stenburg, Texas. Laura Harris is a petite Californian in her 40’s having pulled herself from a solid position as a celebrity chef for an entertainer in Southern California. Her mother’s battle with cancer brings Laura to East Texas where her parents are both retired.
HUSH has a little for everyone. Categorized in the cozy mystery genre, main character Laura finds a dead body, seriously erupts at her boyfriend of six months, and has the hots for a new guy. All in the first few chapters. Her major fault; she has a tendency to jump to conclusions and make snap judgments because she often allows herself to run on gut instinct. If she feels uneasy about a situation, she removes herself from it and doesn’t look back.
93-year-old Hattie Stenburg is the victim. She’s Laura’s longtime mentor and as close to her as her own mother was to Laura. HUSH has older themes in the story. Their relationship stayed strong through the mail with letter-writing back and forth spanning three decades. WWII ferry pilot Hattie is a beloved character right away in the story, and the reason why Laura struggles to gain a grip on Hattie’s senseless death.
Where is this book set, and why did you choose that setting?
My series books begin in New York, a state I’ve yet to visit and have had to research heavily. It was time to write a book from a place familiar to me. My husband and I live in the Piney Woods of East Texas where HUSH takes place. I use my own photographs to describe the landscape and each scene from my experiences with locals—to help round out the personalities of the characters. If the dialog has made it into the final book, I’ve met a person or persons who speak that way here in Texas. And yes, they do say, “y’all” down here. It covers a reference to a single person or a group. I’ve heard it both ways.
What do you like to do for fun when you’re not writing?
My husband and I run a sheep ranch and sell sheep related gifts in a color catalog and online through www.ewephoric.com. 2025 marks my company’s 40th year! When I need a break from chapters and plotting, I like to sit in a pen of lambs and relax. Their gentleness takes away all stresses. Livestock keeps us close to home, but living on a 50-acre ranch with nature’s critters in so much splendor, who needs a trip when nirvana is right outside our door?
How long did it take you to write the book, and how long did it take to get published?
I publish under my own independent label, Ewephoric Publishing. A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT took about 18 months from the outline stage to ARC paperback in print. During that time, I worked with my talented cover designer from London to create the best cover for HUSH. The sunset cover began as one of my photographs taken while looking beyond our county road.
I went to an outside printer in the Northeast to print hundreds of uncorrected proof copies and sent them to reviewers for early reviews on goodreads and social media. The paperback went live on Amazon in September 2024 and the eBook was offered Kindle Unlimited on October 1st.
What are your current/future projects?
There are two projects I’m working on at present. The first, is a new standalone thriller in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and the other is the next installment to my Annalisse series. Book #5 takes place in upstate NY where a person close to Annalisse and Alec meets his unfortunate demise. Their friend, Bill Drake, private investigator, makes another appearance in the next novel.
Do you have any tips for a young writer just starting out?
The best tip I can give any young writer is to read in the genre they like best. Read a lot. As much as you can! (Add books on how to write fiction in there as well, if you aren’t a natural story teller like I was in the beginning.)
There are popular authors with large followings. Learn their writing styles and what is consistent in their books. Most stories are similar in one way or another. Readers who like mysteries, as an example, expect a certain eye-catching look to the cover and a story that takes the usual track. Inciting incident—and make it happen in the first chapter when possible. Learn how to plot your book. There are many how-to books on the subject. Uncover what happens using clues, red herrings, and twists while showing many possible suspects along the way to keep the reader guessing ‘whodunnit.’ Sometimes police investigations are involved up front for the reader to get their opinions, or those scenes are kept more to the background with the main character’s point of view being the driving force in the book.
My books tend to focus on the main character-amateur sleuth and less on the detectives/investigators.
Once you’ve researched the genre by reading published works, I’ll repeat, don’t forget the fiction-writing books! In my case, I took a year off from editing my second draft for STOLEN OBSESSION to study what makes a good work of fiction. I should’ve done this one first. There are rules, and there are bending the rules, depending on which genre you plan to dig into.
Can you tell me where we can purchase your book?
A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT is available in Kindle Unlimited free and in paperback. For a limited time, the eBook is $1.99 US and is 303 pages. Paperback is available for $15.95 US and 368 pages.
Thank you for allowing me to visit with your readers, Eileen!
Book Excerpt
A killer sunset plunged toward the horizon, casting its tangerine glare on the Stenburg Estate’s green metal roof and aging bricks. Since her hasty arrival from the Los Angeles area last year, Laura Harris had sought out the renowned East Texas skyline for its towering thunderstorm clouds and the lemonade-pinks at twilight.
The colors gave her a sense of calm before the inaugural trip to see her elderly mentor and dearest pen pal, Hattie Stenburg. Laura last visited with her in California—over a decade ago.
As Laura skirted a large puddle in her Subaru and stopped along the shoulder of the roadway, she parked the car, turned off the engine, and exited the driver’s side. She breathed in air filled with pungent smells of wet pine needles and dampened leaves. Laura had passed through the April shower a few miles east of the Stenburg town limits sign. Leave it to the Stenburgs to live in a town named after themselves.
Snaggled grapevines across the road on Hattie’s property sat stoic and graying in long horizontal rows from the oil and gravel highway road to the classic red brick two-story at the top of the hill. The vines showed no signs of new growth even though T-posts held the outstretched limbs twisted within wire and sagging driplines. Gnarled stumps had been left behind from a time when the Stenburgs had added varietal grapes to their company’s wine processing vats prior to Warren Stenburg’s death nearly eight years ago—before Laura’s dad took over as the Texas corporation’s chief executive officer.
– Excerpted from A Hush at Midnight by Marlene Bell, Ewephoric Publishing, 2024. Reprinted with permission.
Mystery at a killing pace.
Marlene M. Bell has never met a sheep she didn’t like. As a personal touch, her fans often find these wooly creatures visiting her international romantic suspense, thriller, and cozy mystery books as characters or subject matter.
Marlene’s multi-award-winning Annalisse series boasts numerous Best Mystery honors for all installments including the newest IP Best Regional Australia/New Zealand, and Global Gold Award for the fourth cozy mystery from down under.
Her children's picture book, Mia and Nattie: One Great Team! written for the younger crowd, is based on true events from the Bell’s Texas sheep ranch. Suitable reading for ages 3 - 7 years and beyond, a Mom's Choice Gold Award winner, and Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize Short List winner.
Website & Social Media:
Website ➜ https://www.marlenembell.com
Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/ewephoric
Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/marlenembell
Goodreads ➜ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17642396.Marlene_M_Bell
