At an Oakmont senior community, eight women decided to co-write a murder mystery.
At an Oakmont senior community, eight women decided to co-write a murder mystery — and lived to tell about it, writes Marylynne Pitz
As the Tuesday Table Ladies gathered for dinner one evening, a question arose.
“Where’s Muriel?” one of the women asked. That sounds like the title of a mystery, mused Doreen Boyce, the former head of the Buhl Foundation.
Eventually, Muriel Weeks, former executive director of the Westmoreland County Mental Health Association, appeared. But this incident prompted her and seven other women in the group to write a mystery.
The eight live in Longwood at Oakmont, a retirement community. So they decided to set their first book — “Where’s Laura?” — in Oakwood, a mythical retirement community located in a historic Maryland mansion.
First, each woman imagined a character, hardly a tough task for a foundation official and a mental health expert, plus two psychologists, a music teacher, a public relations professional, a social services coordinator and an executive secretary.
“We all had to produce one or two characters that we thought we might find floating around a retirement community — the cook, the driver, a resident, the manager,” Mrs. Boyce said.
At their next meeting, the women arrived with notebooks. But their computer guide, Kevin Kramer, introduced them to Dropbox, a file storage and sharing service, which made collaboration easier.
The master plotter turned out to be Margaret Groninger, a retired public school music teacher with a vivid imagination. She also sings in the Mendelssohn Choir and paints watercolors.
The group’s usual conversations about grandchildren were replaced by debates about which character should die. The titular character, Laura Lambert, is a retired lawyer. The tale of her sudden disappearance includes a handsome Italian race car driver, a U.S. diplomat, an FBI agent who tracks down stolen art and Nora, a cleaning lady from Donora.
Authenticity and accurate research were essential. Anne Ducanis and Dorothy Armistead researched religious icons, farmhouses in Bucks County in eastern Pennsylvania and historic properties in Maryland. Mrs. Ducanis retired as a psychology professor from the University of Pittsburgh. Mrs. Armistead was a public relations administrator with the New York Public Schools in Scarsdale, N.Y.
The eight are known as the Tuesday Table Ladies because the same table is reserved for them in the dining room each Tuesday. When the book was published in November, the ladies arrived at their usual corner table for dinner and found a lovely surprise. At each place setting stood a rose in a vase and a half bottle of wine, courtesy of Mark Novaleski. He’s the Longwood bus driver who helped them find a publisher.
As the mystery unfolds, Laura’s five friends differ on how far they should go in searching for her while respecting her privacy. The women read each chapter aloud, and the dining room wait staff, Mrs. Boyce said, was especially patient.
“It’s hilarious fun writing this thing and reading this thing,” Mrs. Boyce said. “We’ve been asked to write another one. A sequel. There’s a big market out there now since we’re all aging like mad.”
Nancy Courtney, a retired social services coordinator, said the best part is that “we love each other and we love what we're doing.” The other collaborators are Constance Fischer, former professor of psychology at Duquesne University, and Jane Reimers, who was an executive secretary at Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
The women were on Chapter 5 before they decided which character wound up dead.
Good food kept them motivated; entrees in Longwood’s Stonewood Dining Room included breast of duck or Yankee pot roast, followed by a choice of fresh fruit, pie or cappuccino crunch ice cream.
While savoring their meals, the authors ruminated on how their characters would act, dress, speak and think. “It took us three years, but we did it,” Mrs. Boyce said.
Instead of searching for an agent, the women sought a publisher. “We can’t live long enough to find an agent,” Mrs. Boyce joked.
The women tried to figure out how books got published. One day, while chatting with Mr. Novaleski, Mrs. Armistead learned that he had a friend who published a book. Mrs. Armistead telephoned Word Association, a publishing house in Tarentum. Some of the women journeyed to the northeastern Allegheny County borough, which they insist is pronounced “Trenum,” if your Pittsburghese is excruciatingly correct.
To mystery fans, this book is a “cozy,” a type of crime fiction. The story and detective work happen in a community where most people know each other. Sex, violence and gory details take a backseat; the emphasis is on solving the crime, and the sleuths often are amateurs and female.
The authors of “Where’s Laura” are women of a certain vintage who also enjoy a glass of wine at dinner. They made sure that the book was printed in type sufficiently large so their friends can read it. It’s available at Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, Word Association Publishers, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
The women’s signatures appear inside the cover, but the author’s name is given as Octavia Long. Octavia is rooted in the word “octave,” which means eight, the number of group members. The long, of course, is for Longwood.
Before the book’s cover was designed, Mrs. Groninger painted watercolors of how it might look. Graphic artist Jason Price created a striking red and green cover.
Proceeds from the book’s sales will benefit the Longwood Benevolent Fund of Presbyterian SeniorCare, which aids older people who have outlived their money.
“We’ve done it properly, I tell you,” Mrs. Boyce said.