WELCOME TO THE HOME OF THE A NOVEL INVESTIGATION BOOK SERIES
On this page you will find the origins of the A Novel Investigation series, the Series Dedication, Fun Facts, Character Lists, and Book Quotes.
THE ORIGINS OF THE A NOVEL INVESTIGATION SERIES
The original idea for this idea started way back after writing Hollywood Dreams (in its original incarnation) and was a running thought for the two main characters to set up their own detective agency by night, Hart to Hart, or Moonlighting, style.
After a decade or so of percolating in the background of my brain, it took on another life in 2008 after seeing The Strip, an Aussie cop drama set on the Gold Coast that only played for one season. The ideas kept on going and I imagined being megarich and swanning around my swanky Gold Coast mansion and actually creating and making my own TV crime drama on the Gold Coast.
I knew which actors I wanted; I knew what would happen, I knew I would be the female lead. I also knew it would be at least eleven episodes per season and seven seasons long. I knew that I would turn around and make the TV tie-in novellas from the show and package them in a box set to go with the DVD box set. Eleven novellas per box, seven in total, along with the DVDs.
Little did I know…
During that shithead called covid, when looking upon all of my writing ideas that I wanted to bring to fruition, I looked at what I had written for this imagined cop show and realised there was no way I was going to be writing eleven novellas for each of the seven seasons. I didn’t have it in me to do so. I set the idea aside, but it continued percolating.
In 2024 I pulled out the paperwork of ideas I had and scoured it from head to toe. I had at least three seasons with three to four episode ideas per season, and the beginning of season four laid out. When looking at the first three seasons, I realised they were laid out as beats and a story arc and the light bulb switched on. I had a set of three books and a leftover scene from the beginning of season four which I added to the end of book three. Books I could actually do something with. And so, my cop show trilogy was born.
I went through three different variants of titles. I had my actors who inspired the characters. I had ideas for the colouring of the covers. I was ready to go.
I spent a good few days scribbling over butcher’s paper refining my trilogy into main scene points, and found they gravitated from five to four to three main points. My three act structure, thank you very much.
After refining some more, I sat down in August of 2024 and started writing. Those three novellas took me 12 days a piece, but across three months. 12 days a month. Damn, it was a long, drawn out journey, but they finally arrived.
If anyone wants to know, I used Aussie actors Jack Campbell as Jack Calloway, Conrad Coleby as Craig Thompson, his real-life father Robert Coleby, as Inspector Hugh Sinclair, and I am Mackenzie Cruz. I have no idea who Addison Kelly is actor wise, I didn’t have anyone in mind for her, but I know what she looks like.
SERIES DEDICATION
Unlike Jack in Titanic, who decided to drown,
my Jack will always make sure I am found.
FUN FACTS ABOUT THE A NOVEL INVESTIGATION SERIES
– Designs in Crime is 52,182 words, and was written in 12 days in August 2024.
– A Killer Plot is 51,597 words, and was written in 12 days in September 2024.
– Murder on the Set is 50,006 words, and was written in 12 days in October 2024.
– The entire series is dedicated to the actor who inspired Jack Calloway, with a twist on Titanic. And his name is Jack in real life. His real surname also starts with a C. It made it so much easier. But, unlike many of my novels, I do not reveal his last name.
– Two of the titles were inspired by Nancy Drew books.
Designs in Crime: Nancy Drew Files #89 (which has an AMAZING cover because Nancy’s always so fashionable)
Murder on the Set: Nancy Drew Girl Detective #24
– The series name, A Novel Investigation, and the title for book 2, A Killer Plot, came about when I used a title generator to help come up with book/writing/author/cop inspired titles. I wrote down about 60 and played around with them. The leftovers might be used in another mystery book.
– The covers needed to be between cosy mystery and crime. Since there’s blood, crime, and swearing, it’s not cosy, but it’s not full core crime either. I went looking for other book covers for inspiration and came across the Miami Vice DVD box sets and I had my idea. I then went looking for images that suited the mysteries and the covers were born.
– It was fun coming up with titles for Mac’s books, as I did for Sydney and Sean in Her and Him, and she mentions that she wrote a fashion inspired trilogy while she was away in Italy in A Killer Plot, but no titles have been created.
Here are the first eleven books of her Blake River mysteries under her pen name of Mercedes Marlowe.
1: The Broken Shard (as mentioned in Designs in Crime)
2: The Mind of The Matter (as mentioned in A Killer Plot)
3: Murder In Ink (as mentioned in A Killer Plot)
4: The Blood of The Heart (as mentioned in A Killer Plot)
5: The Frozen Silence (as mentioned in Designs in Crime)
6: The Cuckoos Clocked (as mentioned in A Killer Plot)
7: My Dearest Valentine (as mentioned in A Killer Plot)
8: The Double Identity (as mentioned in Designs in Crime)
9: All Fall Down (as mentioned in A Killer Plot)
10: A Corpse Came a Calling (as mentioned in Designs in Crime)
11: The Sparrow’s Call (as mentioned in A Killer Plot)
MACKENZIE CRUZ – fashion designer extraordinaire turned author and amateur sleuth – ME! – 40s brunette
JACK CALLOWAY – detective, – Jack Campbell, 40S, 5’10, brunet, mint green eyes, dimples, mole under left eye
ADDISON KELLY – detective, 5’8, 30s, brunette blonde, brown eyes
CRAIG THOMPSON – detective – Conrad Coleby, 30s, tall, blond, fit
HUGH SINCLAIR – inspector – Robert Coleby
HEATH TOMLIN – constable
GRANT GARRISON – constable
ELLIOT WINSTON – CSI
MELVIN GRIFFITH – coroner
SAVANNAH ROSSITER – Mac’s personal assistant – blond, average height, slim. Wears white and heels.
MORGAN – Mac’s Fashion empire business manager
ELSA RENFOLD – Angela’s manager – Swedish blonde, wears white
GERHART BOUCHEROY – Angela’s ex manager
MARGEUX DEVEREUX – Angela’s agent – older, grey, standoffish
CHEREE – Margaux’s assistant
ENZO JUNIOR – Factory Roulé owner
ANGELA LANDER (ANGEL) – model
NOVA VALERIA – fashion designer
REGINA VALERIA – Nova’s mother
HUNTER – Nova’s fashion graduate friend
MADDOX – Nova’s fashion graduate friend
EVERLY – Nova’s fashion graduate friend
MADELEINE – Nova’s fashion graduate friend
JAMES WAINRIGHT (JIMMY JAMBO) – Nova’s fashion graduate
RAQUELLE BENNETT – worked at Mac’s emporium
RAELENE BENNETT – Raquelle’s mother
ALAN JANETTI – apartment manager of Angela’s building
DIANE WESTON – real estate agent dating Jack
VITALIA CARIBOW – influencer
JEWELLERY STORE OWNER – older, long grey hair, lots of jewels
MACKENZIE CRUZ – fashion designer extraordinaire turned author and amateur sleuth – ME! – 40s brunette
JACK CALLOWAY – detective, – Jack Campbell, 40S, 5’10, brunet, mint green eyes, dimples, mole under left eye
ADDISON KELLY – detective, 5’8, 30s, brunette blonde, brown eyes
CRAIG THOMPSON – detective – Conrad Coleby, 30s, tall, blond, fit
HUGH SINCLAIR – inspector – Robert Coleby
HEATH TOMLIN – constable
GRANT GARRISON – constable
ELLIOT WINSTON – CSI
MELVIN GRIFFITH – coroner
SAVANNAH ROSSITER – Mac’s personal assistant – blond, average height, slim. Wears white and heels.
MORGAN – Mac’s Fashion empire business manager
MOLLY – emporium staff member
MARGARET THOMPSON – Craig’s mother
BOB THOMPSON – Craig’s father
DIANE WESTON – real estate agent dating Jack
PATRICK SPALDING – Author
THEODORE THATCHER – author
ELIZA JOHNSON – author
MIKE TINSLEY – author
BORIS ANTONIN – Author, Russian, big and beefy
MELISSA EMERY – Author, redhead
MALCOLM FAULKINER – author
MEREDITH COSGROVE – Malcom’s wife – 63, cookbook queen, grey hair
SHARON EVERS – Wellgate Publisher CEO, 60s, grey hair
SARAH YOUNG – Mac’s editor
EMIL JENSEN – Editor
GINO VITTORIO – restaurant owner, 60s, Italian
BENNETT LELAND – Wellgate publicist
DELPHINE HADLEY – Where There’s A Quill There’s A Way owner, long grey hair
ARTHUR MOORE – Politician
DOC HAMLIN
NURSES
PARAMEDICS
BOOK LAUNCH LADY – young blonde
BOOK LAUNCH GUY – young, shoulder length blond-brown hair
BOOK LAUNCH LADY – nondescript
MACKENZIE CRUZ – fashion designer extraordinaire turned author and amateur sleuth – ME! – 40s brunette
JACK CALLOWAY – detective – Jack Campbell, 40S, 5’10, brunet, mint green eyes, dimples, mole under left eye
ADDISON KELLY – detective, 5’8, 30s, brunette blonde, brown eyes
CRAIG THOMPSON – detective – Conrad Coleby, 30s, tall, blond, fit
HUGH SINCLAIR – inspector – Robert Coleby
HEATH TOMLIN – constable
GRANT GARRISON – constable
ELLIOT WINSTON – CSI
MELVIN GRIFFITH – coroner
SAVANNAH ROSSITER – Mac’s personal assistant – blond, average height, slim. Wears white and heels.
MORGAN – Mac’s Fashion empire business manager
MARGARET THOMPSON – Craig’s mother
BOB THOMPSON – Craig’s father
DIANE WESTON – real estate agent dating Jack
CASH CARSON – host of TV breakfast show, Every Morning – Logie winner – early 40s
KITTY EASTON – host of TV breakfast show, Every Morning – early 30s
CHASE KENDRICK – weather presenter of TV breakfast show, Every Morning
BOWEN EASTWICK – sports presenter of TV breakfast show, Every Morning – 32, drug addict
DICK SPRINGFIELD – producer of TV breakfast show, Every Morning – tall, broad, bald
RILEY HARDISON – director of TV breakfast show, Every Morning – infantile 30s
VERONICA BROOKS – host of TV breakfast show, Daily – 40s
TATTY WESTAWAY – actress – 20s – blonde, scrawny, underweight
AURORA LUNA – actress on Hampstead Street – 20s – brunette
CATALINA COLEMAN – actress – 20s – redhead
BRENNAN CALLAHAN – 6 foot, muscular, good looking, brunet, Irish
TATIANA GOLDSMITH – actress – honey blonde, up herself, scrag
REEF FALCON – singer – 6 feet, golden brown hair, blue eyes
MURRAY PITCOLE – producer for the same network as Cash – balding, prescription glasses
ROMAN RODERICK – bigwig money hungry arsehole – mentioned
GINO VITTORIO – restaurant owner – Italian
KITTY’S FRIEND
HOTEL MANAGER
HOTEL STAFF
