|
CORRIDOR
OF MYSTERY |
DARK CORRIDORS Vol. 1, No. 17 |
 Lorie Ham |
Ron MIller interviews lorie ham author of "Murder in Four Part Harmony" |
Gospel singer Lorie Ham starts
a new career as mystery writer
By
RON MILLER
of TheColumnists.com
In the small town of Donlyn in California's San Joaquin Valley,
a very well-known, but almost universally disliked scam artist
wakes from a restless sleep and almost immediately realizes he's
dying.
"I can't die without my toupee," he tells himself as
he gasps for air and clutches his heart. "They can't find
me without my hair."
But they do. What's more, they discover he didn't die of an asthma
attack, as originally believed. Highly allergic to penicillin,
he died from taking a lethal dose of the drug--and the local
cops think they know who gave it to him: Jerry Web, a member
of one of the most famous families in the history of American
gospel music.
That's devastating news to Alexandra Walters, who didn't even
know Jerry was in her town. She finds out when he calls her from
jail, where he's being held for questioning as the leading suspect
in the dead man's murder. His presence is a disquieting event
for Alexandra for a lot of reasons, but the primary one is that
she once was in love with him--until she discovered he already
was married. That was years ago and now Alexandra is a single
mom, her own subsequent marriage long over. What can Jerry want
with her now?
"You're the only real friend I have in town," the message on her recorder says.
That's the auspicious start of "Murder in Four Part Harmony" (AmErica House, $19.95), the first novel by Lorie Ham, who's almost certainly the only gospel singer who also happens to be a mystery writer. Quite naturally, she has set this good-natured little murder mystery in the widely-popular, but generally little known world of gospel music.
"It is fiction," she insists. "You won't recognize anybody because there isn't any one person I modelled a character on outright, but there are bits and pieces of lots of people I've known."
Ham is aware she isn't painting an idyllic picture of the gospel music business in her first novel, but she's comfortable that people will understand there's good and bad in every profession, even one that deals in what many consider the Lord's music.
What exactly does she tell us that might be disturbing to gospel fans? Basically, that the gospel circuit isn't that far removed from the regular pop music business--with its female groupies, money-grubbing performers and one-night-stand sexuality. Her main character, like Ham, used to tour with a group and did it long enough to realize spending that much time on the road can break a person down, both physically and spiritually. Like her Alexandra Walters, Ham now performs mostly as a solo act, picking and choosing her dates, generally in California, on weekends.
Unlike Ham, though, Alexandra has had some experience as a reserve police officer, so she's capable of doing a little amateur detective work from time to time. Once she decides her former boy friend is innocent of the murder, she agrees to do what she can to help him. Because the local cops think they have a solid case against Jerry, though, that means she's going to have to find the real killer--with the help of the man she's currently dating, the town's only private detective.
Ham knows her novel wouldn't appeal to most gospel fans if she made it too violent or sexy, but she also knows the general mystery audience isn't going to want characters who preach religion while sorting through clues. Consequently, there isn't any gratuitous violence, even when "Alex" ends up alone with the murderer at the climax--and there isn't anything sexually explicit to get the censors worked up either.
"She's not going to sleep with anybody unless I decide to marry her off," Ham says of her hero, who's set to appear in other mysteries if this first one is successful.
For Ham, writing has become a second career. She pursued the first one--gospel music--about as far as she wanted to take it without tearing up the rest of her life to accomodate the demands of trying to take it further. She's been singing religious music since she was five and wrote her first song at age 13. She has recorded a dozen albums, including two solo albums featuring mostly her own songs, and has worked on national and international religious television and radio broadcasts.
Yet she also has been working at her writing for quite a while. She's been writing for a local newspaper for several years and during the past two years has published three mystery short stories in Cozy Detective Mystery Magazine. She's married and the mother of two children, living in the farming community of Reedley in California's Central Valley--the town where she was born and raised.
Naturally, Ham has been careful about drawing too many characters directly from her friends and neighbors in Reedley, which is, after all, a small town where everyone knows everyone else. The town itself, though, is the model for Donlyn, the fictional town where Alexandra lives--and there is one character drawn directly from life.
"That's Alexandra's daughter, Jessica," says Ham. "She's pretty much my own daughter, Jessica."
(The real Jessica, who likes to help her mom come up with ideas for her stories, thinks it's really neat to be a character in a book.)
In today's intensely competitive marketplace for books, it isn't likely "Murder in Four Part Harmony" will become a bestseller, but it fits neatly into the traditional "cozy" detective story format and has a truly unique hero because she's a professional singer. When she indulges her fantasies, Ham likes to think it might make an excellent vehicle for a singer like Amy Grant if she's looking for an acting showcase that also would give her a chance to sing.
Meanwhile, Ham is happy with the results of all the writing and re-writing she did over the last several years to produce her first novel. And it has already passed one crucial test.
"My mom read it and really liked it," says Ham.
© 2000 by Ron Miller
READERS WHO WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT LORIE HAM CAN CHECK OUT HER WEBSITE BY CLICKING HERE: LORIE HAM. HER BOOK IS AVAILABLE BY CLICKING HERE: MURDER IN FOUR PART HARMONY
Home About Us Archives Talkback Shopping Mall