Mystery Mondays: My work in progress: Bebe Bollinger’s next adventure

I’ve got good news for those of you who read “The Body in the Snow” and warmed to my characters Bebe Bollinger and Beth Cooper. They are back and are hopefully coming to a kindle near you very soon.

This morning I came to 

 

 

 

 

of the first draft, which means the plot and all the basics are finished and done with. I know now who did it and my 75,000 words are ready to be edited, test read and edited again, formatted and then released.

As my last blog post mentioned I’ve chosen a real life event as background:

The Eurovision Song Contest.

This is an odd event with 42 countries presenting one song each and picking the winner in a very obscure and nerdy voting ceremony that has cult status on its own.
The contest has a tradition of over 60 years and has changed from pure chanson to more modern tunes. Main stream media tend not to take it too seriously but the combined TV audience around the globe is 1 billion people.

I’ve been a fan since the 80ies and so I guess it was inevitable that I would write such a novel at some point. I’ve attended one of those contests myself. In order to avoid any law suits I will need to change a lot of the details from the original draft. Having spent a few days reflecting on how to do this I had fortunately a few really good ideas and I’m looking forward to implementing those changes and rewrites.

The plot:

Bebe Bollinger still got her mind on a serious revival of her faded singing career. Since “The Body in the Snow” things have improved but there is always scope for bigger and better, and Bebe wants nothing less than the best.

Sometimes the best available is not the best overall. In show business compromises, persistence and luck are all required to make it big. A chance encounter on a cruise ship, death threats and amateurish but consistent attacks on Eurovision participants drag Bebe into the sphere of the competition that only the year before had been denied her.

Once again combining her talent for crime solving and her passion for music, Bebe joins the gathering of media, music professionals, hopeful newcomers and celebrities in Sweden, in tow her side-kick former police woman Elizabeth.

It’s been a while since I’ve written original materials and I had an absolute blast. I can’t wait to show it to beta readers and hear what they are thinking of it.

Watch this apce and have a happy Monday everyone.

My Review of The Body In The Snow: A Bebe Bollinger Murder Mystery (Bebe Bollinger Murder Mysteries Book 1) by Christoph Fischer #bookreview

Posted on January 7, 2017

Book Description

Fading celebrity Bebe Bollinger is on the wrong side of fifty and dreaming of a return to the limelight. When a TV show offers the chance of a comeback, Bebe grabs it with both hands – not even a lazy agent, her embarrassing daughter, irritating neighbours or a catastrophic snowfall will derail her moment of glory. But when a body is found in her sleepy Welsh hamlet, scandal threatens. 
Detective Sergeant Beth Cooper has a string of unsolved cases to her name. Her girlfriend left her and she’s a fish out of water in rural West Wales. Things couldn’t get much worse – until the case of the Body in The Snow lands in her lap.

Can Beth solve the case and save her career and can Bebe make her comeback? All will be revealed in this light-hearted, cosy murder mystery by best-selling and award winning historical and crime fiction novelist Christoph Fischer.

 

Buying  Links:

Amazon.co.uk:http://amzn.to/2hW0Yzg

Amazon.com:http://amzn.to/2iMXdvm

Top customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A cracking mystery.

By Ann Stanmore on 5 Jan. 2017

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

A very enjoyable book. With a fantastic cast of characters plus humour, murder, romance this is a cracking mystery.

Living in the same Welsh hamlet we have Bebe, a retired singer trying to make a comeback, Ian, everyone’s helpful handyman, his snooty nosed wife Christine plus Dora, a divorcee. Barely tolerating each other in normal times, when the hamlet becomes snowbound tension begins to rise, more so when a body is found!

Then we have the troubled detective Beth on the scene to add to the mix. All of these characters are brought vividly to life and we find ourselves drawn in. Oh and did I mention Bebe’s daughter and boyfriend plus the murder victim ?

Plenty to keep you guessing with many twists and turns along the way as Beth tries to solve the case.

This is a really good murder mystery and definitely worth a read.

 

5.0 out of 5 starsAnother triumph by Christoph.

By Robi Kemp on 3 May 2017

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Once again, Christoph writes a riveting and driven story. Full of drama, plot twists and brilliant characters. This is now the fourth book I’ve read of his and it’s by no means the last.
I can’t wait to see more mysteries involving Bebe and Beth.
Highly recommended.

 

5.0 out of 5 starsGold Star First Cozy

By Noelle on 8 April 2017

Format: Kindle Edition

An excellent writer, Christoph Fischer, just ventured into the domain of the cozy mystery with The Body in the Snow. So of course I had to read the book!
The book has three distinct parts: the first is the crime, brief but graphically suggested.
The second is really what I’d call a chick lit piece because it describes the residents in three country cottages in Llangurrey in Wales, an idyllic but remote setting. It begins eight days before the crime and the reader is first introduced to the residents of the three cottages through the eyes of Bebe Bollinger – who will clearly be back in subsequent books since this is a Bebe Bollinger mystery. Bebe is an egocentric, past-her-prime chanteuse who awakens to a continuous heavy snowfall that has closed businesses and schools and all the area roads, cutting her and her neighbors off from the rest of civilization. Bebe is a hoot, in my opinion, so aware of her image that she doesn’t buy enough food to see her through the storm because she refused to be seen emptying shelves in the local market. I loved the image of her emerging from her house during the snow storm in her mink coat and fur Russian-style hat with high heel leather boots. Her main connection to the outside world is her daughter Helena, to whom she barely relates. One of her neighbors is Dora, ten years younger than Bebe, a stunning and colorful woman recently divorced from the scion of a wealthy, local family. The third set of neighbors are Ian and Christine. Ian is friendly and gregarious when his wife is not around; Christine is, to put it nicely, a bitch. She complains to her neighbors about all sort of things – putting their garbage bins out too early, parking to close to the space in front of her cottage. Roughly a third of the book is devoted to developing these characters in caustically humorous detail and exploring their relationships, which allows the reader to consider who might have done the crime, when the body in the snow is finally found.
The third part of the book begins when the body is identified as the wife of a man currently engaged in a public affair with Helena. He, Helena and the wife have visited Bebe at one time or other. But the body is found in front of Ian and Christine’s cottage, and the rest of the book is devoted to the investigation of Detective Sergeant Beth Cooper. Cooper is a gay alcoholic on the wrong side of thirty, who is given the case by her superior because he is convinced she is in a downward spiral – and this case will seal her fate. Her girlfriend has recently left her and things couldn’t get much worse, until she begins her investigation of the body in the snow.
In the midst of all this weaves Bebe’s attempted comeback to the music scene, the oddly toxic relationship of Ian and Christine, Helena’s in-her-mother’s-face relationship with her married boyfriend, and the flamboyant Dora, who had an argument with the victim.
I truly believed at one point that the duck out of water Cooper would be unable to solve this ‘who dunnit,’ a powerful statement to the convincing characterizations of the author. Tension and personality clashes add to the seemingly disconnected threads of the mystery. Thank heavens he ties it all up in convincing fashion!
For a first dip in the cozy field, this award-winning historical and crime fiction writer has taken the gold. I highly recommend this book for an intriguing and never boring read!

Advertisement