Please join us in welcoming Mary Burton to Book Binge. We’re delighted to have her join us to discuss why she loves carnivals. Take it away, Mary!!!
One of the backdrops in BEFORE SHE DIES is the carnival. It’s the fall. The air is crisp and the carnival has just set up near Alexandria. It is an exciting time for many but for my heroine Charlotte Wellington the carnival brings bad memories of a past she wants to forget.
When I was a kid I looked forward to the arrival of the carnival. The lights. The clowns. The Ferris wheel that made me a little dizzy. The ring toss I could never win. I loved smell of caramel popcorn and the funnel cakes. I could not wait to visit this magical place.
However, I could never quite understand why my parents didn’t love these visits. My dad
grumbled about the characters lurking about. My mom talked about the dirt and grime. They
saw what I didn’t see when I was a child. They saw the darker side of the carnival.
Now as an adult I understand exactly what they were saying. In the light of day without the
night and the sparkling bright lights, it’s easy to see the chipped paint, the worn equipment and
the tired faces of the workers. It can be as rough as it is magical.
A carnival also is the perfect foil for a villain. Bad guys can wear one face in public and much
darker one in private. It is the light and dark, good and evil contrast of the carnival that I love so
much. And why it is the perfect setting for BEFORE SHE DIES.
MARY BURTON
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary Burton’s romantic suspense novels include the just published Before She Dies, her two earlier Alexandria, Virginia set novels Senseless and
Merciless, and her thrillers Dying Scream, Dead Ringer and I’m Watching You. All have been published as paperback originals by Zebra Books.
A Virginia native whose family’s Richmond roots run as deep as the nation’s, Mary was born, raised in, and raised her own family there. She graduated from Hollins University and began a career in marketing before writing her first novel, a historical romance, published in 2000. Eleven more novels and three novellas for Harlequin followed. In total, she has written nineteen novels and four novellas.
She is a graduate of the Henrico County Citizens Police Academy and the Richmond FBI Citizen’s Academy, and has participated in Sisters in Crime’s Forensic University program and the Writers Police Academy in Jamestown, North Carolina, where she attended seminars on undercover work, autopsies, and the theories behind why people kill.
When not killing people—the total is upwards of a dozen now—or researching, Mary can be found
pursuing her second love, baking, practicing Astanga yoga, enjoying her family, playing with her miniature dachshunds Buddy and Bella, or pursuing her Baking & Pastry Arts Certificate at the University of Richmond.
Mary Burton writes full time. Her next suspense novel is The Seventh Victim, which will be published in February 2013.
BEFORE SHE DIES
Mary Burton
Zebra Books/Mass Market Original/Fiction
February 2012/On Sale 1-31-12
Mary Burton has a winner here.
I wish her the best a real page turner, it is my wish list.
cenya2 at hotmail dot com