Mystery Novelist Puts the FUN in Funeral
In today’s episode, we meet Mark de Castrique, author of 18 mystery novels, in two mystery series, and a number of short stories, too.
Mark is well-versed in the mystery genre and shares his years of knowledge about what makes for a good mystery. He reads from the most recent book in his Buryin’ Barry mystery series and in his Sam Blackman mystery series, and he also reads a creative non-fiction piece set on a farm of his youth near the Charlotte airport that involves a farmer joining the circus.
Charlotte Readers Podcast is sponsored by Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
In today’s episode, we meet Mark deCastrique, author of 18 mystery novels, in two mystery series, and a number of short stories, too.
Mark is well-versed in the mystery genre and shares his years of knowledge about what makes for a good mystery. He reads from the most recent book in his Buryin’ Barry mystery series and in his Sam Blackman mystery series, and he also reads a creative non-fiction piece set on a farm of his youth near the Charlotte airport that involves a farmer joining the circus.
We start first with Mark reading from Chapter 1 of “Secret Undertaking,” a Buryin’ Barry mystery.
Author Mark de Castrique was born in Hendersonville, NC, near Asheville and went straight from the hospital to the funeral home where his father was the funeral director and the family lived upstairs. The unusual setting sparked his popular Barry Clayton series (Buryin’ Barry) and launched his mystery-writing career.
His novels have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. The Chicago Tribune wrote, “As important and as impressive as the author’s narrative skills are the subtle ways he captures the geography – both physical and human – of a unique part of the American South.”
Mark is a veteran of the broadcast and film production business. In Washington D.C., he directed numerous news and public affairs programs and received an EMMY Award for his documentary film work. His years in Washington inspired two DC thrillers, one involving a terrorist plot against The Federal Reserve, and the other, a winner-take-all quest for Artificial Intelligence.
Mark lives in Charlotte, but he and his wife Linda can be often found in the NC mountains or the nation’s capital.