It All Started with Nancy Drew by Misa Ramirez

Mysteries are close to my heart. Okay, truthfully, books of any kind are close to my heart, but mysteries, in particular. The mystery can be large or small. It can be the central focus of the story, or play a supporting role. It really doesn’t matter to me the scope of the mystery, as long as there’s a puzzle.

My love of mysteries started, like most young girls of a certain age--ehem, we don’t need to talk about age, now, do we?--with Nancy Drew. From there I graduated straight to Agatha Christie. I have a distinct memory of going with my mom to our town’s library so she could check out the last Hercule Poirot novel, Curtain. She was crushed that it was to be Poirot’s last, and her love of his books influenced me to start reading them.

I spent almost all of my high school lunches in one classroom or another, reading.

Now, I should say that I’m a lightweight when it comes to these things. Horror movies and books are not for me. I threw Silence of the Lambs across the room once or twice while reading it, and I cover my eyes during certain parts of Dexter.

But I love the deduction.

So, of course, when my passion for writing grew until it couldn’t be denied, it was no surprise that it manifested itself in the form of mysteries. I began with the Lola Cruz mystery series, published initially with St. Martin’s Minotaur, and moving to a new publisher with the next three books in the series.

Then I wrote two romantic suspense novels, which, of course, have strong mystery elements. They are based on Mexican legends and will be published next year.

Finally, my cozies, A Magical Dressmaking mystery series with NAL, launches August 2nd with Pleating for Mercy.

Mystery, mystery, mystery. The characters. The communities. The crime. The puzzle. The deductions. The justice. All make for a satisfying read.

I’m particularly lucky to now be part of a dynamic publishing group. I’m the marketing director for the new boutique publisher, Entangled Publishing. In my role, I oversee marketing of a variety of books—romantic suspense and thrillers, paranormal, urban fantasy, and science fiction, most with that element of mystery that I love. There’s no better job, and I can’t wait for the release of our first titles in August.

I’d like to know what everyone loves most about mysteries, and how heavy the mystery element needs to be in books you read. Won’t you share?



Melissa Bourbon, who sometimes answers to her Latina-by-marriage name Misa Ramirez, gave up teaching middle and high school kids in Northern California to write full-time amidst horses and Longhorns in North Texas. She fantasizes about spending summers writing in quaint, cozy locales, has a love/hate relationship with yoga and chocolate, is devoted to her family, and can’t believe she’s lucky enough to be living the life of her dreams.


She is the marketing director at Entangled Publishing, is the author of the Lola Cruz Mystery series with St. Martin’s Minotaur, A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series with NAL, and is the co-author of The Tricked-out Toolbox and two romantic suspense titles to be released in 2012.

Visit Misa at misaramirez.com; thenakedhero.com; thewritersguidetoepublishing.com; entangledpublishing.com