Adriana Darling is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Genie and the Ghost, the first novel in the Adriana and Genie mystery series.

Welcome, Adriana. Let’s get started, shall we?

Tell us about the novel that you live inside. Is it part of a series? If so, please tell us about the series too.

Since this series was named for me, I hope it’s going to be a long one! It did take a bit of getting used to being the “Ghost” instead of Adriana Darling. But now I think it makes me sound mysterious, and I have to say that the cover does do me justice. I like to think as these books as a mix of cozy and exciting. After all, we all want to have fun, even those of us who are invisible to most other people. I’m glad I found the one person who can clap their peepers on me! The criminals we unmask, on the other hand, definitely don’t see me coming …

Does the writer control what happens in the story, or do you get a say too?

A word to the wise: Always let the author believe she’s in control. It took me a week until Carmen let her guard down and I could whisper a few suggestions into her ears. It’s not my fault she was usually fast asleep until she heard me in her head. Otherwise, I’m not sure Carmen would have let me go traveling, or dancing! Although I’m sorry to tell you what you do nowadays is a drip compared to the ball we used to have! Charleston, jazz, Speakeasies (no bathtub gin for me, mind you, but I’ll take a glass of giggle water or a mimosa, if you have Champagne).

How did you evolve as the main character?

Like any self-respecting heroine, I grow and discover new interests in life. Or is it afterlife? Without me, Genie would be lost. Cleo, our cat, says so too. Sometimes we do wonder how that girl ever managed without me. That includes Genie’s love life as well, but you’ll have to stick around for the next books to see that.

Do you have any other characters you like sharing the story with? If so, why are you partial to them?

I adore my great-great-niece Genie, as difficult and slow on the uptake as she can be. It took her a little to understand that I’m neither helpless nor a drag.

And Cleo is the sweetest kitty you can think of. We instantly hit it off. She can be a tiny bit jealous when I come home from interviewing other cats or dogs, but then animals do love me! I’m not one to hog the spotlight, so I’m happy to share the story.

Genie believes I’m the sidekick. Applesauce! We’re partners in crime. The Detecting Darlings! Or does the Spooky Sleuths sound better?

What’s the place like where you find yourself in this story?

Cobblewood Cove is a town halfway between Boston and New York. It’s not big enough to be important, but it’s nice and friendly. I spend a lot of time at home. Apart from some terrible interior decorating the place was subjected too – talk about eyesores! – the Darling villa and most of Cobblewood Cove haven’t changed that much. If you want to discover the town history, come, and visit the local museum. If Fred Ward is doing the tour, ask him about the “Daredevil” Darling. That’s my mom Rosalind. I miss her, and my dad, my sister Belle, and my little brother. I wish they could be here too.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about you and the book?

Let’s just say, now that I’m back, I intend to have as much fun as I can. And any thug that’s going to spoil it, or who so much as touches a hair on Genie’s head, will find out what it means to be haunted! This ghostly sleuth is here to stay.

Thank you for answering my questions, Adriana, and good luck to you and your author, Carmen Radtke, with Genie and the Ghost, the first book in the Adriana and Genie mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Adriana and her author, Carmen Radtke by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook and Amazon Author pages. You can also follow her on Twitter.

The novel is available online at  Amazon

About Carmen Radtke: Carmen has spent most of her life with ink on her fingers and a dangerously high pile of books and newspapers by her side. She has worked as a newspaper reporter on two continents and always dreamt of becoming a novelist and screenwriter. When she found herself crouched under her dining table, typing away on a novel between two earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, she realised she was hooked for life.

The shaken but stirring novel made it to the longlist of the Mslexia competition, and her next book and first mystery, The Case Of The Missing Bride, was a finalist in the Malice Domestic competition in a year without a winner. Since then she has penned several more cozy mysteries, including the Jack and Frances series set in the 1930s. Genie and the Ghost is her first paranormal cozy mystery. Carmen now lives in Italy with her human and her four-legged family.