Petra Cloch is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Death at Rock Bottom, the latest novel in the Reluctantly Psychic murder mystery series.

Welcome, Petra. 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.

I’m in The Reluctant Psychic series, which pretty much tells you about me. I have psychometry, which means I can pick up an object and read emotions left behind by other people. I don’t want to, but I can’t control it.

I started a new job in a small New Mexico town, curating the geology wing of a weird private museum. My predecessor there died under circumstances no one else found suspicious, but I picked up a rock in his office and had a vision of violence. That experience was detailed in A Stone Cold Murder.

You’d think dealing with one violent death would be enough for a lifetime, but no. Supposedly Frank Underwood died of natural causes while hiking in the desert, but since this is a murder mystery series, you know that can’t be true. Then his wife showed up claiming Frank had found something incredible in the desert, but nobody knows what it was or where it is now. Oh, and he was rambling about aliens? I might mind my own business, but my new friend Liberty wants to find out what happened to her late friend, and I owe her, so I got dragged into a new problem. You can read about it in Death at Rock Bottom.

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

She shoves me into situations or throws problems at me, and I have to deal with them. How is that fair?

How did you evolve as the main character?

Most of the people I was close to when younger betrayed me, so I’ve been closed off to friendship for the last 15 years. But now my new colleagues are dragging me out to lunch and inviting me to a book club, where I’m meeting more interesting women. They seem to like me? Or at least they’re ready to like me, if I don’t screw it up.

That doesn’t mean I’m ready to let everyone know I have a psychic power, but it turns out friendship is nice. I learned the term “found family” from one of the book club books. (We do actually read some, not just drink wine, eat great snacks, and occasionally solve murders.) It’s possible I’m finding a family here. That’s both terrifying and wonderful.

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

When I investigated my first murder in Bonneville, I wound up telling a new friend and colleague about my psychic power. That wasn’t too incredibly difficult, for a couple of reasons. First, Liberty sees auras, so she probably wouldn’t think I was insane or lying about having psychometry. Second, I needed her help right away, so I didn’t have time to overthink and second-guess the decision to tell her. And it was actually okay!

But it’s been getting harder to keep my secret from my other new friends. I don’t have much practice being an adult friend, but I’m pretty sure a good one doesn’t keep secrets like that. It would be different if I never used my psychic power, but I can’t help it. If I touch something, I generally get information from it, and that seems like unfair insight into people. It’s hard to hang out with people and never touch anything of theirs. Imagine going to someone’s house and refusing to sit in a chair or touch a glass.

So my choice is to take a big risk and let people see the real me, or avoid human contact forever. Honestly, I’m not sure which sounds worse. 

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

Bonneville is a small town, around 2,000 people, in southeastern New Mexico. It has desert, grasslands, and mountains nearby. I could do without the summer heat, but otherwise it’s great. I work at the Banditt Museum, a quirky private museum run by Peyton Banditt, who seems to think he’ll secure his place in history by turning this little tourist attraction into a respected museum. My comfort zone would involve fewer strangers coming through every day, but mainly I’m happy to be employed. There aren’t a lot of jobs for someone who doesn’t like talking to people or handling objects.

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

I don’t really like to talk about myself, so I’ll let some readers of A Stone Cold Murder add their comments.

“Petra is such a compelling lead. Her psychometry isn’t just a plot device—it’s a curse that’s shaped her entire life… And her journey from isolation to finally letting people in? Perfection.”

“…what truly resonated with me was Petra’s emotional journey. Her anxiety about being discovered, her cautious approach to forming friendships, and her affection for her pets (the cats! the ferrets! my heart!) made her character incredibly relatable. I found myself laughing, gasping, and perhaps shedding a tear or two.”

“The prose is sharp, the mystery is addictive, and Petra’s journey is one I won’t forget. If you love atmospheric thrillers with a deeply human core, you need this book.”

In the Reluctant Psychic Mystery series, a quirky loner who can read the history of any object with her touch gets drawn into mysteries at the museum of oddities where she works.

A Stone Cold Murder (A Reluctant Psychic Murder Mystery book 1): Petra Cloch starts working at a quirky private museum in smalltown New Mexico. When she picks up a rock in her new office, she feels flashes of rage, fear and death. Everyone says her predecessor died in a car crash, but what if he was murdered? If he died because of the job, she could be next.

Death at Rock Bottom (A Reluctant Psychic Murder Mystery book 2): Petra gets drawn into another mystery after the death of a retired petroleum engineer and rockhound who died while hiking. Frank acted odd in his last weeks, whispering about aliens. Was he showing the first signs of dementia, or were more sinister forces at work? Petra’s book club becomes a crime-fighting club, but Petra must use her psychic gift and her brains to fight through the clues along with her newfound family.

Thank you for answering my questions, Petra, and good luck to you and your author, Kris Bock, with Death at Rock Bottom, the latest book in the Reluctantly Psychic murder mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Petra and her author, Kris Bock by visiting the author’s website and her Goodreads, Bookbub, Mastodon and BlueSky pages.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

Publisher – Amazon – B&N – Apple – Kobo – Google Play – GoodReads

About Kris Bock: Kris Bock writes mystery, suspense, and romance, often with Southwestern landscapes. In the Accidental Detective humorous mystery series, a witty journalist solves mysteries in Arizona and tackles the challenges of turning fifty. This humorous series starts with Something Shady at Sunshine Haven, which made Barnes & Noble’s list of “Handpicked Favorites You’ll Love!” Kris’s romantic suspense novels include stories of treasure hunting, archaeology, and intrigue. Readers have called these novels “Smart romance with an Indiana Jones feel.”

Learn more about Kris’s books or sign up for the Kris Bock newsletter and get an Accidental Detective short story and other freebies. Then every two weeks, you’ll get fun content about pets, announcements of new books, sales, and more. As for Kris’s romance stories, the Furrever Friends Sweet Romance series stars the employees and customers at a cat café. Watch as they fall in love with each other and shelter cats. In the Accidental Billionaire Cowboys series, a Texas ranching family wins a fortune in the lottery, which causes as many problems as it solves.