I met Radine Trees Nehring several years ago after I first started writing my mysteries. I was attending Writers’ Conferences that year to promote my books. We hit it off immediately, perhaps because she, too, writes a mystery series based on travel. Her protagonist visits Arkansas’ many tourist destinations where she subsequently becomes involved in a mystery she helps solve. These fun and charming stories always challenge and relax me. When I finish one I feel I’ve taken a trip to the beautiful sites Arkansas offers. At any rate, Radine apparently likes my stories too and the other day she posted this on a reader’s site on-line and sent me this copy which I’m going to share with you.

Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2011 17:09:29 -0500
From: Radine Trees Nehring
Subject: CARNAGE GOES COASTAL CARNAGE GOES COASTAL, the latest addition to Gayle Wigglesworth’s Claire Gulliver mystery series, is, to me, more suspense/thriller than cozy mystery, though the background is traditional cozy. (Keep in mind I’m waffling here, since I find it very difficult to define just what each division in the genre means.) I hope I’m not stating a spoiler when I say this time it’s Jack Rallins’s adult daughter Karen who’s in trouble. This is deep enough trouble that someone is trying to kill her, and isn’t at all concerned if “side damage” to the inept murder attempts take out twenty more innocent people. Those familiar with this terrific series know that Claire Gulliver and Jack Rawlins have been in love for some time, but his profession–in the CIA–keeps him traveling so much that wedding plans have been on hold. (Think Mrs. Pollifax in a masculine form.) However, now Jack is changing jobs so he can stay closer to home, and their wedding is planned for the near future. But Jack is off on a last assignment when Karen, terrified by the attempts on her life, calls to ask him what to do, and gets Claire instead. As series’ readers know, Claire has been involved in more than one dangerous event in the past, and, in Jack’s absence, she immediately steps in to save Karen. The story of how she accomplishes this is one reason I see suspense/thriller in this novel. It’s full of heart-pounding fast action. Claire’s rapidly concocted plan to save Karen Rallins is as exciting as that in any James Bond novel, though, of course, she doesn’t have access to the clever gimmicks and inventions he uses. For a time Karen is relatively safe at Claire’s home, but along the way the killer(s?) pursuing her have murdered several more people in attempts to get to her. And now, they’re after both Claire and Karen. The big unknown is: Why is someone so anxious to see Karen dead? True, she has given birth to a son, the result of a disastrous love affair with a married man who has political ambitions, but Karen has disappeared out of his life and– well, surely he knows she’s no threat to him? In the meantime, by the time Jack returns, Claire and Karen have bonded, and “baby Jack” is drawing everyone’s love and attention as babies most often do. The story advances to the heart-pounding level again when hired killers locate Karen, Claire, and baby Jack and, for a time, the reader wonders how they can possibly escape the advancing threat. In the Acknowledgements section that precedes this story, Gayle Wigglesworth says the book was very difficult to write because she “had written Claire into a moral dilemma” and that stopped her cold in the middle of the story. Eventually, however, she was able to plunge ahead, and wrote through the problem–very successfully. Of what I assume to be her “moral dilemma” I will only comment that, more than once, I have heard women who were asked if they could ever kill another human say: “Only if that person were threatening my child.” (End of comment.) Read the novel and see what happens next.

CARNAGE GOES COASTAL.
Highly recommended.
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You may want to look for Radine’s books and see what you think.

Late in April, while on a trip to Seattle WA and Medford OR, I dropped in on my niece, Leslie Haze, who is a disc jockey on Radio Medford and Soft Rock Lite 102. Leslie is a fan of Claire Gulliver and had just finished reading Claire’s newest mystery, Carnage Goes Coastal. So of course we discussed the book on the air. And more important, Leslie loves Gayle’s Legacy and uses many of the recipes as well as recommends it to all her friends. Click on the link below to hear the interview. And if you can get Radio Medford, tune in some day, as I’m sure you’ll enjoy listening to her.

Radio interview with Lesile Haze

By, Trilla Cook


‘Carnage goes Coastal’ – a new book for Kingwood author

– Wigglesworth pens sixth Claire Gulliver series novel –


  Kingwood resident Gayle Wigglesworth recently released her sixth novel in the Claire Gulliver Mysteries series, “Carnage Goes Coastal,” which is published by Koenisha Publications.

  Wigglesworth created a character, Claire Gulliver, travel enthusiast and bookstore owner, and throughout her six novels about Claire, this character experiences many dangerous mystery-solving adventures.

  In her latest novel “Carnage Goes Coastal,” Claire, is about to embark on the “happily ever after” chapter in her life with retired CIA agent, Jack Rallins. Little does she know that the chaos to ensue would involve Jack’s daughter, Karen.

  In this excerpt, Karen has been trying to convince herself that no one is trying to kill her (and the baby she is carrying), but what happened next convinced her otherwise.


  “When she reached the city she decided to splurge on a taxi. At her corner she handed the driver the fare, wrestled her wheelie bag to the curb, leaned over to pull up the handle and then turned to cross the street to her building.

  She froze in her tracks. Where she expected to see her building, she saw a temporary chain link fence, rooted in blocks of cement, enclosing the blackened remains of a destroyed building. The third floor, her floor, wasn’t even there. She sagged against the handle of the wheelie bag, gasping, trying to breathe as her brain struggled to take in what her eyes saw. Her apartment was gone! The building was destroyed.

  She didn’t know how long she stood staring at the ruins before turning away to trudge down the street.”

  In her desperation, after several suspicious events, Karen calls her father, but when was he, a CIA agent, ever around when she needed him? However, much to her relief, this time when she calls a woman answers and offers Karen hope.”


  It’s a mystery why anyone would trade life in the corporate world for mystery writing, but that’s exactly what Gayle Wigglesworth did. After 40 years in the banking industry, Wigglesworth was determined to turn her mystery writing ideas into award-winning masterpieces. She gave up her highly regarded corporate position in banking to follow her dream. She has now solved half a dozen mysteries with Claire.

  “A while back it seemed that there were several stories in the papers about pregnant women who were killed by their husbands before the babies were born,” said Wigglesworth. “I just couldn’t imagine why these men decided to get out of their marriage and parenthood in that way. It seemed so unnecessary in this day to solve their problem this way. I wanted to use it as a plot point and at the same time finalize some of the issues I had not resolved from previous adventures, so I activated Jack’s daughter’s role, Karen, in order to explore what could have happened. This plot is a stand-alone story, so a new reader doesn’t have to have read the previous books to enjoy this one. However, readers of the previous adventures will be pleased to have some of the open issues resolved to their satisfaction,” she said.

  The first five novels in the Claire Gulliver series include “Tea is for Terror,” “Washington Weirdos,” “Intrigue in Italics,” “Cruisin’ for a Bruisin” and “Malice in Mexico.” She has also published a stand-alone mystery novel about a pottery studio, which is titled “Mud to Ashes,” and a cookbook titled, “Gayle’s Legacy, Recipes, Hints and Stories Culled from a Lifelong Relationship with Food.”

  A former art student turned banker, Wigglesworth rose to senior vice president before she took an early retirement to write her mystery books. In addition to writing, she has spent many years in pottery studios perfecting her skill as a potter. She now spends her time writing, traveling, reading and being a grandma. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.

  When she isn’t writing new books or promoting her existing books, she is with her husband and visiting with her grandchildren.

For more information, visit Wigglesworth’s website at www.gaylewigglesworth.com.

Texas author Gayle Wigglesworth will sign and discuss the 6th book in her Claire Gulliver series, Carnage Goes Coastal(Koenisha; Paperback Original; $19.95). Claire is about to embark on the ‘happily ever after’ episode of her life with retired CIA agent, Jack Rallins. But, when you have children, ‘happily ever after’ seems only true in fairy tales. And whoever heard of a ‘retired’ spy? Karen Rallins has been living in New York City since graduating from college and prides herself on her city smarts and landing a great job with a future, until she becomes pregnant. At first, she’s furious, at herself for her stupidity, and at her boyfriend for his duplicity. Now, she’s terrified. Someone is trying to murder her. Desperate, Karen calls her father, but when was he, a CIA agent, ever around when she needed him? However, this time when she calls, instead of her father a woman answers, and she offers hope.

Posted Jun 7th
Okay, that’s it. The 6th book in the Claire Gulliver series went to the publisher today. Hopefully, it will be available to everyone by Sept. This one was a struggle, perhaps you remember me saying I wrote her into a moral delimna which was hard to solve…but it’s done. I love it, it brought me to tears. Hurray!