A vintage mystery, no forensics, no computers, just intuition and hard work to solve the crime with. In such a modern world, these old school mysteries are the kind that can revive adventure and excitement, bringing back more of the mystery in mysteries.

Hello, my name is Erin Roach. I am a self-published author of 1930s vintage style mysteries, mainly murder mysteries. 

I have always loved mysteries. Growing up I would read them and do my best to solve the mystery before the end of the book. If I failed, I would reread and try to figure out what I missed that could have helped me guess the solution. Eventually, I not only read the mysteries, I began to take them apart in my head and then piece them back together in the way I thought they should have been. And in some cases, in ways I thought would be better than what had actually been written. This was no bad reflection on the authors who created the books, just my imaginative mind wanting to put the puzzle together in a different way.

And it was always the vintage mysteries that held my attention and that I would read over and over again. There was nothing wrong with a modern mystery story, except to me they just seemed too easy to find the solutions to.

So, when I decided to write a mystery, I chose the 1930s America. I knew alot about this time period from books and old black and white movies. 

And that is where Ira Wakely came into being.

Ira Wakely was to be my version of Sherlock Holmes. But he was going to be different in character, demeanor, background, etc. When I  say he was to be my version of Holmes, I mean that he was to be mysterious, clever and hard to get close to, with his share of unknown enemies of course.

My first mystery, Ira Wakely, Murder in Oak Valley, was as thrilling for me to write as it would have been if I had been reading a new book. Which, in a sense, I was. Except this book changed a great deal as it was being created. I was a bit surprised at this because I had it laid out in my head and on paper as to how the mystery would go, who would get murdered, the how the why, everything. But I found, the longer I wrote, that the story shifted and even the characters took on traits I hadn't planned for.

Ira Wakely shows up in Oak Valley seven years after a botched trial for a jewel thief. Wakely works at the local newspaper and is apparently a stuttering, not too bright reporter. That is until a local woman decides to display some fabulous jewels left to her by her husband, a former lawyer. 

One thing leads to another and as murders begin happening, Ira Wakely realizes that he wasn't the only one trying to track down who took the jewels and left a man they were supposed to help in prison. 

Each book of the Ira Wakely series sheds a little more light on the mystery man and he soon comes to realize that the murders taking place in this sleepy town are because of him. He has many enemies and one in particular has decided to make Ira's life very difficult.

This is just a brief summary of the first book. So far there are 7 books in the Ira Wakely series with number 8 coming out this September.

Ira Wakely Books in order:

Ira Wakely, Murder in Oak Valley

Ira Wakely, Murder at the Roach Plantation

Ira Wakely, Murdered Past

Ira Wakely, Last Will and Murder

Ira Wakely, Murderous Admiration

Ira Wakely, Whispers of Murder

Ira Wakely, Marionette Murders

All of these books were drastically different once completed than what I had planned on. I loved seeing how much changed and really how much better the book was when I was done than how it would have been if I'd stuck rigidly to the first outline. At least, this was the case with the Ira Wakely mysteries. My second mystery series, starting with Seven Men Minus One, was a completely different puzzle.

The Seven Men series focus is on a young woman in 1930s England, Joan Castor/Hawtrey. She is a rather neglected niece of a man who is brutally murdered. When trying to save her uncle she inadvertently gets drawn into a web of vigilante style judgement and justice by a mysterious figure who goes by the name of Atticus. 

He claims to have been a victim of a group of seven men who make murder their pastime. Atticus wants revenge and begins to manipulate Joan in order to use her to carry out parts of his plan.

This series does require me to stick more to the outline because of the complexity of the story. Everything has to flow together just right and follow a complicated diagram that I created at the end of the first book. But it is just the kind of story I would have enjoyed as I cultivated a love for mysteries. So, I am glad that I am able to offer it to others. 

If there are any fellow mystery lovers reading this that need a new series be sure to check me out on Amazon. All my books are there and reviews would be most welcomed.

Happy reading!