Notes from the Bench

Fixed to Death is out next Tuesday. A fuller look at the book, how the pre-order reaches you on release day, and where the launch note goes out.

A customer had said the woman weighed heavy, and the talk went round the town a day before her scale reached my bench. She wanted it checked, not defended, and the weights had an answer that ran the other way from the accusation.

A repair ticket has four fields, always in the same order, and I ran my own working life on the same form before I ever gave it to a detective. The last field asks what the fix cost, and in a mystery that cost is never only parts and hours.

A repair café is a hall, some borrowed tables, and a line of toasters waiting to be fixed for nothing. They are the most cheerful rooms I know, and I gave my fictional town one and put my sleuth behind the counter.

Pre-orders for Fixed to Death are open, and the cover is the premise in one image, a mended cash register set in a lit shop window.

The case had not come down off that cabinet in years. The boy knew it for a fact, and he built his whole plan around it.