Susan Fleet-- Absolution

Susan Fleet : My life revolves around Music and Mayhem! Music was my first love. I began playing trumpet at eight, joined the musicians’ union at fifteen, and later studied with two Boston Symphony trumpeters. My print-journalist father taught me how to play pool at the local police station. Playing the Ringling Brothers Circus, Broadway shows, operas and symphonies yielded lots of ideas for offbeat characters, as did the students and faculty I met while teaching at Brown University, Wheaton College and Berklee College of Music.

The mayhem began when I took a course at Emerson College and fell in love with fiction writing. In 2001, I moved to New Orleans to focus on writing thrillers. But the music didn’t stop. You can hear samples of my solo CD, Baroque Treasures for Trumpet and Organ, on my website, and read my biographies of fabulous female instrumentalists. Lil Hardin Armstrong is currently featured. In 2010, I moved back to Massachusetts and live in a suburb of Boston.

ABSOLUTION: A twisted killer preys on young women in New Orleans, where everyone has something to hide. Some of the darkest secrets reside in a parish church. NOPD Detective Frank Renzi must battle racial tension and religious controversy to catch the killer before he murders another woman and gives her his twisted version of ABSOLUTION.
“Relentless tempo . . . sharp writing.” -- Kirkus Discoveries
“Creole-flavored suspense!”-- The Sun Chronicle

Q: What will e-readers like about your book?
The heart-pounding thrills and chills, of course. But I believe many women read books like mine as a way to manage their fears. They read newspapers and watch TV. Too many women are being murdered. Some of the killers go free. In my books, the bad guy always gets his in the end.
Q: Why did you go indie?
The publishing business model needs to change. Most agents will only take on a new novelist if they think the book will be a blockbuster. I believed in my book and decided to let the readers decide. Not only did it get some good reviews, the Premier Book Awards named ABSOLUTION Best Mystery-Suspense-Thriller of 2009, and Arts Journal called it A Killer Thriller.
Q: Who are your favorite authors?
Lisa Gardner, Michael Connolly, John Lutz, John Sandford, Patricia Cornwell. Elmore Leonard writes terrific crime capers; Thomas Perry’s Nightlife is terrific, and The Strangler, by William Landay is creepy!