Nancy G. West

Nancy_G._WestWrangling with aging, corraling crime, and riding off into the sunset...

Nancy G. West. Below right: the author on horseback as a young girl

I was in the middle of writing a serious suspense novel, Nine Days to Evil, when Aggie Mundeen, sitting near my protagonist in a college classroom, demanded my attention. Aggie said she wouldn’t let me finish the novel I was working on until I promised to write a series about her. Once Aggie planted herself in my brain, it was hard for me to finish that academic novel. I managed, but Aggie turned out to be correct: Her first mystery caper, Fit to Be Dead, was short-listed for Left Coast Crime’s 2013 Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery.

Why did Aggie capture my imagination? As the only “mature” college student in a class of twentysomethings, Aggie was terrified of only one thing: middle-age decrepitude. She anonymously wrote the column “Adventures in Staying Young.” Single, 40-ish, and having moved to Texas to start over, she figured that before anyone discovered she claimed to be an “expert” on perpetual youth, she’d better shape up. Thus, she’d enrolled in Aspects of Aging class and was struggling to get in shape at the local health club. After alienating club members and misusing workout equipment, Aggie stumbled into murder.

For the series to continue, Aggie had to bump into murder someplace else. I set her second mystery caper, Dang Near Dead, at a Texas dude ranch.

Nancy_on_horsebackWhy a dude ranch setting for Aggie’s second fiasco? Because, like many pubescent girls, I had loved horses. I’d even attended a working ranch camp in my youth. Where else could Aggie encounter wranglers with suspicious backgrounds, hapless dudes, heat, snakes, and poison ivy? I could hardly wait for Aggie to filter those characters and critters through her inimitable viewpoint. While Aggie got a crash course in oil drilling, water shortages, and secrets buried under 1,800 acres, she would advise her column readers on how to remain young and fresh while frolicking outdoors in summer. Once Aggie discovered that "home on the range" meant murder, I knew her innovative sleuthing methods would strain her dicey relationship with the San Antonio detective who was vacationing incognito at the ranch. When curiosity drove Aggie to probe a hornet’s nest of cowboys, I felt confident that more than one hombre in the bunch would love to slit her throat.

Ahhh. Ranch life held a bounty of opportunity for Aggie Mundeen. And poignant memories for me.

3 RANCHER TIPS FROM NANCY WEST

1. If you’re told to catch your horse inside a corral, avoid standing behind the rump. Your presence activates his hind legs!

2. Mount your horse from the correct side, or your horse will not like you. The horse thinks the “right” side is his left side.

3. If you camp overnight and feel frisky enough in the morning to initiate a meadow-muffin war, make sure the cow-patty Frisbees are thoroughly dry.

DangNearDeadEbookDang Near Dead, Nancy G. West, Southwest Publications, January 2013, $14.95

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