Everything To Lose (Mountain Resort Mystery series Book) by Shannon Work ➱ Book Tour with Giveaway

Everything to Lose
Mountain Resort Mystery Series Book 2
by Shannon Work
Genre: Mystery, Suspense

When the truth could cost you everything... Sometimes murder is the only way out.

When her husband is found dead in their Vail, Colorado mansion, Victoria Banks is accused of murder. Determined to prove her innocence, she hires famed detective Jack Martin to help find the real killer.

But when the two uncover a sinister plot some would kill to keep secret, could it cost both of them their lives?

With a growing list of suspects, can Jack find the killer in time to prove Victoria's innocence? Or will he discover his beautiful client is actually guilty of murder?

From the mountain luxury of Vail, Colorado, to the oilfields outside Denver, Everything To Lose is a page-turning story of murder and greed.

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Now I See You
Mountain Resort Mystery Series Book 1

Two murders. A terrified mountain resort. Can a daring reporter help stop an avalanche of dead bodies?

Celebrity TV anchor Georgia Glass wants out of Denver and far away from her obsessed fan. Set to host her own investigative crime show in LA, she’s surprised to inherit a Victorian house in Aspen from a mysterious uncle she never knew. But while exploring the gothic property, she discovers the frozen corpse of a missing heiress.
Georgia’s journalist instincts kick in and she is determined to help police track down the killer. But by investigating the murder, has she made herself the killer’s next target?
Can Georgia help solve the case before she becomes the next victim? Or will the stalker that followed her to Aspen get her first?

Now I See You is a fast-paced whodunit set amidst the spectacular scenery of Aspen, Colorado, and the first book in the suspenseful Mountain Resort Mystery series.

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Plotting the Perfect Murder (fictional, of course)

By Shannon Work

I’ll be the first to admit, killing people for a living—even just on paper—is not normal, but it can be a lot of fun. A crime writer will spend hours conjuring ways to murder a victim and attempt to get away with it. For me, it’s an amusing escape from a relatively quiet life.

So, where do the dark ideas come from? After writing and publishing two murder mysteries, I’m sure I have more than a few friends and family members wondering the same thing. How can a seemingly ordinary (my kids would say ‘boring’) person come up with stories of heinous crimes?

The short answer is that ideas come from everywhere—news stories, movies, television, and hours of considering different ‘what if?’ scenarios.

Early in the outlining process of each novel, I use the Five W’s and an H method that I learned studying journalism in college. Who? What? When? Where? Why? And How?

Since I write contemporary mysteries, the when is always the current day. That’s the easiest question to answer!

In my latest novel, Everything To Lose, the main storyline (answering the rest of the questions) came from hours of wondering how to tie a murder mystery to the oil and gas industry that is so prominent in Denver. But I wanted most of the story set in Vail.

I knew that a fair number of wealthy Denverites have homes or condos in Vail. Cue Elliot Banks, a wealthy Denver energy executive murdered in his Vail mansion on Forest Road. That took care of the who, the what, and the where.

Next came figuring out the why and the how. How was Elliot Banks murdered? And why was he killed? The why is the killer’s motive. Why would someone want him dead? And who would do it?

Figuring out the why and how of the murder is the fun part. This is when an author has to reach back into the darkest recesses of their imagination to come up with a shocking, yet hopefully plausible, scenario of how and why one person would kill another.

Once I had answered the Five W’s and an H for Everything To Lose—I knew who was murdered by whom and why; I knew where, when, and how—it was time to populate the story with additional suspects and characters to help hide ‘whodunit’.

This is where the storytelling comes in, creating a whole world around the inciting incident (the murder). This, for me, is what takes the most time and imagination. It’s creating the story around the crime.

Even if the reader can guess ‘whodunit’ before the end of the story, the author hopes the reader has enjoyed the ride!

Shannon Work grew up in Del Rio, a border town in the dusty wilds of West Texas. When she graduated from high school, she moved east to College Station and graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor's degree in Journalism and a master's degree in Land Economics and Real Estate.
Most of her working life has been spent developing real estate, earning a national Best in America Living Award for one of her developments. After two failed starts at writing a novel while raising three kids and working, she retired to pursue her dream of writing mystery novels full time.
Shannon and her husband are recent empty nesters and split their time between Houston, Texas and Telluride, Colorado. Always with their laptops and dogs in tow.