Suspect in High Heels by Gemma Halliday-Book Spotlight/character Interview

An interview with Maddie Springer

Hello Maddie. Thanks so much for allowing me to meet you and do

a fun interview.

Of course! It's a pleasure to meet you and I'm flattered that your readers are interested in my life.

I definitely would love to meet. Can you suggest a place. Maybe your favorite eatery

or bar. This is my first visit to the area and I know you know all the good places.

LA has about a million great little spots for a quick chat or a Hollywood power meeting. I'm partial to brunch on Melrose or  cocktails on Rodeo—you know, all shopping adjacent.

Hello it is so great to finally meet you for cocktails and a quick snack. 

Speaking of snacks when you're designing shoes do you have a favorite?

Depends on my mood. If I'm n a deadline—definitely chocolate. If I'm distracted by the events of my day—especially if they happened to involved tripping over a dead body—LOTS of chocolate.  

I know you’ve probably done a ton of interviews. Have you ever been interviewed

for a blog?

Honestly? I don't think I have. I meant, there was that one time I accidentally ended up on a foot fetish website—but that was a little different than a blog.

I know you don’t have much time today since you're meeting your mom. I was

wondering though if you wouldn’t mind telling us a little about the rest of

your family.

Where to begin! Okay, well in addition to my mom, there is my dad. He wasn't around much as I was growing up. Throughout my childhood, my mom told me he ran off with a showgirl named Lola... but that wasn't strictly true. Turns out, he actually took off to Vegas to become a showgirl named Lola. Yeah, looks like I got my fashion sense from him! Though, my step-father, Fernando, is no slouch in the fabulous department either, owning one of the hottest salons in Beverly Hills.

Now that I'm married—to the hottest cop in the LAPD, Detective Jack Ramirez—I also have a little family of my own, consisting of twin toddlers, Livvie and Max, who I've often dubbed the Double Trouble.

So, I have to ask how did you get involved in designing shoes. I would have no

idea how to even begin to start.

My first job was as a children's shoe designer at Tot Trots. The Spiderman Velcro sneakers every kid was wearing a few years ago? Yeah, that was me.

I know you must travel a lot for business. Where would you like to go back for a

fun trip. Who would you take?

My honeymoon to Tahiti was amazing, and I've love to go again. Just, this time I'd like to leave out the murder investigation...

What about a romantic trip? I am thinking talking my husband into a trip to Paris.

How about you?

I've been it Paris once, and it was the most romantic city on the planet. In fact, I even got engaged there. The only thing I'd do differently on my next trip is not find a dead body... 

So on your travels is it all fashion business or do other interesting things keep you busy.

Somehow, I always manage to find... ahem, other things... to keep me busy while traveling. I'd love just one vacation with no murders where all I do is sightsee. I am looking forward to visiting my bestie, actress Dana Dashel, on a film location in Canada next year! I'm sure nothing bad will happen there...

Oh wow. It must be an exciting life you lead! So when you’ve gotten caught up

in a crime to solve have you had help?

Luckily—or maybe unluckily?—I always seem to have at least a couple of sidekicks egging me on. Dana loves a good mystery, playing right into sleuthing character. And Marc, my other bestie he works at my step-dad's salon, loves anything that involves drama—so he's always in. And despite my best efforts to keep them safe, Mom and her BFF Mrs. Rosenblatt, the Venice Beach  psychic, seem to end up in the middle of everything.

Have you had any special training is there a Sleuthing 101?

I wish! Would really help when I find myself in a bumbling pinch.

Maybe we should keep this on the down low…Do you carry a gun?

No way. Way too dangerous. And hard to fit in a cute clutch. I leave the gun toting to my husband.

As a sleuth how do you picture yourself. I don’t see you as a Jessica Fletcher.

Maybe in about 30 years? Ha! No, I'd say I'm more of a Charlie's Angel mixed with a little Lucille Ball.

How does your husband feel about you getting so involved in investigating?

Shhhh. Let's just keep this on the down low. Wait—is this blog public? Like, is he gonna see this interview? Oh boy...

I can imagine the local police are not easy to work with. Do have any police detectives

that have been helpful or accepting of a little help from you?

Far from it! Okay, Ramirez will sometimes take a hint or two from me, if they feel credible. But when he's not on the case, it's usually Laurel and Hardy—those are their real names. Laurel McMartin and John Hardy. And they're just as bad as you've expect from those namesakes.

My goodness it seems you have a knack for stumbling onto or into crimes.

Should I be looking over my shoulder?

Ahahaha... uh, yeah. Maybe.

Oh look at the time didn’t you say you needed to get to that antique thing

with you mom?

Holy cow, sorry, I didn't notice how late it was. Yeah, she got these tickets to the Antiques Extravaganza show. It sounds like a snooze fest to me, but, well, you never know. Maybe something exciting will pop up!

This was so fun and we will definitely  need to do this again!

So great meeting with you! 

About the book 

When Maddie Springer—shoe designer turned amateur sleuth—tags along with her mother to the Antiques Extravaganza road show, the last thing she expects to have to do is pull her mom off of a celebrity appraiser after he calls her prized antique hatpin a phony. But things go from harried to homicide when the same appraiser is found dead just moments later—killed by Mom’s hatpin!

Now not even Maddie’s husband, LAPD Detective Jack Ramirez, can save Mom as the force’s two most bumbling detectives are assigned to the case. As if Maddie doesn’t have enough on her plate, her best friends, Dana and Marco, enlist her help to plan the most over-the-top Hollywood surprise party ever for Dana’s fiancé (who has a little surprise of his own up his sleeve), Maddie’s adorable twin toddlers are always up to no good, and the only thing that can calm her fashion-challenged and suddenly-a-suspect mom down are aura cleansing from her favorite Venice Beach psychic, Mrs. Rosenblatt. Whether they help or hurt, Maddie’s friends assist her in wading through a slew of murder suspects—none of whom are telling the truth and all of whom have ample motive to want the appraiser dead. Was it the frigid business partner with questionable ethics? The clown-collecting fan-turned-stalker? The auction house owner with a grudge? Or was the appraiser’s real business something much more sinister than his TV personality let on…and much more deadly?

Maddie and her eccentric gang of unlikely sleuths are under the gun to find out before the real killer strikes again…and Mom takes the fall!

My interview is part of The Great Escapes Tour

Click here to visit the tour

Visit My Reading Journeys to read my review and enter the giveaway!  Click here.