When I recall my 1980s childhood memories, I think of aerobics. I tagged along with my mom to her aerobics classes. They took place at my elementary school in the evening, and I remember hanging out with my brother and the other kids who were there with their moms. We played in the gym while Michael Jackson and other 1980s classic songs blasted from the boom box. Then, because I grew up in a rural area without cable, my brother and I watched PBS shows. This means I still hear the Body Electric theme song playing in my head when I hear that title.
These memories inspired my newest cozy mystery, The Body Electrocution. It’s the sequel to Close Encounters of the Murderous Kind and picks up where that story ends. In 1988, Bobbi Sue Baxter is a twenty-one-year-old aspiring journalist who can’t wait to leave her small town of Wildcat Springs, Indiana, behind forever. However, her last summer at home is turning out to be much more interesting than she could’ve ever imagined.
Bobbi Sue Baxter’s friend Misty talks her into taking an aerobics class at the community center, an old elementary school that’s rumored to be haunted. The only problem is Bobbi Sue is fighting her growing feelings for quirky bookstore owner Hemi Miller, and the aerobics instructor is his fiancée, Leslie. Then, things get even more complicated when Bobbi Sue finds Hemi’s ex-girlfriend, Jennifer, dead in the community center basement after Jennifer’s public confrontation with Leslie.
Of course, Bobbi Sue absolutely has to start asking questions.
I had a blast writing this mystery and even spent some time exercising to 1980s aerobics videos on YouTube for research. This gave me a new respect for those workouts. I was exhausted and sore when I finished!
Finally, fans of my Georgia Rae Winston Mysteries may be interested to know that sixteen-month-old Georgia Rae and her father, Ray, appear in this story. I created a fun scene with Bobbi Sue, Ray, and Georgia Rae at Bobbi Sue’s workplace, Chuckie’s Chicken.