Meet Maggie Lyon

This week I’m going to introduce you to someone who has become very special in my life. I’ve spent the last year finding out about this remarkable woman, learning what she thinks and giving up a considerable part of my brain as she invaded my thoughts and took shape. There’s no need to worry about her motives. She’s not taking advantage of me, robbing me blind or swindling me out of my life’s savings. She can’t because she only exists in my mind, but very soon she’ll come alive for you in my latest book: Murdered Justice.

Meet Maggie Lyon. Maggie was a child during the Watergate hearings, and though she didn’t fully understand what was going on, she knew that two men called investigative journalists had broken a big story. From that moment on, she dreamed of nothing more than becoming one of those tenacious types who research, interview and raise questions in order to expose criminal activity.

After convincing her parents to let her enroll in high school journalism, Maggie eventually became the school newspaper’s editor-in-chief before graduating with honors and finding a place in one of our nation’s top ten journalism schools. Her life was set, and she believed she’d go from college commencement right into the trenches before uncovering scandals, winning Pulitzers and taking over for Katherine Graham at The Washington Post.

Unfortunately, she was a woman, and even though she came of age after Ms. Magazine, Maggie spent the first year or two out of college fetching coffee and putting up with an editor/boss who thwarted every attempt at advancement. She had the smarts to step away, but moving up the ladder moved her out of D.C. where scandals take place and the stories emerge. Exhausted and still frustrated with her career, Maggie took a vacation where she met the famous Michelin-starred chef Mark-Mario Van Heflin-Schröder.

In the past decade, if you’ve ever used a high-end kitchen utensil, enameled cast-iron cookware or a copper-bottomed saucepan, it’s probably had Mark-Mario’s face and autograph on it. He still doesn’t sound familiar? That’s because I made him up too, and like Maggie, he was nobody when they met. With her help as his ghostwriter and connections to a New York editor, he emerged as one of the world’s leading kitchen geniuses.

What did Maggie get out of building her husband’s career? An education in food, wine and lifestyle that did more for her soul and writing skills than languishing in a pool of hack journalists who had no appreciation for her talent and enthusiasm. However, a half-dozen cookbooks and years helping Mark-Mario open restaurants in 14 North American cities didn’t land her a job with the Post when she was finally ready to return to journalism. The best offer came from a Texas newspaper that took her away from her husband and settled her into the Lifestyles section to cover restaurant openings and high society weddings.

As a food writer, Maggie has been formidable, and every restaurant owner who’s seen her coming has quaked in his boots. She’s tough, and with Mark-Mario’s training, has held every establishment to her husband’s (and her) highest standards. She eventually got an agent—the fast-talking Rina Akin from New York. Rina managed to get Maggie’s food column into syndication, and she occasionally found a magazine that needed a great writer to cover an interesting story.

Such was the case one April when Maggie was hired by Landon & Barker: An Image Company to do a feature story on a rising chef from the U.K. He was to cook for an exclusive weekend gathering at a private mansion in one of L.A.’s gated communities, and Maggie would be allowed to stay while she researched her article. She was provided with very little information about the guest list, and was shocked to discover that one of the most polarizing figures in the United States was seated at the dinner table. You have to have heard about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Vittorio Scarpia. He was appointed in the 1970s, and ever since has been writing fiery dissents each time the rulings have gone against his opinions.

You can guess from the title of the book that Justice Scarpia doesn’t make it through the weekend, dying mysteriously in an upstairs bedroom. You’ll have to read to the end of the book to find out what happens, but it’s safe to say that Maggie’s investigative training hasn’t left her nor have her instincts as she follows every lead, catches suspects by surprise and finally solves the mystery. Even though she learns “whodunit,” will she live long enough to reveal the killer?

Murdered Justice is coming soon from W&B Publishers.

© 2017 by Patrick Brown

To learn more about my books, visit my author page at http://www.amazon.com/Patrick-Brown/e/B005F0CYH2/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1419885131&sr=8-1