Author: Larissa Reinhart
Narrator: Joan Dukore
Length: 10 hours 26 minutes
Publisher: 1969
Released: May 28, 2020
Genre: Mystery; Amateur Detective
She played a detective on TV, but now that her life depends on it, can Maizie Albright play a detective for real?For fans of romantic comedy mysteries like Meg Cabot's Size 12 Is Not Fat and Stephanie Bond's Body Movers, The Wall Street Journal best-selling author Larissa Reinhart brings her listeners the first in the Maizie Albright Star Detective series, Hot Mystery Reviews’ "Top 10 Mysteries for Book Clubs".”Child star and hilarious hot mess Maizie Albright trades Hollywood for the backwoods of Georgia and pure delight ensues. Maizie's my new favorite escape from reality.” (Gretchen Archer, USA Today best-selling author of the Davis Way Crime Caper series)Three Teen Choice Awards, one Emmy nomination, and several Maxim covers later, Maizie Albright was an ex-teen star, stuck in reality show hell, and standing before a California judge. She has one chance for a new life: return home to Black Pine, Georgia, and get a job that has nothing to do with show business. So why not become a private detective - the person she played during the happiest days of her life?Maybe because...First: She's got 10 days to get and keep the job.Second: She has to convince the only private investigator in town to hire her.Third: She lost the client's wife on the first day. (And the woman may be dead…)Fourth: She just might be falling in love with her new boss. And she just might have lost him his business.But what has she got to lose, other than imprisonment, her dignity, and possibly, her life?Start the Wall Street Journal best-selling series and download 15 Minutes today!"Sassy, sexy, and fun, 15 Minutes is hours of enjoyment." (Phoebe Fox, author of the Breakup Doctor series)
The Wall Street Journal bestselling author Larissa Reinhart writes the award-winning Cherry Tucker Mystery, Maizie Albright Star Detective, and Finley Goodhart Crime Caper series. She loves to tell funny stories about women, looking for love (and sometimes dead bodies) in all the wrong places.
Larissa, her family, and Cairn Terrier, Biscuit, lived in Nagoya, Japan, but have returned to Peachtree City, Georgia. You can see them on HGTV's House Hunters International "Living for the Weekend in Nagoya" episode. Larissa loves books, food, and traveling with her family. You can often see her adventures on Instagram (and her little dog, too).
Visit Larissa's website to join her VIP Readers email group and get the free prequel to The Cupid Caper plus other exclusive bonus content! www.larissareinhart.com
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Born in Honolulu, HI, Joan DuKore began her performing career as a ballet dancer, and attended Virginia School of the Arts to continue her education. Her hobby of magic later became her profession, and she continues to perform in Las Vegas and around the world. Her love of reading eventually led to voice acting. She has produced over 30 audiobooks in numerous genres such as thrillers, romances, memoirs, mysteries and fantasies. She loves locking herself in her booth and living in the worlds that authors create.
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Q&A with Author Larissa Reinhart
- Tell us about the process of turning your book into an audiobook.
- I was really nervous about making the Maizie Albright series into audiobooks for some reason. My previous audiobooks were done by my publisher and I had no input, so I was worried about the amount of time needed (juggling writing, work, and kids is always a challenge) and worried about the end product since I’m a writer who “hears” their characters more than “sees” them, if that makes sense. But after Joan Dukore auditioned, my fears disappeared.
- Joan’s amazing, easy to work with, and very professional. I loved her audition. After that, I gave her the book and some character notes. I listened to the first 15 minutes of 15 MINUTES (ha), gave her a few more suggestions, and she did all the work. I had to listen to the entire book while reading it but found little to correct. It’s been an amazing experience and went a lot more quickly than I thought.
- Do you believe certain types of writing translate better into audiobook format?
- I wouldn’t want to listen to a math textbook, but I think most books make great audiobooks.
- Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing?
- I never thought about the audiobook while writing 15 MINUTES because I was more focused on getting to know my new characters and trekking through the story. However, for the subsequent books in the Maizie Albright series, I thought about audio, mainly because the books are so heavy in dialogue.
- How did you select your narrator?
- Joan Dukore auditioned and I loved her as Maizie immediately! She has such a fresh, bubbly voice and great comedic timing. The comedic timing was more important to me than just about anything else and she nailed it. I’m thrilled she’s narrating the entire series.
- How closely did you work with your narrator before and during the recording process? Did you give them any pronunciation tips or special insight into the characters?
- We worked closely through the first fifteen-minute read and the character samples, then I let Joan do her thing. She’d occasionally ask me questions during the recording. I listened to the entire book, of course, when she was finished for a final edit.
- In the beginning, I was pretty uptight about accents, since many of my characters are southern. A bad southern accent or over-the-top southern accent is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I live in Georgia and we don’t sound like we’re on Hee-Haw. I made a character list and gave suggestions of actors in certain movies. I think the initial listen is hard for the author because we’ve been hearing the voices (in our head) since the conception of the book. But Joan’s a professional actress and I knew I had to trust her. And I’m so glad I did!
- Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?
- When I began writing 15, a Hollywood boom had just happened where I live in Georgia. This was around the second or third season of The Walking Dead which was filmed about 10 minutes from my house. Ten minutes in the opposite direction, Pinewood Studios had just bought land for their backlots and soundstages (that’s where many of the Marvel movies were/are made). I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about celebrities, but because they were suddenly here, the idea just presented itself.
- I had been talking to an agent at the time who wanted something like my Cherry Tucker Mystery series but different. A commercial came on for Rich Kids of Beverly Hills (I think that’s what the reality show was called, I could be wrong). While watching the commercial, the idea of Maizie just popped in my head. And I thought she would have once been a teen star on a detective show and after a Lindsey Lohan-type Hollywood meltdown, she was trying for a career change as a real detective. The agent thought of Veronica Mars (which I hadn’t seen) meets Sweet Home Alabama (which I had). 15 MINUTES didn’t really turn out like that at all, but that’s where we started.
- As for the mystery, I got the general idea from a crime story I saw on the local news several years ago. A husband had reported his wife had disappeared and then my imagination took that story in a whole new direction. I’ll not say much more about that so as not to create spoilers!
- How do you manage to avoid burn-out? What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for writing?
- I’m always enthusiastic about writing if I’m actually writing. Burn-out comes from all the other stuff and balancing that with my family life. I have two very active teenagers, one very active husband, and a semi-active dog. There are days when it’s hard to squeeze the writing in, particularly because early mornings don’t come naturally to me. And I’ve found I’ve got to do early mornings -- especially with everyone at home during quarantine and my husband furloughed -- or the writing doesn’t get done. But every year presents new challenges for finding that work/life balance. Family comes first for me.
- Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you?
- I love that audio can give you the movie experience but with your own visuals. Movies-from-books often disappoint me, but audio doesn’t since it’s the actual book. I also love the collaboration between writer and narrator -- the storyteller and storytelling. I can write a story, but I can’t tell one to save my life.
- Is there a particular part of this story that you feel is more resonating in the audiobook performance than in the book format?
- There are places where I laughed-out-loud while listening to Joan’s performance, not because of what was written (I can’t laugh at my own writing, particularly after the many times I’ve had to read it), but because of the way Joan read the story. My favorite parts are when Maizie is with Tiffany and Rhonda. There’s something in Joan’s delivery of the dialogue between them that just slays me.
- What’s next for you?
- Joan’s working on the second audiobook in the Maizie Albright Star Detective series, 16 MILLIMETERS now. I’m working on the seventh book in the series, 19 CRIMINALS. This means a new audiobook and a new book release will be coming soon! I’m so excited to continue to collaborate with Joan Dukore. She’s awesome!
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