"A Cold, Cold World"

Elena Taylor spent several years working in theater as a playwright, director, designer, and educator before turning her storytelling skills to fiction. Her first series, the Eddie Shoes Mysteries, written under the name Elena Hartwell, introduced a quirky mother/daughter crime fighting duo.

With the Sheriff Bet Rivers Mysteries, Taylor returns to her dramatic roots and brings readers much more serious and atmospheric novels. Located in her beloved Washington State, Taylor uses her connection to the environment to produce tense and suspenseful investigations for a lone sheriff in an isolated community.

Taylor is also a senior editor with Allegory Editing, a developmental editing house, where she works one-on-one with writers to shape and polish manuscripts, short stories, and plays.

Her favorite place to be is at Paradise, the property she and her hubby own south of Spokane, Washington. They live with their horses, dogs, and cats. Taylor holds a B.A. from the University of San Diego, a M.Ed. from the University of Washington, Tacoma, and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new Sheriff Bet Rivers mystery, A Cold Cold World, and reported the following:

A snowstorm rages in the tiny, mountain town of Collier, Washington, at the same time that Sheriff Bet Rivers questions a teenaged girl about the movements of her friend the previous day. The friend is a boy who died in a snowmobile crash high on a ridge. The teenager is angry and a little snarky, which Bet fully understands, as Aimee has been left behind at home by her parents and her closest friend while the power is out and the storm rages all around her. Bet needs the information the girl has but is also sensitive to the teen’s situation. Bet can’t tell Aimee that her friend is dead, which makes it harder to ask her questions because she can’t share any information in return. She’s thoughtful, but professional, and under a lot of stress to determine what caused the accident.

Page 69 provides an excellent idea of one aspect of the book, which is that of Bet’s processes as a sheriff investigating a crime. There is a summation of recent events in her mind as she questions the girl, and readers can also see how Bet thinks about people. What it doesn’t do is show the action that takes place in much of the book. A Cold, Cold World is a mystery, not a thriller, but it does have a lot of physical, dangerous action. So, I would say this page does a great job of showing how thoughtful and methodical Bet can be when investigating a homicide, but doesn’t show the action sequences, such as pursuing suspects in the storm.

A Cold, Cold World is the second in the Sheriff Bet Rivers series. Bet is a lot more confident in her role as sheriff now that she was voted in and isn’t just there as an interim. However, Bet continues to work on her own identity in the role. She’s realizing that she’s never going to be the sheriff the way her father was (and his father before him), but that doesn’t make her better or worse, just different. A good example of that is on page 69. The teen shows embarrassment at admitting she’s afraid to be alone in the storm. Bet says, “I don’t like to be left alone in the dark either. That’s why I have a big dog.” This line illustrates how Bet is in the world. She’s okay admitting to something that could be perceived as a weakness, especially if it helps her connect to another person. I like that about Bet. Plus. I love the dog! Schweitzer is an Anatolian shepherd and definitely a fan favorite.

Visit Elena Taylor's website.

Q&A with Elena Taylor.

--Marshal Zeringue