Mindy Quigley is…On the Writing Block!

Sherry Ickes
Nov 4
3 min read

Who doesn’t like pizza? This next author has a whole cozy mystery series based around the beloved Italian staple, and even incorporates some of Chicago’s history into her stories.

Mindy Quigley is the author of two lighthearted mystery series. Her latest, the Deep Dish Mysteries, was a Woman’s World book club pick and has been featured in Parade and The Seattle Times. Mindy's non-writing career took her from the US to the UK, where she worked as the personal assistant to the scientist who cloned Dolly the sheep and as project manager for a research clinic founded by the author J.K. Rowling. She lives in Virginia with her Civil War history professor husband and their children.

You can find Mindy at: http://www.mindyquigley.com/

What is your ultimate goal as an author?

World domination! Mwahahahaha!

If global supremacy doesn’t pan out for some reason, I’d settle for writing fun books that connect with readers, make them feel seen, and lift them up when they’re going through hard times. If I can make a living from my writing, that’s a great bonus.

How much research do you conduct for your storylines?

For At Death’s Dough, I had to learn a ton about scuba diving. From the start, I knew the victim’s body would be discovered under a frozen lake and that my sleuth, Delilah, would have to find a way to investigate beneath the ice. The problem? I knew absolutely nothing about scuba diving.

Cue the research montage: me reading dive manuals, watching YouTube videos of ice diving, and pestering my much more knowledgeable friends. Author Olivia Blacke and her husband were especially helpful—they read an early draft and gently informed me, “Well, you killed Delilah about six different ways in just this one scene.”

When I finally nailed down the details, I was incredibly relieved. A recent reviewer wrote something along the lines of, “The author must have scuba experience because those scenes felt so real.” That kind of feedback made all the effort worthwhile—plus, I didn’t kill my main character!

Do you always know who the killer is, or do your characters surprise you in the end?

I start most of my books, including At Death’s Dough, by plotting out the whodunnit part. The only exception was Sleep in Heavenly Pizza, where I started with only an image in mind – I knew I wanted the body to be found inside a snow sculpture.

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (the real-life inspiration for my fictional Geneva Bay), hosts the U.S. Snow Sculpting Competition every year. Contestants carve SUV-sized sculptures out of massive blocks of snow. Naturally, my mystery-writer brain took one look at that and thought, “What if someone found a corpse in one of those…?” I had to work backward from there to figure out how to get the body in there, and who could’ve engineered such a thing.

Are there any animals in your book? If so, describe them and how involved they are in the investigation.

Big time. That handsome orange tabby on the covers of my Deep Dish Mysteries? That’s Butterball—a cat with the heart of a lion and the appetite of, well, a butterball.

While he’s not exactly Sherlock Holmes (he’s more of a nap-on-the-job kind of guy), Butterball has a knack for revealing clues Delilah might otherwise miss. He’s an essential part of every book, and figuring out how to involve him in the action is one of my favorite parts of plotting.

Usually, Butterball ends up helping Delilah, but in At Death’s Dough, the tables turn—this time, he’s the one in trouble, and Delilah has to save him.

What is At Death’s Dough about?

It’s February in the ritzy lakeside resort town of Geneva Bay, Wisconsin, and love is in the air. Pizza chef Delilah O’Leary is gearing up to celebrate her first Valentine’s Day with hunky police detective Calvin Capone, great-grandson of the infamous Chicago mobster. But their romance is put on ice when a shocking discovery plunges them into a century-old crime with ties to Capone’s notorious forefather.

As old secrets surface, Delilah realizes that nearly everyone in town―from Capone’s cagey cousin to her own quirky customers―has something to hide. With the pressure mounting and the past closing in, Delilah must help Capone follow a trail of clues that could lead them to a priceless treasure... or into a deadly trap. Can Delilah serve up justice before history repeats itself? Or will she and Capone end up sleeping with the anchovies?