Dead Deceiver (Loon Lake Fishing Series #11) »

Fishing, North Woods color mystery writers stories By Heather Lee Schroeder

June 29, 2001

In her teens and 20s, mystery author Victoria Houston was the classic hometown girl who couldn't wait to leave her small Wisconsin town.

Now, more than 30 years later, she has not only returned to her hometown, Rhinelander, but she has based her popular mystery series in the region's fishing culture.

In fact, while Houston, 56, has changed course many times in her life, her travels and experiences seem to have led to only one logical conclusion: writing.

Today, after being married twice, raising three children, having a successful career in publicity and promotions and writing five nonfiction books, Houston has reinvented herself yet again, this time as a mystery writer.

This new phase is marked by focus and quiet, she says. It's also marked by the success of the mystery series (including the books "Dead Angler" and "Dead Creek"). The third novel, "Dead Water," has just been released.

The series features a retired dentist and avid fisherman, Doctor Osbourne, as its protagonist. The doctor - who lives in a small mythical northern woods - often helps his friend and love interest Lewellyn Ferris, the local female chief of police, solve mysteries that revolve around fly and bait fishing and the deep waters of the North Woods.

Houston says the lakes and culture of northern Wisconsin make for a great setting for her novels.

"I realized this is a culture I grew up in," Houston says of her use of fishing in the novels. "The world of fishing is home to me."

Indeed, Houston fished as a child and now fishes again regularly. In addition, her father, grandfather and uncle were all dentists.

"My characters are distilled from all those characters I knew as I grew up," she says.

In her early 40s, Houston made her first attempt to write the novel. At her agent's behest she rewrote it - four times. Then she took a hiatus from writing and started attending a fiction writing course to "focus on the craft and conventions of mystery writing." The class had one assignment: write autobiographies of characters in the first person.

"I realized that what we were struggling with here is showing, not telling," she explains.

After a year, Houston tried writing her novel again. She submitted a 50-page sample for critique through the Mystery Writers Association of America. It was set in Kansas City but somehow, about 45 pages later, the mystery had moved to northern Wisconsin with a man sitting quietly, fishing, on a lake. Her writing mentor hated the Kansas City part, loved the Wisconsin portion. From those few pages, Houston wrote "Dead Creek," the second book in her series.

Today, in addition to "Dead Water," Houston has a new contract for books four and five in the series. She also has a nonfiction book coming out in December titled "Restore Yourself: A Woman's Guide to Reviving Her Sexual Desire and Passion for Life."

She likens life to fishing, saying that just as when you cast your line you don't know what you might end up catching, life often throws you unexpected opportunities.

It's obvious Houston likes it that way.

Heather Lee Schroeder is books editor for The Capital Times.

In the eleventh installment in the Loon Lake series, a female police chief appeals to libraries and fans of small-town whodunits.