{What's On Your Kindle?} Tucker May on The Lemon House Murders
When residents of a live-in drug rehabilitation facility called Lemon House start dying one by one, no one in the outside world seems to care.
Two Lemon House patients, nicknamed Trip and Gobstopper, are the only ones who can see the truth: these are murders.
Their quest to find the killer will push their budding relationship to the brink, cast suspicion on everyone locked in the house with them, and force them to question their most cherished beliefs.
The Lemon House Murders is the rare murder mystery that will have you guessing at the culprit AND thinking deeply about theology, society’s relationship toward the downtrodden, and the importance of self-determination to a fulfilling life.
The Lemon House Murders is available at Amazon.
Visit Tucker’s website at www.tuckermay.com.
Connect with him on social media at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Tucker-May-Mysteries
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/TuckerMayMysteries
BlueSky: http://www.bluesky.com/TuckerMayMysteries
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/58926295.Tucker_May
Welcome, Tucker! Your book, The Lemon House Murders, sounds absolutely awesome. Can you tell us the story behind that intriguing title?
I like to build stories around a central idea that I think is worth exploring deeply. The Lemon House Murders was born when I noticed how much of our popular media emphasizes the importance of family. We hear it so much that it almost doesn't register any longer: family is everything, blood is thicker than water. We're constantly told that familial relationships are some of the most important ingredients of a happy life. It made me begin to wonder if there might be a downside to this pervasive messaging. What about the people who have no family? How are they meant to feel about all of this? Even more broadly, I wondered if it's healthy to put anything, even something as supposedly good as family, up on a pedestal in that way? This led me toward the topic of addiction, something that I have personal experience with, and I crafted The Lemon House Murders to explore our society's addiction to family and how that might potentially damage a young man's life.
Can you tell us a little about your main characters?
Our main character is named Francis (eventually bestowed with the nickname Trip within the Lemon House walls). He's led a sheltered life. Entering Lemon House will force him to question some of his most deeply held beliefs and rethink the very way he's been living his life. The cast of characters around him is just as zany and colorful as you might expect from a group of men in a live-in rehab facility. You'll have to read the book to believe it.
Where is your book set and why did you choose that particular location?
The story is set in 2006 at a live-in drug rehabilitation center in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. The setting is based directly on a rehab center that I personally spent time in back in 2022 to receive treatment for alcoholism. While the story is fully fictional, the setting is not. Almost all the details about Lemon House shared in this book come from my own personal experience.
What part would you say was the most exciting to write about?
I think that good art explores big ideas. The most exciting part of writing this book was weaving the themes of human value, the marginalization of addicts, and the importance of self-determination to a fulfilling life into the story.
What's next for you?
My next novel is in the drafting stage currently. It's titled The Last Dead Guy in Hell and it explores the question of whether a person needs big goals and high-level ambition to lead an important and fulfilling life. Readers can visit www.tuckermay.com to sign up for updates on that.
Comments
Post a Comment