Dave Cubiak Door County Mysteries

 

Award-winning mystery author Patricia Skalka provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Dave Cubiak Door County mysteries and her journey from nonfiction to fiction.

Currently there are three books in the series. Death in Cold Water, the most recent, won the 2017 Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. Death at Gills Rock, book two, was named One of the Year’s Best in 2016 by Chicago Book Review. And Death Stalks Door County, the first book, was short-listed for the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award in 2015. A fourth volume will be released in spring 2018.

Skalka initially intended to write only one Dave Cubiak mystery and talks about how the new ideas that continued to develop made it impossible for her to walk away from her characters and the setting.

Skills she acquired as a freelancer and Staff Writer for Reader’s Digest helped the Chicago native navigate the move to fiction, but the path was not always smooth. Ultimately, it was through hard work, determination, and a little help from Pablo Picasso that she succeeded in getting published.