Character Interview of Sheriff Bet Rivers
1.What was your most exciting case when you worked on patrol in South Central Los Angeles?
I don’t know if it was the most exciting, but it was certainly the most bizarre. I once participated in a slow speed chase. You read that right, slow speed.
A woman stole a child’s electric toy Jeep and drove it erratically through the historic Village Green neighborhood. We were called out to arrest her and ended up with full lights and sirens on, but only traveling about five miles an hour. She finally pulled over, but couldn’t find her registration in the tiny glovebox. I’m happy to report that she didn’t put up a fight, but she did promptly fail her field sobriety test. She claimed she only borrowed the toy because she knew she was too drunk to drive her own car and she needed to return a sweater she had borrowed from her sister.
We returned the stolen Jeep to its rightful owner and peace fell once more in the neighborhood. I don’t know if the sister ever got her sweater back.
2. You mentioned the authors your father read to you included C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. What books did you read to your father during his last days?
I read him A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean. It’s one of my all time favorite novellas. Published in 1976, it’s a semi-autobiographical story of Norman growing up in Montana in the early 1900s. His brother, Paul, was beaten to death in 1938. It is a story about love for a river and the people you can’t save.
Norman’s father was a minister and a fly fisherman. In the Maclean household, there was little difference between religion and the perfect cast. My own father held similar views on fly fishing and music. “I don’t know if I believe in God, Bet,” he said to me on many occasions. “But I do believe in Bluegrass.”
To watch my father with a fly rod was like watching music. The ten and two snap of his rod. The arcing curve of the line. The gentle land of the fly, and the whisper-light play of that fly on the water. He performed a symphony with the river and the fish.
I’m not half the fisher my father was, and not have the sheriff either. But I had the best teacher in the world and every moment I breath I’m working to fill his shoes.
3. What made you stay in Lake Collier and run for Sheriff after your father’s death?
I made my father a promise. I said I would stay to the end. I made that promise when I thought he would recover, but that didn’t make it any less of promise after he died. I couldn’t break my word and let my father, or my community, down.
4. You’re only in your twenties. Why do you think you won’t have children someday to carry on the Lake Collier Sheriff tradition?
I’m only in my twenties, so it’s not something I spend too much time thinking about! Seriously, I appreciate all those people out there who choose to raise children. It’s the toughest job in the world. But I’m also appreciative of the people who know they aren’t cut out to be a parent and I’m one of those people. I love taking care of my community and I would risk my own life for the citizens of Collier. That’s enough responsibility for me.
5. Without any spoilers, what’s in the future for Bet Rivers?
All I know about my future is that I will stay in law enforcement. I will continue to protect my community, wherever I hang my hat.
My Review
In All We Buried, Bet has a lot on her mind. Leaving her small Washington town of Lake Collier, she works as a patrolman in Los Angeles. When her father needs chemotherapy, she returns home to run the town’s sheriff’s office as Interim Sheriff. After all, her long-term goal was always to follow in the footsteps of all her ancestors and become the Sheriff when her father retires. When a freak accident kills him, Bet decides to run for Sheriff against her only full-time deputy, Dale.
A twisty little thriller set in the dark environs of Washington state with a lake that is so dead that fish can’t even live there. When an unnamed body appears bound and floating in the lake, Sheriff Bet must discover who the victim is and who killed her. To do so, she must unravel several mysteries in multiple timelines. The atmospheric setting bumps up the creepiness factor by ten. Mixing the distant past with the equally murky present, All We Buried ties up most of the plot threads but leaves a pretty big cliffhanger at the end. I can’t wait to find the solution by reading the next Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery. 4 stars!
Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
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About All We Buried
All We Buried: A Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (April 7, 2020)
Hardcover: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 1643852914
ISBN-13: 978-1643852911
Digital ASIN: B07RQH353V
For fans of Julia Keller and Sheena Kamal, All We Buried disturbs the long-sleeping secrets of a small Washington State mountain town.
Interim sheriff Elizabeth “Bet” Rivers has always had one repeat nightmare: a shadowy figure throwing a suspicious object into her hometown lake in Collier, Washington. For the longest time, she chalked it up to an overactive imagination as a kid. Then the report arrives. In the woods of the Cascade mountain range, right in her jurisdiction, a body floats to the surface of Lake Collier. When the body is extricated and revealed, no one can identify Jane Doe. But someone must know the woman, so why aren’t they coming forward?
Bet has been sitting as the interim sheriff of this tiny town in the ill-fitting shoes of her late father and predecessor. With the nightmare on her heels, Bet decided to build a life for herself in Los Angeles, but now it’s time to confront the tragic history of Collier. The more she learns, the more Bet realizes she doesn’t know the townspeople of Collier as well as she thought, and nothing can prepare her for what she is about to discover.
About the Author
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 All We Buried, Elena returns to her dramatic roots and brings readers a much more serious and atmospheric novel. Located in her beloved Washington State, Elena uses her connection to the environment to produce a forbidding story of small-town secrets and things that won’t stay buried. Elena 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. If you’d like to work with Elena, visit www.allegoryediting.com.When she’s not writing or coaching writing, her favorite place to be is at the farm with her horses, Jasper and Radar, or at her home, on the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River in North Bend, Washington, with her husband, their dog, Polar, and their cats, Coal Train and Cocoa. Elena 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.
Author Links:
Website: https://www.elenataylorauthor.com/ Blog: https://www.elenataylorauthor.com/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElenaTaylorAuthor/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Elena_TaylorAut
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19494739.Elena_Taylor Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenataylorauthor
Purchase Links:
Amazon: Barnes& Noble Books-A-Million IndieBound
Giveaway
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
April 7 – I’m All About Books – SPOTLIGHT
April 7 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
April 8 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
April 8 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
April 9 – The Power of Words – REVIEW
April 9 – Gimme The Scoop Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST
April 10 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – REVIEW
April 10 – A Blue Million Books – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
April 11 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
April 11 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
April 12 – TBR Book Blog – REVIEW
April 13 – Baroness’ Book Trove – REVIEW
April 13 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – CHARACTER GUEST POST
April 14 – eBook addicts – REVIEW
April 14 – Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
April 15 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW
April 15 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW
April 16 – The Book Diva’s Reads – GUEST POST
April 16 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
April 17 – Diane Reviews Books – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW
April 18 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST
April 18 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – GUEST POST
April 19 – That’s What She’s Reading – REVIEW
April 19 – Brooke Blogs – CHARACTER GUEST POST
April 20 – Here’s How It Happened – SPOTLIGHT
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Thanks for commenting. I can’t wait either!
Thank you for your review on “About All We Buried” and for being part of the book tour.
Enjoyed reading the interview with Sheriff Bet Rivers. Cant to read more about him with the opportunity to read this book.