Murder, they wrote: Juneau Black duo's cozy critter mysteries get a new afterlife from major publisher

The story began when a bookstore owner plopped a box of children's finger puppets on the counter in front of employees Jocelyn Koehler and Sharon Nagel.

Please price them, Daniel Goldin asked the duo.

"As we were putting prices on these adorable little finger puppets, we gave all of these little animal characters names, and occupations, like you do," Koehler said. With no one stopping them, the two women kept going, imagining the woodland village life of their critters. 

And then came murder. 

That night of whimsy led to three attractive self-published mysteries written by the duo, who dubbed themselves Juneau Black, which I have previously described as "'Murder, She Wrote,' with animals."

Now, in a second happy ending, "Shady Hollow," "Cold Clay" and "Mirror Lake" are being republished by paperback giant Vintage through the Black Lizard imprint. Koehler and Nagel's beasts are now stablemates with crime-fiction masters Carl Hiaasen, Walter Mosley and Jo Nesbø. 

Juneau Black will celebrate the republication of "Shady Hollow" with an online event 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25 presented by their former employer, Boswell Books. Register through the Boswell events page (boswellbooks.com).  

A fox, a raven and a bear 

Neither woman was a stranger to writing. Koehler has self-published romance fiction as Elizabeth Cole, and also publishes speculative fiction as Jocelyn Cole. Nagel had written several novels during past National Novel Writing Months. 

They wrote their first "Shady Hollow" draft during NaNoWriMo, an annual effort that encourages writers to complete 50,000 words of fiction each November. Nagel said one partner wrote on odd-numbered days, leaving a little cliffhanger for the other partner to pick up writing on even days. They started with their characters, and settings of a coffee shop and a bookstore, making up the rest as they went along. 

With exquisite good taste, they made their heroine a foxy reporter, Vera, aided by her raven best friend Lenore, who owns the Nevermore bookstore. Vera tries to steer clear of town gossip Gladys Honeysuckle, a hummingbird; has both professional and romantic tension with Deputy Orville Braun, a bear; and sips her java at Joe's Mug, run by a genial moose. 

In addition to writing engaging stories with plenty of humor, Nagel and Koehler took care to make their books look as good as possible. As professional booksellers, they knew that people do judge a book by looking at its cover (and the words on the back). "Our goal was to make our book indistinguishable" from the big publishers, Koehler said. 

Koehler kept her sales expectations low. But Boswell's Goldin and other local booksellers "were excited about the stories and thought they were fun and interesting and had merit," she said. The books sold well locally, making everyone happy. 

'Numbers at the bottom'

Goldin also told the duo that a publisher would find a mystery series more marketable than a stand-alone novel. When Penguin Random House sales rep Jason Gobble asked if he could show the ebook files to his colleagues, they said yes with few expectations. But a few months later, Gobble told them a Penguin editor would be contacting them. (Vintage is part of the Penguin Random House family.) 

That email "caused heart palpitations," Nagel said. 

Reading the message from Vintage acquiring editor Caitlin Landuyt, Koehler noticed "numbers at the bottom of this email … dollar amounts and stuff." After further conversation, Juneau Black signed a "five-figure" deal for Vintage to republish the three novels. They're being released in rapid succession, with "Shady Hollow" out Jan. 25, and "Cold Clay" and "Mirror Lake" following in March and April. 

They also were invited to contribute a Vintage Short to the publisher's line of short ebooks — a holiday story called "Evergreen Chase." 

Their editor liked the "Shady Hollow" books as is and didn't request major changes, but Nagel and Koehler cleaned up little details and were able to "retcon" a few things, like adding a mention in book one of a location used in book three. They also were impressed by the attention to detail of their Vintage copy editor. 

Koehler lives in the Philadelphia area now, where she continues writing her other books. Nagel is a librarian at Whitefish Bay Public Library. Their deal with Vintage is just for the three books, though they "have a little bit of a fourth book going," Nagel said, should reader demand be there.

The adventures of Vera, Lenore, Orville and their ilk may continue in another surprising way. Japan's Hayakawa Publishing has purchased Japanese rights to the three novels. 

Contact Jim Higgins at jim.higgins@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.

Zoom conversation

Sharon Nagel and Jocelyn Koehler will talk about their Juneau Black novels with artist-podcaster Margret Petrie during a Zoom conversation at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25. Register for this event through the Boswell Books website.