Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Last Place You Look
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.kristenlepionka.com/
CITY: Columbus
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://us.macmillan.com/author/kristenlepionka/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2017025547
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017025547
HEADING: Lepionka, Kristen
000 00452cz a2200121n 450
001 10442195
005 20170503135458.0
008 170503n| azannaabn |n aaa
010 __ |a n 2017025547
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC
053 _0 |a PS3612.E62
100 1_ |a Lepionka, Kristen
670 __ |a The last place you look, 2017: |b ECIP t.p. (Kristen Lepionka) data view (editor of Betty Fedora, a semi-annual journal that publishes feminist crime fiction; lives in Columbus, Ohio)
PERSONAL
Has a partner.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, editor, copywriter, and graphic designer. Katla Creative (a graphic design agency), owner and operator.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Shotgun Honey, Grift, and Black Elephant. Betty Fedora (a feminist crime fiction journal), editor.
SIDELIGHTS
Kristen Lepionka is a writer, novelist, editor, and graphic designer based in Columbus, Ohio. She is the founder and operator of Katla Creative, a graphic design agency. She has worked with prominent national clients that include restaurants, pharmaceutical companies, and consumer goods retailers.
In her debut novel, The Last Place You Look, Lepionka introduces Roxane Weary, an Ohio-based private investigator who is still emotionally shaken by the death of her father several months earlier. Her father, Frank, was a highly respected police officer killed in the line of duty. From Roxane’s perspective, she is still having trouble reconciling his exemplary record as a police officer with his terrible performance as a father and family man. Her emotional turmoil causes the bisexual Roxane to do some things that may not be advisable, such as sleeping with her father’s former police partner. At the same time, she’s flirting with rekindling a relationship she once had with a former high school classmate, Catherine. She also struggles with a tendency to drink heavily, a trait she shares with her deceased father. Though Roxane is a good private investigator, her troubles have put her in a position where she feels defeated.
When Danielle Stockton approaches Roxane for help, she agrees to take on the case. Danielle’s brother, Brad, is a death-row inmate who is scheduled to be executed in two months for a murder Danielle says he didn’t commit. He was convicted for the murder of the parents of Sarah Cook, his girlfriend at the time, and of Sarah herself. Unfortunately, Sarah’s body has never been recovered. Roxane is intrigued because she believes she has recently seen Sarah Cook in town, and finding her would be of immeasurable help in clearing Brad of his crimes. She understands that there may also be a racial component to the case, as Brad is black and Sarah was white. Roxane’s attempts to locate Sarah anger the local police, who begin harassing her. Anonymous phone calls, peeping toms, and vehicle vandalisms increase her stress. When she finds the buried body of a woman—not Sarah—the case takes a frightening turn into the possibility that there are several unsolved murders of women haunting the small town and its police force. Even more upsetting, the Sarah Cook case appears to have to connection to her father, making Roxane even more determined to find answers.
In reviewing The Last Place You Look, Booklist reviewer Michele Leber remarked: “This is a remarkably accomplished debut mystery, with sensitive character development and a heart-stopping denouement.” A Kirkus Reviews writer observed: “Lepionka’s debut confidently portrays complex characters with multiple, sometimes contradictory, motivations and offers an unusually naturalistic perspective on sexual identity.” With Roxane Weary, “Lepionka has created an appealing, relatable lead,” commented a writer in Publishers Weekly. Amber Keller, writing on the website Criminal Element, concluded: “This is a debut novel for author Kristen Lepionka, but you wouldn’t guess that. Her ease of writing and natural style convey the image of a seasoned pro. Her character development is superb, and the pages are filled with suspense. Thriller, mystery, and hardboiled readers would do well to give this one a crack.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2017, Michele Leber, review of The Last Place You Look, p. 22.
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2017, review of The Last Place You Look.
Publishers Weekly, April 17, 2017, review of The Last Place You Look, p. 47.
ONLINE
Criminal Element, https://www.criminalelement.com/ (January 19, 2018), Amber Keller, review of The Last Place You Look.
Katla Creative Website, http://www.katlacreative.com (January 19, 2018).
Kristen Lepionka Website, http://www.kristenlepionka.com (January 19, 2018).
Lit Reactor, http://www.litreactor.com/ (June 13, 2017), Rob Hart, “A Conversation with Kristen Lepionka about Private Investigators, Bisexuality, and Her Debut Novel, The Last Place You Look.“
Los Angeles Review of Books, http://www.lareviewofbooks.org/ (January 19, 2018), biography of Kristen Lepionka.
RT Book Reviews, http://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (June 22, 2017), “Debut Author Spotlight: Kristen Lepionka.”
Kristen Lepionka is the author of the Roxane Weary mystery series, starting with The Last Place You Look (Minotaur Books, 2017). She grew up mostly in a public library and could often be found in the adult mystery section well before she was out of middle school. Her writing has been selected for Shotgun Honey, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Grift, and Black Elephant. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her partner and two cats. She is represented by Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
A Conversation with Kristen Lepionka About Private Investigators, Bisexuality, and Her Debut Novel 'The Last Place You Look'
INTERVIEW BY ROB HART JUNE 13, 2017
IN: HARDBOILED INTERVIEW KRISTEN LEPIONKA SEXUALITY
12
0
Stumble
0
Reddit
0
0
71
Interview, Hardboiled, Kristen Lepionka
The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka came to me by chance. Someone at the publisher reached out and asked me to blurb it. I'm always kind of shocked to get asked this, 'cause who am I? But hey, free books! So I said yes, not really knowing what to expect. And it knocked me on my ass.
It's easy to get tapped out on crime fiction, and The Last Place You Look felt like such a breath of fresh air. In large part because it features a female private investigator who manages to be hardboiled and feminine at the same time. Roxane Weary has some of the trappings of the classic PI—she likes to drink, her life is a bit of a mess—but she never feels like a male character in a female skinsuit. Kristen is also really good at what I like to call the A-B-C of crime writing—how one clue leads to another leads to another, so the story progresses naturally, rather than through an abundance of coincidence and deus ex machina.
Seriously, this book is so good it's kind of hard to believe it's a debut.
What attracted you to the PI genre in the first place?
I've always loved mysteries of all types, including procedurals—but there is something interesting to me about the flexibility of PI characters. They're not cops, so they aren't governed by the same rules and bureaucratic limitations as members of police departments, but they also don't have access to the same systems and tools. So PIs by their nature have to be extra resourceful and inventive. I also love that a PI can choose her cases, rather than having them assigned to her like a police detective, which means that, technically, she can turn her back on one if it gets too hard—and THAT means that the dogged determination of a PI who just won't quit has a different flavor, because that determination is by choice.
[There's] a lot of me in Roxane's character. More than anything else I've written, which makes me feel a little exposed.
Where did you find the inspiration for Roxane? How much of you is in there?
I feel a little weird about saying this, but there's a lot of me in Roxane's character. More than anything else I've written, which makes me feel a little exposed. Roxane and I both identify as bisexual, drink whiskey (her more than me!), and are hopelessly nosy and obsessive about resolving things. I'm the person to ask if you need help locating something—but on a small scale, like when you can't remember where you put your wallet. Chances are, I noticed the wallet in the apartment and can tell you exactly where it is. It's a little annoying, but I can't stop noticing stuff like that. Roxane is like this too, but she harnessed it into a career (whereas I just annoy myself and others with it). We see the world in a similar way, too—we're cynical, fairly quick to assume the worst, but with a profound desire to be proven wrong about people. But just as much of Roxane's character is pure fiction: her family, her fearlessness, her confidence, etc.
One of the things I really liked about the book was that it felt classically hardboiled without getting caught up in tropes or homage. Which is a big trap a lot of fall into, and the work always suffers—the more you wink at the audience, the more you lose them. Did you have anything like that in mind while you were writing—did you find you had to push yourself away from the more familiar aspects of the genre—or did the voice just develop naturally?
The voice developed fairly naturally, but I was mindful of the tropes of the genre too. Roxane is kind of a loner in her day-to-day life, but she also has a messy family situation that is very much a part of her. She drinks too much whiskey and is bad at relationships, like many male counterparts in the genre—but because she's a woman, I think those elements feel different, and not trope-y. The book is set in Columbus, Ohio, which is new physical territory for a hardboiled PI novel, and Roxane as well as the people she meets are Midwestern in their bones. Columbus is a big city, but we have plenty of farmland only minutes outside the city limits. That creates this interesting tension between city and country, while a lot of hardboiled mysteries exist squarely in urban territory. That was something in particular I wanted to explore.
In that same wheelhouse, I really liked that Roxane was both tough and feminine. You didn't sacrifice one for the other. What did you want Roxane to be, in the crime and mystery genre, and how did that affect the writing of the book?
I wanted her to be the kind of detective character that I've always wanted to read about: like you said, tough and feminine, without some of the unrealistic "trained assassin who never so much as bruises" type of revenge fantasy or wish fulfillment, nor the "I-woke-up-this-way/she eats cupcakes for breakfast and never works out but of course she's still a flawless size 2" element of some female characters. Those types have their place, and I can certainly enjoy stories like that as a reader. But I wanted to create a character who wakes up looking and feeling like shit sometimes, because that's how life works. I wanted to write a woman with a drinking problem, because that's territory usually left to male characters in crime fiction. I wanted to write someone who takes risks physically, and suffers the consequences of them. And most of all, I wanted to write Roxane as deeply flawed and struggling, without fetishizing how fucked up she is. She is a mess, and it's not cute or charming. It's just the way she is, and it means she has to work that much harder to get through.
I'm also in the brainstorming stages of another whiskey-related series as well as a stand-alone crime novel about (among other things) donuts and female rage.
Why was it important for Roxane to be bisexual, and to explore that in the book?
Great question. It was hugely important to me because, as a woman who identifies as bi, I always looked for a bi character in mystery fiction and rarely found one. Bisexual representation is pretty bleak, and, in my opinion, bi characters are often used to either titillate the reader a la "Look how edgy this character is!" or, even worse, bi identity is used as a lazy, dangerous shorthand for dishonesty, a la "Look how duplicitous this character is, she's sleeping with everybody!" I hate all that crap. I wanted to write Roxane's bisexuality as a natural part of her life, not as her defining attribute, but as one of many layers to her character. It was also important to me to write her not just as someone who is attracted to both men and women, but as a character who identifies as queer and moves through the world with that identity. The experience of coming out to friends and family is something that shapes a person, as well as dealing with stereotypes, misconceptions, and prejudice related to sexual orientation. I wanted Roxane's character to be informed by those things, rather than just tacking on her bisexuality as an afterthought.
Were there any female PIs or female series characters you looked to for inspiration?
There are so many kickass female series characters that have inspired me in my reading and writing life, including: Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, Linda Barnes's Carlotta Carlyle, Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt, Liza Cody's Anna Lee, SJ Rozan's Lydia Chin, Theresa Schwegel's novels, Rachel Howzell Hall's Lou Norton. I could go on for days.
What are you working on next?
I recently completed the second Roxane Weary mystery, which is now with my editor. I'd love to write a million more Roxane books, and I'm also in the brainstorming stages of another whiskey-related series as well as a stand-alone crime novel about (among other things) donuts and female rage.
Kristen Lepionka
Kristen Lepionka grew up mostly in her local public library, where she could be found with a big stack of adult mysteries before she was out of middle school. In the name of writing research, she has gone on multiple police ride-alongs, taken a lock-picking class, trespassed through an abandoned granary, and hiked inside an Icelandic volcano. Her writing has been selected for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Grift, and Black Elephant. She is also the editor of Betty Fedora, a semi-annual journal that publishes feminist crime fiction and lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her partner and two cats. The Last Place You Look is her debut novel.
DEBUT AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: KRISTEN LEPIONKA
Thu, 06/22/2017 - 1:00pm — RT Book Reviews
reddit
Kristen LepionkaThere's something about summertime that just makes us want to pick up a chilling mystery. Which is why we were intrigued by Kristen Lepionka's debut, The Last Place You Look. It's the story of PI Roxanne Weary, who's hired to look into a case where nothing is as it seems. Indeed, Roxanne's client believes she's recently seen the woman her brother was convicted of murdering 15 years before. We wanted to know more about the book — and Kristen, because debut authors are the best.
Name: Kristen Lepionka
Book: The Last Place You Look
Genre: Mystery
Series: Roxane Weary mystery series
Current Home: Columbus, Ohio
Author Icon: Joan Didion
Favorite Word: If find/replace is to be believed, my favorite word is "almost." I have to go through every manuscript and de-almost it before submitting anywhere. I also tend to have my characters say "disparate" more often than is strictly necessary.
Was this the first full-length novel you ever wrote? No, this is No. five, but the first featuring my protagonist Roxane Weary, and I love writing her so much that it's clear to me the other books were just practice.
Tell us about your day job (current or former). I'm a graphic designer, currently between day gigs. I've done a lot of work in marketing for national chains who sell, variously, cheeseburgers, shoes, lacy underthings and shower gel.
How did you start writing? Since I was a kid I've been scribbling half-finished stories in the backs of notebooks, but I got serious about writing roughly eight years ago. By serious I mean "started finishing stories."
What was it like when you got "The Call"? Oh, this is embarrassing. I clearly remember the conversation I had with my agent when she offered to represent me. She had a lot of good things to say about the book, and I was dutifully taking notes, thinking this was going to be a revise and resubmit situation. When she offered rep, I just stared at my handwritten notes in stunned silence and I actually had to call her two days later so I could ask all those questions you're supposed to ask.
Have you always loved mysteries? What made you pick this genre for your debut title? Mysteries are my one true love. I just think stories that take place on the darker fringes of life have the capacity to reveal so much about human nature—and that's the yummy stuff to explore as a writer.
Were you inspired by any real-life cases? I was listening to season one of Serial when I wrote the first draft of the book, so I wanted to explore the idea of wrongful conviction and what spending that much time in prison can do to someone who is innocent. I had another case on my mind too while writing, but that would technically be a spoiler ... So I have to keep that part a secret.
The Last Place You Look is out now, and you can grab your copy here: Amazon | BN.com | iTunes | GooglePlay | Kobo. And to meet more debut authors, click here.
*This post contains affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and purchase an item from the vendor, we receive a percentage of the profit (even if you don't buy the item we've linked to). Thank you for supporting RT Book Reviews!
GENRE: Mystery
TAGS: Debut Author Spotlight
Print Marked Items
Lepionka, Kristen: THE LAST PLACE
YOU LOOK
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Lepionka, Kristen THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK Minotaur (Adult Fiction) $25.99 6, 13 ISBN: 978-1-
250-12051-9
A down-and-out private investigator works a case that takes her back to her own past.Ohio death row inmate
Brad Stockton's sister, Danielle, hasn't given up on saving his life. The private investigator she reaches out
to, Roxane Weary, can't say the same about herself. Following her father's death, she's been drowning her
troubles in bottles of spirits with a chaser of bad relationships, including bedding Tom, her fathers' longtime
work colleague, and trying to rekindle an affair with Catherine, who's been stringing Roxane along since
high school. Reluctant to take on a case but more reluctant to go without money, Roxane agrees to look into
Danielle's claim that one of Brad's alleged murder victims, Sarah Cook, is actually alive and well. Though
Roxane is sure the story is a fantasy, she can't deny the fact that Sarah's body was never found. True, there's
the highly suggestive evidence of the bodies of both of Sarah's parents at the scene, along with the knife
found in the back of Brad's car. But Roxane knows that someone could easily have planted that last item.
Perhaps someone in Belmont wasn't ready for black Brad to be dating blonde Sarah. After all, the town isn't
known for progressive values or inclusiveness, as Roxane finds out firsthand when the local police make it
known how unwelcome her investigation is. And even though Roxane doesn't believe Sarah is still alive,
when she finds a connection between the case and investigations in her father's past, she vows to keep going
until she uncovers the truth, whatever the risk. Lepionka's debut confidently portrays complex characters
with multiple, sometimes contradictory, motivations and offers an unusually naturalistic perspective on
sexual identity.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Lepionka, Kristen: THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A489268618/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=407d0a36.
Accessed 17 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A489268618
The Last Place You Look
Michele Leber
Booklist.
113.17 (May 1, 2017): p22.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
* The Last Place You Look. By Kristen Lepionka. June 2017.328p. Minotaur, $25.99 (9781250120519); ebook,
$12.99 (9781250120526).
PI Roxane Weary is a lot like her father, Frank, a cop killed in the line of duty nine months earlier: she looks
like him and drinks like him, and she's taken to sleeping with his I former partner. So she goes back to
Frank's notebooks when she gets a new case. Danielle Stockton's brother, Brad, is scheduled to die in two
months for the murders of Sarah Cook's parents 15 years ago and the presumed murder of Sarah, his
girlfriend, whose body was never found. But Danielle is sure she just spotted Sarah in town, so Roxane
starts looking for her, thus arousing the ire of the local police force even after she finds the long-buried body
of a woman. The body is not Sarah's, but it reveals unsolved murders of women, an anomaly in this small
Ohio town. Roxane is a wonderfully complex character, involved in complicated sexual relationships, still
struggling with her relationship with her father, and absolutely dogged in her pursuit of the truth. This is a
remarkably accomplished debut mystery, with sensitive character development and a heart-stopping
denouement. Let's hope there are more Roxane Weary novels on the way.--Michele Leber
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Leber, Michele. "The Last Place You Look." Booklist, 1 May 2017, p. 22. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495034906/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e9bfe186.
Accessed 17 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495034906
The Last Place You Look
Publishers Weekly.
264.16 (Apr. 17, 2017): p47.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Last Place You Look
Kristen Lepionka. Minotaur, $25.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-1-2051-9
Convicted killer Bradford Stockton, whose case propels Lepionka's action-packed if uneven debut, is
scheduled to be executed in two months for the stabbing murder 15 years earlier of the parents of his
girlfriend, Sarah Cook. Sarah went missing the day of the crime and is presumed dead. After Brad's sister,
Danielle, thinks she sees Sarah outside a suburban Ohio gas station, she hires PI Roxane Weary to find
Sarah, in the hope that doing so will prove Brad's innocence. While Roxane investigates, she's harassed by
phone calls from someone who breathes heavily but says nothing. Moreover, her car is broken into, the
police keep pulling her over for no reason, and she spots a man looking into her apartment window. A
loving but dysfunctional family and a habit of overdrinking don't make matters any easier for her. Lepionka
has created an appealing, relatable lead, but she falters near the end as Roxane takes too many unlikely
risks. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Last Place You Look." Publishers Weekly, 17 Apr. 2017, p. 47. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A490820777/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=78d46215.
Accessed 17 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490820777
Buy at iTunes
Buy at Barnes and NobleBuy at Amazon
Amber Keller is a writer who delves into dark, speculative fiction, particularly horror and suspense/thrillers. You can find her work on her Amazon Author Page and she also features many short stories on Diary of a Writer. A member of the Horror Writers Association, she contributes to many websites and eMagazines and you can follow her on Twitter @akeller9.
FRESH MEAT: ‹ previous | index | next ›
Detective Stories and Police Procedurals, Thrillers and Noir
Amber Keller | Kristen Lepionka | Review | Roxane Weary Series
RELATED POSTS
Review: Bel, Book, and Scandal by Maggie McConnon
Review: A Season to Lie by Emily Littlejohn
Review: A God in the Shed by J-F. Dubeau
Review: Shiver Hitch by Linda Greenlaw
Review: Your Killin' Heart by Peggy O'Neal Peden
Subscribe to this conversation (must be logged in):
Individual - You will receive an alert for each comment added to this post. Submit
Digest - You will receive an end-of-day alert for all comments added to this post. Submit
0 comments
Post a comment
Name
Email
Comment Text
Preview Comment
Subscribe to this conversation (must be logged in):
Individual - You will receive an alert for each comment added to this post.
Digest - You will receive an end-of-day alert for all comments added to this post.
follow criminalelement.com
twitter facebook rss
are you getting the newsletter?
Latest Comments
Gr8chefmb on Poll: Vera Stanhope Mystery Novels or Vera TV Show? 20 hours ago
George L Gurney on Q&A with Christopher Reich, Author of The Take 20 hours ago
wordygirl on Rebecca Drake Excerpt: Just Between Us 22 hours ago
ANGIESWORDS on Introducing The Other Woman by Sandie Jones Yesterday
ReadaholicZone on Rebecca Drake Excerpt: Just Between Us 2 days ago
Walker on Longmire 5.02: “One Good Memory” Episode Review 2 days ago
wordsandpeace on Scott Adlerberg Excerpt: Jack Waters 2 days ago
Steven Trop on The Murder of Franklin Delano Roosevelt 2 days ago
Amiakinza on Rebecca Drake Excerpt: Just Between Us 2 days ago
RStefani72 on Rebecca Drake Excerpt: Just Between Us 3 days ago
› show all
CriminalElement.com Bloggers
Adam Wagner
David Cranmer
Crime HQ
Volker Kutscher
John Valeri
Christopher Reich
Jenny Maloney
Lance Charnes
Peter Foy
Gabino Iglesias
Janet Webb
Doreen Sheridan
Jake Hinkson
C. J. Tudor
Chris Wolak
› show all
About
About Us | Submissions | Terms of Use | Privacy Notice | Advertise With Us | Contact Us
Blog Archive
2018 January |
2017 January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
2016 January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
2015 January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
2014 January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
2013 January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
2012 January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
2011 April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
Tags
Crazy Crime News, New York City, Recipe, U.K., Stupid Crimes, TV, Sherlock Holmes, Old and New West, Comics, Excerpt, Sweepstakes!, Film Adaptation, Book to Screen, Debut Novel, Just for Fun, Female Sleuth, Animal Kingdom, David Cranmer, Legal Wrangling, Just Plain Awful, Zombies, Film, Drugs, Serial Killer, Cops, Paranormal, Perp Derp, Fresh Meat, Espionage, Review
Categories
Detective Stories and Police Procedurals | Traditional Mysteries and Cozy Mysteries | Thrillers and Noir | Historical Mysteries and Westerns | True Crime and Nonfiction | Young Adult | Kid-Friendly Crime | Romantic Suspense | Paranormal Crime and Horror
Search CriminalElement.com
advanced search Search
Visit Our Sister Sites
Swoon Reads
TOR.COM
Heroesandheartbreakers.com
QuickAndDirtyTips.com™