Gwen Florio grew up in a farmhouse filled with books and a ban on television. After studying English at the University of Delaware, she began a thirty-plus year career in journalism that has taken her around the country and to more than a dozen countries, including several conflict zones.
Her first novel in the Lola Wick mystery series, Montana won the Pinckley Prize for Crime Fiction and the High Plains Book Award, and was a finalist for the Shamus Award, an International Thriller Award and a Silver Falchion Award. She has since released four other books in the Lola Wick series and one standalone novel.
Here Florio dreamcasts an adaptation of Best Laid Plans, the first installment of a new mystery series:
She’s a little younger than Nora Best, but Reese Witherspoon repeatedly came to mind when I was writing Best Laid Plans.Visit Gwen Florio's website.
Maybe it’s because of her role in Wild, struggling to adapt to life on the trail in much the same way Nora has to fend for herself in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains. Witherspoon has a way of personifying determination, and Nora is nothing if not determined, even when faced with the most challenging circumstances.
Witherspoon also has a knack for humor, something I try to write into my work to leaven the inevitable darkness of crime fiction.
Finally, I’d love to see Witherspoon perched behind the wheel of the giant pickup truck I’ve given Nora, driving hell for leather through the Wyoming high country with an Airstream trailer in tow. She’d have that steely glint in her eye that would let all of us know she’s going to make it.
Coffee with a Canine: Gwen Florio & Nell.
My Book, the Movie: Silent Hearts.
Writers Read: Gwen Florio (August 2018).
The Page 69 Test: Silent Hearts.
--Marshal Zeringue