Furtively Speaking

You are likely to see them anywhere. They blend in with the rest of the population pretty well and, at first glance, appear quite normal and yet–and yet, they are identifiable if you know what to look for.

You might detect a curious gleam in the eyes, or a slight twitching of the ears, as if hearing innuendos in innocent conversations.

The fingers, too, could be slightly blunted on the ends, pointing to prolonged contact with the keys of a computer.

Check out the mouth–it usually curves upward in an innocuous smile but, when hardly anyone notices, it smooths out into a thoughtful, suspicious line.

If you listen, you can hear words like, “Why?” “Tell me more.” “Are you sure?”

If you can, without seeming too obvious, glance at the posterior. Does it look as if it spends hours sitting in an uncomfortable office chair?

Pay particular attention to the sidler-one who sidles up to the edge of other people’s conversations, seemingly not listening–but check those ears again. Are they twitching?

Here are other clues: are they coffee drinkers? tea drinkers? On a rainy day, a snowy day, do you smell or see a fire in the fireplace? Do you hear sounds of rejoicing at a sudden thunderstorm or, worse yet, see an umbrella bobbing down the street over a euphoric person who seems oblivious to the dampness?

You might find them in libraries, poring over books on poisonous plants or unsolved mysteries. If you should be able to sneak a peek at their computers, you’d see questionable searches that seem to point to murder and mayhem.

If their conversations are rife with words like: murder, suspects, guilt, innocence, victims, justice, injustice, then you can be pretty sure you have correctly detected and identified a strange, insatiably curious, slightly weird yet completely harmless breed–the cozy mystery writer!

http://pen-l.com/Mystery.html

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=blanche+day+manos