We chat with author Mary Pauline Lowry about Last Night Was Killer, which is a suspenseful, bighearted, and laugh-out-loud story of a single mom trying to do it all—including solve a murder she may or may not have committed…
Hi, Mary! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’ve always wanted to be a writer, so I never had a “real career” doing anything else, but I’ve worked as a wildland firefighter, a carpenter’s apprentice, in a domestic violence shelter, and on the National Domestic Violence Hotline. With all those various jobs I found a throughline: in stressful situations, comedy is a necessary balm. My hottest take is that it’s our most essential art form.
Oh, and I’m the author of two previous novels, The Roxy Letters and Wildfire.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
In elementary school, kids called me “Bookworm.” They might’ve meant it as an insult, but even then I felt it as a compliment. I got through elementary, junior high, and high school by propping a novel open behind my binder in class and reading all day. I even read when I walked! But I didn’t think I could actually be a novelist myself. Novelists were magical beings, like unicorns or rock stars! After studying comparative literature in college, I worked as a wildland firefighter on an elite “hotshot” crew. Doing that difficult and risky work gave me the confidence to think I could write novels myself. I don’t know that it makes logical sense, but that’s how I experienced it.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engel
- The one that made you want to become an author: Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano. It’s the book that made me want to become a mystery writer!
Your latest novel, Last Night Was Killer, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Hilarious. Campy. Fun. Murder mystery.
What can readers expect?
Hopefully readers can expect lots of laughs and a great mystery. Here’s the setup: After a rare wild night out bonding with new friends from her “Intro to Pole Dancing” class, single mom Tilly Turner has a raging hangover. But when she pops open the trunk of her car during a grocery run, she finds she has a raging problem too. Because there’s a bloody corpse inside. Who is he? More importantly, who killed him?
Tilly’s search for answers will take her on a wild quest involving snowmobile chases, hand grenades, more pole dancing, and criminals bent on revenge, as well as a savvy (and smoking hot) ATF agent who might be interested in Tilly . . . or in finding the missing man.
Where did the inspiration for Last Night Was Killer come from?
Taking pole dancing classes popped me out of the serious grief state I was in after both my parents died within eleven months of each other. Nothing had helped, but what ended up making me feel better was shaking it around a chrome pole in booty shorts to blasting pop music. That really surprised me—especially because I was in my mid-forties with zero dance background. It also reminded me that sometimes the way back to joy is not through overthinking; it’s through the body. I wanted to share that with readers.
I also knew so many moms who were overwhelmed and on the struggle bus. I wanted to write this book as a love song to them. To cheer them up, to make them laugh, to take them on the sort of dangerous adventure they probably wouldn’t go on themselves because they have too many people counting on them.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really enjoyed writing the scene where Tilly and her fellow newbie amateur pole dancers go to a strip club to see how the professional pole dancers do it. Writing characters who are in awe of stripper pole dancers for their athleticism was so joyful. Pole dancing is an incredible art form invented by women dancing in strip clubs. They took the materials available to them—bare skin and chrome—and turned them into an aerial art. (Pole dancing only works because bare skin sticks to the pole!) To me, pole dancing is like a flower that’s grown out of a crack in a concrete sidewalk. Humans’ resilience, creativity, and ability to make art even in difficult situations always inspires me. We are amazing creatures!
I also absolutely loved writing the character of Shade, the lone male in Tilly’s pole dancing class who is also a fabulous red-monochrome-wearing drag queen.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
Since I’ve never written a crime novel before, the biggest challenge was writing a satisfying mystery that made sense. It was really fun to learn how to write a novel that’s also a sort of puzzle.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently writing another comedic murder mystery. This one is set in my hometown of Austin, TX. I don’t want to give too much away, but it also does a deep dive into a subculture.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?
I am shouting from the rooftops about Sourland by Ariel Delgado Dixon. (Full disclosure: Ariel and I went to grad school together. I can’t believe I know such a genius!) Sourland is a high-octane masterpiece, a high-lit thriller about two rivals fighting for control of an illegal weed farm in Humboldt County! Come for the tight plotting, sex, violence, and cars set on fire. Stay for the gorgeous sentences!!!!
I’m also so excited about Zoom with a View, a comedic murder mystery by Jess Cannon set during Fourth of July in an idyllic suburb of Austin. It’s next on my TBR pile!
