BY VANESSA MCCRAY
TRAVERSE CITY -- If there's a certain familiarity in the pages of Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli's newest mystery, that might be because you, like its heroine, have hunted local woodlands for mushrooms.
Or, perhaps, just as the protagonist, you frequent a spot that serves up basic food and is populated by colorful characters. Maybe you've bought a bottle of wine from The Blue Goat in Traverse City or cherry pie from Grand Traverse Pie Company or stopped at Kalkaska's Cherry Street Market -- all real-life references that might mean something to local readers of "Dead Floating Lovers."
The book might give residents a little thrill when they spot the recognizable places and details sprinkled throughout the text. The mystery takes place in Leetsville, a fictionalized version of the actual speck, located north of Kalkaska.
Buzzelli's Leetsville comes with its own police department and the blustery Deputy Dolly Wakowski, the sometimes unwelcome sidekick to mystery writer and main character Emily Kincaid.
The book is a followup to "Dead Dancing Women," the first in a series of four confirmed books. "Dead Floating Lovers" is in bookstores now.
The author lives on Starvation Lake between Mancelona and Kalkaska and said her surroundings inspire the scenes and people in her books.
"It is such an amazing place for the people -- who are so real. There are no facades. They are who they are," Buzzelli said. "I am really big on character."
When she wrote Emily Kincaid's story, Buzzelli felt she didn't have a choice about where the mysteries must unfold. Northern Michigan called.
"I came up here, and the crows decided that they were going to adopt me, and they've been my muses ever since," she said. "Who am I to say no to a gift like this?"
In this second book, Emily and Dolly sort out the identity of two skeletons found in a lake, and how those bones got there. Buzzelli said she was struck by the solitude of a real northern Michigan lake she visited.
"... What a perfect place, with the lake levels going down, for a skeleton to suddenly appear," she thought.
For more information about the author and a list of upcoming book signings visit the Web site www.elizabethbuzzelli.com.
