JPC Allen started her writing career in second grade with an homage to Scooby Doo and has been tracking down mysteries ever since. Her YA cozy mystery series, Rae Riley Mysteries, has been a Selah finalist in both the short story and YA novel categories. Online, she offers writing tips and prompts and also leads workshops for tweens, teens, and adults, encouraging them to discover the adventure of writing. Coming from a long line of Mountaineers, she is a life-long Buckeye.
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A Riddle in the Lonesome October
How do you survive a season of fear? October is a hard month for Rae Riley's family. Her dad, Sheriff Walter "Mal" Malinowski lost his wife and father then. He also has to manage the trouble Halloween brings to rural Marlin County, Ohio. But this year, Rae's uncle fights for his life after a riding accident, and a family feud over a lost inheritance erupts at a local Halloween attraction. As Rae tries to support her family, she and her cousin Amber work to unravel the 70-year-old riddle that will reveal the location of the inheritance so their great aunt Lily and her kids can gain a fortune. And Rae must deal with the secretive behavior of the deputy she’s fallen for. When a bogus medium conducts a séance to contact Cyrus Morley, the man who devised the riddle, the results stun everyone, and the aftermath is even more shocking. There's only one way to survive a season of so much fear--and only one way to unmask a killer.
- ISBN: 1962862852
- Publisher: Mt. Zion Ridge Press LLC
Interview with JPC Allen 2025
Is there a message you hope readers will take away from this book?
I always write my mysteries with three goals. First, I want to write a story readers can lose themselves in if they need a break from the real world. Part of the reason they can get lost in it is because it doesn't violate their Christian faith. Second, if readers want to go deeper, I bring up points about Christian beliefs that they can think about. In Riddle, Rae and her family face different kinds of fears as they deal with her uncle's accident and try to solve the riddle. Readers can see how they handle that and consider what they would do. Third, I write about faith in a way that I hope is accessible to non-Christians. I see it as world-building, showing Christian faith in action to readers who have no more idea how that works than a colony on Mars would.
What’s your biggest challenge in balancing writing time with your other responsibilities?
Preventing myself from putting writing time at the bottom of my responsibilities. Since most of the things I have to get done deal with other people, I put those responsibilities first. But I've had to learn that dedicating time to writing is not shirking my other responsibilities.
How do your faith and spiritual life play into the picture and affect your storytelling?
It affects every aspect of my storytelling, from the development of my characters to why I publish novels. I wouldn't be writing if the Lord wasn't working through me. I develop my characters from my understanding of how people operate in this world, based on what the Bible reveals about human nature. My faith even came into play when I wrote a short story that wasn't explicitly Christian, just clean. I built my villain based on my understanding of what I'd learned from the Bible about how evil works.
What do you consider the greatest moment of your writing/publishing career?
Probably the first time I held my first novel in my hands. That was a deeply moving moment. I'd dreamed of publishing a novel since I was a kid, but I didn't know if that's what the Lord wanted for me. I was so touched that my desire and His will agreed.
Where do your story and character ideas come from?
My life, observations, and a lot of old TV shows I grew up with. The climax for Riddle came to me first, like it usually does for any of my novels. Then I had to create a mystery that led me to the climax. I loved the idea of a spooky treasure hunt during October. That was something I would have liked to have read when I was a teen.
My characters are drawn from people I know or characters I've read or watched, or my imagination. My main character Rae has a lot of me in her but is much braver. Her middle brother's enthusiasm comes from my oldest son. Although I didn't plan it, qualities from both my grandfathers have merged in Walter, Rae's great-grandfather.
What is your writing routine? Any quirky habits or must-have snacks?
Being a stay-at-home mom and assistant to my parents means that no two days are the same. So I don't have any writing routines. I write anywhere and everywhere I have free time.
If you could have coffee with an author, dead or alive, whose work you admire, who would that be? What would you ask him or her?
This is a really tough question for a shy person. When I first read it, I almost panicked, and many of my favorite authors are dead: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, P.G. Wodehouse, Rex Stout. So there's no possibility of actually meeting them. That's an introvert for you!
But no matter who I had coffee with, if I worked up the nerve, I'd ask about their creative process. That always fascinates me, how an artist creates, whether I'm reading about or talking to a writer, a composer, a cartoonist, or a sculptor.
Tell us something funny that has happened to you as an author..
My youngest sister Ellyn and niece Anna acted as my critique partners for A Riddle in the Lonesome October. When I sent them the last third of the book, I had to explain that plot point A had changed to plot point B. So in the middle of a chapter, I changed the font and stated, "Ellyn and Anna, when B comes up, it's the substitute for A." And I explained why I made the change.
Ellyn told me she was reading along and then all of a sudden, the manuscript addressed her personally. That had never happened to her before.
What do you think makes your style of storytelling unique?
Mysteries have been around for almost two hundred years. I think the only way to make mine unique is to pull from my personality and experiences. That means delving into my formative years, growing up in Appalachian Ohio and coming from a long line of Mountaineers.
I didn't plan this, but Rae and her dad have developed into a detective team, and there are very few father-daughter sleuthing teams in mystery fiction.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?
I love to bike, and my whole family likes to hike. I also enjoy baking and watching old movies, especially from the 1930s through1960s.
What books are on your nightstand right now?
My nightstand is pretty crowded right now, so I’ll only give you a few highlights.
Read The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie and A Shadow on the Snow by me. I reread my first book because I had to remind myself of certain details I'm using in the novel I'm working on now.
Finishing The Fall of Gondolin by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Working through Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries by Melville Davisson Post.
Started Who Am I to Judge? by Emily Hanlon.
Finish this statement: If I were not an author, I would be ____________.
Still be a writer. God made me that way. So if I'd never published, I would still be writing for my own enjoyment, like poems or short stories as gifts for others, and journaling to understand the world and my faith.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kathy McKinsey lives in Lakewood, Ohio, with her husband Murray and the oldest of their five children. Besides writing, she enjoys activities with her church, editing for other writers, braille drawing, crocheting, knitting, and playing with their rambunctious cat. https://www.kathymckinsey.com.
I always write my mysteries with three goals. First, I want to write a story readers can lose themselves in if they need a break from the real world. Part of the reason they can get lost in it is because it doesn't violate their Christian faith. Second, if readers want to go deeper, I bring up points about Christian beliefs that they can think about. In Riddle, Rae and her family face different kinds of fears as they deal with her uncle's accident and try to solve the riddle. Readers can see how they handle that and consider what they would do. Third, I write about faith in a way that I hope is accessible to non-Christians. I see it as world-building, showing Christian faith in action to readers who have no more idea how that works than a colony on Mars would.
What’s your biggest challenge in balancing writing time with your other responsibilities?
Preventing myself from putting writing time at the bottom of my responsibilities. Since most of the things I have to get done deal with other people, I put those responsibilities first. But I've had to learn that dedicating time to writing is not shirking my other responsibilities.
How do your faith and spiritual life play into the picture and affect your storytelling?
It affects every aspect of my storytelling, from the development of my characters to why I publish novels. I wouldn't be writing if the Lord wasn't working through me. I develop my characters from my understanding of how people operate in this world, based on what the Bible reveals about human nature. My faith even came into play when I wrote a short story that wasn't explicitly Christian, just clean. I built my villain based on my understanding of what I'd learned from the Bible about how evil works.
What do you consider the greatest moment of your writing/publishing career?
Probably the first time I held my first novel in my hands. That was a deeply moving moment. I'd dreamed of publishing a novel since I was a kid, but I didn't know if that's what the Lord wanted for me. I was so touched that my desire and His will agreed.
Where do your story and character ideas come from?
My life, observations, and a lot of old TV shows I grew up with. The climax for Riddle came to me first, like it usually does for any of my novels. Then I had to create a mystery that led me to the climax. I loved the idea of a spooky treasure hunt during October. That was something I would have liked to have read when I was a teen.
My characters are drawn from people I know or characters I've read or watched, or my imagination. My main character Rae has a lot of me in her but is much braver. Her middle brother's enthusiasm comes from my oldest son. Although I didn't plan it, qualities from both my grandfathers have merged in Walter, Rae's great-grandfather.
What is your writing routine? Any quirky habits or must-have snacks?
Being a stay-at-home mom and assistant to my parents means that no two days are the same. So I don't have any writing routines. I write anywhere and everywhere I have free time.
If you could have coffee with an author, dead or alive, whose work you admire, who would that be? What would you ask him or her?
This is a really tough question for a shy person. When I first read it, I almost panicked, and many of my favorite authors are dead: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, P.G. Wodehouse, Rex Stout. So there's no possibility of actually meeting them. That's an introvert for you!
But no matter who I had coffee with, if I worked up the nerve, I'd ask about their creative process. That always fascinates me, how an artist creates, whether I'm reading about or talking to a writer, a composer, a cartoonist, or a sculptor.
Tell us something funny that has happened to you as an author..
My youngest sister Ellyn and niece Anna acted as my critique partners for A Riddle in the Lonesome October. When I sent them the last third of the book, I had to explain that plot point A had changed to plot point B. So in the middle of a chapter, I changed the font and stated, "Ellyn and Anna, when B comes up, it's the substitute for A." And I explained why I made the change.
Ellyn told me she was reading along and then all of a sudden, the manuscript addressed her personally. That had never happened to her before.
What do you think makes your style of storytelling unique?
Mysteries have been around for almost two hundred years. I think the only way to make mine unique is to pull from my personality and experiences. That means delving into my formative years, growing up in Appalachian Ohio and coming from a long line of Mountaineers.
I didn't plan this, but Rae and her dad have developed into a detective team, and there are very few father-daughter sleuthing teams in mystery fiction.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?
I love to bike, and my whole family likes to hike. I also enjoy baking and watching old movies, especially from the 1930s through1960s.
What books are on your nightstand right now?
My nightstand is pretty crowded right now, so I’ll only give you a few highlights.
Read The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie and A Shadow on the Snow by me. I reread my first book because I had to remind myself of certain details I'm using in the novel I'm working on now.
Finishing The Fall of Gondolin by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Working through Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries by Melville Davisson Post.
Started Who Am I to Judge? by Emily Hanlon.
Finish this statement: If I were not an author, I would be ____________.
Still be a writer. God made me that way. So if I'd never published, I would still be writing for my own enjoyment, like poems or short stories as gifts for others, and journaling to understand the world and my faith.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kathy McKinsey lives in Lakewood, Ohio, with her husband Murray and the oldest of their five children. Besides writing, she enjoys activities with her church, editing for other writers, braille drawing, crocheting, knitting, and playing with their rambunctious cat. https://www.kathymckinsey.com.
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