McLean Becomes "Thrilling" Backdrop for Mystery

Crime, murder, and a woman hell-bent on revenge—it is all happening in McLean. In author Suzi Weinert’s debut novel, that is.

Weinert’s book, “Garage Sale Stalker,” came out last December, and is making a splash in the local literary scene. A resident of McLean for over 25 years, Weinert chose her former home as the setting for the story about a woman’s passion for garage sales, and the secret, unsavory world she discovers beneath castoff treasures.

“Suburbia, especially when affluent, projects a surface calm and perfection,” Weinert says. “But below the veneer lurks all typical pluses and minuses extant wherever humans gather.”

Garage sales might be unique territory in the realm of mystery novels, but they are familiar stomping grounds to Weinert. She spent a nomadic childhood in an Air Force family, then went on to marry an Army officer; she moved 11 times within 21 years, across the United States, Germany, and the Philippines. Hunting for housewares in thrift shops, local bazaars, markets, and estate sales became a necessary part of her life.

Two items discovered by the "Garage Sale Stalker" protagonist—a large painting and a Blue Danube serving piece—are based on purchases Weinert made herself.

“While my mystery thriller is fiction,” Weinert says, “these particular treasures are facts.”

Although she minored in creative writing in college, she put her interest on hold while she and her husband raised a family. Now retired and living in Lake of the Woods, Virginia, she found that her empty nest offered a new world of opportunity. Namely, she now possessed the two most precious gifts a writer can have—time and a good idea.

“Once my novel unfolded, the characters seemingly stood behind me and told me what to write,” she says. “I could hardly type fast enough.”

Concerned with the authenticity of the story, she attended a 10-week Fairfax County Citizen Police Academy course, the highlight of which is a 12 hour ride-along with an on-duty policeman.

“I want [Fairfax County policemen] reading my book to say, ‘Yes, that's exactly what we'd do,’” Weinert says.

She also hopes readers will recognize the spirit and feel of the McLean. Although Weinert does not reveal the precise residential community where she lived, a map of the McLean area emerges within the pages of “Garage Sale Stalker.”

“Dozens of readers wrote my mention of local streets and landmarks offered them instant identification with the setting,” she says.

The glowing, five-star reviews of “Garage Sale Stalker” on Amazon.com suggest that the story is resonating with readers, both from McLean and elsewhere.

“Mrs. Weinert displays not only extensive experience in everything from estate sales to yard sales, but insights into the sellers themselves,” writes Karen Kovarik of Lake of the Woods, VA in one such review. “Her killer is properly chilling, but also so well portrayed that one can almost emphathize.”

Weinert is also getting positive feedback from fellow writers. Said Joyce McDonald, author of “Killing the Cure:” “It reads well and keeps your interest all the way. Very scary, too, in parts.”

Jean Harrington, author of “The Barefoot Queen” and “In the Lion’s Mouth,” said: “The menace was real and jumped off the page. [It is] a professionally written, well-paced story.”

Barringer, Weinert’s publisher, certainly noticed the potential of “Garage Sale Stalker.” Now, a sequel is in the works.

“When my publisher decided I was onto something big and pronounced my novel as the first of a series, I turned enthusiastic attention to book two,” Weinert says. “Now my goal is writing at least an hour a day. But when inspiration strikes and the iron is hot, I may write until noon—still wearing my pajamas.”

Readers can buy “Garage Sale Stalker” at the Artisans in the Langley Shopping Center in McLean, as well as online at Amazon.