Which American mystery author do you think created the captivating scene below?
“I thought I told you we should not be seen together for the next six months,” said the man with cold precision. He was seated in the shadows of a booth in the back of the tavern. The low light level did not impair his ability to see the effects of his words on his companion across the table, a shapely, olive-complexioned, brunette who was now dejectedly looking down at her drink.”
Who wrote it? Mickey Spillane? Raymond Chandler? James Patterson? No. No. No.
It was Erik Meidl. Yes, THAT Erik Meidl. Erik Meidl, MD, of Blessing Health Hannibal. The lines are from the opening of his book, A Malignant Murder.
Since 1997, the doctor has also been an author.
How it all began
“I enjoyed making up stories and telling them to my kids. I decided to write them down,” Dr. Meidl said. “I had them (the children) illustrate some of the stories, too. It was fun.”
Between 1997 and 2003, Dr. Meidl’s family stories turned into four self-published books, The Many Adventures of Rubella Rucella, The Further Adventures of Rubella Rucella, The Adventures of Sebastian and Tabatha, and Flonce and Ponce.
Erik and Dr. Susan Meidl have four children – Katherine, Laura, Sarah and Joseph. As that quartet grew, life got busier and Dr. Erik had less time to spend writing. Once the children were grown and on their own, the author had to find a new audience.
The next chapter
Dr. Meidl began self-publishing books again in 2022. This time instead of children’s fantasy, his creativity focused on another genre.
“I’ve always enjoyed mystery stories. So, I thought I would give it a try and write one.”
Dr. Meidl used his own life experiences of living in Hannibal and being a physician to craft three books so far. His main characters –– ex-cop and insurance investigator Raven Waltz and infectious disease specialist Dr. Matthew Sharpe –– have a connection to the same small Missouri town and now work together solving mysteries. In addition to A Malignant Murder, the duo is featured in Virtual Greed and his most recent work, A Hawaiian Honeymoon Homicide, all self-published and available on Amazon.
“It’s a nice escape,” Dr. Meidl says of his fiction writing. “I can concentrate on something entirely different and utilize a different part of my brain to work on characters, vocabulary and wordsmithing to put a story together. It’s a different kind of thought process, and a bit of a release, from other activities that my brain does in the workaday world.”
Recently, Dr. Meidl paired another talent with his mystery writing.
“I’ve been getting interested in photography. I used my photos as the cover of the two most recent books. The Virtual Greed cover is a picture I took of Seattle from Puget Sound when I was visiting my daughter Sarah. The cover of A Hawaiian Honeymoon Homicide is a picture I took of a sunset in Lahaina. That’s the town on the island of Maui that burned down in August.”
Inquiring minds want to know, will we see another Meidl book?
“I have been thinking about it. I have not started it yet, but I have some ideas.”
Author Erik Meidl, MD, a man of mystery!