Shirley Skidmore likes mysteries. When she was young her father had to hide his murder mysteries from the little girl with the big eyes and the big ears.

“Writers are peeping Toms,” said Skidmore. “I’m always interested in people and what they are doing.”

So, it is no coincidence that Skidmore took to writing mystery stories. Her mysteries are set in local places and her latest, Murder in the Sooke Potholes, is the second in a trilogy of murder stories proceeded by Murder on the Galloping Goose. The third, and last, will be set along Whiffin Spit.

“I can’t murder too many people in Sooke,” said Skidmore jokingly during a conversation about her latest literary offering.

Reading and writing are a passion for Skidmore. She says she is “addicted” to reading and often has two or three books on the go at once. She is called “the book lady” and confesses to devouring 10 to 12 books a week.

“Reading stimulates the thought process,” she said.

She is also an avid gardener and finds the time spent among her plants gives her imagination a work out and that’s when small stories and plots start appearing. She said as a lonely writer she was compelled to meet with others suffering from the same malady, so she formed the Sooke Scribblers. The Scribblers are a group of writers who meet monthly to discuss writing and books as well as offering support and encouragement.

She is also involved with the Sooke Community Arts Council as she finds the two arts disciplines are complementary.

Her first book, The Legacy of the Coffin Ship, still solicits responses from readers.

“That got it going,” said Skidmore. “I realized I had a lot of stories I wanted to tell — I think everybody has a story to tell.”

Writers need a hook and Skidmore feels she has found it in her latest book. She said she had to think of something others hadn’t done.

“It’s a little darker than some would be comfortable with,” said Skidmore.

She routinely receives letters from people who can’t figure it out, and when they can’t, she’s happy.

“I don’t sit down and plan, I don’t preplan I just start writing, it comes from someplace — out of my fingertips.”

So for the good part of a year, Skidmore let her fingers to the talking. She resurrected and fleshed-out the characters from her last murder mystery and spent less time on flowery details resulting in a book people have a hard time putting down. It gets to the meat of the story quickly without readers having to wade through too much description, leaving room for one’s own imagination.

For Sooke residents, the scenes are familiar and the characters could easily be composites of local personalities.

Skidmore weaves the plot around the characters, serving up small hints all the while leading the reader onto the next page, the next chapter. She knows how to write mysteries and how to keep one’s mind guessing.

There are just enough small Sooke details to make the mystery interesting to local readers but not too many to make it merely a story written by a local for locals.

Skidmore is a long-time Sooke resident, hailing from Montreal and parts East. She taught school in Montreal and when she came to B.C. for her father’s funeral, she fell in love with the area.

She met and married Alan Skidmore and has lived in Sooke for 24 years. She has degrees in education and business from McGill University but writing is what she loves to do.

“Sooke is a good place, it gives you a sense of belonging — if you accept it for what it is,” said Skidmore. “That’s where my heart is.”

Murder in the Sooke Potholes is published by Windshift Press and is available at the Reading Room, People’s Drug Mart, the Sooke Region Museum and Little Vienna Bakery.