Whodunit? Try Shirley Appleby

member spotlight

Shirley Appleby, CPA
Senior Accountant, Sturgill & Associates, LLP

By Bill Sheridan
MACPA E-Communications Manager

Death and taxes might be life's only certainties, but there are plenty of pretty good bets out there. Here's one of them: The CPA profession will get a shot in the arm from Shirley Appleby.

The senior accountant at Sturgill & Associates LLP's Westminster office added "author" to her resume in September when she published her first novel, a murder mystery based in Maryland and featuring a CPA as the resident sleuth.

Titled Death and Taxes (Publish America, $19.95), the book tells the story of C.E. Swietzer, a CPA and certified fraud examiner who is trying to find out who's swindling money from Hollywood star Titus Jones. When a guest at Jones' birthday party turns up floating face-down in the pool, Swietzer finds himself investigating a murder as well.

The story and style offer respectful nods to some of Appleby's favorite mystery writers — Lilian Jackson Braun, Hazel Holt and "Perry Mason" novelist Erle Stanley Gardner among them. But the inspiration came during a summer sabbatical in 2002, when Appleby curled up with a novel by Pennsylvania author Edie Claire.

"I read her book Never Preach Past Noon and I said to myself, 'This sounds like something I could write," Appleby said. "But I had never thought anyone would want to read anything I could write."

That didn't stop her from trying. During that extended summer vacation, Appleby developed a fast-moving plot that takes her cast of colorful characters through familiar locales in Baltimore City, Baltimore County and the surrounding areas. Along the way, she cleverly introduced her readers to the CPA profession, describing in detail the duties and issues CPAs sometimes face during an average workday.

"I wanted to do something for accountants similar to what the Perry Mason novels did for lawyers," Appleby said. "The thing I like about Erle Stanley Gardner is that he takes a profession — law — and makes it enjoyable. He puts little elements in there that make you understand law a bit more and how difficult it is to be a lawyer. And I wanted to do that with accounting — give people an idea of what it's really like, give them a little knowledge but not get real technical."

That part was easy. The most challenging part of writing her first novel, said Appleby, was developing the characters — particularly the book's sleuthing CPA C.E. Swietzer and his wife, Jamie. C.E. is loosely based on Appleby herself, and Jamie is based on Appleby's husband, James. In Chapter 7, Appleby dove deep into Jamie's psyche and tried to write from that perspective. And since she associated Jamie with James, Appleby first had to try to get inside her husband's head.

"I've been married to him for 30 years," she said, laughing, "but sometimes I still can't get inside his head."

Though it's too early to gauge public response to the novel, Appleby has received a great deal of positive feedback from friends and family — including one of her toughest critics, her sister Evelyn Dailey, an education professor at Towson University.

"I was really anxious to find out what she thought of it, because she started out as an English teacher in the Howard County school system," Appleby laughed. "She assured me that she really liked it."

With that vote of confidence, Appleby has already started work on a sequel, this time based in Carroll County. C.E. and some of the other characters from Death and Taxes will be back, trying to solve another Maryland murder.

Beyond that?

"I don't know," Appleby said. "I'm just eager to see how well the book does."

It's already done wonders for the CPA profession's image.

Contact this Author: < William Sheridan > bill@macpa.org

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