Lee Ofsted
The first Lee Ofsted:
Lee Ofsted has sacrificed plenty to enter the Pacific-Western Woman’s Pro-Am golf tournament. She’s in just under the wire, and for some reason her long drives keep slicing, even though she’s hitting the ball perfectly. Then Lee discovers the body of the tour’s star at the bottom of the course lake, and her own problems with golf technique pale in comparison.
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Lee Ofsted Home
Welcome to the cyberspace home of fictional pro golfer Lee Ofsted, protagonist of five golf-related mysteries by Charlotte and Aaron Elkins. This is a place for the golf lover who is enthusiastic but not overly competitive, and who loves the wackiness and friendliness of the game as much as the game itself. A place to come for real tips and golfing fun. It's also home for the golf widow (or widower) who is puzzled about a sport that looks from the outside to be about as exciting as a rainy afternoon watching guppies spawn in a tank. And last but definitely not least, it's the place to be if you've enjoyed the Lee Ofsted golfing mysteries and would like to be part of her new adventures—and misadventures—on the Web.
Where I Got My Ideas for the Lee Ofsted Mysteries
Although Aaron and I collaborated on the five Lee Ofsted Mysteries, I was the one who came up with the characters and the plot. (In a later blog I'll describe how we managed to write and stay happily married at the same time.) I'd long been looking for an idea, that we'd both find engaging to write about, but was having difficulty coming up with one. The inspiration came to me by chance.
It was back in the mid-eighties and Aaron was teaching for the University of Maryland in their overseas program for the American military. He'd been assigned to Hahn Air Force Base not far from the Mosel River in Germany. At that time, the road getting up to the base was not good, we'd already seen a lot of the area, and I wanted to do something different with my time other than touring. While checking out the base, we saw that there was a golf course laid out along the runways and we both decided to take golfing lessons. I'd loved the golf-themed stories of P.G. Wodehouse, and once I started playing, I realized that a novice golfer would make a great character for an amateur detective novel. Aaron agreed and Lee Ofsted was born.
Guess where Lee learned to play golf? Here's an excerpt for A WICKED SLICE: "She'd learned to play golf under conditions as bad as these, at Hahn Air Force base, not far from the small army supply depot she'd been stationed at in Germany. The base sat on top of a desolate ridge that the German's wryly called the Hunsruck, which meant 'dog's back,' and it drew rain, fog, and wind the way its namesake drew fleas.....The F-16s that had shrieked ear-shatteringly from the adjacent runways had been character-builders, too. Lee had learned not to be one of those people who 'missed short putts because of the uproar of butterflies in the adjacent meadow' as P.G. Wodehouse had put it so memorably."
The Authors
Charlotte Elkins
One half of the creative force behind the Lee Ofsted mysteries, Charlotte's golf makes Peg's look good. Visit the "Authors" page to read more about the authors and people involved with the Lee Ofsted books. You can also read more from Charlotte Elkins on her web site.
Aaron Elkins
Charlotte's co-author (and husband), who keeps Lee’s cart on the path to success. Aaron is the opposite of Lee Ofsted. He is a naturally Unnatural golfer. Visit the "Authors" page to read more about the authors and people involved with the Lee Ofsted books. Also visit Aaron's own web site there you will find a fascinating group of forensic anthropological mysteries.