Mark Okrant Featured in the Laconia Daily Sun

By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper, for The Laconia Daily Sun Nov. 16 2022 Updated Nov. 16 2022

LOUDON — The notion of New Hampshire’s tourism industry inspiring a mystery novel might seem strange, but it is the way Mark Okrant begins his books.

As a writer living in Loudon, Okrant knows more about the tourism industry than the average person. He also knows how to tell a good, page-turning mystery, taking the reader from start to finish in settings most New Hampshire residents recognize.

Mark Okrant, Mystery Novelist

Okrant has written many books, mostly in the mystery genre, popular with readers everywhere. His interest in writing books started when he taught a class at Plymouth State University in tourism planning. “I needed a community for the students to get to know,” explains Okrant.

At the time, it was not practical to put the students on a bus for an extensive field trip to a community to study how tourism impacted an area. Okrant decided to write a textbook in the form of a murder mystery. His students would solve the mystery, read about people in a community and learn how tourism is successfully planned, all within the book. Called “Judson’s Island,” the textbook was a success. Although Okrant planned the book as a teaching tool, it gave him a taste of writing a mystery and he was off and running.

Caldwell-Hopper had boatloads of interesting insights from her interview with Okrant. Delve into the full article with link below.

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