Allison Keeton holds the first two books in her Midcoast Maine Mystery series while sitting on the porch of her Pemaquid home. The third book in the series will be released in early 2027, and at least three more are in the works. Keeton uses her experiences and the people around her to help shape what she writes. (Christine Simmonds photo)
Allison “Allie” Keeton draws inspiration from the world around her.
That means anyone she meets could end up being a murder victim, as the Pemaquid resident is the author of the Midcoast Maine Mystery series. She still has at least three more books to write, with a murder in each one.
“I believe I will be able to write more,” she said. “I have enough ideas for 12 or so (books).”
So far two of the books in the series have been released. Each book title involves a color, with a bright cover to match.
“Blaze Orange,” came out in January 2025, followed by “Arctic Green” in February. “Lobster Red” will come out early in 2027, and the planned title for book four is “Downeast Blue.”
The series follows protagonist Raven Ollette, who lives in the fictional town of Secretly, Maine, with her county sheriff husband and finds herself involved with a new murder in each book.
“My promise to the reader is, the mystery will always wrap up,” she said. “But the personal storylines don’t necessarily.”
Keeton said her work falls into a subgenre of mystery and crime novel known as a “cozy mystery,” which traditionally does not include gratuitous swearing or other graphic content.
“To me, a cozy is a mystery that doesn’t have violence on the page,” she said. “I mean there might be a fistfight, but there’s no stabbing.”
Keeton said there are no characters in her books who are the 100% equivalent of other people, but there are plenty of events and characters that are influenced by her experiences and the people around her.
“I’ve gone to multiple book clubs in town and everyone will say, ‘Who’s this person, where’s this?’” she said. “I’m like, ‘OK, nobody is exact.’”
Keeton regularly includes dialogue based on things her husband, Tom Aylesbury, has said, and multiple characters have had traits based on him as well. She even named a character Tom, and then made him a ladies’ man, a choice she said Aylesbury disagreed with.
“He’s like, ‘I’ve never been a ladies’ man,’” she said. “And I said, ‘Well, you are to me.’”
She said her protagonist owns rental cabins, which she named Pine Acres after a neighbor’s Sea Acres Motel.
She also said every book she has written includes someone named Charles or Charlie, after a childhood friend.
“Remember ‘Law and Order,’ ‘ripped from the headlines,’ and they would twist it?” she said. “It’s kind of like how I think of things.”
Keeton said the genesis of “Blaze Orange” came from an experience she had while walking her dogs, Lilly and Kelton, in Damariscotta.
Keeton was out with the dogs before a virtual meeting, when suddenly the older dog, Lilly, ran off and would not return. She said it was very unusual behavior for Lilly.
“She never does that,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t even have her on leash.”
Keeton called and called for Lilly to return to no avail. As the meeting time approached, Keeton started to panic.
“I was like ‘Yeah, I’m going to have to leave her and come back,’” she said. “I was petrified she was going to get hit by a car coming back home.”
And then, Keeton said, she finally noticed where she was standing.
“As I turned around, I’m standing in the middle of part of a deer,” she said. “And I screamed and screamed and screamed. It was disgusting. And I thought, what if it was a person?”
Keeton had already started to plan out a murder mystery series taking place in Maine at the time. So when she stopped screaming, she took pictures and recorded how she felt.
“I think that’s how you can capture the real feeling for it,” she said. “When do you stop screaming? How are you? And I was out of breath, and trying to run away from it.”
When she finally returned to the path, Keeton said Lilly was there waiting for her. That became the opening scene of “Blaze Orange.”
For her murder victim, Keeton said she drew inspiration from someone she met at Hidden Valley Nature Center in Jefferson. Keeton said she noticed his blue knit hat, which had strange math symbols, and asked him about it.
“I’m like, ‘What is that, a math society thing?’” she said. “And he said, ‘Oh, I’m a subject matter expert. I testify in court for different things.’ So that’s my murder victim.”
This murder victim is aware of his fate, though.
“He knows it,” Keeton said. “In fact, for my birthday this year he wrote, ‘Happy birthday from the dead guy.’”
For more information about Keeton and the Midcoast Maine Mystery series, go to akeetonbooks.com.
(Do you have a suggestion for a “Characters of the County” subject? Email info@lcnme.com with the subject line “Characters of the County” with the name and contact information of your nominee.)
(Correction: An earlier version of this article online and on Page 1 of the June 11, 2026 edition incorrectly reported the subject’s last name as Keeting. Her last name is Keeton. The Lincoln County News regrets this error.)
