Murder, they wrote

Hal Toliver had no idea he would start killing people when the UCI English professor retired in the ’90s. Strangely, it was his wife Mary who pushed him into it.

Luckily the people they kill are purely fantasy. The Tolivers write mystery novels together and their central character, Bea Ellis, is always somehow thrown into the mix when a body turns up.

While Hal lends his pen to the novels, Mary directs the action.

“I’m good at plotting,” Mary said, to which Hal jokingly responded, “In other words, she likes to vicariously murder people.”

The couple splits their time between Laguna Beach and Oregon. All of their five novels take place between the two locales.

The Tolivers say their stories usually begin when they find a good place to stash a dead body.

They work backward and create a story from there. As morbid as that may sound, the Tolivers say their novels aren’t too graphic.

“Sex and violence are basically absent, in fact there’s no sex at all,” Hal said.

Mary chimed in, “That’s what happens when your writers are retired.”

Their latest novel is “Pageant of the Mortals,” in which a land developer hoping to build in undeveloped area in Newport Coast is poisoned.

The action all takes place in local sites. In fact, amateur sleuth Bea Ellis finds inspiration in solving the mystery at the Pageant of the Masters.

The books generally take about a year to complete, but they may not hit the shelves for another two. Each project sits on the shelf for a year. The Tolivers then go over it again to make sure there are no plot holes.

“If you want cause and effect and continuity, you have to read it again and again,” Hal said.

The writing is a great release for Hal, who calls himself a compulsive writer. He writes every day, but teaching at UCI had kept him from ever working on a novel.

“He’d never had time to do frivolous writing,” Mary said.

And for Mary, outlining characters and plot lines is pure fun.

“If you don’t do it for fun, you might as well not do it at all,” Mary said.

The Tolivers will have a reading of “Pageant of the Mortals” at Latitude 33 Bookshop, 311 Ocean Ave., Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call (949) 494-5403