Mysteries coming in April

There are several mystery books scheduled to be released in April, but these are the ones I'm most excited about.  (Listed alphabetically by author; summaries are from the publisher's website.)


Murder in the Storybook Cottage (Book Retreat #3) by Ellery Adams (Kensington paperback, 28 April 2020).


Storyton Hall, Virginia, is a top travel destination for book lovers and the perfect spot for literary events. But as a children’s book publisher hosts a gathering there, some folks aren’t going to live—happier ever after or otherwise . . .

Jane Steward’s resort is hopping—not only is Peppermint Press’s conference in full swing, there are also lots of families staying on the premises, bringing their kids to events like a scavenger hunt through the Fairy Tale Forest.

Then a woman dressed like Little Red Riding Hood is found dead from a plot device straight out of a fairy tale—with a rare and valuable copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales in her basket. Not long after, a second victim is killed, with yet another treasure—a volume by Hans Christian Andersen worth thousands of dollars—nearby. It looks like a big bad wolf may be lurking among the guests, and Jane can’t just wait for a handsome prince to come to the rescue . . .

Sugar and Vice (Cookie House #2) by Eve Calder (St. Martin's paperback, 28 April 2020).

Lately, Kate has a lot on her dessert plate. She’s launching a cookie-of-the-day challenge in the heart of Coral Cay, providing sweet treats for the reception of the town’s handsome new veterinarian—not to mention dealing with tourists in town for a pirate festival and the surprise arrival of her former fiancé, Evan, who seems determined to win her back.

And if that’s not enough, a skeleton has been found—in the backyard behind her best friend Maxi’s floral shop. Kate knows Maxi could never hurt a fly. Maybe the remains belong to Sir George Bly, a long-dead pirate whose name has become urban legend—until now? It’s time for Kate to use every trick in the recipe book to prove Maxi’s innocence, and find the truth about the skeleton, before the last of the cookies crumble…

Murder in Galway (Home to Ireland #1) by Carlene O'Connor (Kensington paperback, 28 April 2020).

Tara never imagined her introduction to Ireland like this—carrying her mam’s ashes to honor her final request: “Tell Johnny I’m sorry . . . Take me home.” She’s never met her mam's estranged brother, Johnny Meehan, who owns an architectural salvage business in Galway. Although Tara is immediately charmed by the medieval city, the locals seem wary of strangers and a gypsy warns her that death is all around.

When Tara arrives at her uncle’s stone cottage, the prophesy seems true. A dead man lies sprawled over the threshold in a pool of blood. The victim turns out to be Johnny’s wealthiest client, and her missing uncle is the garda’s number-one suspect. In trying to find Johnny and solve the crime, Tara uncovers her mam and uncle’s troubled past. But with a desperate killer about, she had better mind herself, or they’ll be tossing her ashes in Galway Bay . . .

The Stolen Letter (Scottish Bookshop #5) by Paige Shelton (Minotaur hardcover, 7 April 2020).

Delaney Nichols is confident she’s doing what she loves—case in point, just one day after returning from her fabulous European honeymoon, she’s eager to get back to the Cracked Spine, the bookstore where she works. But as she disembarks her bus and hurries toward the shop she and another woman collide, sending a stack of books the woman is carrying to the ground.

Delaney’s hapless victim’s name is Mary, and the two women can’t help but notice that they bear an uncanny resemblance to one another. According to Mary, they both also look like the long-beheaded Mary Queen of Scots. Even stranger, Mary believes she is the reincarnation of the Scottish queen. But peculiar as Delaney’s doppelganger is, she doesn’t have time to dwell on it: on her arrival to the bookshop, she learns the Edinburgh city council wants to close the Cracked Spine, citing code violations, and she’s determined to stop them.

But when Mary’s husband dies in a car explosion—and Delaney learns he was the very member of city council who proposed that the city take a closer look at the bookshop’s construction—she starts to wonder if her meeting with Mary wasn’t an accident.

The Printing Press, and Where Books Come From

 By special guest Paige Shelton.

In the first book of my new Dangerous Type mystery series you’ll meet Clare Henry and her grandfather, Chester. Chester opened his shop, The Rescued Word, back in the 1950s. Along with repairing typewriters, Chester had a vision: he wanted to save all kinds of words, including those in books. He decided to learn how to repair books; bring them back to their original glory. This included mastering how to reprint badly damaged and unsalvageable pages.

Back in the 1950s there were no personal computers that might help with this task. Besides, it would have gone against Chester’s ways to use something like a computer to repair an old book. He wanted his own printing press, and he wanted one of the best. Of course, owning an original Gutenberg press would have been out of reach, so he decided to build his own – a perfect Gutenberg replica. 

A quick look back in time - clay tablets were probably the first books. From there, books took on many different forms with their pages being made of things like papyrus, bone, wood, silk, and parchment. Paper was invented in China around the first century A.D. For a time during the dark ages, silent monks would copy books. They weren’t allowed to correct their own mistakes (some historians believe this is because they were illiterate, and couldn’t read what they were copying) which is why the amount of errors grew as more manuscripts were copied.

The first moveable type printing presses appeared in Asia almost a thousand years ago with ceramic type (letters). It was Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith, who created the first press in the West for the Roman Empire around the year 1440. Gutenberg used metallic types and adapted screw presses to create his printing system. He created his own hand mold into which the liquid metal would be poured to create the type as it cooled and hardened. This was the beginning of the mechanization of bookmaking which led to the mass production of books in Europe. 

The world was changed. In fact, in the early 1600s English philosopher Frances Bacon said that printing was one of the three inventions that changed the world. (Incidentally, the other two were gun powder and the compass.)

They don’t pour their own molds at The Rescued Word, but with their typeface collections, they can reproduce almost any page from any book ever printed. Inside The Rescued Word, visitors and customers from all over the world can also have their old typewriters brought back to life, or find fine papers and writing instruments. There’s no sort of word that Chester and Clare can’t save.

We hope to see you there.

Thanks for letting me post today.  See you in the bookstores!

Ever since she was seven, Page Shelton never wanted to be anything but a writer, and is grateful to have the opportunity now.

Cozy Monday

To Helvetica and Back (Dangerous Type Mystery #1)  by Paige Shelton (Berkley Prime Crime mass market paperback, 5 January 2016).


To begin with, don't you just love this title?

Star City, Utah (very loosely based on Park City) has been Clare Henry's home her entire life.  She loved hanging out in her grandfather Chester's shop The Rescued Word when she was a kid that she continued to work with him as an adult.

The shop broadened it's horizons from being a typewriter repair shop to selling stationery and writing implements as well as restoring old and/or damaged books.

Chester's longtime friend and customer, Mirabelle Montgomery, leaves her  Underwood typewriter with Clare in order to have a key repaired.  Clare sets the typewriter on the front counter for a few minutes while she helps Chester with a computer problem, and upon her return, is confronted by an unpleasant man dressed like a biker, who demands she sell it to him.

When she refuses, the man stomps out in a huff.  

Later that evening, Clare and Chester find him tucked into an alcove in the alley behind the store, dead.  Nobody is able to identify him.

Who is he, and why on earth would he want Mirabelle's typewriter?

Clare is a delightful protagonist, and I'm looking forward to reading more about her.




The publisher has generously offered a copy of To Helvetica and Back to one of my readers. Please comment below by 12:01 a.m. on Monday, January 25. Please don't forget to include an email address where I can contact you if you win. Entries from the U.S. only, please.



FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy of this book.