Mystery Monday

 A Smoking Bun (A Bakeshop Mystery #18) by Ellie Alexander.  (St. Martin's,            20 February 2024).  

It's winter in Ashland, and Juliet's in-laws are coming to visit.  She's planning to give them an authentic Ashland winter experience, complete with snowshoe tours and winter picnics. 

An unpleasant encounter with a rule-breaking guide named Fitz Baskin puts a damper on their snowshoe tour, but they hope Ashland's unique Downhill Dummy race (in which makeshift dummies are strapped to skis and hurled down difficult ski run) will make up for it.

Unfortunately, one of the dummies speeds down the hill and lands on top of Baskin.  It's determined that he is dead.  Did the impact with the dummy kill him, or was he already dead?

Ellie Alexander's mysteries are always well-constructed,  and her characters are engaging.  Additionally, her descriptions of Juliet's baking and cooking processes are fascinating!

Ellie Alexander (who also writes as Kate Dyer-Seeley) is a Pacific Northwest native with a deep love for the region, which is why she sets her books there.  Ellie also writes the Sloan Krause mystery series, set in Leavenworth, Washington.

Mystery Monday (& a giveaway!)

 

An Unexpected Peril (Veronica Speedwell #6) by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley hardcover, 2 March 2021).

January 1889.

Veronica and Stoker have been helping the Curiosity Club (an elite Society of unconventional and adventurous women) curate an exhibition honoring Alice Baker-Greene, a member who had died while mountain-climbing.

When Stoker notices that the ropes Alice used appear to have been deliberately cut, they hide the evidence while deciding what to do about it, but before they can take action, the ropes are stolen.

Meanwhile, the Princess of Alpenwald, a patron of the exhibit, disappears.  Since she is scheduled to attend some state functions, a doppelganger is needed.  That replacement is Veronica, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the princess.

This provides the perfect opportunity for the Veronica and Stoker to investigate what they are certain is the murder of their friend.

Of course, complications ensue, and Veronica's life is endangered.

An Unexpected Peril is thoroughly entertaining.  We learn more about the backgrounds of both Veronica and her paramour, and the ending provides satisfactory closure.

Thanks to the publisher, I have a finished hardcover copy to give away.  Please comment on this post to enter.  Entries from the U.S. only, please.

The Joys of Binge Reading

I've recently rediscovered the joys of binge-reading.  It's so enjoyable to find out what's going to happen right away after the cliff-hanger ending, instead of having to wait for months.

When I was younger, I used to re-read series I loved, in the past several months, perhaps due to services like BookBub, Riffle and BookGorilla, it's suddenly much easier to find existing series I've never heard of.

Here are a few series I've enjoyed.

The Bakeshop Mysteries by Ellie Alexander.  (Eleven books, so far.)

The Bakeshop Mysteries are set in the charming hamlet of Ashland, Oregon, home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where romantic pastry chef, Juliet Montague Capshaw (Jules), has returned home to heal her broken heart and help run her family’s artisan bakeshop, Torte. Ellie Alexander’s culinary mysteries leave fans hungry for more with their decadent food descriptions, recipes, and a sinister slice of murder.   

The Eleanor Wilde Mysteries by Tamara Berry.   (Two books, so far, with one coming in October.)                                                                                                                   

When something goes bump in the night . . . it’s most likely a plumbing problem. But fake medium Eleanor Wilde is happy to investigate and cleanse your home of spectral presences—for a fee. Hey, it’s a living . . 

The Knit & Nibble Mysteries by Peggy Ehrhart.  (Five books, so far.)

Since her only daughter left for college, widow Pamela Paterson has kept busy as associate editor of a craft magazine and founder of the Knit and Nibble knitting club in quaint Arborville, New Jersey. Now, she’s trying out a new hobby—solving murders!

The Southern B& B Mysteries  by Carolyn Fardig.  (Three books so far.)

Quinn Bellandini loves her life in Savannah, Georgia, where she runs her grandfather’s B&B with her sister, Delilah. From baking fresh scones and serving up grits every morning to ensuring the guests see the best of their historic city, Quinn can’t imagine doing anything else—even if it means dealing with nuisances like the occasional malfunctioning commode. 

Cozy Monday - What I read on my vacation

The Lost Traveller (County Cork #7) by Sheila Connolly.  (Crooked Lane hardcover, 8 January 2019.)

Pub owner Maura Donvan discovers  a body in the ravine behind the pub. And then, the Irish gardaí reveal that the victim’s face has been battered beyond recognition. 
Who is the faceless victim? Who wanted him dead? And why was his body dumped in the backyard of Sullivan’s Pub? 
Even after the dead man is finally given a name, nobody admits to knowing him. In the tight-knit world of Leap, no one is talking―and now it’s up to Maura to uncover the dark secrets that lurk beneath the seemingly quiet town. 



Death in Provence (Penelope Kite #1) by Serena Kent.  (HarperCollins hardcover, 19 February 2019.)

This charming new series features Penelope Kite, retired from her forensics job in England.  Tired of being an unpaid nanny and chauffeur for her ungrateful stepchildren, she impulsively buys a fixer-upper near the country village of St. Merlot.  
A few days after her arrival, she finds a body floating in the pool, and must find her way around the unfamiliar French legal system.  
Her background in forensics is a big help, and with the help of her old boss and her best friend, she's able to unravel the mystery.



Murder at the Mill (Iris Grey #1) by M.B. Shaw.  (Minotaur hardcover, 4 December 2018).

Another charming series opener, the protagonist here is artist Iris Grey.  In an effort to escape the drama of her crumbling marriage, she rents a cottage in a Hampshire Village.  
She's commissioned to paint a portrait of famous crime-writer Dominic Wetherby, owner of the property on which the cottage is located.
At the Wetherby's Christmas Eve party, the mulled wine is in full flow - but so too are tensions and rivalries among the guests. On Christmas Day, the youngest member of the Wetherby family, Lorcan, finds a body in the water. A tragic accident? Or a deadly crime? With the snow falling, Iris enters a world of village gossip, romantic intrigue, buried secrets and murder.

Cozy Monday - 5 New Series!

Color Me Murder (Pen & Ink  #1) by Krista Davis.  (Kensington Publishing trade paperback, 27 February 2018.)

By day, Florrie Fox manages Color Me Read bookstore in Georgetown, Washington D.C. By night, she creates her own intricately detailed coloring books for adults, filling the pages with objects that catch her eye. There’s plenty of inspiration in her new apartment—a beautiful carriage house belonging to Professor John Maxwell, Florrie’s boss. He offers the property to Florrie rent-free with one condition—she must move in immediately to prevent his covetous sister and nephew from trying to claim it.

When the professor’s nephew, Delbert, arrives, he proves just as sketchy as Florrie feared. But the following morning, Delbert has vanished. It’s not until she visits the third floor of the store that Florrie makes a tragic discovery—there’s a trap door in the landing, and a dead Delbert inside. The esteemed Professor Maxwell is an obvious suspect, but Florrie is certain this case isn’t so black and white. Doodling clues, she begins to consider other colorful characters on the scene, all with a motive for murder. With a killer drawing closer, Florrie will need to think outside the lines . . . before death makes his mark again.
(Includes A Front and Back Cover for You to Color!)


Crime & Punctuation (Deadly Edits #1) by Kaitlyn Dunnett.  (Kensington Publishing hardcover, 29 May 2018).  

When perky novice writer Tiffany Scott knocks at her door holding a towering manuscript, Mikki expects another debut novel plagued by typos and sloppy prose. Instead, she finds a murder mystery ripped from the headlines of Lenape Hollow’s not-too-distant past. The opening scene is a graphic page-turner, but it sends a real chill down Mikki’s spine after the young author turns up dead just like the victim in her story . . .

Mikki refuses to believe that Tiffany’s death was accidental, and suspicions of foul play solidify as she uncovers a strange inconsistency in the manuscript and a possible motive in the notes. Then there’s Tiffany’s grandmother and husband, who aren’t exactly on friendly terms over the local area’s planned rejuvenation efforts . . .

Unable to convince police that they are focused on the wrong suspect, Mikki must rely on her keen eyes to catch the truth hidden in Lenape Hollow. As she gets closer to cracking the case, only one person takes Mikki’s investigation seriously—the cunning killer who will do anything to make this chapter of her life come to a very abrupt ending . . .


Murder, She Knit (Knit & Nibble #1) by Peggy Ehrhart.  (Kensington Publishing mass market paperback, 27 March 2018).

Pamela is hosting the next Knit and Nibble meeting and can’t wait to liven up her otherwise empty home with colorful yarn, baking, and a little harmless gossip. She even recruits Amy Morgan, an old friend who recently moved to town, as the group’s newest member. But on the night of the gathering, Amy doesn’t show. Not until Pamela finds the woman dead outside—a knitting needle stabbed through the front of her handmade sweater . . .

Someone committed murder before taking off with Amy’s knitting bag, and Pamela realizes that only she can spot the deadly details hidden in mysterious skeins. But when another murder occurs, naming the culprit—and living to spin the tale—will be more difficult than Pamela ever imagined . . . 

Scot Free (Last Ditch #1) by Catriona McPherson.  (Midnight Ink trade paperback, 8 April 2018). 

Lexy Campbell fell in love and left her native Scotland for a golden life in California―hitched to a hunk, building her marriage counseling practice, living the dream. Six months later she's divorced, broke, and headed home. There's just one last thing. Lexy's only client―sweet little old Mrs. Bombarro―is in jail for murdering her husband with a fireworks rocket.

Lexy knows the cops have got it wrong; all she needs is a few days to prove it and somewhere cheap to sleep at night. But checking into the Last Ditch Motel leads Lexy to a whole new cast of characters with troubles of their own.

Tart of Darkness (Chef to Go #1) by Denise Swanson.  (Sourcebooks Landmark mass market paperback, 3 April 2018). 

Right when Dani thinks she’s hit a dead-end in her career, she unexpectedly inherits an enormous old house in a quaint college town. This gives her the perfect opportunity to pursue her true passion—cooking! So Dani opens Chef-to-Go, preparing delicious, ready-made meals for hungry students attending the nearby university, as well as providing personal chef services and catering events for the local community. To help support her new business, she opens her home to a few students, renting them rooms and becoming almost like a big sister figure in their lives.

But just as Dani is relishing her sweet new life, the friend of one of her boarders is murdered, and Dani becomes one of the primary suspects! She’ll have to scramble to clear her name and save her business before the killer reappears—perhaps to silence the new chef forever.

Please welcome Bailey Cattrell!

Nightshade for Warning is the second in the Enchanted Garden Mystery series featuring aromatherapist and perfumer Elliana Allbright. After divorcing her philandering husband, she opened her dream business, Scents & Nonsense, in her hometown of Poppyville, California. Her almost supernatural sense of smell combined with her ability to intuitively know what fragrances will help her friends and customers overcome difficulty or simply bring them pleasure has made her business take off like a rocket.

The Enchanted Garden behind her shop is chock-full of rambling plants, bird houses and windchimes, winding paths, tumbling terrace beds, and myriad herbs and flowers from which she distills the concentrated scents that are the hallmark of her unique perfumes. For this, she uses the ancient copper alembic her gamma left her along with an illustrated garden journal Ellie has come to realize contains more than a little magic.

The garden is open to her customers and friends to sit, sip tea, and nibble on the cookies that her best friend, Astrid Moneypenny, bakes up every morning. Miniature garden tableaus, gnome doors and fairy gardens are tucked into crevices and nooks all over the space. Dash the corgi and Nabokov the Russian Blue shop cat provide Ellie company and keep an eye on things, while Ellie herself lives in a super-efficient tiny house at the back of the property.

In Nightshade for Warning, Ellie is missing Ritter Nelson, her new beau who is on a research project in the Alaskan tundra. He’s only been gone for a few weeks, but there are months to go. It’s a welcome distraction when journalist Blake Sontag wants to feature her tiny house in a national magazine. She’s proud of her small-scale home, and Ellie’s business group, the Greenstockings, see it as a terrific opportunity to spread the word about their adorable tourist town with its Old West flavor and access to outdoor activities.

Then her younger brother, Colby, turns up with his Westfalia van and a new girlfriend, Larken. Ellie adores her brother, and takes to Larken – a wildcrafter and herbalist after her own heart – right away.

Things are looking up until Sontag is poisoned, and the police focus on the last person to see him alive – Colby’s girlfriend, Larken. It doesn’t help that she had extensive herbal knowledge and the poison that killed the journalist was plant-based.

Detective Max Lang has held even more of a grudge against Ellie ever since she proved herself innocent of the murder he tried to pin on her months before, so it’s not easy when Ellie agrees to help Larken. But she plunges in with the help of Astrid and the other members of the Greenstockings to uncover the murder victim’s past in Poppyville, a mysterious land grant, an old family secret – and plenty of motives for murder. In the process, she learns a bit more about her magical abilities, and a new admirer challenges her determination to stay true to Ritter despite his long absence and sometimes confusing communications.

The book includes recipes for Astrid’s Lavender Shortbread Cookies and the Peppermint Foot Polish that Maria Canto loves so much.

Next up? Potions and Pastries, the seventh in the Magical Bakery Mystery series that I write as Bailey Cates, will release in November, 2017, and I’m currently working on the third Enchanted Garden Mystery, tentatively titled Marigolds for Malice.

For more information about all my books (and pen names), please visit www.baileycates.com.

Horace Bick, The Grizzly Bear, and The Joy of Old Hardware Stores

A guest post by Julia Buckley.

Readers who enjoyed my first Writer’s Apprentice mystery, A Dark and Stormy Murder, don’t have to wait much longer for the sequel. Death in Dark Blue debuts tomrrow,  May 2. Since I don’t want to delve too deeply into the storyline and risk spoilers, I thought I’d talk a little more about Blue Lake, the fictional town where all the mystery happens.

Blue Lake is an amalgam of any number of Midwestern small towns I’ve visited, and even Bick’s Hardware has shades of other hardware stores I’ve seen over fifty years. One in particular stands out. It was a wonderful old store in Valparaiso, Indiana—my college town!—and I happened to wander into this place when I was twenty and searching, just before Christmas break, for family Christmas gifts. 


I had chosen my brother Christopher’s name in the family grab bag, and I wanted to buy him a saw and a flannel shirt (both on his list). So I walked the mile from campus to Valpo’s downtown strip, and I stumbled across an amazing place called Wark’s Hardware. The interior was dim, dusty, wonderfully fragrant of cut wood and mixed paint and varnish. Like Bick’s Hardware, Wark’s had shelves that went all the way to the ceiling, and in fact it had a dizzying effect, giving me a sense of vertigo until I adapted to the sheer volume of stuff on the walls.

It didn’t take me long to realize I loved the place, especially after asking Mr. Wark for some help and finding that although he hadn’t smiled much, he was quite friendly and attentive, and spoke in a scratchy voice that grew on me, too.

I bought a saw from him, and when my family came to pick me up a day later, I insisted that they visit Wark’s Hardware with me just to revel in its wonderful eccentricity.

Wark’s is no longer there, and it’s likely that Mr. Wark is no longer with us, either, but the store lives in my imagination. The great thing about writing is that we can borrow bits and pieces from every memory that we have. We then embellish those memories with our own little decorations. 

For example, there was no giant grizzly bear at Wark’s Hardware, but I did see a lot of things like that when I visited South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. I decided to borrow this bit of whimsy and place a giant stuffed Grizzly in the porch lobby of Bick’s Hardware, and that Mr. Horace Bick, showing a bit of humor, placed a sign in his clawed hands that said “Bick’s is Best.”

In addition to my love of hardware stores, I am mad for antique shops. My husband and sons do not share this love, and so I am often a lonely wanderer on family vacations, trying to suss out likely-looking places that might hold dusty treasures when all the boys are ever looking for is a good hamburger joint and perhaps a place that sells guitars. Some of my cool antique shop finds have also made it into Bick’s Hardware, but I’m thinking that in a future book I might just let Lena wander into an antique shop and get lost in the wonderful objects that take her to other times and places.

Thanks for reading! Book two is available for pre-order now. Here’s the Amazon link. https://tinyurl.com/ksl6oxc

Oh, and assuming I write about one, what’s a good name for an antique shop? 😊

Julia Buckley is a Chicago mystery author. She writes two mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime. A Dark and Stormy Murder was recently named "a noteworty traditional mystery" by Writer's Digest, and her novels The Big Chili and Cheddar Off Dead will both be available in Japanense translations. She has twelve books available on Kindle.

She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Chicago Writer's Association. In addition, she has worked with the same writer's group since 2000.

Julia has taught high school English for twenty-eight years; she lives near Chicago with her husband, two sons, four cats, and a mischievous Lab puppy named Digby.

Cozy Monday

Death in Dark Blue (Writer's Apprentice #2) by Julia Buckley (Berkley Prime Crime mass market paperback, 2 May 2017).


Lena London has been Camilla Graham's assistant long enough that their first collaborative book, The Salzburg Train,  has been published.  They're both pretty excited, and Lena wants to share her excitement with her new beau, Sam West.  But when she goes next door to to give him a copy, she (almost literally) stumbles upon the body of a woman.

Lena recognizes the woman: Taylor Brand was the best friend of Sam's late wife Victoria, who was determined to prove that Sam had murdered Victoria, even though Sam had been exonerated when proof surfaced that Victoria was still alive. Lena is, of course, stunned.  She's also certain that Sam wouldn't be foolish enough to commit a murder on his own property, and local police chief Doug Heller agrees with her.

Still, the media presence, which had just begun to dissipate, increases, and Lena and Sam are once again in the national spotlight.

Lena and Sam are desperate to determine the identity of Taylor's killer.  They'd like to find Victoria, too, but that has been taken over by federal agencies, who seem to have given the case very low priority. 

There are some fictional characters whose jobs I'd love to have.  Lena London is one of them.  Camilla Graham is a romantic suspense author reminiscent of Mary Stewart, the grande dame of romantic suspense. 

Julia Buckley has been so thorough in the conception of her characters that there is a list of all of Camilla Graham's novels (from 1972 through 2016!) at the front of the book.  And, each chapter begins with an epigraph from Camilla and Lena's work in progress, Death on Danube.  

Although not absolutely necessary, it's probably a good idea to read the first book in the series, A Dark and Stormy Murder, to fully understand what's going on in this book, but it won't be a hardship!



The publisher has generously offered a copy of Death in Dark Blue to one of my readers.  Please comment below before 12:01 a.m. on Monday, May 8th.  Entries from the US only, please.  
Please don't forget to include an email address where I can contact you if you win!

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

Mystery Monday

Garden of Lamentations (Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James #16) by Deborah Crombie (HarperCollins hardcover, 7 February 2017).

It's been a while since I was so enthralled by a book that I just had to share it.  It's not very surprising that it's part of one of my favorite series of all time:  Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid and Gemma Jones.  

This installment opens with the body of a young woman, found posed under a tree.  Cornwall Gardens is a private garden shared by the houses surrounding it (a handy map of the area is provided as a frontispiece).  

The young woman, Reagan Keating was the nanny for a family who lived in one of those homes, and never made it home after a Friday night out with friends.  Although the incident doesn't occur in Gemma's bailiwick, one of her close friends knew Reagan, and manages to have Gemma co-opted to assist with the investigation.

Meanwhile, Duncan receives a cryptic message from his old boss, Denis Childs, asking him to meet in a quiet pub. Duncan is still somewhat resentful towards Childs for suddenly transferring him without explanation the previous year.  When Kincaid asks for one, he's told that Childs has taken an extended personal leave.  

Duncan keeps the appointment, mostly in hopes of perhaps getting his long-delayed explanation. What he does learn is astounding:  he was transferred in an attempt to distance him from Childs himself, who had uncovered some deep-reaching corruption in the department.  

Duncan takes from this that he may still be in danger.  This is confirmed the next day when he learns that Childs was attacked shortly after leaving the pub.

Gemma and Duncan's cases are both complex, but completely unrelated.  The real story here is the effect of their work on their relationship.  Duncan takes Childs' warnings to heart, and keeps the information about corruption to himself.  Gemma knows that Duncan is hiding something, but they are both so busy with their respective jobs that communication is almost physically impossible. 

Deborah Crombie has again created an excellent close-up of the life of a family with two working parents.  Yes, their jobs are unusual, but the little dramas that happen to every member of such a family are universal.  Only the details are different.


FTC Full Disclosure:  I borrowed this book from my local library.

Cozy Monday

Blown Away (Kite Shop Mystery #1) by Clover Tate (Berkley Prime mass market paperback, 7 February 2017).

Emmy Adler finally feels like an adult.  She's decided to open a kite shop called "Strings Attached" in the resort town of Rock Point, Oregon.  She'll be sharing a house with her best friend Avery, who had inherited it from her parents.

The first morning after moving in with Avery, she's taking her dog, Bear, for a walk on the beach when he discovers the body of a man lying at the water's edge.  Having left her phone at home, she has to rush back to call for help, but goes back to the beach to meet the local sheriff.  

Sheriff Koppen identifies the body as Miles Logan, the chef at a local gourmet restaurant, but it takes a minute for Emmy to recognize the name of a former boyfriend of Avery's.  The relationship ended rather abruptly, and since Avery doesn't have an alibi for the prior evening, she becomes the primary suspect.

Knowing that her friend couldn't possibly have killed anyone, Emmy sets out to prove her innocence by finding the actual killer.

Being a newcomer to the area makes Emmy's investigation a little more difficult, as locals are reluctant to trust her, but she is determined to see her friend exonerated.

Blown Away is not only a well-constructed mystery, but filled with information about kites and the flying thereof.  

Reading should be informative.  

The publisher has generously offered a copy of Blown Away to one of my readers.  Please comment below before 12:01 a.m. on Monday, Feburary 13th.  Entries from the US only, please.  
Please don't forget to include an email address where I can contact you if you win!

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

Teen Tuesday

Code Red (Faith Flores Science Mysteries  #2) by Janie Chodosh (Poisoned Pen trade paperback, 7 February 2017).

Faith Flores, the science whiz we met in Death Spiral, has flourished while living with her Aunt T. in West Philadelphia.  

Here, we meet her upon her arrival at St. John's College in Albuquerque the residence for ten teens who have been chosen from around the country to act as summer interns in various fields of study.  Faith will be spending the summer at the fictional Salazar Center for Plant Genomics.  

She doesn't expect to make any friends, but almost as soon as she arrives, she connects with an attractive young local named Clem, a violinist who has won the music internship several years in a row.

During their orientation, the teens are warned about a new designer drug on the streets.  Called "liquid gold", it's derived from a local plant and used not only for recreational purposes, but also as as a date-rape drug.  

Faith has another goal while she's in Albuquerque: to find her father.  According to a newspaper clipping she'd found in her late mother's things, he'd been arrested on a drug charge there two years earlier.  

The story is an enjoyable read that is difficult to put down.  Faith is an engaging protagonist, smart and driven, but not without faults.  Due to her background, she is slow to trust and easily spooked.  It's encouraging to see a young woman who is interested  -- and successful -- in a scientific field.  Also refreshing is that her supervisor is female.

Code Red can be read as a standalone, but do read Death Spiral first in order to fully appreciate Faith's journey.



Many thanks to the author for sending me an Advance Review Copy.

Don’t you just love serendipity?

By special guest Jessica Estevao.


Several years ago my husband and I were looking for a summer place near the water. I had no idea that our search would lead to a new series and a love of historical mystery writing. After looking at places all over the state of Maine we found the perfect spot in Old Orchard Beach. We spent that first summer renovating the house and basking on the beach. By the end of the first month we were utterly charmed.

After all, what’s not to love about seven miles of sandy beach and the last remaining seaside amusement park in New England? But while the kids were building sand castles and perfecting their body surfing technique, I found myself visiting the Harmon HistoricalMuseum and buying antique post cards at Cottage Decor. Slowly, but surely, the history of Old Orchard worked its way into my affections and on my imagination.

I was intrigued to discover our property used to be part of a Methodist campground. While it now has different owners, the natural amphitheater they used for sermons and speakers is still in operation just up the street from our house.

I learned about the different incarnations the town had experienced. In the Victorian era it hosted wealthy families for the entire season at the grand hotels like The Hotel Velvet as well as day-tripping mill girls from neighboring Biddeford.

By the early 1900s Grand Beach was popular with early auto racers as well as pioneering pilots attempting the first trans-continental flights. A few years later the big band era and dance marathons drew the crowds. Soldiers returning from WWII brought their families in droves throughout the middle of the twentieth century.

It was inevitable, I suppose, that all that information would work its magic on the story-telling part of my brain. Before I knew it, I started imagining the buildings and vehicles and amusements from the past still lining the streets. Then, of course, the buildings filled with imaginary people with all their intrigues and peculiarities.

Before long, the influence of Old Orchard had concocted Ruby Proulx, the protagonist for my latest book, Whispers Beyond the Veil. The Gilded Age hotel where she lives and works, her friends and family all invented themselves as I walked along the sand or imagined a trolley car trundling down the street beside me as I strolled to the shops. Reasons for murder and mayhem swooped into my brain like marauding seagulls making a play for picnic lunches.

Just like that, an historical mystery had snuck up on me. I had never intended to turn my hand to historical writing but thanks to a little serendipity it had.

Jessica Estevao (who also writes as Jessie Crockett) writes the Change of Fortune Mysteries. The first in the series, Whispers Beyond the Veil, will release in September 2016. 

She loves the beach, mysterious happenings and all things good-naturedly paranormal. While she lives for most of the year in New Hampshire with her dark and mysterious husband and exuberant children, she spends summers on the coast of Maine where she keeps an eye out for sea monsters and mermaids.

Cozy Monday

All the Little Liars (Aurora Teagarden #9) by Charlaine Harris (Minotaur hardcover, 4 October 2016).

Aurora Teagarden has always been my favorite of Charlaine Harris' protagonists (sorry, Sookie), so of course I was excited to hear that there was a new Aurora book being released, more than a decade after the last one (Poppy Done to Death, 2003).  

All the Little Liars picks up shortly after Poppy, which ended with mystery author Robin Crusoe proposing to Aurora, who had just discovered that she was pregnant.  It's about three weeks after the wedding, and the couple have just returned from their honeymoon.

They're preparing to share their news of the pregnancy with their families, and Aurora is adjusting to the physical changes she's experiencing.  Her younger half-brother Phillip is still living with them, and will be starting at the local high school in January.  Aurora is pleased with the way Phillip is adapting to life in Lawrenceville, which is considerably more stable than living with his parents ever was.

When Phillip tells Aurora he needs to talk to her about something, she's on her way out the door, but she assures him that they'll talk when she gets home.  But between dealing with issues at work, appointments with the doctor, and talking to her mother, she forgets until the next day. 

Phillip texts Aurora to tell her that he's hanging out with his friend  Josh, so she's not worried.  But when Josh's mother calls in the early evening, asking if she'd heard from the boys, Aurora feels a premonitory shiver.  Neither Phillip nor Josh are answering their phones, so after Aurora and Robin drive around town and don't find them in any of the usual places, Aurora insists on calling the police.  

It turns out that not only are Josh and Phillip unaccounted for, but Josh's twin sister Joss, as well as a younger girl named Liza, the daughter of the local Episcopalian minister.  

Impatient with the Lawrenceville PD's lack of progress, Aurora and Robin investigate on their own, and learn some horrific things about their neighbors.  

Fans of Charlaine Harris will love this book, especially those, like me, who really missed Ms. Teagarden. 

 

FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher for sending me an Advance Reading Copy of this book to review.

When I Discovered Mary Stewart

By special guest Julia Buckley.

Julia Buckley is a Chicago mystery author whose career started in 2006 with the publication of THE DARK BACKWARD. Since then her work has appeared on Kindle in the Madeline Mann series and the novel THE GHOSTS OF LOVELY WOMEN.  She is currently writing two series for Berkley Prime Crime, the first of which launched with THE BIG CHILI. 

She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Romance Writers of America, along with the Chicago Writer's Association. In addition, she has worked with the same writer's group since 2000. 

Julia has taught high school English for twenty-seven years; she lives near Chicago with her husband, two sons, three cats, and a mischievous Lab puppy named Digby. 

(Bio from Juia's website)

I remember when I first fell in love with Mary Stewart. It was somewhere between the late seventies and the early eighties; my mother, a volunteer librarian at my school and eventually at our local library, was always bringing home interesting books. We were huge library supporters: my dad was on the board, and we invited the local librarian, a bachelor, to our house for dinner and games of Password.

My mother had long been a Mary Stewart fan, and I can’t recall if she pressed one into my hand, assuring me that I’d like it, or if I picked one up on my own. Stewart’s covers and titles were compelling, with a Gothic flair and a sense of menace.

In any case, I read the first book. In those days we children who were still in school tended to come home in the afternoon and lie on the furniture like giant sloths, reading the books we had been forced to leave behind. I remember hearing a lot of “Why don’t you go get some fresh air?” while I lay there, devouring chapter after chapter.

The first way that Stewart lured her reader was with an Epigraph at the beginning of each chapter, always literary, referring the reader to a passage from Shakespeare, or Milton, or Bronte. This carefully-selected quotation always had relevance to the story she was telling. After this came the one-two punch of a fascinating setting and a gripping plot, introduced by an irresistible first line.

In her first suspense novel, Madam, Will You Talk?, Stewart begins by setting the tone:

The whole affair began so very quietly. When I wrote, that summer, and asked my
friend Louise if she would come with me on a car trip to Provence, I had no idea that I
might be issuing an invitation to danger.*

Every Mary Stewart fan knows the quiet satisfaction of this sort of beginning. One can be assured of an exciting ride with a highly literate driver.

In my own book, A Dark and Stormy Murder, Camilla Graham is a Mary Stewart-type suspense novelist, and Lena London is as star-struck as I would be, had I ever been given the chance to meet Lady Stewart in person. I suppose the book is a kind of wish fulfillment. In an homage to Stewart’s books, I begin each chapter with an epigraph, but I am quoting Camilla Graham’s book, The Salzburg Train.

After that the resemblance to a Stewart novel ends, but it is still my love letter to the best writer of romantic suspense.

(My other favorite Mary Stewart titles include Nine Coaches Waiting, My Brother Michael, The Moonspinners, Airs Above the Ground, This Rough Magic, Thunder on the Right, and The Ivy Tree.

A Dark and Stormy murder (Berkley Prime Crime) was released  July 5, and is available for order on Amazon.

*Stewart, Mary. Madam, Will You Talk? London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1954.

Cozy Monday

Written Off (Mysterious Detective #1) by E.J. Copperman (Crooked Lane Books hardcover, 14 June 2016).

Rachel Goldman is a full-time mystery writer whose protagonist is a police consultant named Duffy Madison.  After publishing three books in the series, she's successful enough that she doesn't need a day job, and is the process of working on the fifth.

Just as she's saved the first draft of Alive and Buried to the hard drive, she receives a phone call on her landline. The caller identifies himself as Duffy Madison, a consultant with the Bergen County (NJ) Prosecutor's Office, and tells her he needs to meet with her as soon as possible on a matter of life and death.

Rachel is understandable skeptical; the caller has to be a crack-pot. The fact that he assures her that he isn't crazy just makes Rachel more certain that he is.

After ending the call, it slips Rachel's mind completely.  It's not until she's signing books at the launch for the fourth in the series (How to Vanish Without a Trace) that she remembers.
This is because the last person in the signing line identifies himself as Duffy Madison and asks for her help in solving the disappearance of a Bergen County woman.  

What really throws Rachel, though, is the man's claim that he is the character from her novels, and that she created him.  He explains that he started working with the Bergen County authorities four years earlier (about the time that the Rachel's first novel was published), and has no memory of anything before that.

Rachel is intrigued enough to investigate, and determines that his story is true.  She still feels somewhat uncertain about how she could possibly assist, until she receives a threatening email.  At that point, it becomes personal, and she agrees to help Duffy.

The story that had been interesting suddenly jumps to absolutely gripping, and I kept telling myself I'd read "just one more chapter" until I reached the end of the book.  

Where will Rachel and Duffy's story go next?  Is it really true that he's her character come to life?  

There's only one way to find out...



The publisher has generously offered a copy of Written Off  to one of my readers.  Please comment below before 12:01 a.m. on June 27, 2016.  Entries from the US only, please.  
Please don't forget to include an email address where I can contact you if you win!


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