Tag: Character Guest Post

Guest Post: Stacy Wilder – CARMEL CONUNDRUM

Good day, my bookish peeps. Can you believe it’s already February of 2023?! I don’t know about you, but I had a nickname growing up that I positively hated. As soon as I hit puberty, I loudly and repeatedly “informed” everyone in my family that I would no longer answer to that name and firmly placed it in my past. Some people seem to embrace their nicknames, no matter how they got them, and others –like me– drop them as soon as possible and hope that they stay firmly in our past. I’m pleased to welcome as today’s special guest, “Peanut” aka Jim, a character from Carmel Conundrum by Stacy Wilder. Peanut will be giving us a glimpse into his life in this mystery read. Thank you, Peanut, for stepping out of the pages of Carmel Conundrum and joining us today. I’ll now turn the blog over to you.

Banner with Guest Post in a script font under a line and with a stack of books over the word "guest"

Hi, my name is Peanut, well that’s not my real name. My real name is Jim. I earned the name Peanut when I was in the Army for my ability to squeeze through small spaces. Sure came in handy in Carmel Conundrum, but we’ll get to that.

When my wife died of cancer, I was pretty down. I started taking drugs. Before I knew it, I’d lost my job and then my home. That’s when I took to the streets down by the Carmel river. I was doing ok, getting by. Then that dude Apollo showed up, promising the world. Free food, shelter, and even drugs. All for doing some jobs on his so-called compound. My friend Rumor begged me to join her, so we both climbed on that darn bus.

Rumor decided right away that she was having none of it and left that night. Apollo said he’d take her back to “from whence she came.” He was always talking fancy like that. That was my last chance to leave voluntarily.

I knew the next day I’d made a big mistake. The leaders on the compound were called disciples with weird names, like Cosmo and Atlas. Apollo’s wives had numbers tattooed on their wrists and were sometimes referred to by their numbers. Everyone acted all kumbaya, but I’m telling you the place was creepy. I had to get out of there and fast. I put my thinking cap on and came up with a plan to escape.

And it’s a good thing I did. You’ll have to read the book to find out why and how I connect with the rest of the story.

Side note from the author: Peanut was one of my favorite characters to create. Several readers who read Carmel wanted to know what happened to him next. Don’t worry, you’ll find out in Cayman Conundrum. ♦

Carmel Conundrum: A Liz Adams Mystery
by Stacy Wilder

About Carmel Conundrum


Carmel Conundrum: A Liz Adams Mystery

Stolen identities, a cult, a kidnapping, an attempted murder, and a budding romance . . .

Join Private Investigator Liz Adams, and her lie-detecting Labrador, Duke, in the scenic town of Carmel By-the-Sea, as the pair investigate the mystery of stolen identities. Complications arise when Liz becomes romantically entangled with her hot new client, Brad.

Enter Apollo, a charismatic cult leader, whose mission to save the homeless has a dark twist. Why does he continue to trespass on Liz’s property? She’s compelled to uncover the answer.

Tensions mount, as the stakes become a matter of life and death. Will Liz and Duke solve both mysteries before the damage is irreparable?

Travel with Liz from Charleston, SC to Carmel, CA, and back to discover the astounding truth.

Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – California
Wild Hawk Press
Release Date: December 10, 2022
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 226 pages
ISBN13 ‏ : ‎ 9798985426625 (Paperback)
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BPQXHL7Y (Kindle edition)
Purchase Links #CommissionEarned: IndieBound.org | Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Barnes and Noble | BookDepository.com | Bookshop.org

About Stacy Wilder

Stacy Wilder has traveled to six out of seven continents Books have shaped her life and her travels. Her love of mysteries began with Nancy Drew.

Carmel Conundrum is the second book in the riveting Liz Adams Mystery series. In addition to mysteries, Stacy writes children’s stories, short stories, and poetry. She and her husband live in Houston, Texas, with a totally spoiled Labrador retriever, Eve.

Author Links: Website www.storystacy.com | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/wilderstacy | Amazon https://www.amazon.com/author/stacy.wilder | Instagram https://www.instagram.com/authorstacywilder/

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Guest Post: Emma Dakin – DANGER IN EDINBURGH

DANGER IN EDINBURGH by Emma Dakin blog tour banner with book cover featuring an Edinburgh street looking uphill on the left, author Emma Dakin on the upper right corner (white older female with short grayish-blonde hair)

Hello, book people. Have you ever read a book and wondered “what in the world are they thinking?” about a character. Some characters are so fully fleshed out that they seem like real people we might actually know and we become invested in their lives and actions. We want to advise them, caution them, or scold them. There are numerous characters, some appearing in fiction series, that I feel I’ve gotten to know simply because they evolve over the series and I feel I know them better and understand their actions. If you’ve ever wanted to jump into the head of a character, today’s your lucky day. Please help me welcome Emma Dakin, author of Danger in Edinburgh, part of the British Book Tour Mystery series. Ms. Dakin will be providing us with some insight into the thinking of one of her featured characters. Sit back, grab a favorite beverage, and let’s learn a bit more about Jaswinder Patal. Thank you, Ms. Dakin, for joining us today. I’ll now turn the blog over to you

Character from the book: Jaswinder Patal
by Emma Dakin

Does every mother look at her fifteen-year-old and wonder who she is? Fiona used to be a quiet, wee girl. What happened? Ms. Barclay, the tour guide who has guests with us caught her sneaking through the window into our guest last night. What will she think of me? What will she think of Fiona? It’s right gey as they say here in Scotland. Scary. There’s a killer about and Fiona thinks somehow she will not be attacked. Yes, Scotland is usually safe but not right now.

My husband Wally and I left the Punjab when we were twenty-two. We had some family money and bought The Royal Stewart here on The Royal Mile in Edinburgh. It’s been a good business: I cook the breakfasts and supervise the cleaning staff. Wally does all repairs and looks after the guests. Fiona used to help in the kitchen but she is busy with her schoolwork and now her skateboarding. Skateboarding? What kind of nonsense is that? She tells me I’m old-fashioned.

“You aren’t Scottish enough,” she said. “You don’t even sound Scottish.”

“I speak English.” I learned English in India. I understand it and speak it.

“You sound funny like you’re singing English.”

I didn’t know I sounded odd. It was discouraging.

One of the guests, Dr. Ferguson, a guest from Texas and on Claire Barclay’s tour, heard Fiona tell me that and was very kind.

“Most fifteen-year-olds criticize their parents,” she said. She is a doctor, a psychologist so I listened. “If you are loving and supportive of her, she’ll get some wisdom and be easier to live with soon, I promise.”

“Just accept it?”

“No, you have to set boundaries to keep her safe.”

That was the difficulty that Wally and I talked over many times. What rules do we insist she must follow and what are unreasonable? What will keep her safe? Safe was our goal right now because someone was targeting young women, university students, and killing them. Fiona must come in at night. This man, it must be a man, picks out lovely, hard-working students and somehow lures them off the path and kills them. Fiona is lovely and, I admit, hard-working. I worry.

Wally’s cousin, Derrick Hamilton, is a police inspector. He drops by to see us occasionally. I encourage him as I want the police to be seen to visit. He takes his breakfast at the Magpie Café next door. I would like to sit in the café and listen to what the customers are saying about the murderer. But I am too busy. Fiona says I’m blate but no, I am not shy, I am busy. Wally goes there and tells me what they say.

It’s not good what they say. Another murder. Ms. Barclay found a wee lass on the Dean’s Path. Truly, it was her dog, Gulliver who found her.

“A dog finds your dead daughter. That is clatty. Disgusting,” I said to my husband.

“Better a dog found her than nobody did,” Wally said.

“That’s true.”

But Dean’s path is close to here, far too close. I worry. ♦

Danger in Edinburgh (The British Book Tour Mysteries)
by Emma Dakin

About Danger in Edinburgh

Danger in Edinburgh (The British Book Tour Mysteries)

Claire Barclay, owner and tour guide of The British Mysteries Book Tours, leaves her house in Hampshire and her significant other, Mark Evans, puts her dog Gulliver into her van and heads off to Scotland for the start of a fortnight tour.

She expects to lead her guests to various literary sites where authors set their stories. She had just settled everyone into their luxurious Edinburgh hotel when, on a quick outing with Gulliver, she discovers a body. A young woman has been the victim of the serial killer who targets university students.

She calls Mark. But Mark, although a Detective Inspector of the Major Crimes Investigation Team, has no jurisdiction in Scotland. He can only sympathize and advise—and protest her involvement. Her guests meet for breakfast every morning at the Magpie Café where Claire finds characters who live or work nearby, including the local beat copper Sheila McKinnon and Detective Inspector Derrick Hamilton. Christopher, an accountant, brings his dog Suzy. Ryan, a neglected teen, slips in for free food and Bert Anderson, a middle-aged entrepreneur, cheerfully tries to interest everyone in investment schemes.

The waitress is Isla, a university student, who is researching a paper on psychopaths.

All the guests speculate on the murders and attract the attention of the inspector. Claire is frantic to protect her guests from police investigation. At the end of the tour, after she has put her charges safely on their respective planes and trains, Claire takes a last walk with Gulliver and meets one of the café regulars. She sees irrefutable evidence of murder and is so surprised that she betrays her knowledge and puts her own life in jeopardy.

Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Setting – Scotland
Camel Press; 1st edition (September 14, 2022)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
ISBN10 ‏ : ‎ 1684920248
ISBN13 ‏ : ‎ 9781684920242
ISBN : 9780593098653 (eBook)
ISBN : 9781666111668 (Audiobook)
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09YMWP92G (Kindle edition)
ASIN : B0BKP6YWFL (Audible Audiobook)

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About Emma Dakin

Author photo: Emma Dakin; smiling, white middle-aged female with short grayish-blonde hair wearing a dark blue button-down shirt.

Emma Dakin lives in Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast of British. She has over twenty trade-published books, including a 2022 Award-winning memoir Always Pack a Candle: A Nurse in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, but continues to enjoy writing The British Book Tour Mysteries. Her love of the British countryside and villages and her addiction to cozy mysteries keep her immersed in discovering the different cultures of the country and the different dialects. She gives us characters who live and work in those villages, isles, and cities. She introduces readers to the problems that disturb the idyllic setting. Research is essential to give the reader an authentic setting. It was necessary for Emma to sit in The Whiski Bar on The Royal Mile, to tour Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood, and to play her fiddle in the Tay Inn. A trip to the Highlands and the iconic isle of Iona were vital. When not writing or traveling, she paddles with her outrigger crew on the waters of the Pacific Coast and walks her dog who is much less obedient than Claire’s fictional Gulliver.

Author Links:

Webpage/Blog emmadakinauthor.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/emmadakinauthor/
Goodreads http://tiny.cc/ttk3az
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Guest Post: Heather Day Gilbert – NO FILTER



Moving is never easy and moving back to your hometown may be one of the hardest things ever. Trust me on this one, I did it 13 years ago. There were a few downsides to moving back to West Virginia after living in cities like Boston MA and Atlanta GA, but one of the best things I found was the city of Lewisburg, with its fantastic Chocolate Festival in the spring and Literary Festival in the late summer. This small town was actually voted coolest small town in America just a few years ago, so a cafe like Barks & Beans from the cozy mystery series that includes No Filter by Heather Day Gilbert would fit right in with the town’s ambiance. You might not be able to visit Lewisburg, West Virginia at the moment, but I invite you to visit via the pages of No Filter with Macy Hatfield and her brother, Bo. Today, Bo is taking some time off from running his cafe and solving mysteries to visit with us. Without further adieu, I give you Boaz “Bo” Hatfield of Barks & Beans Cafe.

Character Guest Post

by Bo (Boaz) Hatfield of the Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series by Heather Day Gilbert

I recently moved back to my small hometown of Lewisburg, West Virginia, after cashing out and retiring early from my vice president position at Coffee Mass, a coffee bean importing company in California.

My younger sister, Macy, thought I’d lost my mind when I told her what I did. After all, I’m only forty-one, and I had everything I could’ve wanted in California…a beautiful house, great car, and a beautiful fiancée, Tara.

Had being the keyword. I had a beautiful fiancée.

Tara split up with me, for reasons I won’t go into, but suffice it to say, none of them were grounded in the truth. I couldn’t handle working alongside her on a daily basis, so I sold my house and car and moved back to work on my great aunt Athaleen’s house—the one Macy and I grew up in because our parents died when I was only six.

My sister was coming off a divorce from her husband Jake—a guy I wish she’d never married in the first place. She was living in South Carolina and hating it. Macy was a born mountain girl—she needed to feel the grass under her feet and have dogs around her. She’d had to give up dogs for the rental house she and Jake had shared.

So I cooked up a plan that would allow Macy and me to work together. I renovated the front section of Auntie A’s huge house, turning half of it into a cafe. The other half was transformed into an area that was dog-proof, with a run going into a fenced yard outdoors.

We would call our new business the Barks & Beans Cafe. I planned to run the coffee shop—training baristas, ordering the best beans—and Macy would run the dog section, working with the local animal shelter to bring dogs in for customers to pet on their coffee breaks. It was a marriage of the things we both enjoyed most in life, plus it would enrich the town by providing opportunities for dogs to get adopted.

Once Macy agreed to be my business partner, she moved back into Auntie A’s house (I moved down the road from her). It didn’t take long to hire employees and get the cafe up and running. Things were going smoothly until Macy’s newly-adopted Great Dane, Coal, was dognapped…and things started spiraling out of control the more we tried to track down who was behind it.

Join us in our race to stop a callous murderer in No Filter, Book 1 in the Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series.

No Filter (Barks & Beans Cafe Cozy Mystery)
by Heather Day Gilbert

About No Filter


No Filter (Barks & Beans Cafe Cozy Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: WoodHaven Press (May 26, 2020)
Number of Pages: ~280 Pages
Digital ASIN: B085BX4N96

Welcome to the Barks & Beans Cafe, a quaint place where folks pet shelter dogs while enjoying a cup of java…and where murder sometimes pays a visit.
Fed up with her go-nowhere job, newly single Macy Hatfield moves back to her small hometown in West Virginia. She joins forces with her brother Bo in his crazy new venture—the Barks & Beans Cafe, which caters to dog lovers and coffee drinkers alike.
When a golf instructor is murdered at the nearby spiritual center, Macy winds up adopting his Great Dane. Just after Macy finds a mysterious message sewn under the dog’s collar, her Dane is dognapped. She launches into a relentless search for her newfound canine friend, but along the way, she digs up a cruel and confident killer.
Join siblings Macy and Bo Hatfield as they sniff out crimes in their hometown…with plenty of dogs along for the ride! The Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series features a small town, an amateur sleuth, and no swearing or graphic scenes.

The Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series in order:
Book 1: No Filter
Book 2: Iced Over

Purchase – Amazon

About Heather Day Gilbert


HEATHER DAY GILBERT, an ECPA Christy award finalist and Grace award winner, writes contemporary mysteries and Viking historicals. Her novels feature small towns, family relationships, and women who aren’t afraid to protect those they love. Like her amateur sleuth heroines, she enjoys reading Agatha Christie, playing video games, dogs, and coffee.

Author Links

Website: http://heatherdaygilbert.com

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/heatherdaygilbert

Twitter: @heatherdgilbert

Instagram: @heatherdaygilbert

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/heather-day-gilbert

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7232683.Heather_Day_Gilbert

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Guest Post: Kate Parker – MURDER AT THE MARLOWE CLUB



Good Day, book people. I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I’m incredibly happy to welcome today’s guest. Our guest today is not only taking time to step off the pages to visit with us but she’s also stepping a bit out-of-time. Fresh off the pages of Murder at the Marlowe Club by Kate Parker, I give you Miss Emily Gates. Thank you, Miss Gates, for taking the time to visit us today and provide us with some background information. I hope we won’t keep you too long from your job at Duquesne’s Millinery or your fine detecting work.





Hello, I’m Emily Gates. Kate Parker is making a study of murder cases where I’ve been instrumental in bringing killers to justice. So far she’s written two books about me, The Killing at Kaldaire House and Murder at the Marlowe Club. To give her credit, I think Kate has done a good job of reporting on my adventures.

I should introduce myself. I’m a milliner, designing and making hats at Duquesne’s Millinery. The firm was started by my mother and her cousin, Noah. My childhood memories revolve around countless hours of practice making ribbon flowers and dyeing feathers, cutting felt, and blocking forms. It’s a good thing that I spent so much time learning the business, since a fever that crossed London when I was eighteen killed my mother and struck my little brother deaf at the age of eight.

My father? You want to know about him? Why? We don’t get along. He was no help when my mother was alive nor when she died, and he’s been no help since. My mother warned me that he was useless, that he was a crook, that his entire family were criminals, and I should have nothing to do with any of them.

I agreed with her about my father, but I’ve always had a soft spot for my grandfather. I’m his only granddaughter amid more than a dozen grandsons, and he’s always treated me as his favorite. Despite the division of boys’ activities and girls’ activities during the reign of the old queen that have continued into the new century, Grandpa always included me in his lessons. I learned to pick locks, find hidden compartments, pickpockets, do sleight of hand, and even perform some elementary safecracking along with my cousins.

Once my mother died, I was so busy keeping the business running and raising my brother that I didn’t have time to see my father’s family. My father didn’t come to see my mother when she was dying, so I have had no desire to see him since.

Five or six years passed before I could raise my head to look around. The business was thriving, as much as any business could that depended on aristocrats. Unlike normal people, many aristocrats pay their bills rarely, if at all. It has to do with the sale of crops from their estates, which is fine for them, but not so much for tradespeople who like the prestige of aristocratic clients but not their slowness in paying bills.

Matthew, my little brother who is deaf, had outgrown the local schools, and I wanted to send him to a prestigious boarding school for deaf students. That would require every penny I could spare, which meant I would have to find a way to urge my aristocratic clients to pay me first. I decided I would have to use some of the skills I learned from my father’s family to get them to pay up. The second time I tried an unconventional bill collection method, I met Lady Kaldaire and became involved in my first murder investigation.

Somehow, we survived that adventure, but when a friend of Lady Kaldaire started losing family members, she decided I was the best choice to find their killer. And so we began the adventure called Murder at the Marlowe Club.


Kate Parker enjoys her travels into the heart of Edwardian London with Emily Gates. Their current story is Murder at the Marlowe Club.



Murder at the Marlowe Club (The Milliner Mysteries)

by Kate Parker

About Murder at the Marlowe Club





Historical Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Publisher: JDP Press (February 24, 2020)
Print Length: 209 pages
Digital ASIN: B083M97VWP


Purchase Links    – Amazon  – B&N – Apple –Kobo


A corpse in a corset. A dangerous gambling den. A perilous path between safety and peril.

London, 1905. Leading milliner Emily Gates’ illegal shortcut through a private park in the rain brought her straight to a scantily clothed corpse. Then her route took her straight into the hands of the indefatigable Lady Kaldaire, who recognized the body as a relative of her longtime friend, the Duchess of Wallingford. Lady Kaldaire blackmailed Emily before to find Lord Kaldaire’s killer. Why not this murderer, too?

Emily has plenty of reasons why not, but finding links between her father’s nefarious family of crooks and conmen and the debauchery of the secretive Marlowe Club involves her in the investigation led by the handsome Inspector Russell of Scotland Yard. Emily discovers more than she expects about the licentious world of the corpse through her aristocratic customers, including Georgia, heroine of the Victorian Bookshop Mysteries, now the Duchess of Blackford.

Are the scandal rags correct, or has the victim been maligned by a mastermind who’ll stop at nothing to gain everything?

This is a historical cozy mystery with no graphic violence, sex, or foul language. Just exciting action, mysterious events, and surprising endings.




About Kate Parker


Kate Parker grew up reading her mother’s collection of mystery books and her father’s library of history and biography books. Now she can’t write a story that isn’t set in the past with a few decent corpses littered about.

Author Links

Website – www.KateParkerbooks.com, Facebook – www.facebook.com/Author.Kate.Parker, BookBub – www.bookbub.com/authors/kate-parker



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Character Guest Post: BEWARE THE EAST WIND by Barbara Barrett

Beware the East Wind (The Mah Jongg Mysteries)
by Barbara Barrett



Good day, my fellow book people. I hope you’re all enjoying the Fall weather. For those of you in California, I pray that you’re safe from the fires. One of the great things about having a book blog, okay one of the many great things about having a book blog, is getting to meet and introduce you to authors and characters straight off the pages from wonderful stories. Today, I’m pleased to introduce you to Marianne Putnam, a retired pharmacist and Mah Jongg enthusiast, as well as the primary character in the Mah Jongg Mysteries by Barbara Barrett including Beware the East Wind. Ladies and gentlemen, I now turn the blog over to Marianne Putnam.





My name is Marianne Putnam. I was a pharmacist until a few years back when I retired and moved to the central Florida town of Serendipity Springs with my husband of over forty years, Beau. We didn’t know a soul when we arrived except for our realtor, so I joined a few organizations to meet people, among which was a Mah Jongg group that met weekly at the community center. I’d never played the game in my life, having dismissed it as something little old ladies did. Truth be told, I guess you could call me a “little old lady” too, although I don’t see myself like that even though the gray taking over my short red hair gives it the same appearance as that metal they sell in the Black Hills for jewelry, Black Hills Gold? 

Mah Jongg introduced me to many fabulous, interesting women, especially to my three friends—Sydney Bonner, Micki Demetrius and Katrina “Kat” Faulkner. We play weekly, but we also enjoy each other’s company shopping, lunching, having coffee, the usual social activities enjoyed by women of a certain age whose retirement status affords them more free time than they ever experienced during their work lives. 

Unlike other women in our same age group—well, anyone else, for that matter—we have also found ourselves in the dubious position of solving a few murders around town. Not that we went looking for cases to investigate. It started with a fellow Mah Jongg player whose husband was killed in the woods near our coffee shop. Fearing she’d be arrested as the most likely suspect, she sought us out to help find her husband’s killer before she wound up in jail. None of us had any formal investigative training. But we have developed lots of connections within the community she felt we could tap on the down low to gather intel. 

We were successful in finding the killer that first time but not without help from local law enforcement personnel. Admittedly, it was a thrill for each of us to break out of our day-to-day mold and become amateur sleuths, but that was it, we didn’t see it continuing. Then others started to hear about our exploit and began coming to us when they needed similar help. 

Last year, I went through a period when I didn’t feel like I was living my senior years to their fullest. Yes, I had Mah Jongg and wonderful friends and numerous social outlets here in town, and Beau and I have two terrific grown sons. Vince, the eldest, is married, has two children and lives in the East. Rob is single and lives on the West Coast. We’re proud of all of them but rarely get to see them due to their job constraints. And I also had an occasional murder to solve. But I still wanted something more for me. Something that had nothing to do with pharmaceutical knowledge or dead bodies. 

One day I was flipping through magazines at the library, looking for some new exciting outlet for my imagination and energies, when I ran into a friend who was in need of a last-minute replacement for the table read of her one-act play. No time to rehearse, I read my part cold. Those ten minutes went by in a blur, but when it was over, I was a goner. I signed up for a course immediately and started writing my own one-acts. Since then I’ve even entered a few in contests around the country. I haven’t won any yet, but I’ve received enough positive feedback to keep creating more. 

With the new focus on one-acts, my life was pretty good. And then one of the other students in my class came to me for help clearing his sister’s name. Her partner in their catering service, who was also a hypnotist, one whose act my friends and I had witnessed just days earlier, had been killed, and because his sister had been heard threatening her partner by one of their clients, she feared the sheriff would be arresting her soon. So we took on the case.

This one presented difficult challenges because several key suspects were private hypnosis clients. Our client, who’d been arguing with her partner about breaking out on her own, had taken advantage of her partner’s death to break into her computer files to obtain her partner’s recipes. In the process, she read through the files of some of her partner’s clients, discovering secrets and other information which, if made known, might have been the reason for someone to kill the woman. Sharing this information with us was problematic, but then our challenge was, how did we investigate people we weren’t supposed to know about? 

After some difficult confrontations with Beau and Syd’s husband Trip, who were concerned for our safety if we continued to investigate, the two of them joined us as we devised plausible ways to go undercover to gather intel with some surprising results. Beau “invented” painful knees in order to speak directly with one of the suspects, an orthopedic surgeon only to discover his knees were truly in need of surgery. The two of us invented this story about wanting to post a crazy video on our so-called blog showing us shampooing a poodle in order to observe another suspect, a dog groomer. That one was memorable, especially since it happened at the same time a hurricane threatened to bear down on central Florida.

You can read about it in the latest tale of our adventures in Barbara Barrett’s Beware the East Wind. 





About Beware the East Wind

Beware the East Wind (The Mah Jongg Mysteries)

Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Bowker (August 17, 2019)
Paperback: 254 pages
ISBN-10: 1948532182
ISBN-13: 978-1948532181
Digital ASIN: B07WJ7KYSW


Beware the east wind! It’s hurricane season in Florida, and everyone’s attention is focused on preparing for the latest tempest. But in Serendipity Springs, mah jongg pals Marianne, Sydney, Micki and Kat are caught in a different kind of whirlwind—a mesmerizing murder case involving a slain hypnotist/chef and the woman police suspect of doing her in, her embittered catering partner, Portia.


Purchase Links

Amazon   B&N


About the Author




Barbara Barrett started reading mysteries when she was pregnant with her first child to keep her mind off things like her changing body and food cravings. When she’d devoured as many Agatha Christies as she could find, she branched out to English village cozies and Ellery Queen.



Later, to avoid a midlife crisis, she began writing fiction at night when she wasn’t at her day job as a human resources analyst for Iowa State Government. After releasing eleven full-length romance novels and one novella, she returned to the cozy mystery genre, using one of her retirement pastimes, the game of mah jongg, as her inspiration. Not only has it been a great social outlet, but it has also helped keep her mind active when not writing.


Bamboozled, the second book in her “Mah Jongg Mystery” series, features four friends who play mah jongg together and share otherwise in each other’s lives. None of the four is based on an actual person. Each is an amalgamation of several mah jongg friends with a lot of Barbara’s imagination thrown in for good measure. The four will continue to appear in future books in the series.


Anticipating the day when she would write her first mystery, she has been a member of the Mystery/Romantic Suspense chapter of Romance Writers of America for over a decade. She credits them with helping her hone her craft.


Barbara is married to the man she met her senior year of college. They have two grown children and eight grandchildren.


Author Links

Website – http://www.barbarabarrettbooks.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Barbara-Barrett-Author-1678443865812386/

Twitter – www.twitter.com/bbarrettbooks

Pinterest – pinterest.com/barbarabarrett7

GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8181756.Barbara_Barrett

Subscribe Cozy Newsletter   https://www.subscribepage.com/BBCozies


Giveaway

Enter to win one (1) of three (3) digital copies of Beware the East Wind by Barbara Barrett. This giveaway is operated by Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours and books will be distributed by the tour company at the conclusion of the giveaway period. Void where prohibited by law. All entrants must use the Rafflecopter form below.


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TOUR PARTICIPANTS

October 24 – I’m All About Books – SPOTLIGHT

October 24 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

October 25 – I Read What You Write – GUEST POST

October 25 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW

October 26 – Here’s How It Happened – SPOTLIGHT

October 26 – Diane Reviews Books – GUEST POST

October 27 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW

October 27 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW

October 28 – Hearts & Scribbles – SPOTLIGHTS

October 28 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT

October 28 – eBook Addicts – SPOTLIGHT

October 29 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – GUEST POST

October 29 – Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

October 30 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW

October 30 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT

October 30 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT

October 31 – The Book Diva’s Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST

October 31 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

November 1 – A Blue Million Books – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

November 1 – LibriAmoriMiei – REVIEW

November 1 – Readeropolis – GUEST POST

November 2 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT

November 2 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT


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Guest Post: BLIND SIGHT by Tanya R. Taylor


Good day, my fellow book people. I hope you’re all having a wonderful summer and that you have plenty of time to spend reading and relaxing. I’ve often had the pleasure of welcoming authors, fellow book bloggers, and characters as guests on my blog. Today’s guest isn’t our usual two-legged fictional character, but a four-legged and furry character straight off the pages of Blind Sight by Tanya R. Taylor (no relation). I hope you’ll help me give a warm welcome to Vanilla, the lovely Shih Tzu companion to Lucille Pfiffer. 





Hi. I’m Vanilla. I guess my last name is Pfiffer like that of my owner and best friend, Lucille. I’m a cute, little Shih Tzu who loves the toes of one of our tenants named Theodore. He wonders why I bite those toes of his so much, but I can honestly say it’s not because I don’t like him. It’s because I actually love him — as a friend, of course. If I were human, maybe I’d be interested in the guy, especially since he’s single and all, and not bad-looking. 

Lucille, Theodore, Anthony and I live in a nice house in a subdivision called Harriet’s Cove. I like it there as it’s really cozy. However, there was one night in particular that it didn’t feel as cozy as it normally feels. That’s when pretty, but incredibly annoying Sabrina fell off our balcony and onto the ground in our back yard. Her fall caused me to be involved in the mystery surrounding her death, but I’m only a dog. What part in that could I have possibly played? Guess you’ll have to read the book Blind Sight to find out. For now, my lips are sealed. Won’t want to get in trouble with Lucille. She’s no snitcher and neither am I! 🐾




About Tanya R. Taylor



Tanya R. Taylor has wowed readers with her riveting plots and compelling themes.

She is the author of several #1 bestsellers on Amazon and published her first book titled A Killing Rage as a young adult.

She has worked in the Financial arena and is also a seasoned ghostwriter. Her book Cornelius climbed to #1 in the Teen & Young-adult Multi-generational Family Fiction category. And her supernatural, suspense/thrillers – CARA and INFESTATION: A Small Town Nightmare are multiple times #1 international bestsellers.

Tanya writes in various genres including Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, Thrillers, Science-fiction, Mystery and Suspense.

She has a passion for the welfare of children and animals. Her hobbies include reading, writing, and researching.


Author Links
Website: https://tanya-r-taylor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tanyartaylorbooks/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tanya-r-taylor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tanyartay
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8634397.Tanya_R_Taylor


BLIND SIGHT

(Lucille Pfiffer Mystery Series)
by Tanya R. Taylor


About the Book


BLIND SIGHT (Lucille Pfiffer Mystery Series)

Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Self Published (July 28, 2019)
Number of Pages: 200
Digital ASIN: B07RVF7W99


Lucille Pfiffer sees, but not with her eyes. She lives with her beloved dog Vanilla (“Nilla” for short) in a cozy neighborhood that is quite “active” due to what occurred in the distant past. Though totally blind, she plays an integral role in helping to solve pressing and puzzling mysteries, one right after the other, which, without her, might remain unsolved.

The question is: How can she do any of that with such a handicap?


Purchase Link
 Amazon 


Giveaway

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TOUR PARTICIPANTS


August 7 –The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW

August 7 – The Book Diva’s Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST

August 8 – I’m All About Books – GUEST POST

August 9 – I Read What You Write – SPOTLIGHT

August 10 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT

August 11 – LibriAmoriMiei – REVIEW

August 12 – Babs Book Bistro – GUEST POST

August 12 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

August 13 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

August 13 – Readeropolis – CHARACTER GUEST POST

August 14 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW

August 15 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

August 16 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

August 17 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW

August 18 – Brooke Blogs – REVIEW

August 19 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

August 20 – Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW



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Guest Post: J.C. Kenney – A GENUINE FIX


Good day, book people. Over the years, TBDR has welcomed authors, publishers, fellow book bloggers, and primary characters from books as guests. Well, today I’m pleased to welcome the brother of a primary character, Luke Cobb. Luke will be helping us get to know his sister, Allie, who is featured in the Allie Cobb Mystery A Genuine Fix by J.C. Kenney. I hope you’ll enjoy learning a bit more about Allie. Please follow the blog tour to learn more about the book and author.



A Chat with Luke Cobb


Hi, everyone. I’m Luke, Allie Cobb’s older brother. You know, ever since Allie figured out who killed Thornwell Winchester, not a day goes by that someone asks me about her. What’s she really like? Is she brave or just a psycho with a death wish? And then there’s my favorite.

Is she really only five foot, one? 

Normally I tell people if they want to know something about my little sister, they should ask her themselves. I mean, she lives and works right here in Rushing Creek. The town’s not that big, so she shouldn’t be all that hard to find.

She’s kind of predictable, so if you’re ever in town and you want to track her down, start at Renee’s Used Bookstore. At times, I think Allie keeps that place in business all by herself. I guess it makes sense that she loves books since she’s a literary agent, but she buys five or six books every week. I’m lucky if I have the time to read five or six books in a year. I guess all those books she reads help make her a great agent, though. 

Just don’t tell her I said that. I don’t want her to get a big head!

If she’s not at the bookstore, you might check at Creekside Chocolates, hanging out with her buddy Diane Stapleton. Diane owns the shop. She makes some amazing chocolates, coffee, and drinks. She’s got Allie totally hooked on her hot chocolate. Which, to be honest, is pretty understandable. Diane sells the best tasting chocolate stuff I’ve ever tasted. 

Which reminds, me, I need to stop by there and get Sloane some treats. I guess it shows how small Rushing Creek is that not only is Sloane Winchester my wife, she’s also Allie’s best friend. Sloane’s the most amazing woman I’ve ever met and if it wasn’t for Allie, I’d never had a chance to get to know Sloane as well as I have. Like I said, she’s pretty incredible and I’m a lucky guy to have her in my life.

But back to Allie. Since she’s single, she eats out a lot. At lunchtime, you might find her at either The Brown County Diner or Big Al’s. Allie likes to go to the diner for their seasonal pies. At Big Al’s, she usually goes for a booth in the back where she absolutely inhales one of Al’s gourmet burgers and a platter of fries.

I swear, my little sister eats like a pro football player and is still teeny tiny. It makes me a little jealous. As Director of the Rushing Creek Parks Department, I spend a fair amount of time performing manual labor, but I still have to watch what I eat. Allie, the little quirt, eats whatever she wants and doesn’t even put on a pound.  

Of course, she literally walks or rides her bike everywhere. As in, one hundred percent of the time. She doesn’t own a car. She says she never needed a car when she lived in New York City and is happy living without one now. I can’t imagine life without my truck, but it seems to work for her, so more power to her.

Oh, one last place you might find Allie. Our sister Rachel owns the Rushing Creek Public House, a restaurant on the south end of town. It’s the go-to place when Cobb family members have dinner out. Plus, Allie’s on a couple of volunteer boards in town and uses the banquet room at the Pub for meetings. The three of us kids get together for dinner there every Wednesday, so I guarantee you’ll catch her then.

Good luck catching up with her. Who knows, maybe you’ll cross paths with her when she’s out taking her cat Ursula for a walk. That’s correct, her cat. Allie is the only person I’ve ever met who has a cat that she walks like a dog. She can be so weird. 

Yeah, that’s my little sister for you. She’s one of a kind. But her eccentricities work for her, so who am I to judge? Well, I need to get back to work, but before I go, I’ll answer one question people always ask me.

Is she really only five, one? No. In fact, she’s barely five feet tall. The extra inch she claims must be vanity. Don’t tell her I said that, though. Thanks to the kickboxing she does, rumor has it she’s got a serious left hook. That’s one thing about my sister I totally believe!


****


About the Author


J.C. Kenney grew up in a household filled with books by legends Agatha Christie and Lilian Jackson Braun, among many others, so it was no surprise when he found himself writing mystery stories. When he’s not writing, you can find him following IndyCar racing or listening to music. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife, two sons, and a cat who is the inspiration for Ursula in the Allie Cobb Mysteries.


Author Links
Website – https://www.jckenney.com;
Twitter – https://twitter.com/JCKenney1;
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/JCKenney1;
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/JCKenney;
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/j.c.kenney/




A Genuine Fix

(An Allie Cobb Mystery)
by J.C. Kenney

About the Book



A Genuine Fix (An Allie Cobb Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Lyrical Underground (July 16, 2019)
Paperback: 194 pages
ISBN-10: 1516108604
ISBN-13: 978-1516108602
Digital ASIN: B07KDWV2RX


Murder takes a page out of a killer’s playbook when literary agent Allie Cobb becomes her Indiana town’s number-one bestselling suspect …

Running the family literary business while preparing for her best friend’s wedding, chairing a park planning committee, and getting her rescue cat to bond with her boyfriend’s golden retriever doesn’t leave Allie Cobb much time for crime-solving. But when the guy who stood her up the night of her high school senior prom is killed and dumped in a pile of mulch, Allie’s suddenly the prime suspect.

It’s insulting enough that gambler, drunk, and all-around lowlife Georgie Alonso was found on the site of the memorial park honoring Allie’s deceased father. Now she’s fighting to clear her name and hold off a rush to judgment. But politics, decades-old secrets, and a slew of high-profile suspects make dangerous bedfellows as the eve of the park’s grand opening draws nearer. She’ll have to nab a killer soon, before her storybook life gets a bad ending …


Purchase links – Amazon   – B&N  – Kobo


Giveaway

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TOUR PARTICIPANTS


July 18 – Brooke Blogs – CHARACTER GUEST POST

July 18 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW

July 18 – Readeropolis – SPOTLIGHT, INDIVIDUAL GIVEAWAY

July 19 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW, INDIVIDUAL GIVEAWAY

July 19 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

July 19 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT, INDIVIDUAL GIVEAWAY

July 20 – Babs Book Bistro – GUEST POST

July 20 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

July 20 – The Book Diva’s Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST, INDIVIDUAL GIVEAWAY

July 20 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW

July 21 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT

July 21 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

July 21 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW

July 22 – I’m All About Books – GUEST POST, INDIVIDUAL GIVEAWAY

July 22 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW

July 22 – Baroness’ Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT

July 23 – Rosepoint Publishing – REVIEW

July 23 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

July 23 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW, INDIVIDUAL GIVEAWAY



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Guest Post: Christin Brecher – MURDER’S NO VOTIVE CONFIDENCE


Hello, my bookish divas and divos. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I spent the weekend reading, of course, in preparation for two local book group meetings this week. One of the many things that I enjoy about book groups and blog tours is that I’m introduced to a lot of books, characters, and authors that I’d probably never know about. As a result, I’m constantly adding books to my ever-growing TBR list (trust me, that’s a good thing). I’m especially pleased to welcome today’s guest, none other than Stella Wright, the primary character in Murder’s No Votive Confidence, the first book in the Nantucket Candle Maker series by Christin Brecher. Ms. Brecher sets this book in Nantucket, a place close to my heart as I lived in Massachusetts for six years. Stella will be providing us with some details about her life and background, so sit back, visit awhile with Stella, follow the rest of the blog tour, and I hope you’ll be inspired to grab a copy of the book. 





Hi, Vivian. Thanks for talking with me today. I love your website and the idea of a “blog for the basic reader, by a basic reader.” I definitely fall into the category of basic reader. I’m usually busy making candles and selling them at my store in town, the Wick & Flame, so when I have time to read, I want to be inspired by the story and characters.  

Recently, I was caught up in a murder investigation on Nantucket, so my summer reading has turned to mystery. Honestly, my Memorial Day weekend could have been a book in itself.  As some of you may know, I was hired to design a candle-themed wedding on the island for Jessica Sterling, where a two-foot tall, six-inch diameter unity candle was planned to be the centerpiece of the wedding ceremony. In a terrible twist, my candle was used as a murder weapon to kill Simon Sterling, the bride’s uncle, rather than as the sign of peace and unity it was meant to be. Even worse, Bill Duffy, salt of the earth, was arrested. Before I knew it, I’d jumped into the case and followed the clues until I found the real killer.

The following weekend, I went to the town library, the Athenaeum, for some advice on mystery books. I watch detective shows when I’m tidying up at home, or have a free night, but I realized I wanted to expand my knowledge of the genre. After some discussion, I was drawn to Agatha Christie and chose one called The Hollow. I was drawn to the book because it is about a murder that takes place at a country house, with many house guests, and even a celebrity neighbor. The premise reminded me a lot of my own Memorial Day mystery. I’ve taken more Christie books out since. As a Nantucket native, I relate to the British backdrop of small towns, which are often somewhat isolated and whose landscapes are both breathtaking and brutal.  

Next on my list, however, is The 39 Steps by John Buchan, a mystery recommendation I received from one of my candle-making student, Cherry Waddle. Please feel free to share your favorites with me!  






Murder’s No Votive Confidence

(Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery)
by Christin Brecher


About the Book




Murder’s No Votive Confidence (Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Kensington (June 25, 2019)
ISBN-10: 149672139X
ISBN-13: 978-1496721396
Digital ASIN: B07HVYJNRD


Nantucket candle store owner Stella Wright specializes in creating unique candles for every occasion. But someone sets the stage for murder when a Memorial Day celebration becomes a wedding to die for . . .

Jessica Sterling’s candlelight-themed nuptials promises to be the perfect kick-off to the summer’s first official holiday weekend. Stella’s thrilled to have been chosen to provide the decorative centerpiece for the wedding ceremony: a two-foot-tall scented unity candle—a symbol of the happy couple’s love. But it looks like the bride-to-be’s uncle won’t be walking his niece down the aisle after he’s found dead. The murder weapon is Stella’s seemingly indestructible candle, now split in two.

When a beloved local bartender is arrested, Stella’s sure a visiting police captain running the case made a rush to justice. With superstitious brides-to-be canceling orders and sales waxing and waning at her store, the Wick & Flame owner decides to do some sleuthing of her own. Abetted by a charming reporter and challenged by the town’s sexiest cop, Stella’s determined to shine a light on the truth and uncover a killer who’s snuffing out her own flame.


Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo – BAM –
IndieBound – Hudson Booksellers – Google Play




About the Author


Christin Brecher was born and raised in NYC, where her family and many childhood friends still reside. As such, she feels she is as much of a small-town girl as any. The idea to write the Nantucket Candle Maker series sprang from her life-long connection to the small island off the coast of Massachusetts. Spending summers there as a child, Christin read from her family’s library of mystery novels, after which she began to imagine stories inspired by the island’s whaling heyday, its notoriously foggy nights, and during long bike rides to the beach. After many years in marketing for the publishing industry, followed by years raising her children, Murder’s No Votive Confidence is Christin’s debut novel. Visit her at www.christinbrecher.com.


Author Links









Giveaway

Enter to win one (1) of five (5) print copies of Murder’s No Votive Confidence by Christin Brecher. Giveaway limited to US residents only. Void where prohibited by law. Enter using the Rafflecopter form below.


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TOUR PARTICIPANTS


July 8 – The Power of Words – REVIEW

July 8 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – CHARACTER GUEST POST

July 8 – Books Direct – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT

July 8 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT

July 9 – The Book Decoder – REVIEW

July 9 – I’m All About Books – SPOTLIGHT

July 9 – A Blue Million Books – GUEST POST

July 9 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW 

July 10 – Socrates Book Reviews – REVIEW

July 10 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW

July 10 – The Avid Reader  REVIEW

July 11 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW

July 11 – Author Teresa Watson – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

July 11 – Babs Book Bistro – Candle Making 101 Notes Post

July 12 – Book Club Librarian – REVIEW 

July 12 – A Holland Reads – REVIEW

July 12 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT

July 13 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT

July 13 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

July 14 – StoreyBook Reviews – REVIEW

July 14 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW

July 15 – eBook Addicts – REVIEW

July 15 – The Book Diva’s Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST

July 15 – Readeropolis – SPOTLIGHT

July 16 – Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

July 16 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT

July 16 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW

July 17 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW

July 17 – Moonlight Rendezvous – REVIEW, GUEST POST 



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Character Guest Post: Cheryl Hollon – DOWN IN FLAMES



Good day, my bookish divas and divos. It’s always exciting when book people stop by for a visit, YAY! Today’s guest is taking a few minutes and stepping off of the pages of the latest addition to the Webb’s Glass Shop Mystery series, Down in Flames by Cheryl Hollon, please welcome Savannah Webb. Savannah will be giving us a little background information in what she does, so sit back and prepare to learn a bit about the wonderful world of glass art.




Hi there, I’m Savannah Webb, owner of Webb’s Glass Shop on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, Florida.

I’m so excited about my new flame-working class. It begins on Monday. I’ll be teaching six students including my most enthusiastic, troublesome, and absolutely adorable students, the Rosenberg twins, Rachel and Faith. I know they’re at least over eighty but you would never know that by witnessing their shenanigans.

Flame-working adds another glass art to my teaching curriculum. There are so many glass shops and museums in downtown St. Petersburg that it’s becoming known as the ‘Glass Coast’ of Florida. 

Getting prepared for this class has been quite a challenge. I took over the storefront bay right next door and remodeled it to accommodate the student workstations. That’s a financial risk, but owning the building gives me some flexibility. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll put the space up for occupancy again. I’m hoping the increased revenue from this class covers my costs.

Each student needs a torch, gas hook-ups, a good work surface, a sturdy work stool, and plenty of elbow room. After all, molten glass will be involved. In addition, I have installed exhaust venting for each station. The construction workers had to cut small holes into the back wall of the new teaching space.

I’m a lot more nervous about this class than anything I’ve ever taught. As a result, I haven’t been sleeping very well at all. You can ask my fiancé Edward about that. Since I get so restless, I also disturb his kitten, Snowy as well as my lovely Weimaraner puppy, Rooney. They’re all at the end of their patience with me. I’m glad this class starts in just a few days.

There are so many things that could go horribly wrong. Wish me a little good luck.





Down in Flames

(A Webb’s Glass Shop Mystery)
by Cheryl Hollon

About the Book




Cozy Mystery
6th in Series
Kensington (June 25, 2019)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 1496711793
ISBN-13: 978-1496711793
Digital ASIN: B07HVY1GRJ


A fatal hit-and-run in front of Savannah Webb’s glass shop proves to be no accident . . .

A highlight of Savannah’s new glass bead workshop is a technique called flame-working, which requires the careful wielding of acetylene torches. Understandably, safety is a top priority. But as Savannah is ensuring her students’ safety inside, a hit-and-run driver strikes down a pedestrian outside her shop.

The victim is Nicole Borawski, the bartender/manager at the Queen’s Head Pub, owned by Savannah’s boyfriend Edward. It quickly becomes clear that this was no random act of vehicular manslaughter. Now the glass shop owner is all fired up to get a bead on the driver—before someone else meets a dead end.


Purchase Links:
Amazon | B&N | Kobo


About the Author


CHERYL HOLLEN


Cheryl Hollon now writes full-time after she left an engineering career of designing and building military flight simulators in amazing countries such as England, Wales, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, and India. Fulfilling the dream of a lifetime, she combines her love of writing with a passion for creating glass art. In the small glass studio behind her house in St. Petersburg, Florida, Cheryl and her husband design, create, and produce fused glass, stained glass, and painted glass artworks. 


Visit her online at http://cherylhollon.com, on Facebook or on Twitter @CherylHollon.


Giveaway

Enter to win 1 of 3 print copies of Down in Flames, A Webb’s Glass Shop Mystery, by Cheryl Hollon. This giveaway open to US residents only. Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Giveaway sponsored by Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours. Void where prohibited by law.


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TOUR PARTICIPANTS


June 24 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW, EXCERPT

June 24 – Baroness’ Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT

June 25 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT

June 25 – Readeropolis – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

June 26 – Babs Book Bistro – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT

June 26 – I’m All About Books – GUEST POST

June 26 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT

June 27 – Author Teresa Watson – CHARACTER GUEST POST

June 27 – Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT, EXCERPT

June 28 – Carla Loves To Read – REVIEW, EXCERPT

June 29 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW

June 29 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT 

June 30 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT

July 1 – The Book Diva’s Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST

July 1 – A Blue Million Books – GUEST POST

July 2 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

July 2 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW

July 3 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW

July 3 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT



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Character Guest Post: LOVE, LIES, AND AZURE EYES by Janis Thornton



Good day, book people. I’m always happy to welcome authors and other book people and today I have a special treat for us all. Today’s guest is stepping off of the pages of the newly released paranormal romantic suspense read Love, Lies, and Azure Eyes by Janis Thornton, I bid you welcome Annie Sinclair. Thank you, Annie, for taking time away from your writing and other enterprises to spend some time with us today.




Hello. I’m Annie Sinclair, a West Coast-based, single, 43-year-old struggling writer. Pleased to meet you. I’ve been back in my tiny, Indiana home town for two weeks, which is one week longer than I intended when I boarded my flight at LAX. I hadn’t visited Logan Point for five years and should have been riddled with guilt about not seeing my dad for that long. But Charlie Sinclair isn’t exactly Ward Cleaver and, to be honest, I wouldn’t have made the trip back at all had he not called me two-and-a-half weeks ago and asked me to come home — his treat. He said he had “bidness” to conduct with me and would only do it in person. What could I say? It sounded important. I thought maybe he was getting remarried. My mom’s been dead five years, which seems like a respectable amount of time for any man to wait, especially one so helpless that he can’t butter his toast without a woman showing him which side. When he finally did talk to me about his “bidness,” I was ashamed of my cavalier absence from his life. 

On the other hand, this trip back to Logan Point has not been without its advantages, I must admit. As a freelance journalist, my livelihood depends on landing lucrative assignments. Lucky for me, the same day Charlie called, I also heard from the editor of Now magazine, one of the better tabloids lining the checkout aisle at your favorite supermarket. The editor offered me a nice chunk of change for a three-part series about small-town folklore, and I knew immediately I would kick it off with a story about the legendary ghost that haunts the curve on the highway just outside of Logan Point. 

The ghost is supposedly my high school classmate, Shelayne Goodnight, who was murdered at the curve 25 years ago, during our senior year. Her mysterious death had never been solved, but as soon as I started the research, strange things began happening. 

For example, the Logan Point Ledger’s new editor, Scott Wayne, a veteran newspaperman transplanted from Chicago, walked into my life. The first time we met, I pegged him as a jerk. The second time we met, he thought I was the jerk. The third time we met, we fell in love.

Then I came face to face with Johnny Lange, a boy I’d known in school. Seeing him again was a real shock, since he had lost his life in a car crash at the curve 25 years before, just five months after Shelayne died. He had been the prime suspect in Shelayne’s murder, and after he died, everyone in town believed he had gotten his due — which is why he popped in that night, scared the spit out of me, and begged me to help prove his innocence. According to Afterlife regulations, only spirits with a clean bill of sale can ascend into heaven, so Johnny desperately needed to clear his name so he could move on.

And then, the third strange occurrence was an appearance by Shelayne herself. Evidently, Afterlife rules also allow murder victims to come back to escort the soul of their killers to the other side, which is why she had returned. And while I won’t tell you who she accompanied across the goal line, I will say, it wasn’t Johnny. 

I also had the opportunity to be reunited with my first love, Carter McKuen, and to be reminded why I broke up with him when I went off to college and never looked back. And finally, I mended some hurtful misunderstandings with my girlhood best pal, Dorinda Duncan, whom I hadn’t seen for at least two decades. I’d like to say she hadn’t changed one bit, but she had. She’d become a disingenuous, scheming fraud. 

So, this is where my story has taken me, and I can hardly wait to see how things turn out. If you’d like to join me, my book is available as an ebook for just $3.99. But if you sign up for the giveaway, you might win it! If this is any enticement, I can assure you, my story has a happy ending.

Thank you for this opportunity to tell you a bit about Love, Lies, and Azure Eyes. 






Love, Lies, and Azure Eyes

by Janis Thornton




About the Book


Love, Lies, and Azure Eyes
Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Soul Mate Publishing, LLC (June 12, 2019)
Print Length: 267 pages
ASIN: B07PRV6VZC


Elated by Annie’s response, Johnny caved to his impulse and pressed his mouth to her sweet lips, sparking a surge of electricity that ricocheted through his entire body, and for one glorious moment swept him up in a wave of emotion that meteorically whisked him to the edge of the universe, past swirling spirals of brightly burning stars — white dwarfs, red giants, entire galaxies. Caught in the rapture, he shed his cocoon of darkness and experienced the light — the wonderful, warm, life-affirming light. He reveled in it, felt alive. He almost believed he was. Almost.

* * *

West Coast journalist Annie Sinclair’s career, not to mention her love life, has been on the skids far too long, when she returns to Logan Point, her small, Indiana hometown. She’s back to make amends with her elderly father, and to delve into the 25-year-old, unsolved murder of her high school classmate for a writing gig with a national tabloid.

Annie’s plans soon go awry, and her mettle is tested — first when her father warns her against digging into the past; and again, when she meets the Logan Point Ledger’s handsome, but exasperating, new editor; and again still, when she reconnects with her first love, who clearly wants to rekindle what once was.

But Annie’s most arduous test appears in the form of the earthbound spirit of a boy she once knew — the boy with the azure eyes accused of the murder she is looking into. He needs her to prove his innocence, so he can break the ties that bind him to the darkness. In exchange, he will set Annie free to realize that the love she yearns for is just within her reach … if only she will open her heart.



About the Author




Janis Thornton is the author of a true crime/oral history/memoir, Too Good a Girl, as well as two cozy mysteries, Dust Bunnies & Dead Bodies and Dead Air & Double Dares. She also is the author of two local history books and contributor to Undeniably Indiana. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Authors Guild, and the Indianapolis Writers Center. She lives in her Indiana hometown in the same house where she grew up.



Author Links


Website: www.janis-thornton.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janisthorntonauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanisThornton
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6482161.Janis_Thornton




Purchase Link Amazon


GIVEAWAY

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TOUR PARTICIPANTS


June 12 – Babs Book Bistro – SPOTLIGHT

June 13 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

June 13 – ⒾⓃⓉⓇⓄⓈⓅⒺⒸⓉⒾⓋⒺ ⓅⓇⒺⓈⓈ – SPOTLIGHT

June 14 – ❧Defining Ways❧ – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

June 15 – MJB Reviewers – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

June 16 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST

June 16 – 4covert2overt ☼ A Place In The Spotlight ☼ – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

June 17 – Cozy Up With Kathy – SPOTLIGHT

June 17 – Books Direct – GUEST POST

June 18 – Brooke Blogs – GUEST POST

June 18 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

June 19 – Baroness’ Book Trove – REVIEW

June 19 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT

June 20 – I’m All About Books – SPOTLIGHT

June 21 – The Book Diva’s Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST 

June 22 – Brianne’s Book Reviews – REVIEW

June 22 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT

June 23 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW

June 24 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

June 25 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT



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