March 19, 2017

Pressed to Death by Kirsten Weiss - Spotlight and Giveaway


Published: March 8, 2017
Number of pages: 336
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum Mystery #2

Synopsis:
Paranormal museum owner Maddie Kosloski thinks she has the perfect paranormal exhibit for the harvest festival—a haunted grape press. But when she’s accused of stealing the press, and her accuser is found murdered, all eyes turn to Maddie.

Maddie knows well the perils of amateur sleuthing and is reluctant to get involved. But her mother insists she investigate. Does her mom have a secret agenda? Or is she somehow connected to the murder?

Facing down danger and her own over-active imagination, Maddie must unearth the killer before she becomes the next ghost to haunt her museum.

About the author:
Kirsten Weiss grew up in San Mateo, California. After getting her MBA, she joined the Peace Corps, starting an international career that took her around the fringes of the defunct USSR and into the Afghan war zone. Her experiences abroad not only gave her glimpses into the darker side of human nature, but also sparked an interest in the effects of mysticism and mythology, and how both are woven into our daily lives.

She writes paranormal mystery and suspense, blending her experiences and imagination to create vivid worlds of magic and mayhem.

Kirsten has never met a dessert she didn’t like, and her guilty pleasures are watching ghost Whisperer re-runs and drinking good wine.

Author Links
Follow her on Twitter @KirstenWeiss, or on her Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/metaphysicaldetective or at her blog at http://kirstenweiss.com

Purchase Links: Amazon B&N

Giveaway:


Tour Participants

March 6 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW
March 6 – Mythical Books – GUEST POST
March 7 – StoreyBook Reviews – REVIEW
March 7 – T’s Stuff – REVIEW, INTERVIEW
March 8 – Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 9 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW
March 10 – Queen of All She Reads – REVIEW 
March 10 – Mythical Books – GUEST POST
March 11 – Curling up by the Fire – REVIEW
March 12 – Island Confidential – INTERVIEW
March 13 – The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW
March 14 – Nadaness In Motion – REVIEW
March 15 – Community Bookstop – REVIEW 
March 16 – Bea’s Book Nook – REVIEW
March 17 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW
March 18 – Mystery Playground – GUEST POST
March 19 – A Holland Reads – SPOTLIGHT

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March 18, 2017

Cherry Cake and a Cadaver by Susan Boles - Character Guest Post and Giveaway


Book Details:
A Lily Gayle Lambert Mystery Book 2
Publisher: Argent Ocean Publishing (March 31, 2017)
Publication Date: March 31, 2017
ASIN: B06XK2Q44N

Synopsis
Lily Gayle and the gang set out to find a killer after local baker Luxen Natolovich is found dead hours before the grand opening weekend at the new Bed and Breakfast in town, Midnight Dragonfly. As Lily Gayle deciphers the clues around Luxen’s death she uncovers a conspiracy of lies and half truths that could very well be tied to a refugee camp in Mississippi during World War II. The deeper Lily Gayle digs, the deeper the conspiracy runs, and the closer she comes to being the killer’s next victim.

About the Author
Susan calls McNairy County, TN her home ground even though she has moved away. It was here, at Bethel Springs Junior High School that she began her writing career with two friends. They formed their own little writers group that was so secret they were the only ones who knew it existed. She still has some of the stories they wrote carefully preserved in a loose leaf binder and tucked away for safety.

She has worked in retail management, briefly for the Census Bureau and for many years in the investment/insurance industry in the regulatory compliance arena. All of which are left brain activities. So she exercises her right brain activity with reading and writing…just to keep both sides even.

Reading has been a passion since she was very young. As a toddler, her mother read to her from her ‘baby books’ and her Mother tells a story about her holding one of them upside down and ‘reading’ by repeating the story verbatim from memory.

Death of a Wolfman is the first in the Lily Gayle Lambert mystery series. Her previously published romantic suspense novel, Fated Love, is a contemporary paranormal romantic suspense (with a twist of paranormal) set in Memphis, TN. Her first novel, Kate’s Pride, is a historical women’s fiction set in West Tennessee in the aftermath of the Civil War. The novel is loosely based on her own Great Grandmother and published under the pen name Renee Russell.

Life got in the way of writing for many years but now she’s come back to her early love.

Author Links:
Webpage – www.susanbolesauthor.com
Twitter – @SusanBAuthor
Blog – https://susanbolesauthor.wordpress.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/people/Susan-Boles-Author/100010974857065
Linked In – https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-boles-author-a4075484
GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14866595.Susan_Boles

Character Guest Post:
Hello, my name is Miss Edna. Actually is just Edna, the younger folks here in Mercy, Mississippi call me Miss Edna out of respect for their elders. And a fine thing it is too. I like to know the old traditions are still alive and kicking. Just like me.

I got involved with Lily Gayle and Dixie when that wolf man got killed outside town a few months ago. I told those girls they needed someone with a lot of life experience to level them out. Especially Lily Gayle. That girl was a wild child from day one. She led her poor mother a fine dance back in the day. And dragging that nice Dixie into all of her shenanigans when they were growing up. Well! I'm amazed Dixie's mama never put a stop to it all. But that's all water under the bridge.

Yes, Lily Gayle has had some tough times since she grew up and moved away all those years ago. A fine job and a fine husband. But all that came to an end a few years ago when her husband was killed in a car accident. Dixie high tailed it off to Oxford when we all heard Lily Gayle had turned herself into a hermit. I don't know what was said betwixt the two of them, but Lily Gayle came on home with Dixie and has built herself a nice life back here.

And her nosiness and love of mysteries had led her a merry dance. Along with Dixie and me. We're a team….and I don't intend to let her forget that. When you're eyeball-to-eyeball with eighty, there's not a lot of fun going on unless you go out and find some.


Giveaway:


TOUR PARTICIPANTS

March 16 – Blogger Nicole Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 16 – A Blue Million Books – GUEST POST
March 17 – Books,Dreams,Life – INTERVIEW
March 17 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 18 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – REVIEW, INTERVIEW
March 18 – A Holland Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 19 – Sleuth Cafe – GUEST POST
March 20 – Back Porchervations – REVIEW
March 21 – Queen of All She Reads – REVIEW, GUEST POST
March 21 – Cozy Up With Kathy – GUEST POST
March 22 – OFF 
March 23 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 24 – Babs Book Bistro – REVIEW
March 24 – My Journey Back – REVIEW, INTERVIEW
March 25 – Brooke Blogs – GUEST POST
March 25 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
March 26 – Island Confidential – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
March 27 – Maureen’s Musings – REVIEW
March 28 – Rainy Day Reviews – REVIEW
March 29 – Community Bookstop – REVIEW 
March 29 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

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March 17, 2017

Purr M for Murder by T.C. LoTempio - Spotlight and Giveaway


Book Details:
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Crooked Lane Books (March 14, 2017)
Hardcover: 304 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1683310921
Kindle ASIN: B01N6P3WYP

Synopsis:
Sydney McCall left behind an ex-fiancé and a New York advertising job to return home to Deer Park, North Carolina and help her sister, Kat, run the local animal shelter, Friendly Paws. Determined to save the shelter from financial trouble, Sydney and Kat organize a cat café fundraising event at a local coffee shop. Things are looking up until their landlord, Trowbridge Littleton, threatens to shut down the event. When Sydney drops by his art gallery to make peace, she finds Kat–along with Littleton’s dead body.

Local homicide detective Will Worthington–who just happens to be Sydney’s old high school crush–is highly suspicious of the sisters’ involvement. Desperate to clear their names from the suspect list, Sydney pounces on the investigation. With the help of one of the shelter cats, a savvy orange tabby named Toby, Sydney begins poking her nose into other local businesses whose owners may have benefited from Littleton’s death–until the killer notices she’s pawing a little too closely at the truth.

About the author:
While Toni Lotempio does not commit – or solve – murders in real life, she has no trouble doing it on paper. Her lifelong love of mysteries began early on when she was introduced to her first Nancy Drew mystery at age 10 – The Secret in the Old Attic. She (and ROCCO, albeit he’s uncredited) pen the Nick and Nora mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime – the first volume, MEOW IF ITS MURDER, debuted Dec. 2, 2014. Followed by #2, CLAWS FOR ALARM. #3, CRIME AND CATNIP, was released in December. She, Rocco and Maxx make their home in Clifton, New Jersey, just twenty minutes from the Big Apple – New York. Catch up with them at www.tclotempio.net and www.catsbooksmorecats.blogspot.com

Where to find them:
ROCCO’s blog:
www.catsbooksmorecats.blogspot.com

Website:
https://www.tclotempio.net/

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/toni.lotempio.5

Twitter: @RoccoBlogger – https://twitter.com/@RoccoBlogger

Purchase Link:
Amazon B&N

Giveaway:


TOUR PARTICIPANTS

March 8 – Girl Lost In a Book – REVIEW
March 8 – Moonlight Rendezvous – REVIEW
March 8 – Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf – GUEST POST
March 9 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW 
March 9 – Must Read Faster – REVIEW
March 9 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW, GUEST POST
March 9 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 10 – Book Babble – REVIEW
March 10 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, INTERVIEW
March 10 – Classy Cheapskate – REVIEW
March 11 – A Cozy Girl Reads and Writes – REVIEW
March 11 – Babs Book Bistro – REVIEW
March 11 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT
March 12 – Shelley’s Book Case – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 12 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – GUEST POST 
March 13 – My Journey Back – SPOTLIGHT
March 13 – Mochas, Mysteries and Meows – REVIEW, INTERVIEW
March 13 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – GUEST POST
March 14 – Books, Movies, Reviews. Oh my! – SPOTLIGHT
March 14 – Brooke Blogs – REVIEW
March 14 – View from the Birdhouse – SPOTLIGHT
March 15 – Texas Book-aholic – REVIEW
March 15 – Books Direct – SPOTLIGHT
March 16 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW
March 16 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW
March 17 – The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW
March 17 – Jersey Girl Book Reviews – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 17 – A Holland Reads – SPOTLIGHT

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March 16, 2017

Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delany - Guest Post and Giveaway


Book Details:
by Vicki Delany
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (March 14, 2017)
Hardcover: 320 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1683310969
Kindle ASIN: B01MT6H7O1

Synopsis:
Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop–located at 222 Baker Street–specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also the home of Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.

The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman’s suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it’s a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.

About the author:
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of twenty-three published crime novels, including standalone Gothic thrillers, the Constable Molly Smith series, and the Year Round Christmas Mysteries. Under the pen name of Eva Gates she is the national bestselling author of the Lighthouse Library cozy series.

The first in Vicki’s Sherlock Holmes bookshop series, Elementary She Read, will be released in March 2017 from Crooked Lane Books.

Vicki lives and writes in Prince Edward County, Ontario. She is the past president of the Crime Writers of Canada.

www.vickidelany.com Facebook: Vicki Delany & Eva Gates and twitter: @vickidelany and @evagatesauthor

Purchase Links
Amazon B&N

Guest Post:
Real Verses Fictional Settings 
For Great Escapes Blog Tour 
By Vicki Delany 
March 2017 

Books can be set in real places, in fictional places, or in a combination of the two.

Other than fantasy or science fiction novels, there aren’t many set in truly made-up places. Meaning, somewhere that came completely out of the author’s imagination.

Otherwise, we all live here on Planet Earth and if we set our books someplace we don’t know well, you can be sure someone knows it, and will point out your mistakes.

The lighthouse library series I write under the name of Eva Gates, is set in a very real place. The Bodie Island Lighthouse located just outside of Nags Head, North Carolina. The lighthouse itself is real, and the area around it and the entire Outer Banks are real and I have tried to recreate that as faithfully as possible in the books. With the exception of the interior of the lighthouse itself, which does not contain (nor is it big enough to contain) a library.

Once the author has decided on a real place, the pressure is on to get it right. Real people live there or vacation there, and know it and love it. Make a mistake – and the author will hear about it.

Which is why I prefer to set my books in someplace that is fictional, but closely based on a real location. Case in point: West London, Massachusetts, the location of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium.

First of all, I needed a town with a Baker Street. Number 220 (the location of the book store) and 222 (for the adjacent Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room) had to be in the downtown shopping district. I needed a town name reminiscent of England: thus West London.

If I am not setting books where I live, I like to put them someplace I’d enjoy visiting. On the ocean, with a thriving tourist economy, lots of charming houses and old buildings.

For this series Cape Cod seemed a natural fit.

I studied maps for the perfect location, and decided that the peninsula near Chatham would be a good fit. Located on both the Atlantic Ocean and Nantucket Sound.

And a brand-new, typical Cape Cod town was born. I even gave it a lighthouse.

West London sits on the eastern shore of Cape Cod, with the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Nantucket Sound to the southwest, not far from the better-known town of Chatham. Restaurants overlooking the water spread out onto spacious patios, lined with pots of brilliant flowers and protected by colorful umbrellas. Lineups waiting for tables stretched down the sidewalk. The boardwalk on the far side of the road was crowded with people licking ice cream while they strolled and watched boats bobbing in the calm waters of the harbor and fisherman trying their luck from the pier. More tourists took pictures of the West London lighthouse, painted white with three thick red bands, built in 1821.

Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delany
Giveaway:


TOUR PARTICIPANTS

March 13 – The Bookwyrm’s Hoard – REVIEW
March 13 – Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf – SPOTLIGHT
March 14 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW
March 14 – Reviews by Martha’s Bookshelf – REVIEW
March 15 – Back Porchervations – REVIEW
March 15 – Valerie’s Musings – REVIEW
March 16 – Rainy Day Reviews – REVIEW
March 16 – A Holland Reads – GUEST POST
March 17 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW
March 17 – Books,Dreams,Life – SPOTLIGHT
March 18 – Shelley’s Book Case – REVIEW
March 18 – Girl with Book Lungs – GUEST POST 
March 19 – The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW
March 20 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW 
March 20 – Mochas, Mysteries and Meows – REVIEW, INTERVIEW
March 21 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW
March 21 – View from the Birdhouse – SPOTLIGHT
March 22 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – REVIEW
March 22 – Carole’s Book Corner – REVIEW
March 22 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – INTERVIEW
March 23 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
March 23 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
March 23 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST
March 24 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, INTERVIEW
March 25 – Moonlight Rendezvous – REVIEW
March 25 – Island Confidential – spotlight
March 26 – Brooke Blogs – REVIEW
March 26 – Girl Lost In a Book – REVIEW

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Pekoe Most Poison by Laura Childs - Review and Giveaway

I received this book free from the publisher

Book Details:
Cozy Mystery
18th in Series
A Berkley Prime Crime Mystery (March 7, 2017)
An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
Hardcover: 320 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0425281680
Kindle – ASIN: B01KGZVXTK

Synopsis
In the latest Tea Shop Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs, Theodosia Browning attends a “Rat Tea,” where the mice will play…at murder.

When Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning is invited by Doreen Briggs, one of Charleston’s most prominent hostesses, to a “Rat Tea,” she is understandably intrigued. As servers dressed in rodent costumes and wearing white gloves offer elegant finger sandwiches and fine teas, Theo learns these parties date back to early twentieth-century Charleston, where the cream of society would sponsor so-called rat teas to promote city rodent control and better public health.

But this party goes from odd to chaotic when a fire starts at one of the tables and Doreen’s entrepreneur husband suddenly goes into convulsions and drops dead. Has his favorite orange pekoe tea been poisoned? Theo smells a rat.

The distraught Doreen soon engages Theo to pursue a discreet inquiry into who might have murdered her husband. As Theo and her tea sommelier review the guest list for suspects, they soon find themselves drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse…

INCLUDES RECIPES AND TEA TIME TIPS

My thoughts:
Another hit by Laura Childs in her fun tea shop series. The whole idea of a "rat tea" makes me cringe. I am not sure I would want to attend a party where everyone is dressed up as rodents. The history behind the "rat tea" makes sense as I am sure there was a rodent problem back in the day. As in the previous books the characters are engaging and fun to follow. Theo is always getting herself drawn in to solving the case then into scrapes while trying to do so. It is always fun for me when Drayton helps Theo out in solving the crime as he has always been one of my favorite characters. Even though this is the 18th book in this series - Laura still has a way of writing that draws you in to yet another new crime. She gave me plenty of suspects to choose from and does not reveal the correct one until the end. I will never tire of this series. You can read them as a stand alone but I prefer to read them in order. 

About The Author
Laura Childs is the New York Times bestselling author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, Scrapbook Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries. In her previous life she was CEO/Creative Director of her own marketing firm and authored several screenplays. She is married to a professor of Chinese art history, loves to travel, rides horses, enjoys fund raising for various non-profits, and has two Chinese Shar-Pei dogs.

Laura specializes in cozy mysteries that have the pace of a thriller (a thrillzy!) Her three series are:

The Tea Shop Mysteries – set in the historic district of Charleston and featuring Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop. Theodosia is a savvy entrepreneur, and pet mom to service dog Earl Grey. She’s also an intelligent, focused amateur sleuth who doesn’t rely on coincidences or inept police work to solve crimes. This charming series is highly atmospheric and rife with the history and mystery that is Charleston.

The Scrapbooking Mysteries – a slightly edgier series that take place in New Orleans. The main character, Carmela, owns Memory Mine scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter and is forever getting into trouble with her friend, Ava, who owns the Juju Voodoo shop. New Orleans’ spooky above-ground cemeteries, jazz clubs, bayous, and Mardi Gras madness make their presence known here!

The Cackleberry Club Mysteries – set in Kindred, a fictional town in the Midwest. In a rehabbed Spur station, Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, three semi-desperate, forty-plus women have launched the Cackleberry Club. Eggs are the morning specialty here and this cozy cafe even offers a book nook and yarn shop. Business is good but murder could lead to the cafe’s undoing! This series offers recipes, knitting, cake decorating, and a dash of spirituality.

Laura’s Links:
Webpage – http://www.laurachilds.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/laura.childs.31

Giveaway:


TOUR PARTICIPANTS

March 6 – Michelle’s Romantic Tangle – REVIEW
March 6 – Sleuth Cafe – SPOTLIGHT
March 7 – MysteriesEtc – REVIEW
March 7 – A Blue Million Books – GUEST POST
March 8 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW
March 8 – Readsalot – SPOTLIGHT
March 8 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 9 – Maureen’s Musings – REVIEW
March 9 – Babs Book Bistro – REVIEW
March 9 – My Journey Back – REVIEW 
March 10 – Texas Book-aholic – REVIEW
March 11 – Rainy Day Reviews – REVIEW 
March 11 – The Power of Words – REVIEW, GUEST POST
March 12 – Valerie’s Musings – REVIEW
March 12 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW
March 13 – Queen of All She Reads – SPOTLIGHT
March 13 – Shelley’s Book Case – REVIEW
March 14 – A Chick Who Reads – REVIEW
March 15 – StoreyBook Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 15 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – INTERVIEW
March 15 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT
March 16 – A Holland Reads – REVIEW
March 16 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – INTERVIEW
March 17 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW, GUEST POST
March 18 – The Editing Pen – REVIEW, INTERVIEW
March 18 – Community Bookstop – REVIEW 
March 19 – Books,Dreams,Life – SPOTLIGHT

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March 15, 2017

Holden by Delores Fossen - Excerpt and Giveaway


Book Details:
Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue (February 21, 2017)

Synopsis:
When a baby goes missing, a Texas marshal and a woman from his past discover there’s a whole lot more behind this kidnapping… 

Holden Ryland certainly didn’t become a marshal just to end up busting his ex, Nicky Hart, for taking files from Conceptions Fertility Clinic. But only Nicky knows just what was really stolen: a newborn being held for ransom. A newborn who is kin to both her and Holden. The missing boy is only the start of a mystery that snakes through Texas, winding its way through their families. Bad blood may linger between them, but Holden can protect his nephew back at the Silver Creek Ranch. If they can lay their past to rest to rescue this child, is it possible for them to have a future together?


Purchase Links

About the author:
USA Today bestselling author, Delores Fossen, has sold over 70 novels with millions of copies of her books in print worldwide. She’s received the Booksellers’ Best Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award and was a finalist for the prestigious Rita ®. In addition, she’s had nearly a hundred short stories and articles published in national magazines.
.
Connect with Delores
Website | Facebook | Twitter

Excerpt:
“Didn’t you get my text?” she asked.

“Got it. Ignored it. Because we need to talk.” Holden moved to go around her and inside, but she stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

“It’s not a good time.” She paused. “I’m expect­ing someone.”

All right. That gave him a new theory. Maybe Nicky had a hot date who was on the way over. That might explain the lack of lights if she was aiming for something romantic.

A thought that bothered him a lot more than it should have.

Nicky was an attractive woman. Bullheaded and reckless, too. And she was married to her job as an investigative reporter. That said, she was still human and she probably did have a man in her life.

It still didn’t mean Holden was going to skip that talk with her. He wouldn’t.

Because he needed her to know that she was on the verge of being arrested.

He owed her that much. Barely. After the stunt she’d pulled last year, though, some members of his family might believe he owed her nothing. Still, here he was. He didn’t play Mr. Nice Guy very often, and he hoped he didn’t regret it this time.

“Tomorrow, you’ll get a visit from an FBI agent,” he told her.

Nicky didn’t even blink. “I don’t have time for this.” And she would have shut the door in his face, if Holden hadn’t blocked it with his foot. The edge of the door smacked against his cowboy boot.

“Make time,” he snarled.

She blew out a quick breath. “Look, I know you’re still in love with me,” she said, “but you have to leave.”

Holden tightened the grip on his gun. Yeah, some­thing was definitely wrong. Because there was no way in hell he was in love with Nicky, and she knew it, too.

She shook her head, just a little, and glanced at the hold that he had on his gun. Was she telling him not to draw? Or was that head shake about some­thing else?

Holden intended to find out.

But it was best not to confront this head-on. Because the living room behind her was dark, he couldn’t tell if there was someone waiting in the shadows. Someone armed and ready to kill her. Or maybe she’d discovered her house was bugged and she didn’t want to say anything incriminating.

Holden hoped it was the second option.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Holden lied. “And we will talk then.”

Leaving was a risk—anything he did at this point could be. But Holden hoped if there was someone inside that it was a good sign that the person had let Nicky answer the door. The person didn’t want her dead.

Not yet anyway.

In her quest to get info on a story she was work­ing on, she could have gotten herself mixed up with some very dangerous people, and that involvement might be coming back to bite her. To bite him, too, since Holden had to see what was going on. This was well past being a nice guy.

This had just become the job.


Tour Participants:
Wednesday, March 1st: Becca the Bibliophile – excerpt
Friday, March 3rd: From the TBR Pile
Wednesday, March 8th: Back Porchervations
Friday, March 10th: A Fortress of Books
Monday, March 13th: Stranded in Chaos
Wednesday, March 15th: A. Holland Reads – excerpt
Thursday, March 16th: The Romance Dish
Monday, March 20th: Books a la Mode – excerpt
Tuesday, March 21st: Books and Spoons
Wednesday, March 22nd: Open Book Society
Friday, March 24th: Book Reviews and More by Kathy – excerpt
Monday, March 27th: A Bookaholic Swede – excerpt
Wednesday, March 29th: Stuck In Books – excerpt
Monday, April 3rd: Books and Bindings
Thursday, April 6th: The Sassy Bookster
TBD: Bewitched Bookworms – excerpt

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March 14, 2017

Cruel Winter by Sheila Connolly - Review

I received this book free from the publisher

Book Details:
Published: March 14, 2017 
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Number of pages: 304 - Hardback
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: County Cork Mystery #5
ISBN: 9781683311003

Synopsis:
Snow is a rarity in Maura Donovan's small village in County Cork, Ireland, so she wasn't sure what to expect when a major snowstorm rolled in around Sullivan's pub. But now she's stranded in a bar full of patrons--and a suspected killer in a long-ago murder.

Maura’s been in Ireland less than a year and hasn't heard about the decades-old unsolved crime that took place nearby, let alone the infamous suspect, Diane Caldwell. But the locals have, and they're not happy to be trapped with her. Diane, meanwhile, seeks to set the record straight, asserting her innocence after all this time. And since no one is going anywhere in the storm, Maura encourages Diane to share her side of the story, which she’d never had a chance to do in court.

Over the next few hours, the informal court in Sullivan’s reviews the facts and theories about the case--and comes to some surprising conclusions. But is it enough to convince the police to take a new look at an old case? A clever spin on the classic locked room mystery, Cruel Winter, the fifth in New York Times bestselling author Sheila Connolly's series, will delight fans of the Emerald Isle.

My thoughts:
I have enjoyed this book even more than the last one I read in this series. It is nice to go back to Ireland and visit "friends". Can you imagine being stuck in a pub with a murder suspect from an unsolved murder? I for one would be a nervous wreck. Luckily for Diane this was a chance to clear her name with the town. It was fun to see how all these people ended up working together to solve a twenty year old crime. This was the enjoyable part of the book for me. I thought the characters really came to life and the author did a good job of making the reader feel like a part of the story. I can't wait to see what she has in store for us in the next book.

About the author:
After collecting too many degrees and exploring careers ranging from art historian to investment banker to professional genealogist, Sheila Connolly began writing in 2001, and has now published eight traditional mysteries. Now a full-time writer, she thinks writing mysteries is a lot more fun than any of her previous occupations.

She wrote her first mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime under the name Sarah Atwell, and the first book, Through a Glass, Deadly (March 2008), was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel; Pane of Death followed in November 2008, and Snake in the Glass in September 2009.

Under her own name, Connolly writes the Orchard Mystery Series (Berkley Prime Crime), set in western Massachusetts, where she had generations of ancestors. In fact,the series is set in a house built by one of her 7th great-grandfathers. The series debuted in 2008 with One Bad Apple, followed by Rotten to the Core (2009), Red Delicious Death (2010), A Killer Crop (2010), and Bitter Harvest (2011). Sour Apples appeared in August 2012 and was a New York Times bestseller.

Connolly's second series, the Museum Mysteries (Berkley Prime Crime), takes place among the many museums of Philadelphia. Fundraising the Dead came out in October 2010, Let's Play Dead in 2011, and the third, Fire Engine Dead, in March 2012. The fourth book, Monument to the Dead, came out in June 2013. Since she worked for several years at a major historical institution in Philadelphia, she can present a lot of behind-the-scenes details of the cultural scene there.

Connolly's third series, the County Cork Mysteries, opened with Buried in a Bog in February 2013 and it went to #14 on the New York Times Mass Market Bestseller list. This new series features a Boston-reared American woman who finds herself running a pub in a tiny village in West Cork. Connolly's grandfather was born in that region, and there used to be a wonderful pub called Connolly's in Leap.

Connolly's first full-length, standalone ebook, Once She Knew, was published by Beyond the Page in October 2012. Her second, Relatively Dead, came out in May 2013.

Connolly has also published short stories: "Size Matters" appeared in the 2010 Level Best Anthology, Thin Ice; "Called Home," a short prequel to the Orchard series, was published by Beyond the Page in 2011; and "Dead Letters," an e-story featuring the main characters from the Museum series, will be published by Berkley Prime Crime in February 2012. Beyond the Page also published "The Rising of the Moon," and another Level Best anthology includes "Kept in the Dark," which was nominated for both an Agatha award and an Anthony award for 2013.

She lives in a too-big Victorian in southeastern Massachusetts with her husband and two cats. Find out more about her at her website, www.sheilaconnolly.com
 

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