Synopsis:

It all began when a dying man with an arrow in his chest grabs her ankle.

During a heatwave at a Santa Fe resort, Julienne has the resort owner pressuring her to solve the murder. The victim is a high profile businessman who made enemies rather than friends, leaving Julienne with a roster of suspects. She was supposed to be training the staff and spending quality time with Mason rather than investigating a murder. The heat turns up when an old girlfriend of Mason’s checks in and is determined to get back together.

Hi everyone! I’m very happy to have Avery Daniels, author of the “Resort to Murder” cozy mystery series, here at The Book’s the Thing today. Read on as she tells us about the location used in her books, and be sure to enter the giveaway below before you go.

Santa Fe is a Historical Gem – by Avery Daniels

Each book in the Resort to Murder mystery series takes place in a luxury resort.  Arrowed, the newly released fourth book, is set in a resort in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  I live in Colorado, just to the north of New Mexico, and have had the pleasure to drive down several times for extended weekends.  But New Mexico, and Santa Fe in particular, are full of history and cultural significance that I tried to incorporate into the story.

Santa Fe is the oldest capital city as well as the highest capital at 7,199 in the United States.  Denver is known as the “Mile High” city and is the capital of Colorado, but it is only 5,280 feet above sea level, and where I live it is 6,080 feet.  So, beware of altitude sickness if you visit from a lower elevation, because it is pretty high up.  I have known many people who get headaches and other symptoms simply from adjusting to the elevation.

You may ask how Santa Fe can be the oldest capital when it only became a state in 1912.  Excellent question, glad you caught that.  We acquired the New Mexico territory back in 1848 through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.  Santa Fe had already long been the capital while part of Mexico, thus making it the oldest continuously operating state capital in the nation.

Many people think of New Mexico as desert. Santa Fe it is actually a semi-arid steepe.  So it has all four seasons with cold winters.  There are many areas with trees and lovely natural landscaping.  In the autumn the aspens changing color in Santa Fe are beautiful along the Aspen Vista Trail just off Hyde Park Road.  Just sixteen miles from Santa Fe is skiing with an average snow fall of 225 inches.  In my book, the Enchantment Canyon Resort (totally fictional) has lush landscaping such as palm bushes and trees, a number of flowering bushes, Aspen trees, yucca plants, climbing red Bougainvillea, whispery Mexican Feather Grass, and other ornamental grasses.  Yes, there are palm trees in Santa Fe, even with the cold winters.  Certain varieties are tenacious enough to flourish there.

The earliest wine making endeavors in the United States from traditional grapes was in New Mexico around 1629, courtesy of the Spanish missionaries growing the grapes for their sacramental wine.   Let me share about Santa Fe’s own Estrella Del Norte Vineyard.  It has a tasting room for a visit, or stay in one of their three casitas either on their vineyard/winery or their valley vineyard.  Talk about a romantic getaway!

I don’t mean to sound like the tourist bureau, but there are many misconceptions about the area and I enjoyed using the location for the book.  I hope my enthusiasm transfers to the story and enriches the reading experience.  I wasn’t able to travel there and do any legwork, so I relied on internet research and my experiences from previous visits there.  I learned a lot and am actually looking forward to my next post-covid trip to check out several things I discovered via my research.

About the Author

Avery Daniels was born and raised in Colorado, graduated from college with a degree in business administration and has worked in fortune 500 companies and Department of Defense her entire life. Her most eventful job was apartment management for 352 units. She still resides in Colorado with two brother black cats as her spirited companions. She volunteers for a cat shelter, enjoys scrapbooking and card making, photography, and painting in watercolor and acrylic. She inherited a love for reading from her mother and grandmother and grew up talking about books at the dinner table.

Author Links:   Webpage |  Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads |  BookBub | Newsletter

Purchase Link: Amazon

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