Cozy Mystery

Two Dames on a Mystery Train – Guest Post and Giveaway from Author Duffy Brown

~ Erika K ~ 11 Comments

Hello all! I am delighted to have author Duffy Brown taking over the blog for today. Read on and be sure to leave a comment below for your chance to win a Wedding and Foul Play tote!

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Two Dames on a Mystery Train

Hi, Everyone.

Duffy Brown here. I am a cozy mystery author of the Consignment Shop Mysteries set in Savannah and the Cycle Path Mysteries set on Mackinac Island.

One of the best parts of writing is chatting with readers. Tonya Kappes—and amazing cozy mystery author–and I have taken this to a whole new level. For the last six years Tony and I plus seventy-five of our readers have taken part in a mystery weekend that includes a mystery train.

You’ve seen them advertised as dinner mystery train rides or wine-tasting and murder, or who-dun-it and dinner. Each year we choose a different location. We’ve been to Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois. This gives Tonya and me a chance to meet with readers from different parts of the country.

Once we did Two Dames on a Mystery Cruise. We boarded an honest-to-goodness paddle-wheeler for a day-long mystery trip. We all took part in discovering the killer. I brought along Sherlock Bear. No weekend is complete without Sherlock.

Some mystery trains have included stops at old cemeteries and night hayrides under a full moon. We did a roaring twenties mystery party of our very own. We took over the hotel lobby, dressed in costume, assumed characters and followed clues to the killer.

We’ve gone on haunted tours. Mixing mystery with a little ghost hunting is always a good idea. A welcome pizza party gives everyone a chance to meet up with old friends and find new ones. A nightcap of wine and dessert is the perfect way to end the day. 

This year’s Two Dames event was headed for Bardstown, Kentucky. Not only did we have the Old Kentucky Mystery Dinner train booked, but there were tours through some of Kentucky’s finest distilleries and My Old Kentucky Home. This included lessons on making fine Southern biscuits. With a little luck, Tonya and I hope to reschedule in 2021.

Tonya and I are best of friends and love nothing more than meeting up with our reader friends. If you get a chance, come play with us at a Two Dames on a Mystery Train weekend. Stay tuned, there is bound to be a Two Dames event in your neck of the woods.

Hugs, Duffy

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Visit Duffy Brown at http://www.duffybrown.com to learn about Wedding Day and Foul Play – the latest book in the Consignment Shop Mystery series.

 

 

Smothered (A Whipped and Sipped Mystery) by G.P. Gottlieb – Guest Post

~ Erika K ~ 2 Comments

Hello all! I’m so happy to feature the newest release from author G.P. Gottlieb today. Smothered (A Whipped and Sipped Mystery) is the second book in the Whipped and Sipped Mystery series.

Smothered Book eBook Cover.jpg Synopsis:

When the owner of the business next door is found dead in his Chicago office, Alene Baron is relieved. She’s been suspicious of the food supplements he’s been selling, not to mention the smoothies he’s been hawking, which are much inferior to the ones Alene sells at the Whipped and Sipped Café. Plus, Stanley Huff never cleaned up his garbage in their shared alley. As a shady businessman, Stanley had enemies, but now one of Alene’s favorite employees is a suspect in his murder. And that employee is missing.

Smothered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery includes 22 of the author’s best, healthy and delicious recipes!

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One Poison Pie by Lynn Cahoon – Blog Tour & Giveaway

~ Erika K ~ 4 Comments

Synopsis:

In the first in New York Times bestselling author Lynn Cahoon’s Kitchen Witch series, Mia Malone is starting over in Magic Springs, Idaho—where murder is on the menu . . .

What’s a kitchen witch to do when her almost-fiancé leaves her suddenly single and unemployed? For Mia Malone, the answer’s simple: move to her grandmother’s quirky Idaho hometown, where magic is an open secret and witches and warlocks are (mostly) welcome. With a new gourmet dinner delivery business—and a touch of magic in her recipes—Mia’s hopes are high. Even when her ex’s little sister, Christina, arrives looking for a place to stay, Mia takes it in stride.

But her first catering job takes a distasteful turn when her client’s body is found, stabbed and stuffed under the head table. Mia’s shocked to learn that she’s a suspect—and even more so when she realizes she’s next on a killer’s list. With Christina, along with Mia’s meddling grandma, in the mix, she’ll have to find out which of the town’s eccentric residents has an appetite for murder…before this fresh start comes to a sticky end. . . .

Includes Recipes!

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Cover Reveal – A Side of Murder by Amy Pershing

~ Erika K ~ 5 Comments

A Side of Murder (A Cape Cod Foodie Mystery) by Amy Pershing

COMING FEBRUARY 23, 2021

READY . . .

SET . . .

REVEAL . . .

A Side of Murder (A Cape Cod Foodie Mystery) Cozy Mystery 1st in Series Publisher: Berkley (February 23, 2021) Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages ISBN-10: 0593199146 ISBN-13: 978-0593199145 Digital ASIN: B087PL9HHF

Beautiful Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is known for seafood, sand, surf, and, now…murder.

Samantha Barnes was always a foodie. And when the CIA (that’s the Culinary Institute of America) came calling, she happily traded in Cape Cod for the Big Apple. But then the rising young chef’s clash with another chef (her ex!) boils over and goes viral. So when Sam inherits a house on the Cape and lands a job writing restaurant reviews, it seems like the perfect pairing. What could go wrong? Well, as it turns out, a lot.

The dilapidated house comes with an enormous puppy. Her new boss is, well, bossy. And the town’s harbormaster is none other than her first love. Nonetheless, Sam’s looking forward to reviewing the Bayview Grill—and indeed the seafood chowder is divine. But the body in the pond outside the eatery was not on the menu. Sam is certain this is murder. But as she begins to stir the pot, is she creating a recipe for her own untimely demise?

Pre-order Your Copy Today!

Amazon – B&N – Kobo – Google Play – IndieBound

About Amy Pershing

Amy Pershing is a lifelong mystery lover and wordsmith. She was an editor, a restaurant reviewer, and a journalist before leading employee communications at a global bank. A few years ago (with the final college tuition bill paid), she waved goodbye to Wall Street to write full time (and spend more time sailing on the Cape!). A Side of Murder, the first of the Cape Cod Foodie mysteries, is her debut novel.

 

A SIDE OF MURDER COVER REVEAL PARTICIPANTS

January 18, 2021

Reading Is My SuperPower

Author Elena Taylor’s Blog

The Ninja Librarian

Maureen’s Musings

Moonlight Rendezvous

Christy’s Cozy Corners

Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic

My Reading Journeys

Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews

Socrates Book Reviews

FUONLYKNEW

Celticlady’s Reviews

I Read What You Write

Rosepoint Publishing

Cozy Up WIth Kathy

Brooke Blogs

The Book’s the Thing

Melina’s Book Blog

Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book

Sapphyria’s Book Reviews

On Deadly Tides by Elizabeth J. Duncan – Blog Tour and Giveaway

~ Erika K ~ 2 Comments

Synopsis:

With a picturesque black and white lighthouse, pebble beaches and stunning views of sea and mountains, the island of Anglesey off the coast of North Wales is the perfect place for an idyllic mid-summer painting holiday.

And watercolour artist, businesswoman, and amateur sleuth Penny Brannigan is enjoying the retreat enormously – until she discovers the body of a New Zealand journalist on a secluded beach just as the tide is going out, threatening to take the body with it.

The post mortem reveals the victim died from injuries “consistent with a fall from a great height,” and the death is ruled accidental. But Penny thinks there’s more to the story. Curious how the victim came to such an untimely end at this most inhospitable spot, she uncovers a link to a mysterious disappearance several years earlier.

And as her holiday romance with a wildlife photographer turns to love, she learns some truths about herself, too, that surprise her.

As the winds of change blow through Penny’s own life, she sets sail on a friendly tide for a future she never dreamed possible, in a beautiful place she never imagined.

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Mistletoe, Moussaka, and Murder (A Kebab Kitchen Mystery) by Tina Kashian – Blog Tour & Giveaway

~ Erika K ~ 5 Comments

Synopsis:

Not even her impending nuptials can keep Lucy Berberian, manager of her family-owned Kebab Kitchen, from the Jersey Shore’s annual Polar Bear Plunge. But her dive into the icy ocean is especially chilling when she finds a fellow swimmer doing the dead man’s float—for real . . .

Who would kill a man in cold blood during Ocean Crest, New Jersey’s most popular winter event? When Lucy learns the victim is Deacon Spooner, the reception hall owner who turned up his nose—and his price—at her wedding plans, she can’t help wondering who wouldn’t kill the pompous caterer . . .

Perhaps the culprit is the wedding cake baker whose career Deacon nearly destroyed? Or the angry bride whose reception he ruined? With her maid of honor, Katie, busily planning Lucy’s wedding without her, Lucy will have to get to the bottom of this cold-hearted business in time for Kebab Kitchen’s mouthwatering Christmas celebration—and before her hometown’s holiday spirit washes out to sea . . .

Recipes included!

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The Watchman of Rothenburg Dies by Adriana Licio – Guest Post and Giveaway

~ Erika K ~ 2 Comments

Synopsis:

A holiday is a time to relax, unwind and see the sights. But for two adventurous sexagenarians, the sights have a tendency to include dead bodies.

Etta and Dora, both newly retired teachers, travel from their home in Southern Italy to a fairy-tale German town for their first home swap holiday, delighted by their neighbours’ warm welcome. But the welcome turns sour when the Night Watchman of Rothenburg is brutally murdered while his tour group takes photographs nearby, a halberd buried in his chest and a peculiar iron mask by his side.

When the murderer claims a second victim and the son of their hospitable neighbours becomes the number-one suspect, Etta’s analytical mind goes to work. Why was a shame mask left at the scene of each murder? Is there a clandestine trade going on behind the scenes of apparently upstanding local businesses? And why does every lead take her back to the sinister Devil’s Ale pub and the terrifying gang who lurk within?

Meanwhile, Dora has a puzzle of her own – how can she persuade Etta that a loveably disobedient Basset Hound called Napoleon is now a permanent part of their lives?

◆◆◆ Pack your bags, jump into the backseat of Etta and Dora’s old Fiat 500, and join them on their travels around Europe. There’ll be mystery, murder and mayhem aplenty wherever they go. ◆◆◆

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Dough or Die by Winnie Archer – Blog Tour & Giveaway

~ Erika K ~ 8 Comments

Synopsis:

Known for its mouthwatering traditional breads, the Yeast of Eden bakery has gained fame across Northern California’s coast. Now the shop is bound for Reality TV—but a murder may kill its reputation . . .

People come to the beach town of Santa Sofia as much for the healing properties of Yeast of Eden’s breads as for a vacation getaway. And now a cable food channel has selected the bakery as a featured culinary delight for a new show. Baking apprentice Ivy Culpepper is excited as the crew arrives, ready to capture all the ins and outs of the renowned bread shop. But instead they capture something much harder to stomach: the attempted murdered of the show’s cameraman just outside Yeast of Eden . . .

With no motive and no clues, and the town craving answers, it will be up to Ivy to sift through the evidence to find the truth. But she’ll have to move quickly before someone else is targeted or the wrong person gets the heat—and the business collapses like a deflated soufflé, right before her eyes.

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Spotlight – A Spell for Trouble by Esme Addison

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

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Happy pub day to Esme Addison! I haven’t had a chance to read this one myself yet, but I have already added it to my TBR pile. 

9781643853031 (1) Synopsis: 

Aleksandra Daniels hasn’t set foot in the quiet seaside town of Bellamy Bay, North Carolina in over twenty years. Ever since her mother’s tragic death, her father has mysteriously forbidden her from visiting her aunt and cousins. But on a whim, Alex accepts an invitation to visit her estranged relatives and to help them in their family business: an herbal apothecary known for its remarkably potent teas, salves, and folk remedies.

Bellamy Bay doesn’t look like trouble, but this is a town that harbors dark secrets. Alex discovers that her own family is at the center of salacious town gossip, and that they are rumored to be magical healers descended from mermaids. She brushes this off as nonsense until a local is poisoned and her aunt Lidia is arrested for the crime. Alex is certain Lidia is being framed, and she resolves to find out why.

Alex’s investigation unearths stories that some have gone to desperate lengths to conceal: forbidden affairs, family rivalries, and the truth about Alex’s own ancestry. And when the case turns deadly, Alex learns that not only are these secrets worth hiding, but they may even be worth killing for.

About the Author
Esme Addison_AuthorEver since Esme discovered Nancy Drew, she’s wanted to solve mysteries. As a mystery author, she’s finally found a way to make that dream come true. A former military spouse, Esme lives in Raleigh, NC with her family. When she’s not writing or dreaming up new mysteries for her sleuths to stumble upon, you can find her dancing her calories away in Zumba, patronizing her local bookstores or visiting the beach, the mountains and all historical sites in between. Learn more about Esme at https://esmeaddison.com and follow her on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @EsmeAddison.

 

Author Links

Purchase Link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622792/a-spell-for-trouble-by-esme-addison/

Website: https://esmeaddison.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EsmeAddisonAuthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/esmeaddison/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EsmeAddison