Today we are welcoming author Tonya Kappes to StoreyBook Reviews with her Ghostly Southern Mystery Series. She shares with us a bit about how she came about to write this series. So with no further ado, welcome Tonya!
Not Your Typical Cozy Sleuth
Undertaker? Really? Cozy sleuth?
Yeah. . .I get it. An Undertaker is a pretty grim job, but hey. . .it’s job security at it’s finest and everyone is at some point in their life going to cross paths with an Undertaker.
So when I came up with my latest series, A GHOSTLY SOUTHERN MYSTERY SERIES, I knew I wasn’t writing the typical cozy.
With most cozy mysteries the sleuth has a tidy hobby like baking, knitting, cute potion maker (witch like in my Magical Cures Series), scrapbooking, not working with the dead.
Trust me, I took all of that into consideration when researching the job of the undertaker, which wasn’t too hard since I have a couple of good friends in the death industry. It still remained on how I was going to sell this concept to the reader.
I’m from a small central Kentucky town, which makes me a southern and there is nothing better than getting together for a funeral. Heck, a funeral is just as important as a wedding in the parts I come from. Even the repass, supper held after the funeral, is a big social gathering.
Along with some of the stories my undertaker friends have told me, a few strange but funny incidents at repass suppers I’ve attended, and a couple of quirky characters later, Emma Lee Raines, the twenty-eight year old undertaker of Eternal Slumber was already telling me how she was being haunted by ghosts of the clients she put six feet in the ground and deemed accidental deaths. Only they were telling her they were murdered.
I was thrilled when HarperCollins/William Morrow decided to mass market the series and use their Witness Impulse line for the ebooks. Their only question was how do we place it? It’s not considered a cozy in the since of the job, but it has all the makings of the small town, southern charm, and quirky characters Tonya Kappes readers have come to love.
After much discussion, the series has found a home in the straight mystery category and Emma Lee has gotten great placement on the shelf to tell her stories.
A Ghostly Demise is the third book in the series to be released this year. A Ghostly Murder is the fourth book in the series to be released on September 28th.
What about you? Do you like to step out of the box on your cozy amateur sleuths?
The third installment in the Ghostly Southern Mystery series from USA Today bestselling author Tonya Kappes
A GHOSTLY DEMISE
A Ghostly Southern Mystery by Tonya Kappes
On Sale August 25, 2015
From former self-published superstar and USA Today bestseller Tonya Kappes comes the third hilarious Ghostly Southern Mystery novel featuring Emma Lee Raines, a funeral home director who can suddenly see dead people.
The prodigal father returns-but this ghost is no holy spirit.
When she runs into her friend’s deadbeat dad at the local deli, undertaker Emma Lee Raines can’t wait to tell Mary Anna Hardy that he’s back in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, after five long years. Cephus Hardy may have been the town drunk, but he didn’t disappear on an epic bender like everyone thought: He was murdered. And he’s heard that Emma Lee’s been helping lost souls move on to that great big party in the sky.
Why do ghosts always bother Emma Lee at the worst times? Her granny’s mayoral campaign is in high gear, a carnival is taking over the Town Square, and her hunky boyfriend, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross, is stuck wrestling runaway goats. Besides, Cephus has no clue whodunit… unless it was one of Mrs. Hardy’s not-so-secret admirers. All roads lead Emma Lee to that carnival-and a killer who isn’t clowning around.
The fourth hilarious installment in the Ghostly Southern Mystery series from USA Today bestselling author Tonya Kappes
A GHOSTLY MURDER
A Ghostly Southern Mystery by Tonya Kappes
On Sale September 29, 2015
From former self-published superstar and USA Today bestseller Tonya Kappes comes the fourth hilarious Ghostly Southern Mystery novel featuring Emma Lee Raines, a funeral home director who can suddenly see dead people.
Emma Lee Raines knows there’s only one cure for a bad case of murder.
I told you I was sick, reads the headstone above Mamie Sue Preston’s grave. She was the richest woman in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, and also the biggest hypochondriac. Ironic, considering someone killed her-and covered it up perfectly. And how does Emma Lee Raines, proprietor of the Eternal Slumber Funeral Home, know all this? Because Mamie Sue’s ghost told her, that’s how. And she’s offering big bucks to find the perp.
The catch is, Mamie Sue was buried by the Raines family’s archrival, Burns Funeral Home. Would the Burnses stoop to framing Emma Lee’s granny? With an enterprising maid, a penny-pinching pastor, and a slimy Lexington lawyer all making a killing off Mamie Sue’s estate, Emma Lee needs a teammate-like her dreamboat boyfriend, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross. Because with millions at stake, snooping around is definitely bad for Emma Lee’s health.
About the Author
Tonya Kappes has written more than fifteen novels and four novellas, all of which have graced numerous bestseller lists including USA Today. Best known for stories charged with emotion and humor and filled with flawed characters, her novels have garnered reader praise and glowing critical reviews. She lives with her husband, two very spoiled schnauzers, and one ex-stray cat in northern Kentucky. Now that her boys are teenagers, Tonya writes full-time but can be found at all of her guys’ high school games with a pencil and paper in hand. More than anything, Tonya loves to connect with readers, with a loyal ‘street team’ of fans and followers on social media.
Yes, Tanya! I have heard so many good things about this series, I think I am certainly ready to step out of the ‘hobby’ box and into following an undertaking sleuth!