Posted in Cozy, Giveaway, Guest Post, mystery on September 6, 2016

HAPPY HOMICIDES fall into crime

happy homicide 4

Happy Homicides 4: Fall Into Crime

This collection is really a must-read for lovers of cozy mystery. It provides the opportunity to learn some new author or read a new adventure of some character who already know and love.
~LibriAmoriMiei

Included Stories

Joanna Campbell Slan / Vendetta: A Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery – The House of Refuge on Gilbert’s Bar is known for its 150-year history as a way station for shipwrecked sailors. But when Cara Mia visits, the museum becomes the scene of a crime.

Linda Gordon Hengerer / Dying for School Tea: A Beach Tea Shop Novella – Chelsea Powell and her sisters are providing treats for Citrus Beach High School’s freshman orientation. Can they solve the murder of the beloved softball coach before someone else dies?

Carole W. Price / The Glass Birdhouse – Glass artist Bella hopes to find clues about her student’s death in the woman’s unfinished glass birdhouse.

Lesley A. Diehl / Bobbing for Murder – A visit from Darcie’s family is always chaotic, and this time the relatives bamboozle Darcie into having a Halloween party. It’s a decision that definitely comes back to haunt her.

Nancy Jill Thames / Raven House – When a reporter is murdered after a fundraiser at the historic Raven House, the police call on Jillian and her Yorkie Teddy to help them investigate.

Teresa Trent / Falling for Murder – Helpful hints columnist Betsy Livingston is an expert at household organization but her skills are put to the test when she’s called upon to conduct an efficiency review for a haunted house.

Maggie Toussaint / Dead Men Tell Tales – In this third installment of the Lindsey & Ike romantic mystery novella series, things don’t add up after a suspicious hunting accident. The more Sheriff Ike Harper and newspaper editor Lindsey McKay dig, the more questions they find.

Anna Celeste Burke / All Hallow’s Eve Heist – Date night for Georgie Shaw and handsome detective Jack Wheeler goes terribly wrong. A botched heist at Marvelous Marley World has everyone scrambling as trigger-happy bad guys head for the Halloween celebration in Arcadia Park.

Randy Rawls / Accident, Suicide, or Murder – Retired policeman Jonathan Boykin’s primary interest is improving his golf, but a grieving father’s request to investigate his son’s suspicious death is an entirely different ballgame.

Nancy J. Cohen / Haunted Hair Nights – As a new stepmother, hairstylist Marla Vail hopes to win brownie points by helping her daughter with a school haunted house project. Marla has her work cut out for her when she stumbles over a corpse on the spooky estate grounds.

Terry Ambrose / Spirit in the Rock – An invitation to a museum’s grand opening turns into a showdown with the spirit world for amateur sleuth Wilson McKenna.

Deborah Sharp / Haunting in Himmarshee – When a ghost comes to call, Mace must sort out the haunted from the homicidal in Himmarshee, Florida.

Bonus Story—
Joanna Campbell Slan/Kiki Lowenstein and the Doodoo – A fun family outings turns into a fearful fright, but Kiki Lowenstein is good at sniffing out bad guys.

 

Comes with a bonus file of recipes and craft tips!

All for just 99 cents!

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Special Limited Time Offer!

Buy Happy Homicides 4: Fall Into Crime and get Happy Homicides 3: Summertime Crime absolutely free!

Guest Post

Thanks for hosting me on your blog, Leslie. I’ve had fun poking around, discovering all the books you read and review. Busy gal! (thanks Deborah, I am a bit of a book nerd!)

The Happy Homicides anthologies, with their short stories and novellas, are a departure for me.  A journalist-turned novelist, I write the funny, down-home-Florida Mace Bauer Mystery Series. All five of those books are traditional novel length, so writing shorter has been a fun experiment. I hope this latest effort, “Haunting in Himmarshee,’’ is more successful than another experiment I attempted in a long-ago chemistry class. That experiment led to a high school evacuation.

My books, as well as this novella, are set in a down-home slice of my native Florida. Most people don’t think “Southern’’ when they think Florida. Theme parks, spring break, and Miami’s Spanish-accented sizzle usually come to mind. But the part of the state I write about is as southern as RC Cola and MoonPie. The Mama character in my books — and also in these new Mace and Mama Short Mysteries — embraces traditions Southerners hold dear. Among those: Family, food, and funerals. Of course, Mama believes there’s a right way and a wrong way to honor traditions. Being the straight-talking sort, she’ll readily tell you which is which.

In “Haunting,’’ which takes place around Himmarshee’s annual Halloween bash, Mama and her middle daughter Mace attend a funeral. The deceased perished in a car crash that appears at first glance to be an accident. (But things are never what they seem in mysteries, are they?)

The victim was a former beau of Mama’s. Frankly, about half the male population of Himmarshee fits that description. Mama has notched five marriages on the belt of her sherbet-colored pantsuit. As for funerals, Mama says there are six rules for mourners:

Rule No. 1: Dress properly to show respect. When a young niece broke that rule, Mama chastised her in the chapel: “That skirt is so skimpy, every man here can see clear to the Promised Land!”

Rule No. 2: Feed the bereaved. Mama’s go-to funeral food used to be macaroni salad. But when a brawl broke out at a family funeral, she got tossed in a tub of the stuff. She hasn’t cared for macaroni since.

Rule No. 3: If you send flowers, make them special. Mama still talks about a tribute at the send-off for Paul “Bear’’ Bryant more than thirty years ago. In addition to a towering red “A’’ for Alabama, some 2,400 carnations created a floral memorial of the coach’s houndstooth hat.

In “Haunting in Himmarshee,’’ Mace’s suspicions are aroused when one not-so-mournful attendee breaks the last three rules of funeral etiquette:

Rule No. 4: Don’t show up drunk.

Rule No. 5: Don’t speak ill of the dead.

Rule No. 6: Don’t pull a knife on a grieving family member.

What are some funeral traditions where you live?  

deborah sharpAbout Deborah

A former USA Today reporter, Deborah Sharp wrote so many stories about marauding animals and human evil-doers it’s a wonder she ever leaves her house. She traded sad news for funny fiction with her Southern-fried Mace Bauer Mysteries. Think Janet Evanovich, if Stephanie Plum had a couple cousins named Bubba.

Deborah rode a horse across Florida for research, and chatted about the experience with Al Roker on the Today show. She was less nervous about the horse. She lives with her husband, TV reporter Kerry Sanders, in Florida, where she spends her spare time chasing iguanas out of the hibiscus. “Mama Gets Trashed” is her fifth book. Visit her online at www.DeborahSharp.com

Giveaways

There are several giveaways so make sure to enter each!
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Find out about the authors on their webpages below. 

Joanna Campbell Slan

Linda Gordon Hengerer

Carol W. Price

Lesley A. Diehl

Nancy Jill Thames

Teresa Trent

Maggie Toussaint

Anna Celeste Burke

Randy Rawls

Nancy J. Cohen

Terry Ambrose

and Deborah Sharp

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Visit the other blogs on this tour and enter their giveaways!

August 29 – Reading Is My SuperPower – SPOTLIGHT

August 30 – Cozy Up With Kathy – GUEST POST

August 31 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – SPOTLIGHT

August 31 – 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, &, Sissy, Too! – SPOTLIGHT

September 1 – A Holland Reads – GUEST POST

September 1 – fuonlyknew – SPOTLIGHT

September 2 – The Girl with Book Lungs – SPOTLIGHT

September 2 – My Funny View of Life – SPOTLIGHT

September 3 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW, INTERVIEW

September 3 – LibriAmoriMiei – REVIEW

September 4 – Book Babble – SPOTLIGHT

September 4 – Sleuth Cafe – GUEST POST

September 5 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW

September 6 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST

September 6 – Victoria’s Pages of Romance – SPOTLIGHT

September 7 – Back Porchervations – REVIEW

September 8 – Community Bookstop – REVIEW

September 8 – Queen of All She Reads – GUEST POST

September 9 – Brooke Blogs – REVIEW, GUEST POST

September 10 – Island Confidential – INTERVIEW

September 11 – Shelley’s Book Case – REVIEW, GUEST POST

September 11 – Kaisy Daisy’s Corner – REVIEW