Rest, Relax, Run for Your Life (Ooey Gooey Bakery Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Independently Published (March 1, 2019)
Paperback: 280 pages

Synopsis

Piper and Samantha are in heaven. Well, close. After winning a contest to raise the most money for human trafficking awareness and prevention, Piper and Sam are rewarded with a long weekend at the O Heavenly Day Spa. When mysterious notes start appearing everywhere, things get uncomfortable. When spa treatments go awry it is starting to get dangerous. A threatening message in Piper’s closet convinces Piper and Sam that they have to find out who is behind all of these disasters before someone gets hurt. Is it Broussard the stuffy concierge? Gladys, the sweet old lady who decided to join them for the weekend? When the smoke alarms go off and the spa erupts into panic, the chaos separates the friends and Piper stumbles into trouble. Will her friends be able to help her in time?

 

Review

To me, this is a unique cozy that addresses some heavy topics – mainly human trafficking.  I have to give the author major points for coving a heavy issue in this book and I definitely appreciated the information that was shared in relation to a friend of Piper’s from when she was younger.  It was thoughtfully addressed and well explained.  To top it off, it created quite a twist at the end, which I sort of expected but won’t tell you what it is in case you don’t guess!  Then there is the spa, which I inferred was created by a church, and the employees are volunteers but are doing this all for a good cause.  Hence the competition to raise money and Piper and Sam winning the spa weekend by raising the most funds for the charity.

Piper and Sam are each other’s yin and yang when it comes to their friendship and their work environment.  They make a great team in the bakery and many of their desserts sound delicious.  Even the name of the bakery makes the desserts sound sinful.  Piper is a chocolate fanatic and a woman after my own heart. She even brings chocolate to the spa just in case of an emergency.  Definitely someone that I would want to be associated with in case I needed some of that emergency chocolate.

The mystery is a little different – Piper and Sam are trying to find out who is leaving these threatening notes and what do they really mean.  They are threatening but vague and it takes some super sleuthing to get to the bottom of this mystery.  I was surprised at the antagonist as it wasn’t someone I suspected but some clues fell into place when everything was revealed.

As I mentioned, there is a twist at the end, a cliffhanger if you will, that wasn’t surprising but I am curious to see how this plays out in the next book.  I also read in the author’s bio that this is a YA cozy and I don’t think it fits in the YA category.  It is very clean, as all cozies should be, but I am not sure where the YA comes into play since the characters are at least in their 20s.

We enjoyed this book and give it 4 paws up.

 

About the Author

Katherine Brown is a Texas girl, a lover of books, and a weaver of words. Her first official publication was of two children’s books in 2017, which has now grown into five books of the School is Scary series; however, she likes to think her career as a writer started when she sold her parents newsletters of articles about school and poetry for fifty cents per copy as a pre-teen. Married to a wonderful husband and mom of a smart, spunky stepdaughter, Katherine enjoys spending time with family and reading as many new books as she can get her hands on. Her YA series, the Ooey Gooey Bakery Mystery series, is ramping up in 2019 with book 1 released in March and book 2 was released June 1, 2019.

 

Website * Amazon Author Page * Facebook

BookBub * Goodreads * Instagram

 

 

Knot on Her Life (A Quilting Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
7th in Series
Kensington (July 30, 2019)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages

Synopsis

While quilter Martha Rose awaits the birth of her granddaughter, a neighborhood girl appears at her door with a mystery that can’t be pinned down . .

Martha’s eager to finish the baby quilt she’s making for her new granddaughter, but she scraps those plans when a young girl rings her doorbell begging for help. Poppy Halaby, the foster child of Martha’s neighbor, is an orphan whose parents were murdered by a killer who was never caught. When Poppy’s doting foster mom falls suspiciously ill, Martha is determined to keep the child safe. But she’ll have to unravel more about Poppy’s parents to stitch a broken family back together again—and prevent another crime cut from the same cloth . . .

Amazon ~ B&N ~ Kobo ~ Google Play

 

Guest Post

Today we welcome author Mary Marks to StoreyBook Reviews and she covers a tricky subject for authors – religion.  I found her comments interesting and gave me something to think about.

This latest book of mine, Knot on Her Life, touches on a very timely issue–that of religious bigotry. When I first started to write the story, I asked myself some “what if” questions. What if an Orthodox Jew married a practicing Muslim? What if they had a child? How would that child be raised? How would their families react? How would their respective religious communities view the marriage? And finally, what if the couple was killed? What would happen to their child?

Tackling those sober questions is especially tricky because one of the “rules” of writing a cozy mystery is that nothing bad can happen to a child. Yet in Knot on Her Life, the child is in real danger because she was witness to the murder. So how did I reconcile the storyline and still remain within the “rules?”

One of the ways I lighten up a dark topic is through humor which is a regular element in my Quilting Mystery series. I insert comedy in three ways; by portraying 1) absurd situations, 2) funny dialogue and 3) quirky characters. What I don’t do is make light of the crime or its consequences for the people involved.

I especially enjoyed writing Knot on Her Life, because, as in all my books, I could weave other threads into the story: quilting lore and techniques; Jewish observance and practices; friendship, food, romance, and a little bit of history.

So often these days we focus on those issues that divide us. However, in Knot on Her Life, I try to show the commonality shared by Jews and Muslims, even though the fictional characters may not recognize or acknowledge them.

For example, the languages of Hebrew and Arabic are sister languages. Salaam Aleikum is so similar to Shalom Acheichem. They both mean “Peace unto you,” a yearning shared by both Jews and Muslims. Other parallels include dietary laws and customs, modest dress for women, and the strict patriarchal system imposed in both Orthodox Jewish and Muslim communities.

Keeping characters alive from one book to the next allows me as a writer to flesh out their backstories and make them more real and three dimensional for the reader. Two familiar characters from previous Quilting Mystery novels appear in major roles in Knot on Her Life. One is Martha Rose’s neighbor across the street, Sonia Spiegelman, who was a former girlfriend of Mick Jagger back in her groovy days. The other returning character with a more significant role is Hector Fuentes. He’s also known as Malo, an ATF colleague of Martha’s fiancé Yossi Levy a.k.a. Crusher.

Someone once asked me what was my favorite of all the books in the Quilting Mystery series. I replied that the question was like asking me to announce who my favorite child was. I love all my books because each one has allowed me to examine different issues that I care about. But I must confess, Knot on Her Life is perhaps the most timely and relevant of all my stories. For that reason I am particularly proud of this book.

And I hope you will like it, too.

 

About the Author

Born and raised in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, Mary Marks earned a B.A. in Anthropology from UCLA and an M.A. in Public Administration from the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. In 2004 she enrolled in the UCLA Extension Writers Program. Her first novel, Forget Me Knot, was a finalist in a national writing competition in 2011. She is currently a reviewer of cozy mysteries for The New York Journal of Books.

Website * Facebook

 

Giveaway

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Risky Biscuits (A Sugar & Spice Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – Iowa
Lyrical Underground (July 9, 2019)
Paperback: 190 pages

Synopsis

Former magazine editor “Sugar” Calloway’s life has taken a delicious twist since she launched a community cookbook publishing business with blue-ribbon baker Dixie Spicer. Now these amateur sleuths must solve a small-town murder—without getting burned . .

Sugar and Spice Cookbooks’ newest project is a fundraiser organized by the St. Ignatius Crack of Dawn Breakfast Club, famous for their all-you-can-eat biscuits and gravy events. But when a group member is found dead, Sugar and Spice’s priorities change from raising dough to figuring out who put murder on the menu.

The return of former badboy Nick Marchant has stirred the town’s gossips too. Add a few grudges and some old-fashioned greed over a land deal into the mix, and it’s a recipe for mayhem. And when someone serves up a second helping of murder, Sugar and Spice need to sift the guilty from the blameless, or their next breakfast may be their last . . .

* Includes delicious recipes! *

Amazon  ~  Barnes & Noble  ~  Kobo  ~  iBooks

 

Guest Post

Crazy About Cozies!

I came to the cozy world on a winding path. I read, no make that ‘devoured’ Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books as a child. I couldn’t wait for the next one! If asked, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you exactly what I liked about those two series. I wasn’t analyzing. To me, they were simply good stories.

Later when I got serious about writing a novel, I took some classes, joined a writing group, and began putting words on the page. It was at that point, I re-discovered my love of mysteries and began reading them again. Voraciously. I picked ones that appealed to me – the setting, characters, the premise of the story.  I hadn’t figured out that most of the books I chose were cozy mysteries.

The first full mystery that I wrote won first-place in the Daphne Du Maier Award of Excellence contest sponsored by the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA. It won, but it did not sell. It garnered many MANY nice rejection letters. But that’s another story. I hadn’t figured out that what I was writing was a cozy mystery.

Setting that book aside, I worked with a friend on a series that did go on to sell. The Pampered Pets mystery series (Desperate Housedogs, Yip/Tuck, Fifty Shades of Greyhound, Downton Tabby to name a few) went on to ten books. By this time, I had realized that what I loved to read and wanted to write was actually called a “cozy mystery.”

So, what do I love about these books?

• A bright and likable main character/amateur sleuth. Like Nancy and Trixie, they are relatable crime-solvers.
• The interesting occupations of the characters. Usually a job, but sometimes a hobby, which gives me a chance to learn a bit about something new.
• Great settings. The settings where the stories take place are places I might like to live – or at least visit.
• A supporting cast of characters that I can get to know and care about. Sometimes quirky, always unique, the people make the story for me.
• Then there’s also the absence of graphic violence and language. Yes, there’s a murder, but I simply don’t want all the details.
• Finally, the mystery itself is always a great puzzle and I enjoy trying to put the clues together alongside the amateur sleuth.

You can imagine then, that as I wrote Game of Scones (Book 1) and the just released Risky Biscuits (Book 2), that I did my best to make sure that all the Sugar & Spice mysteries contained all those six ingredients. While there’s certainly not a formula to a cozy mystery, there are certain things that we as cozy readers want.

In a cozy, the people in the story, their unique talents, their friends, family, and co-workers and the location, all mix together to bake up a great story.  For a short while, we live a world that allows us to escape. And by the last page, justice is served, and everything is put right.

In my mind, that’s why cozies rock!

 

About the Author

Mary Lee Ashford is a lifelong bibliophile, and avid reader, and supporter of public libraries. In addition to writing the Sugar & Spice mystery series for Kensington Books, she also writes as half of the writing team of Sparkle Abbey, author of the national bestselling Pampered Pets mystery series from Bell Bridge Books.

Prior to publishing Mary Lee won first place in the Daphne du Maurier contest, sponsored by the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA, and was a finalist in Murder in the Grove’s mystery contest, as well as Killer Nashville’s Claymore Dagger contest.

She is the founding president of Sisters in Crime – Iowa and a current board member of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest chapter, as well as a member of Novelists, Inc., Romance Writers of America, Kiss of Death the RWA Mystery Suspense chapter, Sisters in Crime, and the SinC internet group Guppies.

Mary Lee has a passionate interest in creativity and teaches a university level course in Creative Management to MPA candidates, as well as presenting workshops and blogging about creativity. She loves encouraging other writers and is a frequent presenter on a variety of topics at workshops, conferences, and writers’ groups.

In her day job, Mary Lee is a Deputy Chief Information Officer. She currently resides in the Midwest with her husband, Tim, and Sparkle, the rescue cat namesake of the Sparkle Abbey pseudonym. Her delights are reading and enjoying her family and especially her six grandchildren.

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * BookBub * Pinterest

 

 

 

 

Summer Snoops Unleashed: 14 Furr-ocious Mysteries and Cozy Crimes
 
Cozy Mystery
Independently Published
Release Date – July 23, 2019

Summertime Murders are RUFF

ALL BRAND NEW STORIES!

Looking for cool cozies for hot summer days? Then you’ll love this purr-fectly paw-some cozy mystery boxed set from fourteen USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon best-selling authors. We’ve pulled out all the stops with Summer Snoops Unleashed! Enjoy hours of fun sniffing out clues on sandy beaches, shimmering waterways, and at small-town celebrations in these brand-new stories full of wily sleuths, cagey plots, and un-fur-gettable tails! Fetch your copy now to get these furr-ocious new cozy mysteries and woof it up with us!

They’re howlingly good reads!

Review

If you love dogs and mysteries then this is a box set you need to pick up.  While I haven’t read all of the stories yet, the few that I have read were intriguing and kept me glued to my Kindle!  So far I have read High Heel Homicide and Spunky Bumpkin.  Both stories were excellent!  Each combined a mixture of dogs, intrigue, and witty characters that will grab your attention.

Each story is a bit longer than a novella and if you haven’t read any other works by the authors it will not affect reading these stories…and I’m someone that has to read books in order!  I had no problem enjoying the stories I have read so far and I look forward to reading the others and discover new to me authors.

We give this 5 paws up and suggest picking this book up while it is still $0.99 (price goes up soon!)

 

Click on the image below to read the first chapter of each story

About the Authors

Dr. Judith Lucci is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author. She is the award-winning author of the Alexandra Destephano Medical Thriller and the Michaela McPherson “Two Sleuth’s and a Dog” Crime series. She also writes psychological fiction. Her cozy series, The Artzy Chicks Mysteries focuses on a group of eccentric, talented but zany artists in their Art Gallery at a Five Star Mountain Resort in the Virginia mountains.

In 2017, ‘Viral Intent’ (Book 3) Alexandra Destephano Series) was awarded a Gold Medal by Readers’ Favorites for ‘Best Political Thriller’. as was her crime thriller ‘The Case of Dr. Dude’ (Michaela McPherson #1) for a Gold Medal for ‘Best Amateur Sleuth for 2017. ‘The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year‘ won an additional gold medal for ‘Best Holiday Read’ of 2017.

Her favorite things are reading, writing, and art. In her spare time, she teaches painting, loves up on animals and raises money for needy causes. Judith lives with her 4 dog family in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She loves to connect with her readers and is available at judithlucciwrites@gmail.com. Check out her website and sign-up for a free copy of Chaos at Crescent City Medical Center.

Anna Celeste Burke is a USA Today & Wall Street Journal bestselling author who lives in the desert near Palm Springs with her beloved husband and loudmouthed Siamese cat. A retired professor who once worked as a Disney chef, you’ll find her snooping into life’s mysteries with fun, fiction, and food!

Colleen Mooney was born and raised in New Orleans along with everyone else in her family. She is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author and writes a cozy mystery series set in New Orleans called The New Orleans Go Cup Chronicles.  The 7th  book in her series is Fireworks, Forensics and Felonies will be in Summer Snoops Unleashed.  Her Politicians, Potholes and Praline released in March 2019 and is available on Amazon and KU.

Since January 2017 Colleen organized a Sisters In Crime chapter in New Orleans and is not planning a Mystery Writers Conference in November in New Orleans. She is currently working on her next book in the series.

In New Orleans, she’s been a member and active in many Mardi Gras Krewes, Super Krewes, and organizations. Colleen says she has never met a parade she didn’t like.

She’s an ardent animal lover and the Director for a breed rescue, Schnauzer Rescue of Louisiana for the last fifteen years. She has rescued and placed over 350 abandoned or surrendered Schnauzers. She loves to write and writes about what she loves. Colleen says, “New Orleans is where it all happens for me.”

Fiona Quinn is a four-time USA Today bestselling author, a Kindle Scout winner, and has been listed as an Amazon Top 100 author in Romantic Suspense; Mystery, thriller, and suspense; Mysteries, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

Maria Grazia Swan – Award-winning author Maria Grazia Swan was born in Italy. She’s lived in Belgium, France, Germany, Southern California, and Arizona—all juicy places that fuel her stories and characters.

These days, Maria Grazia volunteers at the animal shelter seeking the perfect family for homeless pets.  Her deepest passions?  Writing and being the matchmaker for people and pets who are waiting to find each other.

Maria loves travel, opera, good books, hiking, and intelligent movies. Her idea of a perfect evening?  Stimulating conversation, Northern Italian food, and chilled Prosecco.

She loves to hear from her readers! Feel free to contact her through her website.

Kelly Hashway fully admits to being one of the most accident-prone people on the planet, but luckily she gets to write about female sleuths who are much more coordinated than she is. Maybe it was growing up watching Murder She Wrote that instilled a love of mystery, but she spends her days writing cozy mysteries. Kelly’s also a sucker for first love, which is why she writes romance under the pen name Ashelyn Drake. When she’s not writing, Kelly works as an editor and also as Mom, which she believes is a job title that deserves to be capitalized.

Kim Hunt Harris is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal best-selling author of the Trailer Park Princess Christian cozy mystery series.

Kim knew she wanted to be a writer before she even knew how to write. When her parents read bedtime stories to her, she knew she wanted to be a part of the story world. She started out writing children’s stories, and her stories grew as she did. She discovered a gift for humor and a love for making people laugh with her tales, and the Trailer Park Princess series was born.

Kim loves to not only make her readers laugh and entertain them with a good mystery, but also to examine the issues the everyday people face…well, every day. Issues such as faith and forgiveness, perseverance and tolerance. Set in Lubbock, Texas, the fun books feature a cast of quirky characters, outrageous situations, a drama queen of a dog, and from time to time, a tear or two.

Kim lives with her husband of more than thirty years and two teenage kids in Lubbock, TX.

Susan Boles is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author who lives in Mississippi with her rescue mini Dachshund and rescue cat of no particular breed. You’ll find her writing mysteries centered around small southern towns with lots of great characters.

Lisa B. Thomas

Born and raised in Texas, I always knew I wanted to be a writer. Finally, after thirty-three years as a high school journalism and English teacher, I released my first novel. Having grown up reading Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, and Agatha Christie, I was drawn to the mystery genre.

I write clean, classic whodunnits with realistic characters and situations. It’s probably because my first book was based on a true-life murder mystery from my own family. That book, Sharpe Shooter, led to the Maycroft Mysteries. I also write Killer Shots Mysteries and the Beachside Bookshop Magical Cozy Mysteries (co-written with Paula Lester.) I call my books “Mysteries with Heart & Humor,” and that’s just what you’ll get.

When not writing, I enjoy my grown husband and dog, my children, grandchildren, grandpets, photography, traveling, and antiquing (aka. buying and selling used junk).

Website – Facebook – Twitter

Emily Selby is a Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author who lives between France and New Zealand with her husband, daughter and a multilingual rescue cat. She loves writing and reading cozy mysteries with a sprinkle of romance, full of quirky characters and set in charming little towns.

Joanna Campbell Slan

National bestselling and award-winning author Joanna Campbell Slan has written and/or edited 40 books, including both fiction and non-fiction works. In addition to being included in Amazon’s list of Top 100 Mystery Authors, Joanna was one of the early Chicken Soup for the Soul contributors, and her stories appear in five of those New York Times bestselling books. Her first non-fiction book, Using Stories and Humor: Grab Your Audience, was endorsed by Toastmasters International and lauded by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speechwriter. She’s the author of three mystery series. Her first novel—Paper, Scissors, Death (Book #1 in the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series) –was shortlisted for the Agatha Award. Her first historical mystery—Death of a Schoolgirl: Book #1 in the Jane Eyre Chronicles—won the Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence. Her contemporary series set in Florida continues this year with Second Chance at Faith (Book #4 in the Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series). In addition to writing fiction, she edits the Happy Homicides Anthologies and has begun the Dollhouse Décor & More series of “how-to” books for dollhouse miniaturists.

Ava Mallory is a multi-genre USA Today & Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of what she affectionately calls Mysteries with Heart. When not dreaming up stories full of twists and turns, she’s spinning heartwarming tales of love, laughter, and a healthy dose of mystery.

Chelsea Thomas is technically two people… Married writing team Chelsea and Matthew Thomas. Chelsea and Matt have spent the last 9 years living in Los Angeles, where they have worked as screenwriters. There, they have worked with such companies as CBS, SONY, and Nickelodeon. Now, with the completion of their first cozy mystery novel, Apple Die, they are proud to say that they are novelists, too.

Sam Cheever is a USA Today and Wall Street JournalBestselling Author who writes mystery and suspense, creating stories that draw you in and keep you eagerly turning pages. Known for writing great characters, snappy dialogue, and unique and exhilarating stories, Sam is the award-winning author of 80+ books.

 

Giveaway

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Synopsis

As a former bodyguard, it should be easy for Gary Fenris to kill, especially when the motive is revenge. But Gary has made two mistakes in his life. The first was letting the woman he loved die on his watch. The second was thinking vengeance could bring him peace.

Local bookstore owner and amateur lock pick Kate Rowan loves nothing more than a good mystery. Her curiosity soon leads her down a trail of blackmail, obsession and death. Despite the risk – or maybe because of it – Gary finds himself drawn to Kate. When danger strikes, Gary is forced to face the fact that he used love as an excuse for murder. And he’s got one last score to settle.

 

Amazon / B&N / Books-A-Million / IndieBound

 

Review

Never count a woman out when it comes to defending herself!

There are several aspects of this story that I truly enjoyed – the fact that Kate was no shrinking violet in need of saving; Gary is not really a hero but he is trying; Tim and Will nearly steal the show as junior sleuths; the mystery of Mr. Wendell who is not quite who you think even when you think you have him figured out!

This story bounces back and forth between Kate and Gary’s POV.  Gary is filled with guilt over letting his last client die.  Kate is a bookworm in love with fictional characters (my kind of gal!).  Despite their history and background, these two make an intriguing couple.  While the book is light on a relationship other than friendship until near the end, you can feel the sparks and tension between the two until they give in to each other.  These two are supported by a wide cast – Marcus, Kate’s good friend; Tim and Will, two bookshop clients that want to solve a mystery, ah the joys of youth; Elaina and Ian, possibly star crossed lovers that create a little friction between each other to spice up the story; Percival, Gary’s coworker at the security firm; Ryan Delaney, a twist in the characters; and Great Aunt Rosalyn and her neighbor Penelope.  There are some other minor characters but the previous are the main characters we see the most.

While the story is complex and kept me guessing, the ending was left open.  The mystery was solved but I don’t think there was any real resolution between Kate and Gary.  This could be that there will be another book and it will become a series or at least a sequel.  I do think the story is engaging and there are some intriguing twists that make you think twice about various characters.

Overall we enjoyed it and give this book 4 paws up.

About the Author

Vanessa Westermann’s debut crime novel, An Excuse For Murder, was published in March 2019 by The Wild Rose Press.

Vanessa is a former Arthur Ellis Awards judge and has given a talk on the evolution of women’s crime writing, at the Toronto Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Her book review column entitled “Vanessa’s Picks” was published in Sleuth of Baker Street Mystery Bookstore’s monthly newsletter, from 2012 to 2016.

While living in Munich, Germany, Vanessa attained an M.A. in English Literature and went on to teach creative writing.

Vanessa currently lives in Canada and is working on her next novel, while drinking copious amounts of tea.

Website * Twitter * BookBub

 

Iberian Ties

by

Quintin Vargas

Genre: Crime Fiction / Mystery / Suspense

International Thriller

Publisher: Vanguard Publishers

Date of Publication: May 13, 2019

Number of Pages: 405

Scroll down for the giveaway!

 

Without a motive, how do you catch a killer? A gripping thriller in the vein of Harlan Coben, Paula Hawkins, and Lee Child.

A rising star psychiatrist, American Nate Shelley is in Spain’s Canary Islands, making his world debut at a convention. But after delivering his keynote address, he and his fiancée Miro are arrested for murder.

Nate knows he’s not guilty, but is his future wife involved in some way in the crime? Miro’s directly implicated when the murder victim is identified as her stalker.

Is Nate’s career ruined? Is he facing life imprisonment? Does the American couple stand a chance of convincing the Spanish authorities—and Interpol—that they’re innocent? Not in a post-Brexit, anti-Trump European environment.

Racing to clear their names, Nate and Miro will soon be embroiled in sham investigations, powerful cartels, and family secrets finally coming to light.

Full of intrigue, this gritty international crime novel is a thrilling ride.

Amazon * Apple Books * Barnes & Noble * IndieBound * Kobo

Praise

“Brilliant thriller! I totally loved and enjoyed this book!! Interesting twists and turns, well-developed characters and suspense all along the way. Definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. Can’t wait for the next book!” –Gaby M., Goodreads Review

“This was an education about cultures and history as well as an unpredictable mystery.” –Robert R., Amazon Review

 

 

 

 

Iberian Ties is the first work of fiction published by Quintin Vargas. In addition to being an author, he combined a career as professor and dean in various American universities with becoming an owner of a firm that prepared new immigrants to enter the marketplace and international workforce. His work impacted leadership development for various domestic and international private industries, non-profit organizations, and higher education.

As an academic, he served as dean and provost at various universities, including DePaul University in Chicago, the University of Texas, San Antonio, and St. Edward’s University. His academic writings have been highlighted in various publications, including the Journal of Research and Development in Education, the National Commission on Testing and Public Policy, and the Journal of Thought.

He and his wife, Marty, have five children and thirteen grandchildren. They reside in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

 

Facebook  ◆ Goodreads

Amazon Author Page ◆ Website

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GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

Three Winners: Choice of Signed Print or eBook Copy

July 23-August 2, 2019

(US Only)

 

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Check out the other blogs on this tour

 

7/23/19	Notable Quotable	StoreyBook Reviews
7/23/19	BONUS Post	Hall Ways Blog
7/24/19	Excerpt	Kelly Well Read
7/25/19	Review	Chapter Break Book Blog
7/26/19	Guest Post	Max Knight
7/27/19	Author Interview	Texas Book Lover
7/28/19	Review	Rainy Days with Amanda
7/29/19	Top 15 List	That’s What She’s Reading
7/30/19	Scrapbook Page	The Clueless Gent
7/31/19	Review	Forgotten Winds
8/1/19	Review	Reading by Moonlight

 

 

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Deadline with Death (Time-Slip Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Beaverstone Press (June 21, 2019)
Number of Pages: ~ 320

Synopsis

Dee Flanagan loves Irish history, bad rom-coms, and red lipstick. Dead clowns, injured time travelers, and shootouts don’t make it onto the small town reporter’s Top Ten list. After the bullets stop flying in Dunleagh Castle’s courtyard, it’s up to Dee to convince people she didn’t imagine a gunfight played out between two centuries. With the body count rising, and no one willing to believe Dee’s time travel theory, she’s forced to team up with a man who’s either a bona fide fruit cake or a police officer from the year 1919. Using her expert knowledge of the Irish War of Independence, Dee sets out to solve a century-old crime, plus a modern-day murder.

 

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

Dunleagh, Ireland

 

The morning the clown croaked at my feet began with a cockfight and ended with a corpse. Neither covering the fight nor discovering the body was on my ToDo list. After five months of juggling my job at the Dunleagh Chronicle, a volunteer position at the museum, my history video blog, and looking after my grandmother, I finally had a free day.

Until I didn’t.

Courtesy of a virus sweeping through our offices, two of the Chronicle’s reporters were out sick. With press day looming, my penny-pinching editor was desperate enough to pay me time-and-a-half, and with a mountain of bills on my nightstand, I was desperate enough to agree. I swapped my cozy bed for Mavis, my scarlet scooter, and faced the elements of an Irish winter morning.

Under different circumstances, a spin through the countryside might have been pleasant. Today’s ride was anything but. I steered Mavis through driving rain, gale-force wind, and potholes the size of mainland Europe. The crowning glory was a near collision with a herd of cattle who’d taken up residence in the middle of the road. I seriously should have held out for double pay.

By the time I pulled up outside the tumbledown farm where the cockfight was being held, the organiser had got wind that the cops were on the way. In a spectacle of flying feathers and bouncing beer bellies, both the contestants and the spectators were fleeing the coop. I dry-heaved my way through the stench of birds and unwashed men, snapped a few shots of the mayhem, and hopped back onto my scooter. I now had less than an hour to reach my desk and write an embellished account of the non-event, and Mavis and I broke several rules of the road on our return journey.

The clock in the town square chimed ten as I hung a right and chugged up the steep road that led to Dunleagh Castle. In fifteen minutes the Chronicle’s grumpy sub-editor would emerge from his lair, demanding to know why my article wasn’t on his desk. I swore under my breath and pressed hard on the Mavis’s sluggish accelerator.

At the top of the hill, the castle loomed, dark and magnificent against the stormy sky. The sight of its grey walls and tall towers never failed to thrill my inner historian, even when I was in a hurry. From its clifftop perch, Dunleagh Castle had cast a menacing glare over the harbor for the last six centuries. While most of its original outer wall was gone, and the outer courtyard had been repurposed as a parking lot, both the castle itself and its generous gardens remained intact. Today, it housed the newspaper, the mayor’s office, the museum, a small café, and several lovingly restored rooms that were open to the public. Working for a penny-pinched weekly rag wasn’t the glamorous career I’d envisioned at university, but it paid the bills—well, some of them—and I had the privilege of working within the castle walls four days a week.

I wasn’t alone in my admiration for the castle. It had earned a well-deserved place as one of Ireland’s most popular tourist attractions. Even at low season, buses braved the steep incline and disgorged tour groups in front of the wooden drawbridge.

One such bus spluttered its way up the road in front of me, moving at a painful pace. I swerved to overtake it, and narrowly missed mowing down a man who was crossing the street. He leaped sideways to avoid me, and landed in a puddle.

“Hey,” he roared, glowering at me under bushy red eyebrows, “watch where you’re going.”

“Sorry,” I said on autopilot.

The word caught in my throat when I recognised the guy I’d almost rendered road kill. Charles O’Rourke, better known as Mr. Chuckles, was a popular street performer whose clown routine delighted children and tourists alike. He was also the dude I’d kneed in the nuts the previous month. I doubted I’d make it onto his Christmas card list, but then, he wouldn’t make it onto mine.

Ignoring Mr. Chuckles’s squawks about my reckless driving and general tendency to harm his person, I zoomed into the parking lot and deposited Mavis in a free space. I pulled off my helmet and yanked up the hood of my jacket. The downpour was turning into a deluge, and the brief moment between removing my helmet and getting my hood in place was all it took to turn my hair into a sodden mess.

As I exited the parking lot, my phone vibrated with an incoming call. My hand went to my pocket on reflex, but I pulled it back and kept moving. It was wet and I was late. Whoever was calling me could wait.

Before I stepped onto the road, a second tour bus pulled up to the kerb opposite. If I wanted to dodge a swarm of geriatrics, I needed to pick up my pace. I speed walked across the road and then broke into a run. With a wave of greeting to the guard on duty, I bounded over the castle’s wooden drawbridge and entered the courtyard. The cobblestoned ground was slick with rain, and puddles formed in patches where the stones needed to be replaced. Standing beside one such puddle was none other than my good pal, Mr. Chuckles. I swallowed a groan. He must have reached the courtyard just before me. Seriously, why couldn’t I catch a break this morning? With my deadline imminent, the last thing I needed was an argument with the clown.

I surveyed my surroundings. A gaggle of elderly tourists huddled in front of the castle’s main entrance, all wearing bright orange raincoats emblazoned with the name of their nursing home. If I zigzagged past them, and ran the rest of the way, I’d be at my desk in five.

In spite of the slippery surface, I accelerated into a sprint. I’d almost reached the door when the clown stepped in front of me, forcing me to stagger to a standstill. He was dressed in his full clown regalia: baggy polka dotted pants, luminous green shirt, wide yellow sash, fire-engine red wig, and a shiny red plastic nose. The addition of a leopard print rain poncho completed the look. I tried to dodge the guy, but at that moment, the second influx of tourists trundled over the drawbridge and swarmed into the courtyard en masse, nixing the option for me to sidestep my adversary. Before I’d had time to react, Mr. Chuckles was up in my face, yelling and shaking a fist.

To the casual observer, we must have appeared a comical pair. Last time I’d checked, the average Irish male stood five-feet-nine-inches tall. I barely missed the six-feet mark. I’d inherited my considerable height, sturdy build, and masses of blonde hair from my father, an American with Swedish roots. The clown, in contrast, must have been descended from leprechauns.

The little man gesticulated wildly, jumping up and down to emphasise his points, none of which were flattering, and several of which would have required a bleep censor.

“You came through the incident unscathed.” My gaze dropped to his mud-strewn legs. “Apart from your pants.”

“I ought to call the cops on you, Flanagan,” he snarled, eye level with my chest. “You’re a menace, on and off the roads.”

A hushed silence fell over the elderly tourists and I sensed several pairs of eyes upon me. I ignored them and focused on the clown. “Calling the cops didn’t work out so well for you the last time. As I recall, the encounter ended with you receiving a formal warning for sexual harassment.”

A gasp of excitement rose from our audience but the clown appeared to be oblivious to the onlookers. “That cop is your friend,” he muttered. “She’d believe any pack of lies you fed her.”

I rolled my eyes. “Dude, there was CCTV footage of you groping my butt before I kneed you in the groin. Sergeant Healey didn’t have to take my word for it.”

The clown moved closer and my stomach roiled. Everything about this creep made my skin crawl. I took a step back to regain some semblance of personal space and sought an escape route. The old folks spilling over the drawbridge surged toward the main door. Unless I wanted to shove octogenarians out of my way, my best bet was to take a detour via the museum and use their stairs to reach the corridor that connected the museum to the main castle and the offices of the Dunleagh Chronicle. First, I had to get the clown to back down and let me past.

“Look, I’m in a rush…” I tried to push past but he blocked my attempt and jabbed me in the chest with a chubby finger.

“If Dunleagh had a proper cop in charge,” he snarled, “you’d have been arrested for assault.”

“If by ‘proper’ you mean ‘male’, I doubt even the most chauvinistic man on the force could ignore the evidence on the tape.”

A churning panic warred with my rising anger, but the sneer that stretched his painted lips tipped the balance. I gritted my teeth and cast an exaggerated glance at my watch.

“Fun though this has been, I gotta get to work. Unless you want a replay of last month’s nut-crushing incident, you’d better let me past.”

Red-hot rage flickered across his face and the knuckles of his fists turned white. The misogynistic pig would love to hit me, but he didn’t have the guts to do it in front of witnesses. What he did have the guts to do was to keep blocking my way.

I bit back an oath and thought fast. In a flash, I opened my backpack and extracted a small can, being careful to conceal the logo. “Well, now, would you look at that. Is this pepper spray lurking in my bag?”

My words had an instant effect. The clown’s beady eyes widened. He leaped back, colliding with a  group of tourists.

“Why don’t you juggle a few balls for our visitors?” I winked at the open-mouthed seniors. “No pun intended.”

Giving the clown a look laced with contempt, I squeezed past. This time, he didn’t try to stop me.

 

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Zara Keane grew up in Dublin, Ireland, but spent her summers in a small town very similar to the fictional Ballybeg and Smuggler’s Cove.

She currently lives in Switzerland with her family. When she’s not writing or wrestling small people, she drinks far too much coffee, and tries – with occasional success – to resist the siren call of Swiss chocolate.

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Gore in the Garden (A Washington Whodunit)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Camel Press (July 16, 2019)
Paperback: 224 pages

Synopsis

After her boss narrowly escaped political defeat, Kit Marshall is settling into life as a busy congressional staffer. While attending an evening reception at the United States Botanic Garden, Kit’s best friend stumbles upon the body of a high-ranking government official. The chairwoman of a congressional committee asks Kit to investigate, and she finds herself once again in the thick of a murder investigation. The complications keep coming with the unexpected arrival of Kit’s younger brother Sebastian, a hippie protester who seems more concerned about corporate greed than the professional problems he causes for his sister. To make matters even worse, the romantic lives of Kit’s closest friends are driving her crazy, diverting her attention from the mystery she’s been tasked to solve. The search for the killer requires her to tussle with an investigative journalist right out of a noir novel, a congresswoman fixated on getting a statue of James Madison installed on the Capitol grounds and a bossy botanist who would do anything to protect the plants he loves. When the murderer sends a threatening message to Kit via a highly unusual delivery mechanism, Kit knows she must find the killer or risk the lives of her friends and loved ones.

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About the Author

Colleen J. Shogan has been reading mysteries since the age of six. She conceived of the plot of her first mystery, “Stabbing in the Senate,” one morning while taking a walk in her suburban Washington, D.C. neighborhood. A political scientist by training, Colleen has taught American politics at Yale, George Mason University, Georgetown, and Penn. She previously worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative staffer in the United States Senate and as the Deputy Director of the Congressional Research Service. She is currently a senior executive at the Library of Congress who works on great initiatives such as the National Book Festival. Colleen lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband Rob and their beagle mutt Conan. Colleen’s first book won the Next Generation Indie Prize for Best Mystery. Her books have been RONE and Killer Nashville finalists in the mystery category.

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No More Time (A Dodie O’Dell Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Lyrical Underground (July 23, 2019)
Paperback: 214 pages

Synopsis

DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY

Restaurant manager Dodie O’Dell has found her niche in the cozy New Jersey town of Etonville, creating menus that make a delicious double-act with the community theater’s productions. Now she’s ready for a vacation at the Jersey Shore town she called home before a hurricane hit. Sun, salty air, and seagulls make for a nostalgic escape from regular life—until a contingent from Etonville arrives to compete in a Jersey Shore theater festival.

Roped into helping her former boss cater the event, Dodie also gets a visit from her old flame, Jackson, who’s hoping to revive his charter boat business and is looking for a place to crash. Before Dodie can tell him that ship has sailed, Jackson’s partner is found murdered on his boat. Dodie knows her ex is a mooch, but she’s sure he’s no killer. But as she follows a trail of evidence that leads into her own past, Dodie stumbles on a dangerous conspiracy theory that could bring the festival to a shocking finale…

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Excerpt

By noon we were both hot and famished. I suggested a break from the sun at the tiki bar and we gathered our beach gear and trudged through the sand to the Polynesian music. We were halfway through our bucket of steamed clams when an elderly twosome at a table next to ours gasped in shock. We couldn’t help noticing.

“Is everything okay?” I asked gently.

The woman’s head bobbled and her wide-brimmed sunhat swung from side to side. She picked up the newspaper she’d been reading, the Candle Beach Courier, a local rag, and shoved the front page at us. “He was such a nice boy. We knew his parents years ago.”
I smiled sympathetically and scanned the sheet. Then I gasped.

“Dodie, what’s the matter?” Lola said.
“Were you acquainted with him too?” the woman asked.

I nodded numbly. Was I ever. The headline read LOCAL MAN DEAD. Underneath was a photo of the victim: It was Vinnie C. I rotated the paper so Lola could see the front page. “It’s him,” I said hoarsely.

Lola blinked. “Vincent Carcherelli,” she read.

I scanned the story. Apparently his body had been washed up on the beach sometime overnight and was discovered by a jogger early today in time to make the mid-morning edition. The police were calling it a drowning and speculating that he’d fallen off his boat, The Bounty, which had drifted half a mile off the shoreline. No foul play suspected at the moment but the investigation was ongoing.

I offered to return the newspaper but the couple refused to accept it, saying the story was too upsetting. They picked up their bill and left.

“Wow. What a coincidence. We were talking about how Jackson saw him yesterday …” Lola stopped. A light bulb went on. “The police will want to speak with Jackson. He might have been one of the last people to see Vinnie alive.”

It was Lola’s last word that brought me up short: alive. Jackson had been steamed during that meeting on the boardwalk. Did he know anything about Vinnie’s last hours? If Bill were here he’d tell me to mind my own business, let Jackson alone, let the police determine the actual cause of death. Bill was right, of course. But something about the whole event didn’t sit right with me. Why did Jackson lie about what happened when he met Vinnie?

 

About the Author

Suzanne Trauth is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and a former university theatre professor. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Dramatists Guild. When she is not writing, Suzanne coaches actors and serves as a celebrant performing wedding ceremonies. She lives in Woodland Park, New Jersey.

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Peach Clobbered: A Georgia B&B Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Crooked Lane Books (July 9, 2019)

Synopsis

What’s black and white and dead all over? Georgia bed and breakfast proprietor Nina Fleet finds out when she comes across a corpse in a penguin costume.

Nina Fleet’s life ought to be as sweet as a Georgia peach. Awarded a tidy sum in her divorce, Nina retired at 41 to a historic Queen Anne house in quaint Cymbeline, GA. But Nina’s barely settled into her new B&B-to-be when a penguin shows up on her porch. Or, at least, a man wearing a penguin suit.

Harry Westcott is making ends meet as an ice cream shop’s mascot and has a letter from his great-aunt, pledging to leave him the house. Too bad that’s not what her will says. Meanwhile, the Sisters of Perpetual Poverty have lost their lease. Real estate developer Gregory Bainbridge intends to turn the convent into a golfing community, so Cymbeline’s mayor persuades Nina to take in the elderly nuns. And then Nina finds the “penguin” again, this time lying in an alley with a kitchen knife in his chest.

A peek under the beak tells Nina it’s not Harry inside the costume, but Bainbridge. What was he doing in Harry’s penguin suit? Was the developer really the intended victim, or did the culprit mean to kill Harry? Whoever is out to stop Harry from contesting the sale of his great-aunt’s house may also be after Nina, so she teams up with him to cage the killer before someone clips her wings in Peach Clobbered, Anna Gerard’s charming first Georgia B&B mystery.

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Review

I loved this book – from the witty dialogue, quirky characters, and southern setting.  It is a winning combination.

This is a new series you will want to read and should you read this book (and you should!) you might be surprised at the turn of events and who the killer turns out to be in the end.  I love a good mystery that keeps me guessing and surprises me in the end.

Nina (Nine-ah) has left the big city of Atlanta and has found her new home in Cymbeline after a disastrous marriage.  As with all small towns, there are politics and it is all in who you know to get things done.  The historic home that she has purchased is now a B&B at the behest of the Mayor (hence the fast tracking of certain things) to house a motley group of nuns.  While this may not be her plans for her home, she falls into the groove pretty quickly and it helps that the nuns aren’t your typical guests.  She does have a thorn in her side, Harry.  He is a nephew of the previous owner and is contesting her purchasing the house.  This causes for some sticky situations peppered throughout the book, but it adds another twist in the tale.

I thought that the cast of characters was just right – not too many and not too few.  I felt like the characters were well developed for a first book and expect that to continue with future books.  I do think there could have been a little bit more about how Nina came to Cymbeline and why she left Atlanta.  There are a few mentions but not enough for my liking but hopefully, there will be a further exploration into her past life.

I am curious to see how this situation with Harry will play itself out.  He is an actor and has done various roles, so will he want to continue contesting the sale of the house or will he move on if his career takes off?  Only future books will tell.

This peach of a book is entertaining and we give it 5 paws up.

 

About the Author

DIANE A.S. STUCKART is the New York Times bestselling author of the Black Cat Bookshop Mystery series (writing as Ali Brandon). She’s also the author of the award-winning Leonardo da Vinci historical mysteries, as well as several historical romances and numerous mystery, fantasy, and romance short stories. The first book in her Tarot Cats Mystery series is FOOL’S MOON, available in trade, large print, and Kindle versions. Her Georgia B&B Mystery series from Crooked Lane Books launched July 2019 with PEACH CLOBBERED, written as Anna Gerard.

Diane is a member of Mystery Writers of America and has served as the 2018 and 2019 Chapter President of the MWA Florida chapter. In addition to her mystery writing affiliations, she’s a member of the Cat Writers’ Association and belongs to the Palm Beach County Beekeepers Association. She’s a native Texan with a degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma, but has been living in the West Palm Beach FL area since 2006. She shares her “almost in the Everglades” home with her husband, dogs, cats, and a few beehives.

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