Guest Post & #Giveaway – Mining for Justice by Kathleen Ernst #cozy #Wisconsin
Mining for Justice (A Chloe Ellefson Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
8th in Series
Midnight Ink (October 8, 2017)
Paperback: 384 pages
Synopsis
Chloe Ellefson is excited to be learning about Wisconsin’s Cornish immigrants and mining history while on temporary assignment at Pendarvis, a historic site in charming Mineral Point. But when her boyfriend, police officer Roelke McKenna, discovers long-buried human remains in the root cellar of an old Cornish cottage, Chloe reluctantly agrees to mine the historical record for answers.
She soon finds herself in the center of a heated and deadly controversy that threatens to close Pendarvis. While struggling to help the historic site, Chloe must unearth dark secrets, past and present . . . before a killer comes to bury her.
Guest Post
Keeping It Local
I grew up on the east coast, and it never occurred to me that I’d end up in the Upper Midwest. After one trip to Wisconsin, I applied for a job at a living history museum, packed my rusty Ford Pinto (this was 1982), and moved. In the thirty-plus years since then, I like to think I’ve become a true Midwesterner.
So it’s not surprising that when I began creating what became the Chloe Ellefson Mystery series, I decided to set the series right here. Protagonist Chloe is a curator at Old World Wisconsin, the historic site where I worked for twelve years. As the series has developed, different books take Chloe to other historic sites and museums in Wisconsin and, occasionally, surrounding states.
Some of my own favorite authors – Margaret Maron, William Kent Krueger, the Hillermans – write/wrote with a strong sense of place. I love getting to know their characters’ terrain in increasing detail as each series progresses. I love visiting what are obviously beloved landscapes, and learning about different cultural aspects of each.
I try to instill those same elements in each Chloe Ellefson mystery. Old World Wisconsin, the nation’s largest museum dedicated to the history of rural life, is featured in several books. Chloe has taken readers to an old lighthouse on an island in Lake Michigan and to all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder homesites. Settings have also included traditional museums, such as Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Iowa and the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis.
The series also celebrates Wisconsin’s diverse ethnic heritage. Strands of historical fiction, braided with Chloe’s contemporary plotline, have featured Norwegian, Swiss, Danish, Polish, and German characters. The stories honor everyday people – the challenges they faced, the foods they ate, the folk arts they practiced.
The 8th book in the series, Mining For Justice, delves into the lives of Cornish miners and their families, who arrived in Southwest Wisconsin in the 1830s to mine lead. It was difficult for the immigrants to find their way in the rough “diggings,” but they did – and managed to create a community from the rough frontier.
The Cornish arrived in the territorial period, a decade or more before Wisconsin became a state. Some of those settlers’ homes have been restored at Pendarvis Historic Site in Mineral Point, WI. When Chloe Ellefson arrives to spend a week as a guest curator, she is eager to learn more about the early Cornish women, who were largely illiterate and so left no handy diaries or letters behind.
Finding a skeleton in the root cellar of Cornish stone cottage gets the week off to a rocky start! And it soon becomes clear that Chloe’s investigation into the life of a immigrant named Mary Pascoe is leading her straight into danger.
I hope that readers find Mining For Justice a rollicking good read. If the book gives them a new glimpse of the fascinating state I call home, so much the better!
About the Author
Kathleen Ernst is a social historian, educator, and author. Her Chloe Ellefson mysteries reflect the decade she spent as a curator at a large outdoor museum, and feature historic sites in the Upper Midwest. Library Journal says, “Ernst keeps getting better with each entry in this fascinating series.” Kathleen has also written many mysteries for young readers. Honors for her work include a LOVEY Award and Agatha and Edgar nominations. Kathleen lives and writes in Wisconsin.
Website * Facebook * Blog
Giveaway
Check out the other blogs on this tour
October 5 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
October 5 – Books,Dreams,Life – SPOTLIGHT
October 6 – A Holland Reads – REVIEW
October 6 – Girl with Book Lungs – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
October 7 – A Blue Million Books – INTERVIEW
October 8 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW
October 9 – The Power of Words – REVIEW
October 10 – View from the Birdhouse – SPOTLIGHT
October 11 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW
October 11 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – INTERVIEW
October 12 – Island Confidential – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
October 12 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
October 13 – Brooke Blogs – GUEST POST
October 14 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST
October 15 – Lori’s Reading Corner – GUEST POST
October 16 – Back Porchervations – REVIEW*
October 16 – Readeropolis – INTERVIEW
October 17 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
October 18 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
