Tuesday Trash and Trouble: Friday Night Mystery Club Series
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Illinois
Spot On Publishing (October 10, 2022)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 332 pages

Synopsis

Set in 1986, Joanna Campbell Slan’s latest cozy mystery—Tuesday Trash and Trouble–features a down-on-her-luck divorcée whose passion for solving crimes lands her in the arms of a secretive cowboy–and the cross-hairs of a vengeful killer.

The year is 1986, the place is…pitiful. It’s Decatur, Illinois, known for high unemployment, striking unions, the pervasive stink of soybean processing, and seven railroad crossings at one intersection.

A wrong turn along life’s marital highway has left Catherine “Cragan” Collins stuck in Decatur. With a mountain of post-divorce bills to pay, Cragan takes a job selling high-priced newspaper advertising. If she’s lucky, her commissions will cover the cost of her grandmother’s stay in a nearby retirement home.

After the divorce, Cragan swears off men, but she’s a sucker for a guy in a nice suit. She falls hard for a man who publicly snubs her. On the rebound, she accepts an invitation from Ross Gentry, a quiet hunk who favors pearl snaps and cowboy boots. Cragan reasons that her heart is safe, because she and Ross come from two different worlds. But one night in his arms might be enough to prove her wrong.

Without warning, everything blows up in Cragan’s face. Her boss threatens to take away her accounts, a friend’s little sister is kidnapped, and an overnight guest is shot. Cragan’s best friend, Pru, is accused of attempted murder. After all, Pru’s gun was used in the crime.

Cragan calls an emergency meeting of the Friday Night Mystery Club. These mystery-loving career women are a group of smart cookies. Can their combined talents prove that Pru is innocent? And will they find an answer in time to save Cragan from the wrath of a vengeful shooter?

It takes a club to solve a mystery!

Amazon

Guest Post

How I Came to Write about My Divorce

and Why You Might Enjoy Reading about It

Imagine splitting up with the most popular radio host in your small town. His presence is inescapable. His image appears on billboards. Everywhere you go, you’ll hear his voice booming over the airwaves. When he concocts an elaborate story about the demise of your marriage, busybodies feel free to publicly scold you for being such a b*tch.

It took me 37 years to process this experience and use it in a new series, The Friday Night Mystery Club. My protagonist, Cragan Collins, is based on my younger self. Idealistic, romantic, naïve, and spunky, Cragan has left a disastrous marriage against the acidic advice of her mother. Her escape route is a job at the local daily paper, a direct competitor to the radio station that employs her ex. Shortly after she’s hired, the paper’s publisher decides on a dramatic rate hike—at the same time that all the local unions go on strike. Suddenly, Cragan finds herself selling the nation’s most expensive newspaper ads in a town with one of the nation’s largest percentages of unemployment.

Been there. Done that.

In writing this series, I have re-imagined myself in a multitude of ways, but at heart, Cragan and I are both survivors. We both know what it’s like to eat tuna fish salad day-in and day-out, to think twice about splurging on a can of Coke, and to cut the ruined legs off of pantyhose so we can pull together a pair of unblemished remainders.

I am not much different than a lot of women my age. I was told to learn to type so I could always get a job. I was supposed to be a meek and unquestioning wife, even after my situation became intolerable. If I wanted a “real job,” I understood I’d have to put up with a lot of sexist behavior. (Boy, did I ever. Yuck.)

I refused to accept the norms handed to me. It was an ongoing battle, but I did it. If you like to read about women’s struggles, setbacks, and successes, I bet you’ll enjoy all of the books in The Friday Night Mystery Club series. We’ve come a long way, baby. Let’s not forget the journey we’ve made!

About the Author

Joanna is a New York Times Bestselling, USA Today Bestselling, and Amazon Bestselling author as well as a woman prone to frequent bursts of crafting frenzy, leaving her with burns from her hot glue gun and paint on her clothes. And the mess? Let’s not even go there.

Otherwise, Joanna’s a productive author with more than 80 written projects to her credit. Her non-fiction work includes how to books, a college textbook for public speakers, and books of personal essays (think Chicken Soup for the Soul).

Currently, she writes six fiction series: The Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series (Agatha Award Finalist, contemporary, St. Louis setting, crafting), the Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series (contemporary, Florida setting, DIY, and recycling), the Jane Eyre Chronicles (Daphne du Maurier Award Winner, 1830s England, based on Charlotte Brontë’s classic), the Sherlock Holmes Fantasy Thrillers (late 1800s, based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s books), the Tai Chi Mystery Series (featuring a mature female amateur sleuth!) and the Friday Night Mystery Series (set in Decatur, IL in 1986 with a spunky female heroine.)

A former TV talk show host, college teacher, and public relations specialist, Joanna was one of the early Chicken Soup for the Soul contributors. She won a Silver Anvil for her work on the original FarmAid concert to benefit farmers.

In her ongoing quest never to see snow again, Joanna lives with her husband and their Havanese puppy, Jax, on an island off the coast of Florida.

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