A Crafty Collage of Crime (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
12th in Series
Setting – New Jersey and Tennessee
Independently Published (June 16, 2023)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 258 pages

Synopsis

Wherever crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack goes, murder and mayhem follow. Her honeymoon is no exception. She and new husband, photojournalist (and possible spy) Zachary Barnes, are enjoying a walk in the Tennessee woods when they stumble upon a body on the side of a creek. The dead man is the husband of one of the three sisters who own the winery and guest cottages where Anastasia and Zack are vacationing.

When the local sheriff sets his sights on the widow as the prime suspect, her sisters close ranks around her. The three siblings are true-crime junkies, and thanks to a podcaster who has produced an unauthorized series about her, Anastasia’s reputation for solving murders has preceded her to the bucolic hamlet. The sisters plead for her help in finding the real killer. As Anastasia learns more about the women and their business, a host of suspects emerge, including several relatives, a relentless land developer, and even the sisters themselves.

Meanwhile, Anastasia becomes obsessed with discovering the podcaster’s identity. Along with knowing about Anastasia’s life as a reluctant amateur sleuth, the podcaster has divulged details of Anastasia’s personal life. Someone has betrayed Anastasia’s trust, and she’s out to discover the identity of the culprit.

Craft project included.

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Guest Post

Ever Hear of a Reluctant Amateur Sleuth?

By Lois Winston

When I was first asked to create a crafting themed cozy mystery series, I first embarked on some research. My writing roots were firmly planted in various romance genres—contemporary, romantic suspense, and chick lit. I wrote standalone novels that always ended with a happily-ever-after. I knew of Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher, and Nancy Drew, but I hadn’t read a cozy mystery in…well, I couldn’t even remember the last cozy mystery I had read.

Since current romance trends were quite different from those of the last century, I figured the same must hold true for the cozy mystery genre. Thus, I headed to the library and hauled home an armload of current cozy mysteries.

After immersing myself in books by dozens of contemporary cozy authors, I came away with one conclusion—I didn’t want to do what others were already doing quite successfully. I saw no point in competing against all these other authors for a slice of the cozy pie. If I was going to gain any success at all, I had to think outside the box, making my series just different enough that although it maintained the cozy label, it stood out from a crowded field.

As I mulled over ideas, my first decision was not to make my sleuth a hobbyist or owner of a craft or needlework shop. She wouldn’t be a member of a knitting or quilting circle or involved in only one craft. I had a background as a crafts designer and had also worked as a craft book editor. I decided to make Anastasia Pollack, as I named her, the crafts editor at a women’s magazine. That way, I could feature a different craft in each book. As far as I could tell, no cozy author had ever done that before.

I also decided I wouldn’t inflict Cabot Cove Syndrome on the town where my sleuth lived. Yes, there are murders that occur in her hometown. However, as the writers of Murder She Wrote came to realize, you can only suspend disbelief up to a point before no one is left standing other than the sleuth. Even Jessica Fletcher began traveling outside her small community to stumble upon dead bodies here, there, and everywhere.

Since Anastasia’s career doesn’t limit her to a shop or office cubicle, she not only finds dead bodies at her place of employment and in her hometown, but she also trips over them in various other settings around the New York metropolitan area. In her latest adventure, she even finds a dead body in Tennessee.

But I continued to think outside the box as I developed Anastasia. Many cozy mystery sleuths are busybodies compelled to stick their noses in police business because they believe they know more than local law enforcement. Anastasia is different. She’s very much a reluctant amateur sleuth, getting involved only because she believes she has no other choice. However, she’ll be the first to tell you, she’d rather be doing anything else—including undergoing root canal!

Meddling is meddling, though, as far as most law enforcement is concerned. However, Anastasia’s interactions with at least some law enforcement personnel have earned her their respect. This becomes very evident in the way she’s sucked into the murder investigation in A Crafty Collage of Crime, the twelfth book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.

About the Author

USA Today and Amazon bestselling author Lois Winston began her award-winning writing career with Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous fish-out-of-water novel about a small-town girl going off to the big city and the mother who had other ideas. That was followed by the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception.

Then Lois’s writing segued unexpectedly into the world of humorous amateur sleuth mysteries, thanks to a conversation her agent had with an editor looking for craft-themed mysteries. In her day job Lois was an award-winning craft and needlework designer, and although she’d never written a mystery—or had even thought about writing a mystery—her agent decided she was the perfect person to pen a series for this editor. Thus, was born the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, which Kirkus Reviews dubbed “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series now includes twelve novels and three novellas. Lois also writes the Empty Nest Mysteries, currently at two novels, and one book so far in her Mom Squad Capers series.

To date Lois has published twenty-one novels, five novellas, several short stories, one children’s chapter book, and one nonfiction book on writing, inspired by her twelve years working as an associate at a literary agency. To learn more about Lois and her books, visit her at www.loiswinston.com where you can sign up for her newsletter and follow her at various social media sites.

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