Eat, Pray, Hex (Crescent Moon Mysteries)
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Florida
Independently Published (October 13, 2023)
Number of Pages: 246

Synopsis

Step into the mysterious world of weird Florida, where surprises and spirits are as common as sun and sand…

Amelia Matthews never anticipated inheriting a hotel in a small southern town, but life’s twists and turns have led her to the Sunshine State. Under the hotel’s quirky, rundown façade lie haunting secrets—an unsolved murder and a restless spirit who keeps turning off the air conditioner. In the summer. In Florida.

From the moment Amelia reluctantly walks through the door of the Crescent Moon Inn, she embarks on an unwelcome spectral adventure. Her companions on this eerie journey include the sassy feline Freddie Purrcury, the overly enthusiastic and hilarious Liz with her New Age bookstore, and the charmingly handsome local historian, Oliver.

Then Amelia discovers her hidden psychic abilities. As spooky happenings escalate, she can’t help but wish for a few minutes of peace. And maybe a margarita.

She faces a decision: sell the inn and run, or embrace her new destiny as a paranormal sleuth. In this spine-tingling cozy mystery, Amelia Matthews unravels the secrets of the inn’s haunted past while navigating psychic powers, an ornery cat, and a quirky crew of new friends. If she doesn’t solve the mystery, she just might become the inn’s next ghostly inhabitant…

Join Amelia in a captivating, laugh-out-loud adventure as she embarks on a quest to uncover the truth, and you’ll find yourself immersed in a world where the line between the ordinary and the supernatural blurs.

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Guest Post

Some of the readers of my Coffee Lover’s Mystery series may know that those books are contemporary mysteries set in present-day Florida, a landscape of sun, sand, and suspicious murders (while enjoying tasty coffee).

I’d never thought about writing a paranormal mystery, until recently.

In November of 2022, I took a flight to visit my parents in California. They live near Sacramento, the state’s capital. We decided to take a day trip to a little gold rush town named Folsom — yes, that Folsom, of Johnny Cash fame! In 1968, Cash performed his famous song “Folsom Prison Blues” in the actual Folsom Prison. The air seemed to thrum with the rhythms of his guitar.

Fun fact: When someone asked Cash why the song’s main character was serving time in California’s Folsom Prison after shooting a man in Reno, Nevada, he responded, “That’s called poetic license.” Imagine that, bending the borders of two states for the sake of a catchy tune!

The town itself is a slice of the Old West, adorable, with a historic and walkable downtown. The buildings looked like they came straight out of a John Steinbeck novel. We stopped into several fun stores that ranged from kitschy to antique, and then found a Mexican restaurant that filled the air with the aroma of sizzling fajitas and fresh cilantro. I regret not buying a cute blanket that was as colorful as a cozy mystery book cover.

Then, being the Lush family—pun fully intended—we had to check out the town’s best-known attraction: a tavern located in an old hotel.

The Folsom Hotel was built in 1885, and the inside is a wonderfully preserved time capsule. Its decor was like a mix of frontier ruggedness and Victorian elegance. While it’s no longer a hotel, there is a wonderful lounge area. My parents and I slid onto the barstools, as hard and unyielding as the alibis in my mysteries, and took it all in.

The place was delightfully spooky, dimly lit and with nooks and crannies that seemed to hold a hundred years of dust and secrets. We learned a little bit from our bartender.

Turns out, the place is haunted! Employees report seeing — and feeling — spirits as they move through the place, ghostly faces have appeared in photos, staring from the backgrounds like unsolved clues, and the electricity often flickers, as if trying to signal SOS.

WILD.

I was captivated. As a kid growing up in California, I’d learned a lot about the Old West and ghost towns. This experience was like stepping into one of those dusty, sunlit memories, complete with the chills of the unknown.

We wandered around with our drinks, the intoxicating combination of booze and history making us giddy. The original tin roof was still overhead, looking like a crinkled page from an old book, and the wood paneling was so weathered and burnished that I felt like it could walk up to the saloon and tell stories just by exhaling its antique scent.

As I wandered, my mind bubbling, an idea for a story came to me. It was so vivid, it practically wrote itself in my imagination. I quickly pushed it aside because of other projects, but when I got home, my curiosity got the better of me. I couldn’t let go. I started to do a little research, diving into digital archives like a detective in a dusty library.

I found this gem from the blog Walkies Through History: “Formerly the New Western Hotel, it was owned by German immigrant Charles Zimmerman…” The tragedy of Samuel Levitz and that eerily everlasting mirror sent my imagination into overdrive. EEK! That sounded like a cozy mystery waiting to happen!

In the months after our trip to the Folsom Hotel, that mysterious aura lngered. I kept revisiting the photos I took, each one feeling like a scene from the movie in my mind. Setting a book in California would be a departure for me, but then again, so was writing about ghosts.

This summer, I attended a cozy mystery author conference in Minnesota, which turned out to be a writer’s haven. The experience was as rejuvenating as an iced coffee on a hot Floridian day. And there, amidst fellow writers, the inspiration crystalized. When I arrived back in Florida, my fingers flew across the keyboard.

EAT, PRAY, HEX was born.

Instead of setting the book in California, I used Cassadaga, Florida as my muse—known as the Psychic Capital of the World. It’s a place where mediums, psychics, and paranormal enthusiasts converge about an hour from Disney. The words flowed

For the first time in my career, it felt like this was the story I was destined to write. And it all started with a serendipitous family trip, a haunted hotel, and a twist of that mysterious thing we writers call “inspiration.”

About the Author

Tara Lush is a Florida-based author and journalist. She’s an RWA Rita finalist, an Amtrak writing fellow, and the winner of the George C. Polk Award for environmental journalism.

She was a reporter with The Associated Press in Florida, covering crime, alligators, natural disasters, and politics. She also writes contemporary romance set in tropical locations under the name Tamara Lush.

Tara is a fan of vintage pulp fiction book covers, Sinatra-era jazz, 1980s fashion, tropical chill, kombucha, gin, tonic, seashells, iPhones, Art Deco, telenovelas, street art, coconut anything, strong coffee and newspapers. She lives on the Gulf Coast with her husband and two dogs.

Her debut mystery series is published by Crooked Lane Books.

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