Vanilla Chai and A Vanishing Victim: A British Cozy Murder Mystery with a Female Sleuth (A Waterwheel Cafe Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Cotswold, England
Kanga Press (January 5, 2024)

Synopsis

A missing child. A half-baked ransom demand. Can a community cop sift through clues and rescue the tot before teatime?

Sergeant Keya Varma’s culinary dreams come true as she joyfully opens her own café. And attending her sister’s wedding is the cherry on the cake. But her excitement sinks like a souffle when a customer’s little boy disappears.

Shaken as well as stirred into action, the part-time police officer joins the search, but she’s shattered when even a ransom payment doesn’t bring the rug rat back home.

For Keya, justice is served with a side of scones, but can she save the child before the clotted cream turns sour?

Indulge in the Waterwheel Café cozy mystery series, where Keya Varma mixes crime with coffee and crêpes. If you crave appetising characters, a dash of humour, and a dollop of English charm, you’ll devour Victoria Tait’s delicious tale.

Bake your way into intrigue with Vanilla Chai and a Vanishing Victim today!

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Guest Post

What I’ve learned from working on the investigation in Vanilla Chai and a Vanishing Victim

by Sergeant Keya Varma

Hiya, I’m Sergeant Keya Varma, part-time police officer and full-time café owner – although with major cases like the one in this book, I have to rely on my family and friends to run the café while I work the investigation with my colleagues from Cirencester Police Station.

This story involves the abduction of a young boy. Spoiler alert, he is returned safely and is not harmed. I’ve worked many murder cases, but I think this one, probably because it involved a child, was particularly distressing.

Child abduction is a difficult subject, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored.

Even before the case, I’d been considering the issue as my colleague, Inspector Sue Honeywell, and I had been instructed to convey the government’s new message “Clever Never Goes’ to primary school children in the Cotswolds.

This is a change in tactic from the old warning of ‘stranger danger’, and that children shouldn’t talk to, take things or go with anyone they didn’t know. But that cautionary advice it is still relevant. In the UK, there are over 200 attempts per year that we know of, where strangers attempt to abduct children, and worryingly around 50 of them are successful.

But this slogan is now considered outdated, as the majority of strangers do not want to harm children, whereas most abductions are undertaken by people the children know. We have been teaching children about situations they need to be aware of, and most of them are wary about accepting anything from strangers.

But many children, especially girls, love to pet people’s dogs or horses, and if an estranged parent turns up and offered to take them to McDonald’s, or for an ice cream, would they say no?

And considering parents, don’t they have the right to see and spend time with their children? During this case, Inspector Honeywell was also dealing with a difficult situation where a convicted murderer from a previous case wanted to see her children. But her former husband had moved back to his parent’s house in France with their daughters.

A mother, even one in prison, retains parental rights regarding her children unless they are legally adopted. And a parent who takes a child abroad without the other parent’s consent is breaking the law, as set out under the Child Abduction Act 1984.

Interestingly for me, when I look back on the case in Vanilla Chai and a Vanishing Victim, one parent leaving the other and taking a child elsewhere in the UK, even the northernmost point of Scotland, would not be breaking the law, even though it could make access to the child for the other parent extremely difficult.

However, while not illegal, the courts may require the child to stay with the parent who doesn’t move, especially if it is considered their education will suffer.

The conclusion I have is that once marriages or relationships tour sour, it is difficult for all involved, but that doesn’t mean the families should stay together. I do sometimes wish the adults would communicate better, but there are so many pressures in modern day life.

Perhaps if people stopped chasing the accumulation of more ‘stuff’ or comparing themselves with others, then they’d be more content in their lives and their relationships.

But in the end, what tears me apart is that it is always the children who suffer on some level. But sorting out this societal problem is above my pay grade. I’ll continue to perform my duties as best I can, protecting all people, as well as trying to bring some joy into their lives through my Waterwheel Café.

I hope you enjoy Vanilla Chai and A Vanishing Victim, while considering the messages conveyed in the story.

About the Author

Victoria Tait was born and raised in Yorkshire, England.  After following her military husband around the world, she drew on her life’s experiences, and a love of Agatha Christie, Father Brown, and Murder She Wrote, to write British based cozy mysteries.

Her determined female sleuths are joined by colourful and quirky teams of helpers, and her settings are vivid and realistic.  As you’re compelled to keep turning the pages, you’ll be irresistibly drawn into a world where you’ll experience surprises, humour, and, sometimes, a tug on your heartstrings.

Do you like tea, mysteries, and books? Then why not join Victoria’s TeaCozy Club for regular news and updates, and download the free prequel to the Dotty Sayers Antique Mysteries series as a gift by visiting her website

Who doesn’t like tea, cake, and a slice of murder?

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