Thanks for Muffin: A Merry Muffin Mystery
Contemporary Cozy Mystery
8th in Series
Setting – Wynter Castle, Western New York State
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Beyond the Page
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 14, 2025
Number of Pages: 211

Synopsis

When Merry Wynter’s festive gala takes a fatal turn, she’ll have to grill her guests to catch a killer . . .

After years of planning and hard work, Merry Wynter was finally ready to host the grand opening gala of the Wynter Woods Center for the Performing Arts. With musicians, entertainers, members of the media and even influencers on the guest list, the event went off without a hitch—until a particularly nasty journalist posted a criticism of the gala and everything Merry was trying to accomplish. Still reeling from the review days later, Merry wasn’t sure what to feel when she discovered the reporter’s dead body on the grounds of Wynter Castle.

With many of her guests staying on at the castle for the weekend, Merry realizes they’ve got a murderer in their midst. Going from celebrating to sleuthing, she discreetly questions each of them, trying to weed out the culprit. She quickly learns that the victim had heated arguments with several of the people at the gala, and it turns out those people were all connected by a tragedy in the past. Certain the killer is among them, Merry will have to unearth the final clue that nails the killer—before the killer decides she’s getting too close.

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Guest Post

Music in Thanks for Muffin

By: Victoria Hamilton

I love music. So many songs now trigger memories in my life: roller skating to Long Cool Woman by the Hollies, sitting on the beach in the hot sun while Joni played on the radio, crying while broken-hearted to Alone Again, Naturally. There is a scene in Thanks for Muffin with tears and music, and when you get to it know… it came straight from my heart. Not that Merry and I have anything in common, and the reason she’s crying is not mine, but that ability for a piece of music to rip your guts to ribbons… that is me, in a nutshell.

You get it: music is important in my life.

So it’s no surprise that throughout the Merry Muffin Mysteries I have referenced music. However, much of the music in the series is opera, which I have only recently learned to love through my research for the books. What possessed me to include opera in a series, when I started with little to no knowledge?

I’m not sure how to answer that, even though it’s my own question. It flowed from the characters, I suppose, in particular from the central character of Pish Lincoln, who is an opera and classical music buff, as well as a talented amateur musician himself. In Thanks for Muffin there are opera and classical music references aplenty, as well as jazz and other musical styles.

But in one particular character, I created a woman inspired by another genre of music I enjoy, one that speaks to me in its joy and raw power.

I’ve always loved the music of the divas of the world. From Diana Ross to Chaka Khan to Tina Turner and the women of today, I relate. So when I included a female singer – Luxe Lyfe, niece of opera singer Liliana Bartholomew, and a mega-popular hip-hop, rap and popular music performer – I was thinking of some modern divas whose music I enjoy. There is nothing I love more than bopping along to the infectious tunes of artists like Ella Mai, H.E.R. and the inimitable Lizzo.

But these artists are so much more than their most popular tunes. They are often trailblazers, social justice warriors, strong women finding their way in an industry that devalues them unless they are Beyoncé or T-Swift.

I wanted to show a rounded character, so I thought a lot about Luxe Lyfe, even using AI to create an image to work with! But she’s more than the image I created… she is the embodiment of the divas I grew up loving and respecting, and the new generation of them that I continue to listen to.

Not ‘Girl Power’, but the power of talented women.

I hope you enjoy Thanks for Muffin! Tell me… are there any ‘divas’ from the past or present whose music you listen to?

About the Author

Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of three mystery series: the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries. She also wrote a Regency-set historical mystery series, starting with A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder.

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