Guest post- Maia Chance

Welcome national bestselling author Maia Chance, author of mystery novels that are rife with absurd predicaments and romantic adventure. Her latest releases are Come Hell or Highball (St. Martin’s Minotaur) and Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna (Berkley Prime Crime). Maia lives in soggy Bellingham, Washington, where she plays laundress and cook to two imperious children and takes secret solace in vintage cocktails. She blogs at maiachance.com and loves to socialize at facebook.com/MaiaChance.

Researching a Mystery Novel, Family-Style.

Researching my Fairy Tale Fatal mystery series means reading old travelogues and novels, studying antique fashion plates, poring over period railroad timetables and restaurant menus, and—oh, yeah!—traveling in Europe. My job is SO HARD. (Kidding.)

Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna is set in 1867 in the Périgord region of France. I always knew the story would concern the “true history” of my all-time favorite fairy tale, “Beauty and the Beast,” but beyond that, I wasn’t sure . . . until, that is, I read about the prehistoric cave art in the Vézère Valley. These caves—the most famous one is Lascaux—are decorated with Paleolithic pictures of animals. Animals, you know . . . as in beasts? Bingo. There was my angle, because the idea of pairing “Beauty and the Beast” with the painted caves seemed so juicy.

Only catch was, I had, um, never been to the Périgord. So I packed up the Fam—my husband, my mom, and my two little kids—and off we went!

Getting There. Okay. Maybe it wasn’t quite simple as “and of we went!” Those of you who have traveled with little kids know what a gigantic production it is. For example: Bring your own car seats OR deal with the caked-on barf of someone else’s kid on the rental car company’s car seat. Buy tons of French snacks, which are inevitably buttery and flaky and which will grease and flake up everyone’s clothing. Oh, and those miniscule, multi-part toys your kids insisted on packing? You lost half of them in the airplane on the way over. (True story: once I retrieved my son’s toy car five rows back on an airplane. You get to know people on the plane when you’re traveling with the Tinies.)

The landscape. So. We managed to get ourselves to the Périgord, more or less in one piece. There was the three-hour stretch on the expressway when my two-year-old daughter wouldn’t stop screaming unless allowed to eat one and only one bite out of every French Pringle in the can, but we are trying to forget that. Oh my word, it is beautiful in that neck of the woods. Rushing rivers, rocky outcroppings, thick forests. It’s beautiful in a near-eerie way, at least for me, with its ruined castles and chateaux melting back into the hills. In fact, more than once my husband, mom, and I argued about whether a heap of stones in the distance was a natural formation or a castle. That not knowing, that magical merging of natural and artificial in the Périgord, was richly inspiring for Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna.

Caves. We visited two caves on our trip, Font de Gaume and Les Combarelles. Font de Gaume is the one I used as a model for the cave scenes in Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna, although some of the animal pictures I describe are based on those in Les Combarelles. I cannot adequately describe the breathtaking experience of visiting these caves. This might help: I somehow managed to have a near-religious experience looking at the bison herds in Font de Gaume even though I was lugging 

my daughter in a backpack while she rattled the keys to the door of the cave that the tour guide had given her as a distraction. I think everyone on the tour was a little nervous she’d lose the keys somewhere in the dark. After all, the tour guide had, for security purposes, locked us in.

Architecture. Château Vézère, the Count de Griffe’s ancestral home that is the setting for a good deal of Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna, is based on the lovely Château de Veyrignac, although I placed it in a different location (a perk of writing fiction). The fateful ruined castle was inspired by our visit to Château de Castelnaud, although Castelnaud is not a ruin but sturdily rebuilt for tourists in hiking boots. Still, it is so high over the valley and riddled with enough precarious turrets that when I got my rambunctious four-year-old son out of there I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief.

Towns. I admit, the village of Vézère is a total fabrication. But the town of Sarlat is very real, and incredibly atmospheric and even exquisite. The center of the town includes a carefully-preserved tangle of medieval streets, and so of course I had to set a dangerous chase scene there. I mean, come on. I don’t want to miss ripe opportunities.

Food and Wine. At some point on the trip, my daughter decided that she hated ANY and ALL sidewalk cafes. I thought sidewalk cafes were the entire point of France, so this was a mind-bender for me. So in Sarlat, instead of dining on the famous mushrooms and local wine and, I don’t know, holding hands with my husband, I was taking a very short girl on endless walks up and down stone-paved streets. We got to know some pigeons and cats. The only thing my daughter would eat in Sarlat, by the way, was terrine de canard, a super-rich duck pâté in little jars that is basically a condiment but which she ate with a tiny spoon like baby food. I considered this an improvement on the Pringles.

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THANK You Ms. Chance for this wonderful post!

Review - Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna

I had reviewed the debut book in the series, Snow White Red-Handed (click here) and an insightful interview with the author (click here).  Although I skipped the second book in the series, I am jumping back in with this third installment.

Author: Maia Chance

Copyright: Feb 2016 (Berkley) 320 pgs

Series: 3rd in Fairy Tale Fatal Mystery series

Sensuality: Attraction, period romance

Mystery Sub-genre: Historical Cozy

Main Characters: Miss Ophelia Flax is a fired New York actress, posing as a wealthy soap heiress

Setting:  1867, France

Obtained Through: Publisher for honest review

Apparently the prior book leaves Ophelia in a bit of a dilemma, she is engaged to the brutish Comte de Griffe in an attempt to irritate her preferred investigative partner—and romantic sparring partner—the pompous if dashing Professor Penrose.  She fully intends to break the engagement, but her friend Henrietta is trying to marry a nobleman and asks that she keep up the charade during the Comte's  winter hunting party to allow her time to snare a husband.  Bad gets worse when Penrose arrives with his lovely new fiancée, plus a stagecoach of stranded travelers arrive at the Comte’s sprawling château.  

But, the worst strikes when the Count insists on the wedding in a short few days and the ring is stolen preventing Ophelia from bolting for fear of being labeled a thief and the police on her trail.  She frantically is looking for the ring when murder strikes and she already has suspicions.  The murder is made to look like the Beast of Vezere has struck, but Ophelia notices Belladonna berries have played a role.  Scene point-of-view swaps between Ophelia and Penrose which benefits the story. 

Local legends of a half man and large wild boar seem confirmed with an old jaw bone discovery and a cave with petroglyphs.  But who has made a shrine to the legendary beast in the cave?  

Ophelia is resourceful, smart, and worldly but feels trapped by the situation and her feelings.  Comte de Griffe has boorish table manners, wild mane of hair, and a habit of prowling away the wee hours is at first thought the beast and Ophelia the beauty, but is there a more real beast?  

Professor Gabriel Penrose is on the trail of yet another fairytale's factual basis, but he finds himself more concerned with Ophelia and the danger surrounding them.  He is similar to Flynn Carson played by Noah Wyle of The Librarian movies, just a bit more of a professor.  Ivy is Gabriel's fiancée, but she seems to be a little too perfect.  Henrietta and Forthwith are schemers and keep things hopping.  The breakout character was Abel Christy, a precocious thirteen year old British noble who was among those stranded by a broken down coach and his escort is the first murder victim.  He has two loves: science and eating.  

The setting is an isolated region in the middle of France with a neighboring village that feels strange and doesn't like visitors, plus the cave with an altar to the mythical beast creates an eerie atmosphere.  The story gets stranger at each turn and the setting adds to that feeling.

The plot has several levels and several twists and turns.  The pacing maintains the interest with varied elements being developed.  This is one of those books where you tell yourself "just one more chapter" and find a few hours have gone by.  The climax is quite a ride, the killer reveal is a surprise, and the wrap up leaves things further complicated between Gabriel and Ophelia.

This series is hitting its stride and hooks the reader, reeling you into Ophelia's intrigue filled world where you won't want to leave.

Rating:  Near Perfect - Couldn't Put it down. Buy two copies, one for you and one for a friend.


Easy Slow Cooker Black Forest Dump Cake

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/213272/unbelievably-easy-slow-cooker-black-forest-cake/

1/2 cup butter
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained and juice reserved
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, and mix with reserved juice from the can of pineapple.  Mix in the cake mix and stir. Set the mixture aside.

Spread the crushed pineapple in a layer on the bottom of a slow cooker. Spoon the cherry pie filling in an even layer on top of the pineapple. Stir the butter/pineapple juice/cake mixture, and pour it over the pie filling.

Set the slow cooker to Low, and cook for 3 hours. Spoon the dessert into bowls, and let cool about 5 minutes to cool the hot pie filling before eating.  Top with whipped cream.

Use a large crockpot because the cake will rise. 

Guest Post - Monica Ferris

Let's welcome bestselling author of the Needlecraft Mystery series, Monica Ferris.  This month her eighteenth book in the series is released, Darned If You Do.  We are overjoyed to have her virtually visit this little corner of the internet.

Thoughts on her writing

One of the pleasures of writing a series is watching the recurring characters change and develop. Yes, “watch.” Any serious author will tell you that at least half the time the characters in a story will tell the author what they’re doing or thinking or wanting. My sleuth, Betsy Devonshire, has gone through several boyfriends (I really liked Morrie, but apparently she didn’t like him enough); her best friend Jill has quit the police force to get married and have children (we’re up to three); her formerly flirtatious store manager has settled into a healthy relationship with a Spaniard who collects medieval silver English coins (so do I, so that’s a happy way to use something I already know about). Betsy’s current beau wants to marry her, but so far she’s resisting. So while every novel features a new murder for her to solve, there is a stable undercurrent of familiar faces. Sometimes I think my fans are at least as interested in what my characters are getting up to as they are in the crime—which is fine by me, as I’m interested, too.

The title of the newest mystery in my current needlework series is Darned If You Do—a cute title, but not one I came up with myself. I was going to call the novel A Needle Case, because a needle case is an important clue in the story. (It’s a container needle workers use to hold needles.) But my editor asked me to suggest something else. Since my brain was stuck on A Needle Case, I got on my Facebook page, gave a limited outline of the novel, and asked for title suggestions. One faithful reader sent in a list of titles, which I forwarded to my editor. And she jumped on Darned If you Do. She loved it, and said they had never before published a book with that title.

But nothing gets darned in the novel. So create something, I told myself. Thank God for Google. I did a search and came up with a method of knitting a patch over a hole in a knitted sock. It even had a video lesson. I watched it until I was sure I understood how to do it, and then had one of the employees in the needlework shop Crewel World show a customer how to do it.

Joyfully, electronic information abounds in this twenty-first century. In Darned If You Do, for example, the plot revolves around a house full of junk and treasure. There are a lot of reality shows on television that give endless examples of the kind of stuff one can find in attics and basements and even living and bedrooms. Antiques Roadshow, Pawn Stars, American Pickers, Hoarders Buried Alive – all feature heaps of extraordinary things found in houses, barns, and sheds. Or, in some cases, the shows discover someone who has allowed his or her habit of never throwing anything away to fill a dwelling to bursting. And there are endless resources on the Internet on valuable antiques and art. So I had all the material I needed to invent an eccentric recluse whose ability to differentiate between what was valuable and what was merely interesting was seriously flawed, and whose house is overflowing with broken bicycles, chipped glass jars, moldy books, radios and record players missing their insides, rusty cans of vegetables – and a cookie jar full of very valuable Morgan silver dollars.

The next book in the series, Knit Your Own Murder, features poison, knitting your own animals, secret hatreds, and an Episcopal celebration of Easter. In this case, much of my research was more direct. For example, I was blessed to be in London this past Easter and attended the Easter Vigil service at Westminster Abbey. I transferred my experience of the service to the Episcopal cathedral in Minneapolis, and sent my heroine and her boyfriend to it – all is grist for my mill!

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THank You Ms. Ferris for this fun post.  I enjoy the series and it keeps going strong.

Review - The Cracked Spine

Paige Shelton is the author of the Farmer's Market, Country Cooking School, and A Dangerous Type Mystery series.  This is the debut novel for her new Scottish Bookshop mystery series. 

Author: Paige Shelton

Copyright: March 2016 (Minotaur Books) 304 pgs

Series: 1st in Scottish Bookshop Mystery series

Sensuality: Mild

Mystery Sub-genre: Cozy

Main Characters: Delaney Nichols, new employee at The Cracked Spine

Setting: Modern day, Edinburgh, Scotland 

Obtained Through: NetGalley/Publisher for honest review

Delaney Nichols just packed her bags and moved halfway across the world to Edinburgh, Scotland to start a job at The Cracked Spine. Her new boss, Edwin MacAlister, has given her the opportunity of a lifetime and Delaney can’t wait to take her spot behind the desk.  The Cracked Spine is filled with everything a book lover could want. 

But before she can settle into her new life, a precious artifact goes missing, and Edwin’s sister is murdered. Delaney is now part of the family and she jumps in to help figure out what happened to the rare manuscript, and stumbles into more than she bargained for.  Warning, the book has much of the dialog in a scotish brogue.  That is hard for some to follow.

Delaney was raised in Kansas and mustered a lot of courage to move her life for a nebulous job in Scotland.  She brings her outgoing personality to the store and grows on the reader.  Rosie is the mother hen of the bookstore and always has tiny dog Hector in tow. Hamlet is the other employee, a nineteen-year-old actor with a colored past and bright future. Edwin, who is  her wealthy, enigmatic, and mysterious boss. Tom is the bartender from across the street and the potential romantic interest who looks good in a kilt.  Elias is a cab-driver who, along with his wife, take her under their wing and even rent a place to her.  Then there is a cast of eccentric friends of Edwin's who comprize an auction club where they acquire rare items.

Edinburgh is detailed nicely from it's castles to its seedier side.  The plot was fine but the murder was so removed from Delaney that there seemed no real tension for her to get involved to the extent she does.  The story moved along well. although I would have liked a bit more personal investment from Delaney in order for the story to grab a hold of me.

I do have to say that the killer was a total surprise, and I didn't feel there were any clues dropped to suspect this person.  The killer reveal had some good tension.  The wrap-up resolved all the open threads of the story and left the path open for the next book.

This is a fun cozy mystery set in Scotland with a fresh heroine and great setup for many interesting adventures to come.

Rating: Good - A fun read for curling up by the fire or a beach read. 

Website:  http://www.Avery-Daniels.com
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Guest Post - Delia James

We have a new author in the mystery world and I reviewed her debut novel (click here).  Find out more about who writes cozy mysteries with a touch of whimsy in the Witch's Cat Mysteries right here.  

Introducing Delia James, and the Witch's Cat Mysteries

Hello. My name is Delia James, and I write mysteries. Specifically, I write mysteries with magic and cats with plenty of attitude. This is no surprise to anybody who knows me.

I grew up on mysteries. Summers at my grandmother’s in the country, I discovered her Agatha Christie books and was immediately fascinated by Hercule Poirot. TV was filled with mysteries and we never missed them, Colombo, MacMillan & Wife, McCloud, The Rockford Files, Quincy…and of course I was in love with the Hardy Boys as played by Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson (for the record, I was a Parker Girl, all the way). Of course I could quote Sherlock Holmes, chapter and verse. In college, I got introduced to, and fell in love all over again with, Lord Peter Whimsey.

Despite this, when I started writing, mysteries were not my first choice. I was (confession time) also a major science fiction nerd and it was science fiction I gravitated to first. I don’t regret it at all. Science fiction is fun, and it teaches you a lot about how to build a fictional world along with the characters that fit into it, or don’t. This can be valuable training for a mystery writer who has to construct solid, interesting puzzles the size of small towns, or big bad cities. And of course, along with science fiction, I was also a fan of its sister genre, fantasy, with its elves and hobbits, and witches, and plenty of magic. I learned to read from The Wizard of Oz and had Alice in Wonderland practically memorized.

With all this swirling around in the background, when I got the chance to write a story featuring a witch and a magical cat in New England, you know I jumped at it. And I am having an absolute blast.

First of all, it’s given me an excuse to spend more time in New England, which is one of my very favorite places. I love the landscape, the coast and the rivers. I even love the weather, especially the autumn. I love the old cities and towns and all the history tucked up in their streets and odd (some of them very odd) corners. Of course there are mysteries here. Lots of them, some of them old, some of them brand new.

Cats were another natural for me. I’ve been owned by one cat or another since I was born. From our grumpy old indoor-outdoor tortoiseshell Buttercup, to Isis the Siamese, to our current long-haired gray Buffy the Vermin Slayer, they all at one time or another shared my home, sat on my lap, or curled up on my shoulders, or gotten in between me and…whatever I was doing at the moment. I swear, some of them have in fact been able to vanish and reappear at will, just like Alistair in A Familiar Tail. Of course they couldn’t be kept out of anyplace they really wanted to get into, including the bedroom, the closet, and once, much to everybody’s surprise and embarrassment, the fridge. Again, just like Alistair.

So, like I said at the beginning, I’m Delia James. Welcome to my world!

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Thank you Ms. James.  For the record, I was a Parker Stevenson fan as well.  Yay.  And I love cats and fantasy as well. I want a vacation during fall in New England and be one of those "leaf peepers" people talk about in discouraging tones.  We should do lunch sometime girlfriend!  Are you going to Bouchercon?