New Year – New Mystery

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2024 Brings in the Mystery

As a multi-genre author who has written everything from mystery, sci-fi, crime, and fantasy, I know my genre hopping can get confusing to my readers.  But I started writing back when having a pen name was a closely guarded secret.  Now if you want to write in another genre, people pop out a new pen name.  Essentially they’re sub-branding themselves. I’m enthusiastic about the idea, but at this late stage where I’ve managed to write in all the genres I read as a young person I wonder if I should bother or if I should just do a periodic announcement to let people know where the boundary lines are.  And that means that whenever I announce that I have a new book coming out I get a lot of readers asking…

Yes, but what kind of book is this… like mystery, romance, what? (insert side-eye)

cover reveal image of the mystery novel "Eye Contact" - a young woman with faint text over her face wears cracked glasses with the reflection of a bionic eye in them. Above her the Seattle skyline makes the background for the novel's title "Eye Contact."However, since I haven’t had time to figure out what my pen names would be I guess I’ll just forge ahead with the name I’ve got and announce that I have a new mystery coming out! Eye Contact is a stand-alone, laugh-out-loud mystery set in Seattle. With a quirky cast of characters, including a ten-year-old big time wrestling fan, a few science nerds, and a couple of Chinese spies who REALLY dislike working with a guy who thinks he knows it all, this one should tickle a few funny bones.

EYE CONTACT: Lexi Byrne—UW grad student, brilliant researcher, and neurodivergent—is working on cutting edge research into bionic eye technology. But Lexi’s normal, safe, science-based life takes an abrupt left turn after her prototype is stolen. Lexi must fight her own limitations and lean on the strengths of her friends to stop a misogynistic, greedy thief and recover her work.

Join Lexi and her best friend Shea as they take on theft, spies, and dating.
RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
GENRE: mystery-comedy
AVAILABLE: All-retailers – books2read.com/Maines-Eye-Contact

So will there be pen names?

Not unless I get a sudden burst of energy that would enable me to re-brand ALL of my books.  I’m not saying never, but for now I think I’ll stick with just trying to be very clear about my genres and making the occasional announcement.

Oh, look an announcement…

Find a complete list here: bethanymaines.com/catalog/

GENRE: Murder & Crime

San Juan Island Murder Mysteries – Murder and laughs as Tish Yearly and her grandfather Tobias solve mysteries on their tiny Pacific Northwest Island home.
Steam level: kissing the boy next door, everything else is behind closed doors Available: All retailers

Shark Santoyo Crime Series – A very different mobster meets a very different teenager and together they take on the under world, the FBI, and the whatever else is standing in their way.
Steam level: Steamy, but we don’t get any nekkid action until book 3  Available: Amazon & Kindle Unlimited

The Christmas Carols – Crime meets romantic comedy in this trilogy of linked Christmas stories.  Steam level: Kissing  Available: Oh Holy Night & Winter Wonderland –  Amazon & Kindle Unlimited, Blue Christmas – All Retailers OR FREE if you sign up for my newsletter

GENRE: Romantic Suspense

The Deveraux Legacy – Follow the lives of four cousins as they try to repair their broken family, find love and keep from getting killed.  Steam level: There be nekkid schmexy times ahead!  Available: All retailers

GENRE: Paranormal Romance

The Three Colors Trilogy – The Lucas Siblings want to change the world, they never expected to find their mates.  Steam level: We’re naked by chapter 3 Available: Amazon & Kindle Unlimited

The Rejects Pack – A group of wolves rejected by their birth packs band together to solve a historical and archaeological mystery and maybe find true love along the way. Steam level: We’re making out by chapter 3 and nekkid as soon as the warlocks stop chasing us Available: Amazon & Kindle Unlimited

Maverick & Wild Waters – Stand-alones in the same Supernatural world. Steam level: naked, naked, naked Available: Amazon & Kindle Unlimited – Maverick, Wild Waters

 

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She participates in many activities including swearing, karate, art, and yelling at the news. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter, or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay). You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

 

Parrott and Tonya Sitting in a Tree by Saralyn Richard

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Literary detectives rarely work alone. Sherlock had Watson. Nero Wolfe had Archie Goodwin. Poirot had Captain Hastings. Then there are Nick and Nora Charles, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs, and Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane.

Authors make good use of the sidekicks throughout the series. The sidekick provides a sounding board for the detective, someone to help with collecting evidence and processing clues. Sometimes the sidekick offers an insight that might turn out to be a red herring—or not. The dialogue and interaction between the detective and his sidekick add interest and humanity to the story.

The Detective Parrott mystery series features Detective Oliver Parrott, a young, smart, organized person who’s well-grounded and dedicated to finding the truth. An outsider in the wealthy community he serves, he has a sixth sense about sniffing through subterfuge and barriers, and he’s undaunted by rich and powerful people. He just wants to do the right thing and make way for justice to be served.

That’s a big job for one guy to do, and the work can become frustrating and lonely. That’s why Parrott has a sidekick—his lovely fiancée (and then wife) Tonya.  College sweethearts, Parrott and Tonya have similar backgrounds. Both come from single parent homes in underprivileged neighborhoods. They had scholarships to Syracuse, where Parrott was a football star. Tonya majored in political science, while Parrott majored in criminal justice.

When the series opens in MURDER IN THE ONE PERCENT, Tonya is on a tour of duty in Afghanistan with the Navy. Parrott visits with her on Skype, and, while she can’t tell him much about her work, and he can’t tell her much about his, they both provide significant encouragement and support for each other.

By the time of the second book, A PALETTE FOR LOVE AND MURDER, the Parrotts are married and living in Parrott’s small house with their pet cockatiel, Horace. They have a loving marriage, but from the start, their lives are complicated by Tonya’s PTSD. Without spoiling the plot of this and subsequent books, I’ll say that Tonya’s story becomes inextricably entwined with Parrott’s investigation, and from then on, the Parrotts’ personal lives and the detective’s professional life cross paths.

The pattern continues in CRYSTAL BLUE MURDER and MURDER OUTSIDE THE BOX. At times the elements of humor and romance tip the plots into scenes unusual for a police procedural. Readers and reviewers apparently enjoy the dynamics between the two characters, and I’ve been present at many book clubs where people remark about it. One reader stopped me at the theater to plead with me never to let Parrott and Tonya divorce.

I doubt that will ever happen, although the Parrotts have to go through rough times, just like the rest of us. Right now, Parrott and his lovely wife are getting ready for the holiday celebration in their home, and they’ve asked me to wish each and every one of you the best of the season, and a happy new year. Let me echo those chirpy good wishes. May you have good health, friendship, love, peace, and happy reading!

 

MURDER OUTSIDE THE BOX will be available January 5. For other books, check out Saralyn Richard’s website here or Amazon page here.

‘Tis the Season with Catriona McPherson

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With Sparkle Abbey‘s Special Guest Catriona McPherson

Is HOP SCOT a seasonal romance? I’m going to say yes. Okay Lexy and Taylor are already engaged when they go to Scotland to let him meet the parents, the rest of the regular cast are all coupled up already, and there’s a mouldering semi-skeleton bricked up in the basement.

BUT –

A. after writing about a Scot out of water in California for five books, this time I get to write a Christmas love letter to Scotland.

And B. there’s an actual romance. Honest. You just need to keep reading. I don’t think I meant it to happen but who doesn’t love a Christmas love story? I know I do and I even love some of my favourites the way you love an elderly flatulent cat, or your beloved aunt’s terrible cooking. Tell me what you think of my list and let me know what’s on yours.

 

White Christmas Movie photo with characters from the movie.

5. WHITE CHRISTMAS

No bad cooking or feline flatulence here. In my opinion, this is the best Christmas film of any type and the best musical too. I watch it every year. When I was a wee girl, my sister Wendy and I thought Judy (Vera Ellen) was perfection, Betty (Rosemary Clooney) didn’t belong in a film because she looked like our mum, Phil (Danny Kaye) was weird, and Bob (Bing Crosby) was an old man. Now I think Judy needs a good meal, Betty is impossibly gorgeous because she looks like our mum, Phil is a poppet and Bob . . . yeah, he’s still an old man. And the plot is bonkers and Betty’s gloves in the nightclub scene look like she stole them from a welder. But it’s joyous for all that and I wouldn’t change a thing. Even the titles are beautiful.

 

Book cover for The Christmas Bookshop

4. THE CHRISTMAS BOOKSHOP

Jenny Colgan’s romance about a misfit girl who goes to stay with her annoyingly perfect sister in Edinburgh and transforms the fortunes of a struggling bookshop in the Old Town might have been written especially for me. I adore Edinburgh and bookshop settings (Quiet Neighbors was mine) and, in case you haven’t guessed yet, I’m partial to Christmas too. The follow-up is just out. I’ve told Santa. Incidentally, the one-star reviews of this on Amazon.com are hilarious – mostly concerned with the shocking bad language. I really hope none of these disappointed readers ever goes to Scotland! They’re in for a rude (literally) awakening.

 

The Holiday movie with photos of Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black.

3. THE HOLIDAY

This the first of my love it or hate it favourites. My mum and dad watch this film (in which KateWinslet (Iris) and Cameron Diaz (Amanda) house-swap between England and LA) like I watch White Christmas. When they persuaded me to join them one summer – that’s significant, I sat stony-faced throughout its run-time. Then I watched it again at the right time of year and found it absolutely charming. Jack Black is a riot, the London office is convincing even if the commute to the Cotswolds is nonsense so the LA film-industry stuff might be accurate too, Eli Wallach steals the whole film (from Jack Black!), the two little kids are among the least sickening screen moppets ever, and the rest of it is pretty people doing silly things. What’s wrong with that? At Christmas-time, nothing at all.

 

A Castle for Christmas photo of Cary Elwes and Brooke Shields

2.  A CASTLE FOR CHRISTMAS

Now, if you can take THE HOLIDAY and not throw stuff at the telly, it’s time to move on to this instant classic, from 2021. Sophie (Brooke Shields) is a novelist, who has found success in a publishing world that bears not the slightest, glancing similarity to the real one. So she goes to Scotland to stay in a castle. Of course. The castle is owned by a duke (Cary Elwes) who is broke, grumpy and not interested in a new woman. Guess. What. Happens. But the thing is it doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter, either, that the Christmas decorations at the castle would have bankrupted even a rich duke. It almost doesn’t matter that Cary Elwes’s Scottish accent is worse than Star Trek and his own, real accent is exactly what a Scottish duke would sound like. The village is cute. The knitting club that meets (every day, apparently) in the pub is adorable, and Sophie’s tartan Vivienne Westwood ballgown is every bit as gorgeous as Betty’s fur-trimmed dress at the end of White Christmas.

 

Single All the Way

1. SINGLE ALL THE WAY

And finally we find ourselves at the most-advanced level of seasonal disbelief suspension with this Hallmark-adjacent hokum squarely in the Guess. What. Happens. sub-genre. I am glad I put in the training and can love it without trying. Here’s the deal. Peter (Michael Urie (him off Ugly Betty)) and Nick (Philemon Chambers) are just friends, who share a flat in LA. Got that? They’re just friends. But Nick is tired of his loving family, back in New England (flannel alert), nagging him about being single, so they decide to pretend that they’ve got together as a couple and go east for Christmas. Guess. What. Happens. Ah, it’s lovely. Jennifer Coolidge and Kathy Najimy play the mum and aunt, the mayor’s wife from Schitt’s Creek is a sister and, speaking of Schitt’s Creek, the whole story takes place in a small town that’s homophobia-free. Nick’s a children’s writer in a publishing world that bears not the slightest . . . And so we have to think that being a florist/plant nursery specialist is probably tougher than it looks here too, but come on!

 

 

Photo of author Catriona McPherson with a Santa hat on.

Merry Christmas and, like I say, let me know what you’ve got on your list that I need to add to mine.

~ Catriona

Catriona McPherson (she/her) was born in Scotland and immigrated to the US in 2010. She writes preposterous 1930s private detective stories, realistic 1940s amateur sleuth stories, and contemporary psychological standalones. These are all set in Scotland with a lot of Scottish weather. She also writes  modern comedies about the Last Ditch Motel in a “fictional” college town in Northern California. HOP SCOT is number six in the series. Catriona’s books have won or been shortlisted for the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Lefty, the Macavity, the Mary Higgins Clark award and the UK Ellery Queen Dagger. She is a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime.

 

We’d like to thank Catriona for visiting today. What a fun look at Christmas and some seasonal favorites! We love the Last Ditch series and have already ordered our copy of Hop Scot, but just in case you haven’t, stop by her website for more info: Catriona McPherson

And we’d like to add our own Happy Holidays to you all.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season with peace and good cheer as we head into the new year!

~ Mary Lee & Anita aka Sparkle Abbey

Christmas Books on my TBR!

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By Sydney Leigh

The Christmas season is approaching at an alarming speed and my brain hasn’t quite caught up. For me, the best way to settle in is with the help of a good book. There are lots of good ones to choose from but I’ve narrowed my picks down to my top three. I’m excited to share them with you.

A Nutcracker Nightmare, by Christina Romeril (Crooked Lane, 2023). This is the second book in the Killer Chocolate Mystery Series. I read the first one and loved it. It features twin sisters Hanna and Alex, owners of a bookstore/chocolate shop.

In A Nutcracker Nightmare, the twins are volunteering at a local high school reunion. A dead body is found  one of the twins becomes the prime suspect. With the help of some good friends and their canine companion, Watson, Hannah and Alex must solve the case before they end up as behind bars, or worse, part of Christmas past.

There are so many things to love here, especially a small town class reunion and twin amateur sleuths!

 

 

Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas, by Vicki Delany (Crooked Lane, 2023). This is the sixth book in the Year-Round Christmas Mystery Series. If you’ve never read one of them, now’s the time. Charming, fun, and fast-paced, this series is one of my favorites when the season arrives. It takes place in Rudolph, New York, known as America’s Christmas Town, and protagonist Merry Wilkinson owns Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, a local gift shop.

In this latest book, the town is getting ready to put of musical porduction of A Christmas Carol. But friction between the cast and crew are threatening to ruin the show and things go from bad to worse when a member of the group is found dead. Suspects include Merry’s mom as well as her shop assistant, springing her into action. 

 

 

A Christmas Wager, by Holly Cassidy (Putnam, 2023). Is there a better time to pick up a rom com than Christmas? My answer is no. This book is an enemies-to-lovers delight that takes place in a cozy Colorado mountain town. Take a small-town boy and pit him against a corporate city girl and the sparks fly.

Bella Ross and Jesse Harrison agree to compete in the town’s annual holiday games. Bella is visiting Maple Falls with the goal to acquire a failing Christmas shop. Jesse, the grandson of the shop’s owner, wants to stop her. With compromise out of the question, Bella and Jesse agree to compete in the games. The winner gets to decide on the price of a failing Christmas shop. But as the games begin, feelings toward each other start to get in the way. Um… yes please!

 

 

 

Sydney Leigh ran a seasonal business for several years, working in the summer so she could spend cold months in cool places. Now she writes modern cozy mysteries and thinks about murder. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, and served on the Board of Crime Writers of Canada from 2018-2021. A Peril in Pink (Crooked Lane) comes out in March, 2024.

Judy L. Murray’s award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery series

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It’s my day to blog, and as I’m all tied up, I would like to welcome my special guest Judy L. Murray this month. Judy writes the award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery series, and may I say, having met Judy and read her fabulous books, I think I detect an uncanny resemblance between this author and her heroine, Helen Morrisey! Her latest book in the series has just launched. Peril in the Pool House, welcome Judy…  Joyce Woollcott

Author Judy. L. Murray

Real Estate Rule #3: It’s the rare buyer who wants to buy a haunted house. – Peril in the Pool House

Hello and thank you for the warm welcome! I am excited to announce the release of my third book in the award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery series, Peril in the Pool House. If you are familiar with the series, you know my protagonist, Helen Morrisey, is a mid-fifties widow with a quick tongue and sharp brain; a long-time real estate agent with a get it done attitude toward life. She doesn’t like to cook, likes her wine, stashes Twizzlers everywhere, lives on a Chesapeake cliff and is willing to rehab anything she comes across, especially houses and clients’ lives. She consults her own Detection Club of famous amateur sleuths to help her seek justice. As Jane Marple would declare, “It’s important that wickedness shouldn’t triumph.”

Each mystery presents a new real estate rule. Rule #1 in Murder in the Master is “A dead body creates buzz. A dead body in a house for sale is never the buzz you want.” Killer in the Kitchen Rule #2 is “How to sell a house. Offer a drop-dead kitchen”.

Two much appreciated recent reviews give you a taste of Peril in the Pool House: “The grand opening of Captain’s Watch Bed and Breakfast in one of Chesapeake Bay’s historic mansions, is ruined when the body of Kerry Lightner, a high-powered political campaign manager, is found in the pool house with fishing shears in her back. Is the killer a rival politician, an ex-lover, a jealous co-worker, or the ghost of missing harbor pilot Isaac Hollowell? When state senate candidate and B&B owner Eliot Davies becomes the prime suspect, his friend real estate agent-turned-amateur-investigator Helen Morrisey and her Detection Club of fictional women sleuths vow to solve the case—even if it means the end of Helen’s romance with Detective Joe McAlister. Peril in the Pool House, the third in Judy L. Murray’s award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series is smart, fast-paced, beautifully written, and utterly charming. Five stars!”Connie Berry, USA Today Best-Selling Author of the Kate Hamilton Mysteries

 

“Cozy mystery fans will delight in following Maryland realtor Helen Morrisey as she solves a double murder with the assistance of the vintage detectives populating her imagination.” Lucy Burdette, USA Today Best-Selling Author Key West Food Critics Mysteries.

As colder weather starts to kick up white crusted waves across the bay, I’m setting in to writing my next book. But my mysteries must have a title before I’m sure of their direction. It’s the way my brain works. I’ve had a lot of interesting suggestions from readers. Since I use alliteration, I’m throwing down the gauntlet – if you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Some of them are very funny or very gruesome. Here’s just a few to help you meet the challenge – Slayed in the Study, Bludgeoned in the Basement (ew!), Evil in the Entry, Death on the Docks, Sunk in the Sauna, Poisoned in the Pantry. Hope you have fun with this and enjoy jumping into my title conversation!

If you would like to learn more, find me at www.judylmurraymysteries.com  All my mysteries are available in print, e-format, audible and audio.

Happy reading and writing, Judy.

There you have it, readers. Using alliteration, any suggestions for Judy for her upcoming book title? Thanks for joining us, Judy! ~ Joyce

 

It’s a Mystery!

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“We should go back down so Nash doesn’t think I’m involving myself in a police investigation.” “Well, Nash is definitely not going to buy that,” said Tobias, leading the way. “He’s not only met you, he knows you, and has seen you naked.” “I’m not sure what that has to do with anything,” said Tish. “Your grandma always knew when I was up to something,” said Tobias. “That’s because you were always up to something,” objected Tish. Quote from the mystery novel - An Unfinished Storm by Bethany Maines

San Juan Islands Mystery #4

This October 23rd will see the release of An Unfinished Storm—book 4 in the San Juan Island Mystery series. When I started the series I had just started my own business, but I was still spending a few hours a week with my grandmother attempting to clean out her house. The things she thought needed cleaning and what I thought needed cleaning were quite different, but I soldiered on because I knew that even if all cleaned up on was the crossword puzzle she didn’t mind because she liked the company.  My biggest complaint were all of the political solicitations for donations that she wouldn’t let me throw out.  At one point I secretly sent about fifty “please remove me from your list” letters.  I also tried to bring in the mail when she wasn’t looking so that I could pre-recycle a large amount before they got to her. I adored my grandmother, but having her fret about not having opened and read every piece of mail was enough to drive me bonkers.  So that was the state of mind I was in when I started this story about a girl who gets fired and ends up solving mysteries with her grandfather.  It was a lovely chance to reflect on my experience and inject some reality into the book.

Legacies

My grandmother passed away at the age of 96.  She was hilarious and sharp to the end although she did better in a quiet environment because her hearing wasn’t as good as it used to be.  Her collection of Dick Francis and Agatha Christie novels went to good homes, but I know that her legacy can also still be found in my books as Tish and Tobias  putter around, solve murders, and still leave time for afternoon naps and watching Quincy M.D. on VHS.   Not that my grandmother ever solved mysteries, but I like to think that we both would have liked the chance.  We both loved all the murder mystery shows like Perry Mason, Matlock, Quincy M.D., Murder She Wrote and the Rockford Files. I told someone recently that the San Juan series was like if Matlock and Psych had a baby and then threw in some Death in Paradise for island vibes and I stand by that. With Tish and Tobias surrounded by the quirkiness of island life as well as a few murderous villains I hope the books make readers laugh as much as my grandmother would have.  I also hope that readers are inspired to go hug their own grandparent and for goodness sake, throw out the political ads before they make it in the house.  No one needs that much junk mail in their life.

 

If you’re interested in Tish and Tobias Yearlys journey through the San Juan Islands, you can find out more from all the usual book selling suspects.

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She participates in many activities including swearing, karate, art, and yelling at the news. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter, or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay). You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

How the World Turns

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by Gay Yellen

Originally, I had planned this post to be all about what led up to the new release of my third book in The Samantha Newman Series. In it, I was going to detail the trials and tribulations that interfered with my ability to finish the story over the past five years, and to offer a free book at the end.

That post was titled “What a Writer Fears.” But with fresh horror happening in the Middle East, this novelist’s writerly problems seem too trivial to consider. Instead of a blow by blow account of the circumstances that held the book back, I’ll just say that for months and months and months, I struggled to create a coherent sentence, let alone a paragraph and chapter.

In short, I feared I would never be able to write again.

Sometimes, moving forward requires taking a step back. Frustrated as I felt, I couldn’t abandon Samantha any more than she could escape her crazy, mixed-up existence—especially when she was about to save another lost soul from ruin and learn an important life lesson along the way.

And so, with the encouragement of my precious fans, and the support of Stiletto sisters Lois Winston and Saralyn Richard, and writer friends Patty Flaherty Pagan and Pamela Fagan Hutchins, Book #3, The Body in the News is now available in ebook and print.

Like the first two books in the series, I wrote the new book to entertain readers, and hopefully, to inform and inspire. I hope it offers a few hours of escape from the messy, scary times we live in.

Life goes on for us lucky ones.

And so—in honor of the debut of Book #3—I am offering the one that started it all: The Body Business, Book #1 in the series, FREE today only. If you haven’t read it, grab it now to follow Samantha as she survives, undaunted, book by book.

May peace reign everywhere in the world. Until then, may we find comfort in books, and joy wherever we can find it.

The Samantha Newman Mystery Series

 

 

HOAs: Miss Marple Would Fit Right In

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Dear Stiletto Gang Readers and Contributors: No surprise here, I’m traveling again and it’s my day to blog.  I do have an outstanding surprise for you. My dear friend Author Linda Lovely is here in my stead to promote her HOA Mystery series and upcoming release, A Killer App available on November 7th. Please welcome Linda Lovely to The Stiletto Gang! ~ Donnell Ann Bell

HOAs—Miss Marple Would Fit Right In

Author Linda Lovely

By Linda Lovely

Where might Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple hang her hat if she were teleported to the U.S. in 2023? Where could the snoop find the ambience of sleepy St Mary Mead? Where could the spinster sniff out villains among her neighbors?

Some 355,000 common-interest communities offer Miss Marple condo, coop, and homeowner association (HOA) choices aplenty. Societal heirs to yesteryear’s villages—HOAs are now home to 74 million people.

And they make ideal settings for mysteries. If neighbors don’t actually know each other, they’ve heard whispers about the folks they’ve yet to meet. When a murder occurs, the rumor mill makes it easy to churn out suspect lists.

Plus, the inevitable power struggles provide motives and subplots. Think the GOP House of Representatives’ current infighting on a more intimate scale. Who backs more rules and restrictions? Who wants to scale them back? Who favors special assessments to add pickleball courts? Who thinks annual dues are too high?

These power struggles take on real emotional weight if changes directly impact an owner’s home—his or her castle. For instance, how would you feel if a dog park was proposed for the vacant lot next to your house?

Once I decided to write an HOA Mystery series, I knew the crimes couldn’t be confined to a single HOA. After all, who’d want to live in a place like Cabot Cove with its sky-high homicide rate?

To solve that problem, my heroine, Kylee Kane, works for a friend’s HOA management firm. The company has a dozen HOA clients in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Kylee, a retired Coast Guard investigator, has the experience and skills to be a realistic sleuth when trouble surfaces in any of these tight-knit enclaves.

Are HOA management companies common? I was somewhat surprised that only 35 percent of HOAs are run by volunteers. The rest leave the nitty-gritty work to 8,500 firms that specialize in managing HOAs.

Guess it shouldn’t be a shock. Owners who hold full-time jobs aren’t eager to pile more responsibilities on their plates, while retirees may feel they’ve earned the right to relax and travel. By and large, owners in both categories don’t want to prepare budgets, collect fees, manage landscape vendors, assess fines, or force neighbors to tear down a fence that doesn’t meet specs or repaint shutters an approved shade of green.

Of course, a few people LOVE to file complaints against neighbors over nitpick infractions. Guess that’s one reason that 2021 saw 263 complaints filed against 180 different HOAs in South Carolina, where my HOA Mystery series is set.

Like almost any group with more than two people, HOAs can hatch conflict. There’s no guarantee the folks who elect to buy in seaside HOAs will have a shared vision of an ideal community. Some will want to specify which plants are permitted and how many can be planted in a yard. Others will want to install vegetable gardens and native plants.

Some folks will view all trees, especially Palmetto and pine trees, as view-blocking weeds to be cut down. Nature lovers will strive to protect the trees for erosion control and wildlife habitat. As a result, cliques form, gossip passes for gospel, and outcasts long for revenge.

I’ve asked readers to tell me about HOA rules they find unreasonable. I’ve been told the ones listed below appear in the bylaws of at least one HOA.

  • Multicolored outdoor holiday lights are banned. Is the Grinch the enforcer?
  • Owners are only allowed to keep garage doors open five-minutes. Who mans the egg timer?
  • All drapes and window coverings must have white linings facing the outside. What happens if Joe Blow takes down all window coverings in protest and parades in his birthday suit?
  • If an owner wants to sell a home, he must pay the HOA to display a For Sale sign. Said sign can only be appear in an interior window.

While few of us hang out with rock stars, hitmen, or bitcoin tycoons, we know our neighbors—from the quietly heroic to the bullies. Familiar characters and homeowner passions make it easy for readers to relate to HOA tales.

I do attempt to showcase well-run HOAs as well as those in constant upheaval. The difference? Usually it’s the individuals who serve on the board. Did they run to push personal agendas? Or do they want to listen to neighbors and search for consensus on important issues?

My main goal in writing My HOA Mystery series is to entertain. (Okay, there is the bonus of killing off stand-ins for the types of folks who annoy me.) But I also hope my mysteries spotlight strategies to promote peace and harmony within HOAs.

About the Book:

Deepfakes Can Be Murder

Kylee Kane, a security consultant for Welch HOA Management, finds the first victim, Andy Fyke, crumpled at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Kylee suspects his fall’s no accident and is tied to Andy’s campaign to prohibit rentals in his Hilton Head Island community. Yet, Andy’s obvious enemies have ironclad alibis.

When another Lowcountry HOA retiree dies in a hit-and-run boat tragedy, Kylee begins to think the incidents are linked—even though the victims and their assailants have little in common.

The link is the Chameleon, an Artificial Intelligence expert, who can create a deepfake of almost anyone—living or dead. Even more frightening is the Chameleon’s ability to seek out disturbed souls and laser-focus their rage. A talent employed to compel subjects to act as surrogate assassins.

When Kylee begins to pursue the Chameleon, the AI expert decides it’s time to groom an assassin to permanently sideline Kylee.

You can learn more about Linda Lovely and/or sign up for her newsletter at Welcome (lindalovely.com)

 

Bethany Maines drinks from an arsenic mug

Alekos!

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Alekos Now Available!

Whew!  I’ve made it to summer and the final (for now) book of my Rejects Pack trilogy.  Alekos wraps up the storyline started in the books 1 and 2 (Hudson & Killian) in what I hope is a satisfactory conclusion.  Hint: I’m trying to tell you there’s a Happily Ever After without giving away any spoilers.

Challenges

This series tested my creativity in quite a few ways.  I actually started Alekos first and then went back and wrote the first two installments.  This created a challenge in that the first two books were therefore more honed in to their themes and where they had to end up in order for book three to make sense. But that also meant that I had to a fair bit of editing on Alekos in order to make all the little plot jigsaw pieces line up.

I also started it during the pandemic and then was faced with the decision to include or not include the pandemic in the text. I ended up choosing to include it but with only light mentions rather than as a plot point.  One of the most curious things about the 1918 Influenza epidemic is that it seemed virtually unmentioned in fiction of the time.  It was certainly influential as a theme, but most of us haven’t ever read a story that features masks or other remnants of that outbreak.  When that was first pointed out, I couldn’t understand why.  It seems notable and worth a short story or two to try and capture the moment.  I did write one Covid piece of short fiction based on the drag races that sprang up during the lock downs (Fireball Rolled a Seven – Crimecucopia Funny Ha Ha edition), but writers have seen very sharp opinions from readers about mentioning the pandemic in novels mostly they don’t like it.  Reading is for escape and bringing Covid back into the escapist fantasy isn’t always wanted.  However, it was one of the hurdles my heroine had to overcome, so I left it in without dwelling on it. Hopefully, readers now have had enough distance that seeing a mention of a mask in fiction won’t send them scurrying for the door.

What to Expect

But I think I rose to meet the challenges of crafting a Indiana Jones / The Mummy inspired series that gives magical new worlds, globe trotting adventures, and mythological beings, archaeological mysteries, and one very pissed off ancient Egyptian mummy(ish) person. And I can’t wait for readers to be able to share the complete (for now) adventures of the Rejects Pack.

Pre-Order / Buy Now: https://amzn.to/3l32CAL

Learn more: https://www.bethanymaines.com

About Alekos:

Alpha wolf, Alexander Ash has forged a family dedicated to finding a cure for the magical wasteland that has stretched across Greece since the devastating Night of 1000 deaths. But on the brink of finally being able to right the wrongs fate has dealt, Alex meets translator Eliandra Smith and finds himself called to her in a way he can’t explain. But as Lia is swept into Alex’s world of mystical beings, magic, and deadly ancient wars, they soon discover that she is tied more closely to his past that she could have imagined. And Alex discovers she might also be the one thing that can kill them all.

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning indie and traditionally published author of romantic action-adventure and fantasy novels that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind-end. She can usually found chasing after her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel or screenplay.

Deep in the Promo Weeds

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By Lois Winston

My post last month talked about the five-letter word that sends a shudder through most authors. I’ve been in the promotion weeds ever since, due to the recent launch of  A Crafty Collage of Crime, the 12th book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. Between my own blog, Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers, and the two group blogs I belong to, this one and Booklover’s Bench, I also signed up for a blog tour with Great Escapes Book Tours and booked a few guest blogs on my own. The grand total came to—drumroll, please—26 blog posts through the middle of August!

And here lies the conundrum: How many ways can I talk about my series and the newest book in it without sounding like a broken record? Or worse yet, a carnival barker? Step right up, ladies and gentlemen. Be the first to experience the latest murder and mayhem author Lois Winston has dumped on her poor reluctant amateur sleuth!

No one likes being bombarded with “buy my book” pleas on social media. Hard sell often works against an author. Years ago, when I was still writing romance, I attended a conference where a well-known, bestselling author kept pleading with the audience to buy her books because her teenage son was growing so fast that she was spending a fortune every month at Foot Locker. From the sideways glances those of us in the audience were giving each other, I had the sense that this author’s attempt at a cute marketing ploy was backfiring badly. Especially since we’d all seen her latest advance recently posted on Publishers Marketplace. I’ve been published since 2006, and to this day, if you added up all my advances and royalties from the past seventeen years, the total would still be less than what that author had received in one advance.

At any rate, Anastasia and I (some bloggers requested posts written by my sleuth or interviews with her instead of me) have tried—desperately—to keep each of the posts fresh and different. My Great Escapes blog tour began June 19th and runs through July 2nd. You can find the schedule here. Visit each site to enter the Rafflecopter for a chance to win one of three copies I’m giving away of A Crafty Collage of Crime. Because the drawing won’t be held until after the last guest post goes live on July 2nd, you can also go back and enter at the blogs that have already posted.

I promise I won’t implore you to add to my sons’ or grandsons’ sneaker funds!

Instead, if you post a comment here, I’ll enter you in a random drawing for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of A Stitch to Die For, the fifth book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.