#MidweekMystery: Deadly Traditions, a cozy Christmas anthology

Have yourself a DEADLY little Christmas.
Celebrate the holidays with mistletoe, mayhem, and murder. Join your favorite authors as they cozy up by the fire with twelve festive short mysteries that feature treasured holiday traditions. Serve up a slice of fatal fruitcake and deck the halls with danger, because the holiday season has never been so much fun.

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This original collection is available for a limited time only, so grab your copy today.

Includes:
A Pickle in a Pear Tree by Erin Scoggins
Mistletoe and Murder by Dianne Ascroft
O Deadly Night by Estelle Richards
Larceny and Gingerbread Lattes by Justine Maxwell
…and more!

This original collection is available for a limited time only, so grab your copy today.

Gayle Leeson

Gayle Leeson is a pseudonym for Gayle Trent. Gayle has also written as Amanda Lee. She is currently writing the Kinsey Falls chick-lit/women’s fiction series, the Down South Cafe cozy mystery series, and the Ghostly Fashionista cozy mystery series. Her book KILLER WEDDING CAKE won the Bronze Medal in the 20th Anniversary IPPY Awards. Gayle lives in Southwest Virginia with her family and enjoys hearing from readers.

Erin Scoggins

USA Today Bestselling Author Erin Scoggins is a long-time Southerner with a fondness for offbeat humor and fresh fried chicken. After fifteen years in marketing with a Fortune 500 company, she traded her MBA for fictional crime scenes and feisty small-town families. She writes fun, flirty mysteries that are celebrations of food, family, and the killer South.

Visit her at www.erinscoggins.com for book news and shenanigans.

Dianne Ascroft

Dianne Ascroft is a Canadian writer living in Britain. Since moving to Britain in 1990 she has lived in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Online she can be found at http://www.dianneascroft.com.

She writes cozy mystery, historical and contemporary fiction, often with an Irish connection. Her non-fiction articles and short stories have been printed in Canadian and Irish magazines and regional newspapers including the Toronto Star, Ireland’s Own, Senior Times, Celtic Connection and Irish Connections Canada.

She was co-editor of The Fermanagh Miscellany, the Fermanagh Authors’ Association’s yearly anthology for several years and she also contributes material to other local history and writers’ anthologies.

Dianne is a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, Sisters in Crime, Historical Novel Society, Writers Abroad, Fermanagh Authors’ Association and Fermanagh Writers.

Dianne started life in a quiet residential neighbourhood in the buzzing city of Toronto and has progressively moved to smaller places through the years. She now lives on a small farm in Northern Ireland with her husband and an assortment of strong willed animals. If she ever decides to write her autobiography the working title will be ‘Downsizing’.

Estelle Richards

Estelle Richards lives in the beautiful American Southwest and writes cozy mysteries. Connect with Estelle at estellerichards.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/estellerichardswriter/.

Mollie Cox Bryan

Mollie Cox Bryan writes cozy mysteries with edge. She’s the author of several bestselling mystery series, also writing under the pen name Maggie Blackburn. Her books have been selected as finalists for an Agatha Award and a Daphne du Maurier Award and as a Top 10 Beach Reads by Woman’s World. She has also been short-listed for the Virginia Library People’s Choice Award. She’s also penned a historical fiction: MEMORY OF LIGHT: AN AFTERMATH OF GETTYSBURG. She’s the mother of two nearly perfect daughters, each pursuing careers in music.

Wendy H. Jones

International Award Winning Author Wendy H. Jones lives in Scotland. Her love for adventure led to her joining the Royal Navy to undertake nurse training. After six years in the Navy she joined the Army where she served as an Officer for a further 17 years. Killer’s Countdown was her first novel and the first book in the Shona McKenzie Mysteries. She is President of the Scottish Association of Writers and host of The Writing and Marketing Show podcast.

Justine Maxwell

Justine Maxwell writes cozy mysteries with brave heroines, strong family bonds, and a touch of romance. She has degrees in psychology from Northern Arizona University and Grand Canyon University. She hopes to one day become a reclusive author in a mountain cabin near Flagstaff, AZ. Until then, she’ll be a busy mom of four small children and one (allegedly) hypoallergenic pup, writing in the midst of chaos.

Sam Cheever

USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author Sam Cheever writes mystery and suspense, creating stories that draw you in and keep you eagerly turning pages. Known for writing great characters, snappy dialogue, and unique and exhilarating stories, Sam is the award-winning author of 80+ books.

NEWSLETTER: Join Sam’s Monthly newsletter and get a FREE book! You can also keep up with her appearances, enjoy special content, and get previews of her upcoming work! https://www.samcheever.com/newsletter.html

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To find out more about Sam and her work, please pay her a visit: Her website: https://www.samcheever.com; Her blog: https://www.samcheever.com/blog; and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamCheeverAuthor. She looks forward to chatting with you!

Holiday Throwback: Letters to Santa, Hilo, Hawaii Edition

Before she was with the legendary mystery blog Chicks on the Case, author  Leslie Karst had a culinary blog called Custard and Clues.  In this 2014 post she shares highlights from the Hilo, Hawaii Tribune Herald’s Letters to Santa.  

 

Local kids provide evidence to bolster their case for getting on the Good List (“I’ve been helping my mom at dinner time by washing the rice”), or get Santa oriented so he doesn’t lose his way (“If you come down our chimney, one you will get dirty, and two, our Christmas tree will be right in front of you”). Some simply throw themselves on the mercy of the court (“Can I know if you give people on the bad list another chance?”).

Read the whole thing HERE!

Header image: Victorian Christmas card depicting Santa stuffing a child into his sack.

Island Confidential Holiday Gift Ideas

These are my personal recommendations, based on my own experience and preferences. I haven’t received any compensation. (Except if you buy a book by me, I will get a dollar or so.)

I hope you enjoy discovering something new this season!

Where else can you buy a plush mongoose, handmade in Honokaʻa, HI? All proceeds fulfill Honokaʻa Heritage Centerʻs mission to preserve, educate and celebrate the heritage of North Hawaiʻi.

Three Ring Ranch is a private,
non-profit, exotic animal sanctuary located on five acres above Kona, HI. Buy logo merchandise, or adopt an animal.

Basically Books in Hilo, HI offers Hawaiian maps, music, and books by local authors.



Even in paradise, people die. Jane Laswell Hoff’s debut mystery takes readers to a Hawaii most tourists never see.

Leslie Karst’s Sally Solari mysteries are smart, funny, and delicious.

Jill Steele’s Blood on the Orchids takes the reader to a world that no longer exists. It ended when it was buried in the 2018 lava flow.

#MidweekMystery: Mistletoe Cake Murder (All-Day Breakfast Cafe Mystery) by Lena Gregory

’Tis the season for celebrating when Gia Morelli’s holidays include both a wedding and yuletide festivities. Until someone naughty delivers a most unwanted Christmas gift—murder. . .

Mistletoe Cake Murder (An All-Day Breakfast Cafe Mystery) by Lena Gregory
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For a native New Yorker, palm trees and warm temperatures don’t equal winter, much less Christmastime. Nevertheless, Gia Morelli’s friends have decked the halls and trimmed the trees to truly welcome her into their “family” with an old-fashioned Boggy Creek, Florida holiday season. Even more joyous, Savannah Mills is getting married on Christmas Eve—the greatest gift Gia could ever wish for her best friend.

But when Gia and Savannah stop by the caterer for a final tasting a week before the wedding, they overhear another bride arguing with her son about her husband-to-be. Moments later, the woman is sampling a piece of wedding cake—gorgeously decorated with mistletoe frosting—then suddenly dies.

Now Gia’s caterer friends are the prime suspects in what appears to be murder by poisoning. To clear their names and ensure Savannah has a merry matrimony will require Gia to conjure up a Christmas miracle . . .

Includes recipes from the All-Day Breakfast Café!

About the Author

Lena Gregory

Lena grew up in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island, but she recently traded in cold, damp, gray winters for the warmth and sunshine of central Florida, where she now lives with her husband, three kids, son-in-law, and four dogs. Her hobbies include spending time with family, reading, and walking. Her love for writing developed when her youngest son was born and didn’t sleep through the night. She works full-time as a writer and a freelance editor and is a member of Sisters in Crime.

Visit her website and BookBub and sign up for her newsletter.

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#MidweekMystery: Better Watch Out by Christina Freeburn


Making a list. Merry’s life is Christmas chaos. Her divorce is still in question. She’s behind on crafting orders. And with one day left, she hasn’t completed the line-up for the annual Christmas parade, thanks to a certain Grinch.

Checking it twice. Santa’s naughty list, courtesy of Jenna Wilcox, will roll down Main Street with names of residents who deserve a lump of coal in their stocking. Saving the parade won’t be easy, but Merry is up to task. Or so she thinks until she discovers Jenna’s body stashed in Santa’s sack.

Going to find out. As threats are aimed at her and those she loves, Merry dashes for the truth before the murderer puts her on the naughty list and crosses her off for good.

Christina Freeburn

Merry & Bright Handcrafted Mysteries

Christina Freeburn has always loved books. There was nothing better than picking up a story and being transported to another place. The love of reading evolved into the love of writing and she’s been writing since her teenage years. Her first novel was a 2003 Library of Virginia Literary Award nominee. Her mysteries series, Faith Hunter Scrap This Mystery and Merry & Bright Handcrafted Mysteries, are a mix of crafty and crime and feature heroines whose crafting time is interrupted by crime solving.
Christina served in the US Army and has also worked as a paralegal, librarian, church secretary, and golf shop pro. She lives in West Virginia with her husband, dog, and a rarely seen cat except by those who are afraid and allergic to felines.
Webpage: www.christinafreeburn.com
Blog: www.theselfrescueprincess.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristinaFreeburnCraftyandCrimeAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChristinaFreeb1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/ChristinaFreeburn
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#MidweekMystery: The Glass House, Two Bites Too Many, and Have Yourself a Beary Little Murder

Have Yourself a Beary Little Murder

This holiday season, teddy bear shop manager Sasha Silverman must solve the slaying of Santa Bear . . .

Have-Yourself-a-Beary-Little-Murder

Sasha and her sister Maddie are thrilled that the Silver Bear Shop and Factory has won the Teddy Bear Keepsake Contest, which means they get to produce a holiday specialty toy, a wizard bear named “Beary Potter.” Promising to be just as magical is Silver Hollow’s annual tree-lighting ceremony and village parade. Only one hitch: the parade’s mascot, Santa Bear—played by Mayor Cal Bloom—is missing.

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About the Author

Meg Macy

Meg Macy is an award-winning author and artist, and lives in Southeastern Michigan, the setting of her Shamelessly Adorable Teddy Bear cozy mysteries for Kensington. Her first published book, Double Crossing, won the 2012 Spur Award for Best First Novel from Western Writers of America. Meg is also one-half of the writing team of D.E. Ireland, authors of the Eliza and Henry Higgins Mystery series—of which two titles have been Agatha Award finalists. Meg love gardening, watercolor painting, and reading books of various genres.

Author Links

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The Glass House

Law Librarian Pat Pirard got an unexpected thirty-fifth birthday present: a pink slip.

Now she has nine weeks to reinvent herself before she runs out of money. Her best friend Syda gives her a glass forming class as a birthday present and distraction where Pat gets another surprise: a murder.


About the Author

Nancy Lynn Jarvis

Nancy Lynn Jarvis was a Santa Cruz, California, Realtor® for more than twenty years before she fell in love with writing and let her license lapse.

After earning a BA in behavioral science from San Jose State University, she worked in the advertising department of the San Jose Mercury News. A move to Santa Cruz meant a new job as a librarian and later a stint as the business manager for Shakespeare/Santa Cruz at UCSC.

Nancy’s work history reflects her philosophy: people should try something radically different every few years, a philosophy she applies to her writing, as well. She has written seven Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries; a stand-alone novel “Mags and the AARP Gang” about a group of octogenarian bank robbers; edited “Cozy Food: 128 Cozy Mystery Writers Share Their Favorite Recipes” and a short story anthology, “Santa Cruz Weird;” and even done a little insider’s book, “The Truth About Hosting Airbnb” about her first year as a host.

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Two Bites Too Many: A Sarah Blair Mystery

Sarah Blair would rather catch bad guys than slave over a hot stove. But when a dangerous murder boils over in Wheaton, Alabama, catching the killer means leaving her comfort zone . . .

Things are finally looking up for Sarah Blair following her unsavory divorce. Settled into a cozy carriage house with her sassy Siamese cat, RahRah, she has somehow managed to hang on to her modest law firm receptionist job and—if befriending flea-bitten strays at the local animal shelter counts—lead a thriving social life. For once, Sarah almost has it together more than her enterprising twin, Emily, a professional chef whose efforts to open a gourmet restaurant have hit a real …dead end…

Includes quick and easy recipes!

About the Author

Debra H. Goldstein

Judge Debra H. Goldstein is the author of Two Bites Too Many, as well as One Taste Too Many, the first of Kensington’s new Sarah Blair cozy mystery series. She also wrote Should Have Played Pokerand IPPY Award-winning Maze in Blue. Her short stories, including Anthony and Agatha nominated “The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place,” have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Weekly. Debra serves on the national boards of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and is president of the Southeast Chapter of MWA and past president of SinC’s Guppy Chapter.

Website http://www.debrahgoldstein.com   

Blog http://www.debrahgoldstein.com/blog

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DebraHGoldsteinAuthor/

Twitter @DebraHGoldstein          

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/debra-h-goldstein-72473a11/

GoodReads  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4906340.Debra_H_Goldstein

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But it’s only September…

The 2020 WPA Calendar is here

In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration (the name was changed to Work Projects Administration in September of 1939), as part of his New Deal program to put millions of unemployed Americans back to work. In July of 1935, Federal Project Number One (Federal One) was established within the WPA as a central administration for the arts-related projects. Federal One provided funds specifically for artists, musicians, actors, and writers through the Federal Art Project (FAP), the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theatre Project, and the Federal Writer’s Project. FAP employed more than five thousand artists in various art projects including the many poster divisions that were created throughout the United States.

Many New Deal administrators believed that art could be a part of the daily lives of all Americans, not just the elite, and could enrich the lives of all who came in contact with it. The main objective of FAP was the employment of out-of-work artists, but this was not its only goal. The activities of FAP also included art production, education, and research. The project employed artists in the fields of easel painting, sculpture, photography, mural painting, and graphic arts, and it also held exhibitions and organized community arts centers through which many Americans were first introduced to the arts. Another well-known, well-received FAP project, the Index of American Design, created a survey of illustrations of American decorative and folk arts from colonial times through the late nineteenth century.

Library of Congress

#MidweekMystery: Silent Night, Deadly Night (A Year-Round Christmas Mystery) by Vicki Delany

Residents of Rudolph keep the spirit of Christmas alive year-round—but their joy is threatened when a group of grinches visits the town, in the charming fourth installment of the Year-Round Christmas series.

Silent Night Cover

It’s the week before Thanksgiving, and Merry Wilkinson, owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, is preparing for a weekend reunion of her mother’s college friends. But when the group of women comes into Merry’s shop, Merry is met with frosty attitudes and cold hearts.

The women argue amongst themselves constantly, and the bickering only intensifies after one of the friends is poisoned. With her father’s role as Santa in danger due to his proximity to the crime, Merry will need to use all of her investigative gifts to wrap this mystery up and save Santa and her favorite holiday.


About the Author

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than thirty books:  clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea By The Sea mysteries, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year Round Christmas mysteries and, as Eva Gates, the Lighthouse Library series.

Website â€“  www.vickidelany.com

Facebook â€“ www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor;

Twitter:  @vickidelany and@evagatesauthor

Instagramvickidelany

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As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles (A Food Lovers’ Village Mystery): Interview with Author Leslie Budewitz

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Erin is one smart cookie, but can she keep the holiday spirit—and herself—alive till Christmas?

In Jewel Bay, all is merry and bright. At Murphy’s Mercantile, AKA the Merc, manager Erin Murphy is ringing in the holiday season with food, drink, and a new friend: Merrily Thornton. A local girl gone wrong, Merrily has turned her life around. But her parents have publicly shunned her, and they nurse a bitterness that chills Erin.
When Merrily goes missing and her boss discovers he’s been robbed, fingers point to Merrily—until she’s found dead, a string of lights around her neck. The clues and danger snowball from there. Can Erin nab the killer—and keep herself in one piece—in time for a special Christmas Eve?
Includes delicious recipes!


Leslie, thanks for stopping by Island Confidential! Can you tell us about your protagonist, Erin?

Erin Murphy runs the Merc, a local foods shop in her family’s hundred-year-old grocery in the heart of the village of Jewel Bay, Montana. She’s half Italian, as you can tell by her name, and deeply committed to the village, local business, her friends and family, and justice. Like a lot of Montana kids, she left the state for a few years, then returned. It still surprises her to realize that while she was gone, her hometown changed. But then, so did she.

In AS THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE CRUMBLES, Erin meets another woman returning to her hometown after years away and feels an instant connection. She’s determined to forge a friendship, despite what some locals, and the woman’s own parents, say about her. She’s busy at the Merc, village headquarters for holiday food and gifts. And she’s getting married on Christmas Eve.

What could go wrong?

How much alike are you and Erin?

Like Erin, I grew up in Montana, left, and returned. I’m enjoying exploring that theme, a common one, through the experiences of a younger woman. Like her, I’m obsessed with food and enjoy cooking and entertaining. Erin shares my habit of spouting odd lines of poetry or from a play, my love of cats and cookies, and my commitment to my community. Although her mother Fresca and I aren’t much alike, I suspect that if I met Erin, she would feel like a daughter to me.

Do your characters change and evolve throughout consecutive books in the series?

Oh, definitely! That’s part of their appeal to me as a writer, and I hope, part of their appeal to the reader.

Have you ever thought of killing someone that you know in real life–on the pages of a murder mystery, I mean?

I’ve thought of it, but never done it because if I disliked someone that much, I wouldn’t want to spend six months and 300 pages with them!

How realistic is your setting? Do you take liberties, or are you true to life?

The village of Jewel Bay, Montana is closely based on the town where I live, though I’ve changed the street names and most of the businesses. A few are simply too cozy, too iconic, to mess with, so I’ve kept them alive, with the owners’ permission—Red’s Bar, the Playhouse, and the Jewel Inn would all be easy to identify if you strolled the streets with me. There’s a touch of wish fulfillment in my fictional town—a lovely green belt we lack around the bay, which we do have, a library and community center we hope to get soon, and a bakery I’m glad doesn’t exist because I would drop in far too often!

When the movie or TV series is made, who plays the major parts?

Honestly, I don’t know! I don’t use actors as models for my story people, and couldn’t begin to cast the finished project! Occasionally, I picture someone I know when I start creating a character, but they evolve so much as the story unfolds that no one would ever recognize them on the page.

What’s the worst and best advice you’ve heard or received as an author?

It’s actually the same piece of advice: Do whatever works. It’s the best because it gives a writer permission to find her own way, and the worst because it can give her an excuse to stay stuck in a rut. Writers are often told they must write every day. When I started, I was practicing law full-time, sometimes more. I just didn’t have the brain power to write every day, so I wrote on Fridays and Saturday mornings—and finished three manuscripts that way. But when my work schedule changed, I chose to develop new writing habits and now I do write nearly every day. I’ve always been a planner, but when I couldn’t see the middle of a book in advance, despite knowing the ending, I let myself start anyway, trusting that I would discover what happened in those chapters along the way. Following a radically different process was terrifying, but for that book, it worked. And now, because I’ve been willing to explore other processes, other options, I’ve got more writerly tools in my box.

Thank you for letting me introduce myself to your readers. It is such a gift to be trusted with someone’s most valuable assets: their time and attention. I am grateful to be able to explore the world through storytelling—and it’s the readers who make that possible.


About The Author  

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries—and the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction. She lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician, and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat Ruff, a cover model, and avid bird-watcher.
Connect with her on her website, http://www.LeslieBudewitz.com, on Facebook, or on Twitter.
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Alice Mongoose and Alistair Rat

“Sorry, Miss Pfaff, I didn’t mean to gush. But I do love Alice Mongoose!”

“It’s true,” Emma said. “Molly’s a huge fangirl. She wore her Alice the Mongoose t-shirt till it got all full of pukas, and now she sleeps in it.”

“It’s Alice Mongoose, Emma, not Alice the Mongoose. It’s not Peter the Rabbit, right?”

Marshall murmured something and steered Miss Dorothy Pfaff away from us and toward a canapé-bearing waiter.

The Invasive Species


With her hatbox and steamer trunk all packed and her employment letter in hand, Alice Mongoose was looking forward to her first grownup job on a Hamakua sugar plantation. Imagine her shock when she learned that her job was to kill rats!

Alice was not a killer. She knew that this was not the job for her. She disembarked and, carrying her hatbox and dragging her steamer trunk, went to look for a place to stay.

The first friendly creature she met was Alistair Rat. Fortunately, Alistair was nearsighted and too vain to wear spectacles, so he did not realize that Alice was a mongoose. Rather than run away in terror, Alistair invited Alice in for tea.

Alice Mongoose and Alistair Rat became neighbors and best friends, and had adventures together on the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.


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