Clea Simon's Blog, page 39

A Spell of Murder is “a delightfully charming series debut”

Mystery Writers of America awarded Dru’s Book Musings the coveted Raven award in recognition of service to the genre. And this weekend, the much-loved blog weighed in on A Spell of Murder. I am overjoyed!

“It’s Harriet’s fault. It’s always her fault, not that she’ll ever admit it.” So begins A Spell of Murder: A Witch Cats of Cambridge mystery, the first in a new cozy series that mixes feline fiction with a touch of the paranormal, and a little romance as well.

The statement that opens the book caught my attention and I immediately wanted to know what did Harriet do. To my surprise, the point of view featured in this tale are three felines who take care of their human owner, Becca. They are a mischievous bunch but it is all for good of their owner. Kudos to the author who somehow in her narrative made it happen where I never thought of the dialogue being spoken by cats. It was like they were the characters of the book and guiding me through the trials and tribulation of the events surrounding the murder of Suzanne when it appeared that Becca was a person of interest. I like the light-hearted atmosphere that accompanied the tone and flow of the story as the suspects were all present and accounted for and it was up to Becca and the help of her feline friends to find someone with a stronger motive among her friends. I like how the story was staged with good initial character development of those who had pivotal roles in the telling of this tale. Overall, this was a delightfully charming debut series.

FIVE QUESTIONS with Julia Henry

I’m not sure how I first got to know Julia Henry (aka Julie Hennrikus aka Julianne Holmes). Was it when she was our Sisters in Crime president, advocating for writers and readers? Was it through her “day job” work with Boston theater companies? Was it through her fun, imaginative cozies? All I know is that she’s a force of nature, which makes me particularly excited about this new gardening series. I’m more than delighted to introduce her here.

How does a book start for you?

I usually have a germ of an idea and sit down with a notebook. I ask myself “and then what” until I have a strong outline for the story. I think about subplots, and jot down ideas for them. Then I take out the index cards, write scenes on each card, and shuffle them until the story is solid, the action is well distributed, and there’s enough to start the novel. I find that creating enough structure helps me be creative in adding layers.

Who in your latest book has surprised you most – and why?

This is such a great question! I have a new series that is debuting in January with Pruning the Dead. The series centers around four friends who are guerilla gardeners and solve mysteries. Lilly Jayne is the center of the series, and she’s a recent widow in her 60’s. Tamara O’Connor has been her best friend forever. Ernie Johnson owns the local home center. Delia Greenway is Lilly’s late husband’s grad assistant. Setting up a series with four protagonists gives me a lot to work with, but a character showed up in the first book, and he is definitely a surprise.  Roderick (Roddy) Lyden is Lilly’s new next door neighbor. He’s charming, a bit mysterious, and a great foil for Lilly. I think he may have been a spy back in the day, but now he’s retired.

When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind that setting?

I write traditional mysteries and have three series all set in Massachusetts. My newest series takes place on the South Shore in a town called Goosebush. I grew up in Duxbury, so it’s based on that town in some ways, though I’ve changed the geography significantly. I also haven’t lived there for forty years, so I’m creating a town from long ago memories. One of the fun parts of writing a series is creating a town, and a specific setting, that builds up over the course of the series. A series set in a sea side town is a great setting, with lots of opportunities.

What are you working on now?

I just finished the second Garden Squad book, and I’m working on synopsis for the third one. As you know, when you’re working on a series it is hard to remember when you are in the work cycle, but I’m enjoying plotting. I’m very excited about this series!

I’m also plotting a thriller, which is a departure for me, but a lot of fun to work on. I’ve added an international corporate intrigue mix to the plot, so I’m also doing research.

Which question didn’t I ask you that I should have?

I’d love to know what other questions your readers may have! I’m happy to answer them. Thanks for having me on the blog, Clea!

Thanks for joining me, Julia!

Julia Henry writes the Garden Squad series for Kensington. The series debuts in January with PRUNING THE DEAD. As J.A. Hennrikus she writes the Theater Cop series, and as Julianne Holmes she wrote the Clock Shop Mystery series. Find her at jahennrikus.com and WickedAuthors.com

A Spell of Murder is “irresistible”

“This new series mixes mystery with a touch of the paranormal and a little romance, and the combination is irresistible.” So  begins this review of my new A SPELL OF MURDER on the Conscious Cat blog.

November 30, 2018
Review: A Spell of Murder

A Spell of Murder is the first in Clea Simon’s new Witch Cats of Cambridge series – and how adorable is this cover! This new series mixes mystery with a touch of the paranormal and a little romance, and the combination is irresistible.

Protagonist Becca, a newly single and newly unemployed librarian is studying to become a witch. She really wants to believe that the spells she’s trying to learn are working. Little does she know that her three cats, Harriett, Laurel and Clara, are the ones with the real powers.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Featuring Clea Simon’s trademark highly descriptive writing style, I quickly lost myself in Becca’s world. After all, we already know cats are mysterious creatures, so it wasn’t much of a leap for my imagination to follow Simon into a world where cats can make themselves invisible or conjure pillows out of thin air. I particularly fell in love with calico cat Clara, the youngest of the three cats, and the one most closely bonded with Becca.

If you enjoy feline-centric mysteries, fantasy and a touch of magic, you will love this book.

My only problem with it was that it ended much too soon – but thankfully, it’s only the first in a series, and I’m eagerly waiting for the next installment.

THANK YOU, INGRID AND THE CONSCIOUS CAT! Read the entire review here or pre-order your own copy (and read an excerpt) here.

Discovering Tortitude

Thisbe is annoyed. And who can blame her? Although this lovely tortie lady joined our household in April, she will not be featured in my new A Spell of Murder, which kicks off my “witch cats of Cambridge” series on Dec. 11. In fact, among the multiple felines at the heart of my magical new cozy, none is tortoiseshell…. (Read more on the Conscious Cat here.)

CyberMonday (treat yourself)

Just discovered a bunch of my mysteries are on sale for $1.99 for the e-books. What a nice treat for CyberMonday!  These include my Into the Grey and Grey Expectations, too. I never know when these sales are going to happen or how long they’ll last. But if you’re looking for a treat for yourself or a stocking stuffer, I like to think these cat mysteries will amuse!

FIVE QUESTIONS with Thomas Pluck

I first met Thomas Pluck through a mystery convention – are we seeing a theme here? He was moderating a panel (I think this was Bouchercon, New Orleans) that I was assigned to. I saw what looked like really tough, slash-em-up books, and thought, “I’ve got nothing in common with this guy. He’s not going to like me, either.” Imagine my surprise then, when I found him receptive and appreciative of my work – and a damned good moderator! And so I picked up his then-new Bad Boy Boogie and could not put it down. Yes, there was more blood and gore in a chapter than in the entirety of any of my books (when the hero picks up an ax, you know someone’s going to get beheaded…). But it was done with such style and humor, I ended up reading much of it out loud to my husband, and interrupting myself with laughs. It is with great pleasure, then, that I introduce Thomas Pluck!

How does a book start for you?
It starts as a daydream. An inciting incident of some sort, a character dealing with something strange. Bad Boy Boo gie  began with “what if you killed a vicious bully as a child, and if was the wrong one?” Blade of Dishonor began when I learned that Japan’s most treasured sword, a Masamune, disappeared in 1945. It has never been found.

Who in your latest book has surprised you most – and why?
Bad Boy Boogie is my latest, my first Jay Desmarteaux crime thriller. It begins when Jay is released from prison after 25 years, when his juvenile sentence of Life Without Parole is commuted. He’s full of surprises, but his buddy Tony surprised me most. He was a bullied kid who can’t let go of the past, and Jay saves him from sinking into the darkness that scarred him.

When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind that setting?
It’s set where I grew up, northern New Jersey, where the landscape changes from industrial wasteland to bucolic suburb in a matter of miles. Three stories I know of came together to make Bad Boy Boogie: a bloody hatchet murder, a good foster mother who had her adopted child taken away and returned to his abusive family, and a brutal hazing that was dismissed by school authorities as “locker room antics” when it was legally sexual assault. The suburbs only look safe.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on the follow-up to Bad Boy Boogie , where Jay returns to his birth state of Louisiana to help save his mother from her evil family. It’s called Riff Raff , and is inspired by a woman who shared her father’s deathbed confession, that as a Klansman, he and other white men would attack and abduct black men, tie them with barbed wire, and drop them in the swamp to drown. She dedicated her life to fighting hate and white supremacist terrorism. Louisiana is a beautiful state, and the north has its share of ugly racism, but the Southern past is not even past, as Faulkner said. I’ve been visiting for years and I’ve wanted to write a story of how one can redeem the evils their family has done. Riff Raff is it.

Which question didn’t I ask you that I should have?

With thousands of books released every week, why do I write and what do I have to offer?
I love discovering lost history and sharing it. Stories that get glossed over, or that towns want to make go away. I always regretted not choosing journalism, and this is my way of uncovering old truths and sharing them with the world, by turning them into entertaining fictions.

Thanks, Thomas!

Thomas Pluck has slung hash, worked on the docks, trained in martial arts in Japan, and even swept the Guggenheim museum (but not as part of a clever heist). He hails from Nutley, New Jersey, home to criminal masterminds Martha Stewart and Richard Blake, but has so far evaded capture. His latest is Life During Wartime , a story collection that made Out of the Gutter say “this man can write.” He is the author of Bad Boy Boogie , his first Jay Desmarteaux crime thriller, and Blade of Dishonor , an action adventure which MysteryPeople called “the Raiders of the Lost Ark of pulp paperbacks.”

Joyce Carol Oates calls him “a lovely kitty man.”

FIVE QUESTIONS with Carol Perry

I met Carol Perry when I was asked to moderate a panel at Bouchercon this past year. As a cat lover – and as the author of several series with magical cats – I immediately fell for her concept, and as a New Englander, I was immediately drawn to her Salem, Massachusetts, setting, which is such a crucial part of her series. When I actually got to meet Carol in person, I found her as much fun as I’d hoped – and now I’m pleased as punch to be able to introduce her to you.

How does a book start for you?

Carol Perry, Gulfport

The books in my Witch City Mystery series (Kensington Publishers) start for me in a variety of ways. Often, they begin with a name for a character. I don’t know where these names come from—Kelly Greene, Shea Tolliver, Lillian Jeffrey—they just pop into my head and demand to be included in the story. (Usually they’re one-book-people, but occasionally one becomes a “regular.”) Many times though, I’ve already begun planning the next book before I’ve finished writing the one that precedes it.

Who in your latest book has surprised you most – and why?

It the most recent Witch City Mystery, Bells, Spells, and Murders, Frankie,a feral cat lady friend of Lee’s wise cat O’Ryanturned up. (We first met Frankie in Book #5, Grave Errors.) This time she appeared at Lee’s kitchen window and cried to be let into both the warm house–and the story! She surprised me—I hadn’t planned for her but it turned out to be a good move!

When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind that setting?

Bells, Spells, and Murders, like all of the books in the series, takes place in my hometown of Salem, Massachusetts—the Witch City. I think it’s a natural setting for mysteries—with a rich history of not only the witchcraft happenings of 1692, a list of literary luminaries including Nathaniel Hawthorne, a long ago Salem murder so foul it inspired the game of Clue—and the fact that I was born there on Halloween eve!

What are you working on now?

I’m working now on Book #9 in the Witch City Mystery series. It concerns a murder in a library. It’s titled Late Checkout and will release in the fall of 2019.

Which question didn’t I ask you that I should have?

You can ask me why I choose to write cozy mysteries. I’ll tell you. It began with Nancy Drew. and Judy Bolton, moved on to Agartha Christie, Phyliss Whiney, Lillian Jackson Braun, and continues today with Sofie Kelly, Carolyn Hart, Carolyn Haines. . .you get the picture!

Carol J. Perry is the author of the Witch City Mystery series, ( Kensington.) She was born in that magical witch city—Salem Massachusetts–on Halloween Eve!  Carol’s writing background includes ad copy, non-fiction magazine articles (many on travel, more on antiques and collectibles) and several middle grade books. Her first Witch City mystery, Caught Dead Handed, appeared in 2014, followed by six more—the newest, Bells, Spells and Murders came out in September. Carol lives in Florida with husband Dan, one black Lab and one spoiled cat.

A Spell of Murder is “charming”!

From the Bookblog of the Bristol Public Library (Bristol, VA):

A Spell of Murder by Clea Simon

Becca Colvin has been having a rough patch.  She’s lost her job as a researcher due to cutbacks and her boyfriend Jeff has just broken up with her.  Feeling lonely and a bit lost, she finds a flyer advertising for witches (new or in training) and decides to join.  After all, she already has three cats—three familiars, corrects Trent, the coven’s warlock—and Becca thinks she might just have psychic powers.

But like everything else in her life, success at conjuring seems to elude her.  Then, out of nowhere, a pillow appears:  a pillow she’s never seen before, a pillow she didn’t realize she was summoning.  It’s quite the breakthrough, and her fellow witches and warlock are suitably impressed.  Becca is on her way to becoming a witch.

Except that she wasn’t the one who produced the pillow.  That would be Harriet, her long-haired, cream colored cat.  Or as little Clara the calico put it, it was all Harriet’s fault, because Harriet was too lazy to go sit on a pillow and summoned one instead.  Siamese Laurel is coolly amused, but Clara is worried.  There’s no telling what Becca might do if she thinks she really has powers.

Things take an even darker turn when a member of the coven is found murdered—and it appears that Becca might have a motive.  Can Clara save her person without revealing her own supernatural gifts?

This is the first in the Witch Cats of Cambridge series, and a charming start it is.  Told primarily from Clara’s point of view, Simon imbues all three cats with strong, distinct personalities from hedonistic Harriet to manipulative Laurel who likes to stir the pot just to see what mischief emerges.  Clara is loyal and nurturing, concerned about Becca and determined to help.  Becca herself is an appealing character, down but not out, kind, generous, and sometimes a bit gullible.  The mystery is well done, with many motives and many suspects, but the true treat for me is seeing how the cats view humans as well as recognizing aspects of cats I’ve known with these three feline sisters. I also enjoy the hints that there is a greater backstory of cat and human relationships to come.

Most of all, I like that the book features an engaging, sweet-natured, intelligent heroine.  The fact that she has four legs, fur, and a tail, is just a bonus.  I look forward to more adventures with the Cambridge Cat Coven.

FIVE QUESTIONS with Diane A.S. Stuckart

I met Diane when we were both assigned to a “Four-Legged Friends” panel together at Bouchercon. – between my mysterious witch cats and Diane’s then-brand-new Tarot Cat series, it was a natural pairing. In fact, I was scheduled to moderate a panel after on supernatural cozies, and so it was easy to fit Diane into that, too! As a result, I got an advance copy of her latest cozy, and the inside story on the real-life littermate who help her spunky heroine solve crimes. And now, with pleasure, I share her with you!

How does a book start for you?

I start at the last minute possible based on my deadline, and always under great duress, kicking and screaming! Even when I’m writing the next book in a series, it takes me a bit to get going. I know my basic story premise and (when I’m writing a mystery) who the murder victim is, and how they die. And, of course, I have my protagonist in place. Beyond that, I’m as surprised as anyone else how things shake out as the story progresses.

Who in your latest book has surprised you most – and why?

In my latest published book, Fool’s Moon, I was most surprised by the street dog, Rally. He kind of showed up out of nowhere and stole the show in his few scenes…and, contrary to what I expected, he didn’t join the animal crew by the story’s end.  In the book I just finished writing, Peach Cobblered–first in my Georgia B&B Mystery series due out next May–I was surprised by my second-tier protagonist, Harry Westcott. He was supposed to be more of a co-sleuth to my protagonist, Nina Fleet, but he ended up being more of a pain in her rear throughout the story.

When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind that setting?

Fool’s Moonis set in West Palm Beach, Florida, which is pretty much where I’ve been living the past dozen or more years. It was lots of fun to write a story set in my own backyard. And South Florida is its own character, for sure. From the diverse population to the summer-almost-all-year weather to the crazy flora and fauna you’ll find here, it’s the perfect place to set any sort of novel.

What are you working on now?

I’m on temporary hiatus between books, but I’ll be working on a series of cat fantasy novelettes that I intend to self-publish in the next couple of months. Keep an eye out for the Thomas Moonraker Chroniclesin 2019!

Which question didn’t I ask you that I should have?

Why Tarot…and why cats? I always answer, why not?

Of course!

DIANE A.S. STUCKART is the New York Times bestselling author of the Black Cat Bookshop Mystery series (written as Ali Brandon). She’s also the author of the award-winning Leonardo da Vinci historical mysteries, as well as several historical romances and numerous mystery, fantasy, and romance short stories. The first book in her new Tarot Cats cozy mystery series is FOOL’S MOON, on the shelves from Midnight Ink in early November 2018.

Diane is a member of Mystery Writers of America and has served as the 2018 Chapter President of the MWA Florida chapter. In addition to her mystery writing affiliations, she’s a member of the Cat Writers’ Association and belongs to the Palm Beach County Beekeepers Association. She’s a native Texan with a degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma, but has been living in the West Palm Beach FL area for the past dozen or so years. She shares her “almost in the Everglades” home with her husband, dogs, cats, and a few beehives. Find her on Facebook here:  www.facebook.com/blackcatmysteries

Crime Bake!

This year’s New England Crime Bake (with guest of honor Walter Mosley) has long been sold out. But if you were one of the smart folks who registered early (or got in from the wait list), I’ll see you there! I’ll be hitting the panels and chatting with everyone – and I’ll be a panelist on Saturday morning (10:10–11:10 a.m.) on “Killer Fun with Fluffy and Fido,” along with Donna Andrews and Liz Mugavero/Cate Conte, with Paula Munier moderating. Drop on by and say hi!