A Clue in the Stew blog tour, review and guest post
A Clue in the Stew
by Connie Archer
A Clue in the Stew:
A Soup Lover’s Mystery
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Berkley (April 5, 2016)
ISBN-13: 978-0425273128
SynopsisSoup shop owner Lucky Jamieson stirs up more trouble in the latest mystery from the national bestselling author of Ladle to the Grave…
When Lucky Jamieson opens up By the Spoonful to host an event with a famous author, she’s not expecting a bunch of nuts to descend on her small-town soup shop. But the author’s exasperating entourage—from a prickly publicist to a snippy son and his tipsy wife—give fresh meaning to the phrase, too many cooks spoil the broth.
The evening is more than spoiled, however, when it ends with a homicide. When the manner of the murder—as well as another recent unsolved crime—echoes the author’s fiction, Police Chief Nate Edgerton realizes he has a copycat killer on his hands. And Lucky hopes that one of her regular customers who has mysteriously gone missing isn’t involved. Once again, the soup shop owner will need to stir up some clues to find her friend and catch a cunning killer—before things really take a tureen for the worse…
My thoughts:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Connie Archer is the national bestselling author of the Soup Lover’s Mystery series from Penguin Random House (Berkley Prime Crime). A Spoonful of Murder
, A Broth of Betrayal
, A Roux of Revenge
, Ladle to the Grave
and A Clue in the Stew
are all set in the imaginary village of Snowflake, Vermont. Connie was born and raised in New England and now lives on the other coast. You can visit her at www.ConnieArcherMysteries.com
Author Links
Website: www.conniearchermysteries.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/ConnieArcherMysteries
Twitter: @SnowflakeVT
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1MMQllp
Purchase Links
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1O6lVOs
Guest post:
Death and the Village
We’ve all heard the realtors’ mantra – location, location, location. For writers, it’s “setting,” and for cozy mystery writers that usually means a small town atmosphere, a village, and a select group of recurring characters, as in Snowflake, Vermont where the Soup Lover’s mysteries take place. And who can forget St. Mary Mead, Miss Marple’s home town? Or Kembleford of the Father Brown stories? Or how about Three Pines in the Louise Penny books? What is it about that pastoral setting that causes a cozy reader to sigh deeply and open the pages of a new book?
But is that the reality of small town life? I recently came across a disturbing study compiled at Ohio State University that stopped me in my tracks — suicide rates among small town adolescents are double those of urban youngsters. They are highest among older men, Native Americans and veterans. Wyoming has the highest suicide rate per capita in the U.S., and following are Alaska, Montana, New Mexico and Utah.
But why? According to this study, isolation and lower incomes are the biggest factors, add to that health problems, unwillingness or fear of asking for help and lack of access to that help. Fifty-five percent of U.S. counties do not have a single psychologist, psychiatrist or social worker!
Whatever happened to small town America? Does it exist? Did it ever exist? Or is it just a vision we yearn for? Yes, we write about murder, murder in quaint villages with simmering secrets and dark motives, but that’s okay. It’s entertainment. It’s not suicide or urban crime or serial killers. Cozy fans want a sense of safety, a sense that justice will be served, and no one left standing will be in pain.
Many readers have told me they wished Snowflake, Vermont really existed. Others have said they want to live there. (I do too!) In a way, I do already. In my head. Snowflake is real to me. I can see the streets, the surrounding mountains, the storefronts and the By the Spoonful Soup Shop. Yes, I do have a soft spot in my heart for that little village. But I have to ask, are we propping up a harmful myth? Is our portrayal of small town America nothing but a lovely fantasy?
I really don’t have any answers. I’m just musing here — juxtaposing real world issues vs. the cozy universes that we as writers create. We are entertainers and we do our best to spin good stories with winning characters and clever plots. We are creating fantasies because our readers want the fantasy, not the drudgery of the real world.
So, I only hope our books do just that — offer delight to our readers, comfort to the lonely, escape for those who need it. Perhaps more people will want to read and dream and maybe someday those idyllic villages will actually take form in reality — small towns filled with compassionate and caring people who really do reach out to their neighbors. And then maybe one more person will get safely through the dark night.
I hope you’ll take a moment and click on this link to learn more: the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (http://afsp.org/)
Tour Participants
March 21 – I Wish I Lived in a Library – Review
March 22 – View from the Birdhouse – Interview
March 23 – Babs Book Bistro – Review, Guest Post
March 24 – Shelley’s Book Case – Review
March 25 – The Bookwyrm’s Hoard – Review, Guest Post
March 26 – Melina’s Book Blog – Review
March 27 – A Blue Million Books – Interview
March 28 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – Review
March 29 – A. Holland Reads– Review
March 30 – 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, &, Sissy, Too! – Review
March 31 – The Book’s The Thing – Review
April 1 – Back Porchervations – Review
April 2 – Cinnamon, Sugar and a Little Bit of Murder – Review
April 3 – Brooke Blogs – Review, Guest Post
April 4 – Mystery Playground – Interview
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