Double Release Day plus #Giveaways!
Edith/Maddie here, celebrating the beginning of real summer north of Boston.
And I’m delighted to share today’s release day post with Jessie. MyMurder at the Rusty Anchor, the sixth Cozy Capers Book Group mystery, is out along with her Murder at an English Seance!
Here’s Jessie’s blurb: Hidden beneath her British reserve, Edwina has a secret: she’s finished her novel and is bravely mailing the manuscript to a publisher. Beryl also has a secret: as thanks for solving a case, the American adventuress has been gifted an airplane. After swooping over the fields and hedgerows of Walmsley Parva, livestock scattering beneath her, she flamboyantly lands the plane on the village green, prompting a startled Edwina to consider a stiff gin fizz.
Beryl’s aircraft is not the only disruption of village peace. Miss Dinsdale, a psychic medium, has started holding séances. After the church organist resigns to serve as musical accompaniment for the séances, the vicar’s wife hires the enquiry agents to expose the medium as a charlatan. Beryl is confident she can spot the fraud, having learned from Harry Houdini himself some tricks of the trade. The dubious Miss Dinsdale claims her spirit guide is an Egyptian princess whose mummy resides in a sarcophagus in the room. But the only body in the sarcophagus belongs to a murdered villager impaled with a dagger.
As the sleuths begin to investigate, Beryl discovers her plane has been sabotaged and wonders if there’s a connection. Whether in the air or on terra firma, Beryl and Edwina must go round a circle of suspects to divine the culprit . . .
And here’s the Rusty Anchor blurb: There’s deadweight behind the bar at the Rusty Anchor and it’s up to Cape Cod bike shop owner Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida to solve the murder. On a rainy July Monday, the chef opens up and finds a body behind the bar. It’s last call for Bruce Byrne, an elderly high school teacher who’s been around so long it seems like he taught everybody. With no end in sight to the rain, the Cozy Capers Book group has plenty of time to study the clues and sort through a roll call of suspects to determine who decided to teach Mr. Bryne a lesson. But with a killer desperate to cover their tracks, Mac and the group will be tested as never before . . .
Jessie: Launch Days are always such fun! I love spending time in the imagined worlds of my books, but it is also an enormous pleasure to share that space with readers. In the previous novel, Murder at a London Finishing School, the story took place outside of the usual setting of Walmsley Parva. It was nice to let my sleuths loose on a wider stage, but I confess, it is lovely to have them back home in their village where they are surrounded by friends, neighbors, and those who have come to feel like family.
I also took the opportunity to visit one of my favorite areas to research, mediumship and the paranormal. A few years I wrote two books featuring a clairaudient tarot card reader and have wanted to have the chance to feature a character that claimed to have that sort of power, as well as the ones who believed them, once again. Spiritualism and mediums were popular between the wars so this was the perfect chance to write another story along those lines.
Both Beryl and Edwina have grown and changed so much over the series and in this book I think that Edwina, in particular, has come into her own. Beryl finds new horizons to embrace as well. Simpkins, Beddoes, and Charles all are called to stretch themselves as well. I loved writing this installment of their intrepid adventures and hope that you will too!
Edith/Maddie: Congratulations, Jessie! When I started this series, my editor suggested the book title pattern – each book would have a murder in or at one of the businesses in town (plus the cottage Mac and Tim live in). I created the Rusty Anchor pub during Murder in a Cape Cottage, and I really, really wish I could pop in there for a beer this afternoon. It’s very loosely modeled on the Choate Bridge Pub in historic Ipswich, Massachusetts, where Hugh and I used to live. We could walk down the hill, have a platter of fried Ipswich clams with onion rings and a draft IPA, and walk home.
Murder in a Cape Cottage is set during the week after Christmas. One cold dark afternoon Mac is feeling worried and down when she runs into her mom on the sidewalk. Astra sweeps her into the pub, and they have hot toddies and a big plate of french fries. Doesn’t that sound perfect?
My fictional Rusty Anchor has a horseshoe-shaped bar, tables and booths, and a fireplace lit in the winter. An actual rusty anchor hangs at a rakish angle from a rod above the door outside, and neon beer signs light the windows. The bar itself is of maple with plenty of clear sealing so it’s impervious to dings and spills. Pendant lights hang above it. In Murder at the Rusty Anchor, Mac goes in one afternoon later in the week for a cup of swoon-worthy creamy clam chowder. Have I convinced you yet? Whether you are a pub-goer or not, I hope you love my new story.
Readers: Have you ever attended a seance or consulted a psychic medium? Jessie will send two lucky winners a copy of Murder at an English Seance. Where is your favorite place to pop in for casual food and maybe an adult beverage? Edith/Maddie will send two lucky winners copy of Murder at the Rusty Anchor plus a Cape Cod sticker and either a lobster or a lighthouse cookie cutter!
