SLEUTHING WOMEN II: 10 MYSTERY NOVELLAS

The authors (most of them) responsible for Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-SeriesMysteries are back! Sleuthing Women II: 10 Mystery Novellas is a collection of ten mysteries featuring murder and assorted mayhem by eleven critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling authors. Each novella is a tie-in to an established multi-book series—a total of nearly 700 pages of reading pleasure for lovers of amateur sleuth, caper, cozy, and female P.I. mysteries.

Due to prior commitments, two of the authors from Sleuthing Women: 10First-in-Series Mysteries weren’t able to join us for the follow-up, but we’re thrilled to have NY Times and USA Today bestselling authors Allison Brennan and Laura Griffin teaming up for one novella and pioneering TV scriptwriter Rita Lakin for another.

The novellas in this ebook box set are:

Frosted, A Moreno & Hart Novella by Allison Brennan & Laura Griffin—Three years ago LAPD Detective Scarlet Moreno and rookie cop Krista Hart were nearly killed during a botched sting operation. Now, they’re best friends and partners in the Orange County private investigation firm of Moreno & Hart. But their routine assignments are anything but safe.

Crewel Intentions, An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Novella by Lois Winston—Craft editor Anastasia Pollack receives a desperate call for help from former fashion editor Erica Milano, now in Witness Protection. Erica is being stalked and is afraid to notify the authorities. She once saved Anastasia’s life. Will Anastasia be able to return the favor before the stalker strikes?

No Quarter, A Cleopatra Jones Novella by Maggie Toussaint—Amnesia, the doctor says when accountant Cleopatra Jones wakes in a distant hospital. Hours later most of her memory returns. Detective Jack Martinez visits Cleo’s nearby wealthy client, only she’s dead and broke. To Cleo’s horror, she’s a murder suspect. Will she totally recover her memory before the killer returns? 

What the Widow Knew, A Kali-O’Brien Novella by Jonnie Jacobs—Attorney Kali O’Brien takes on the case of a young woman accused of murdering her much older, very rich husband. As evidence mounts and other possible suspects are eliminated, Kali’s doubts about her client’s innocence grow. Meanwhile, Kali is also grappling with her feelings for longtime boyfriend Detective Bryce Keating.

The Magnesium Murder, A Periodic Table Mystery by Camille Minichino—While freelance embalmer Anastasia Brent prepares the body of a young bride-to-be, she learns the girl’s mother suspects foul play. Once again Anastasia is pressed into service as a sleuth, following a trail of clues in search of a murderer and justice.

Honeymoons Can Be Murder, A Lee Alvarez Novella by Heather Haven— When PI Lee Alvarez goes on her honeymoon with bridegroom, Gurn Hanson, they find a dead woman practically on their doorstep. Kauai breezes may be soft, but there are gale force winds of accusation against Gurn. Will Lee find the real killer before her new hubby gets sent to a Hawaiian hoosegow?

Smoked Meat, A Carol Sabala Novella by Vinnie Hansen—Baker and wannabe sleuth Carol Sabala visits her mother for a family Christmas get-together. It’s murder, in more ways than one.

A Deadly Fundraiser, A Talk Radio Novella by Mary Kennedy—When radio talk show host Dr. Maggie Walsh and her pals start digging up clues in a scavenger hunt at a glitzy fundraiser, the game suddenly turns deadly. Will Maggie and her team be able to crack the case and solve the crime?

The Color of Fear, A Kelly O’Connell Novella by Judy Alter—Kelly receives a written kidnap threat targeting her infant daughter, Gracie. Kelly’s assistant Keisha narrates as Kelly and her family plot their precautions, but as time passes and the threat still looms, fear takes a toll on the family…and on Keisha.

Papa’s Ghost, A Gladdy Gold Mystery Novella by Rita Lakin—Gladdy and her girls accept an assignment iat a famous resort in Key West, thinking it will combine business with pleasure. Once they arrive, Gladdy suspects something is strange. Not only is their client an unexpected shock, but so is the case of murder they are expected to solve. Can they succeed when a whole city is against them?

Sleuthing Women II: 10 Mystery Novellas is currently available for pre-order at the following sites and will debut on September 5^th.

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iTunes

SLEUTHING WOMEN BLOG TOUR

Today marks the start of the Sleuthing Women blog tour. Come hop around the blogosphere with the ten authors of Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries as we talk about our books, our characters, and our lives. Hear from some of our characters as well. There will be prizes! Five lucky readers will be chosen at random to win an ebook copy of Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries.

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries is a collection of full-length mysteries featuring murder and assorted mayhem by ten critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling authors. Each novel in the set is the first book in an established multi-book series—a total of over 3,000 pages of reading pleasure for lovers of amateur sleuth, caper, and cozy mysteries, with a combined total of over 1700 reviews on Amazon, averaging 4 stars.

Tour Schedule

May 9 – Judy Alter at Lisa Ks Book Reviews

May 9 – Lois Winston at 3 Partners inShopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too!

May 10 – RP Dahlke at Leigh Anderson Romance

May 11 – review at Back Porchervations

May 11 – Camille Minichino at A Holland Reads

May 12 – Mary Kennedy at fundinmental

May 13 – Susan Santangelo at Cassidy Salem Reads & Writes

May 14 – Maggie Toussaint at Laura’s interests

May 15 – Heather Haven at Queen of All She Reads

May 16 – review at Jersey Girl Book Reviews

May 17 – Jonnie Jacobs at Teresa TrentAuthor Site

May 18 – Vinnie Hansen at Island Confidential

May 19 – Lois Winston at Ashleyz Wonderland

May 20 – spotlight at Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book 

May 21 – review at StoreyBook Reviews

May 22 – review at Brooke Blogs

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--SLEUTHING WOMEN...AND AT LEAST ONE OF THEM CRAFTS!

Anastasia here again! Remember a couple of weeks ago I told you about Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries? At the time the boxed set was available for pre-order. It's now on sale everywhere. Just to refresh your memory, this all came about as a result of an idea author Lois Winston had awhile back. And if you love mysteries, you’re going to love this! 

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries is a collection of full-length mysteries featuring murder and assorted mayhem by ten critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling authors. Each novel in the set is the first book in an established multi-book series—a total of over 3,000 pages of reading pleasure for lovers of amateur sleuth, caper, and cozy mysteries, with a combined total of over 1700 reviews on Amazon, averaging 4 stars. 

Titles include:

Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery by Lois Winston—Working mom Anastasia is clueless about her husband’s gambling addiction until he permanently cashes in his chips and her comfortable middle-class life craps out. He leaves her with staggering debt, his communist mother, and a loan shark demanding $50,000. Then she’s accused of murder…

Murder Among Neighbors, a Kate Austen Suburban Mystery by Jonnie Jacobs — When Kate Austen’s socialite neighbor, Pepper Livingston, is murdered, Kate becomes involved in a sea of steamy secrets that bring her face to face with shocking truths—and handsome detective Michael Stone.

Skeleton in a Dead Space, a Kelly O’Connell Mystery by Judy Alter—Real estate isn’t a dangerous profession until Kelly O’Connell stumbles over a skeleton and runs into serial killers and cold-blooded murderers in a home being renovated in Fort Worth. Kelly barges through life trying to keep from angering her policeman boyfriend Mike and protect her two young daughters.

In for a Penny, a Cleopatra Jones Mystery by Maggie Toussaint—Accountant Cleo faces an unwanted hazard when her golf ball lands on a dead banker. The cops think her BFF shot him, so Cleo sets out to prove them wrong. She ventures into the dating world, wrangles her teens, adopts the victim’s dog, and tries to rein in her mom…until the killer puts a target on Cleo’s back.

The Hydrogen Murder, a Periodic Table Mystery by Camille Minichino—A retired physicist returns to her hometown of Revere, Massachusetts and moves into an apartment above her friends' funeral home. When she signs on to help the Police Department with a science-related homicide, she doesn't realize she may have hundreds of cases ahead of her.

Retirement Can Be Murder, A Baby Boomer Mystery by Susan Santangelo—Carol Andrews dreads her husband Jim’s upcoming retirement more than a root canal without Novocain. She can’t imagine anything worse than having an at-home husband with time on his hands and nothing to fill it—until Jim is suspected of murdering his retirement coach.

Dead Air, A Talk Radio Mystery by Mary Kennedy—Psychologist Maggie Walsh moves from NY to Florida to become the host of WYME's On the Couch with Maggie Walsh. When her guest, New Age prophet Guru Sanjay Gingii, turns up dead, her new roommate Lark becomes the prime suspect. Maggie must prove Lark innocent while dealing with a killer who needs more than just therapy.

A Dead Red Cadillac, A Dead Red Mystery by RP Dahlke—When her vintage Cadillac is found tail-fins up in a nearby lake, the police ask aero-ag pilot Lalla Bains why an elderly widowed piano teacher is found strapped in the driver’s seat. Lalla confronts suspects, informants, cross-dressers, drug-running crop dusters, and a crazy Chihuahua on her quest to find the killer.

Murder is a Family Business, an Alvarez Family Murder Mystery by Heather Haven—Just because a man cheats on his wife and makes Danny DeVito look tall, dark and handsome, is that any reason to kill him? The reluctant and quirky PI, Lee Alvarez, has her work cut out for her when the man is murdered on her watch. Of all the nerve.

Murder, Honey, a Carol Sabala Mystery by Vinnie Hansen—When the head chef collapses into baker Carol Sabala’s cookie dough, she is thrust into her first murder investigation. Suspects abound at Archibald’s, the swanky Santa Cruz restaurant where Carol works. The head chef cut a swath of people who wanted him dead from ex-lovers to bitter rivals to greedy relatives.

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--ANASTASIA AND HER FELLOW SLEUTHS TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME

Anastasia here! If you love mysteries, you’re going to love this! Author Lois Winston, she who created moi, recently got together with nine of her writing buddies to join her in a project she’d had percolating for some time.

It turns out that there are actually mystery readers out there who have never heard of me. Can you imagine? So Lois figured if that was the case with me, the same was probably true for the sleuths her friends had created. We sleuths want readers to know about our exploits. We’re proud of the cases we’ve solved, especially when we figure things out well before the cops.

So Lois thought, what if she gathered together the first books in ten established mystery series and bundled them together into one awesome ebook boxed set? And what if she then priced that set of ten books at an incredible bargain? Wouldn’t that tempt mystery readers to get to know all of us? So that’s exactly what she did.

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries is a collection of full-length mysteries featuring murder and assorted mayhem by ten critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling authors. Each novel in the set is the first book in an established multi-book series—a total of over 3,000 pages of reading pleasure for lovers of amateur sleuth, caper, and cozy mysteries, with a combined total of over 1700 reviews on Amazon, averaging 4 stars. Titles include:

Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery by Lois Winston—Working mom Anastasia is clueless about her husband’s gambling addiction until he permanently cashes in his chips and her comfortable middle-class life craps out. He leaves her with staggering debt, his communist mother, and a loan shark demanding $50,000. Then she’s accused of murder…

Murder Among Neighbors, a Kate Austen Suburban Mystery by Jonnie Jacobs — When Kate Austen’s socialite neighbor, Pepper Livingston, is murdered, Kate becomes involved in a sea of steamy secrets that bring her face to face with shocking truths—and handsome detective Michael Stone.

Skeleton in a Dead Space, a Kelly O’Connell Mystery by Judy Alter—Real estate isn’t a dangerous profession until Kelly O’Connell stumbles over a skeleton and runs into serial killers and cold-blooded murderers in a home being renovated in Fort Worth. Kelly barges through life trying to keep from angering her policeman boyfriend Mike and protect her two young daughters.

In for a Penny, a Cleopatra Jones Mystery by Maggie Toussaint—Accountant Cleo faces an unwanted hazard when her golf ball lands on a dead banker. The cops think her BFF shot him, so Cleo sets out to prove them wrong. She ventures into the dating world, wrangles her teens, adopts the victim’s dog, and tries to rein in her mom…until the killer puts a target on Cleo’s back.

The Hydrogen Murder, a Periodic Table Mystery by Camille Minichino—A retired physicist returns to her hometown of Revere, Massachusetts and moves into an apartment above her friends' funeral home. When she signs on to help the Police Department with a science-related homicide, she doesn't realize she may have hundreds of cases ahead of her.

Retirement Can Be Murder, A Baby Boomer Mystery by Susan Santangelo—Carol Andrews dreads her husband Jim’s upcoming retirement more than a root canal without Novocain. She can’t imagine anything worse than having an at-home husband with time on his hands and nothing to fill it—until Jim is suspected of murdering his retirement coach.

Dead Air, A Talk Radio Mystery by Mary Kennedy—Psychologist Maggie Walsh moves from NY to Florida to become the host of WYME's On the Couch with Maggie Walsh. When her guest, New Age prophet Guru Sanjay Gingii, turns up dead, her new roommate Lark becomes the prime suspect. Maggie must prove Lark innocent while dealing with a killer who needs more than just therapy.

A Dead Red Cadillac, A Dead Red Mystery by RP Dahlke—When her vintage Cadillac is found tail-fins up in a nearby lake, the police ask aero-ag pilot Lalla Bains why an elderly widowed piano teacher is found strapped in the driver’s seat. Lalla confronts suspects, informants, cross-dressers, drug-running crop dusters, and a crazy Chihuahua on her quest to find the killer.

Murder is a Family Business, an Alvarez Family Murder Mystery by Heather Haven—Just because a man cheats on his wife and makes Danny DeVito look tall, dark and handsome, is that any reason to kill him? The reluctant and quirky PI, Lee Alvarez, has her work cut out for her when the man is murdered on her watch. Of all the nerve.

Murder, Honey, a Carol Sabala Mystery by Vinnie Hansen—When the head chef collapses into baker Carol Sabala’s cookie dough, she is thrust into her first murder investigation. Suspects abound at Archibald’s, the swanky Santa Cruz restaurant where Carol works. The head chef cut a swath of people who wanted him dead from ex-lovers to bitter rivals to greedy relatives.

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries is currently available for pre-order and will go on sale May 1^st.

Buy Links

Kindle

Nook

Kobo

iTunes

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY -- GUEST AUTHOR MARY KENNEDY

Today at Book Club Friday, I’d like to welcome multi-published author Mary Kennedy. Mary is a licensed psychologist and the author of the Talk Radio Mysteries. Dead Air was the first book in the series. Reel Murder is her latest release. In this series, described as "Frasier” meets “Murder She Wrote,” Maggie Walsh leaves her clinical psychology practice in Manhattan to move to sunny Cypress Grove, a small south Florida town. She joins the staff of local radio station WYME (great name, huh?) to host a daily talk show called “On the Couch with Maggie Walsh” where she dispenses humor, advice and a few psychological insights. And then the murders start.

You can visit Mary at www.marykennedy.net. Mary has graciously offered a copy of both Dead Air and Reel Murder to one lucky reader here at Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers. All you have to do to be eligible is post a comment. -- AP

WHEN WRITERS GET TOGETHER: THE HART TO HEART PROJECT

It all began with Carolyn Hart.

When Carolyn heard that I was sending a few books and home-made goodies to the 389^th Renegades in Iraq, she made an interesting offer. “Let me send twenty pounds of coffee, snacks and home-made goodies to celebrate the publication of Laughed ‘Til He Died. And some autographed books. It’s the twentieth release in the Death on Demand series, and this would be a nice way to commemorate the event.”

Nice?  It was fabulous!  A very generous offer, indeed. I was thrilled.  We decided to call it the “Hart to Heart Project.” 

Carolyn was as good as her word, sending more than twenty pounds of goodies and books to the troops.

But it didn’t stop there. We received such a positive response from the “389^th Renegades,” that we kept on going.  We had to! They said they loved these boxes from home.

Other writers heard about the project and joined us.  Kate Collins sent autographed copies of some wonderful titles in her FlowerShop Mysteries. JB Stanley sent not only autographed copies of The Supper Club Mysteries and the Hope Street Church Mysteries,  but a big box of goodies. When Beth Ciotta heard about the project, she sent autographed copies of her fabulous romantic comedies featuring the irrepressible Evie Parish. Julie Hyzy joined in with an autographed copy of Eggsective Orders, one of her terrific White House Chef Mysteries. Jim Ciullo sent Maracaibo, Robin Burcell sent The Bone Chamber  and Kristan Higgins sent The Next Best Thing.

Carolyn and I were amazed at the outpouring of support. Carolyn kept sending goody boxes and copies of her mysteries. Meanwhile,  I kept making Kahlua brownies (five batches at a time!)  and shipping them. Since the 389^th is a “sustainment division,” offering food, coffee, drinks and snacks, to convoys passing through, all the goodies were gobbled up and the books were cherished.

The 389^th is coming home soon and all of us have fond memories of our friendships with the brave men and women serving in Iraq. And oh yes, we sent more than 200 pounds of home-made goodies and books. 200 pounds! Carolyn Hart’s “celebration” blossomed in a way that none of us could have expected.

The generosity of my fellow writers is truly an inspiration to me. When writers pull together, nothing can stop us.

Very inspirational, Mary. Thanks so much for sharing that with us. Remember, if you’d like to be eligible for the drawing to win copies of Mary’s two books, just post a comment. The winner will be announced tomorrow.-- AP