#TRAVEL TO COBBLE COVE WITH GUEST AUTHOR DEBBIE DE LOUISE

Debbie De Louise is a librarian and the author of the Cobble Cove Mysteries, short stories of various genres, a standalone mystery, and a paranormal romance. She lives on Long Island with her husband, daughter, and three cats. Learn more about Debbie and her books at her website. 

Cobble Cove: A Small Town You’ll Love to Visit but Might Not Want to Live in

Cobble Cove is a fictional, upstate New York town that is the setting for my Cobble Cove cozy mystery series, which currently includes four books. What readers may already know, or those seeing the book titles might guess, stones and rocks are big geographical features of the town. In fact, when Alicia visits there to find some answers about her husband’s strange death because he lived there as a child, she enjoys the quaint street names and the stone architecture of the buildings and houses. The Cobble Cove Library, where she ends up taking a job, is located on Bookshelf Lane. The man she meets and later develops a romantic relationship with but who she fears might’ve played a role in her husband’s death, lives on Stone’s Throw Road.

There’s a small group of shops known as Cobble Cove Square that house the newspaper office of the Cobble Cove Courier, the post office, bank, beauty parlor, gift shop, and other establishments. In the second book of the series, this area plays an important role in crimes that are committed near the holidays.

The only place to stay in Cobble Cove and where Alicia initially checks in, is the Cobble Inn. Alicia eats dinner at the Cobble Diner after arriving in town and learns some interesting information from the proprietor.

Cobble Cove is a small town with a lake running through it. After Alicia meets John, the newspaper publisher, he takes her on a picnic on Cove Mountain where they can view the lake and village from a special vantage point.

I live on Long Island where Alicia originally comes from. I based Cobble Cove on some of the upstate towns I’ve visited. In the books, I refer to the neighboring town of New Paltz, a real place that happens to also have stone houses and buildings.

Besides its charming setting, Cobble Cove is home to many quirky residents. There’s Dora the innkeeper; Casey who manages the diner; Postmaster Ed; Sheila and Mac who work at the library; Wilma, the hairdresser; and Irene, the gift shop owner. There’s also Sneaky, a library cat, and John’s golden retriever Fido, both of whom help solve mysteries in the books.

Despite the cozy image of Cobble Cove, danger lurks within. Several murders and other crimes take place in the town over the course of the series, and more are scheduled in the future. Come visit if you dare.

Join Sneaky for a Facebook Valentine’s Day Paw-ty celebrating Love on the Rocks on Friday, February 8 from noon to 9 pm EST. There will be cozy mystery authors, contests, prizes, and giveaways. Click here to RSVP and learn more about  the event. 

Love on the Rocks

A Cobble Cove Mystery, Book 4

It’s February in the small town of Cobble Cove. Love is in the air . . . but so is murder!

When Alicia helps plan a Valentine’s Day Party at the Cobble Cove library that also includes a surprise for her newlywed friend, Gilly, things go wrong when a mysterious box of chocolates addressed to the director turns out laced with poison.

Clues Lead to A Dead Suspect.

Although Alicia promised John that she’ll no longer meddle in crime investigations, she and Gilly set out to find the person threatening Sheila who murdered the courier of the deadly candy. The three people they suspect include the professor from California who’s been romancing Sheila while she assists him with research for his book; the obnoxious patron Rhonda Kleisman who threw coffee at the director after refusing to pay for a damaged book; and a visiting widow staying at Gilly’s inn who’s unnaturally curious about Sheila and earns the nickname of Madame Defarge for her interest in knitting.

New Cat in Town

While Alicia and Gilly are trying to solve this new Cobble Cove mystery, Sneaky is introduced to Gilly’s new kitten, Kittykai, a calico she brought home from her honeymoon in Hawaii. It’s not like at first sight, but the two cats eventually become friends. They also both play a part in foiling the killer’s murder attempts, but will Alicia and Sheila survive unscathed?

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR CAMILLE MINICHINO

Camille Minichino, a retired physicist turned writer, is the author of twenty-five mystery novels in four series. She currently serves on the board of NorCal Mystery Writers of America. She's on the faculty of Golden Gate U. in SF, and teaches writing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more about Camille and her books at her website. 

Caught Red-Handed

My husband catches me on the Internet again, at about three in the morning. Usually, I hear him coming, and I'm able to move my cursor quickly to the little x in the corner, and close my screen. But I'm engrossed, and don't respond in time.

Embarrassing!

"What are you doing looking at a map of New Hampshire?" he asks, standing in his pjs in our California house.

"I was just—"

The light dawns, he screws up his mouth, and accuses me.

"You're doing research, aren't you?"

Busted!

We have this conversation about once a book. There have been twenty-five of them, plus about a dozen short stories, so that's a lot of rehashing.

"It's fiction," he says every time. "Who cares how many miles long New Hampshire is?"

"It has the shortest coastline of any state," I tell him. "Eighteen miles. I need that fact for my story."

"As if," he says, and shuffles back to bed.

I'm convinced that I'm right—that readers do care. What if a book club in Manchester-by-the-Sea chooses my book for discussion. Do I want some conscientious fact checker to announce that I have my details wrong, that I've sent my character on a trip to Augusta, Maine and back in under an hour?

I remember a movie where a guy is sitting in a bar in Oakland, California at 11:50 PM and realizes he can save a man from execution in Sacramento (82 miles away) at midnight. He rushes up there and makes it just in time. That's a 2-hour trip in 10 minutes. No wonder that's all I remember about the movie.

Even as I wrote the Periodic Table Mysteries, a topic I know a lot about, I checked my information and made sure a couple of beta readers were scientists with a different specialty from mine.

I have the most fun when I'm writing about what I don't know. I've called on experts in fields as far from my academic wheelhouse as the Lincoln-Douglas debates and veterinary medicine; as foreign to me as ice-climbing and tap-dancing; as diverse as hotel management and waste water treatment (I don't recommend this tour without a personal supply of oxygen).

I'm on speaking terms with a police investigator, an airplane parts factory owner, a documentary film producer, a small town postmistress, and a freelance embalmer (my cousin once-removed, who says I'm the only one who asks for details about his work). I've read blogs by bail bondsmen and New York City doormen.

 

I've found that most people are willing to talk to me well beyond my specific needs for one paragraph of a novel. They give me unsolicited books, magazines, and video links to back up their information.

All of this is by way of respecting my characters and story enough to let them shine, and not be dulled or shunned because I have facts or details wrong.

Of course, now and then something slips through. My most well documented slip-through is in The Hydrogen Murder, my first novel. My protagonist, a retired physicist and inveterate East Coaster refers to Cinco de Mayo as Mexican Independence Day. Oops, I heard from as far away as Mexico City on that one.

I'm so glad I had a chance to clear things up in the edition of The Hydrogen Murder that appears in Sleuthing Women – a nice segue to a thank you to Lois Winston, who masterminds that project.

Now I'm off to do another search—researching the best way to poison someone, mimicking a heart attack.

It's 3 AM. I hope my husband doesn't catch me.

Addressed to Kill, Book 3 of the Postmistress Mysteries

Love is in the air for postmaster Cassie Miller and the residents of North Ashcot, Massachusetts. Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and the town is gearing up for a special dinner dance at the senior center. With the local musical group performing at the dance displaced from their regular practice location, Cassie is all too happy to host them during off-hours at the post office.

But not everything is coming up roses. When one of the musicians, Dennis Somerville, is found shot in his home, rumors swirl over who might have wanted him dead. Cassie must determine if there is a link between a string of recent break-ins and Dennis's murder before another victim winds up with more than a broken heart.

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#TRAVEL TO AN IMAGINARY MIDWEST TOWN WITH AUTHOR SUSAN VAN KIRK

Not Endurance, but a street in a typical Midwest town

Susan Van Kirk is the author of the Endurance mysteries and also a memoir about teaching, The Education of a Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks.) Learn more about her and her books at her website/blog.

  

Endurance: A Small Town Setting

Thank you, Lois, for inviting me to write about the setting of my mysteries—the small town of Endurance. A common thread throughout the centuries of this small town’s history is its secrets.

As Grace Kimball, recently retired teacher, travels through her small town of Endurance, she sees former students—now adults—and remembers them as adolescents. For example, she notices Patrick Gilmore carrying a briefcase, and remembers he slipped out the back door during gym class and smoked pot. And sold it. Now he’s selling legal drugs for a big pharmaceutical company. Who says high school doesn’t get you ready for the real world?

In Three May Keep a Secret, the first mystery, it’s summer. (Ben Franklin wrote: “Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.”) The schools just let out, Gimbles Paint and Wallpaper Store has a “huge extravaganza sale” in progress, flower pots are overflowing in front of the businesses, and the first café of the summer is about to start. Grace is having lunch with her friends, Jill and Deb. Joining them is TJ Sweeney, former student of Grace’s and now detective. Little do they know on this beautiful blue-skied day, that in the next few weeks two murders will occur, and even Grace’s life will be put in danger. A terrifying event from her past may come back to haunt her.

Each of my four stories about Endurance, Illinois, (population 15,000), occurs as the Midwest seasons change. The second book, Marry in Haste, will be published this November, and it spans the winter months, a time when readers wonder why anyone would want to live in the bitter cold and snow of the Midwest.

But first I slipped in an e-book novella, launched a week ago, and called The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney. My biracial, 39-year-old detective has a cold case on her hands from the 1940s. Endurance’s history plays a key part since the victim was last seen at the Roof Garden, a popular dance venue on the roof of a four-story office building in downtown Endurance. The big band era, the jitterbug, and romance in the air were the last images the victim saw. Now TJ Sweeney must comb through a dark chapter in the town’s history to identify the victim and killer.

I went back to a second Ben Franklin proverb for my title, Marry in Haste (Repent at Leisure.)  This setting was so much fun to explore because one plot takes place in 1893. Grace’s love interest, Jeff Maitlin, has bought a huge Victorian home. In renovating and restoring the house, he and Grace find the diary of Olivia Lockwood, a young wife who lived there in the 1890s. I had such fun drawing a new map for the town with stores that might have been there in 1893—milliners, dressmakers, dry goods, public halls, gunsmiths, livery stables, tailors, and reading rooms.

Murders occur—one victim is a high profile, current-day banker whose lineage goes back to the early 1900s—and a second murder victim is a judge in the 1890s plot. They’re tied together in a unique way. Once again, Grace and TJ investigate the twists and turns of their little town’s history—in the past through a diary, and in the present through family secrets.

The third mystery, Death Takes No Bribes, will be out next year, and it treats the reader to the culture of Endurance High School, Grace’s old workplace. Again, the winter months prevail, but spring isn’t far off. Unfortunately for the town, their principal dies prematurely—well, with a bit of help. [My apologies here to all those principals for whom I have worked.] The building itself is full of nooks, crannies, hiding places, dark corners, and secrets. And before the story is over, past history and current school atmosphere will come out of the shadows and provide TJ with the killer’s motive. Grace, of course, has to jump into this investigation since her former colleagues are living in fear.

The town has a huge role in this mystery also. As Grace waits for a fellow teacher at The Coffee Bean on the Square, she looks out into the dark night and sees the warm glow of three creamy, round globes on the top of each lamppost, their radiance reflecting on the Square. The Endurance Public Library, a light burning over the entrance, reminds her of the hours she spent there with her three children after the early death of her husband. Gimble’s Paint and Wallpaper Store is also on the Square, and Grace laughs as she recalls Mandy Thompson answering the phone with, “This is Mandy. How may I help you color your world?” Only in Endurance.

It’s a small, Midwestern town with light and life and friends and history, but beneath the laughter and comforts of home lie secrets and a past that twists and turns through each of my Endurance mysteries.

The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney

The Big Band Era—Dancing on the Rooftop—Romance in the Air—And Murder in the Shadows.

A decades-old murder becomes Detective TJ Sweeney’s most personal and tragic case. Good and evil, tolerance and bigotry lie at the bottom of TJ Sweeney’s latest case in the small town of Endurance.

After solving a double homicide in the hot Midwest summer, Endurance police detective TJ Sweeney isn’t given long to rest. A construction crew has found human bones while digging a building foundation on the outskirts of town.

Sweeney’s investigation soon concludes this was a murder victim, but from many decades earlier. Trying to identify the remains and put a name on the killer takes the detective through a maze of dead ends and openings, twists and turns.

And then it becomes personal …

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#TRAVEL TO #IOWA WITH GUEST AUTHOR LESLIE LANGTRY

DeWitt, Iowa from the author's childhood

Leslie Langtry is the bestselling author of The Bombay Family of Assassins Series and Merry Wrath Mysteries. She lives in the Midwest (sadly, not in her beloved Iowa) with her family and a lot of animals. Learn more about Leslie and her books at her website. 

Hello! I’m Leslie Langtry and I write two comic mystery series: The Bombay Family of Assassins Series and the Merry Wrath Mysteries. Both series take place in the Midwest, but the Merry Wrath Mysteries are specific to small-town Iowa.

My hometown was DeWitt, Iowa – a town of about 5,000 people. It was a brilliant place to grow up. As kids, in the summer we’d get on our bikes in the morning and show up in time for supper at night (I can’t remember how, but someone always fed us lunch somewhere along the line). Everyone mostly knew everyone else. If a kid fell off a bike, people would come out of their houses to patch them up. We didn’t need to carry our swim passes for the pool, because the teenagers behind the counter knew everyone. Of course, if you did something wrong, word got back to your house before you did. It was like that game – telephone – and more often than not, when the news of your picking Mrs. Smith’s prize petunias turned into attacking her with a chainsaw. But that’s just part of the fun.

I set my series in the fictional small town of Who’s There, Iowa.  The idea for the name came from two things: the town of What Cheer, Iowa and Truth or Consequences, New Mexico – where the towns named themselves after a game show. Who’s There is a bigger town than DeWitt – more like 20K. You can know every street and corner and still be a little anonymous. And that’s what my character, Merry Wrath, wants after her forced retirement from the CIA.

I have to admit, I miss it. Iowa is a gorgeous state with rolling hills and a huge sky where you can see for miles. There are green corn fields, lazy summer days, quiet snowy nights, and tuna noodle casserole. Lots of tuna noodle casserole. And Rice Krispy bars. How could I forget to mention the Rice Krispy bars? I wanted Merry Wrath to have all of that as a backdrop. Now she just has to keep her Girl Scout troop in line…

Marshmallow S’mores Murder, A Merry rath Mystery

What could be better for former CIA agent turned Girl Scout leader Merry Wrath than taking twelve little girls to Washington, DC for a bit of summer fun? Almost anything. Unfortunately, between her girls terrorizing the Secret Service and "accidentally" destroying the hotel pool, Merry has her hands full with this troop. And when her former handler, Riley, is kidnapped, Merry has to turn to an old friend from her spy days and her parents, Senator and Mrs. Czrgy, to help her wrangle the troop and rescue the man she once briefly called her boyfriend. 

Armed only with a perpetually AWOL parent, stalked by a runaway King Vulture, and plagued by a mysterious death from her past, Merry's mayhem weaves a wacky trail from moonshiners in the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the bowels of the Japanese Embassy, to the ductwork of the International Spy Museum. With things heating up with current boyfriend, Detective Rex Ferguson, can Merry decipher clues from her past to find ex-boyfriend Riley and finally solve the murder of Yakuza boss, Midori Ito, before the target on her back is filled with lead? 

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COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR LYNN CAHOON & RISOTTO

USA Today and New York Times, best-selling author Lynn Cahoon is an Idaho native. If you’d visit the town where she grew up, you’d understand why her mysteries and romance novels focus around the depth and experience of small town life. Currently, she’s living in a small historic town on the banks of the Mississippi River where her imagination tends to wander. Learn more about Lynn and her books at her website. 

From ala peanut butter sandwich to easy risotto, in one lifetime

Working a full time job and trying to be an author can limit the time you have for other activities in your life. Like cooking dinner. What’s a girl to do? My husband, the cowboy, is good with an occasional meal of Hamburger Helper. (Don’t laugh, it can be dinner in a pinch.) But I get bored with just the meat and potatoes route.

I always shied away from the fancier recipes. Or what I considered fancy. I come from a lower-socio-economic family. Heck, we were poor. Living on a farm, we always had food. Even if it was the mystery meat my mom liked to mix into the spaghetti or meatloaf. Seriously, elk, deer, and bear meat do not taste like beef. Even with a package of dry spaghetti mix to mask the flavors. I could always tell we were having mystery meat by the way she watched me take that first bite.

I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches growing up.

So fast forward, to grown up Lynn. I’ve become a bit of a food snob. Not to the Julia Child level. I couldn’t even stomach making an aspic. But I do love trying recipes and finding new ways to make old favorites. My only challenge is finding the time to cook. I’m sure many readers can relate. With kids to run to practice, or community obligations, it’s hard to find time to play in the kitchen.

Watching several seasons of Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen, I became obsessed with risotto. I poured over online recipe blogs reading different versions and wondering. Would it turn out? Would I like the taste when it did? I made soufflés once.  Neither I nor the hubby were impressed. On the other hand, I spent a year obsessed with a cheesy grits and sausage recipe I’d found and made my own.

One weekend night, I decided to experiment. When the risotto was done, one taste and I was in love. Since that time, I probably make my version of risotto once a week, especially when I have too many veggies in the fridge.

 

Quick and Easy Risotto

Ingredients:

3-4 cups chicken stock (If you have a day job, like I do, as soon as you get home, put a pot of chicken stock on the stove to warm. If you don’t have homemade chicken stock, boil water and add 3-4 bouillon cubes to make a stock.)

Chop assorted veggies – mushrooms, onions or green onions, asparagus (I usually do the onions pretty fine, but the others can be course chopped or sliced.)

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1-1/2 cups Arborio rice

fresh spinach (optional)

Heat a large skillet and when warm, add a touch of olive oil. Sauté the onion and mushrooms until the onion wilts, but doesn’t brown. Then add rice to the skillet. Keep stirring as the rice browns (think Ricearoni) for a minute or two. Then add a ladle or two of the chicken stock. Stir to mix.  Add Asparagus.

Let risotto cook as you prepare your choice of meat for dinner. (Or add a can of chopped clams later on, and this can be a complete meal.) Continue to stir, adding stock when rice appears dry. When the stock is all added, and the rice is creamy, you’re done.  Takes about 30 minutes total.

If you want a veggie boost, add a handful or two of spinach leaves with your last bit of chicken stock. The leaves will wilt into the risotto and give you a nice color and extra nutrients.

Mission to Murder

In the California coastal town of South Cove, history is one of its many tourist attractions—until it becomes deadly…

Jill Gardner, proprietor of Coffee, Books, and More, has discovered that the old stone wall on her property might be a centuries-old mission worthy of being declared a landmark. But Craig Morgan, the obnoxious owner of South Cove’s most popular tourist spot, The Castle, makes it his business to contest her claim. When Morgan is found murdered at The Castle shortly after a heated argument with Jill, even her detective boyfriend has to ask her for an alibi. Jill decides she must find the real murderer to clear her name. But when the killer comes for her, she’ll need to jump from historic preservation to self-preservation …

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