What do you do when Hollywood takes over your tiny Maine village to make a movie? My latest Maine cozy mystery Mrs. Spinney’s Secret is featured at N. N. Light’s Mystery & Suspense Bookish Event today.
Our hero
eats a bad lobster—was it poison or oversight?
Find it
here: https://www.
Enter to win
a gift card! Here's the rafflecopter link:
https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/92db7750281
A birder finds a corpse and becomes entangled with a secretive former Senate aide, global investors, Chinese operatives, radical environmentalists, all searching for a mysterious briefcase.
Come one
come all down to N. N. Light’s Book Heaven. She’s holding a Mystery and
Suspense Bookish Event featuring my very own new cozy mystery In the Crosshairs: the Body on
Leffis Key! You’ll be introduced to Carson’s culinary skills and Palmer’s
ability to be distracted. And you can enter to win a fabulous gift card to
boot!
Here's the
link:
https://www.
Here's the rafflecopter link: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/92db7750281
Come on down
to N. N. Light’s fabulous Mystery & Suspense Bookish Event today, where I’m
showcasing Hidden Gem: the Secret of St. Augustine.
In the excerpt we’ll meet the incorrigible, eccentric Barnaby who can eat ice
cream while contemplating murder. While you’re there, enter to win a fabulous prize!
Here's the rafflecopter link: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/92db7750281
Please welcome Marla White, author of the acclaimed Pine Cove Mystery series. The second in the series, Framed for Murder: A Pine Cove Mystery, has just released. Marla, could you tell us a bit about the background of the series?
I’ve been to Idyllwild as a mentor for several retreats and have stayed in rooms from the awesome to the eccentric, but they showcase the beauty of the place. Pine trees, clear blue skies, a rushing brook, and not a chain coffee shop in sight. And the people are so lovely!
When I learned the Wild Rose Press was looking for holiday themed novellas, I was in the midst of failing to bake Starlight Mint Surprises and the origin story to “Framed” was born. I thought it would be funny to have a character running a B&B who was equally baking challenged. And what better place for the B&B than a small, mountain town like Idyllwild?
More than dealing with being a terrible cook, Mel is also dealing with the trauma of losing the only career she ever wanted, being a beat cop for LAPD. I’ve always loved fish-out-of-water stories and wanted to play with the idea that this quirky little town is exactly what she needs to heal. “Framed” is the second book in the series and she’s not there yet, but her mountain home is starting to grow on her.
Fascinating—what
a contrast between small town baker and former cop in the same body! Can you
give us a summary of the story?
Old enemies become allies to unravel a deadly mystery.
Mel O'Rourke used to be a cop before a life-changing
injury forced her to turn in her badge. Now she leads a relatively peaceful
life running a B&B in the quirky mountain town of Pine Cove. That is, until
her old frenemy, the charismatic cat burglar Poppy Phillips, shows up, claiming
she's been framed for murder. While she’s no saint, Mel knows she’d never kill anyone and
sets out to prove Poppy's innocence.
The
situation gets complicated, however, when the ruggedly handsome Deputy Sheriff
Gregg Marks flirts with Mel, bringing him dangerously close to the criminal
she’s hiding. And just when her friendship with café owner Jackson Thibodeaux
blossoms into something more, he’s offered the opportunity of a lifetime in New
Orleans. Should she encourage him to go, or ask him to stay? Who knew romance
could be just as hard to solve as murder?
 |
| Pine Cove |
Too much conversation before coffee.
“Excuse me, is that your car parked out front?”
She struggled to maintain a polite tone.
The woman’s head snapped toward her, her perfect
lips making a surprised little ‘o’ before breaking out in a broad smile. She
removed her wireless earbuds, blasting classical music across the room. A swipe
to her phone silenced them, and she got to her feet in a fluid motion, stepping
toward her with the grace of a ballet dancer. “Officer O’Rourke, how good to
see you,” the woman gushed in a lilting British accent. “Or should I just call
you Mel?”
“Poppy?” She was too astonished to squeak out
more.
“In the flesh.” The lithe woman beamed but stopped
short of wrapping her arms around Mel in an enthusiastic hug. So many questions
rattled around in her pre-coffee sluggish brain, but she blurted out the most
obvious one first.
“How did you get in here?” She’d locked the front
door after the posted eight o’clock closing time last night. The guests all had
keys to their own cabins or rooms and had instructions to call if they needed
her after eight. The safety protocol was a habit she’d stuck to religiously
after finding a murdered man sitting in a chair right across from the one
vacated by her…nemesis? Acquaintance? She shook her head, unable to put a label
to their relationship.
“Well,” she purred, her brown eyes sparkling
behind long fake lashes, “I drove up early this morning and it was too cold to
sit in my car until your eight a.m. opening time.” She gestured to the sign in
the window stating lobby hours. “So I let myself in. I knew you wouldn’t mind.”
Poppy Phillips was a thief. A notorious cat
burglar, sometimes called “The Ghost” by social media outlets and more
whimsical members of the public. Many police forces had been chasing her for
years, including the LAPD. They knew she’d committed a multitude of crimes, but
never found the evidence to make the charges stick, until last year. Mel, hot
on her heels in pursuit after a daring robbery, got within an arm’s length of
grabbing her with the stolen items on her person when the thief nimbly jumped
from the roof of the building they were running across, over an alley, to land
on the one next door.
Mel tried to follow, but slipped and slammed into
the side of the building instead. With her partner too far away to help, she
clung to the rooftop by her fingertips until they cramped from the strain. She
started reciting the Hail Mary for what she thought would be the last time when
two strong, slender arms pulled her to safety. It was Poppy. She could have
kept going and escaped, but she came back to save Mel’s life.
As they both collapsed to the roof, breathless and
laughing at the absurdity of the situation, she cuffed herself to the thief and
arrested her. Rather than lashing out and trying to escape, she just sat there
and laughed some more. It was almost insulting how chill she was about the
whole thing. But, since one rescue deserved another, she convinced the
prosecutor, a member of her extended family, to drop the charges in light of
services rendered. So what was she doing here?
Making a mental note to change the lock and check
into a security system to prevent another surprise visit from potentially less
amiable thieves, she persisted. “Yes, but what are you doing here? In Pine
Cove?” She narrowed her eyes at the intruder. “Are you on the run?”
Poppy’s eyes grew wide in a nearly convincing
guise of innocence. “No.” She huffed with the perfect blend of indignation and
hurt feelings. “Why would you say such a thing?”
“Experience?”
After mulling her statement over for a moment, the
Brit gave her a crooked grin. “You got me there but seriously, after our run in
on the rooftop and you managed to keep me out of the nick, I got to thinking,
is this what I really want to do with my life? So, I decided to turn over a new
leaf. When I heard about your lovely B&B, I says to me-self, ‘Poppy, that’s
the ticket. Go work for your old pal Mel.’ And here I am.” She spread her arms
wide like a magician who had performed a trick and awaited her due applause.
Mel scrubbed her face with her hands. “This is too
much conversation before coffee.”
Framed for Murder: A Pine Cove Mystery
The
Wild Rose Press, June 17, 2024
Cozy
Mystery, Romance
300
pp.
Heat
Level – on a pepper level? A poblano for salty language and mild kisses
Buy Links:
About the Author
 |
| Marla White |
Marla White is an award-winning novelist who prefers killing people who annoy her on paper rather than in real life. Her first full-length mystery novel, “Cause for Elimination,” placed in several contests including Killer Nashville, The RONE Awards, The Reader’s Favorite, and finishing second in the Orange County Romance Writers for Romantic Suspense. Originally from Oklahoma, she lived in a lot of other states before settling down in Los Angeles to work in the television industry. She currently teaches at UCLA Extension and gives seminars about the art of script coverage. When she’s not working on the next book, she’s hiking, cheering on the LA Kings, or discovering new craft cocktails (to, you know, drown her sorrows over the Kings).
Contacts:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScriptFixer
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/marlawriteswords/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MarlaAWhiteAuthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21467766.Marla_A_White
Bookbub:
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/marla-a-white
Amazon:
https://amzn.to/3MHIzkB
Substack:
https://substack.com/@marlawhite?utm_source=edit-profile-page
Murder upon murder—all by crossbow. Who’s behind them?
My latest murder mystery/romantic suspense releases today May 27:
In the Crosshairs: The Body on
Leffis Key .
A birder finds a corpse and becomes entangled with a
secretive former Senate aide, global investors, Chinese operatives, radical
environmentalists, all searching for a mysterious briefcase.
Here are the current links:
Books2Read:
https://books2read.com/IntheCrosshairs
Wild
Rose Press: https://wildrosepress.com/product/in-the-crosshairs-the-body-on-leffis-key/
I Tunes:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/in-the-crosshairs-the-body-on-leffis-key/id6479648097
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Crosshairs-Body-Leffis-Key-ebook/dp/B0CYHKJJ5C
Barnes
& Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-the-crosshairs-m-s-spencer/1145026462?ean=2940185979617
Get your copy now!
Read excerpts and other cool stuff about In the
Crosshairs at these great blogs:
May 28 Jana Richards: https://www.janarichards.com
May 29 Marla White: www.marlaawhite.com
May 30 Jill Piscitello:
https://jillpiscitello.com
May 31 Barbara Mountjoy: http://alana-lorens.com
R W Richard, award-winning author at The Wild Rose Press, has highlighted some of his fellow authors in his blog including The Wishing Tree: Love, Lies, and Spies on Chincoteague Island
https://romancetheguyspov.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-wild-rose-press.html
Come on by! #wrpbks #cozymystery
N. N. Light’s done it again! The Wishing Tree: Love,
Lies & Spies on Chincoteague Island is featured at Book Heaven’s Spring
Break Bookapalooza!
https://www.
The handsome stranger who's tapped into Addison’s heart could be a spy,
or even a murderer.
Murder after murder—all by crossbow. Who’s behind them?
In the Crosshairs is now available
for pre-order! It will release May 27.
A birder finds a corpse and becomes entangled with a secretive former Senate aide, global investors, Chinese operatives, radical environmentalists, all searching for a mysterious briefcase.
Here are the current links:
Wild Rose Press: https://wildrosepress.com/product/in-the-crosshairs-the-body-on-leffis-key/
I Tunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/in-the-crosshairs-the-body-on-leffis-key/id6479648097
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Crosshairs-Body-Leffis-Key-ebook/dp/B0CYHKJJ5C
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-the-crosshairs-m-s-spencer/1145026462?ean=2940185979617
Since my new release
won’t grace the internet until next year, I thought I’d do a little backlist
surfing.
Let’s start with my two novels set in Alexandria, Virginia: Artful Dodging: the Torpedo Factory
Murders and the Mason’s Mark: Love
& Death in the Tower.
Artful Dodging: the Torpedo Factory
Murders
Blurb:
It’s just before Christmas, and Milo Everhart has two
needlepoint stockings, a cross-stitch purse, and three canvases to finish for
her clients. Waiting out the rain in a pub, she is captivated by the handsome
man next to her, but blocking the road to romance are two mysterious corpses who
turn up in the tower of her Torpedo Factory Art Center. As if that weren’t
enough, a second crisis erupts—a proposal to gut her beloved Art Center.
Tristram Brodie, hard-driving corporate lawyer and former
Marine, is focused on his plan to convert the Torpedo Factory into a box store.
He is drawn to the beautiful woman sitting next to him, but their mutual
attraction will be frustrated by both the murders and his intentions. As they
edge closer to love, they must find a way to overcome both their differences
and the still-fresh memory of her late husband.
Artful Dodging: the Torpedo Factory Murders
Wild
Rose Press, 7/20/2016
Mystery/Cozy
Mystery; Contemporary romantic Suspense
Ebook, 66,830 words; Print 268 p
Buy Links
Now for The
Mason’s Mark: Love and Death in the Tower
Fun Fact: The Mason's Mark arose in part out of a true story. Starting in the 1940s an Italian named Licio Gelli embarked on a lifetime of bizarre scams and crimes. Alternately linked to rightists and leftists, he bilked or used people from Italian politicians, to the Nazis, the Communists, the CIA, even to Juan Peron, dictator of Argentina. His exploits across the globe spanned four decades. At last check, he was still alive, in his nineties and writing poetry from prison. In 1996 he was even nominated for the Nobel prize in literature.
Blurb
In both the best and
worst first day at work ever, docent Claire Wilding meets the man of her
dreams, but her carefully rehearsed guided tour of the George Washington
National Masonic Memorial collapses when she discovers a body and is drawn into
a dark world of black ops and Italian renegade masons, of secret cabals and
hidden treasure. Also cloaked in mystery is handsome Gideon Bliss, a George
Washington expert who haunts the Memorial, his manner evasive. What is his
secret? Claire fears she'll fall in love with him only to learn he's a thief or
even a murderer. Juggling two eccentric mothers, an inquisitive sister, and an
increasingly smitten detective, Claire must find answers to a complex web of
intrigue, including who to trust and who to love.
The Mason's Mark: Love and Death in the Tower
Wild
Rose Press, 5/6/2016; Imprint: Crimson Rose
Mystery/Cozy Mystery; Romantic suspense
79300 words; 322 pp.
Here’s the link:
Fun for one and all—LASR is celebrating its 16th anniversary with books of all kinds and loads of prizes. Today my delightful mystery Mrs. Spinney’s Secret is spotlighted. Read all about it, answer a question and enter to win!
How would you feel if Hollywood came to your little village in Maine to make a movie…and corpses began to show up?
Here's the link:
Fun for one and all—LASR is celebrating its 16th anniversary with books of all
kinds and loads of prizes. Today my latest cozy mystery The Wishing Tree: Love, Lies, and Spies on
Chincoteague Island
is spotlighted. Read all about it, answer a question and enter to win!
Here's the link:
Please welcome Arlene Culiner, who is going to tell us about her fabulous mystery/romance The Turkish Affair.
The words Romantic Mystery often conjure up serial killers, car chases,
shoot-outs, and gun-packing super heroes and heroines. I, however, prefer
reality. When finding myself in terrible danger, do I contemplate romance? Can I
count on the sudden appearance of a sexy secret agent who puts all villains out
of commission? Of course not. Instead
of all that action, I transport readers to unusual places, give them unconventional
intelligent heroes and heroines. In
The Turkish Affair,
Anne Pierson is a former American journalist who, after a scandalous affair
with the wrong man, lost her job and her reputation. For the last ten years,
she’s been hiding in backwoods Turkey and working as a translator. My hero, archaeologist
Renaud Townsend, is passionate about his work and ancient history, but he’s
determined to keep his independence.
Like
Anne, I once lived in a small community in central Turkey, and I worked as a translator
(then later, as a belly dancer—but that’s another story altogether). I was in
Turkey at a difficult time: the police were corrupt, there was political unrest,
and there were frequent arrests. Several times I found myself in danger, and
once, as related in The Turkish Affair, a brave young woman rescued me.
I was also present when archaeologists were called in to identify stolen coins,
and the thefts from an archaeological site did happen in the way I describe
them.
Of course Anne’s story
is very different from mine. And one morning, while passing through an
archaeological site, I caught sight of a man ambling in the direction of a
tumble of ruined pillars. He was lean, supple, and the torrid sun caught the
golden blaze of his hair. He became Renaud Townsend, the hero of The Turkish Affair.
Blurb:
Priceless artifacts are disappearing from the ancient Hittite site of Karakuyu in Turkey, and the site director has vanished. Called in to solve the mystery, archaeologist Renaud Townsend is hindered by both his inability to speak the language and the knowledge that the local police are corrupt. His attraction to translator Anne Pierson is immediate, although he is troubled by her refusal to talk about the past and her fear of public scandal.
But when murder enters the picture, both Anne and Renaud realize that the risk of falling in love is not the only danger.
What they say about The Turkish Affair
Glittering
descriptions, magical settings, and enviable characters. Culiner’s mastery of
the English language and sentence combinations form an enchanting read for
lovers of romance and adventure. Readers’
Favorite
Work has gone into making sure the
historic facts and archaeological details are spot on. This is an excellent
book that was an easy read. The pace was steady and the mystery kept me gripped
to the unexpected ending. Whispering Stories Book Blog
Buried pasts and questionable reputations, vulnerable hearts, fragile feelings, suspense, fear, and intrigue—they are all here. I didn’t want to put it down. J Livingstone
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zkQ20uC4eg
Purchase Links: https://books2read.com/TheTurkishAffair
About the Author
 |
| J. Arlene Culiner |
Writer,
social critical artist, and impenitent teller of tall tales, J. Arlene Culiner,
was born in New York and raised in Toronto. She has crossed much of Europe on
foot, has lived in a mud house on the Great Hungarian Plain, in a Bavarian
castle, a Turkish cave dwelling, a haunted house on the English moors, and on a
Dutch canal. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village
of no interest where, much to local dismay, she protects spiders, snakes, and
weeds.
Observing
people in cafes, in their homes, on trains, or in the streets, she eavesdrops
on all private conversations, and delights in hearing any nasty, funny,
ridiculous, sad, romantic, or boastful story. And when she can't uncover really
salacious gossip, she makes it up.
Social links:
Website: https://www.j-arleneculiner.com/the-turkish-affair
Author: https://linktr.ee/j.arleneculiner
