About the Book
Hosting an award-winning novelist is quite a Christmas coup for the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straw Society. But when he’s murdered in Lizzie Turner’s house, she’s got a holiday homicide on her hands …
For their very first guest author event, most of the book club members can’t wait to pull out all the stops in Southern hospitality. But for Lizzie, Derek Alton is nothing but trouble—from his massive ego to his smarmy moves. When he’s found murdered in her living room, it seems someone decided that this womanizing writer would be better off dead than read.
After suspicion falls on Lizzie’s friend, she and her fellow book club members discover that Derek wasn’t who he pretended to be. Cracking this case means going up against Lizzie’s boyfriend, police chief Mark Dreyfus, and unearthing a novel’s worth of nasty secrets. And as they get closer to uncovering Derek’s scandalous final manuscript, someone hiding in plain sight is out to write finis to Lizzie’s sleuthing for good…
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Author Guest Post
COZY SETTINGS By Erika Chase
What’s not to like about a cozy? They’re so…well, cozy. To me that means a traditional mystery, a puzzle, something on the lighter side, without the excess of violence, sex or language – except where appropriate. If I want any of that I can read the newspapers, watch TV news, or even, most of the mystery/crime series that are on TV.
Don’t get me wrong, I do read other types of crime books, I’m an avid newspaper reader and I do watch some psychological police dramas on TV, because they do have their place and there are times when that’s exactly what I want to see or read.
But for the most part, I want my reading time to be spent in a world where friendships are a primary focus, where there’s a hint of romance, and of course, the world is made right by the capture of the bad guys. I want to work through the crime puzzle along with the main character, be he or she an amateur sleuth or professional. I want to get to know these people as friends so that I enjoy spending time with them catching up, in each new book in the series. And, as importantly, I want justice to be carried out.
So it’s natural that I write cozy mysteries. I try to combine all those factors that I enjoy when reading a mystery in my Ashton Corners Book Club series. I belong to a book club, and although the members are very different from my fictional ones, especially the fact that we don’t solve crimes, the friendships and camaraderie are the aspects I’ve brought to the series.
Each character is unique, someone I’d like to know and learn more about, (I am learning more about them as I write each new book) and to this end, each has her or his own story and reason for belonging to the book club. Together, they compliment and contrast, they cajole and console, they are friends and they are my friends.
To me, a cozy setting means community. From the larger community of Ashton Corners, Alabama (totally fictional but somewhat based on a small town located close to me) to the smaller community of the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society…this is the heart of a cozy mystery. The puzzle and the unraveling of it are layered on to present a reading experience that hopefully will delight the mystery lover.
I enjoy writing cozies and I enjoy reading them. I hope you do, too.
Erika writes the Ashton Corners Book Club mysteries for Penguin/Berkley Prime Crime. In a parallel life Erika Chase is also known as Linda Wiken. A former mystery bookstore owner (Prime Crime Books in Ottawa, ON, Canada), Linda is also a short story writer. She is a member of those dangerous dames, The Ladies’ Killing Circle.
Her short stories have appeared in the seven Ladies’ Killing Circle anthologies (three of which she co-edited), and in the magazines Mysterious Intent and Over My Dead Body. She has been short-listed for an Arthur Ellis Award, Best Short Story, from Crime Writers of Canada.
Before life in the world of mystery, she worked as an advertising copywriter, radio producer, journalist and community education worker. Besides writing and reading mysteries, her other passion is choral singing and she is a member of two choirs.
She shares her house with Keesha and Mojo, her two Siamese cats. Actually, they allow her to live there.
Connect with Erika Chase: Website | Facebook | Twitter
Join Erika Chase On Tour
June 17, 2013 – Omnimystery
June 18, 2013 - Socrates Book Review
June 19, 2013 - Book of Secrets
June 20, 2013 - Books-n-Kisses
June 21, 2013 - Melissa’s Mochas, Mysteries & More
June 22, 2013 - Melina’s Book Blog
June 23, 2013 - Cozy Up with Kathy
June 24, 2013 - Book Lady’s Book Notes
June 25, 2013 – Cozy Mystery Book Review
June 26, 2013 - Shelley’s Book Case
I did see a cozy freebie today..hm
ReplyDeleteNice guest post! I've read cozies before and enjoyed them. I hope to make time for some this summer.
ReplyDeleteI love cozies...keep meaning to participate in your group but I don't read them enough! This sounds like a great series!
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