Guest Blogger: Author, Kate Carlisle: My Prized Possession

Kate Carlisle is the author of the Bibliophile Mysteries, featuring rare book expert (and lover of all things edible) Brooklyn Wainwright. The fourth Bibliophile Mystery, Murder Under Cover, is a May 2011 release. Brooklyn’s best friend Robin returns to San Francisco from a trip to India with a new man – and an exceedingly rare copy of the Kama Sutra for Brooklyn to restore. When the new boyfriend is murdered in Robin’s bed, only Brooklyn and the handsome British security expert Derek Stone stand between her and life in prison. Visit Kate online at www.katecarlisle.com and www.facebook.com/KateCarlisleBooks.

One of the great icebreaker questions of the ages is, “If your house was on fire, what one thing would you save?” I live in California, where wildfires are a way of life, so that situation is never out of the realm of possibility.

However, a somber emotional twist was added to the question recently. I don’t live too far from the beach. In March, after the tsunami devastated Japan and caused damage in Hawaii, it was headed our way. In Japan, they had no warning. The earthquake hit - a 9.0 magnitude earthquake! – and the tsunami followed immediately afterward. My heart goes out to the people of Japan, who will continue to struggle with the aftermath for years to come.

(If, as you’re reading this, you feel the impulse to make a donation to help the people of Japan, I hope you will. Here’s an article with some ways you can donate: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/21/how-to-help-japan-earthquake-relief_n_834484.html)


Here in California, we had hours to brace ourselves for potential disaster. Hours to ask ourselves the question: “If your house is threatened by a tsunami, what one thing would you take to higher ground?”




This is the picture I took of tsunami watchers near my house.

For me, it would have to be something that’s irreplaceable. Anything which has a duplicate that I can purchase with insurance money is out of the running. I watch Antiques Roadshow often, and the experts tell people an insurance value on a treasured family heirloom. Sorry, but no amount of money would soothe my sadness if I lost my great-great-grandmother’s wedding quilt (for example… I don’t actually have my great-great-grandmother’s wedding quilt.)



It probably won’t surprise you that my prized possession is a book. I write the Bibliophile Mysteries featuring rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright because bookbinding has long been a passion of mine, and I treasure antique books, not just for the stories they tell, but for the intricate illustrations, the gilding on the edges of the page, the aged leather bindings. As a book collector, if a tsunami threatened, I would save my leather bound copy of Walt Whitman poems. Or maybe I would grab the book of Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales. Or my adorable 1922 edition of Toto The Bustling Beaver. Well, you can see this is a problem.



Brooklyn Wainwright falls in love with a new rare book in each of her adventures. In MURDER UNDER COVER, the fourth book in the Bibliophile Mysteries series, she’s gotten her hands on a rare, beautifully illustrated copy of the Kama Sutra. If a tsunami were headed toward San Francisco, Brooklyn would do almost anything to save that precious book. And in fact, although there’s no tsunami in MURDER UNDER COVER, Brooklyn does have to take some pretty drastic measures to keep her prized possession safe.

Assuming that every living creature in your house was safe, and that size and weight were irrelevant, what one thing would you take to higher ground in the event of a tsunami?

To read a free excerpt of MURDER UNDER COVER, go to: http://katecarlisle.com/murder-under-cover.php.



A note from Yvonne: Thank you so much to Kate for joining us at Socrates' Book Review Blog. This was an interesting post and I'm looking forward to reading this cozy series. For those of you out there looking for a good cozy series, this looks like a great one to sink your teeth into.