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Mailbox Monday
Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.
Monday:
Open House by Katie Sise~ Kindle from Amazon Prime First Reads
Friday:
The Stranger In The Mirror by Liv Constantine ~ eBook from Harper Collins via NetGalley
I never thought I would say this, but after 8 months, I am starting to get my reading mojo back, FINALLY!!!!!
I can’t believe COVID-19 is still not under control.
Eating and smoking cigarettes, I know neither is good, is how I deal with stress.
Now is the perfect time to start my online holiday shopping.
When a beloved nun is murdered in a sleepy Catskill Mountain town, a grieving young widow finds herself at the center of the turmoil. Bianca St. Denis is searching for a job and seeking acceptance in her new home of Batavia-on-Hudson. Agatha Miller, the nun’s closest friend and the ailing local historian everyone loves to hate, shares her painful personal history and long-buried village secrets with Bianca. Armed with this knowledge, Bianca unravels the mysteries surrounding the death while dealing with the suspicions of her eccentric neighbors.
However, Bianca’s meddling complicates the sheriff’s investigation as well as his marriage. Can Sheriff Mike Riley escape his painful past in a town where murder and infighting over a new casino vie for his attention?
Danger stalks Bianca as she gets closer to the truth. Can the sheriff solve the mystery before the killer strikes again? Can the town heal its wounds once the truth has been uncovered?
Book Details:
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: September 29, 2020
Number of Pages: 282
ISBN: 978-1-947915-76-3
Series: Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery, #1
Purchase Links: Amazon | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads | Oblong Books and Music
Tina deBellegarde lives in Catskill, New York with her husband Denis and their cat Shelby. Winter Witness is the first book in the Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery Series. Tina also writes short stories and flash fiction. When she isn’t writing, she is helping Denis tend their beehives, harvest shiitake mushrooms, and cultivate their vegetable garden. She travels to Japan regularly to visit her son, Alessandro. Tina did her graduate studies in history. She is a former exporter, paralegal, teacher, and library clerk.
What was the inspiration for this book?
I moved to the Catskill Mountain region a few years back. And after a few weeks taking beautiful walks like my protagonist Bianca St. Denis does in Winter Witness I realized that there were so many places to stage a murder! I love murder mysteries and I love well-developed characters. In my new home in the Hudson Valley I had found a setting that I could be immersed in for long periods of time, as well as interesting neighbors itching to be developed into characters for my fictitious village of Batavia-on-Hudson.
What has been the biggest challenge in your writing career?
By far the biggest challenge has been finding a way to balance work, family obligations and my writing. Before I was contracted for Winter Witness, or had any of my short stories published, I found it hard to believe my writing deserved a space. That it was okay to take time away from other important sections of my life and to give writing it’s equal share. Publication was very validating and helped me bridge that difficulty.
What do you absolutely need while writing?
A cup of coffee and some jazz music! It’s not absolutely true…but I prefer it that way. In fact, I have specific music I associate with certain pieces of writing. For example, Winter Witness was written while listening to Cannonball Adderley’s album Somethin’ Else. Once I started those tracks, I was immersed in my village and my story, and the writing flowed. Book 2 of the Batavia-on-Hudson series, tentatively entitled Dead Man’s Leap, is being written while listening to Workin’ by the Miles Davis Quintet.
Do you adhere to a strict routine when writing or write when the ideas are flowing?
I try to have a writing routine. Coffee in the morning with my husband. or some reading, some exercise and then my writing. I will write for a few hours and then move on to other demands. Nowadays, those demands are mostly promotion related, but it would normally be errands and chores. I find that as long as I am writing on a regular basis, the ideas keep flowing. Sometimes I have to shelve ideas for later because they are flowing so well. That’s one of the reasons I find reading is so important. It’s when I break from my routine that ideas get stifled. The regular writing engenders more ideas and more writing.
Who is your favorite character from your book and why?
Besides Bianca my protagonist, whom I know so well because I spend so much time with her, I’d have to say Lester Quirke. He’s a near centenarian. He’s a not-so-retired lawyer and owns the Bait and Tackle shop by the lake. He is fun. He is also wise and has so much insight, but he doesn’t take himself very seriously either. He’s the kind of friend everyone should have.
Who is your least favorite character from your book and why?
Before I decided to kill off Sister Elaine on the first page of the book, when she was scheduled to be killed later, I realized that she was the least flawed character and as a result, the least interesting. She was delightful, sweet, generous, perfect to a fault. Someone you could always count on. On the surface the most likable but the least interesting to write.
Give us an interesting fun fact or a few about your book?
This wasn’t meant to be the first in the series. I had sketched out about five concepts and this one was scheduled to fall around book four. But when I analyzed the situation, this story was the most clearly imagined in my mind and therefore my strongest at that time. So I decided to develop it first. I had wanted to wait because I wanted the victim to be someone we knew more intimately before the murder. I wanted the reader to feel the impact as much as possible. In the long run, I am happy about my decision, but I still have the same desires for my writing. I don’t want my victims to go without leaving an impact.
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Keep on reading! I’ve got six stories planned out so far. I’ll keep writing if you’ll keep reading.
Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
I spent 17 years as a middle school foreign language teacher. Before that I was a paralegal, and before that I worked for an exporter, which necessitated trips to Paris and Morocco. I thought that was pretty wonderful at 21. (An aside to my former students: See what knowing a foreign language can do?) Most recently I worked at the Catskill Public Library which I have always said was The Best Job Ever.
I recently did my graduate studies in history… just because.
I have a son Alessandro who lives in Kyoto, Japan, just like Bianca’s son does. He has made an interesting life for himself there, and it has given me the opportunity to visit several times. What an amazing place. I’m in love with it! I still have family in Italy and try to get back as often as possible. Other than Italy and Japan, one of my favorite trips was a 750-kilometer bicycle trip across the north of Spain on the Camino de Santiago.
What’s next that we can look forward to?
I am working on Dead Man’s Leap, Book 2 of the Batavia-on-Hudson series. It will be released September 2021. It’s a story about renunciation, letting go and moving forward. I’ve really enjoyed the process of working out this book.
Book 3, tentatively entitled Zen Fall, will release in 2022. This book has Bianca traveling to Kyoto, Japan. I can’t wait to get back there and do the research. Pay attention to my social media for my photos. Kyoto is a beautiful city.
I’m also stealing some time to work on a collection of Japanese themed interrelated stories, as well as a novella-in-flash.
And of course, I’m on a fabulous virtual book tour now with Partners in Crime. Check out my website for the schedule of upcoming stops. And sign up for my newsletter so you can stay up to date!
Thursday, December 15
She could have been sleeping, were it not for the gaping gash in the back of her head and the bloody stone next to her limp body.
Sheriff Mike Riley stood alone on the shore of the near-frozen lake. At his feet, Sister Elaine Fisher lay face down, ice crystals forming around her body where it met the shoreline. The murmuring water of the nearby stream imparted a peacefulness at odds with the scene. In the waning winter light, he paused ankle deep in the snow illuminated by the beat of red strobe lights.
Murder seemed so extreme. The villagers would be baffled. Murder didn’t happen in sleepy Batavia-on-Hudson. An occasional stolen bicycle, some were paid off the books, but that was hardly worth mentioning. Lately, there had been a handful of amateur burglaries. Murder was another story altogether.
But there was no denying it. Elaine’s body was there before him, lifeless on a cushion of snow at the edge of the lake.
Sheriff Riley ran his chapped hands through his salt and pepper hair. A knowing person might have noticed that he used this motion to disguise a quick brush at his cheek, to eliminate the one tear that slipped through.
He feared this day, the day his lazy job would bring him face to face once again with the ugly underbelly he knew existed even in a quiet place like Batavia-on-Hudson. Mike Riley wasn’t afraid of death. He was afraid of the transformation a village like this was bound to go through after an act of murder.
He cried for Elaine; though he barely knew her. But also, he cried for the village that died with her that morning. A place where children still wandered freely. A village that didn’t lock doors, and trusted everyone, even the ones they gossiped about. Now, inevitably, the villagers would be guarded around each other, never quite sure anymore if someone could be trusted.
He thought he could already hear the locks snapping shut in cars and homes as word of the murder got out. Mothers yanking children indoors, hand-in-hand lovers escaping the once-romantic shadows of the wooded pathways, and old ladies turning into shut-ins instead of walking their dogs across the windy bluff.
Sheriff Riley steeled himself not just to confront the damaged body of the first murder victim of Batavia in over seventy years, but to confront the worried faces of mothers, the defeated faces of fathers and the vulnerable faces of the elderly.
He squatted in the slush, wincing as his bad knee rebelled, and laid his hands on Elaine’s rough canvas jacket, two-sizes too big—one of her thrift shop purchases, no doubt. As reverently as was possible in the muddy snow, Mike Riley turned over her body to examine the face of a changing village.
Sister Elaine had no one left, she had no known siblings and of course, no spouse or children. Only Agatha Miller, her childhood companion, could have been considered next of kin. How Elaine had tolerated her grumpy old friend was a mystery to everyone.
The sheriff knew that Elaine’s death would rock the community. Even a relative outsider like Mike understood that Elaine had been an anchor in Batavia. Her kindness had given the village heart, and her compassion had given it soul. No one would be prepared for this.
Mike knew from experience that preparation for death eases the grief. You start getting ready emotionally and psychologically. You make arrangements. You imagine your life without someone. But Mike also knew that when the time comes it still slaps you in the face, cold and bracing. And you realize you were only fooling yourself. Then somehow, in short order, work becomes demanding, bills need to be paid and something on the radio steals a chuckle right out of your throat. For a brief second you realize that there are moments of respite from your grief and perhaps someday those moments will expand and you may be able to experience joy once again.
But for now, Elaine’s death will be a shock. No one had prepared for her death, let alone her murder.
***
Excerpt from Winter Witness by Tina deBellegarde. Copyright 2020 by Tina deBellegarde. Reproduced with permission from Tina deBellegarde. All rights reserved.
Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!
Mailbox Monday
Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.
Wednesday:
Shoulder Season by Christina Clancy~ eBook from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley
Friday:
Surrender The Dead by John Burley ~ ARC from Harper Collins
When the body of popular local guide Arley Fitchett washes up onto Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Lieutenant Sam Tate, just two months at her new job, is charged with investigating his death. She learns the dead man was searching for a carving he believed had been hidden in the area by pirates in 1718. He’s not the only one. Several others shared Fitchett’s obsession with the bird with the sapphire eye. But which one of them is the murderer—or the next victim? And how long does Sam have to catch a killer before her own past catches up with her?
“The book… allows Tate to more fully come into herown as a formidable character on whose shoulders future procedurals could confidentially be placed.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
“Bird in Hand will have prior Sam fans and newcomers thoroughly engrossed, all the way to the unexpected end.” ~ D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“Even better than the first…leaving this reader eager for a third.” ~Teri Case, author of the award-winning TIGER DRIVE
Book Details:
Genre: Mystery
Published by: Ruthenia Press
Publication Date: September 3, 2020
Number of Pages: 289
ISBN: 0999548743 (ISBN-13: 978-0999548745)
Series: Sam Tate Mystery, #2
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
“Lieutenant,” he called out. “Sorry to bring you out on such a soggy night.” He suppressed an involuntary shiver.
“Duty calls, Deputy. You did the right thing.” She looked around. “Where’s the person who called it in?”
McCready cleared his throat. “I’m guessing he took off.”
She understood the young deputy’s discomfort. Poaching was a serious offense. On the other hand, the watermen who flouted the law were friends and neighbors to people with whom she worked.
“Never mind. Let’s see what he found. Grab your flashlight.”
Sam pulled a handheld marine searchlight out of the trunk of her cruiser.
“You got anything specific we can use as a starting point?” she asked.
“Dispatch said the caller mentioned sand. The shoreline is mostly rocky around here, but maybe there’s a sliver of open space right up at the point.”
Sam pulled out her phone and pulled up Google Maps. “I see it,” she said. “We’ve got to pass between these trees and the water to get to it.”
“Careful, then,” McCready said. “We’ll probably run into some pretty slippery going what with the mist and all.”
They headed towards a copse of trees adjacent to the manicured lawn. Dawn hadn’t shown itself. Absent any other illumination, they relied on their beams as they picked their way over the uneven surface.
“This is probably about the only piece of land left undeveloped around here,” McCready observed. “You wouldn’t believe how much building has gone on just in the last fifteen years.” He stumbled. “Shit! Sorry, Lieutenant.”
“Nothing I haven’t heard before, Deputy.”
They came upon a slip of sand about a hundred feet long and perhaps fifteen feet wide.
There it was, a body, face up, the left arm extended over the head as if to ward off a blow. The right arm rested on the chest as if in benediction. Both hands were blackened.
She set her searchlight down and crouched by the corpse. The beam coming from McCready’s flashlight wavered.
“You okay, Pat?” she asked.
She heard him swallow. The light steadied. “Yeah, it’s just that, damn, that’s Arley Fitchett.”
“You know him?” Sam asked.
“Everybody knows Arley Fitchett.”
***
Excerpt from Bird in Hand by Nikki Stern. Copyright 2020 by Nikki Stern. Reproduced with permission from Nikki Stern. All rights reserved.
Nikki is the author of five books, all of which have earned critical praise. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, and Humanist Magazine as well as in three anthologies. She collaborated on a series of interactive murder mystery musicals that make up the Café Noir series, published by Samuel French.
Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!
I don’t want to jinx myself but I’m finding that I want to read more. Now if only I can get back to where I was before the pandemic. But I’m afraid, listening to the scientists, that we are in this for a very long time if people would listen and not be complacent.
I keep praying that this pandemic is eradicated, but I know it wont be if people are complacent.
I don’t need any more books, but I want many more.
I would want that her family was her life to be etched onto my tombstone.
If I heard something go bump in the night, I would pass out after screaming at the top of my lungs.
Grace Pierrepoint Rendell, the only child of an ailing billionaire, has been treated for paranoia since childhood. When she secretly quits her meds, she begins to suspect that once her father passes, her husband will murder her for her inheritance. Realizing that no one will believe the ravings of a supposed psychotic, she devises a creative way to save herself – she will write herself out of danger, authoring a novel with the heroine in exactly the same circumstances, thus subtly exposing her husband’s scheme to the world. She hires acclaimed author Lynn Andrews to help edit her literary insurance policy, but when Lynn is murdered, Grace is discovered standing over the bloody remains. The clock is ticking: can she write and publish her manuscript before she is strapped into a straitjacket, accused of homicide, or lowered six feet under?
With a cast of secondary characters whose challenges mirror Grace’s own, Saving Grace is, at it’s core, an allegory for the struggle of the marginalized to be heard and live life on their own terms.
–Lori Robbins, author of the Silver Falchion Award-winning novel, Lesson Plan for Murder
Book Details:
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Domestic Suspense
Published by: Black Rose Writing
Publication Date: October 15th 2020
Number of Pages: 255
ISBN: 978-1684335565
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BlackRose Writing | Goodreads
By day, a mild-mannered salesperson, wife, mother, rescuer of senior shelter dogs, competitive trivia player and author groupie, happily living just north of New York City. By night, an author of sex, suspense and satire.
My background includes stints in travel marketing, travel journalism, meeting planning, public relations and real estate. I was, for a long and happy time, an award-winning magazine writer and editor. Then kids happened. And I needed to actually make money. Now they’re off doing whatever it is they do (of which I have no idea since they won’t friend me on Facebook) and I can spend my spare time weaving tales of debauchery and whatever else tickles my fancy.
The main thing to remember about my work is that I am NOT one of my characters. For example, as a real estate broker, I’ve never played Bondage Bingo in one of my empty listings or offed anyone at my local diet clinic. And I haven’t run away from home in fear that my husband was planning to off me.
But that’s not to say that I haven’t wanted to…
What was the inspiration for this book?
My husband started asking about my inheritance. My father lives in Florida and is still alive. I wondered, what if…?
What has been the biggest challenge in your writing career?
The writing is simple compared to finding and audience and getting reviews, even from your friends.
What do you absolutely need while writing?
Silence. I can’t write if there’s noise. If someone starts speaking to me while I’m in “the zone,” I just tune them out. I’ve found I can write at any hour, in any room—as long as it’s quiet.
Do you adhere to a strict routine when writing or write when the ideas are flowing?
When I’m in writing mode, as opposed to revision mode or marketing mode, I force myself to write 1,000 words a day. I try to write them in the morning but if I don’t finish, the rule is to finish sometime that day. It doesn’t matter if they suck (the first draft always does); I just need to get them onto the page so I know what I’m dealing with and I can revise later. Sometimes, you don’t know until the story’s completely out exactly what story you have!
Who is your favorite character from your book and why?
My favorite character is an ex-Hasid named Zev. He’s sarcastic and irreverent, just like me, and adds some badly needed comic relief to the book.
Who is your least favorite character from your book and why?
Not too fond of Grace’s sons, since they take her for granted, following Eliot’s lead. In fact, I’m really not too fond of Eliot either.
Give us an interesting fun fact or a few about your book?
The original iteration of the book had Grace and Hack’s stories running concurrently. Hack felt responsible for his parents’ death and to make it up to their memory, he was helping Kenzie set up a LBGTQ shelter in his family’s home, where he was the only one still living.
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
When you read the metaphors, if you think they are a little odd, remember that Grace’s entire experience of life has been from books.
Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
Wife, mother, member of several writing organizations in NY and the Hudson Valley. Rescuer of shelter dogs and competitive trivia player when there isn’t a pandemic around. I am a former magazine writer/editor who ran my own travel content/marketing company for years before ever daring to write fiction. As the daughter of owners of a major Manhattan travel agency, I was fortunate enough to travel the world, and have enjoyed stints as a travel writer as well as other travel-related careers. I’ve also worked in real estate and mortgage origination.
What’s next that we can look forward to?
My next book is a rom-com. I hope to be submitting it to publishers in October and hopefully, you’ll see it on the shelves in 2021.
One felony was all it took to convince Andrea Lin she was better suited to committing crime on paper than in person. As renowned mystery author Lynn Andrews, she understood conflict equaled good drama. Like her readers, she should have expected the hiccups, even relished them. What she hadn’t counted on was the accompanying agita, especially while sitting in her Bergen County kitchen, far from the action at the Bitcoin Teller Machine.
Her one job had been to place a single phone call when the money hit and tell the hacker to lift the encryption on Grace’s computer. Trouble was, her dozen calls remained unanswered until a few minutes ago, throwing their meticulous plan off schedule.
Andrea stroked the blue-gray Nebulung purring on her lap and tried to ignore the churning in her stomach. “Denver, the next time I consider helping a sibling with some crazy scheme, you have my permission to use my leg as a scratching post until I come to my senses. Agreed?”
Denver looked up, his green eyes filled with innocence, and answered with a single meow before leaping onto the table toward her plate of shortbread cookies.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She sipped her tea, willing the sugar to sweeten the acrid taste in her mouth. The phone interrupted her meditation. No doubt a check-in from her brother, the extorter-in-chief.
“I figured you’d have called by now. Everything on track?” Joe’s strained voice conveyed his own jangled nerves. They’d agreed to be vague when communicating. In these days of Siri and Alexa, anyone could be listening.
“Finally. Took forever to get through to our friend, but she said she’d take care of ‘our project’ as soon as her meetings wrapped up. From here on out though, I’m sticking to fiction. Real-life intrigue is too stressful.”
Andrea missed Joe’s response, instead perplexed by her cats’ sudden change of behavior. Denver had tilted his head and leapt from the table; Vail and Aspen sat frozen, ears perked, staring toward the foyer. Then she heard it too, the sound of papers shuffling in the living room. She leaned forward, muscles taut, hackles raised, ready to pounce. “Joe, hold on a sec. I think someone’s in the house. I’ll call you back later.”
***
“Wait, what? Andrea??” Silence. The connection was dead.
After twenty minutes of weaving in and out of rush-hour traffic to travel one mile, Joe “Hack” Hackford pulled up outside his sister’s Ridgewood home. Adrenaline pumping on overdrive, he jumped from his car and sprinted toward the house. Door wide open—not an encouraging sign. He steeled his nerves and hastened inside. The living room looked like a hurricane’s aftermath, with furniture overturned and papers littering the carpets and floor.
“Andrea? Are you here?” He rushed into the kitchen, which lacked any signs of their celebratory dinner—no spaghetti boiling on the stove, no cake rising in the oven. Only the door to the backyard ajar and a shriek emanating from the next room, piercing the eerie silence. Hair stiffening at the back of his neck, he raced into the dining room where a redheaded woman stood frozen, staring across the room.
“Who the hell are you?” he growled.
The stranger remained wide-eyed and unresponsive. He followed her gaze to the floor, where he witnessed the unthinkable. His beloved sister lay in the corner, surrounded by a pool of blood, a kitchen knife stuck in her chest. Her eyes remained fixed on the ceiling. A trio of feline guards circled her lifeless body.
Hack’s knees turned to jelly, and he grabbed onto a chair for support, forcing back the remains of the snack he’d consumed only minutes earlier. Once the initial shock waned, he reverted his attention back to the intruder. At second glance, she did look somewhat familiar, though the woman he’d met a few weeks back—the missing heiress whose computer they’d just hacked—was brunette. Had she uncovered their con? With a bolt of fury, he reached forward and pulled the wig from her head. A thousand questions zigzagged in his brain, but only one forced its way past his lips:
“Oh my God. Grace. Oh my God. What the hell have you done?”
***
Excerpt from Saving Grace by D.M. Barr. Copyright 2020 by D.M. Barr. Reproduced with permission from D.M. Barr. All rights reserved.
Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!
