Guest Blog Review and Giveaway with Kate Carlisle

I am so excited for Kate Carlisle to be here today to promote her new book, A Cookbook Conspiracy, and to talk a little bit about history which fits perfectly with her wonderful new release.

Fascinating Small Stories of History

By Kate Carlisle, Author of A COOKBOOK CONSPIRACY

I remember dreading History class in high school. Okay, yes, the teacher had greasy hair and a belly that hung out beneath the bottom of his shirt, but I could’ve gotten past that.  Ew, but yeah, I could’ve dealt with the belly-bottom.  No, what I dreaded was the subject matter–memorizing dates and names which, to my unformed teenage mind, had no context in my life.

What I didn’t get then is that history is collection of infinite stories – and I love stories!  Seriously, I’m a writer. I’m all about stories.

Don’t blame history teachers.  They have an impossible job – condense a thousand years into nine months of study – minus Spring Break, Christmas, sick days…They’re trying desperately to imbue students with a big picture view of the world.  They do what they can to make it real, but kids that age have a tough time connecting with their parents, much less ancestors ten generations removed.

But when history becomes one person’s story, when it becomes personal, our collective imagination is engaged.  And for me, while kings and presidents, pharaohs and fuehrers, are interesting in a train-wreck kind of way, I’m much more fascinated by a glimpse into the life of an ordinary person.

Some of the Most Fascinating Ordinary People in History

 Lucy – Lucy lived over three million years ago, and her bones were discovered in 1974. That alone makes her fascinating. I include Lucy in the category of “people” because although she wasn’t human, scientists believe she’s an ancestor of humans. How freaking cool is that?!

Anne Frank – I don’t know if boys had this experience, but every girl I know connected deeply with Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl in hiding from the Nazis during World War II. At one time or another, we’ve all kept diaries. We’ve all had a crush on the cute neighbor boy. Until I read the end of the book, I had no idea that Anne didn’t survive the war. I cried as though I’d lost a dear friend. Anne brought the horrors of war and prejudice home to me in a way that no textbook ever could.

Obedience Green – Oh, you’ve never heard of Obedience Green? That’s because I made her up as a way to bring history to life in A COOKBOOK CONSPIRACY, my latest Bibliophile Mystery. Bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright has been asked to restore the handwritten cookbook-cum-diary of Obedience, an indentured servant who lived in America during the Revolutionary War. Obedience kept painstaking notes about her life in the New World, the British general she served, and the recipes she learned.

When Brooklyn is asked to restore the 230-year-old book, she immediately recognizes it as a priceless treasure.  Valuable enough to kill for? Or could its owner’s murder have something to do with the Revolutionary War secret code buried in the text?

If your body and present surroundings were frozen in time, what would the future archaeologists who discover you learn about the life of an ordinary person in 2013?

About the Author:

Award winning author Kate Carlisle spent over twenty years working in television production as an Associate Director for game and variety shows, including The Midnight Special, Solid Gold and The Gong Show. She traveled the world as a Dating Game chaperone and performed strange acts of silliness on The Gong Show. She also studied acting and singing, toiled in vineyards, collected books, joined a commune, sold fried chicken, modeled spring fashions and worked for a cruise ship line, but it was the year she spent in law school that finally drove her to begin writing fiction. It seemed the safest way to kill off her professors. Those professors are breathing easier now that Kate spends most of her time writing near the beach in Southern California where she lives with her perfect husband.

A lifelong love of old books and an appreciation of the art of bookbinding led Kate to create the Bibliophile Mysteries, featuring rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright, whose bookbinding and restoration skills invariably uncover old secrets, treachery and murder. Find Kate online at www.katecarlisle.com.

Jennifer’s Review of A Cookbook Conspiracy

TITLE:  A Cookbook Conspiracy

SERIES #: Bibliophile Mysteries #7

CHARACTERS: Brooklyn Wainwright, Savannah & Derek

AUTHOR:  Kate Carlisle

PUBLICATION DATE:  06/04/13

ORDER LINKS:  Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS: It’s a recipe for disaster when bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright is asked to restore an antique cookbook…..

Brooklyn has always been a little obsessed with food, but it was her sister Savannah who became a chef, graduating from the prestigious Cordon Bleu school in Paris.  She and her classmates all went on to successful careers, but none of them achieved culinary superstardom like Savannah’s ex-boyfriend Baxter Cromwell.

 When Baxter invites the old gang to participate in his new restaurant’s gala opening in San Francisco, Savannah looks forward to seeing her friends, and even asks Brooklyn to restore a tattered cookbook–an old gift from Baxter–as a present for him.  But Brooklyn immediately recognizes that the book, which has strange notes and symbols scrawled in the margins, is at least two hundred years old.  She thinks that it probably belongs in a museum, but Savannah insists on returning it to Baxter.

 Shortly after receiving the gift, Baxter is found dead, with Savannah kneeling over him, bloody knife in hand, and the rare cookbook has disappeared.  Brooklyn knows her sister didn’t kill him, and she suspects the missing cookbook might lead to the real villain. Now Brooklyn will have to turn up the head on the investigation before Chef Savannah finds herself slinging hash in a prison cafeteria.

 REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Jennifer             NUMBER OF STARS: Five Stars

 REVIEW: A Cookbook Conspiracy is the seventh book in the Bibliophile mysteries and I enjoyed every minute of this story.  Brooklyn’s sister, Savannah, is in town to celebrate the opening of a new restaurant by her ex-boyfriend, Baxter Cromwell, where the opening festivities include the cuisine of her old Cordon Bleu classmates. When Baxter is found dead later that evening and Savannah is holding the murder weapon, Brooklyn will do everything she can to find the real killer and possibly put herself in the killer’s path to prevent her sister from going to jail.

 I love Kate Carlisle’s mysteries because they are always fast-paced with smart dialogue and a heroine that you can’t help but adore.  I think this book is one of my favorites in the series because I love books that deal with the culinary world as well as learning a little bit about history. I enjoyed seeing more of Brooklyn and Derek’s relationship as well as learning more about Savannah and Derek’s brother, Dalton, who has come to decipher the code embedded in Obedience Green’s cookbook. The mystery will have you guessing up until the very end of the book and I had a hard time trying to figure out who the actual killer was.  Kate Carlisle’s Bibliophile mysteries are wonderfully well-written with vibrant characters and engaging mysteries that will have you wondering where the time went once you start reading one of her books.

  GIVEAWAY

Kate has been gracious enough to offer one of our readers a hardback copy of her fabulous new release, A Cookbook Conspiracy.
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