Blog Tour & Giveaway:Diners, Drive-ins, and Death by Christine Wenger

RAMBLING THOUGHTS ON BEING
AN AUTHOR OF A “COMFORT FOOD “ SERIES
by
CHRISTINE WENGER

First, let me explain that wild title above.  My series for Penguin/Obsidian Books are all cozy mysteries and each one has a comfort food theme.

You might ask, “Hey, Chris, what is COMFORT FOOD? “  Well, dear reader, it is what I’d like to think of is food or sweets that grandma used to make, or mom used to make, or dad always made, or Joe at the diner makes.  It’s your favorite go-to food when you are feeling low and need some comfort.  It’s the way mom makes that sweet potato casserole.  It’s that meatloaf you grew up on.  It’s grandma’s apple pie and now you have the recipe and make it every Thanksgiving for your kids.  And hopefully, one of your kids will make it for their kids.

You might also ask, “Hey, Chris, what’s the setting for your comfort food series?”  Well, dear reader, I picked the perfect setting for my series: a diner!  My character, Trixie Matkowski’s Silver Bullet Diner, located in small town Sandy Harbor, New York, is on the shore of Lake Ontario.

Trixie Matkowski has the same first name as my favorite childhood sleuth, Trixie Belden.  As a kid, you could always find me lying on my bed reading and re-reading Trixie’s adventures. I’d be done with one book, and have the next open so I wouldn’t miss a word.  I’d like to think that Trixie Matkowski is a lot like me.  We have a lot of things in common: love of food and desserts, love of Lake Ontario, small towns, little rental cottages, quirky friends and Polish heritage.

Like Trixie Matkowski, I’ve always been a foodie and love to cook and bake. As for diners, I have my local favorites that have stood the test of time and various owners.  A lot of the old diners, like the Silver Bullet, were fashioned after railroad dining cars.  My grandfather used to work at Onondaga Pottery (which turned into Syracuse China and is now defunct) which made china for various diners, restaurants, and even railroad dining cars.  I have several collectible railroad china pieces, and whenever I use it, I think of where it might have traveled and the dining cars in which it sat.

Friends who have read my books relish in sharing their favorite diners with me.  Oh, the hardship!  Great food and great company.  So, while I should be writing, instead I am eating at various new and old diners.

But my favorite will always be diners like the Silver Bullet, a shiny aluminum establishment from the 1950’s or so, with a grand history and food that comforts.  The smell of coffee permeates the air, and deserts take a ride on a lighted carousel.  The waitresses are friendly and no one rushes you out.

Think of me sitting across from you in a booth with a worn Formica table and red vinyl seats that ergonomically form to my butt.   I’ll be the one eating fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and buttered corn on the side.

“Of course, Nancy, I’d love desert.  I’ll have a cup of thick black coffee with my apple pie.  Definitely, a la mode.  Vanilla ice cream, please!”

About the Author:

Christine has worked in the criminal justice field for more years than she cares to remember. She has a dual master’s degree in Probation and Parole Studies and Sociology from Fordham University.

Unfortunately, the knowledge gained from way too many years in night school, didn’t prepare her for what she loves to do the most – writing romances and cozy mysteries.

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For Sandy Harbor’s tastiest comfort food, venture to the Silver Bullet Diner. But head next door to the new drive-in theater if you have an appetite for murder….

Trixie Matkowski has a tall order to fill this fall. Aside from dishing out delicious fare at the Silver Bullet during peak fishing season, she’s helping her friend—Antoinette Chloe Brown, or ACB for short—open a drive-in movie theater in the vacant lot beside her diner. It’s just the thing to take ACB’s mind off Nick, her missing biker beau.

But their plans are fried after Nick’s body is discovered during the groundbreaking for the drive-in. And when the police connect the murder weapon to ACB, she becomes the prime suspect in eighty-sixing Nick. With the fate of her innocent friend and her business on the line, Trixie must make the guilty party pay up before someone else gets stiffed….

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Jennifer’s Review of Diners, Drive-ins, and Death

Review (4.25 Stars): Trixie has a lot on her plate in this new mystery with running a busy restaurant, helping her friend open a drive-in movie theater and she has also agreed to host the contestants of the Miss Salmon pageant.  While all this is going on, her friend Antoinette Chloe is trying to figure what happened to her boyfriend, who just up and disappeared on her.  When they find his body on the land where she is going to open her drive-in, Antoinette Chloe becomes the prime suspect in his murder.  Trixie doesn’t believe that her friend is a murderer so she is off to find the real killer before everything goes up in smoke.

This is the third book in the Comfort Food mystery series and this book is action-packed for the get go.  Trixie has way too much going on in her life but that is the way she likes it.  She has wonderful friends, a great business and a sexy potential love interest.  I love how loyal Trixie is to the people that she cares about and is willing to do almost anything to help her good friend, Antoinette Chloe.  After everything they have been through together, Trixie is supportive of Antoinette Chloe when she trying to figure out what happened to her boyfriend, Nick.  Finding Nick on the drive-in property was a shock because no one had a clue how he got there or who was looking to hurt him.  Antoinette Chloe is eccentric with a larger than life personality but that is what I love about her.  The mystery was very intriguing and it was easy to fly through the pages  with Ms. Wenger’s humorous writing style. Diners, Drive-ins, and Death has the perfect mixture of thrills, snappy dialogue and delicious down-home style flavor that will have you asking for seconds.

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