Category: 4 Star

The Ghosts of Sweet Pepper
From a story in the Sweet Pepper Gazette
By Pat Smith

Sweet Pepper isn’t exactly the ghost capitol of the world or even on the most haunted places tour. The people exploit their peppers, but not their ghosts. Ghost are too personal – even family – and no one would want to put family on display to make a few dollars.

But there are plenty of ghosts in the little town of Sweet Pepper, Tennessee. It is home to a headless man, the ghost of a former fire chief, and some nameless haunts, as well as a witch or two.

No one knows who the woman is who cries on the bridge going out of town. She begs strangers for rides, telling them that she’s trying to get home. As soon as the persona agrees to take her home, she vanishes, leaving the person with a feeling of breathlessness and a rapidly pounding heart. People have been writing about her since the 1800s. Some recently have even tried to take her picture, but she’s camera shy.

A headless ghost holding a lantern winds his way through the streets on certain nights during the winter. He seems to be weaving as though he’s had too much to drink. His clothes are that of a gentleman from the late 1800s with shiny buckles on his shoes. He disappears when anyone shines a light on him.

There is a ghost hound who some have claimed howls before a sick person’s death, and there is the ghost horse that runs through town, sometimes taking passengers with him who are never seen again.

My favorite is Fire Chief Eric Gamlyn who died in the line of duty forty years ago. He was killed in a grain silo fire. He was the founder of the Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade and also built their firehouse and the log cabin on Firehouse Road. He loved Sweet Pepper and did many good things for the town.

Chief Gamlyn has been seen walking around his log cabin and visiting the old firehouse. It should be pointed out that no one was able to live in his cabin until the new fire chief came to Sweet Pepper.

Chief Stella Griffin doesn’t have much to say about living with the ghost of the old chief. “He doesn’t bother me – I don’t bother him,” she said in a recent interview. “I guess we get along well because we have something in common.”

If anyone knows of any other ghost stories from Sweet Pepper, contact the newspaper.

About the Author:

J.J. Cook writes award-winning, bestselling mystery fiction as themselves, Joyce and Jim Lavene, and Ellie Grant. They have written and published more than 70 novels for Harlequin, Berkley, Amazon, and Gallery Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. They live in rural North Carolina with their family. Visit them at their website.

Stella Griffin should be bubbling over with joy now that she’s the full-time fire chief of Sweet Pepper, except trouble is brewing on her doorstep. An angry resident has purchased her cabin, and—with a bulldozer in tow—is ready to tear it down. But as Stella worries over the fate of her home and Eric, her ghostly roommate, there’s soon an even greater cause for alarm.

A suspicious house fire in the pricey Sunset Beach community at Sweet Pepper Lake claims the life of ex-state representative Barney Falk. The nature of the death has Stella feeling out of her depth, so she teams up with the state’s arson investigator. Moving full steam ahead with the case, they must smoke out a killer before the firebug strikes again…

Amazon/B&N

Jennifer’s Review of In Hot Water

Review (4.5 Stars): Stella Griffin has always been one of my favorite mystery heroines because she is just this spunky firecracker that is the fire chief of Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade and doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything. In Hot Water, after the cliffhanger in Playing With Fire, I’m glad to see that Stella’s home is safe for now but she may be evicted before too long.  While she is dealing with housing issues, her fire brigade responds to a suspicious house fire at the home of Barney Falk and discover his body after a deadly explosion. Stella now has to deal with a case of arson and has to find a killer before another victim goes up in smoke.

In Hot Water is the third book in Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade mysteries and I love each one more than the last. I enjoy reading Stella’s adventures in Sweet Pepper and this mystery is filled with action, thrills and a little bit of a love triangle.  I can’t get enough of Stella and Eric and I wish there was some way that the two of them could be together as a couple. My only complaint about this book is that it ended on another cliff hanger and I want the next book in the series right now.

Giveaway

Guest Post

by Elizabeth Lee

You know how you’ve been around a guy forever and then one day you get mad at him and your whole world seems to blow up?  That’s what happens to Lindy Blanchard when even Deputy Hunter Austin, her sometimes lover and sometimes adversary, and sometimes plain pain-in-the-neck, comes to suspect that her meemaw, Miss Amelia, who runs The Nut House in Riverville, Texas, could’ve been the one who poisoned Pastor Jenkins at the Riverville Agricultural Fair.

Suspect her Meemaw?  The love of her life?  The woman who sets standards for everyone in the Blanchard family?  The greatest cook in all of Riverville, who just happened to lose an important blue ribbon because of a contrary vote from the pastor?

So what if it was Miss Amelia’s Heavenly Pecan Texas Caviar that killed the man?  (In the recipes at the end of the book Miss Amelia renames this famous dish Socrates Favorite Texas Caviar in a kind of ghoulish attempt to make people forget that poison killed the good pastor.)
Anybody could have slipped the poison into Meemaw’s dish, especially since a hog got loose from one of the barns right about then and Hunter, police presence at the fair, was out trying to rope the scared animal, then was dragged through the red Texas dirt for his trouble.  And nobody was watching the entries in the food tent.

It doesn’t help the two of them, trying to make up later, when, on a trip to Tupelo to interview a possible suspect, Meemaw keeps calling to make sure they have separate rooms when they stop for the night in New Orleans.  She may be the number one suspect in a murder, but Miss Amelia will be damned if her dear granddaughter will be called a “loose woman” by town gossips like her friend, Ethelred Tomroy.

Once in Tupelo, they are all business, interviewing this ex-husband who got religion since he hurt his first wife so bad and swears he didn’t have anything to do with hurting the pastor.  They’d been hoping this was the murderer, but they both know the man is telling the truth—and has an alibi from his current wife—they were in church all that day.

Even a stop at Elvis’ original home in Tupelo and a tour of the grounds doesn’t lift the depression they’re sharing:

“Poor Meemaw.  What do we do next?  You have any ideas?”Lindy asked.

He shook his head, glanced down at the speedometer and slowed.  “One thing’s     still bothering me though.  I hate to bring it up.  Probably it doesn’t have anything     to do with anything, but it’s about why Miss Amelia dished up more of her Texas     caviar for the parson?  It’s the only solid thing I know of that doesn’t fit anywhere     and it’s driving me crazy.”

I thought a minute.  “I asked her.”

“What’d she say?”

“Something about wanting him to taste the real thing.”

That answer doesn’t cure a thing between them.  Things go from bad to worse (you could say) when Treenie, Meemaw’s helper at The Nut house sticks her finger in a jar at the store, puts in her mouth and lands in the hospital—poisoned by the same poison that killed the pastor.

There’s this thing about Texas women, they may be sweet as molasses but they can also be as tough at rattlers.  When the women of Riverville muster around Miss Amelia—knowing a killer from a sweetheart—Deputy Hunter either gets with the program or is out of Lindy’s life forever.

Doesn’t matter how much a woman likes or loves a man, when it comes to allegiance to him or her meemaw, there’s no contest.

Thank goodness for Hunter Austen (and me, the writer) things look like they’ll work out all right.  They still have to find the real murderer to get Meemaw off the hook, then find the poison—which comes from a surprising place—and they still have to face down a couple of serious threats from the people behind it all.  The wonderful part of all of this is that when a relationship is tested in this way, there’s not much more that can ever tear it apart again.  Well, that is until I get the two of them tied up in another murder and their stubborn natures come out again.  I love writing books about people I like as much as I like Hunter Austen and Lindy Blanchard, and all the other folks in Riverville—good, bad, mean, testy, or angelic.

Everybody’s got a story for me.  Makes my work so easy.

About the Author:

Elizabeth moved to the shores of a little lake in northwest northern Michigan and never looked back. She lives, sometimes uncomfortably, with the crows and bears and turtles and finds her material in the villages and forests that surround her. With degrees from Macomb County Community College, Oakland University, and the University of Michigan, she now teaches creative writing at Northwestern Michigan College and at writers’ conferences around the country.

Her novels include: Gift of Evil (Bantam), Dead Dancing Women, Dead Floating Lovers, Dead Sleeping Shaman, and Dead Dogs and Englishmen (Midnight Ink).

Elizabeth is also fascinated with the craft of the short story and hers have appeared in The Creative Woman, The Driftwood Review, Passages North, The MacGuffin, Quality Women’s Fiction (Great Britain), and elsewhere. With a grant from the State of Michigan she also created short stories that have been produced onstage as well as being read on NPR.

Her essays have appeared in magazines and books and newspapers, and she writes book reviews for The Northern Express, an alternative newspaper in Traverse City, Michigan.

For many years she taught in the International Women’s Guild summer program at Skidmore College and appeared as a moderator and panelist at writing conferences. Her fascination with all things murderous began with a love for puzzles of all sorts, which was handed down to her by a mother who devoured mysteries. Sometimes playful, sometimes deadly serious, her books reflect a wide interest in women’s lives and futures.

Website/Facebook

Lindy Blanchard’s family pecan farm is known county-wide, but it’s the goodies her grandmother sells at their store, the Nut House, that really bring in the crowds—until someone turns one of her tasty treats deadly……

The “Most Original Pecan Treat” contest at the Ag Fair is the talk of Riverville, Texas, especially when it’s clear that Miss Amelia Blanchard’s Heavenly Texas Pecan Caviar will take home a blue ribbon. Which is why everyone is amazed when her dish doesn’t even place—and even more shocked when one of the judges, Pastor Jenkins, keels over dead, right after taking a second taste of Miss Amelia’s food.

No one in town truly believes that Amelia would even hurt a fly, but all the evidence points to poor Pastor Jenkins’ death being caused by poison in the caviar. Now, unless Lindy figures out who wanted to frame Amelia for murder, her meemaw may have baked her last famous pecan pie….

Amazon/B&N

Jennifer’s Review of Snoop to Nuts

Review (4.75 Stars): Snoop to Nuts is definitely a mystery that you can sink your teeth into. I love Lindy and her sassy grandmother, Amelia, as well as the eccentric cast of characters in this delightful series. In this mystery, Amelia is accused of murder when a judge dies after eating her Pecan Caviar at the Ag Fair.  I couldn’t imagine anyone thinking that Amelia would hurt anyone but there was so much competition for the coveted blue ribbon that I’m not surprised that someone tried to sabotage her yummy food and blame her for a murder she didn’t commit.  Every time I read a Nut House mystery, it reminds me of being a young child watching my grandmother cooking her delicious pies and treats and I want to go to visit the Nut House just so I can try a piece of Amelia’s pecan pie.

Snoop to Nuts is a fabulously delicious mystery that will keep readers hungry for me.  Ms. Lee does a great job bringing these characters and this town to life that you can’t stop yourself from smiling during certain scenes of this book.  The mystery was well-written and engaging that is sure to keep readers entertained until the last page.  Looking forward to more wonderful recipes and a charming new mystery in the next installment of this series.

Giveaway

I’m excited to give away a copy of Snoop to Nuts. This giveaway is for US Residents only.  To be entered in the drawing by January 17th, please leave me a comment below:

Guest Post for FETA ATTRACTION

by Susannah Hardy

I love mysteries! You’re here visiting this blog because you do too. Did you ever solve a real mystery? Not ones like what that smell is emanating from your teenager’s bedroom, or who put the toilet paper on the roll backwards. Not that those aren’t important or that you shouldn’t get credit for your detective skills, LOL! But I’ve solved a couple of family mysteries, and I’ll tell you about one here today.

Genealogy is one of my hobbies, and there is a genealogical element to FETA ATTRACTION, one that will become more important in Book Two (sorry, I don’t have an official title or a release date on that yet!). My heroine, Georgie, will find out some very interesting things about who she is and where she came from and why murders keep happening around her in Bonaparte Bay.

My real-life family, and I suspect just about everyone else’s too, has its own mystery. Family legend says that my great-great grandfather was a Native American (Mohawk), that he and my white great-great grandmother had an affair, then he ran off when she found out she was pregnant. She left the baby with her widowed mother, and ran off herself. I’ve always taken that story with a grain of salt.

Now, thanks to the Internet and some digitized old newspapers, it turns out I was right to be skeptical.

The real story, which I pieced together from old newspaper articles and online census records—did I mention, I LOVE research?—is rather more Downton Abbey or Upstairs, Downstairs. Not nearly as romantic or interesting as having a Mohawk ancestor! The documentation proves that Great-Great-Grandma was a servant in the home of a wealthy shopkeeper, and they had a relationship, which resulted in a baby, my Great-Grandfather. A lawsuit was brought by the girl’s mother for loss of the girl’s services due to the pregnancy, and damages were awarded against the shopkeeper. My Great-Grandfather either never knew the real story, or deliberately lied about who his parents were on his marriage certificate, which other members of my family have taken as truth. Even though I’ve presented my proof, most still cling to the legend rather than the reality.

Not that I can blame them. Stories are often so much better than real life, aren’t they? Which is why we keep reading novels, and especially cozy mysteries with their familiar characters and satisfying endings. I hope you enjoy FETA ATTRACTION!

Wishing each and every one of you peace and prosperity in the New Year,

Susannah

About the Author:

Susannah Hardy is the author of the Greek to Me Mysteries, coming January 6, 2015 from Berkley Prime Crime. If you like your mysteries cozy, culinary, and a little bit crazy, you’re going to love Georgie and the gang at Bonaparte Bay. It’s available for order now! Click here.  Please!

Suze is a member of the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime, the Romance Writers of America and the Connecticut Chapter of RWA.  Susannah is originally from Northern New York State (Way north!  Only a few miles from the Canadian border), graduated from St. Lawrence University, and now lives in Connecticut with her husband, teenaged son, and Elvira the Wonder Cat.

Website/Twitter

Georgie Nikolopatos manages the Bonaparte House, a Greek restaurant and historic landmark in beautiful upstate New York rumored to possess ghosts and hidden treasure. But when her husband disappears and her main competitor is found dead, it’s up to Georgie to solve a big fat Greek murder.

With her husband, Spiro, inexplicably gone for days, Georgie has her hands full running the restaurant and dealing with the crew of the TV show Ghost Squad, called in by Spiro to inspect the house for haunting. So when she has a chance to take a boating excursion on the St. Lawrence River with her friend Keith Morgan, she jumps on it. But their idyll is quickly ruined when they discover the body of rival restaurant owner Domenic “Big Dom” DiTomasso floating in the water.

When the police start asking questions, it doesn’t help that Spiro can’t be found—and with Georgie on their suspect list, it’s up to her to find her missing husband and find out who killed Big Dom before someone else’s order is up.

Amazon/B&N

Jennifer’s Review of Feta Attraction

Review (4.5 Stars): Georgie Nikolopatos is the manager of a Greek restaurant called the Bonaparte House, which is owned by her husband, Spiro and his spunky mother, Sophie and she currently has her hands full.  Georgie’s husband has been missing for several days and even though this isn’t unusual, she now has to deal with the film crew that her husband set up to investigate claims that the restaurant is haunted.  To make matters worse, Georgie finds the body of a wealthy competitor and has been receiving threatening notes that may be related to her husband’s disappearance.  Now, Georgie has to find a murderer before it’s too late and she becomes the next person to suddenly disappear.

This is the first book in the Greek to Me mystery series and I already love this series!  Georgie was an enjoyable heroine that you will instantly like and want to spend more time with.  I thought that her relationship with her husband was very complicated and I was surprised that Georgie had lived that way for so long.  Her coworkers at the restaurant were hilarious and I enjoyed that the restaurant was being investigated by paranormal investigators to discover if it was really haunted while Georgie was dealing with a murder mystery.  The mystery was well-written with clever twists and turns that will definitely keep people guessing. Feta Attraction has the perfect combination of humor, mystery and romance that will have readers hungry for more.  Can’t wait to read the next installment in this charming series.

Giveaway

I’m excited to give away a copy of Feta Attraction. This giveaway is for US Residents only.  To be entered in the drawing by January 17th, please leave me a comment below:

It’s an old adage that too many cooks spoil the broth. But when a tour of the White House kitchen by a group of foreign chefs ends in murder, it’s Olivia Paras who finds herself in the soup… 

Due to a government sequester, entertaining at the White House has been severely curtailed. So executive chef Olivia Paras is delighted to hear that plans are still on to welcome a presidential candidate from the country of Saardisca—the first woman to run for office—and four of that nation’s top chefs.

But while leading the chefs on a kitchen tour, pastry chef Marcel passes out suddenly—and later claims he was drugged. When one of the visiting chefs collapses and dies, it’s clear someone has infiltrated the White House with ill intent. Could it be an anti-Saardiscan zealot? Is the candidate a target? Are the foreign chefs keeping more than their recipes a secret? Once again, Olivia must make sleuthing the special of the day…

Amazon/B&N

About the Author:

Julie Hyzy’s very first job had her flipping burgers and chopping onions at a neighborhood hot dog stand. She traded that experience for a job as a singing waitress at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour — but gave that up when she started college (and because she couldn’t carry a tune).

Over the years, she’s acted in community theater productions, appeared in television commercials, and crashed a previously all-male fraternity to become one of the first female brothers in Loyola University’s Chapter of Delta Sigma Pi. Julie had dreams of becoming a writer, but family, friends, and frat brothers convinced her otherwise. Having held positions as junior officer at a downtown bank, office manager at an architectural firm, and financial advisor at a prestigious wealth management company, she realizes that the business degree was probably a good choice — but fiction is truly her passion. Now, with some well-earned life experience behind her, she’s delighted to finally be able to make writing a priority in her life.

Website/Facebook

Jennifer’s Review of All The President’s Menus

Review (4.75 Stars): This is a fabulous series and I can never get enough of Ollie and the wonderful cast of characters in this series.  In this story, Olivia finds herself entertaining foreign chefs and a presidential candidate from Saardisca at a time when she least expects it, during the middle of a sequester.  While taking the foreign chefs on a pastry tour, Marcel passes out and claims that he has been drugged and soon one of the visiting chefs ends up dead, leaving Olivia to believe that there is more going on than meets the eye.  Now, she must find a killer before it is too late and another victim is found at the White House.

This is the eighth book in the White House Chef mystery series and this is one of my favorite series to date.  Olivia is a fabulous character and I love reading about her life at the White House and the wonderful culinary creations she comes up with for Presidential events or just to feed the First Family.  I enjoyed this mystery because I’m always amazed at the way she handles herself in any situation, whether it is life or death or dealing with difficult chefs and she does it all effortlessly. I can’t say enough great things about this series and I can’t wait to read what is in store for Olivia and her team at the White House.

Giveaway

I’m excited to give away a copy of All The President’s Menu. This giveaway is for US Residents only.  To be entered in the drawing by January 12th, please leave me a comment below:

About the Snow Globe Shop Mystery Series

by Christine Husom

We’re in the season of winter and I live in Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Frozen Lakes. Christmas 2014 is now part of our memory banks, but I know there are people of all ages who were given a snow globe as a gift and are this very minute picking them up, giving them a shaking, and watching the snow settle over a wide variety of scenes.

From little on, I have been drawn to the seeming magic of snow globes. I loved giving them as gifts for my children because they always appreciated them. Even now, when I see one on display in a store, I can’t resist flipping it over then back again to see how the scene looks in a snow fall.

When the opportunity arose to write a series set in a shop that specializes in snow globes, it was a natural fit. The catch is that Camryn Brooks, the one running Curio Finds, never planned to do anything like that in her lifetime. She had a successful career as a senator’s legislative affairs director in Washington D.C., and thought she’d be working there forever.

But a scandal changed her career path and she returned to her hometown of Brooks Landing in a hurry. For how long, she had no clue. But it appears to be the best place for the time being. Her parents need help running Curio Finds, and an added bonus is Cami has a large family and many friends who love and support her, no matter what the media had to say about her.

The cast of characters who are part of a small community in Minnesota often get pulled from their day to day activities to deal with events that are anything but ordinary. Alice “Pinky” Nelson, Erin Vickerman, and Mark Weston are Cami’s childhood friends who stayed in Brooks Landing and are glad Cami came back. Pinky runs Brew Ha-Ha, a coffee shop adjoining Curio Finds.

When Snow Way Out opens, Jerrell Powers, a man that had wreaked havoc in Brooks Landing a few years before has returned to town. And Erin was one of his victims. Cami and Pinky are getting ready for a snow globe making class that evening, and they’re also wondering what Erin will do if she runs into her nemesis. What they have no way of knowing is the role Jerrell Powers will play in the evening’s events or how the night will end after the class is over.

This is a snippet from the back cover, “After the flurry of activity has ended and everyone has gone off with their handmade snow globes, Cami spots on a shelf a new globe left behind, featuring an odd tableau—a man sleeping on a park bench. On her way home, she drifts through the town park and is shaken to come upon the scene from the globe—a man sitting on a bench. But he isn’t sleeping—he has a knife in his back.”

I’d love to have you join me on this Snow Globe Shop Mystery series adventure, I hope you make the people of Brooks Landing and their relationships, and all the things they get involved with, a part of your reading pleasure.

About the Author:

Christine Husom lives in Minnesota with her family. She is a small business owner and author of Murder in Winnebago County, Buried in Wolf Lake, and An Altar by the River, the first three in the Winnebago County mystery thriller series. She holds an undergraduate degree in business from Concordia University in St. Paul and a law enforcement certificate from Metropolitan State University in St. Paul. She is a former corrections officer, mental health practitioner, and deputy sheriff. Experience has taught her that fact truly is usually stranger than fiction. She enjoys reading, writing, family time, volunteer work, entertaining, gardening, and exercising.

Website/Facebook

Curio shop manager Camryn Brooks thought she’d seen every kind of snow globe—until she saw one depicting a crime scene…

Ever since she was a child, Cami has loved the sparkling beauty of snow globes, and now, she sells them. In fact, they’re so popular, Cami and her friend—coffee shop owner Alice “Pinky” Nelson—are hosting a snow globe making class.

After the flurry of activity has ended and everyone has gone off with their own handmade snow globes, Cami spots a new globe left behind on a shelf, featuring an odd tableau—a man sleeping on a park bench.

On her way home, she drifts through the town park and is shaken to come upon the scene from the globe—a man sitting on a bench. But he isn’t sleeping—he has a knife in his back. When the police arrive, it’s clear they consider Cami a little flaky and possibly a suspect. After her friends also come under suspicion, Cami starts plowing through clues to find the cold-blooded backstabber—before someone else gets iced…

Amazon/B&N

Jennifer’s Review of Snow Way Out

Review (4 Stars): Great start to a new series and I just love the idea of a mystery with the heroine being the owner of a snow globe shop.  Camyrn Brooks runs Curio Shop, a lovely little shop that features snow globes, which is situated right next door to a coffee shop that is owned by her best friend, Pinky.  The girls decide to hold their first ever snow globe making class but find that the students have more in common than they originally thought.  When the body of Jerrell Powers is found in the park by Camryn, she learns that several members of her class had reasons for wanting him dead and finds herself on the hunt for a killer to keep herself from being sent to jail for a crime she didn’t commit.

I liked Camryn and I think that this is going to be a great series.  She is smart, intriguing and definitely doesn’t seem like someone that you can push around. I love the idea of having snow globes involved in the mystery and I think that this is a very creative idea for a mystery series.  Snow Way Out is a delightful new mystery that is sure to entertain readers and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

 Giveaway

I’m excited to give away a copy of Snow Way Out. This giveaway is for US Residents only.  To be entered in the drawing by January 12th, please leave me a comment below: