Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Review: NO CATS ALLOWED by Miranda James
Review / February 6, 2017

“A clever murder mystery with plenty of southern charm” Charlie Harris and his cat Diesel are about fed up with the new head of the library. Oscar Reilly acts like he’s on a mission to make enemies. That creates a long list of suspects when Oscar turns up dead. When Charlie moves into the office, to fill in temporarily, he finds something that could make him the killer’s next target. NO CATS ALLOWED is a fantastic small-town cozy mystery. Author Miranda James’s takes her time introducing all the characters and laying out the situation. Her precise writing makes it easy to visualize the quiet Athena College campus and Charlie’s old family home. When Oscar Reilly is murdered in the library, we already know why half a dozen people might want him dead. Coming from a long line of southerners myself, I especially appreciate the uniquely southern touches James weaves into the story, from the foods served for dinner to the way the native characters talk. Each book is a real taste of the region. I also appreciate that the tone and language is such I feel comfortable recommending NO CATS ALLOWED and James’s other Cat in the Stacks novels to…

Clover Tate | Inventing Rock Point
Author Guest / February 6, 2017

Being an author means making things up: what irritates a character or brings her joy; how a murder is carried out; and even something as basic as a pen name (my real name is Angela M. Sanders). For BLOWN AWAY, I invented a whole town. And it was great! BLOWN AWAY features Strings Attached kite shop owner Emmy Adler in Rock Point, Oregon. I knew Rock Point would be on the coast. Thanks to ocean wind and the general lack of powerlines and trees, the beach is prime kite flying country. Since the Oregon coast is rugged, with steep cliffs and forest a stone’s throw away, I gave the town a small bay and a rocky outcropping that the town was named after. Next, I had to populate it with buildings. Naturally, I needed a lighthouse. I put it on a cliff, right above the treacherous Devil’s Playpen (also invented, and a key locale in the second book in the series, LIVE FREE OR FLY, out December 2017). I gave the town some fishermen’s shacks, a sprinkling of high-end beach houses, and a B&B in a Queen Anne house. Befitting an old town struggling to adapt to its new role…

Kat Martin | Just the Right Match
Author Guest / February 6, 2017

Finding the right match for the hero and heroine is one of the toughest and most exciting parts of writing a novel. The hero of INTO THE FIRESTORM is Luke Brodie, one of my strongest, toughest, sexiest heroes. Luke, a former special forces soldier, is a bounty hunter who works at Brodie Operations Security Services, BOSS, Inc., in Seattle. A fat $600,000 is the 20% bail enforcement fee he’ll collect if he brings in international criminal, Rudy Vance. Luke is a womanizer par excellence and a dedicated bachelor. But he is also a complex man, one who has given up the idea of having a normal life. Fortunately, Emma Cassidy showed up, a strong woman in her own right, a fighter, a lady determined to achieve the goal she has set for herself–bringing a murderer to justice, a criminal who is threatening her family. Emma is also hunting Vance. It’s been almost a year since she arrived at her sister’s home to find the housekeeper murdered and her young niece the victim of Vance’s sick assault. Emma is determined to find Vance and make him pay. And no one–not even the infamous Luke Brodie–is going to stop her. I loved…