What is the title of your latest release?
Thank you so much for the invitation to spend some time with Fresh Fiction. HAUNTED HOMICIDE is the title of the upcoming release. It’s the eighth full-length installment in the Jamie Winters Mysteries series.
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
When a ghost hunter winds up dead after a hunt at the deserted Glendale Hotel, legal secretary turned reluctant sleuth, Jamie Winters and her teen genius sidekick, Maizy Emerson, set out to find the killer before one of them becomes the next Ghost of Glendale.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
New Jersey has always been fertile ground for humor. It’s got an inherent uniqueness that serves eccentric characters well. And since I grew up in the area, I’m pretty familiar with Jersey girls.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Absolutely! Jamie has such a dour, self-deprecating attitude, and Maizy is the complete opposite, blithely optimistic and exhaustingly smart and opinionated, but at heart they are both kind people.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Tolerant, protective, and hot.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That persistence pays, and I believe that to be true in any facet of life. Due to myriad reasons, HAUNTED HOMICIDE was a marathon that required frequent gnashing of teeth and sheer stubbornness to get through it.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
It depends on the book. If the flow feels right, I put my head down and keep writing to the end before revisions. If the rhythm is off, I tend to backtrack, edit, rewrite, and agonize until I think it works again.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I’m not much of a foodie, so this may seem a little off the wall, but I adore unsweetened carob chips in anything, at any time, including straight from the bag. Sometimes the muffins just don’t get made because I couldn’t stop myself from devouring all the carob chips.
Describe your writing space/office!
My office is the smallest bedroom in the house, which in this case also means the coziest. We decided to keep the original paneling, painting it a cheerful pale yellow. The artwork is photos of our dogs and my husband’s landscape photography. When I work in here, I work on a desktop, but when I switch to a laptop, I like to work in the back sunroom for a change of scenery.
Who is an author you admire?
Honestly, there are too many to list here. I absolutely love to discover new authors I’ve never read before, and a lot of those have become must-reads for me. But among the well-known names, Mary Higgins Clark was a master plotter and consummate storyteller. Evan Hunter (Ed McBain) had great facility with dialogue. Lawrence Block has great characterizations. Robert B. Parker was so adroit with economy of words. Janet Evanovich and Lisa Lutz are just flat out funny. Frieda McFadden tells a great page-turning story. Simone St. James creates such an eerie atmosphere. And when I want a purely uplifting read, Debbie Macomber never disappoints.
Is there a book that changed your life?
THIS PEN FOR HIRE by Laura Levine. I discovered it by accident and fell in love with the humor and pacing of the entire Jaine Austen series. It motivated me to try to write a humorous cozy myself and now a lifelong dream has come true!
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
It was an indescribable mixture of absolute elation and utter disbelief. Followed closely by What if no one wants to read it? When something that lives in your heart your entire life becomes reality, it’s just stunning on every level. I consider myself so incredibly fortunate to be one of the Gemma Halliday Publishing authors. They’ve been the kindest, most encouraging, patient folks in dealing with a rookie author.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Do I have to pick just one? I love cozies, capers, and psychological thrillers in equal measure.
What’s your favorite movie?
Casablanca. Great acting, fabulous writing, humor, drama, romance…it’s got it all!
What is your favorite season?
I’ve always loved autumn. The changing colors, the crispness in the air, the start of football season, and Halloween. Doesn’t get much better than that.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Years ago, I used to like to try something I’d never done before on my birthday. Now that I’m (ever so slightly) older, life has become so hectic that I love to step off the hamster wheel and spend the day near any body of water, or browsing a bookstore, followed by a quiet dinner with my husband. The older I get, the calmer my birthday celebrations become.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
It’s not from ’26, but All Her Fault was absolutely engrossing.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
The winner by a landslide, Italian.
What do you do when you have free time?
Too much! I play tennis, read, take long walks, lift weights, play the piano, go to movies, concerts, and sporting events of all kinds. And read. Always lots of reading!
What can readers expect from you next?
Since I still enjoy their company, and hopefully the readers do, too, the plan is to keep chronicling the misadventures of Jamie and Maizy for the foreseeable future. Thank you to everyone who’s come along for the ride!
HAUNTED HOMICIDE by Kelly Rey
From USA Today bestselling author Kelly Rey comes a spooky cozy mystery of laugh-out-loud proportions…
Legal secretary turned reluctant sleuth Jamie Winters doesn’t believe in ghosts…much. So when her significant other’s teenage niece, Maizy Emerson, drags Jamie along on a ghost hunt at the deserted Glendale Hotel, she’s beyond skeptical. That is until the Ghost Wrangler himself, Blaze Emerson, is found dead in the basement, leaving behind a series of notes requesting that Maizy find his killer. While Jamie may not believe in ghosts (much), she’s pretty sure a very real human killer was on the scene. Was it his hostile camera operator, his monolithic body man, his skittish makeup girl, or the one-woman research department who sent him to the Glendale? Or maybe it was an ex-employee and current competitor with a huge chip on her shoulder?
Between a slew of suspects, the “help” of an intrusive law client with a snarky spirit guide, and her eccentrically brilliant teenage sidekick, can Jaime identify the killer before she becomes the next Ghost of Glendale?
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Woman Sleuth [ Gemma Halliday Publishing, On Sale: October 13, 2026, e-Book, / ]
Buy HAUNTED HOMICIDE: Kindle | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Kelly Rey
From her first discovery of Nancy Drew, Kelly has had a lifelong love for mystery and tales of things that go bump in the night, especially those with a twist of humor. Through many years of working in the court reporting and closed captioning fields, writing has remained a constant. If she’s not in front of a keyboard, she can be found reading, working out or avoiding housework. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime and lives in the Northeast with her husband and a menagerie of very spoiled pets.
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