Chocolate-Orange Cheesecake Pie Yummy recipes are a big part of the world inhabited by the Knit & Nibble knitting club of Arborville, New Jersey, featured in my Knit & Nibble cozy mystery series. The club meets once a week and the member hosting the meeting serves coffee and dessert, usually homemade. Holidays also present an opportunity for baking and feasting. In DEATH BY CHRISTMAS SCARF, my amateur sleuth Pamela Paterson, founder and mainstay of the knitting club, bakes a special cake as her contribution to the festive Christmas dinner hosted by her best friends, Wilfred and Bettina Fraser. It’s an orange-flavored yellow cake with vanilla cream filling and chocolate buttercream frosting. I think of Christmas and oranges as going together, perhaps because in earlier times oranges were one of the few fresh fruits available in the winter, though even they would be imported from sunnier climes unless one lived in California or Florida. My husband, who grew up in Illinois, recalls that Christmas always brought a box of oranges from Florida, a gift from his grandfather who lived there in his retirement. Since the recipe for Pamela’s special cake is included at the end of DEATH BY CHRISTMAS SCARF, I…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MURDER IN A CAPE COTTAGE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? ʼTis the day after Christmas, only five days before their wedding, when Mac and her fiancé, Tim, begin a cottage renovation project and open a wall to find a skeleton—sitting on a stool, dressed in an old-fashioned bridal gown, her hands chained to the wall. As Mac delves into the decades-old mystery with the help of her book group, she discovers a story of star-crossed lovers and feuding families worthy of the bard himself. Yet this tale has a modern-day villain still lurking in Mac’s quaint seaside town, ready to make it a murderous New Year’s Eve wedding. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? This is the fourth Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery, so the town of Westham on Cape Cod is the setting. Mac and Tim are about to marry, and I wanted some of the action in this book to happen in the Cape Cod-style cottage they share. When I had the idea of discovering a skeleton in the wall, I decided they would discover the decades-old bride during a bit…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MURDER ON THE POET’S WALK, A Book Retreat Mystery 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When writers compete to win a lucrative greeting card contract, things turn murderously ugly. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? This is part of a series, so it had to take place at my fictional resort, Storyton Hall. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely. Jane Steward is smart, fun, and loyal. She also has access to the best food and hosts tons of fabulous literary events. 5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? Intrepid, intelligent, and loving. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned that people who write greeting cards are often paid by the card (and not very much!) 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I edit at the end of each chapter. 8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence? Where to start? I have a sweet tooth and there isn’t a candy in production that I don’t have a close, personal relationship with. 9–Describe your writing space/office! I write at the kitchen table…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MRS. CLAUS AND THE EVIL ELVES, which is book three in the Mrs. Claus cozy mystery series. 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A mere week before Christmas, all is not quite merry and bright at the North Pole. Between rogue reindeer and conniving elves, Santaland seems to have gone sugarplum-crazy. Add a dash of murder to the mix, and suddenly Mrs. Claus is battling not just to find a killer, but to save herself from being put on ice—permanently. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Choosing Mrs. Claus as my sleuth sort of decided the setting for me. I was excited to have a mystery series unfold in Christmastown, which I’ve come to think of as the ultimate cozy village. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely. I would love to hang out with April and her elf friends at the We Three Beans coffeehouse in Christmastown. 5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? Intelligent, well-intentioned, and nosy. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? One subject that comes up in Mrs. Claus and the Evil Elves…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new release, THE MATCHMAKER’S GIFT? Lynda Cohen Loigman: The spark for The Matchmaker’s Gift originated during the Covid-19 lockdown, when my daughter—then in her junior year of college—moved back home along with her roommate. Before they arrived, I’d gotten used being the only woman in a household of men. But with the addition of two outspoken, insightful, college-age women, the conversation around our dinner table shifted. We talked about what they were studying in their classes, but also about the challenges young women face: socially, academically, and in the professional world. That summer, our favorite lockdown television binge was the Netflix show Indian Matchmaking. At some point, my daughter’s roommate told us about her grandmother, who had worked as an orthodox Jewish matchmaker in Brooklyn. The New York Times had even run an article about her, back in the 1960’s. Suddenly, a multigenerational matchmaker book began to occupy my thoughts. As the story came together, I poured my frustration for all young women into its pages. The Matchmaker’s Gift became more than a story about love––it became a story about women whose intelligence, ambition, and gifts were suppressed, but who nonetheless found the strength to…

For our readers who may be unfamiliar for Sisters in Crime, can you give a little info on what makes it special and what this celebration on September 24th is about? Sisters in Crime is an amazing nonprofit that was founded to provide equity for women crime fiction writers. Here is the 1987 mission statement: “To combat discrimination against women in the mystery field, educate publishers, and educate the general public as to the inequities in the treatment of female authors, raise the level of awareness of their contributions to the field, and promote the professional advancement of women who write mysteries.” The September 24th celebration is about celebrating SinC’s 35 years as an organization!   As a mystery fan, most of the mysteries I read happen to be written by women. The first mysteries I ever read were by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. What inspired you to write mysteries? The first adult mysteries I read were by Agatha Christie, and I fell in love with whodunits. I particularly enjoyed Miss Marple, who is both intelligent and underestimated. I also adored the puzzle aspect of Christie’s mysteries as well as the quaint community setting.   What challenges, if…

I’m excited to share a brief excerpt from my new release, TAKE IT FROM ME, a story about friendship and all its little secrets. This snippet is from the end of Chapter One, which is in Wendy’s point of view. The scene takes place late on the afternoon that someone new has moved into the house next door. Wendy—a lonely empty-nester—picks up a ready-made meal and flowers to give her new neighbor (Harper) as a welcome gift when they meet for the first time:   Before I leave the house, it occurs to me that my neighbors will be busy unpacking. Not an ideal time to chat. I pull out a sheet of embossed stationery from the kitchen desk. Welcome to the neighborhood! We hope these small gifts make your day a little easier. Looking forward to meeting you once you’re settled. Fondly, Your next-door neighbors, Wendy and Joe Moore After taping the note to the soup container and packing the food into a recyclable bag, I check my reflection in the microwave’s glass door and then slip out the back with the goodies in hand. It feels as if I’m floating across the yard as fantasies about whoever has…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE ROAD TO CHRISTMAS 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Three different adventures will make for one memorable family Christmas. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Since I wanted to write about a road trip, I had to come up with a destination. I picked Idaho because it’s a beautiful state and it’s not that far from Washington State, where I live, so I figured I could manage to plan a road trip there. Picking the starting locations for my various characters was a challenge. I wanted them coming from places I’m familiar with and I was working within a tight time frame, so they couldn’t live too far away from their destination. Soooo, my poor characters had no choice over where they would live. I am geographically challenged. Thank heaven for my husband, who helped make sure my timeline and holiday routes matched up. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Oh, yes. What’s the point of writing about people I wouldn’t want to be with, right? I must say my heroine Michelle had some important lessons to learn though….

Who is Ravenna Chastain? How would you describe her to readers? From the book description, she sounds like she lives a complicated life. JAK:Ravenna possesses an unusual skill set that makes her an excellent criminal profiler.  She realizes that’s pretty much the same skill-set required for successful matchmaking so she decides to change career paths. Her own dating life is a little more complicated because she’s got this weird talent for starting paranormal fires.  She makes men nervous.   How would you describe the dynamic between Ravenna and Ethan? JAK: Ravenna is looking for a man who isn’t afraid of her fire talent. Ethan Sweetwater comes from a family with a long history of hunting human monsters. The Sweetwaters are in a different line these days but he’s got the old family talent. Ravenna’s thing for fire doesn’t worry him but she’s starting to wonder if she might be dating a mob guy.   I started reading your books because of so many rave reviews from my fellow readers in online book groups. The thing that gets mentioned more than anything else, is how fab the main characters are. They stay with you long after you finish a book. What…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE GHOSTS OF LEWIS MANOR 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Seraphina must choose the lesser of two evils—the ghosts that haunt her or the murderer who hunts her. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I love the history and folklore of the New Forest in the South of England. It’s the perfect setting for a ghost story. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Yes! 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Curious, determined, and brave. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? We fear things because we don’t understand them. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? Editing is my lifeline in writing—I’m always editing. 8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence? I can’t live without pastries. The combination of dough and sweets makes me happy! 9–Describe your writing space/office! I love writing outdoors—anywhere is wonderful if I’m not confined by walls. 10–Who is an author you admire? Agatha Christie all the way. 11—Which Agatha Christie book is your favorite? They are all so great that it’s hard to pick one, but The…