Thanks so much for the opportunity to talk about my latest Lady Adelaide Mystery, Just Make Believe! This 1920s-set cozy-with-a-touch-of-paranormal features Addie, an aristocratic widow, the pesky ghost of her cheating husband Rupert, and Dev, a divine Scotland Yard detective. Not the usual love triangle for sure, LOL. Rupert is stuck in Limbo after a very rakish life, and unless he protects and assists Addie, he’ll never get to Heaven and redemption. The series has been the most fun for me in my over-twenty years’ book career, and I hope readers are equally amused!
In Just make Believe, Addie’s been invited to a week-long house party, but how can she have fun when bodies are piling up everywhere? Rupert and Detective Inspector Devenand Hunter to the rescue! Here’s the blurb:
A week-long house party in the country–why not? Lady Adelaide has nothing else to do, now that her year of mourning for her unfaithful husband is up and her plans to rekindle her romantic life have backfired. But when her hostess is found dead on the conservatory floor, Addie knows just who to call Detective Inspector Devenand Hunter of Scotland Yard.
Dev may not want to kiss Addie again, but he’s anxious to solve the crime. Who would want to kill Pamela, the beautiful wife of one of Britain’s greatest Great War heroes? Certainly not her devoted and disabled husband, Sir Hugh Fernald. The other guests seem equally innocent and improbable.
But despite all appearances, something is very wrong at Fernald Hall–there’s a body buried in the garden, and the governess has fallen down the stairs to her death. Who’s next? Addie and Dev must work together to stop another murder, and they have some help thanks to Rupert, Addie’s late and unlamented husband. Rupert needs to make amends for his louche life on earth, and what better way to earn his celestial wings than catch a killer?
Besides blurbs, book covers can be critical to catching a reader’s eye, and you probably know most authors have absolutely no say as to what is chosen. I’m sure Nora Roberts does–but just because I might be shelved near her alphabetically does not give me her power, LOL. There must be a secret formula. I’ve noted trends over the years (Headless heroines and heroes! Everything blue! Everything red! Cartoons! Bare tattooed chests!). I have had covers I’ve loved and some I’ve. . . not loved, mostly because there was an anachronism in the clothing or landscape. One book cover had Big Ben on it, completed in 1859, and the book took place in 1820.
I’ll never forget walking to my mailbox ten years ago and finding that my editor surprised me by sending me an envelope of coverflats for my first book, the Regency romance romp Mistress by Mistake. She wanted to surprise me instead of sending me the image by e-mail, and I cried all the way back to the house. To be clear, they were tears of joy, for the book has a glorious red clinch cover with two terribly attractive people representing Charlie and Bay. I had one framed and it’s hanging on my office wall right now. Passion is all they have in common. . .
Things were a little different for Just Make Believe, LOL. The original choice by the art department had a really sketchy Snidely Whiplash-mustachioed man in a gangstery fedora sitting opposite Lady Adelaide, a bottle, and two wine glasses in front of them. Now, Addie doesn’t really drink much, and she has way too much good taste to ever be attracted to such a fellow. I was a little dismayed, and my editors even more so. We spoke up in somewhat soft voices, because even if we didn’t really love it, it was still an eye-catching cover, and who were we to challenge the secret formula? A lot of trouble and thought had been gone to. There were four different mock-ups, and book covers for other Roaring Twenties mysteries were pictured as comparables in the brief they sent.
Someone heard us. Poof! That sketchy guy and the alcohol were replaced by a teapot and a teacup! I was thrilled, even if a tea bag tag is hanging out of the cup (a total no-no in British tea-drinking, but let’s not be picky). Addie is on her own now, looking quite glamorous, yet isolated from the dancing behind her. It suits her situation perfectly–she’s trying to navigate a new life, and reconsidering all the rules she was raised by. They’re not really working for her. And how on earth is she going to get rid of her husband for the second time?
Addie might not like to drink, but the Twenties were big on fruity cocktails, some designed to disguise the taste of inferior bootlegged liquor. Here’s a recipe for a Sidecar that even Addie might enjoy! Take a coupe glass (or, really, a paper cup will do), wet the rim, dip in sugar, chill. Combine 2 oz. cognac, 1 oz orange-flavored liqueur (like Cointreau), 1/2 oz. lemon juice, and a cup of ice in a cocktail shaker and shake away. Pour into chilled glass. Please drink responsibly. 😉
If you’d like to read the first chapter of Just Make Believe, it can be found here: https://maggierobinson.net/books/just-make-believe/#read-an-excerpt Happy reading!
JUST MAKE BELIEVE by Maggie Robinson
Gloucestershire, 1925
A week-long house party in the country–why not? Lady Adelaide has nothing else to do, now that her year of mourning for her unfaithful husband is up and her plans to rekindle her romantic life have backfired. But when her hostess is found dead on the conservatory floor, Addie knows just who to call–Detective Inspector Devenand Hunter of Scotland Yard.
Dev may not want to kiss Addie again, but he’s anxious to solve the crime. Who would want to kill Pamela, the beautiful wife of one of Britain’s greatest Great War heroes? Certainly not her devoted and wheelchair-bound husband, Sir Hugh Fernald. The other guests seem equally innocent and improbable.
But despite all appearances, something is very wrong at Fernald Hall–there’s a body buried in the garden, and the governess has fallen down the stairs to her death. Who’s next? Addie and Dev must work together to stop another murder, and they have some help thanks to Rupert, Addie’s late and unlamented husband. Rupert needs to make amends for his louche life on earth, and what better way to earn his celestial wings than catch a killer?
Mystery Historical [Poisoned Pen Press, On Sale: July 14, 2020, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781492699439 / eISBN: 9781492699453]
A book full of secrets to unearth, alter egos, and multiple murders for readers to mull over!
Buy JUST MAKE BELIEVE: Amazon.com | Kindle
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About Maggie Robinson
Maggie Robinson is a former teacher, library clerk and mother of four who woke up in the middle of the night, absolutely compelled to create the perfect man and use as many adverbs as possible doing so. A transplanted New Yorker, she lives with her not-quite perfect husband in Maine, where the cold winters are ideal for staying inside and writing hot historical romances.
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