Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Mindy Quigley!
Writes:
Twisty, funny cozy mysteries that’ll keep you guessing. Give me a great setting—say, a charming, upscale pizzeria nestled alongside a stunning lake—and I will put a dead body in it. Just as the best marinara sauces balance sweetness with acid, I like cutting through hominess and humor with a vinegary little splash of murder.
I also love taking a strong, slightly flawed protagonist who readers can root for and surrounding her with a unique supporting cast who come to feel like family.
My favorite reader reviews say things like, “People on the train thought I was crazy because I couldn’t stop laughing out loud” or “Stayed up way past my bedtime because of all the plot twists at the end.” If I’ve managed to make someone snort-laugh their morning Starbucks on the subway or stay up ‘til 2 A.M. reading, I know I’ve done my job.
About:
Originally from Chicago, I spent several years living in the U.K. before settling in Virginia with my Civil War history professor husband and our two kids. I love yoga, rom-coms, girl talk, and biomedical science. I zoom around town on a bright blue electric bike with a neon orange kiddie trailer, a contraption I affectionately call “the traveling circus.”
My work life has been stranger than fiction. I was the personal assistant for the researcher who cloned Dolly the sheep, and I have the rare distinction of counting J.K. Rowling as a regular reader—namely, she read the quarterly progress reports I wrote when I worked as project manager for the neurology research clinic she endowed in Edinburgh, Scotland.
More recently, I’ve managed clinical research for the veterinary college at Virginia Tech. One of our most widely publicized clinical trials related to feline obesity, a study that garnered national news coverage and landed a featured spot-on NPR’s Weekend Edition. That study spawned my interest in writing about chonky cats, one of whom features prominently in my Deep Dish Mystery series.
What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match:
- Loves a perfect punchline
- Has a deep appreciation for mischievous-but-lovable felines
- Wants a little dollop of romance to top off their mystery sundae
- Seeks out books with eclectic, multi-generational characters who seem like real people
- Enjoys plots that build up to a big payoff
- Wants an author to talk foodie to them and whisper sweet recipes in their ear
What to expect if we’re compatible:
- You’ll fall in love with Detective Calvin Capone, great-grandson of a certain infamous gangster.
- You’ll find yourself rooting for loyal, hard-charging chef Delilah O’Leary and her witty BFF/sous chef, Sonya Perlman-Dokter.
- Your LOLs will make your partner/co-worker/fellow public transit passengers think you’ve lost it.
- A puddle of drool will form below your chin as you read the decadent food descriptions.
- Your “cozy mystery” genre boxes will be ticked, but the books will feel fresh, different, and a wee bit edgier than average.
- You’ll watch my Facebook and Instagram pages with amusement as I try to figure out how to use social media. I’m getting better, but I’m still a total grandpa when it comes to running social platforms.
ASHES TO ASHES, CRUST TO CRUST by Mindy Quigley
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust is the second book in Mindy Quigley’s delectable Deep Dish Mystery series, set in a Wisconsin pizzeria.
Newly single pizzeria owner Delilah O’Leary is determined to keep her restaurant afloat in the picturesque resort town of Geneva Bay, Wisconsin. To boost her bottom line, she sets her sights on winning the hefty cash prize in the town’s annual “Taste of Wisconsin” culinary contest. In her corner, she’s got her strong-willed, “big-boned” cat Butterball, her wisecracking BFF, her cantankerous great-aunt, and a nearly-flawless recipe for Pretzel Crust Deep-Dish Bratwurst Pizza. But while Delilah and her team have been focused on pumping out perfect pizza pies, her ex-fiancé has cozied up to a new squeeze, juice bar owner Jordan Watts—Delilah’s contest rival.
When one of Jordan’s juice bar customers is poisoned by a tainted smoothie, Delilah lands deep in the sauce. Accusations fly, suspects abound, and a menacing stranger turns up with a beef over some missing dough. Between kale-juicing hipsters and grudge-bearing celebrity chefs, Delilah must act quickly before another one bites the crust.
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Amateur Sleuth [St. Martin’s Paperbacks, On Sale: April 25, 2023, Mass Market Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781250792457 / eISBN: 9781250792464]
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About Mindy Quigley
Mindy Quigley has won a number of awards for her short stories, including the 2013 Bloody Scotland prize and the 2018 Lightbringer award. Her work as the coordinator of a pastoral services program at the Duke University Medical Center provided the inspiration for her bestselling Reverend Lindsay Harding mystery series. She’s writing a new mystery series for St. Martin’s Press, which will debut in August 2022.
Before she started writing fiction, she worked in project management roles with university research centers, including the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic and the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland.
She lives in Virginia with her history professor husband, their two children, and their miniature Schnauzer.
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