Fresh Fiction: Your House-Flipper Mystery series is set on Nashville. Why Nashville? With some books and series, the location is almost like another character – is that the case with this series? Diane Kelly: Setting definitely plays into the series, more in some of the books than others. I actually came up with the Nashville setting before I decided on the house flipper theme. My husband and I lived just south of Nashville in a town called Thompson’s Station from 2014 to 2016. I fell in love with the natural beauty of the area, with the rolling hills and horse farms and rivers. The people there are very friendly and polite, too, which I really liked. The pace is slower than most big cities, which was refreshing. When I was considering a theme for the series, my friend Paula pointed out that there was a lot of home rehab going on in Nashville since new construction couldn’t keep up with the rapid growth. I owe her for giving me the idea of house flipping. In the fourth book in the series, Batten Down the Belfry, carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck rehab an old church and turn it into…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired the third book in the Mountain Lodge Mysteries, SNOW PLACE FOR MURDER? Diane Kelly: I had many inspirations for this book! Most of all, I wanted to write a winter-set book because I love playing in the snow. I enjoy downhill skiing, though my skills and daring topped out quickly and I stay on the bunny slopes with the beginners. I also like ice skating, sledding, and building snowmen. I spent a few years in Nebraska when I was young, and had so much fun playing in the snow with my siblings and the kids from the neighborhood. Secondly, my husband and I own a small vacation home in Beech Mountain, where the Mountain Lodge Mysteries series is set. I hear a lot of debate from locals in Beech Mountain about development. Some are all for growth, while others are totally against it, and all of their reasons and feelings are valid. I wanted to explore that conflict in this book. Lastly, the winter holidays mean family time, and I love when my kids come home to celebrate. I wanted to give Misty some time with her boys, who are away at college. It was fun…

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 Diane Kelly!   Writes: Cozy mysteries featuring curious, perceptive, and resourceful women and their furry, four-footed sidekicks. Plotlines feature unusual methods of murder and intriguing clues, and often involve some fascinating forensics. Handsome heroes play secondary roles, and there’s lots of humor, too. In SNOW PLACE FOR MURDER, an avalanche of trouble befalls recently divorced lodgekeeper Misty Murphy when a guest is found dead and buried in the snow outside her Mountaintop Lodge in North Carolina’s beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Solving a murder is a slippery slope but, with the help of her hunky handyman, she’s determined to find out who put her guest on ice.   About: “Mom” to two adorable yet demanding dogs and five frisky felines, I can most often be found in a lounge chair on my deck, sunning my legs while concocting humorous whodunnits on my laptop. When not writing, I enjoy hiking the wooded trails near my home in central North Carolina, or in the mountains in the…

P is for punny. My title is a fun play on words. R is for rehab. In this book, carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck rehab on old houseboat. I is for imagination. Whitney and Buck have to use their imaginations to visualize the decrepit boat as it could be once it’s fixed up. M is for marriage. Buck is engaged to Whitney’s best friend Colette, and their nuptials are planned to take place right after the boat rehab is complete. E is for exciting. Lots of exciting stuff happens in this story! R is for reconnoitering. In this story, there’s someone who seems to be keeping a watchful eye on the area.   A is for anticipation. You’ll be dying to know who killed Grant Hardisty and why! N is for nautical. This book has a nautical theme. D is for design. Whitney enjoys coming up with the design elements for their flip projects.   P is for purrs. Sawdust, Whitney’s sweet buff-colored cat, provides lots of purring! U is for underwater. That’s where the victim and his boat end up! N is for nighttime. That’s when some suspicious things happen in this story. I is for insufficient….

1–What is the title of your latest release? BATTEN DOWN THE BELFRY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When carpenter Whitney Whitaker finds a man dead in the belfry of the country church she’s remodeling into a playhouse, she determines to find out who rang the man’s bell and why. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I lived in Nashville a few years ago and loved it there. It’s a booming city and there’s lots of home rehabbing going on. It was the perfect authentic setting for a house flipper series. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Heck, yeah! She’s smart, brave, and creative. I’d love to talk to her about her design ideas. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Discerning. Determined. Dashing – both figuratively and literally. Detective Collin Flynn is handsome and he’s a runner. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I never knew that such a thing as a “fish bat” existed until I was looking for a small, hard weapon. The bats are used to hit fish over the head after they’re caught. Yikes! 7–Do you edit as you draft…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MURDER WITH A VIEW 2–What is it about? Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck have bought an old roadside motel at a tax auction, and they’re planning to turn the place into condominiums. But during demolition, Whitney’s cat Sawdust uncovers a body in one of the rooms. The murder victim is none other than Beckett Morgan, an up-and-coming country singing sensation whose song “Party in the Pasture” is a mega hit. Detective Collin Flynn–who Whitney has begun dating–is faced with a long list of suspects, ranging from female groupies, to jealous musicians, to the star’s manager and a record label exec, among others. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  Not only is Nashville a beautiful city with its rolling hills and the Cumberland River running through it, but the mid-century motel is a fun, kitschy touch. As a child on family vacations, I stayed at motels just like the one featured in the book, with pink porcelain in the bathrooms and massaging beds that would vibrate for three minutes if you stuck a quarter in a bedside machine. I have many happy memories swimming in the pools…

Summer is here, and what better way to celebrate but with a new eye-catching series in a completely different format than what we in the cozy genre are used to. Is there romance? Of course. Is there mystery? Absolutely, and the combination in bestselling author Diane Kelly’s new series is as fresh as sipping ice tea by the pool. Diane has taken the cozy genre and added a bold new twist that I adore. Check out her brilliant new angle to a feel-good genre. *** Kym: Welcome to the Cozy Corner, Diane! Diane: Thanks so much for inviting me! It’s always fun to connect with other book people, and especially to talk about the mysteries we love. I love the premise for your new Busted series featuring female motorcycle cops in various small towns across the country. What inspired the transamerican format instead of one small town? Will we see any female Canadian Mounties or a British Bobbies from across the pond? When I wrote Busted, I envisioned it as a stand-alone. I considered it equal parts romance/women’s fiction and mystery, and hadn’t really thought about making it a series since most romances/women’s fiction are stand-alone books. But after publishing it and getting…