What is the title of your latest release? The books is HONEY DROP DEAD. It’s number 26 in my Tea Shop Mystery series.   What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Theodosia’s elegant Honey Bee Tea is set in Charleston’s Petigru Park amidst native grasses and a bee keeping project. But when a phony bee keeper sprays toxic smoke at guests and shoots local politician Osgood Claxton III, the party erupts in chaos. Holly Burns, the gallery owner who commissioned the tea, is in shock – a man is dead, guests injured, her paintings in tatters. When police don’t have a clue, when old-line politicos don’t want questions asked, Holly begs Theodosia to run a shadow investigation and help restore her gallery’s good name.   How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Lucky me, I’m writing Tea Shop Mysteries and there’s an actual tea plantation just outside Charleston, SC. Besides, how could I not set my series in this romantic city with its surging harbor, old mansions, hidden walkways, and haunted graveyards?   Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I’d hang out with Theodosia in a heartbeat. This is a…

What is the title of your latest release? My latest Tea Shop Mystery (#25 in the Tea Shop Mystery series) is LEMON CURD KILLER.   What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Tea shop entrepreneur Theodosia Browning hosts a fancy Limón Tea in an actual lemon grove as the kickoff to Charleston Fashion Week. But as fairy lights twinkle and teacups clink, a designer is brutally murdered, leading her grieving daughter to beg for Theodosia’s help in solving this very strange case.   How did you decide where your book was going to take place? My Tea Shop Mysteries always take place in Charleston, SC because that’s where Theodosia’s quaint little tea shop is located. This particular mystery is set in a lemon grove because it seemed like a lovely place in which to cause total disruption.   Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely. My main character, Theodosia Browning, is smart, sassy, and kind of a daredevil when it coming to jumping in and solving a mystery. Plus she has a dog named Earl Grey and I just love dogs.   What are three words that describe your sleuth? Curious, smart, entrepreneurial.   What’s…

This week I’m featuring four new mysteries you can’t pass up. These four authors have supplied a variety of different types of mysteries to choose from—like the delicious cooking whodunit’s of Joanne Fluke, or the sweet teas twisters of Laura Childs. Perhaps you’re in the mood for Anna Lee Huber’s historical cliffhangers, or the sassy sleuths of Erin Huss. You really cant go wrong with these mysteries; there’s one to fit every mood and personality of mystery lovers. BANANA CREAM PIE MURDER by Joanne Fluke A Hannah Swensen Mystery #21 A romantic seven-day cruise is the perfect start to bakery owner Hannah Swensen’s marriage. However, with a murder mystery heating up in Lake Eden, Minnesota, it seems the newlywed’s homecoming won’t be as sweet as anticipated… After an extravagant honeymoon, Hannah’s eager to settle down in Lake Eden and turn domestic daydreams into reality. But when her mother’s neighbor is discovered murdered in the condo downstairs, reality becomes a nightmarish investigation. Victoria Bascomb, once a renowned stage actress, was active in the theater community during her brief appearance in town…and made throngs of enemies along the way. Did a random intruder murder the woman as police claim, or was a…

A guest blog from Laura Childs, author of the Cackleberry Club Mysteries, Tea Shop Mysteries, and Scrapbooking Mysteries. As I fuss about my writing studio, stumbling over sleeping dogs and gazing at Christmas presents I’m trying to keep hidden, my thoughts seem to naturally drift back to Christmases past. I have a hazy memory of a Christmas party I attended when I was three years old.  This was back when moms didn’t work, but baked cookies and fudge and congregated with their toddlers in each other’s homes.  While us kids played with train sets and fuzzy bears under a twinkling Christmas tree, our moms sipped coffee and talked.  As the day slipped into a blue-black winter evening, fathers would arrive from work, stomping snow and wearing hats and long coats, ready to gather up wives and children.  It was magical and lent a feeling that all was safe and right with the world.  And I miss that feeling terribly. When I began writing my Cackleberry Club Mysteries, I tried to capture that magical, innocent, fifties-feeling.  Though the mysteries are set in contemporary times, they offer a raft of small-town characters that make you yearn for simpler times.  At the top…

A few words on Food and Mystery from Laura Childs, author of GOSSAMER GHOST, a Scrapbooking Mystery set in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Have you ever visited New Orleans? I sure hope you have, because the entire Big Easy is a food lover’s paradise. You’ve got your jambalaya and gumbo, in varieties that include andouille sausage, crayfish, chicken, turtle, and, well . . . you name it, you’re sure to find it in New Orleans. Enjoy mud bugs? That’s crawfish, of course, so delightful and juicy. And there are oyster bars galore where you can grab a bottle of hot sauce (Liquid Storm or Saucy Wench, anyone?) and slurp tasty, sweet mollusks to your heart’s content. For upscale dining Galatoire’s in the French Quarter is a must. If you have your own waiter (the regulars do) you’ll doubly enjoy your crabmeat maison, poisson meuniere amandine, and filet béarnaise. Or head over to Brennan’s for flaming bananas foster, the Café du Monde for sinful beignets, Antoine’s for sizzling hot oysters Rockefeller, or Emeril’s or Commander’s Palace for anything. (Yes, it’s all quite fantastic.) Pop in to any number of music or jazz festivals and enjoy the street food –…

Hello to a New Year, and what promises to be a year full of great cozy mysteries! This month’s selections hold a mystery for just about any interest the fan might have – from pets to pecans, from ghosts to glee clubs, there is a little something for everone. And all of them feature a great story with an intriguing mystery to go along with it. Here are a few that caught my eye this month – January Book of the Month EGGS IN A CASKET One of my favorite cozy mystery authors, Laura Childs, always has a great mystery up her sleeve, and this month the mystery involves those feisty gals from the Cackleberry Club! This is the fifth book in the Cackleberry Club series, and it is full of fun, murder and mayhem! I loved it and I think you will too! EGGS IN A CASKET: A Cackleberry Club Mystery #5 By Laura Childs (Berkley Prime Crime) The ladies of the Cackleberry Club are always ready to serve—whether they’re cooking up breakfast or sniffing out a bad egg. While Petra handles the breakfast rush at the Cackleberry Club, the café’s other two owners, Suzanne and Toni, head to…

Cackleberry Club #2 December 2009 On Sale: December 1, 2009 336 pages ISBN: 0425231550 EAN: 9780425231555 Paperback $7.99 Add to Wish List Mystery Amateur Sleuth, Mystery Cozy Buy at Amazon.com Heads Up! The next installment of the Cackleberry Club, BEDEVILED EGGS hits the shelves December 7 Eggs Benedict Arnold by Laura Childs Recipes included! When Cackleberry Clubber Suzanne delivers a pie to funeral director Ozzie Driesden, she discovers him not working at the embalming table but lying on the embalming table. She barely has time to recognize his corpse before she’s drugged with chloroform. With more suspects than breakfast specials, the Cackleberry Club scrambles to crack the case before one of their own ends up six feet under. A great mystery that moves along at a brisk pace with wonderful characterization. Previous Picks