1–What is the title of your latest release? LOWCOUNTRY GETAWAY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When Nate Andrews whisks the entire Talbot clan off for a holiday adventure in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he has no idea his mother-in-law and her new friends will become embroiled in a case involving adultery, junk cars, money laundering, and murder. Liz and Nate scramble to find a killer before three sweet Southern belles wind up in a tropical prison. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? St. John is my favorite vacation spot, so it’s also Liz Talbot’s. I’ve thought about setting a book there for a while. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Liz Talbot is my avatar, or maybe in some ways she’s who I’d like to be. I live vicariously through her, so I guess I’d say we hang out every day. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Fierce, loyal, kind, flawed…okay, yes, that’s four words. Liz is flawed like all the rest of us. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? There are ruins in St. John that date all the way back to…

Jennifer Vido: For readers new to your brilliantly inventive and deliciously witty metaseries, please give us a quick overview of the three previous titles—The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death, and A Line to Kill. Anthony Horowitz:  A private detective – Daniel Hawthorne – has decided to hire an author to follow his investigations and write them as books. The idea is that they’ll split the royalties 50/50. I’m the author he chose and I have to say it hasn’t been easy. Hawthorne’s first case involved the murder of a lady hours after she had arranged her own funeral. Then he investigated the death of a divorce lawyer bludgeoned to death with a wine bottle. On our third outing, we were invited to a literary festival on the island of Alderney. There had never been a murder on the island until we arrived.   Jen: What inspired your new release, THE TWIST OF A KNIFE? Anthony:  The Twist of a Knife tells what happened when a play of mine – it was called Mindgame – opened in London. It was savagely reviewed by a critic called Harriet Throsby and the next day she was stabbed to death at her…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE STILL SMALL VOICE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Madison Moore has been estranged from her family for years, but when her dying father summons her home, she reluctantly makes the trip back to the place that still evokes heartache. Her family’s reception is lukewarm. But when her father tells her about a murder years before and that he has proof the woman in prison is not the killer, Madison finds herself in the center of a decades-old mystery. As she follows the trail of clues, Madison discovers the shocking reason her father asked her for help and how his confession relates to her own tragic past. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? My novel takes place where I lived in junior high and high school. Much of the story is also set in that time period. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I feel she would have been someone I was friends with for a very long time. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Madison is curious, strong-willed, and loyal. 6–What’s something you learned while writing…

1–What is the title of your latest release? A DOOMFUL OF SUGAR 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? After the shocking murder of her father, Leila Khoury returns to her hometown, Sugar Ridge, Vermont, to fulfill his wish and take over the family business. Can she run the maple syrup farm, mend her strained relationship with her mother, and find a killer? 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I live in Upstate New York, about a half hour from the Vermont border. I’ve been dying to set a mystery in the Green Mountains for a long time (yes, pun intended.) 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely. Leila never pulls any punches. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Determined, headstrong, and loyal. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? When the idea for this series first came into my head, I took a private tour of a maple farm in Vermont, and the owners were wonderful about answering all my questions. It was so interesting to learn how maple syrup is made. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?…

1–What is the title of your latest release? PHOTO FINISHED (Book 1, Snapshot of NYC Mysteries)   2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Have you ever landed your dream job, attended a black-tie ball, met some millionaires, popped a button, and found a murdered person, all on the same day? Wait until you meet Liv Spyers!   3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? PHOTO FINISHED is my cozy mystery love letter to New York City, the town in which I was born, raised, and still reside.  I loved visiting the city as if I were a tourist while writing the book, seeing the streets through my photographer sleuth’s eyes.   4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely!  I love how this young photographer, Liv Spyers, keeps her humor and wits about her while jumping out of her comfort zone to solve the case of billionaire Charlie Archibald’s murder.   5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? “Snappy”, loyal, hard working   6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I have a dear friend who is a professional photographer and kindly read my first draft.  She was…

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…

1–What is the title of your latest release? WHALE FALL   2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Whale Fall is a story of love and revenge by animals of the human and non-human kind. In the heat of a lush Laurentian summer, Marie Russell and Detective Roméo Leduc are finally getting married, but the joyous occasion is overshadowed by the arrival of Magnus Sorenson, Marie’s first love. This celebrity eco-warrior is planning a dramatic protest against a local development project, but his actions have unexpected consequences. Roméo and Marie are forced to abandon their honeymoon and go on the hunt for a killer. Meanwhile, an elderly couple from the local seniors’ residences have gone missing, and Marie and Romeo are in a race to find them before it’s too late.   3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Whale Fall is the third in my Russell and Leduc mystery series, and they are all set in Quebec. The Birds That Stay, my first book is set in a little town, Ste. Lucie, in the beautiful and ancient Laurentian hills north of Montreal during its most stunning season, the fall. The Dogs of Winter,…

The Second Murder at the Vicarage Val McDermid   To have one murder in one’s vicarage is unfortunate; to have a second looks remarkably like carelessness, or worse. It was to no avail that I protested that the dead maid in the kitchen was not our maid. The unfortunate fact that she had formerly occupied that role was enough to set the tongues of St Mary Mead wagging more eagerly than the tails of a pack of hounds catching the scent of a fox. To make matters worse, my wife had made no secret of our delight at Mary’s departure from our employ. Dear Griselda has many fine qualities but the discretion that befits a vicar’s wife is not among them. In fairness, however, anyone who had ever dined with us could bear testament to the literally diabolical nature of Mary’s cooking. On one occasion, she put a pan of eggs on the stove to boil and promptly forgot about them. The pan boiled dry, the eggs exploded, filling the house with a dark sulphurous reek. ‘I imagine this is how the outskirts of hell will smell,’ our neighbour, Miss Marple, remarked with a twinkle when she arrived later for…

Alicia Hunter Pace Exclusive Except: SHINE LIKE SILVER (Good Southern Women, book 3.)   Tonight is the night. After dating since their teens, Skip Landry is finally going to propose to Ava Grace Fairchild at the annual Christmas Gala, as Landry men have done for the last three generations. He was on one knee, in front of three hundred people. All was going according to plan—until he closed the ring box and said, “I can’t do this.”     The room exploded into chaos. Ava Grace bowed her head and closed her eyes, but only for a second. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t check out. When she looked up again, her brother was staring at her with one part compassion and two parts fury. It was the fury that concerned her. She’d seen that look before and what followed never came to anything good. “Emerson,” she called, but it was too late. He had already jumped off the stage and was hot on Skip’s heels. “Skip!” Emerson exploded. “Stop right there! We are going to have a conversation! Emma Frances looked from Ava Grace to Emerson, wild-eyed, and then turned to her husband. “Buck! Do something. This…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new release, A DREADFUL SPLENDOR? B.R. Meyers: I was eight years old, and home sick from school one day and my mom let me watch the local channel’s afternoon movie, The Pit and the Pendulum (she was a big Vincent Price fan). The last five minutes of that movie terrified me — but in a fun way. And even though I’ve seen most of his other movies (House of Wax is stellar!) that first trip to the Medina Castle in The Pit and the Pendulum was the seed that eventually led to me write A Dreadful Splendor many years later. Never underestimate the power of television! The story started much the same way most of my book ideas come to me, in the form of a certain scene, a tiny vignette that keeps replaying in my mind. I ask myself: Is this the beginning, the middle, or the end? And who is telling the story? The more questions I ask, the more layers get added and slowly the premise becomes clear. For A Dreadful Splendor it was the final séance scene complete with a fake spiritualist and rigged tricks. Then I wondered; What would happen…