Guest: Lynn Cahoon

Edith here, happy to introduce fellow Kensington Publishing author Lynn Cahoon. Sherry and I met Lynn at Bouchercon last fall and were delighted to meet a new-to-us mystery author. Take it away, Lynn!

Traveling by Plane, by Space Portal, or by Book.

Hello Wicked Cozy Authors and blog readers. Thanks for having me over today. I’m excited to be here.

New England has been on my travel wish list since I was a kid. It might be the lobsters, the ocean, the birthplace of the American witchcraft lore and, of course, a possible sighting of Stephen King that draws me to dream about visiting. I hear some people visit to watch the leaves.

Edith: I walked by King’s house last year!

Lynn: I’m a little different. As a writer, that’s a good thing. I’ve always been the one who pauses to catch the exact right word, while others chatter away. I’m the one watching out the window as we drive through places I’ve never been rather than singing along with the radio. If you ask me what I’m doing, I’ll laugh and tell you I’m wondering about the people who live here. Or lived here.

I made my first visit to North Carolina last year, primarily for Bouchercon in Raleigh, but also to visit my son who has made the research triangle his new home. We spent my birthday playing tourist on the Outer Banks. I was speechless.

We visited the site where the Wright Brothers tested their aircraft. We found a working lighthouse and my son climbed to the top. I got as far as the fourth landing, confirming I’m afraid of heights. And we visited Roanoke and looked for the space portal that sucked the Lost Colony to their new home, Croatoan. We joked that the portal would open up and suck one or both of us into the new reality. Yes, he has the same twisted mind as I do. A gift as a mother I am proud to see I passed on. 

So when I started writing the Tourist Trap series, I let my mind wander and soon, a new town of South Cove appeared on the central California coast. A town where the mayor is more worried about getting re-elected than running the town and where businesses are focused on making money off the tourists who tend to wander in off the Pacific Coast Highway. Unless we’re talking about bike rental shop owner, Dustin Austin. He’s more interested in getting a good tan than renting bikes.

Or he was before his wife came back on the scene. Honestly, no one in town even knew he was married. Especially not Sadie Michaels, the baker/owner for Pies on the Fly who had been dating the guy. Yep, there are some crazy things happening in South Cove in Murder on Wheels, which just released on Tuesday. And Jill Gardner has a front row seat to the madness.

I hope you come and visit Jill and her gang in South Cove. I think you’ll enjoy the trip.

The food truck craze has reached the charming coastal town of South Cove, California, but before Jill Gardner—owner of Coffee, Books, and More—can sample the eats, she has to shift gears and put the brakes on a killer . . .

Now that Kacey Austin has got her new gluten-free dessert truck up and running, there’s no curbing her enthusiasm—not even when someone vandalizes the vehicle and steals her recipes. But when Kacey turns up dead on the beach and Jill’s best friend Sadie becomes the prime suspect, Jill needs to step on it to serve the real killer some just desserts.

Lynn Cahoon is the author of the NYT and USA Today bestselling Tourist Trap cozy mystery series. Guidebook to Murder, book 1 of the series won the Reader’s Crown for Mystery Fiction in 2015. She’s also the author of the soon to be released Cat Latimer series, with the first book, A STORY TO KILL, releasing in mass market paperback September 2016.She lives in a small town like the ones she loves to write about with her husband and two fur babies. Sign up for her newsletter at www.lynncahoon.com

Readers:  Aren’t you dying to jump into this series? What questions do you have for Lynn about the central California coast – or space portals?