by Barb in lovely Key West
What’s new you ask? I am tempted to say this:
But really, getting to the writing, these two things are new.
Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody. As Mark Baker has correctly noted, I’ve teased this one before. Dru’s Book Musings even did a cover reveal, but I was waiting until it was available for pre-order before announcing it here. Jane Darrowfield is a non-Clambake book. It’s a part of the same program as Edith’s book Murder on Cape Cod–exclusive in paper from Barnes & Noble for the first year, then widely available in all formats after that. It’s a part of an experiment by B&N, Kensington and the authors. I’m grateful Edith is ahead of me in the program so I can follow in her footsteps. The cover of the book says, “First in a new series,” though I don’t have a contract for more, so that’s part of the experiment, too. Here’s the skinny on the book.
Jane Darrowfield is a year into her retirement, and she’s already traveled and planted a garden. She’s organized her photos, her recipes, and her spices. The statistics suggest she has at least a few more decades ahead of her, so she better find something to do . . .
After Jane helps a friend with a sticky personal problem, word starts to spread around her bridge club—and then around all of West Cambridge, Massachusetts—that she’s the go-to person for situations that need discreet fixing. Soon she has her first paid assignment—the director of a 55-and-over condo community needs her to de-escalate hostilities among the residents. As Jane discovers after moving in for her undercover assignment, the mature set can be as immature as any high schoolers, and war is breaking out between cliques.
It seems she might make some progress—until one of the aging “popular kids” is bludgeoned to death with a golf club. And though the automatic sprinklers have washed away much of the evidence, Jane’s on course to find out whodunit.
It releases June 25, 2019 and is available for pre-order here.
Haunted House Murder
Tricks and treats keep the Halloween spirit alive in coastal Maine. But this year the haunted house theme is getting carried a little too far . . .
HAUNTED HOUSE MURDER by LESLIE MEIER
Newcomers to Tinker’s Cove, Ty and Heather Moon have moved into a dilapidated house reputed to be a haven for ghosts. Now strange noises and flickering lights erupt from the house at all hours and neighborly relations are on edge. And when a local boy goes missing near the house, it’s up to Lucy Stone to unravel the mystery of the eccentric couple and their increasingly frightful behavior.
DEATH BY HAUNTED HOUSE by LEE HOLLIS
For the past two years, the house next door to Hayley Powell has sat abandoned after the owner died under mysterious circumstances. The Salinger family has recently taken possession of the property, but the realtor behind the deal has vanished—after a very public and angry argument with Damien Salinger. If Bar Harbor’s newest neighbors are murderers, Hayley will haunt them until they confess.
HALLOWED OUT by BARBARA ROSS
With its history of hauntings and ghost sightings, Busman’s Harbor is the perfect setting for Halloween festivities. But when a reenactment of a Prohibition-era gangster’s murder ends with a literal bang and a dead actor from New Jersey, Julia Snowden must identify a killer before she ends up sleeping with the fishes.
There’s nothing like home sweet home in this trio of Halloween tales . . .
This book is currently available for pre-order from all major retailers in hardcover and ebook formats. There will also be an audiobook version. Amazon*