Murder in a Cape Cottage Cover Reveal, plus #giveaway!

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News Break: Crystal is the lucky winner of the giveaway! Crystal, please check your emajl, and congratulations.

Edith/Maddie north of Boston, taking January as it comes.

I’m so excited to introduce you all to Murder in a Cape Cottage, Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery #4! I loved writing it, and now have both a cover and a release date. It will hit the bookshelves – actual and virtual – on September 27 (which is four days after what would have been my mom’s 97th birthday). Read down for a giveaway.

Here’s the blurb:

Cape Cod bike shop owner Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida and her book club sleuths uncover a case that strikes too close to home . . .
 
ʼTis the week after Christmas. It’s just as well Mac’s Cozy Capers Book Group’s new pick is a nerve-soothing coloring book mystery, especially because she has last-minute wedding planning to do. But all pre-wedding jitters fade into the background when Mac and her fiancé, Tim, begin a cottage renovation project and open a wall to find a skeleton—sitting on a stool, dressed in an old-fashioned bridal gown . . .
 
As Mac delves into the decades-old mystery with the help of librarian Flo and her book group, she discovers a story of star-crossed lovers and feuding families worthy of the bard himself. Yet this tale has a modern-day villain still lurking in Mac’s quaint seaside town, ready to make this a murderous New Year’s Eve . . .

And here’s the pretty cover!

It looks like a Christmas book, but it’s a post-holiday ticking clock story, instead, although Mac does attend a Hanukkah party at Zeke and Stephen’s home. It was so fun to include one of Krista Davis’s adult coloring book mysteries for the book group to read – not that Mac ever finds time to actually do any coloring.

I loved learning about how a corpse might be preserved after ninety years inside a wall, researching clothing from 1940, and so much more. And to include the happy occasion of a wedding at the end.

The release date also marks ten years since my first book was published, almost to the day. Champagne, please! Here is the re-issued version of Speaking of Murder with its gorgeous new cover.

Lauren Rousseau, a college linguistics professor, also lives in a coastal town in Massachusetts, but one a bit farther north than Cape Cod.

Readers: Do you like a little history mixed in with your contemporary mystery? What are your favorite books that bring the past into the present? I’ll send one commenter one of the first three Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, your choice!

Published by Edith Maxwell

Agatha Award -winning author Edith Maxwell writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries (Beyond the Page) and short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries series, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, and the Cece Barton Mysteries (all from Kensington Publishing). She lives north of Boston in an antique house with her beau and cat Martin, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook.

101 Thoughts

  2. Love, love, love the Lauren Rousseau books. So happy for the re-release. Congrats on this and your new Cape Cod book. What a fun series it is!

  3. I love this cover and I can’t wait to read Mac’s latest adventure. I also like the cover on the new Lauren book. I don’t mind history in books as long as it doesn’t overtake it. Can’t think of a book right now.

  4. Love the cover, Edith. You never think of the Cape in snow. It must be gorgeous. Yes, please as to history with the book. Just a touch, enough to ground the setting and give me a sense of place.

  6. Edith, I love the cover and synopsis of the new book. I can’t wait to be able to read it.

    You don’t have to enter me for a book since I have them all already. 😀

    As for the question, I don’t mind a little history mixed in with the mystery so long as it is interesting. A dry history lesson would prove to be a drag on the main plotline I think.

  7. I love the cover, and cannot wait to read the book! One of my favorite books that blends history with modern times is Riding Shotgun, by Rita Mae Brown. It’s fabulous!

  8. Oh, love the cover! Congrats! I like to read books that include the history of the towns and families. There’s a local author here, Barbara Walsh, who wrote August Gale, a true story about her Irish family’s history and their sailing/fishing profession, which was very good!

  10. A 90 year old mystery? Yes, please! I can’t wait to read this. Love the cover too!

  11. I love this series and terrific cover! (It looks like snowy Wisconsin this morning!) I think history is fun when mixed with a little mystery. I love learning about a region or time that I haven’t yet discovered. Plus, aren’t you supposed to.learn something new everyday? 😀

  12. LOVE a little history mixed in with contemporary mysteries! And you do it so well. Sometimes an author will say something and my mind will say “what” meaning I have to look it up and see if it is factual. I never have to do that with your books because I know your research is so spot on. It’s like blending two worlds into one making for an amazing read.

    The cover to “Murder in a Cape Cottage” is gorgeous. Can’t wait to read more of Mac’s adventures and thrilled to know that she’s finally getting to marry Tim.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

  13. I’m looking forward to Mac’s latest adventure. I do like books with history mixed in. A lot of cold case mysteries do that because they have to dig into what happened in the past.

  14. Such a sweet cape cottage and the lighthouse in the distance is great, too. Also, I like the foreshadowing wedding veil caught on the berry bush. And, the reissue book cover just screams “scary boathouse” on an East Coast beach, somewhere North of the Cape. Those are both covers to be proud to have your stories sandwiched between. Best wishes for you with both books!

  15. A mix of history hits the center mark on my three-fold goal to entertain, inform, and inspire. Thanks, Edith!

  16. Great cover! My first two reads of 2022 were Murder at the Taffy Shop and Murder at the Lobstah Shack. I look forward to Mac’s new adventure. I like history mixed in my mysteries, and I am in awe of authors who can seamless incorporate it into a modern story!

  17. Love the concept of #4 in the Cape Cod series. Looking forward to its release. One of the Kerrian posts dealt with bodies in the wall – fascinating stuff! The new cover for “Speaking of Murder” is brilliant – perfectly matches the story line. Brava!

  20. Congratulations Maddie on a terrific cover. Covers lure me into buying a book, and I will buy Murder in a Cape Cottage for so many reasons, but definitely because of the beautiful and intriguing cover. I do like the 1930’s and 1940’s era, and love the Mitford Murders series by Jessica Fellowes, but there are so many cozies from that period that I love, like Agatha Christie’s arsenal of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. =Thank you for sharing your writing talents with us happy readers!! Luis at ole dot travel

  21. Congratulations on both books, I hadn’t heard of the Lauren Rousseau series-I’ll look for it. I really like the art work on both covers, they draw me in. I love a bit of real history to set the stage for a cozy mystery! You write so vividly Edith , that being a New Englander I can see your scenes if I happen to be visiting a town from your books ( or re-imagined town ie Westham)

  22. What a beautiful cover and the story sounds fascinating! I just read a wonderful cozy mystery called Prague, a Secret from the Past by Adriana Licio that included historical information about the Czech fight for freedom. It was so good I can’t stop thinking about it. Thanks for the giveaway!

  23. Love the cover!!! The colors, the design, the water and snow and the berries!!!
    This series hits a sweet spot for me. Thank you so much for your writing.

  24. I like a little history thrown in because the events in history make the present what it is. However, I’m not a fan of books that alternate whole chapters to history and just flip back and forth. For me it makes both story lines somewhat disjointed. Either of the upcoming releases would be lovely.

  25. The cover is gorgeous! I do love reading historical novels (not just mysteries) and historical elements in modern books. One of my all time favorite books is Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time, the historical research is fascinating. In grad school I found To Prove a Villain, which reprints the text of Daughter of time and the documents referred to in the book – I used it for a research paper!

  26. Two beautiful covers from a beautiful writer. I love history in a mystery. It gives the whole story so much more verisimilitude and you do it so well because of all your meticulous research. And I always learn a lot! Looking forward to the release.

  27. I love history, so having some thrown in with the mystery is great. It’s a fun way to learn about the place/time period/subject/etc. I enjoy non-fiction history as well.

  28. Such a pretty cover, such a not-pretty hidden mystery. I can’t wait!
    I do love a bit of history in story form, painless education, and the research that makes all the difference. I miss Rose’s insights, and love learning from Victoria Thompson’s Gaslight series and Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs. It’s time travel at its most comfortable.

  30. Both covers are great, Edith! I enjoyed reading the Lauren Rousseau mysteries last year. And I look forward to seeing Mac and the Cozy Capers Book Group in a wintry Cape Cod setting.

    Yes, I like having some history included in a contemporary mystery. It can add more depth to the story and I like learning facts unique to the region/setting.

  33. Hi, Wow, I love your book cover, I want to jump right into it!! Yes, I love when History is mixed into mystery books, it makes it even more real. Thank you for the chance. Have a great week and stay safe.

  34. A little touch of history is wonderful as long as it ties into to storyline. Love the cover!

  35. I love history in my cozies! Juliet Blackwell writes about San Francisco and the history of the city and architecture in her home renovation series. Fascinating!

  37. I love the cover. Your reissue cover is great, too. I do like history mixed in with my mysteries. The first one that pops into my mind is the Quaker Midwife Mysteries. I was really excited to learn about the midwifery profession as well as the Quaker way of life.

  38. I like tohave a bit of history. An old book….jewlry…or buildings that adds to the mystery.

  40. Wow! Your new release sounds so good and so does your re-release. Can’t wait to read both of them! Also, great covers.

  41. Great book cover, title, excerpt, review/interview.
    I like a little history mixed in with my contemporary mystery that I read. I have read Trail of Tears: The Story Of John Ross by Anne Greene. Great informational book.

  42. I, too, enjoy historical backgrounds (think it adds to the story)…Love when history & cozies meet! Love the cover, too…

  44. I don’t recall a cozy mystery with history in it, but it certainly sounds like an interesting concept, so would like to read one. Thank you.

  45. Yes, I like a little history mixed in with my contemporary mystery books. No specific titles spring to mind but Agatha Christie’s mysteries often brought the past into the present. I have read the first three books in the Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery series and look forward to reading # 4 Murder In a Cape Cottage.

  46. I do enjoy history mixed in to a modern story. It add a layer of interest and . . . mystery!

  47. I love the covers. Thank you so much for sharing. I cannot think of any one right now. God bless you.

  48. The cover is striking! Wish I could paint a scene that lively! Congratulations on what’s between the cover front and back! My favorite series with lots of history is Alyssa Maxwell’s Gilded Newport Mysteries. Even with the stories set in the Victorian times there is history much further back to bring the present into focus!

    Ten years of fabulous books needs to be celebrated in some way! Cheers!

    Cynthia

  49. Love the cover! I enjoy reading about contemporary mystery in books. Excited to read your book!

  50. Love, love, love the Speaking of Murder cover, especially. Can’t wait to read it! I love the Murder in a Cape Cottage cover, too! I really enjoy getting some history in my fiction. One of my favorite books that does so is Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald. Art history at that!

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