My Musing ~ A Deadly Fundraiser by Mary Kennedy

A Deadly Fundraiser by Mary Kennedy is the 4th book in the “Talk Radio” mystery series. Publisher: Bleecker Street Books, September 2017

Radio talk show host Dr. Maggie Walsh finds herself in the middle of a murder—again! An invitation to a glitzy fundraiser at a south Florida mansion sounds like the perfect evening. Maggie and her pals are digging up clues for a scavenger hunt when a real mystery lands in their laps. Suddenly the party’s over, and the killer is playing for keeps. Will Maggie and her team be able to crack the case and solve the crime?

Dr Maggie is back and this time murder plays a deadly hand at a scavenger hunt gone wrong. A house full of suspects and the party is just beginning in this delightfully charming tale. I like the pacing of this whodunit that set the tone of how well this mystery was executed with plenty of suspects and a few twists and turns and kept me glued to the pages as I had to see how this will all play out. I liked that the main characters all had pivotal roles that kept me engaged in what they were doing and providing humor as well. The author knows how to tell a story that pulled me in and that ending. . .loved it. A great story and again, it was good to see Dr. Maggie, Lola and Vera Mae.

A Chat With Ali and Taylor Blake by Mary Kennedy

Hi, everyone! Ali and Taylor Blake here from the Dream Club Mysteries. We’re lovin’ life in Savannah and wanted to give you a quick update on what’s been happening with our vintage candy store, Oldies But Goodies.

Ali: I think we should tell them about the café we added. Business is booming! In fact, we’re on our lunch break right now, and our lovely assistant, Dana, is handling the shop.

Taylor: Ali’s right. First things first. As you know we started out selling these wonderful retro candies that bring back memories and make everyone feel nostalgic.

Ali: And since we serve free iced tea and lemonade, we noticed that people were lingering to chat after they bought their candy. I started putting out a few shortbread cookies and everyone gobbled them up. The aisles were so crowded people could hardly get up to the cash register.

Taylor: So I came up with an idea. . .

Ali: Wait a minute. You mean, together we came up with an idea!

Taylor: Yes, of course. We both came up with the idea of adding a little café to the shop and serving soup, sandwiches and light lunches. The idea really took off.

Ali: And we added some cute little umbrella tables in the backyard. We even started a little take-out business and may cater some parties. Our Dream Club members are our beta-tasters and I love to try out all our new recipes on them.

Taylor: True. The Dream Club is stronger than ever and we’re still solving murders in Savannah. I was a bit of a skeptic at first, but I can’t argue with success.

Ali: If you’re wondering how it works, we meet once a week to talk about and analyze our dreams. A lot of time, we find clues in our dreams that help the Savannah PD solve real-life crimes. The clues might be in the form of images or visions. . .

Taylor: Or it could just be a coincidence. . .

Ali: You’re still a skeptic!

Taylor: Not completely. I think you’ve won me over. In any case, we’re all paying a lot more attention to our dreams since we started the club. And I think we’ve convinced Noah–]

Ali: That’s her hunky boyfriend who happens to be a private detective. . .

Taylor: We’ve convinced Noah that we really can help with murder investigations.

Ali: Things are hoppin’ in the shop, so I guess we better get back to work. Dana looks swamped.

Taylor: Be sure to check out A Premonition of Murder to see what happens when a Southern heiress has a vision of her death.

Ali: A vision that leads to murder!

Taylor: Thanks for stopping by. If you’re even in Savannah, be sure to visit Oldies But Goodies.

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A Premonition of Murder is the third book in the Dream Club mystery series, published by Berkley Prime Crime, June 2016.

An elderly Southern heiress’s nightmare becomes a real case of murder in the latest Dream Club Mystery from the national bestselling author of Dream a Little Scream.

When Abigail Marchand, Savannah’s famously reclusive heiress, invites the Dream Club ladies to lunch at her Beaux Reeves mansion, Taylor and Ali hope for an invitation to join the distinguished Magnolia Society. But Abigail has a more pressing concern: a recent dream that seems to foretell her death.

Taylor reassures Abigail that there are many ways to interpret a dream, but at the next meeting of the Dream Club, their discussion is cut short by a call from Detective Sam Stiles. She’s at Abigail’s mansion, where the elderly woman appears to have been pushed to her death down a flight of stairs. Now Taylor, Ali, and the Dream Club need to catch a killer before someone else is laid to rest.

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About the author
Mary Kennedy is a licensed psychologist and the author of over 40 novels. She writes the Dream Club Mysteries and the Talk Radio Mysteries for Penguin-Random House and has a young adult series called The Hollywood Diaries. She lives with her husband and six neurotic cats. She has tried unsuccessfully to psychoanalyze both husband and cats but remains optimistic. You can visit her at www.marykennedy.net.

Giveaway: Leave comment below for your chance to win either a print copy of Dream a Little Scream or this cat tote bag that folds up into a clutch. US entries only, please. The giveaway will end June 12, 2016 at 12 AM EST. Good luck everyone!

All comments are welcomed.

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries edited by Lois Winston

Being a mystery author, I know quite a few other mystery authors. However, there are many I don’t know and haven’t read. I began to wonder how many wonderful mysteries I’m missing out on because I just don’t know about them. And then I wondered, how many readers don’t know about my books? Or the books I’ve enjoyed by some of my fellow authors? What if there was an easy way to introduce mystery readers to some of my favorite authors and their series? That’s when inspiration hit, and I began contacting some of my mystery author friends. They loved my idea and joined me in producing Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries.

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries is a collection of full-length mysteries featuring murder and assorted mayhem by ten critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling authors. Each novel in the set is the first book in an established multi-book series—a total of over 3,000 pages of reading pleasure for lovers of amateur sleuth, caper, and cozy mysteries, with a combined total of over 1700 reviews on Amazon, averaging 4 stars. Titles include:

Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery by Lois Winston—Working mom Anastasia is clueless about her husband’s gambling addiction until he permanently cashes in his chips and her comfortable middle-class life craps out. He leaves her with staggering debt, his communist mother, and a loan shark demanding $50,000. Then she’s accused of murder. . .

Murder Among Neighbors, a Kate Austen Suburban Mystery by Jonnie Jacobs — When Kate Austen’s socialite neighbor, Pepper Livingston, is murdered, Kate becomes involved in a sea of steamy secrets that bring her face to face with shocking truths—and handsome detective Michael Stone.

Skeleton in a Dead Space, a Kelly O’Connell Mystery by Judy Alter—Real estate isn’t a dangerous profession until Kelly O’Connell stumbles over a skeleton and runs into serial killers and cold-blooded murderers in a home being renovated in Fort Worth. Kelly barges through life trying to keep from angering her policeman boyfriend Mike and protect her two young daughters.

In for a Penny, a Cleopatra Jones Mystery by Maggie Toussaint—Accountant Cleo faces an unwanted hazard when her golf ball lands on a dead banker. The cops think her BFF shot him, so Cleo sets out to prove them wrong. She ventures into the dating world, wrangles her teens, adopts the victim’s dog, and tries to rein in her mom. . .until the killer puts a target on Cleo’s back.

The Hydrogen Murder, a Periodic Table Mystery by Camille Minichino—A retired physicist returns to her hometown of Revere, Massachusetts and moves into an apartment above her friends’ funeral home. When she signs on to help the Police Department with a science-related homicide, she doesn’t realize she may have hundreds of cases ahead of her.

Retirement Can Be Murder, A Baby Boomer Mystery by Susan Santangelo—Carol Andrews dreads her husband Jim’s upcoming retirement more than a root canal without Novocain. She can’t imagine anything worse than having an at-home husband with time on his hands and nothing to fill it—until Jim is suspected of murdering his retirement coach.

Dead Air, A Talk Radio Mystery by Mary Kennedy—Psychologist Maggie Walsh moves from NY to Florida to become the host of WYME’s On the Couch with Maggie Walsh. When her guest, New Age prophet Guru Sanjay Gingii, turns up dead, her new roommate Lark becomes the prime suspect. Maggie must prove Lark innocent while dealing with a killer who needs more than just therapy.

A Dead Red Cadillac, A Dead Red Mystery by RP Dahlke—When her vintage Cadillac is found tail-fins up in a nearby lake, the police ask aero-ag pilot Lalla Bains why an elderly widowed piano teacher is found strapped in the driver’s seat. Lalla confronts suspects, informants, cross-dressers, drug-running crop dusters, and a crazy Chihuahua on her quest to find the killer.

Murder is a Family Business, an Alvarez Family Murder Mystery by Heather Haven—Just because a man cheats on his wife and makes Danny DeVito look tall, dark and handsome, is that any reason to kill him? The reluctant and quirky PI, Lee Alvarez, has her work cut out for her when the man is murdered on her watch. Of all the nerve.

Murder, Honey, a Carol Sabala Mystery by Vinnie Hansen—When the head chef collapses into baker Carol Sabala’s cookie dough, she is thrust into her first murder investigation. Suspects abound at Archibald’s, the swanky Santa Cruz restaurant where Carol works. The head chef cut a swath of people who wanted him dead from ex-lovers to bitter rivals to greedy relatives.

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I hope I’ve piqued your curiosity with these short blurbs, and you’ll soon find some new favorite authors in Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries. The boxed set e-book is available through Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.

About Lois Winston
USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Visit Lois/Emma at www.loiswinston.com and Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog. Follow her on Pinterest, and on Twitter. Sign up for her newsletter here.

Giveaway: Leave comment below for your chance to win a Kindle version of Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries. The giveaway will end May 6, 2016 at 12 AM EST. Good luck everyone!

All comments are welcomed.

A Day in the Life of Taylor Blake by Mary Kennedy

Just when I think I’m getting the hang of being a “southern girl,” something happens that takes the wind out of my sails. Instead of just rolling with the “unexpected.” I find myself getting worried and uptight, reverting to my anxious Type A “northern” personality. My sister, Ali, must be more adaptable than I am, because she loves making spur of the moment plans, always welcomes a surprise and thinks of life as an adventure.

Take Sonia Scott’s visit to Savannah, for example. I’m sure you know that Sonia is as popular as cornbread and sweet tea down here, and we were thrilled to watch the taping of one of her popular cooking shows. After all, the Dream Club members love to eat; we enjoy finding new recipes to serve at our meetings. And Sonia was just as friendly and down home as she could be, chatting with the audience between takes, kidding around with the staff and generally just hamming it up for the camera.

I didn’t know until much later that Sonia was disliked by so many people and that she was one tough lady under that southern charm. But back to my reaction to the “unexpected.” Who would have thought that a chance meeting at the television taping that evening would lead to Sonia doing a book signing in our shop the very next day?

“It will be fun!” Ali told me. She was over the moon at the idea of having Sonia in Oldies But Goodies but I was less enthusiastic than my sister. Ali looked at it as a wonderful opportunity but I thought of all the work that would be involved. We only had a few hours to prepare and everything in the shop had to sparkle. Plus we needed to send out an e-mail blast to our best customers, inviting then to a meet and greet with Sonia, and we enticed them with free food. Not just any free food, but home-made desserts that we’d be up all night making. And of course, a nice selection of fresh-squeezed lemonade and sweet tea.

We slaved away scrubbing and polishing, and managed to turn out platters of delicious lemon bars and tiny cherry cheesecake tarts to serve to our guests. When Sonia and her entourage arrived and settled in the next morning, I thought my worries would be over. Everyone was in a good mood, the audience was happy and I was beginning to think that I had been silly to waste my time worrying. This was going to be a memorable experience.

And then Sonia took a bite of a cookie and clutched her throat, screaming for her inhaler. It all went downhill after that, and as you’ve probably guessed, the Dream Club had another murder on their hands.

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You can read more about Taylor in Dream A Little Scream, the second book in the “Dream Club” mystery series, published by Berkley Prime Crime. The first book in the series is Nightmares Can Be Murder.

GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 12 a.m. eastern on August 18 for the chance to win a three-wick honeysuckle candle from Bath and Body Works. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Winner will be notified within 48 hours after giveaway closes and you will have three days to respond after being contacted or another winner will be selected.

About the author
Mary Kennedy is a licensed psychologist and the author of the Talk Radio Mysteries and the Dream Club Mysteries for Penguin-Random House. She lives in the northeast with her husband and eight neurotic cats. Both husband and cats have resisted all her attempts to psychoanalyze them, but she remains optimistic. Visit her website here.

Nightmares Can Be Murder by Mary Kennedy

Nightmares Can Be Murder by Mary Kennedy is the first book in the new “Dream Club” mystery series. Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime, September 2014

Dream Team
Business consultant Taylor Blake has returned to Savannah, Georgia, to help her sister Allison turn her dream of running an old-fashioned candy store into a reality. Allison is also interested in dream interpretation and invites Taylor to her Friday night Dream Club, where members meet once a week to share and analyze their dreams.

When a local dance instructor, Chico Hernandez, is found dead in his studio, and the murder scene has an eerie resemblance to one of the dreams shared at their meeting, Taylor can’t help but be intrigued. And when her sister, who was briefly involved with the dance teacher, becomes the prime suspect, Taylor and their fellow club members can’t be caught napping. It’s up to them to dream up a solution to the murder before Allison faces a real-life nightmare.

I enjoyed this evenly paced drama immensely with its creative use of dream interpretation expertly woven into this well-executed storyline. The tone was comfortable putting me right in the middle of the action and the ease at the storytelling flowed beautifully from scene to scene as we got to know a little bit about the members of this ensemble cast. The author did a great job in planting clues that pointed at each member of this group as well as those who interacted with them, as to motive warranted enough to kill, and it was the way the author flushed out the culprit that kept me glued to the prize of the killer’s identity. Boasting great dialogue and the most charming setting of Savannah, Georgia, this was a great read and I look forward to more sweet times with Taylor, Ali and their friends.

A Conversation with Taylor Blake by Mary Kennedy

...one of the two sisters who run the Dream Club in Savannah

When I decided to move to Savannah to help Ali with her vintage candy store, I pictured an easy life filled with Southern charm. You know, lazy afternoons drinking sweet tea under magnolia trees and evening strolls along the Riverfront, stopping for a glass of Pino Grigio with cheese straws. (Cheese straws are one of the five basic food groups in Savannah. Add coconut cake, banana cream pie, blueberry buckle and peach cobbler and you’ve got a complete meal.)

I never thought I’d be 1) caught up in a murder investigation, 2) find myself analyzing dreams in Ali’s Dream Club and 3) gaining eight pounds in three weeks!

It all started with Chico, a Latin lover type who ran the dance studio across from Ali’s candy store. It’s bad enough he was a shameless flirt, but when he “danced his last tango” and his death was ruled a homicide, my sister was one of the prime suspects. Naturally, the Dream Club decided to spring into action to help her.

Here’s how the Dream Club works. It’s a close group of friends who meet once a week at Ali’s apartment to share their dreams and try to analyze the content. Some of their interpretations are pretty far out and some are more believable. I’m something of a skeptic but Ali is a true believer. The Dream Club members put all their powers to work, concentrating on Chico and trying to figure out who might have a motive to kill him. The idea is that we would uncover clues in our dreams that would help the police solve the crime.

At first I thought the whole thing was over the top, and then as some of the dream content really did seem to relate to the murder, I found myself being swayed. There were definite symbols in the dreams—if you knew where to look. I shared the information with Noah Chandler, my hunky ex- FBI private detective boyfriend and we were off and running. Did we solve the crime and did the clues from the Dream Club really help? You’ll have to read Nightmares Can Be Murder to decide!

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You can read more about Taylor in Nightmares Can Be Murder, the first book in the new “Dream Club” mystery series, published by Berkley Prime Crime.

GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 6 p.m. eastern on September 8 for the chance to win a print copy of NIGHTMARES CAN BE MURDER. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

Meet the author
Mary Kennedy is a clinical psychologist in private practice and the author of the Talk Radio Mysteries and the Dream Club Mysteries. She lives with her husband and 8 neurotic cats on the East Coast. Both husband and cats have resisted all her attempts to psychoanalyze them, but she remains optimistic. You can visit her at www.marykennedy.net or www.cozychicksblog.com.

Stay Tuned For Murder by Mary Kennedy

Stay Tuned For Murder by Mary Kennedy is the third book in the “Talk Radio” mystery series. Publisher: Obsidian (Penguin), January 2011

Maggie Walsh is a natural on the radio, but she’s still learning how to play the ratings game. Her big guest star is self-proclaimed oracle Madame Chantel, whose on-air “chats” with the dead are the talk of Cypress Grove—until Chantel makes some grim predictions at a seance and one of the town’s most beloved citizens is found murdered.

Meanwhile, WYME is busy promoting the opening of a fifty-year-old time capsule. But the more Maggie learns about what might be unearthed, the more she suspects that the timing of the murder was no coincidence. The appearance of another body has Maggie rushing to find the killer—and wondering if there might be something to Chantel’s ghost stories.

When Maggie’s talk show guest, psychic Chantel, invites her to a séance and makes a dire prediction, Maggie is stunned when a friend is found murdered. When another person dies, Maggie questions if their deaths are connected either to the opening of the time-capsule and the secrets that may be contained within or something more troubling. The plot and tone of this book kept me glued to the pages as I tried to fit the pieces to the mysterious puzzles in Cypress Grove. I loved the interaction among this great cast of characters and I especially like when Maggie stepped out of character and talk to the reader, being both humorous and quirky. The insights on the art of deception also enhanced my reading pleasure. I look forward to reading the next book in this fun and entertaining series.

FTC Full Disclosure – The publisher sent me a copy of this book

previously posted on the Cozy Chicks blog

Reel Murder by Mary Kennedy

Reel Murder by Mary Kennedy is the second book in the “Talk Radio” mystery series. Publisher: Obsidian (Penguin), June 2010

Maggie is really getting into the swing of her daily radio show. She loves her new life in Cypress Grove, Florida, where she considers herself a Dr. Phil—minus the money and the fame. Unfortunately, she’s also minus the fans. So when a big movie company hits town, Maggie’s producer thinks a few exclusive on-set interviews could mean a ratings boost.

But no sooner does Maggie slip her way into a job as a script consultant than the leading lady ends up dead from a prop gun that’s been tampered with. With the help of sexy Detective Rafe Martino, Maggie discovers a bevy of behind-the-scenes secrets that could be motives for murder. Now she’d better find the killer before the credits roll—or it might be her own final performance.

Attending a movie set with her mother, Lola, Maggie is hired as a consultant on the script. While watching a scene involving a shooting, the actress is indeed shot, dead. Because Maggie doesn’t feel the prime suspect is guilty, Maggie investigates everyone on the set and discovers everyone has a motive to kill the actress. When she is threatened and then Lola, Maggie will pull out everything to solve this crime and it doesn’t hurt that the sexy and handsome detective is on the case. This was a very enjoyable read. My rating: 4 stars

Dead Air by Mary Kennedy

Dead Air by Mary Kennedy is the first book in the new “Talk Radio” mystery series. Publisher: Obsidian (Penguin), January 2010

Maggie Walsh, Florida’s newest radio talk show psychologist, thinks that being tucked away in her studio will keep her safe from all the crazies. But when she hits the airwaves, there’s no telling whom she’s reaching—and who wants to reach back.

Maggie left her clinical practice in Manhattan and moved to sunny Cypress Grove, Florida, where she became host of WYME’s On the Couch with Maggie Walsh. From codependent wives to fetish fiends, all the local crazies love her show, but Maggie is not fond of all of its occupational hazards.

Threats start pouring in against one of the station’s special guests, self-styled New Age prophet Guru Sanjay Gingii. And when one of the threats becomes a deadly reality, Maggie’s new roommate, Lark, is surprisingly the prime suspect. Maggie has to prove Lark innocent while dealing with a killer who needs more than just therapy.

This is a great new series. Maggie interviews a new-age guru, deciding he’s not really who he claims to be. When her roommate, Lark, become a person of interest, Maggie decides to look into clues that will clear her. With the assistance of her boss and her mother, Lola, this case takes on a whole new meaning, especially with the acting abilities of Lola. I like the plot and the voice of the characters, especially Maggie and Lola. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. My rating: 5 stars

*new-to-me author