A day in the life of Merry Wilkinson by Vicki Delany

Where did the year go? Summer’s over and it’s now fall, and before you know it, it’ll be Thanksgiving and then Christmas. The busiest time of the year for me. I own a design and gift shop called Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, on Jingle Bell Lane, in Rudolph New York. Rudolph calls itself America’s Christmas Town. Obviously, November and December are our busy season, but we also promote ourselves as your Year-Round Christmas destination.

Essentially, Christmas never ends in Rudolph. Some might think that’s a bit too much Christmas, but we do it because we love it. I was born into a Christmas-loving family. My Dad’s name is Noel. My siblings are Eve, Carole, and Kris. My mom, who’s an internationally renowned opera singer, is another matter, but over the years she’s taken the whole Christmas thing without too much complaint.

My dad’s a former mayor of Rudolph and he serves as the town’s official Santa Claus. In July Santa Claus (aka Dad) came to Rudolph to have his summer vacation on Lake Ontario. We made a big deal of it with a boat parade, official welcome to the town, costumed elves, Santa meeting delighted kids on the beach. I even made a summer version of my Mrs. Claus costume. Alan Anderson, local woodworker and toymaker, didn’t bother to wear something seasonal when representing Santa’s Head Toymaker, and he just about melted in the heat.

It was a lot of fun, and everyone had a great day. Until. . .

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Oops. Better not say too much. I’ll let you read all about it in Hark the Herald Angels Slay, the third book in the “Year-Round Christmas” mystery series, coming November 28 from Penguin Random House.

The town of Rudolph, New York, has the Christmas spirit all year long—but when homicide heats up a summer holiday, it’s up to shop owner Merry Wilkinson to wrap up the case.

In Rudolph, Christmas in July heralds Santa’s arrival by boat to begin his summer vacation at the lake, and Merry Wilkinson, owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, is looking forward to a busy weekend. But she’s caught off guard when her ex-fiancé, Max Folger, unexpectedly arrives with a team from a lifestyle magazine wanting to do a feature on the July festivities.

It’s clear that Max’s visit has less to do with business and more to do with winning back Merry’s heart. Merry has too much on her plate to deal with an old flame, but when Max is found strangled to death in Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, she must find out who wanted him dead—and stop a killer from ruining the summer holiday cheer.

Buy Link

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Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a print copy of Hark the Herald Angels Slay. U.S. entries only, please. The giveaway ends November 28, 2017. Good luck everyone!

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About the author
Vicki Delany also writes the Lighthouse Library series under the name Eva Gates, and the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series. Body on Baker Street, the second in the series, was released in September by Crooked Lane Books. Find Vicki at www.vickidelany.com. She regularly runs giveaways and contests on Facebook.

All comments are welcomed.

A day in the life of Ashley Grant by Vicki Delany

Oh. It looks awfully small from up here.

I’m looking out the window of the plane as it circles over my new home. I guess I didn’t realize just how small Grand Victoria Island is. Or that, being an island, it’s surrounded by water.

Unlike most Canadians, I don’t much care for water. Not in quantities larger than can be found in my bathtub or the average swimming pool, anyway.

Still, I’m sure it’s going to be fine.

I’ve come to the Victoria and Albert Islands almost on a whim. I got sick at work one day and came home early to find my fiancé in bed with his best friend’s wife. Yeah, same old story.

So I yelled and threw things and ordered him out of the house. It was his house, so I was the one who found herself on the street. One of my co-workers let me stay with her for a while, but not for long as she was moving to take a new job. Nice job, too. She’d been hired to work as a paramedic on Grand Victoria Island and was really looking forward to it. Sun and sand, rich people on vacation, she said. She couldn’t wait to get there.

Then she broke her leg skiing and the job was suddenly open.

I’m a paramedic in Toronto. I love the job, love the city. But somehow I found myself agreeing to take her place.

And now I’m here, in this plane, circling a county with a smaller population than can be found at some concerts I’ve been to. Surrounded by water. Lots of water.

It’ll be fine. An easy job in a beautiful, relaxing tourist place. They told me my new boss will be at the airport to meet me, so I went to some trouble to look nice in a new dress and expensive sandals.

I’m sure nothing bad ever happens here.

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Meet Ashley Grant as she starts her new life in White Sand Blues, the first in a new series from Orca Press. This is a Rapid Reads novella, written for adults with literacy difficulties, ESL students, reluctant readers, and those just wanting a quick, fast-paced read.

When paramedic Ashley Grant finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman, she moves out of her house (okay, his house), quits her job and takes a new one in a tiny Caribbean country, the Victoria and Albert Islands. Ashley is thrown into the deep end when she arrives. Her new colleague picks her up at the airport in the island’s only ambulance, which is called to the discovery of a body floating off the beach at the exclusive Club Louisa.

The body is that of a man vacationing with his daughter and glamorous new wife. Coincidentally, Sally, the daughter of the dead man, recognizes Ashley from high school. She is convinced that her stepmother killed her father and begs Ashley to help her prove it. Before she can even unpack her bags or enjoy the view from her ocean-side apartment, Ashley is unwittingly dragged into a murder investigation.

First in a new series from award-winning author Vicki Delany.

Buy Link

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Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a print copy of White Sand Blues. U.S. and Canadian entries only, please. The giveaway ends November 1, 2017. Good luck everyone!

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About the author
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than twenty-five books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy, including White Sand Blues. Under the name of Eva Gates, she writes the Lighthouse Library cozy series for Penguin Random House. Her newest novel is Body on Baker Street, the second in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series from Crooked Lane.

Vicki is the past president of the Crime Writers of Canada. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards.

Visit Vicki at www.vickidelany.com. On Facebook and on Twitter @vickidelany

All comments are welcomed.

A Day in the Life of Gemma Doyle by Vicki Delany

I always enjoy hosting authors in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. Readers love meeting them, and I’ve found most writers to be nice, friendly people, happy to have the chance to be here, meet readers, and talk about their books.

Today, we’re having not just any author, but none other than Renalta Van Markoff herself, creator of the hugely successful Hudson and Holmes series of pastiche novels. Her newest book, Hudson House, came out only this week, and she cancelled all her scheduled appearances when she decided on a whim to come to Cape Cod for the weekend. Her publisher and publicist must have been tearing their hair out. They persuaded her to do one book signing at least. And the closest store to her vacation destination happened to be mine. It was a bit of a scramble to put something on at the last minute, but it all fell into place.

Van Markoff herself came in on Thursday, supposedly to make sure my shop could accommodate an author of her standing. Can’t say I was impressed: rude, obnoxious, demanding are words that come to mind. I felt rather sorry for her publicist and personal assistant.

Her books are not for everyone. They are certainly not for me – overwrought and overwritten, in my opinion, and veering dangerously toward an excess of purple prose – but they’re a publishing phenomenon.

They are also not for the more serious-minded members of the Sherlockian community, and that has me slightly worried. Donald Morris was in the shop the other day, exclaiming over what a disgrace Van Markoff’s interpretation of the Great Detective is to the memory of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I think Donald was about to proclaim it was a disgrace to the memory of Holmes, but he remembered at the last minute that Sherlock is not a real person.

Still, it’s just a short talk and a book signing. What could possibly go wrong?

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Find out if anything does go wrong in Body on Baker Street, the second Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery.

Gemma Doyle and Jayne Wilson are busy managing the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium on Baker Street and adjoining Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room in anticipation of the store’s upcoming book signing with the illustrious Renalta Van Markoff, author of the controversial Hudson and Holmes mystery series. But during the author Q&A session, dedicated Sherlockian Donald Morris verbally attacks Renalta and her series for disgracing Sherlock’s legacy, only to be publicly humiliated when the author triumphantly lashes back and gains the upper hand. That is until Renalta collapses on the table―dead.

Donald insists he didn’t do it and pleads to his friends to clear his name. Fortunately, Gemma and Jayne have no shortage of suspects between author’s bullied personal assistant, her frustrated publicist, the hapless publisher, a handsome rare book dealer, an obsessively rabid fan, and a world of other Sherlock enthusiasts with strong objections to Renalta’s depiction of the Great Detective. It’s up to the shrewd sleuthing duo to eliminate the impossible and deduce the truth before the West London police arrest an innocent man in Body on Baker Street, the second Sherlock Homes Bookshop mystery perfect for fans of Miranda James and Kate Carlisle.

Buy Link

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Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a hardcover copy of Body on Baker Street. U.S. entries only, please. The giveaway ends September 18, 2017. Good luck everyone!

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About the author
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than twenty-five books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. Under the name of Eva Gates, she writes the Lighthouse Library cozy series for Penguin Random House. Her newest novel is Body on Baker Street, the second in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series from Crooked Lane.

Vicki is the past president of the Crime Writers of Canada. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards.

Visit Vicki at vickidelany.com, on Facebook and on @vickidelany

All comments are welcomed.

Vacationing with RCMP Sgt Ray Robertson by Vicki Delany

Vacation time!

I’m in Turks and Caicos for two weeks of vacation. And, boy do I need it.

I love my job, working with the UN, trying to introduce modern policing methods to fragile states. But it can be tough work, both physically and emotionally. First I was stationed in South Sudan and then in Haiti. I loved being in both those places, but sometimes a man needs a hot bath and a cold drink.

I loved the people (most of them) that I met there, but a man defiantly needs his family. My wife Jenny isn’t able to come on posting with me. Too dangerous for families.

She’s not too happy about that. And I understand. She’s stuck at home in Canada, managing the fort, dealing with the kids, running the details of our lives. I’m worried that she’s going to issue an ultimatum one of these days. I give up either UN policing or my marriage.

This vacation is a treat for her. Frankly, I’ve had enough of heat and sun, thank you very much. At my place in Haiti, I even have a pool (and a pool “boy” to look after it for me). Nothing I’d have loved more for my vacation than to head for the mountains of British Columbia for some good powder skiing. Feel the cold clear air on my face, hear the snow crunch beneath my boots.

But Jenny’s had enough of winter, and I knew she wouldn’t exactly jump at the idea of more of it.

So here we are. Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean. It’s a fabulous island, with great hotels, top-class restaurants, nice people, a low crime rate. Grace Bay has many times been voted the world’s best beach. Did I mention expensive? Gulp. But I figure my marriage is worth it.

Somehow, much as I try,  it seems that the job can’t leave me alone. I found that man’s body on the beach this morning, while I was out for my jog. The police are handling it. They seem like a competent lot (they should be, they were trained by Canadians!)

Maybe I’ll just give them a quick call. Check in and see what they’ve learned. Jenny’s out. If I do it now, she’ll never know.

Blood and Belonging is the third Sgt Ray Robertson novella published by Orca Press. Rapid Reads novellas are written for adults with literacy difficulties, ESL students, reluctant readers, and those just wanting a quick, fast-paced read.

RCMP Sergeant Ray Robertson is in the Turks and Caicos Islands, enjoying two weeks of leave from his job training police in Haiti with the UN. On an early-morning jog along famed Grace Bay Beach he discovers a dead man in the surf. Ray is shocked to recognize the body as that of one of his Haitian police recruits. To his wife’s increasing dismay, Ray is compelled to follow the dead man’s trail and finds himself plunged into the world of human trafficking and the problems of a tiny country struggling to cope with a desperate wave washing up on its shores.

The first Ray Robertson book, Juba Good, was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award, A Derringer Award and a Silver Oak award from the Ontario Library Association.

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About the author
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of twenty-four published crime novels, including standalone Gothic thrillers, the Constable Molly Smith series, the Year Round Christmas Mysteries, and books for adult literacy. Under the pen name of Eva Gates she is the national bestselling author of the Lighthouse Library cozy series. Her newest novel is Elementary, She Read, the first in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series.

Vicki lives and writes in Prince Edward County, Ontario. She is the past president of the Crime Writers of Canada.

Connect with Vicki at www.vickidelany.com, on Facebook, and Twitter at @vickidelany and @evagatesauthor.

All comments are welcomed.

Blood and Belonging is available at retail and online booksellers or you can ask your local library to get it for you.

A day in the life of Gemma Doyle by Vicki Delany

“Don’t you?”

I have to remember to stop saying that. Jayne says it annoys people when I point out things they’ve overlooked. I think that if people don’t bother to observe the things around them, then they shouldn’t fault me for doing so.

But, I’ll try to behave in future.

My name is Gemma Doyle and I am the owner and manager of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium located at 222 Baker Street, West London, Massachusetts. Along with my best friend Jayne Wilson, I also own Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room next door at number 200 Baker Street.

Jayne also says I can be exasperating to be around. I have to try to remember not to be that too.

I came back from my regular afternoon partners’ meeting with Jayne over tea and scones next door and had the following conversation with my shop assistant, Ruby:

I gave the shop a quick glance before slipping behind the counter to help pop items into paper bags with our store logo on them.

“I’m going to have to reorder The Beekeeper’s Apprentice,” I said to Ruby. “I see you had a rush on it. As well as four of the boxed sets of the complete canon. And that hideous Robert Downey Jr. puzzle moved at long last. Nice to see the Jeremy Brett poster was sold, and three sets of playing cards and two of that Scotland Yard game.” The game didn’t actually have anything to do with Sherlock, but we pretended it did.

“The puzzle didn’t sell,” Ruby said. “I put the mugs on top of it.”

I was horrified. “How many times have I told you, don’t do that. How am I supposed to keep inventory if things are always moving around?”

“Most people these days keep their inventory on the computer,” Ruby said.

“The computer is a functioning backup,” I admitted.

Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delany

Even my attempts at keeping track were for naught when that woman’s bridge group bus tour hit the shop. They touched everything, moved almost everything, put things back where they didn’t belong. But all was forgiven when they bought and bought and bought, everything from original Conan Doyle books to the latest pastiche novel to a Benedict Cumberbatch action figure and a set of mugs.

Finally, they left and we have to tidy up.

What’s this concealed in the magazine rack? It’s not ours, and it wasn’t here earlier. It looks very old.

It couldn’t possibly be. . . Could it?

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You can read more about Gemma in Elementary, She Read, the first book in the NEW “Sherlock Holmes Bookshops” mystery series.

Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop–located at 222 Baker Street–specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also the home of Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.

The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman’s suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it’s a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes will delight in the sleuthing duo of Gemma and Jayne in Elementary, She Read, the clever and captivating series debut by nationally bestselling author Vicki Delany.

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About the author
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of twenty-four published crime novels, including standalone Gothic thrillers, the Constable Molly Smith series, the Year Round Christmas Mysteries, and books for adult literacy. Under the pen name of Eva Gates she is the national bestselling author of the Lighthouse Library cozy series.

Vicki lives and writes in Prince Edward County, Ontario. She is the past president of the Crime Writers of Canada. Connect with Vicki at www.vickidelany.com, on Facebook, and Twitter at @vickidelany and @evagatesauthor.

Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a print copy of Elementary, She Read. US entries only, please. The giveaway ends March 15, 2017. Good luck everyone!

Elementary, She Read is available at retail and online booksellers.

Merry Wilkinson and the Grinch in America’s Christmas Town by Vicki Delany

Whew! I’m glad that’s over. The investigation into the murder of Nigel Pierce was solved and the reputation of Rudolph, New York as American’s Christmas Town was saved! (see Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen).

The lead up to Christmas Day isn’t exactly relaxing for me, seeing as to how I own a shop called Mrs. Claus’ Treasures on Jingle Bell Lane, but it is nice to have that nasty business no longer hanging over me or my best friend Vicky Casey, owner of Victoria’s Bake Shoppe, my favourite place for lunch and guilty treats.

Although . . . Rumours are swirling around town about Gord Olsen and his plans. Gord’s father Jack owns the Yuletide Inn, one of the nicest hotels in Rudolph. The gardens adjoining the inn are a major tourist attraction, winter and summer.

Jack had a heart attack, a bad one, and Gord has been summoned from California to help run the inn. I remember Gord Olsen from back in high school. Let’s just say that he doesn’t seem to have changed much, personality wise.

Anyway, as I said rumours are flying. Burley men in construction boots have been seen stomping around the gardens, jotting down notes and measuring things, and other men in suits and ties have sat at tables in the Elves’ Lunch box consulting mysterious binders stuffed full of papers and drawings.

Rumours say they are here from Fine Budget Inns and Mega-Mart.

The Yuletide Inn –quaint, charming, historic — is one of the highlights of Rudolph and people come from far and wide to visit the beautiful gardens.

Some of the townspeople are not happy at the thought that Gord might be planning to sell the place out from under his father. Not the least of whom is my own father, Noel, our town’s official Santa Claus and one of the its biggest boosters.

Dad was heard to threaten Gord if he goes ahead with his plans. I sure hope nothing happens to escalate the situation.

Is there a Grinch in America’s Christmas Town? Can Christmas be saved? Find out in We Wish You A Murderous Christmas.

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We Wish You a Murderous Christmas is the second book in the Year-Round Christmas mystery series, published by Penguin Random House, November 2016.

A grinch is spoiling the holiday cheer and causing fear in the latest from the author of Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen. . .

It’s Christmastime three hundred sixty-five days a year in Rudolph, New York, and as Christmas Day approaches, shop owner Merry Wilkinson is enjoying a rare evening off at the Yuletide Inn when she runs into owners Grace and Jack Olsen. With Jack’s health failing, Merry is relieved to hear that his son Gord will be taking over the day-to-day running of the Inn.

But then Gord reveals that his new plans have no room for Christmas at the Inn, and Merry and the other shopkeepers start to fret about the effect a bland franchise hotel could have on their livelihoods.

When Gord is found stabbed to death, there’s an entire town of potential suspects—and it’s up to Merry to find whoever brought homicide home for the holidays. . .

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About the author
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of twenty-three published crime novels, including standalone Gothic thrillers, the Constable Molly Smith series, and the Year Round Christmas Mysteries. Under the pen name of Eva Gates she is the national bestselling author of the Lighthouse Library cozy series.

Vicki lives and writes in Prince Edward County, Ontario. She is the past president of the Crime Writers of Canada.

Connect with Vicki at www.vickidelany.com, on Facebook, and at @vickidelany and @evagatesauthor.

All comments are welcomed.

Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a print copy of We Wish You a Murderous Christmas. US entries only, please. The giveaway ends November 2, 2016 at 11:59 AM EST. Good luck everyone!

A Day in the Life of Constable Molly Smith by Vicki Delany

I never planned to become a police officer. It wasn’t something I dreamt about when I was a little girl. As the child of a 60s radical hippy mother and a Vietnam War draft-dodging father, it would have been pretty much unthinkable.

But things have a way of changing and when life as I’d planned it came off the rails, I found myself applying. And, to my considerable surprise, being accepted.

As it turned out, that was a pretty good decision.

I love the job. I love helping people in my community, I love taking down the bad guys. I like the variety; no two days are the same, that’s for sure. I’m proud to be part of the thin blue line, and I like the people I work with.

Most of them.

I’m lucky that by the time I came along, women were an accepted part of any police department. I didn’t have to fight to be accepted because of my gender, and I didn’t have anything to prove beyond what we all had to prove.

I know that’s not the way things are everywhere. I hear stories of women working in departments where they’re not welcome and sexual harassment still happens, sad to say. It’s not only the older guys who don’t think women can do the job. Some of the young ones seem to have crawled out from under rocks.

But, here in Trafalgar, it’s been a pretty good gig. I’ve got my partner’s back and I know he’s got mine.

Until today.

Dave Evans has never liked me much. I don’t take it too personally; he’s a pretty sour guy all around. But now he’s up to something. He deliberately disobeyed a direct order of our Chief Constable, Paul Keller. I know, and Dave knows I know.

The question for me is, what do I do about it? Do I betray my colleague and thus the thin blue line? Do I rat him out, because it’s the right thing to do?

I no longer feel that Constable Dave Evans has my back. And that is not a good place to be, not out on the streets.

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Unreasonable Doubt is the eighth in the Constable Molly Smith series from Poisoned Pen Press, February 2016.

What would it be like to return to your hometown after twenty-five years in prison for a crime you have maintained you did not commit? And why would you?

Walter Desmond is back in Trafalgar, British Columbia, having been officially exonerated when new evidence showed corruption at worst, incompetence at best, by the Trafalgar City Police conducting the investigation. His pitbull attorney is seeking five million in damages from the provincial government. But Walt has not returned to Trafalgar to pursue money or revenge. He just wants to know the why of it.

The family of the murdered girl, Sophia D’Angelo, is bitterly determined to see Walt returned to prison—or dead. But for Trafalgar’s police, including Sergeant John Winters and Constable Molly Smith, the reality is: if Walter didn’t kill Sophia, someone else did.

So, case reopened. It lands on Winters’ desk. The records are moldering. One investigating officer is dead, the other is retired—and not talking. The police are instructed to treat Walt as if he’d never been arrested or convicted. Someone else apparently killed Sophia, someone still walking free.

But too many minds remain closed. It’s good luck for Walt that a group of women in town for the dragon boat race are staying in the B&B where he’s booked, women with no local prejudices. But then a townswoman, then a boat woman, are attacked by a rapist, the media gets active, and tempers dangerously flare.

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About the author
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers, author of more than twenty published books (so far). Under the pen name Eva Gates she writes the Lighthouse Library mystery series set in a historic lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and as Vicki Delany, the Year Round Christmas mysteries, both for Penguin Random House. A former computer programmer and systems analyst, Vicki lives and writes in bucolic Prince Edward County Ontario. She is the current President of Crime Writers of Canada. Visit Vicki at www.vickidelany.com and on Facebook.

All comments are welcomed.

A Day in the Life of Merry Wilkinson by Vicki Delany

What day is today? Why it’s Christmas, of course.

You are probably checking the calendar and wondering what on earth I’m talking about, but let me explain.

In Rudolph, New York, we love Christmas so much we celebrate it all year round. We’re a Year Round Christmas destination.

My name is Merry Wilkinson and I am the proud owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, located on Jingle Bell Lane. I stock everything you need for holiday decorating, as well as gifts such as jewellery and a special line of toys. Many of my goods are things you won’t find anyplace else – hand made by local artisans.

Everyone gets into the spirit of the thing. Victoria’s Bake Shoppe is famous for its gingerbread. There’s Candy Cane Sweets, the North Pole Ice Cream Parlour, The Elves Lunchbox, Cranberries Coffee Bar, Touch of Holly Restaurant, The Yuletide Inn, the Carolers Motel. (Looking at this list it seems as though the residents and visitors to Rudolph like to eat a lot. Come to think of it, we do.)

My dad, Noel, is Santa Claus. Yes, I know he isn’t really Santa, but sometimes I do wonder. He has a way of knowing exactly what you want before even you do.

We have two Santa Claus parades, the big one in December and a fun one for Christmas in July. This year I have high hopes for winning best in parade trophy for my float, the Elves Workshop. My strongest completion will be from my best friend, Vicky Casey, owner and chief baker at Victoria’s Bake Shoppe.

After the parade, we’re having a reception at the town community center. Vicky will be catering with her special gingerbread and hot apple cider. I’ve heard whispers there’s a reporter from a major international travel magazine in town, ready to do a feature on America’s Christmas Town. I certainly hope nothing goes wrong at the reception to put a Grinch into our Christmas.

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You can read more about Merry in Rest Ye Murdered Gentleman, the first book in the NEW “Year-Round Christmas” mystery series, published by Berkley Prime Crime.

About Rest Ye Murdered Gentleman

In Rudolph, New York, it’s Christmastime all year long. But this December, while the snow-lined streets seem merry and bright, a murder is about to ruin everyone’s holiday cheer. . .

As the owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, Merry Wilkinson knows how to decorate homes for the holidays. That’s why she thinks her float in the semi-annual Santa Claus parade is a shoe-in for best in show. But when the tractor pulling Merry’s float is sabotaged, she has to face facts: there’s a Scrooge in Christmas Town.

Merry isn’t ready to point fingers, especially with a journalist in town writing a puff piece about Rudolph’s Christmas spirit. But when she stumbles upon the reporter’s body on a late night dog walk—and police suspect he was poisoned by a gingerbread cookie crafted by her best friend, Vicky—Merry will have to put down the jingle bells and figure out who’s really been grinching about town, before Vicky ends up on Santa’s naughty list. . .

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GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 12 a.m. eastern on November 12 for your chance to win a print copy of Rest Ye Murdered Gentleman. (US and Canadian entries only, please.) Good luck everyone!

About the author
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of the Year Round Christmas mystery series, set in Rudolph New York, “America’s Christmas Town.” The first book in the series, Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen will be released on November 3rd. from Berkley Prime Crime. Under the pen name of Eva Gates, she is the national bestselling author of the Lighthouse Library series, the latest of which is Booked for Trouble. Vicki is also the current president of the Crime Writers of Canada.

Vicki can be found at www.vickidelany.com and on Facebook

My Musing ~ Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by Vicki Delany

Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by Vicki Delany is the first book in the NEW “Year-Round Christmas” mystery series. Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime, November 2015

In Rudolph, New York, it’s Christmastime all year long. But this December, while the snow-lined streets seem merry and bright, a murder is about to ruin everyone’s holiday cheer. . .

As the owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, Merry Wilkinson knows how to decorate homes for the holidays. That’s why she thinks her float in the semi-annual Santa Claus parade is a shoe-in for best in show. But when the tractor pulling Merry’s float is sabotaged, she has to face facts: there’s a Scrooge in Christmas Town.

Merry isn’t ready to point fingers, especially with a journalist in town writing a puff piece about Rudolph’s Christmas spirit. But when she stumbles upon the reporter’s body on a late night dog walk—and police suspect he was poisoned by a gingerbread cookie crafted by her best friend, Vicky—Merry will have to put down the jingle bells and figure out who’s really been grinching about town, before Vicky ends up on Santa’s naughty list. . .

What an enjoyable read boasting an eclectic cast of characters that both amused and entertained me. This action-filled and fast paced drama kept me glued to the pages as I had to know the outcome of what was happening in Christmas Town. Merry is a delightful character and those she encounter rounds out a wonderful cast in this festive tale. The author did a great job in the execution of the mystery, peppering this tale with red herrings to keep me guessing until the killer’s identity was revealed. I like how Merry and her friends came together to protect their town and livelihood. Vicki’s descriptive narrative put me in the holiday spirit and I wish I was right here in Christmas Town with them. A great beginning to a delightfully charming series, I look forward to more holiday exploits with Merry and her friends.