A Crafter Hooks a Killer: A Handcrafted Mystery by Holly Quinn Book Tour and Giveaway!

A Crafter Hooks a Killer: A Handcrafted Mystery by Holly Quinn

 About the Book

 

A Crafter Hooks a Killer: A Handcrafted Mystery 

Cozy Mystery 2nd in Series 

Crooked Lane Books (June 11, 2019) 

Hardcover 274 Pages 

ISBN-10: 1643850121

ISBN-13: 978-1643850122 

Digital ASIN: B07MGS1XDW

Community Craft proprietor Sammy Kane suspects that a tantalizing thread links the deaths of her best friend and a bestselling author. But can she weave together the clues?

Samantha “Sammy” Kane is settling into her new life in idyllic Heartsford, Wisconsin, running her late friend Kate Allen’s craft shop, Community Craft when one early June day, bestselling crochet author Jane Johnson visits Heartsford. Captivated by Community Craft, Jane devotes a chapter in her new book, Behind the Seams, to the store. Sammy is honored, though satisfaction quickly turns to shock when she finds Jane strangled to death—her cold hands clutching a copy of her most recently published book, with the words “THE END” raggedly scratched into the cover.

Heavens to Etsy! Not only must Sammy contend with the author’s inauspicious demise, she has to untie some knotty details from her own past. It turns out Kate’s death was not what it seemed, and instead somehow hooked to Jane Johnson’s demise. Handsome Detective Liam Nash is on the “skein”, more than happy to see the shop owner again, if less than enamored by her sleuthing interventions. But this was Sammy’s best friend—she has to know.

Fortunately, Sammy has a “lace” in the hole. As a child, she formed the S.H.E. detective team with her cousin, Heidi, and her sister, Ellie. Having already reconstituted their partnership, the S.H.E. team searches for a pattern behind the latest death. As the case starts to unravel, will Sammy and team be able to sidestep Liam quick enough to stitch together the clues?

About the Author

Holly Quinn has published two stand-alone fiction novels in another persona. She graduated from Carroll University in Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Science in business and a minor in marketing. This is her second Handcrafted mystery. 

Visit her @ www.authorhollyquinn.com

Author Links 
Website - www.authorhollyquinn.com 
  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HollyQuinnbooks/ 
  GoodReads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7940795.Holly_Quinn 

  Purchase Links 
Amazon - B&N - BAM - IndieBound - Powell's Books - Walmart 

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

TOUR PARTICIPANTS

June 11 – The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW

June 11 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW, RECIPE

June 12 – Babs Book Bistro – SPOTLIGHT

June 12 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

June 13 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW

June 13 – Brooke Blogs – GUEST POST

June 14 – The Book Diva’s Reads – SPOTLIGHT

June 14 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW

June 15 – Baroness’ Book Trove – REVIEW

June 16 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW

June 16 – Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

June 17 – I’m All About Books – SPOTLIGHT

June 17 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW

June 18 – Author Teresa Watson – REVIEW

June 18 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

June 19 – Brianne’s Book Reviews – REVIEW

June 19 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT

June 20 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT

June 21 – View from the Birdhouse – REVIEW

June 21 – A Blue Million Books – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

June 22 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – REVIEW

June 23 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW

June 24 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT

June 24 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST

  Have you signed up to be a Tour Host?
Click Here 
Find Details and Sign Up Today!

 

The Tiger Catcher by Paullina Simons Book Tour and Q&A! #TigerCatcher, #EndOfForever, #JulianAndJosephine, #PaullinaSimons, #WilliamMorrow, #TrueLoveNeverDies and #TigerCatcherTour

The Tiger Catcher

The End of Forever Saga Paullina Simons

From the international bestselling author of TULLY and THE BRONZE HORSEMAN comes an achingly beautiful new trilogy of love, lost and found

It is my pleasure to welcome Paullina Simons, author of Tiger Catcher to Celticlady's Reviews. Read about the book and read the Q&A!

Available Everywhere May 2019

“All the colors of your world are about to disappear…”

Young and handsome, Julian lives a charmed life in Los Angeles. His world is turned upside down by a love affair with Josephine, a mysterious young woman who takes him by storm. But she is not what she seems, carrying secrets that tear them apart—perhaps forever.

So begins Julian and Josephine’s extraordinary adventure of love, loss, and the mystical forces that bind people together across time and space. It is a journey that propels Julian toward either love fulfilled…or oblivion.

The Tiger Catcher takes readers from the dizzying heights of joy to the depths of despair and back again in an unforgettable new novel from a master storyteller.

The first novel in the END OF FOREVER saga.

A timeless love story…and the adventure of several lifetimes.

Paullina Simons was born in Leningrad, USSR. In the mid-seventies, her family immigrated to the United States. Growing up in Russia Paullina dreamed of becoming a writer. Her dream was put on hold as she learned English and overcame the shock of a new culture.

After graduating from university and after various jobs including working as a financial journalist and as a translator, Paullina wrote her first novel TULLY. Her book was published in twenty countries, translated into 18 languages and welcomed by readers all over the world.

She has since written Red Leaves, Eleven Hours, The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross, (also known as Tatiana and Alexander.) The Summer Garden, The Girl in Times Square, Road to Paradise,A Song in the Daylight,Children of Liberty,Bellagrand,and Lone Star,. Many of Paullina’s novels have reached international bestseller lists in countries including Australia and New Zealand.

Apart from her novels, Paullina has also written a cookbook, Tatiana’s Table, which is a collection of recipes, short stories and recollections from her best selling trilogy of novels, The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross, (also known as Tatiana and Alexander) and The Summer Garden.

She has also published two children’s books, from her Adventures with Poppet series. I Love My Baby Because and Poppet Gets Two Big Brothers.

In 2015, she published a memoir called Six Days in Leningrad, about her return to Russia with her father in 1998, the first—and only—time she has been back to her native country since leaving in 1973.

Her new novel The Tiger Catcher, the first book in the END OF FOREVER saga will be published in May 2019.

CONTACT PAULLINA

DOB & Place of Birth: 1963. Leningrad, U.S.S.R.

Place of Residence: USA

Education: Attended colleges in New York, Kansas and England. Graduated from Kansas University with a degree in political science

Previous Jobs: Financial Journalist, Producer for the Financial News Network

Career Aspirations: Always wanted to be a writer.

Marital Status: Married

Children: 4

Favorite Authors: John Steinbeck, E. M. Forster, Leo Tolstoy, P.J. O’Rourke, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton.

Novels: 12 novels, 3 new ones upcoming, 1 cookbook, 1 memoir, 2 children’s books and counting!

An interview with Paulline

How long on average does it take you to write a book?

It takes me around two years. Some a year, like Eleven Hours, and some five years, like the End of Forever books. Also, The Bronze Horseman books had me immersed in them for fifteen years, but I wrote other books during that period.

 What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

 Being alone each and every day, day in and day out, month in and month out, year in and year out. There is no other way to write the books, but the pervasive solitude can wear on you, especially in the beginning of a story, when the characters are not as clear. No one’s having any fun there. Yet unless I’m alone in a room with the blank page staring back at me, I can never fill it up with life.

 What are the ethics of writing about historical figures?

 I wrote about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s daughter Rose in Children of Liberty and Bellagrand. She was an amazing woman. I guess the rules are: try to avoid hit pieces or hagiographies. But the ultimate rule is that if they are actual characters in your fiction, they have to be interesting, they should bring something to the table.

 What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

 I do whatever is required to make the words on the page bring to life the story I’m telling. Whatever it takes to make it vivid, believable, true, real for my readers, I do.

I don’t spend that long researching before beginning a book. I made that mistake with The Bronze Horseman; I spent two years researching Russia, Hitler, Stalin, the WAR, and realized I knew nothing. Nothing real. Only headlines. So now I research just enough to start my story, and then look stuff up as I go. Oh, and I do like to see with my own eyes the place I’ll be writing about. But not always.

 Have any favorite authors influenced your writing? Who were they?

 Dickens for his great humor.

Hugo for his extraordinary capacity to write profoundly and poetically about the human condition.

Thomas Hardy for making prose sound like poetry.

Truman Capote for his obsessive attention to style.

Ira Levin for his sturdy, strong, clear, well-written storytelling.

Stephen King for the "I can't put it down" narratives.

Dostoyevsky for his tortured Russian soul that his books are stamped with.

 Where and when do you write? Tell us about your favorite work place and time.

A. I have a small writing studio less than a mile from my home. I go to work in the morning after I drop off my daughter at school and then come home at dinnertime. That sounds much saner than it is because as I get deeper into a book, it gets harder and harder to turn it off. So I’ll often also work at home, in bed, on the train—almost anywhere.

Click below to enter!

http://paullinasimons.com/the-tiger-catcher-giveaway/

Grand Prize Giveaway  enter to win:

•             A TIGER CATCHER tote

•             A quartz crystal necklace

•             A red beret

•             A “From the Desk of Mr. Know-it-all” notepad

One lucky winner in the continental US will win this Grand Prize and a runner-up will receive a quartz crystal necklace. Simons will post on her website photos of the prizes and the entry form for the contest.  Her website will also be the landing page for the blog tour where the final schedule will be listed to make it easier for all of the participants to link to each other. 

http://paullinasimons.com/

A Cloud of Fraud by Linda Ferreri on Tour June 1-30, 2019! @partnersincr1me @LEFerreri

 A Cloud of Fraud

by Linda Ferreri

on Tour June 1-30, 2019

Synopsis:

A man is shot dead in front of City Hall in Philadelphia where his family is tangled in a bitter lawsuit. One brave woman, drawn there by a work of art, finds herself following a twisted trail to the hills of Le Marche in Italy to learn why. All the while, the cloud of fraud grows thicker and darker around her. But, as C. S. Forester said, perhaps the scandal of fraud enhances the flavor.

This thrilling story grabs and holds the reader from the first chapter through unexpected twists all the way to the richly satisfying ending. Art expert Claire Bliss and police Comandante Baldo are joined and antagonized by unforgettable characters in both Philadelphia and Italy. The authenticity of Ferreri's players and their territories give special vibrance to the novel.

Lovers of the Renaissance will be drawn in immediately by the book's cover, a painting of Mary Magdalene by Carlo Crivelli (ca. 1480) in the Rijksmuseum. Inside the book, a great art crime story unfolds together with a gem of a murder mystery.

A Cloud of Fraud is colorful, fast-moving entertainment.

Book Details

Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Published by: Linda Ferreri Trustee
Publication Date: May 7, 2019
Number of Pages: 315
ISBN: 978-0-578-47624-7
Purchase Links: Amazon | Kindle | Apple Books | Goodreads

Read an excerpt

Early on in the Hard-heads case, at one of the bar association luncheons, Judge Pirandello had positioned himself next to one of his former clerks who was now a successful litigator in the Probate Court. Biggers, by name. There was the introductory chat about the wellbeing of their family members and the joke about the latest case here or there. The dialogue was familiar to both of them. The Hard-heads plaintiff was a problem person, the judge had learned, and he needed to be squashed to put an end to mostly frivolous claims, driven by greed. Everybody in the family knew it, the judge heard. He knew the type. The Probate Court was littered with greedy relatives, angry children with buxom young stepmothers wearing expensive jewelry their fathers had bought. He knew it all. The judge wanted rid of this case, and so he was pleased to learn that it was not worthy of His Honor's dignified much less close attention. The Hard-heads case had to go.
It would have gone long before now, the judge was thinking to himself as he growled into the cup of black tea, but these damned people had refused to take the hint, refused to be cowed or put in their places. Here and there at the few hearings he had conducted over this motion or that, he had seen a shrug of the shoulders by one or another lawyer.
"What could we do?" They might as well have said that out loud. The judge understood.
His knee was throbbing, but Judge Pirandello refused to have it replaced. The fact that cold weather was coming on made it worse. The goddamned orthopedic surgeon was another money-grubber. Were there no professionals left in his world who were not money-grubbers? He stretched his corpulence forward over the edge of his chair to reach for his footstool, then winced as he elevated the bad leg. He yelled out for Mary to bring him another cup of tea. Then, he opened the enormous file on the small table beside his chair.
In Re the Estate of Seri. He hated even the name. Italian people should not behave in this fashion, he thought. His own father would have come back from the dead to beat the daylights out of his heirs if they had behaved as these people were behaving. Suing one another. Claiming fraud. All of it. Disgraceful, he thought. They were each poised to receive a generous amount of money but no, that wasn't good enough. As with errant children, the Judge was both angry with and ashamed of the parties.
***
Excerpt from A Cloud of Fraud by Linda Ferreri. Copyright 2019 by Linda Ferreri. Reproduced with permission from Linda Ferreri. All rights reserved.

 Author Bio

Linda Ferreri is the author of several art crime novels as well as witty illustrated iBooks. She is a highly respected international art law expert who divides her time between the United States and Le Marche in Italy.
Sometimes she says her most amusing book was her first, The King of UNINI, a sophisticated little romance set in Paris.

Catch Up With Linda Ferreri On:
acloudoffraud.com, Goodreads, BookBub, Twitter, & Facebook!

Tour Participants
Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!

Enter To Win!

This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Linda Ferreri. There will be 1 winner of one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card. The giveaway begins on June 1, 2019 and runs through July 2, 2019. Void where prohibited.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

 

The One Real Regret (Batchelor #3) by Janet Nissenson Release Blitz!

Title: The One Real Regret (Batchelor #3) 

Author: Janet Nissenson 

Genre:Contemporary Romance 

Release Date: June 11, 2019 

Hosted by: Buoni Amici Press, LLC. 

Max Wainwright’s life has been filled with difficult choices, dating back to his rough upbringing in England, a life he left long ago. But as tough as some of those choices have been, he has never regretted making a single one of them – with the exception of the one he made several years ago during a business trip to Seattle. Walking away from the only woman he’s ever really cared about continues to be the biggest regret of his life – the only regret.

Jill Parrish was young, naïve, and impressionable when she first met and fell head over heels in love with the handsome, enigmatic Max Wainwright. She innocently believed their passionate affair would last forever, and that she had met the love of her life. But when he left her without a backwards glance, her heart and spirit were irrevocably broken, and she feared she would never be whole again.

When Max and Jill meet again by chance, she’s finally managed to move on, and is even contemplating an engagement to another man. Will Max find a way to overcome his deep-seated emotional issues and finally claim the only woman he’s ever loved? Or will he risk losing Jill forever, and regretting it for the rest of his life?

AMAZON | iBOOKS | NOOK | KOBO| GOOGLE PLAY

Tweet About the Release Blitz

Janet is a lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, and currently resides on the northern California coast with her husband Steve and Golden Retriever Max. She worked for more than two decades in the financial services industry before turning her focus to producing running events. She is a former long-distance runner, current avid yoga practitioner, is addicted to Pinterest, likes to travel and read. She has been writing for more than three decades but Serendipity was her first official release in December 2013. There are a total of six full-length books planned in the Inevitable series, along with the upcoming “spin-off” Splendor trilogy.

Split-Level by Sande Boritz Berger Book Review and Interview!! @EZWriter25

“Split-Level”  a novel

Sande Boritz Berger | May 7, 2019 | She Writes Press

Paperback | ISBN: 978-1-63152-555-1 | Price: $16.95

Ebook | ISBN: 978-1-63152-556-8 | Price: $9.95

Women’s Fiction

Deborah Hecht Memorial Prize-Winner Sande Boritz Berger Releases New Look at ’70s Women’s Movement

New York City–In Split-Level: A Novel (She Writes Press May 7th, 2019)  the sexual revolution enters the Jersey suburbs and shakes up the life of a shy woman coming to terms with her own evolving identity. Sande Boritz Berger provides a breathtaking look at spousal relationships, gaslighting, emotional abuse, and the women's movement– a #MeToo lens turned back on a past era, rife with complicated change.

Split-Level is a literary novel that navigates intimate struggles with unforgettable style. -★★★★★ Clarion Review, Foreword Reviews

For young wife and mother, Alex Pearl, the post-Nixon 1970s offers pot parties, tie-dyed fashions, and the lure of the open marriage her husband wants for the two of them. Alex is a painter, stifled but loyal, and when she realizes just how far her husband's eye has begun to wander, she's faced with difficult choices about what marriage and family mean, and whether an "open" lifestyle mimicking communal living might be for her. Yearning for both greater adventure and intimacy, yet fearful of losing it all, Alex must figure out the truth of love and fidelity—at a pivotal point in American marriage.

Sande Boritz Berger was a scriptwriter and video producer for Fortune 500 companies. She holds her MFA in writing and literature from Stony Brook Southampton College, where she was awarded the Deborah Hecht Memorial prize for fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Epiphany, Tri-Quarterly, Confrontation, and The Southampton Review, as well as several anthologies. She has written for the Huffington Post, Salon, and Psychology Today. Her debut novel, The Sweetness, was a Foreword Reviews IndieFab finalist for Book of the Year and was nominated for the Sophie Brody award from the ALA. Berger and her husband live in NYC and often escape to the quiet of Bridgehampton.  Visit her at www.sandeboritzberger.com

My Review
I was given the opportunity to review Split-Level by Sande Boritz Berger and found the description to be interesting as I was newly married in the early '70s. I did not live in a split-level house but I know the kind of house it is. It is the kind of house that Alex Pearl and her family live in in the New Jersey suburbs. 

Alex feels that she is missing passion in her life and marriage, she is happily married though with two daughters and a charming husband. She receives a call from her babysitter's mom that Donny has taken her daughter on a midnight ride. Alex is upset by this even though Donny says he was teaching the girl how to drive. Not sure whether to believe him or not she insists that they go to Marriage Mountain, a couples healing sanctuary.

Donny at first is reluctant but once they started going but learns the 'manifesto' a spouse-swapping idea that at first Alex does not want to do but eventually capitulates and they meet a couple that they do the 'swap' with. As you can imagine, this is not always what it is cracked up to be. Problems emerge that can put their marriage at risk.

Like I said, I was newly married in the early '70s and among the free love and smoking pot, a lot of things happened that probably would not happen today. I am sure that there are still couples that 'swap' but you just don't hear about it. This book was not only about marriage but of a woman coming into her own, finding out what she wanted out of life and a dull marriage was not one of the things. She finally came to realize what she wanted and went after it. 

At first, I thought I would be bored with the story but that was not the case. I totally enjoyed it. Something a bit different from what I typically read and I really liked it. The author's writing was easy to follow, writing about an open marriage I imagine can be challenging! 

Thanks to JKS Communications for my copy of the book, it was for review purposes only.

An Interview with

Sande Boritz Berger

1. What inspired you to explore the 1970’s suburbs as the setting of your newest novel?

The post- Nixon era was a time of great change, a shake-up of sorts when people who took their government and maybe even lives for granted and then everything shifted, which created instability and mistrust. During the period of transition, it felt as though people were walking on sand. The changes affected families, marriages, jobs, and our country’s future.

2. What similarities and differences do you see Alex’s struggles as a woman in the 70s and the struggles of women today?

The differences are strong mostly because of the support women now feel with other women...making us more cohesive and less fearful to ask for what we want and to express what we can not accept: the unacceptable. Also, women are filling the jobs once had mostly by men...today there are more female lawyers, doctors, professors, and government officials than ever before. In the 70’s we were mostly dreamers I think...waiting to have our special moment of self-fulfillment. Guilt was involved, especially if we had children. Many of us had mothers who had sacrificed their own dreams...we might have asked: what gives me the right to go off and do my own thing?  

3. Why did you choose the title Split-Level?  

To me, having grown up in the suburbs of Long Island, I felt the Split-Level style home symbolized suburbia and the similar home structure that both divided and brought together family members. And the word “split” is often used when couples and relationships go through a break- up.   

4. What inspired your career switch from scriptwriting and video producing to writing novels?

The truth is...I’d always written, even when I was a producer for 20 years, I’d take workshops hoping to improve my craft, to publish, etc. As I got older the realization that I had these stories to tell began to take up a lot of space in my brain. So, I closed my company and entered an MFA program where luckily I was exposed to amazing writers who encouraged me to write.  

5. What do you hope readers take away from your novel Split-Level?

I hope they will see that marriage is and has always been challenging as there is so much juggling and for women especially much gets put on hold...sometimes for many years, sometimes, forever. Also, that love and marriage is not a panacea for happiness. As women, we have to make our own happiness. It never comes and taps you on the shoulder.