The Cozy Comforts of Mystery Authors Barbara Ross and Liz Mugavero

Welcome, Barbara Ross and Liz Mugavero, to the Kingdom Books review blog today! It's December 27, release day for the latest New England mysteries for each of you. Congratulations! Yesterday (scroll down, readers ...) we were excited to share reviews of your new titles, ICED UNDER (Barbara Ross) and CUSTOM BAKED MURDER (Liz Mugavero). Now let's settle in for a some post-holiday hot chocolate or a cappuccino together, and do some author chatting.

Your mysteries are releasing on the same date this year, December 27 -- just two days after the merriment of Christmas. You have the same publisher, Kensington, but you live in very different parts of New England. How on earth did you meet each other? Any memories from your early writer-to-writer friendship?

Barb: We met at Seascape, a lovely and instructional writing retreat run on the Long Island Sound in Connecticut by Roberta Isleib (Lucy Burdette), Hallie Ephron, and S. W. Hubbard. After that we kept in touch via Sisters in Crime New England and the New England Crime Bake. Find your tribe, is my best advice for new writers.

Liz: Before Seascape, I remember seeing Barb at many Crime Bakes over the years. She was one of The Published - a real author! And it’s so true - finding your tribe is the most important thing for a writer to do.

What are the special challenges of writing a mystery series? How do you cope with them?

Liz: There are so many! Understanding how my main character needs to grow in a way that makes sense based on where she’s been and what she’s experienced is something that’s top of mind for me. Also, making sure my plot has no holes, that the mystery makes sense and the clues are strategically placed - that keeps me up at night.

Barb: Argh—for me it is first drafts, letting my imagination flow and not judging myself too harshly. And because we both write amateur sleuths, there’s the ever-present problem of “why is she investigating this time?”

What made you choose to write in the "cozy" subgenre of mysteries? Or do you prefer to talk about your book as an "amateur sleuth" mystery, or a "traditional"?

Barb: I have fully embraced the word “cozy,” even though I know other writers shy away from it. It’s true that cozy mysteries never get the big awards or reviews, but they do have a dedicated following. And, it suits me. I don’t go to my desk everyday thinking, “Drat! Another day when I can’t torture animals or children.”

Liz: I’ve embraced it also. As long as I feel like I’ve done a good job with the story, the mystery is solid and the book has a deeper message despite the lighter feel to it, I’m happy.

Your mysteries all take place in and around one small town. Do you think of this place as fictional, or do you rehearse in your mind the layout of the actual New England town you already had in the back of your mind when you started your series?

Liz: My town is fictional, but it’s a hybrid of a couple of towns. I picked and chose the parts of each that worked for me, then added what else I needed to make it a town I would want to spend time it. But I keep the general location real - it’s eastern Connecticut.

Barb: Sort of half and half. Busman’s Harbor is a highly, highly fictionalized version of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, where my husband and I own a home. I’ve moved a lot of things around, but whenever my sleuth, Julia Snowden, leaves Busman’s Harbor, I Google map the distance from the real Boothbay Harbor.

People across the world, I discover, have a Normal Rockwellian, Currier & Ives archetype of New England in their heads. Those of us who live here know it’s a real place with real crime and real problems, but the classic New England-based cozy both plays into and against that archetype.

Readers of this kind of mystery series need to bond with the sleuth and celebrate the person's changes -- and the solving of the crime somehow affects those changes. Do you have a long-term arc of character development in mind for your series? Or do you feel you are "reading along" with the rest of us, discovering your protagonist's growth as you write?

Liz: I usually try to think about the character arc in a 3-book span, since that’s usually the length of the contracts. I know what’s happening in the immediate book, then based on that I think about where it would make sense to take Stan’s growth next.

Barb: I had a definite, planned arc for the first three books in the series. The fourth through sixth have been more book to book, and I haven’t enjoyed that as much. So if I’m lucky enough to get three more, I’ll go back to an overall arc for the three.

Don't spoil the suspense for us -- but tell us one "device" of plot or location or clue in your new book that especially tickles you as the author ... so we can watch for it and enjoy it from your perspective as well as our own!

Barb: Fantastic question! In Iced Under, the detective investigating the murder keeps asking one question over and over. It turns out to be the right question in the end.

Liz: Oh, this is a tough one! I would say it’s important to really pay attention to the people around you and not take everything they say or do at face value. If someone is suffering they sometimes try to hide it, but if you look closely you might be able to pick up on a cry for help.

What's the most important thing we readers should pick up on from your latest book -- whether it's handling a challenging romance, or dealing with a dead body?

Barb: Iced Under is a book about family—how it’s complicated and operatically difficult, but ultimately worth the effort.

Liz: There’s a few things going on in Custom Baked Murder. Family is definitely a key component, and how to deal with them. If you don’t typically have a great relationship, murder can make it worse! Also, dealing with serious issues that sometimes people don’t think will surface in a small, cozy town where everyone knows everyone—or thinks they do.

We know you must be partway through the next book in your series. Any hints or draft title that you'd like to share with us?

Liz: Purring Around the Christmas Tree, the sixth Pawsitively Organic Mystery, will be out in late 2017.

Barb: Stowed Away, the sixth Maine Clambake Mystery will be out sometime in late 2017, assuming I make my deadline of March 1. (Ulp.)

Thanks, Barb and Liz! This has been great fun -- and getting to know you and your writing process makes it even more enjoyable to read your newest books. 

 PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

New England Amateur Sleuths: New Mysteries from Barbara Ross and Liz Mugavero

NEWS FLASH! Special interview tomorrow with the authors!! Read on ...

The magic of a New England winter comes with big challenges too, from fuel oil or logs to icy roads to snowstorms that seem like they'll last forever. And that's part of why New Englanders treasure good neighbors: We need each other in such varied ways, including being able to share fresh-made doughnuts and clam bakes and "boiled dinners" (much more delicious than the term suggests).

Into this world of personal connections and family complications step the protagonists of two of New England's engaging mystery authors, Barbara Ross and Liz Mugavero. Each is releasing a new mystery in her ongoing series, via Kensington, on December 27. And they couldn't be more different!

CUSTOM BAKED MURDER from Liz Mugavero opens at the end of summer in Frog Ledge, Connecticut. I know it's hard to remember back that far just now (or maybe we don't want to!), but that would be the time of year when temperatures cool gently as election fever is heating up. Kristan "Stan" Connor, who's been running her organic pet treats business successfully from her home, faces a new segment of her career: opening a pet patisserie and café. Her boyfriend's moved in with her and is incredibly supportive, but in order to finance the new side of her work, she's accepted financial partnership from her mom -- who seems to want to decide everything, while also dragging Stan into a public engagement party for mom and the town's ambitious mayor, Tony Falco.

To Stan's bewilderment (and, let's face it, anger), the party guests include public relations professionals from Stan's own former career -- recruited to help the mayor advance his own career. One in particular, Eleanor Chang, is what we call around here "a nasty piece of work." Mugavero's deft setup means it's no surprise when sharp-tongued Eleanor gets murdered. But it's a major problem for Stan, because it happens at her mom's party; the mayor is a suspect; and there are drug-related overtones that involve her boyfriend's extended family as well.

This book's perfect for waking you back up from holiday-induced food coma, because every chapter ramps up the stress higher, and the plot twists come fast and furious. Mugavero nails the knack of keeping her amateur sleuth committed to solving the crime, and Stan's so likeable (along with her rescue dogs and smart cats) that each time she's at risk in some way, I can't help paging onward into the next chapter, no matter what time it is. Stan's friends have noticed the trend of her life, though, and feel free to comment on it, as Izzy does:

Neither of them spoke until they were safely in Izzy's car. As she shot down the street Stan held onto the armrest and closed her eyes. Once they reached the main road, Izzy let up on the gas and blew out a breath.

"D**n," she said, trying for humor but unable to mask her shaking voice. "Stan, what is it with you and dead people?"

Unfamiliar with Mugavero's "Pawsitively Organic" mystery series? No sweat -- I like this one best of them all so far, it's easy to jump into, and chances are you'll look for the other titles afterward.

Barbara Ross's new "Maine Clambake Mystery" ICED UNDER features Julia Snowden and her continued efforts to find the right place in her family's business and affections.  Winter with all its complications has deepened into February storms at the Maine seaside town of Busman's Harbor, and considering the weather and a request from her mother, Julia agrees to hike to the post office to fetch the mail, although she has her doubts about how useful the errand is:

"Mom, there's never anything interesting in the mail. It's all junk and catalogs." The trip to the post office would add a triangular, half-mile-long detour to my mother's house. I didn't relish trudging all that way in this weather.

"Please?"

What could I say? She was offering a hot lunch and companionship on a cold winter's day. And she was, after all, my mother.

The incoming mail turns out more interesting than expected, though, with a massive black diamond necklace sent anonymously to Julia's mother -- and the evidence Julia quickly assembles indicates it once belonged in the family, and vanished, along with most of the connections to relatives on that side of the family. A steady series of questions about the value of the necklace, the unexplained long-ago death of a cousin while at the family's island home, even her mother's love life, all of these press Julia into driving to Boston and braving a tangle of old treacheries for both her mother's sake and the possible inheritance that could be the needed piece to save the current family business.

Ross's writing is smooth, polished, and tender, exposing the vulnerable heart of the Snowden family and how, as we say, "No good deed goes unpunished." Could one of the twists in the Snowdens' present implicate a hospice nurse in the early death of a patient? Who mailed the diamond necklace to Julia's mother? Whose secrets are the dangerous ones that put Julia at risk?

I loved the pace of ICED UNDER, steady with just the right balance of tension and release, and the ending entirely satisfied me. If you haven't yet sampled this series, it's easy enough to step into the latest title, then catch up later. And for those already following Ross's Julia Snowden, this book is a must-read, delightful and rewarding.

Finally, a special treat for readers: Tomorrow, on the release date of these two yummy mysteries (and yes, each one includes recipes!), we'll feature here an interview with the two authors. Whether you're an ardent reader or a would-be (or published!) mystery author, or all of the above, don't miss that interview! See you here again, tomorrow morning.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Probe the Plot, Enjoy the Pets: THE ICING ON THE CORPSE, Liz Mugavero

For the third time, I picked up a Liz Mugavero mystery, I chuckled at the entertaining cover (the protagonist has an organic pet food business) and I kidded myself that the book would be as fluffy as the cute pets on the front.

But just like in Mugavero's debut mystery, Kneading to Die, and her second, A Biscuit, A Casket, THE ICING ON THE CORPSE provides a  crime adventure featuring amateur sleuth "Stan" (for Kristan) Connor and her Pawsitively Organic pet-focused business in small-town Frog Ledge, Connecticut. And the plot complexities spin, the character nuances are well worth thinking about (Stan's inability to quite commit to her boyfriend; her unresolved issues with her mom), and the insight into (slightly exaggerated, sure) small-town New England life gives me shivers. Oh yes, and a need to set aside distractions and just keep turning the pages!

This time, Stan may feel that the costumed townsfolk saluting Groundhog Day -- wearing costumes, outdoors, on February 2 -- have turned the town hall and its environs into something surreal. But she's honored to be involved in the town's noted annual event, presenting an "edible gift" to the visiting creature imported for the occasion. It's a mark of how much people appreciate her pet treats business, and she's got enough orders to keep her running.

Unfortunately, before Stan can step up to this honor, she's distracted by the sudden death of the town's elderly historian, Helga Oliver. Her boyfriend's sister Jessie is a tough local police officer -- Stan's already had plenty of friction with her in the first book -- but Jessie's actually asking Stan to take a role in processing this death. And of course, if you read mysteries like this one, you (and one of the others on hand) have already guessed the death is murder. But Stan also has business to attend to:

She'd been getting requests for parties on and off since her first one last October, a birthday party for Benny, the fox terrier, had been so well received. Stan opened a new document on her iPad and prepared to take notes.

Dede smiled. "It's a bit more than a simple party, but I know you'll understand. Animal people always understand. I'd like to have a wedding ceremony for my rescue dogs ..." ...

It would be something else to add to her repertoire -- doggie wedding cakes.

I enjoyed the way Mugavero set Stan up to probe the town's history while juggling her work and helping out friends; there are just the right number of red herrings, and the action is swift and believable. If I had Stan Connor living in my town, you bet I'd call her in, as soon as something suspicious cropped up. Or before that, for amazing organic meals and treats for my pets -- oops, maybe not for the guppy in the fishtank, but if I did have dogs or cats ... well, you know what I mean. Mugavero's character line-up of critters is delightful and just as believable as her sleuth. And yes, the book includes some tasty recipes for four-pawed companions.

THE ICING ON THE CORPSE was released yesterday, so it should be easy to find a copy -- and if you have the chance, pick up Kneading to Die and A Biscuit, A Casket as well. You don't need to read them in sequence, but why not enjoy the opportunity? Nice chunky paperbacks, from Kensington Books. For more on the author, check out her website, here.

Pets, Cooking, and Murder: Liz Mugavero, A BISCUIT, A CASKET

Agatha Christie was right -- small-town life is a perfect stage for murder mysteries. And Liz Mugavero, in her second "Pawsitively Organic Mystery," gives us an amateur sleuth who's driven to solve crime when it affects that people she cares about. Kristan "Stan" Connor is curious, ambitious, honest, and will do just about anything for her friends and neighbors in the little Connecticut town of Frog Ledge.

Owner of a relatively new business providing homemade, organic pet foods (often helpful in clearing up allergies and intestinal ailments of the dogs and cats whose owners will try them), Stan's quickly expanding her services in the community. As A BISCUIT, A CASKET opens, Stan's just arriving with the chow for a very cute costumed pet birthday party, to be held at a local dairy farm that's also diversifying. In fact, in addition to the pet party, there's a Halloween-themed tour of the farm's clever "corn maze" to delight adventurous locals and tourists.

But Stan never has a chance to serve her doggie delights that evening, because shrieks and chaos erupt when one of the married owners of the farm is found dead in the maze, a corn-chopping tool thrust into him in skilled and murderous fashion. As the only person in the crowd with experience of what ought to happen at a crime scene (see Mugavero's first in the series, Kneading to Die), Stan takes action to keep the crowd back and dials 911. The major drawback to that action the the local police investigator already knows Stan and isn't too impressed with this recent resident of the town -- "Stan pulled her phone out of her pocket. Noticed her hand was shaking. Great. Another call to Trooper Pasquale about a dead body."

Stan's determination to be a good neighbor leads her to agree to help the newly widowed farm owner to look into why Hal Hoffman's been killed and who's done it. Good thing she has a newly hired baking assistant for her pet treats already ordered, but there's still a lot she has to handle on her own. And with the abrupt arrival of her not-very-happy mother to pay a visit, a potential boyfriend who keeps running into her during the wrong moments, and possible underworld connections to the murdered farmer, the pressure never lets up.

There are plenty of bouncing dogs and well-grooomed cats in here, as well as cows (and their manure) -- but most of all the book draws its charm from Mugavero's well-created sleuth, who's smart enough to ask the right questions, again and again, until the answers start to line up. I enjoyed all the twists, and just enough scary moments to keep the plot lively without too much gore. This is a delightful "amateur sleuth" traditional mystery, crafted by an author who understands the classic mystery apparatus, and deftly weaves it into a small town that Dame Agatha would have enjoyed very much, I'm sure! Hurrah for Stan Connor and this growing series. Sign me up for the next book!

Intense, Suspenseful, and a Cleverly Twisted Plot: Jennifer McMahon, THE ONE I LEFT BEHIND

The best part of January can be the new books coming out to greet 2013 -- and since the holidays are done, most likely the next book purchase is for oneself, not for someone else!

Jennifer McMahon crafts powerful suspense, and THE ONE I LEFT BEHIND is her sixth novel. It's terrifying. And unforgettable. And absolutely worth reading.

With taut pacing, and all too believably, McMahon takes us into the complicated and painful results of small, devastating decisions that force their way into the next generation. Today's TV series that feature serial murders, real or not, and the many true-crime books and volumes of "based-on-the-truth" crime fiction have taught us all: The nastiest crimes come from people who've grown up twisted, often as a result of terrible abuse in childhood. But sometimes the serial killer doesn't seem to have those childhood roots of trauma; instead, a small vulnerability exists, and an adult decision or event triggers a violent pattern.

For Reggie Dufrane, daughter of one of the most beautiful -- and flirtatious -- women in Brighton, Connecticut, childhood meant being fussed over by aunt, watching her mother perform the role of "I was a famous model," and savoring a close (too close?) friendship with Tara, whose games always involve risk and sacrifice. "Imagine that your house is on fire," Tara challenges -- "you have exactly one minute to grab what you can. What do you choose?"

We meet Reggie in Vermont, though, in 2010 -- long after the 1976 events that turned her into an orphan and placed her with her increasingly odd aunt Louise. She's an architect with a following, and a gift for bringing the outside in, something that echoes the old treehouse where she and Tara and a boy, Charlie, bonded in those early years.

And oddly, she still wears around her neck the tiny hourglass filled with pink sand that Tara used to turn, to time those long-ago dares.

In many other ways, the past hasn't let go of Reggie. Though she lives in a sparsely furnished, elegant home that reflects her design passions, she is also somehow bound to the series of unsolved "slayings" that took place in Brighton Falls, and the reporter who turned the news into a "true crime" book called Neptune's Hands, Martha Paquette. This reporter is the first of McMahon's characters that shows her dark side, and her insistence on dragging Reggie into the crimes suggests she's against Reggie all the time. I was ready to slap her, myself -- that's how quickly McMahon's multilevel psychological thriller took me onto Reggie's side, ready to defend her against any more pain.

But the reporter's short excerpts also give us a resonant level at which to feel the results of what's happened to Reggie, then and now. Here's one of the supposed excerpts from that "true crime" report:

"I think, in so many ways, that before the murders we were living in an age of innocence," says Reverend Higgins of the Brighton Falls First Congregational Church. "We thought nothing bad could happen here. Neptune took something from us, beyond the lives of those poor women. He took away our safety and showed us the true face of evil. It's hard to imagine going back to the way things were before. I don't think Brighton Falls, or any of its residents, will ever be the same."

As Reggie staggers under the weight of that evil, and its resurgence -- for the kidnappings and hand amputations and killings in her hometown seem to have resumed -- she's entangled in the unresolved relationships, events, and connections from a generation earlier. Can she escape another round of violence? Can she protect the people she loves?

And most pressing, McMahon forces us to wonder: Can our innocence ever be reclaimed?

One caution, and it comes up with all of McMahon's books for me: The covers of her suspense novels feature young women's faces, often from childhood or the teen years, and THE ONE I LEFT BEHIND (like Promise Not to Tell and Don't Breathe a Word) looks almost like a young adult novel. (See the Kingdom Books review of Island of the Lost Girls for this aspect, too.) If there's a young adult in your life who's already handling Stephen King, then McMahon's frightening twists can create an atmospheric and compelling read for that teen. But if you know teens who are still innocent, keep this book for yourself instead. Adult readers know something about evil -- and how to seek redemption.

Steve Liskow, CHERRY BOMB: Detection and Danger in Urban Connecticut

Steve Liskow's 2012 thriller CHERRY BOMB gave me some uneasy moments in a nice little motel in Virginia in October, as I devoured the book, unable to leave it behind in my room. Thanks to its provocative cover -- suggesting sex with teenaged girls (or younger) -- I kept hiding the book against my sweater or under my newspaper. And as I read, I leaned forward over the pages, not wanting to suggest what this "Yankee grandmother" found so compelling in its pages.

Private investigator Zach Barnes is understandable skeptical when an insurance-company CEO with a broken marriage shows up in his office, insisting his daughter's missing. Michael Kendall might drive any daughter into running to the other parent -- domineering, unfriendly, even callous. His idea of asking for help for his daughter Stacy sounds more like a command to clean the yard: "She's disappeared. I want her back."

When Barnes finds out the 15-year-old has been missing for three days and her boarding school has ignored her absence, he has even more reason to dread what he'll find. Neither of her separated parents has tuned in on this girl; even her roommate at school isn't close to her. And three days ... if she's been abducted, three days means there's little hope of finding her alive. And all the signs do indeed point to abduction, including the girl's unused cellphone and abandoned life.

Despite his reluctance, Barnes has a personal reason to take the case: Stacy Kimball looks like Barnes's dead wife, enough so to be scary. That's a loss he's nowhere near over. He's got to take the case, even knowing it will burn and damage him.

Liskow brings to uncomfortable but very real life the scummy district on the edge of every urban region where the "pussy palaces" stand and twisted adult men go looking for cruel satisfactions from women trapped in terror and pain. This district really exists near Hartford, Connecticut, but it's recognizable in other places, too (I'm thinking New Jersey near the Lincoln Tunnel, for instance, and just outside Camden and Philadelphia.) The near-porn cover turns out to tag the situation that Stacy, if she's still alive, has fallen into.

But the truly creepy part of this well-spun thriller is: Why Stacy? It turns out there's a reason, and it's far from accidental.

Liskow is turning out more thrillers rapidly, having reached a "sweet spot" in his writing, and Run Straight Down is already on hand as a second 2012 offering. Before you go to that one, snag a copy of CHERRY BOMB. This writer keeps getting better, and it's a shame that his books are being self-published -- some savvy mainstream publisher should already have snagged him. Maybe one of them soon will.