Knee Rehab Reading - Part Two

My knee-replacement reading binge continues!

Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly is a delightful start to her new series. She evokes village County Cork so beautifully I felt I was there in the rainy green hills hearing the locals speak, tasting the Guiness in the pub, and seeing her American protagonist find out she was related to just about everybody in the tiny town of Leap. I couldn't put the book down right through to the surprising end.

August Moon by Jess Lourey continues her Murder by the Month series. I'm behind, as the December book is already out, but August Moon did not disappoint with another funny mystery solved by Mira James in small-town Battle Lake, Minnesota.

Mourn Not Your Dead brought me along in my project to catch up on Deborah Crombie's fantastic Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series. 

SW Hubbard has been off the publishing radar for a few years, but her new book, Another Man's Treasure, was worth the wait. In Audrey Nealon's hunt for the story behind her disappeared mother's ring, she uncovers more intrigue and danger than she bargained for. The characters are well drawn and the story keeps twisting all the way through.

Polly Iyer's Murder Deja Vu is an intriguing thriller with twice-falsely accused Reese and his new love Dana tracking down the real killer in the first case as well as in the new copycat murder.

Next up? Julie's Hyzy's latest in the Presidential chef series, Fonduing Fathers.

Rehab Reading

I've been quiet around here because I went in for knee-replacement surgery on January 15. The recovery is very painful and sitting at the computer is particularly uncomfortable. I'm certainly not getting any new writing done yet.

The upside is that all I'm really capable of doing is reading and sleeping, and watching the occasional movie. And that means I get to read almost ALL THE TIME. For a woman like me with a way-too-busy normal life this is a huge treat. 

When I was recuperating from my back surgery two years ago, I did the same. I wrote a review on this blog of each book I read. I'm already behind schedule, but I hope to catch up, at least for the books that I really loved.

So far I have read the following novels:

• Wrath of Shiva and Last Call for Justice by Susan Oleksiw
• Deadly Offer by Vicki Doudera
• Retirement Homes are Murder by Mike Befeler
• Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder
• Lie Down With the Devil by Linda Barnes
• A Plain Death by Amanda Flower
• Shadows of A Down East Summer by Lea Wait
• Pies and Prejudice by Ellery Adams

I got halfway through a novel on my Kindle by an author new to me until I realized I just didn't like the story and the writing enough to finish it. So many books on my list and so little time!

Short stories and novellas include the following:

• The Monday Night Needlework and Murder Guild by Kathleen Valentine
• "The Rising of the Moon" and "Dead Letters" by Sheila Connolly

I'm even reading some non-fiction:

• The Orchard, a memoir of Ipswich by Adele Crockett Robertson
• What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

So stay tuned for reviews!

New Locations, New Ideas

I wrote a guest post for the fabulous Maine Crime Writers blog recently about a week I spent on an island in Maine thirty years ago. I hold very fond memories of that week on Great Gott's Island.

It got me thinking about other places I have traveled, which are many and international. Which got me thinking about having my protagonist in the Local Foods Mysteries do some traveling later in the series. But it's a cozy series and cozies typically keep the action confined to one town, one setting. There are exceptions to this rule, especially in long-running series. Katherine Hall Page, for example, has set books in Maine, in France, and elsewhere, but usually goes back to her protagonist's Massachusetts town in between other locales.

I could reasonably have farmer Cam Flaherty attend the Common Ground organic farming conference in Unity, Maine, and then head to an island for a week of vacation. But it would be tricky for her to, say, spend time in Mali or Japan or Brazil, places I have lived and know well.

So maybe I need to come up with a new series with a protagonist who has a reason to travel to some of the far-flung places I have experienced as a resident. Sheila Connolly has a new series set in Ireland (and reports that she just got back from two weeks of "research" there, which sounds to me like just an excuse for a cool vacation). I read about someone who created a travel-agent protagonist for just that reason, and Gigi Pandian has a new series featuring an historian who also has just cause to travel (her first book is set in San Francisco and then Scotland).

Come to think of it, I already HAVE a protagonist with a reason to travel. Lauren Rousseau, the linguistics professor in Speaking of Murder, could plausibly head to Japan for an Asian Linguistics conference. Or to Mali to do research on Bamanankan, the first language of a large portion of the population. Or to Brazil, France, Quebec, Puerto Rico, and so on. 


So it looks like what I have to come up with is the TIME to write two series at once. Once I do that, I can also go on tax-deductible "research" trips - I look forward to that. 

What exotic place would you like to see a mystery series set in? What's your favorite travel mystery? Or do you prefer that your cozy protagonist stays settled in one place? 

Box of Books

I came home Friday to the most fabulous sight: a box of books. MY books!


It was an amazing feeling to hold the book in my hands, to leaf through it, to read the wonderful blurbs on the back cover. I started writing this book almost four years ago. This is a dream come true.

Here's one of the blurbs: "Debut author Tace Baker combines convincing, diverse characters, a vividly described setting, and a plot that picks up speed until it reaches a surprisingly intense confrontation. Who knew linguistics professors led such interesting lives?" -Sheila Connolly, New York Times bestselling author of the Orchard Mystery series and the Museum Mystery series.

Thanks, Sheila! 

Both of my parents have passed away, my mother just last April. But I dedicated the book to them. I wrote, 

This book is for my late parents, Allan Maxwell, Jr. and Marilyn Muller. They always told me I could be anything I wanted to be. And now I'm an author, exactly what I want to be.

I have a couple of launch parties scheduled, as well as a dozen guest blog posts, so I'll probably be pretty scarce around here this fall. I hope you'll drop by some of the blogs, though. Watch my facebook pages for news. And if you wanted to pick up the book, Barking Rain Press is selling it for half off during September.

Guest Blog Schedule:
Dru's Book Musings - September 19
Mysteristas - September 20
Jungle Red Writers - September 26
Chris Redding, Author - September 27
Lisa's Book Critiques - September 28-29
Auntie Em Writes - September 30
Schooled in Mystery - October 2
Poe's Deadly Daughters - October 6
Kristi Belcamino - October 10
Novel Adventurers - October 12
Writers Who Kill - October 13
Buried Under Books - October 16
Examiner.com - October 17
Marilyn's Musings - October 18
Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews - October 22
Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers - November 2
Cindy Carroll - November 7
Mystery Lovers' Kitchen - November 24

What to Read Next?

If you happen to be at a loss for your next mystery, I have two must-reads for you, by two of our best New England writers.

I was so happy to have Redemption, another Joe Burgess mystery, to lose myself in. As usual, Kate Flora goes deep into her Maine police characters and makes us feel like we're right there at the station or in the cruiser with them. Her victims, suspects, and other characters are well fleshed out and real. Joe's developing romance with Chris takes a curious turn right in the middle of the investigation. The surprise twists keep coming in this story, yet we end up satisfied. I stayed up way too late reading, and was almost glad I came down ill the next day so I could spend the morning on the couch finishing the book.

Fire Engine Dead, the latest Museum Mystery by Sheila Connolly, is also a fabulous read. This is Sheila's third in this smart, well-crafted series about a museum director in Philadelphia. In this story, Nell Pratt uses her brains and her connections to help solve the mystery behind a fire that destroys much of the collection of another museum in the city. In the process, she gets to know a local FBI agent a bit better, as well.

I would (and do) read anything and everything by both of these talented and multi-published writers. I look forward to Kate's resuming her Thea Kozak series, and can't wait to start on Sheila's new Irish series as well as her latest in the Orchard Mysteries. I only wish I had infinite time for reading.

Have you read either of these authors? What's your favorite? Or do you have other favorite novels set in Portland, Maine, or Philadelphia?