New Series For Heather Weidner By E. B. Davis

 

Veronica Mars meets The Golden Girls as event planner Cassidy Jamison and her four sixty-year-old employees race to solve a rocker’s murder before the curtains close on their show and their business.

 

When Cassidy Jamison inherited her late grandmother’s event planning business, she also inherited her grandmother’s friends—four sixty-year-old women known around town as the Pearly Girls—as part-time employees. Now Cassidy barely has time to breathe between spending every waking hour trying to keep her business afloat and the Pearly Girls out of trouble and focused on event planning.

 

So when she lands a three-weekend event complete with a chart-topping band, she’s thrilled. Until she and her chihuahua mix Elvis find the body of the Weathermen’s lead singer in her venue’s koi pond. With the help of the not-so-helpful Pearly Girls, Cassidy must stave off the bad publicity, navigate the prying questions of the local police department, and solve the murder before the media frenzy shutters her business for good, and takes one of the Pearly Girls with it.

Amazon.com

 

Heather Weidner’s Murder Strikes A Chord is a strong start for a new series. It’s a cozy mystery set in the Virginia mountains featuring a likeable main character, Cassidy Jamison, who often must untangle the messes of her late grandmother’s friends, the Pearly Girls, whose heydays were in the 1970s and 1980s. She has a dog, Elvis, who needs walks. This shouldn’t be a problem, but with a 70s era rock band living temporarily on her event property in trailers, Elvis finds trouble without shaking a paw.

 

Weddings and corporate events may cause trouble, but an oldies rock festival spread over three weekends starts with murder.  Cassidy must investigate to clear the Pearly Girls and the reputation of her business while dealing with a condescending county Deputy.

 

Please welcome WWK blogger Heather Weidner.       E. B. Davis

You had described Ivy Springs as being nearby Harrisonburg and Staunton, but then it took Cassidy over two hours to get from Ivy Springs to Harrisonburg. Where is Ivy Springs? Ivy Springs is a fictitious town in the Blue Ridge Mountains between the Waynesboro/Staunton area and Harrisonburg. Cassidy’s property has a wonderful view of the nearby mountains and the valley. Interstate traffic is iffy along the I-81 corridor, and the locals often take the backroads, and depending on that traffic it can take much longer than the zippy speeds of interstate driving.

 

The name of the main band headlining the three-weekend festival is the Weathermen. The first thing I remembered from the 70s era was a radical student group called the Weathermen, then later the Weathermen Underground. Did you mean to make that association? Did you model the band around a real band from that era? I didn’t purposely name them after the Underground Weatherman. I was looking for a band name that reminded me of that error. Maybe there was something subconscious in my choice.

 

Cassidy inherited the property and event-planning business from her grandmother. What happened to Cassidy’s parents? It’s not revealed in this book, but they passed away in a car accident when she was younger, and she moved in with her grandparents. Her grandfather died shortly after that from cancer. Cassidy went away to college and her first job in marketing, and she returned to Fern Valley when her grandmother passed away.

The Pearly Girls were friends of Cassidy’s grandmother. How did they get their name? The Pearly Girls were besties since 4H and elementary school. When they were in junior high school in the era of Camelot, they wore pearls all the time. It was the age of elegant fashion, Jackie O, Barbie, and Audrey Hepburn. An obnoxious classmate dubbed them the Pearly Girls, and the nickname stuck.

 

One of the Pearly Girls, Aileen, says that Ivy Springs can get “stuffy.” What does she mean by that? Ivy Springs is very traditional and prides itself on its small-town ways. Sometimes, the free-spirited Pearly Girls bump heads with the others to judge their “non-traditional” behavior. (Southern women were often taught to be seen and not heard. The Pearly Girls believe that “Well behaved women seldom make history.”)

 

I’ve seen the police assisting with private functions like traffic patrol for funerals and such, but I hadn’t realized that they could actually be contracted for specific services outside of their duties. Is this normal? Do they raise additional funds for themselves this way? I think it depends on the jurisdiction, but when my dad was an officer, non-management personnel were allowed to volunteer for paid assignments (paid by the company requesting the support) for security, funerals, traffic control, or school events.

 

What is Cassidy’s property like? There are mountain views, views of forest, woods, a grotto, garden, pond, and an amphitheater. What’s a grotto? How large is the property? There are about fifteen acres on her property. The farm used to house the dairy barn, and an old honky-tonk that burned down in the 1980s. There is also a cave and a rocky grotto area near the serenity garden. The grounds shift from the green manicured garden to a more hilly terrain with craggy rocks and surfaces that surround the fairly large cave. In a later book, Cassidy figures out how to incorporate the cave into her event planning business.

 

Is Cassidy in her late twenties? If so, why does she have a “childlike” voice? She is in her late twenties. She does have a more contemporary vocabulary and a more casual way of speaking. Sometimes, when a member of another generation spends a lot of time with those a little more seasoned, it creates the feeling (whether intentional or subconscious) that they feel that they are seen as younger. Cassidy tries to navigate the generation gap. Sometimes, she’s quite successful, and other times outsiders can spot the divide.

 

After the lead singer is murdered, the band decides to continue playing the festival. It’s very unusual to have another member of the band be able to take over the lead singer’s position. Was this a point of contention in the band? Were the two in competition? This band was always in competition with each other. At first, they were all for one and one for all, but as they grew more successful, the competition was stiffer, and they all wanted song writer or lead singer credits (like the Monkees or even the Beatles).

 

At one point, the town council holds a meeting to decide if they should continue with the festival. I was surprised since I thought Cassidy had contracted with the promoter for the festival. Was it somehow a three-way contract among the promoter, who signed on the bands, Cassidy, and the town? Since the festival was held on private property, how could the town bar Cassidy from holding it? Did they require some permit? Would the murder be a violation? It was Cassidy’s event, but she always tries to schedule things that bring business to Ivy Springs. She’s always looking for partnerships with restaurants, photographers, caterers, wineries, and other local businesses. And Ivy Springs is a small town with an active gossip grapevine. Many of the town folks feel that they have a say in anything that goes on in the area.

 

At times, Cassidy acts as though the Pearly Girls are adolescents and she is their guardian. Isn’t this a bit superior of Cassidy? The women are in at least their 60s. Cassidy tries hard to navigate the generation gap. She gets the feeling sometimes that the ladies still see her as a teenager since they were peers of her grandmother and were around for most of Cassidy’s childhood. She’s not trying to be condescending or abrupt. There is some personal growth with her and the Pearly Girls as the series develops.

 

Cassidy initially decides to investigate because one of the Pearly Girls is treated like a suspect. When the evidence shows she didn’t have the height or strength to do the deed, why did the police continue to question her? The sheriff is close to retirement age, and he has his sights on some other local political jobs. He likes quick and easy investigations, and he’s pressuring his team to wrap it up as soon as possible. He also has a grudge against some of the Pearly Girls, and that dust-up comes to light in a future book.

 

Cassidy is attracted to one of the deputy sheriffs. At times, he seems attracted to her and flirts, but then he undoes all the magic by treating Cassidy with condescension and failing to recognize that her business is her business and anything affecting it. Will he ever understand or are they destined to be friction buddies? Cassidy does like the deputy. He’s handsome and interesting, and then he turns into “Dudley Do-Right” and offers long-winded lectures. At the end of this book, Cassidy has two possible suitors. No spoilers, but she does make up her mind in book two, Murder Plays Second Fiddle.

 

Off the leash, Elvis finds trouble, running right to the wrong places. Is this a good or a bad thing? Should Cassidy keep closer rein of Elvis? Aren’t there bears up there, too? She does need to keep an eye on Elvis. He’s a high-energy Chihuahua who thinks of himself as a Rottweiler with no fear. He’s tiny, and she doesn’t want him to get trampled, lost, or fall prey to the local predators like hawks, coyote, or the occasional bear.

 

What’s next for Cassidy and Elvis?  Cassidy, Elvis, and the Pearly Girls are back for more adventures in Murder Plays Second Fiddle and Murder Whets Its Whistle.