Killer Questions – Shopping Online?

We’re about to enter the crazy Halloween through Christmas shopping season. Considering the gifts and gadgets we all buy, we wondered if we shopped more online or in person and what was the last thing each of us ordered online?

Annette Dashofy - Mostly I shop online these days although I often do in-store pickups. As for the last thing I ordered—food from Hungryroot.

Kait Carson - I shop locally when I can, but to be honest, there isn’t much up here and the weather is often uncooperative so I end up doing more online than I would like.

Lori Roberts Herbst - I much prefer online shopping, except for clothing. I don’t trust that anything I buy online will fit properly.

Margaret S. Hamilton - Other than the hardware and grocery stores, I prefer to shop online. About every six weeks I order coffee beans from French Truck Coffee in New Orleans.

Korina Moss - I prefer to shop in stores because I like to see what I’m buying before I get it. The last thing I ordered online was new checks. Isn’t that ironic? 

Sarah Burr - I must admit, I’m quite the frequent online shopper—perhaps even a bit of an addict! Just recently, I decided to shake things up for 2025 and ordered some pink hair dye. I can't wait to see the new look!

Nancy Eady - I like to look on-line, but pick up stuff in the stores.  According to Amazon, the last thing I ordered on-line was a replacement wedding ring for my husband since he couldn't find it, although fortunately we discovered that it had fallen off his hand at my mother's when we went there December 28. 

Mary Dutta - I love our local ethnic supermarkets and fair-trade store, but online shopping has become pretty unavoidable. My last online purchase was a powerful magnifying glass with LED lights. 

Shari Randall - I try to shop in stores as much as possible - I cannot resist book shops and stationery stores (remember those?) But, yes, I do buy online and the last thing I ordered was a gift for my son in law I couldn't find close to home: a calendar featuring the Philadelphia Flyers' mascot, Gritty. Google Gritty and laugh.

Grace Topping - Since retiring, I have become somewhat of a hermit and rarely venture into stores. As a result, I have resorted to shopping online. You can't beat the convenience of realizing late at night that you need something and be able to pull out your phone, place the order, and have it the next day. The last thing I ordered was a babydoll carriage for my granddaughter in Italy.

Heather Weidner - Online. Last night, I ordered a set of pearl ornaments for one of my Christmas trees. I have ornaments that represent all of my series. (The Pearly Girls Mysteries launched in March.)

Martha Reed - I like shopping in-person but ordering off Amazon is so easy I tend to do it to just ‘get it done.’ The last thing I ordered was a flocked and lighted outdoor Christmas tree. I’m a sap once I get hit by the holiday spirit.

K.M. Rockwood - Combination of the two. I am awaiting a delivery of two 10-yard bolts of muslin from Amazon.

Connie Berry - I feel terrible saying it because I love small businesses, but I'm doing more and more shopping online. It just so easy.

James M. Jackson - I'd prefer to shop locally, but for half the year there is no locally, which means online is super attractive. The most recent thing I bought (this was written in December 2024) is a field guide for New Zealand birds for a planned 2025 nature trip.

Paula G. Benson - I’ve become an online shopper. My last purchase was a holiday pin entitled “fervent love.” It featured bells and holly.

Debra H. Goldstein – Online – books!!!

 

Murder in the Graveyard Awaits

By Shari Randall AKA Meri Allen

It’s early October­ — the leaves are starting to mellow, the wind is crisp, and some people have already decorated their houses for Halloween.

 Halloween has morphed into a much bigger holiday than it was years ago when the celebration consisted of homemade costumes, pillowcases filled with candy extorted from neighbors, and a viewing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

 

Now you can get your child a light up T-Rex costume from Pottery Barn for $79 (and free shipping), a personalized velvet pumpkin-shaped treat basket for $36, or a 12 Ft. tall giant plastic lawn skeleton from the garden center for $229.

 

Times have changed, but one thing hasn’t. Everyone loves a good spooky story, and reading is cheap. If the book’s action is set in a graveyard, all the better.

 

That’s why I was thrilled to take part in the latest Destination Murders anthology Murder in the Graveyard. Not only was it a chance to stretch my writing muscles (writing to a theme is always a fun challenge) but it was also a chance to bring back some of my favorite characters from my Meri Allen Ice Cream Shop Mystery series: the Fairweather sisters. And writing a murder scene set in a graveyard? Priceless.

 

Another reason I enjoyed taking part? A fabulous line up of cozy mystery authors contributed to the anthology, serving up, as the publisher says, stories “perfect for curling up anytime you’re craving bite-sized mysteries with big personality.” Each of the authors — Leslie Budewitz, Karen Cantwell, Misha Crews, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Tina Kashian, Daphne Silver, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Rosalie Spielman, and Cathy Wiley — wrote their story starring the main character of their series. If you like their characters, more mystery and adventure awaits you in those books.

 

Murder in the Graveyard is available now. Enjoy it along with those fun-sized candy bars you stashed away on the shelf behind the canned vegetables.

 

What’s your favorite scary story or book? What’s your favorite Halloween treat?

 

Meri Allen is the pen name of Shari Randall, author of not only the Ice Cream Shop Mysteries, but also the Agatha Award-winning Lobster Shack mystery series. She loves a good spooky story, and her favorite Halloween candy is Smarties and Milky Way bars.

INSPIRATION FROM AN UNLIKELY SOURCE

 by Korina Moss

Do we inspire you?

I’ve been doing a lot of interviews lately for the upcoming 5th book in my Cheese Shop Mystery series, Fondue or Die. One question that invariably comes up is where do I get my inspiration from? When you’re a writer you truly get your inspiration from everywhere. Especially as a mystery writer, you might take an interest in watching your neighbor dig her new flower garden, eavesdrop in a grocery store line, or take a second look at that rug discarded on the side of the road. And in those situations, you’re likely to ask yourself “what if…?” I also get inspiration from others’ creative endeavors. Art, books, television shows – they all inspire me. Sometimes it’s not even the subject matter, it’s simply the talent and creativity involved. 

Behind the scenes

This is the case every October when my son and I stroll through the 5,000+  carved pumpkins at Roger Williams Park Zoo’s Jack-o-Lantern Spectacular. The talented artists at Passion for Pumpkins from Oxford, MA design the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular and carve the illuminated pumpkins that line the zoo trails and hang in the trees. They change the theme every year, so the majority of pumpkins are always different. Their works of pumpkin art never fail to astound and inspire me. These are just a few photos I took of the carved pumpkins.  

Some are creepy...

Or classically spooky.

Some are cute...

Or beautiful.

Your mind can travel...

All over the world...

To mysterious lands...

Or even back in time.

Perhaps to a cozy mystery story...

Like a Cheese Shop Mystery.

Just look up...

You may be inspired!

Readers: Which one of these is your favorite? Which one might inspire you to write a story? 

PREORDER NOW

Releases October 22, 2024

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead and the Agatha Award finalist for Best Contemporary Novel, Case of the Bleus. Her books have been featured in USA Today, PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. To learn more or subscribe to her free monthly #teamcheese newsletter, visit her website korinamossauthor.com.

Farmhouse Ghost by E. B. Davis

On Sunday, we shared our favorite mysteries and spooktacular books. Today we present a true story. One that happened to our own E.B. Davis. This blog originally appeared in 2010 and is still true today. Truth is stranger than fiction.

The paranormal events occurred in JD’s rented farmhouse located in the countryside of York County, PA. We were in our mid-twenties, and I was in graduate school at the time at George Washington University, located about two hours away in Washington, D. C. I’d often stay at the house for the weekend, and then we’d get up early on Monday morning. JD went to work, and I drove back to school. As months passed, I started to feel watched while in the farmhouse. The first time I remember being aware of this sensation, I was in the bathroom looking into the mirror. My image was the only one I saw, but unease washed over me.

After that initial experience, I started feeling a presence. Lying in bed before sleep overcame me, I felt movement running up and down the exposed side of my body, like a chilly breeze exerting the slight pressure of a roller. I didn’t say anything to my future spouse. Like anyone experiencing strange phenomena, I assumed my experience was singular. But then, things changed.

One Monday morning while we still lay in bed, the front door slammed. That particular door stuck, which forced everyone to slam it shut or the lock wouldn’t catch. At first, I assumed my boyfriend’s roommate was coming home early to get ready for work after his weekend stay at his girlfriend’s place. After hearing the door slam, I heard no other sounds, such as his moving about the house, climbing the stairs to his bedroom or the running shower. I still didn’t say anything. But, after a few mornings of hearing the door slam around six a.m. without the roommate appearing, I asked JD about the door. He didn’t say much, but later, away from the house, he explained and described that he too felt watched, felt cold hands running over his body when in bed, and that he avoided the bathroom except when absolutely necessary. We didn’t come to any conclusions then.

One day I arrived at the house before JD got off work. I let myself in, sat on the couch, and started to read. Nothing outwardly happened, but I felt very unwelcome, hastened off the couch, and escaped out the door. I waited outside until JD arrived home. He asked why I hadn’t waited inside, and I explained my feelings, which he understood without question.

We were sitting on that same couch when JD asked me to marry him. We became engaged in May and married in September, when he moved from the house to our rented townhouse in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D. C. All that summer while preparing to marry and move, we felt significant changes in whatever spirit lingered there. A feeling of remorse and loneliness persisted, as if the ghost regretted haunting us and wished that we would stay.

We later learned that the house had been built by a farming family in the early twentieth century. After the husband died and the children moved, the widow lived and died in the house alone. I can only assume that she was showing her displeasure at our immorality, but once we became engaged, her judgmental attitude changed, too late, for we were already gone.

What JD didn’t tell me until years later (like 20): He'd met the former owner’s son while he lived in the house before our marriage. The son admitted his mother was a very unhappy/perhaps mentally unbalanced person. She committed suicide in the upstairs bathroom of the house. Glad I didn’t know at the time.

I Love October by Gloria Alden

(Here's a memory blog by former WWK blogger Gloria Alden--enjoy!)

 

I Love October

October

The month is amber

gold and brown

blue ghosts of smoke

float through the town.

Great Vs of geese

honk over head

and maples turn

a fiery red.

Frost bites the lawn

the stars are slits

in a black cat’s eye

before she spits.

At last small witches, goblins, hags

and pirates armed with paper bags,

their costumes hinged on safety pins.

go haunt a night of pumpkin grins.

                      - John Updike

Every three or four weeks while teaching third grade, I posted a poem pertaining to the season or some unit we were studying for my students to memorize. The above poem was one of their and my favorites.

In spite of the fact that my eighteen-year-old son and my six-year-old granddaughter both died in October, I still love October in N.E. Ohio. It makes me think of the Dylan Thomas poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Yes, Dylan wrote it during the final illness of his father, but I see October as making a last brave stand against the closing of the year by going out in a blaze of glory. At least that’s true here in the north.

Everywhere I look this time of the year the colors are rich and vibrant. At the beginning of the month the fields were filled with goldenrod and purple asters. Soon the leaves started to turn to orange, red, amber, gold, purple and burnt umber. Orange pumpkins like round globes appeared at roadside stands, farmers’ markets, and in stores. Corn stalks are gathered for decorations. Even the sky seems a more vivid blue.

Maggie likes the cooler days, too.

I love the crisp autumn days with cold nights and cool mornings often warming up later in the day. And then there’s Indian summer giving me that last bit of time when I can try to finish up all those chores that should have been done by now, but I didn’t quite get around to. Now I can’t procrastinate any longer. My time is running out. Not only do I need to finish planting the rest of my exuberant purchases at my favorite garden centers from last spring, but there are large clumps of daylilies that should be divided and replanted, and daffodil bulbs I dug up last spring when they were done blooming because I needed room for something else. Of course, before that can be done, I need to prepare a place for those plants to go. All the cannas and dahlias need to be dug up, stalks and leaves removed, and the roots and rhizomes cleaned, dried and packed in dried leaves or wood chips and taken to the basement for the winter. The vegetable garden needs to be stripped of dying vegetation and bedded down for the winter.

My great-granddaughter playing in the leaves. 

Fortunately I like to rake leaves even though it does get tiring when you have as many as I do. The armfuls of leaves I fill my wheelbarrow with are fluffy light reminding me of those long ago days of jumping in piles of them. What fun that was. Now I’m too old. It would take a very big pile to cushion my fall. I consider raking leaves my workout since I don’t go to a gym, nor do I have any exercise equipment in my home. When the leaves have dried enough, I’ll mow through them to chop them up, and then use them to mulch my gardens. I also have a lot of pine needles in some areas. Those I save to mulch my blueberry patch or woodland gardens.

Maggie is waiting for me at one of her treat stops. 

One of my favorite activities in the fall is my morning walk through the woods with Maggie. I enjoy the rustling sound of leaves as I walk through them, and the smell that’s unique to fallen leaves, a mixture of a pungent earthy scent with a touch of sweetness, too. A question that I always have in the fall is how did Native Americans move silently through the woods when hunting? I can even hear my soft pawed dog moving. When I was still teaching, I gathered leaves on that walk and dried them between the pages of books to prepare them for art projects for my students. I’m still tempted to do that because the forest floor is a mosaic of jewel like leaves that all too soon will lose their colors and turn brown.

 

October also brings Halloween. It’s a fun holiday where kids and adults can dress up, play games and get treats, too. It’s a time of ghosts, skeletons, ghouls and other things that go bump in the night, but also princesses, football players, scarecrows and less fearsome trick or treaters.  I enjoy seeing the Halloween decorations many people decorate their homes or yards with. Some people believe Halloween promotes witchcraft and evil. I don’t think that’s any truer than mystery writers, readers or movie viewers are more prone to murder. Halloween dispels fear of the boogey man. Once a child dons a costume and sees other children doing the same, no matter how gruesome the costume, the child begins to put many fears aside. Back before Halloween parties and parades were discontinued in schools, my students, fellow teachers and I had so much fun on that day and in the preparations that led up to it. I think Halloween is a fitting end for October.

What do you like about the month of October?

How do you feel about Halloween?

What's Your Sign?

By Meri Allen/Shari Randall

Does anyone here follow their horoscope? In the distant, disco-colored past, a favorite cheesy pick up line was “what’s your sign?” Do people ask that anymore?

A few years ago I was visiting my favorite used book shop (The Book Barn in Niantic, Connecticut) and stumbled upon a paperback copy of Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs. This book was a massive bestseller (over 100 million copies) and is lots of fun to read, even if you’re someone like me who isn’t completely convinced that the stars determine our personality.

Still, when I dove in, I found the book eye-opening. Why?

An author has to take many facets of personality into consideration when crafting a character. Age? Talents that would make a good sleuth? Personal history? Family? Appearance? I also like to know other things about my characters: I like to imagine their bookshelves, their pets, their favorite colors (The favorite of Riley Rhodes, the main character of my Ice Cream Shop Mysteries, is emerald green), and foods they can’t resist (Riley’s is, naturally, a hot fudge sundae).

As I write, my subconscious – or the character – will tell me things I didn’t know. One thing I didn’t know about Riley was that she was born on Halloween. 

This told me something else about her. She was someone who had to share her special day with a holiday. Anyone born on December 25 knows what I’m talking about. Riley would trick or treat with friends on Halloween and then her dad always made sure that her birthday was celebrated November 1 with chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting. No kid wants to miss Halloween.

But this left me wondering. What about Riley’s horoscope? Did this birthdate fit her character? I flipped through Sun Signs.

Surprise! Riley is a Scorpio. My eyes widened when I read this description of Scorpio employees: “which (one) seems to have the most inner confidence, without being obvious about it, the steadiest eyes, the least excuses, and the most poise?”

Yep, that’s Riley.

Some insights that made me raise my eyebrows: Scorpio likes to travel incognito. Oh my goodness and here Riley is, a former asset with the CIA! How did she manage to tell me that?

Scorpios are loyal to friends. This is definitely a characteristic that readers always mention. Riley’s friendship with her best friend Caroline is one of the things I enjoy writing the most.

Some famous Scorpios: Katharine Hepburn, Marie Curie, George Eliot, Indira Gandhi, Theodore Roosevelt, Pablo Picasso, Margaret Mead, Bill Gates, Katy Perry, Leonardo DiCaprio. People who are determined to follow their own path. Fits Riley to a T.

 

So tell me – what’s your sign? And writers – have you ever determined your character’s birthdate and sun sign?

Meri Allen is the super-secret pen name of Shari Randall, author of the award-winning Lobster Shack Mystery series. She's a Pisces and, like Riley, she cannot resist a hot fudge sundae. You can see what's new with her on Instagram and Facebook at @MeriAllenBooks and @ShariRandallAuthor.

 

 

 

An Interview with Krista Davis by E. B. Davis

To be honest, I was glad I didn’t have friends who would

send me a human skull. I frowned at it.

Krista Davis, Murder Outside the Lines, Kindle Loc. 151

With Halloween just around the corner, the fall colors in Georgetown are brilliant. As manager of the Color Me Read bookstore, coloring book creator Florrie Fox has arranged for psychic author Hilda Rattenhorst to read from Spooktacular Ghost Stories. But the celebrity medium arrives for the event in hysterics, insisting she just saw a bare foot sticking out of a rolled-up carpet in a nearby alley. Is someone trying to sweep murder under the rug? Florrie calls in her policeman beau, Sergeant Eric Jonquille, but the carpet corpse has disappeared without a trace. Then in the middle of her reading, Hilda chillingly declares that she feels the killer's presence in the store. Is this a publicity stunt or a genuine psychic episode? It seems there's no happy medium. When a local bibliophile is soon discovered missing, a strange mystery begins to unroll. Now it's up to Florrie and Jonquille to expose a killer's true colors . . .

Amazon.com

 

In this third episode of the Pen & Ink mysteries, Krista Davis writes a spooky Halloween mystery set in Georgetown, a historic area of Washington, D.C. I went to college in D. C. and spent many fun times there so reading this series is a treat and a walk down memory lane.

In Murder Outside the Lines, Krista gives us a roaming skull, spiritual mediums, disappearing corpses, not disappearing corpses, and community spirit during a time of haunting spirits.

Please welcome Krista Davis back to WWK.           E. B. Davis

Thank you! It’s a pleasure to be here again. If you are reading this and wondering about the cover, it’s designed to be colored. Read the mystery inside, and color the cover outside! Both the front and back covers can be colored. And there are clues hidden in the images. The idea is to make the book your own and color it the way you imagine Florrie Fox’s world.

Main character, Florrie, has pets. Do they both go to work with her? Please tell our readers about her pets.

Florrie has a cat named Peaches, who goes to work with her some days. If you look carefully at the upper left corner of the cover, you’ll see Peaches lounging in the bookstore window.

Frodo, the golden retriever, belongs to Florrie’s parents and generally only stays with her when they are out of town. He is always welcome at the bookstore.

Not only does Professor Maxwell own Color Me Read, the bookstore Florrie manages, but she also lives in the carriage house behind the Maxwell mansion. How did that happen?

The first book in the series, Color Me Murder, is all about how she came to live there. Anyone familiar with the greater Washington D.C. area knows very well how expensive it is. Florrie had just about given up searching for an apartment close to Color Me Red bookstore in Georgetown when the professor offered her the carriage house so his abhorrent nephew wouldn’t live there.

The action starts when a deliveryman plunks down a crate addressed to Professor Maxwell containing a human skull, Harry, named by the private investigator who sent it. Florrie wonders if it is legal to possess a human skull. Maxwell states that only three states have laws about possession of human skulls. What states are they and what do the laws state? 

I’m not an expert on this. From what I have read, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and now New York have laws that prohibit selling or ownership of human remains. In addition, there may be laws in those states as well as others that consider detaching human parts as desecrating a corpse. There are generally exceptions for medical and scientific purposes. Apparently, you can buy skulls online. I can honestly say that I have not tried to buy one, nor do I wish to have one.

I haven’t been to Georgetown in a while. Do the stores and residents decorate in a big way for Halloween? There is a scene in the movie The Exorcist set in Georgetown. Why is it a spooky place?

Georgetown is fabulous and probably more romantic than spooky, but a lot has happened there over the years, good and bad. The famous stairs in The Exorcist are sort of creepy because they are long and steep and set outdoors between two tall buildings.

Halloween is huge in Georgetown! They go all out. There’s a photographer who takes a lot of photos in Georgetown and Old Town. You can find her blog here https://www.thatjanebird.com/blog/ or look for thatjanebird on Instagram. You’ll not only see the charm of those locations but also lots of pumpkins, ghosts, and witches!

Eric, Florrie’s policeman manfriend, remarks that he likes a good ghost story and finds it remarkable that there is no scientific proof, and yet everyone seems to have a ghost story. Is that true? Do you have a personal ghost story?

This is a topic that I find fascinating. Many of us reason that ghosts and spirits in any form are nonsense. Other people swear they have seen ghosts. In my own family, people who didn’t believe in ghosts have changed their minds. I’ve had some odd mists show up on photographs. Those are long stories and not all that interesting except they weren’t on the photo before or after the one with the mist, and they were taken in locations that were connected to someone close to me who had died. It is odd that people around the world, in all cultures, have seen ghosts. And it is also strange that many of their stories sound similar.

What is the historical significance of the Maxwell carriage house?

It was once a real carriage house and part of the Underground Railroad. A tunnel where people could hide connects it to the mansion.

Does snake venom make bitten people delusional?

Yes. I imagine it depends on the amount of venom and the type of snake, but they can become delusional.

Mr. DuBois, Maxwell’s butler, normally stays in the mansion. But he suddenly trumps up reasons to stay at Florrie’s carriage house during the day, even though he isn’t a cat fan. Why has his behavior changed?

Mr. DuBois is agoraphobic and never leaves the property. He is fine outside on the grounds and in the carriage house. A big fan of true crime TV shows, he imagines murder everywhere. After a psychic held a séance at the mansion, he thought that a new ghost had arrived and remained in the mansion. Consequently, he did not want to be there alone.

Are there apps that enable people to make phone calls that appear to be from another phone number? Does it have to be a landline? Is this like phishing email?

I am sorry to say this is true. It’s hard to believe, but apparently, it can be done. I don’t think it has to be a landline, and it is sort of like phishing email. It’s ideal for pranks.

I went on a Halloween Ghost Tour in Leesburg one year. It was surprisingly spooky. Your characters go on one in Georgetown. Does Georgetown have a ghost tour as well or did you make that up?

I made this one up to suit the story. But Georgetown has been around for a long time and there are loads of ghost stories. Many of them are about historical figures. I’ve heard that the stone house has many ghosts!

If you are visiting the area, you can find ghost tours here. https://freetoursbyfoot.com/washington-dc-ghost-tours/

On the ghost tour, Florrie literally trips over another corpse. She also discovers the cemetery staff pulls a gag on its ghost tour visitors. What did they do?

Do you really want me to give that away? Let’s just say they made the ghost tour more fun!

Is the story about Lincoln true?

I wasn’t there, so I can’t swear to it. But that’s what they say! I have found several references to his behavior following the death of his son Willie. Interestingly, Willie died just about the time that methods of embalming were being tried, and he was embalmed.

Prince Harry’s real name is Henry? Who knew?

I had no idea until I started to do research. His name is Prince Henry Charles Albert David Duke of Sussex (or Mountbatten Wales or Wales, apparently his last name is complicated).Whether sociopath or psychopath, it seems we all have had close encounters. But why is it that we feel like fools after we finally discover their true natures? They have to be more common than we’re led to believe.

Many people who are murderers or commit other crimes can be surprisingly charming. That aids them in eluding authorities or raising suspicion. Ted Bundy springs to mind. While we would like to think that we might recognize malicious people by their evil eyes or menacing expressions, there are those like Ted Bundy who don’t concern us until a pattern emerges.

What is next for Florrie, Frodo, and Peaches?

The next book in the Pen & Ink Mysteries is A Colorful Scheme and it’s all about writers! Frodo will be snoozing happily at home, away from the murder and mayhem. But Florrie and Peaches will be in the middle of a big celebration and the murder of an aspiring author.

What I’ve Been Reading by E. B. Davis

At a crossroads between a cringe-worthy past (Todd the Toad) and an uncertain future (she's not exactly homeless, but it's close), Lucy Swift travels to Oxford to visit her grandmother. With Gran's undying love to count on and Cardinal Woolsey's, Gran's knitting shop, to keep her busy, Lucy can catch her breath and figure out what she's going to do.

Except it turns out that Gran is the undying. Or at least, the undead. But there's a death certificate. And a will, leaving the knitting shop to Lucy. And a lot of people going in and out who never use the door—including Gran, who is just as loving as ever, and prone to knitting sweaters at warp speed, late at night. What exactly is going on?

When Lucy discovers that Gran did not die peacefully in her sleep, but was murdered, she has to bring the killer to justice without tipping off the law that there's no body in the grave. Between a hot 600-year-old vampire and a dishy detective inspector, both of whom always seem to be there for her, Lucy finds her life getting more complicated than a triple cable cardigan.

 
The only one who seems to know what's going on is her cat ... or is it ... her familiar?

Amazon.com

What is more fitting for Halloween than vampires? This series is a fun read! And just so you know, you can gorge read all nine books in the series if you have Kindle Unlimited because they are all free. I admit, I’m feeling rather stuffed, but the fact is, if the tenth book were available, I’d wolf it down, too.

Lucy doesn’t know of her heritage—she’s a witch. Brought up in Boston and around the world by her archeologist parents, Lucy has been raised on science, not witchcraft, an art her mother eschewed. Young Lucy was dropped off to her English grandmother during summers. Grandma supplied a loving home and must have respected her daughter’s wishes because Lucy’s witchcraft roots were never revealed. She’s a powerful witch, but as a newbie her spells go awry. She also can’t knit well, a fact she must keep secret from her knitting shop clientele. In the first book, Grandma has been murdered, but, in the midst of dying, a vampire friend saves her life by turning Grandma. What no one knows is that a vampire colony lives underground beneath the knitting shop—until Grandma shows up undead and her murder must be solved!

Nancy Warren also has a Christmas short featuring Lucy in a newly released anthology Six Merry Little Murders also on Kindle Unlimited.

___________________________________________________________________________________

 Out of work and down on her luck, Lucie Rizzo is forced to do the one thing she’s long avoided—come home to her nutty, mob-infested family. A move that brings her back into the tempting arms of Frankie Falcone, the smoldering Italian ex who’s no stranger to living with the mob. 

When Lucie parlays her temporary dog-walking gig into a legit career, Frankie becomes her number one supporter. Suddenly, shaking her mob princess reputation doesn’t seem so crazy…until three of her clients are dogjacked. 

Despite help from the on-again, off-again Mr. Fix-It in her life, Lucie is thrown into a criminal conspiracy straight out of a gangster movie. One that, if she’s not careful, could leave her sleeping with the fishes.

                                     https://adriennegiordano.com/         

One has to feel sorry for Lucie Rizzo. She’s a law-abiding accountant in a mob family. I downloaded this book because it was the first in the series and free on Kindle Unlimited, but it proved itself worthy. Dog Collar Crime is quick-paced and the characters—both two-footed and four-pawed—are memorable. The plot is complicated enough that I didn’t anticipate the plot twists and the ending left enough tension and family complications to hit the download button for the next book. So far, the series has seven books, which on Kindle range from 99 cents to $2.99, a reasonable price if considering snarfing the entire series on a snow-bound weekend.

__________________________________________________________________________________

 

For hyper-particular publishing heir Jonathan Grief, the day starts like any other—with a strict morning fitness regimen that’ll keep his divorced, easily irritated, cynical, forty-two-year-old self in absolutely flawless physical condition. But all it takes to put a crimp in his routine is one small annoyance. Someone has left a leather-bound day planner with the handwritten title Your Perfect Year in his spot on his mountain bike at his fitness course!

Determined to discover its owner, Jonathan opens the calendar to find that someone known only as “H.” has filled it in with suggestions, tasks, and affirmative actions for each day. The more he devotes himself to locating the elusive H., the deeper Jonathan is drawn into someone else’s rich and generous narrative—and into an attitude adjustment he desperately needs.

He may have ended up with a perfect year by accident, but it seems fate has set Jonathan on a path toward healing, feeling, and maybe even loving again…if only he can meet the stranger who’s changing his life one day at a time.

https://www.amazon.com/

Once per month, Amazon Prime members may download one new book from a selection that Amazon determines. Often, I don’t bother. Many don’t appeal to me, but this book did. Like refreshing the palate with sherbet, I sandwich romance, general fiction, and chick lit between my mystery reading. Your Perfect Year is not a mystery, more romance or chick lit. The mystery for me was why I an English author set the book in Hamburg, Germany. Duh! Charlotte Lucas, of course, is a pseudonym taken from the character of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice of Wiebke Lorenz, who along with her sister also write under the name Anne Hertz. They evidently are best-selling authors on the German market, but I couldn’t find any English translations. I found no other clues within the text that the author was German. Perhaps it is unremarkable that a German woman has the mindset of any other contemporary woman of the free world. I  felt a kinship without geographic boundaries to this author.

The book is written in two POVs, Jonathan Grief and Hannah Marx, two of the most unlikely people to end up in a romance. Jonathan is a stuff shirt, old-school publisher, spoiled in a tragic way by a father who now suffers from dementia. Hannah is a free-thinking entrepreneur and innovator in childcare. Her new facility becomes instantly popular. And she’s in love with another man. Hannah transforms Jonathan without having met him, but they finally meet. No spoilers here!

____________________________________________________________________________________

Halloween in Alabama by Nancy L. Eady

         In case you missed the store displays and television commercials, this coming Thursday is Halloween.

My Middle Sister and I About to Trick-or-Treat

         In a manner that is uniquely American, we have taken a religious/pagan festival with layered meanings and turned it into a candy fest for children. I’m not complaining. Some of my favorite Halloween memories include both trick-or-treating with my sisters and taking my daughter trick-or-treating. The best part was when you got home and poured out your candy on the table to see what kind of a haul you brought in. “Regular” trick-or-treating still flourishes in Alabama where we have close-knit neighborhoods and subdivisions.

My Daughter, The Little Mermaid

          A variation which has sprung up for people in Alabama whose living places are spread out, such as in our small towns and rural areas, is “trunk-or-treating.”  With “trunk-or-treating,” a church or school or other such organization will have volunteers dress up in costumes and provide candy and other treats for kids at a festival. Since these festivals are usually held in the parking lot of the organization, the trunks of cars are used in the place of houses for the candy. Hence the name, “trunk-or-treating.”  I have taken my daughter to several of those, also, and they have been a lot of fun.

          Two interesting Alabama twists to Halloween are the temperatures and the scheduling. The temperature on Halloween can range from anywhere in the 50s to the 90s. Temperatures in the 50s are perfect Halloween weather. When the temperature reaches the 90s, our kids wear their costumes and sweat it out for candy.

          In Alabama, Halloween does not always occur on October 31. This is because of that American tradition more important down here than even a free candy smorgasbord – high school football. While you would think having Halloween on a Friday or Saturday night would be ideal (and I know it is for the teachers who have to cope with the children on sugar highs when Halloween occurs on a Monday through a Thursday), I know many small towns (and live in one) where a Friday or Saturday night Halloween is changed to the Thursday before so there won’t be a conflict between trick-or-treating and the high school football game. You must check the local paper for the official trick-or-treating hours.

          Each year, we buy candy to give out to trick-or-treaters, but each year we get fewer and fewer. Our neighborhood is small and not on the beaten path, but we are ever hopeful. Since we’ve added several homes in the last year, we’re hoping we’ll pick up a few more visitors this year. The little ones who come to the door are adorable.

My Daughter in a Costume I made, and Me

         What are your favorite Halloween memories?  Do you celebrate Halloween or have children you can go trick-or-treating with?  How many trick-or-treaters show up at your house?  Share your stories of Halloween in the comments below.