A Killer Romance (A Beach Reads Mystery) by Maggie Blackburn
About A Killer Romance
A Killer Romance (A Beach Reads Mystery)
Love and murder are in the air this Valentine’s day in Maggie Blackburn’s third Beach Reads mystery, perfect for fans of Eva Gates and Miranda James.
When Beach Reads bookshop hosts a Valentine’s Day event, “Romance by the Sea,” bookseller Summer Merriweather has no idea that the guest author is under investigation for her own husband’s murder. When that same author is found dead at the local bed and breakfast, nobody assumes it’s natural causes – there were plenty of people who wanted her dead.
As Summer searches for the truth about the author’s stranger-than-fiction life, Summer finds suspicious indications of shady behavior in the author’s belongings. But the casual sleuthing is quickly derailed when Summer’s friend Glads gets hauled in for the murder, and they launch a full-blown investigation to clear her name.
As Summer and company pick through the scant clues to solve the case, they may find more treachery and heartbreak than they bargained for.
About the Author Guest Post by Maggie Blackburn
Writers have many choices to make. Not the least of which is what genre (or not) they are going to write it in. When I wrote Scrapbook of Secrets, my first book, which was Agatha Award nominated, I had no idea what a “cozy” mystery was, even though I’d been reading mysteries my whole life.
After many years of writing them, I know exactly what they are – and what they aren’t. Well. I confess sometimes it’s a bit tricky and I’ll call my writer friends to discuss. Is Agatha Raisin a cozy mystery series, even though she starts out as an unlikeable character? Is Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series a cozy, even though a certain character drops the f-bomb every so often? We never agree, so it’s okay if you don’t know. And I’m not going to tell you what I think. Sometimes it’s better to leave people to make up their own minds.
But for the most part, cozies are small town, amateur sleuth, with no graphic violence, language, or sex. There’s a million variations within that structure. For me the attraction is the focus on the characters and community, not the graphic nature of the murder. Murder brings out the best and worst in people. It’s the humanity that attracts me.
In the larger mystery community, we cozy mystery writers sometimes take a lot of ribbing or are ignored, not taken as “serious writers.” When that happens I’m often reminded of a quote from Jane Austen, “Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on.” And add a little murder to that and I am perfectly happy. How about you?
About Maggie Blackburn
Maggie Blackburn is the pen name for bestselling mystery author Mollie Cox Bryan, who writes cozy mysteries with edge. She's the author of several bestselling mystery series. Her books have been selected as finalists for an Agatha Award and a Daphne du Maurier Award and as a Top 10 Beach Reads by Woman's World. She has also been short-listed for the Virginia Library People's Choice Award. She's also penned a historical mystery under the name of Mollie Ann Cox. She lives in Crozet, Va. and is the mother of two grown, nearly perfect daughters.
