Exploring the Mysteries of the Mind

Tag: Christmas

Auld Lang Mayfair is Here!

Yay!! Book #13, the holiday novella that completes the Marcia Banks and Buddy Mysteries, is here!!

Available for Preorder now. Just 99 cents during Preorder; goes up after it releases on January 31, 2023.

AULD LANG MAYFAIR, A Marcia Banks and Buddy Mystery

Should auld acquaintance be forgot…

The last year has been eventful for Marcia and husband Will. They’ve successfully launched their private investigation agency and completed their family with an adorable but creatively energetic baby girl. Now, they’re about to ring in the New Year with friends and neighbors.

But there’s something more than champagne bubbling in Mayfair, Florida.

The octogenarian matriarch of the town is always looking for ways to boost the community’s economy. Her latest scheme is the addition of a row of shops along Main Street. But a few of her new tenants have something more nefarious in mind than simply selling their wares.

When old hostilities set off New Year’s fireworks, a shopkeeper ends up dead, and two friends of Marcia’s are prime suspects. Determined to clear them, Marcia and Will—with Buddy’s help, of course—set out to uncover the real Grim Reaper.

AVAILABLE ON:

AMAZON ~ NOOK ~ APPLE ~ KOBO  (Coming to GOOGLE PLAY soon)

Reserve your copy now! Only 99 cents during Preorder!

Holiday Rad Reads

Sorry there are only two rad reads this month. I didn’t have as much time for reading this past month, and a lot of the stories I read were just okay. That’s not good enough for me to recommend them to you.

But here are a couple I really enjoyed…

Christmas at the Grange, A Lady Hardcastle Mystery – by T.E. Kinsey – $1.99 (free on KU)

I love this historical mystery series! Imagine Mrs. Pollifax at Downton Abbey!

And this Christmas short story is a great way to see if the series is a good fit for you.

Lady Hardcastle is a respectable gentlewoman, but what most people don’t know is that she is also a retired (mostly) British spy—and her lady’s maid, Florence Armstrong, is also a bit more complicated than she seems. The petite Flo is Lady H’s comrade in arms in her adventures.

In this story, they have put aside sleuthing to enjoy Christmas with their neighbors at the Grange. But the theft of a priceless necklace drags them back into the game.

This is a fun story and a quick read for this time of year! The series can be read out of order, but if you prefer to start at the beginning, Book 1 is A Quiet Life in the Country ($3.99 or free on KU)

The Lady Hardcastle mysteries get five fingerprints from me!

Out With the Sunset, A Parks Pat Mystery ~ by PD Workman – $3.99

A police procedural set in picturesque Canada and a quick read for the busy holiday season!

Yet another PD Workman series, although this one I’m not quite as thrilled about. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this book or I wouldn’t be recommending it to you. But I don’t think it is quite as good as the other PD Workman books I’ve read and recommended.

Métis detective Margie Patenaude has moved to Calgary with her teenage daughter, and before she can even get said daughter off to school on her first day, Margie has a murder case. Not wanting her new colleagues to think she’s just a “diversity hire,” she struggles to juggle the case with her daughter’s needs and those of her elderly grandfather in a nearby home for the aged.

What is absolutely great about this story – the characters! Especially Margie who is well-drawn with a lot of depth and possibilities for development. And woven into the story are some details about the infamous schools for indigenous children in Canada, as Margie’s grandfather was a student at one of them.

Insights from his experiences turn out to be crucial for Margie to solve her first murder case in her new town. I hope her grandfather plays a role in future books in this series as well.

Because, yes, I will be reading more of this series (Book 2 is already on my Kindle), even though I felt that the plot in this one was not as well developed as it could have been. And I won’t say more so as not to spoil anything.

Despite that issue, I feel that this story is still worth the price. Four fingerprints for Out With the Sunset.

And that’s it for my Rad Reads for 2021. Can you believe this year is almost over?

More to come in 2022!!

 

A Dog’s Dictionary to Describe the World

I took my dog for a walk the other day.

(Note: those of you who helped me pick Murphy as the name for my new dog, sadly I was reminded a few days later that a dog of that name bit my brother several years ago. So I had to go back to the list. I selected Watson, which also fits this dog’s rather goofy personality.)

So anyway, I took Watson for a walk the other day. And as I was dragging him away from his fascination with a crumpled leaf in the road, I thought about how the world must seem to our dogs.

As we walked around the neighborhood, this “dictionary” of doggie views of the world came to me.

1. Those brown, crunchie things all over the ground (dried leaves) – definition: something that might taste good.

2. Those tall green thingies (bushes) – definition: my favorite place to pee.

3. Those gray clumps of stringy thingies (Spanish moss that has fallen from trees) – definition: my second favorite place to pee.

4. That delicious-smelling pile of gooey stuff that makes Mom yell “leave it!” (three-day-old roadkill) – definition: something that definitely will taste good.

5. That black round, tall thingie (trashcan) – definition: one of several things Mom mysteriously will not let me pee on (I’m pretty sure my neighbors would not appreciate their garages smelling like my dog’s pee when they bring their trashcans in.)

6. Those shiny round thingies with black tubes around them (car tires) – definition: another thing Mom won’t let me pee on (ditto explanation from above).

7. That running lady who smells so good (sweaty, jogging neighbor) – definition: my new best friend if Mom would only let me sniff her in the appropriate places.

8. That interesting spot in the yard that smells so good (skunk spray) – definition: my favorite place to roll.

9. Those funny-looking cats with bushy tails (squirrels) – definition: demons from hell that must be chased up a tree or over the fence.

Any definitions you think your dog would like to add to this dictionary? 😉

Happy Holidays from Watson and me!!

(A friend managed to snap this pic by bribing him with a treat!)

And if you haven’t already done so, grab yourself a copy of my fun Christmas novella, A Mayfair Christmas Carol.

Just $0.99

A Christmas extravaganza in Mayfair, Florida, complete with an ice skating rink. What could go wrong?

When excavation for the skating rink uncovers a decades-old skeleton, its secrets threaten more than the town’s Christmas plans. Worried about her friends in her adopted town and feeling responsible since the let’s-attract-more-tourists idea was hers initially, dog trainer Marcia Banks is determined to help her police detective boyfriend solve the mystery—whether he wants her help or not. Perhaps she can wheedle more out of the townspeople than he can.

But will she and her Black Lab, Buddy, be able to keep the ghost of Christmas past from destroying what is left of Mayfair’s founding family, or will her meddling make matters worse?

AMAZON    APPLE    NOOK    KOBO

A Mayfair Christmas Carol is Live!!

 

Yay!!  A Mayfair Christmas Carol is live!

Treat yourself to an early Christmas present ~ JUST $0.99

 

A Christmas extravaganza in Mayfair, Florida, complete with an ice skating rink. What could go wrong?

When excavation for the skating rink uncovers a decades-old skeleton, its secrets threaten more than the town’s Christmas plans. Worried about her friends in her adopted town and feeling responsible since the let’s-attract-more-tourists idea was hers initially, dog trainer Marcia Banks is determined to help her police detective boyfriend solve the mystery—whether he wants her help or not. Perhaps she can wheedle more out of the townspeople than he can.

But will she and her Black Lab, Buddy, be able to keep the ghost of Christmas past from destroying what is left of Mayfair’s founding family, or will her meddling make matters worse?

AMAZON    APPLE    NOOK    KOBO

 

Merry Christmas from me, Kate, Marcia and Buddy!!

I’ve Got a Christmas Novella For You!

Hey everyone, I got inspired and wrote a Christmas novella for my Marcia Banks and Buddy series — A Mayfair Christmas Carol

It’s available for preorder now! Releases on December 2nd!

JUST $0.99

A Christmas extravaganza in Mayfair, Florida, complete with an ice skating rink. What could go wrong?

When excavation for the skating rink uncovers a decades-old skeleton, its secrets threaten more than the town’s Christmas plans. Worried about her friends in her adopted town and feeling responsible since the let’s-attract-more-tourists idea was hers initially, dog trainer Marcia Banks is determined to help her police detective boyfriend solve the mystery—whether he wants her help or not. Perhaps she can wheedle more out of the townspeople than he can.

But will she and her Black Lab, Buddy, be able to keep the ghost of Christmas past from destroying what is left of Mayfair’s founding family, or will her meddling make matters worse?

AMAZON      APPLE      NOOK      KOBO

 

 

 

 

And the Winner is…

A quick note to announce that Rafflecopter has picked a winner for my Fatal Forty-Eight release contest.

Congrats to Stef B!!!

The keychain and the book you selected, plus $20 Amazon gift card, are on their way.

 

Plus, my Christmas novella is on sale until the end of the year for just 99 cents!!

Remember, books make great Christmas presents for readers! Buy any of my paperbacks on Amazon and get the ebook for yourself for just 99 cents!

 

book cover

Even on vacation, Kate Huntington can’t seem to avoid other people’s troubles. While in St. Augustine, Florida for the Christmas holidays, she and her PI husband get caught up in trying to find a friend of Kate’s parents who’s gone missing. They soon discover that this isn’t just a case of a senior citizen wandering off. Can they reunite the elderly man with his wife before Christmas, or will others who mean him harm find him first?

 AVAILABLE ON  AMAZON US  and AMAZON UK

The 1st Kate on Vacation Novella is Out

I am thrilled to announce my NEW RELEASE,

An UNSAINTLY SEASON in St. AUGUSTINE, A Kate on Vacation Mystery

(Note to Self: If you want to write a Christmas story, start in August, not November.)

 

book cover

 

I decided to go ahead and release this now for several reasons. One, although it’s set at Christmas time, it is not a Christmas story per se. It’s a mystery.

Two, chronologically in Kate Huntington’s life, this story falls between CELEBRITY STATUS (released last November) which occurs in Spring/Summer 2010, and COLLATERAL CASUALTIES (to be released soon) which occurs in the Fall of 2011.

Three, I really wanted to get this little parallel series of novellas about Kate’s adventures while on vacation off the ground. Because I have two more novellas in the series at least partially outlined: Cruel Capers on the Caribbean and Missing on Maui. (I am also diligently working on the next full-length novel, ZERO HERO.)

Blurb for An UNSAINTLY SEASON in St. AUGUSTINE:

Even on vacation, Kate Huntington can’t seem to avoid other people’s troubles. While in St. Augustine, Florida for the Christmas holidays, she and her PI husband get caught up in trying to find a friend of Kate’s parents who’s gone missing. They soon discover that this isn’t just a case of a senior citizen wandering off. Can they reunite the elderly man with his wife before Christmas, or will others who mean him harm find him first?

This is the first of a series of novella-length mysteries with a cozy flavor to them. They feature the same characters from the Kate Huntington Mystery series. These are intended to be light, suspenseful reads that also allow the reader to travel vicariously to interesting and sometimes exotic places.

Available as an e-book for just $1.99 on:

AMAZON    and    BARNES & NOBLE

 

Enjoy!

Kass Lamb

 

 

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