Author interviews

Murder in the Jazz Age with Lee Strauss

06/29/2020 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:21 — 13.6MB) | Embed

Take a transatlantic voyage with Jazz Age sleuth Ginger Gold and enter to win a copy of the Murder on the SS Rosa audiobook.

Audiobook Giveaway!

Lee is generously offering It’s a Mystery podcast listeners a chance to win one of 10 copies of the audiobook for Murder on the SS Rosa. Go to this page to submit your entry. Giveaway ends on July 4, 2020.

This week’s mystery author

Lee Strauss is a USA TODAY bestselling author of The Ginger Gold Mystery series and The Rosa Reed Mystery series, as well as some young adult and sweet romance. She loves to drink caffè lattes and red wines in exotic places, and eat dark chocolate anywhere.

To learn more about Lee and all her books visit LeeStraussBooks.com

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Ian Fleming and a Locked Room Mystery with Cathy Ace

06/22/2020 By Alexandra Amor 4 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:02 — 18.1MB) | Embed

Meet globetrotting psychologist and sleuth Cait Morgan.

Ian Fleming and a Locked Room Mystery with Cathy Ace

Cathy Ace had the great good fortune to travel the world during her corporate career. Which is lucky for us because her Cait Morgan mysteries are each set in a different location that Cathy has lived in or spent time in.

The Corpse with the Crystal Skull is set in Jamaica and as we’re all mostly confined to barracks these days, it’s great to hear about sunny places far away, and vacationing with friends.

In my interview with Cathy she mentions two mystery sites that she blogs for. 7CriminalMinds.blogspot.com features authors, including Cathy and two previous It’s a Mystery podcast guests (Frank Zafiro and Terry Shames), answering questions about crime fiction, writing, publishing, and life. And KillerCharacters.com has a focus on cozy mysteries with a different author writing a post each day. Cathy posts on the 22nd of each month.

This week’s mystery author

Cathy Ace’s Welsh-Canadian criminal psychologist sleuth Cait Morgan has encountered traditional, closed-circle puzzle plot whodunits in eight books, with a ninth being published in June 2020. This series of books has now been optioned for television by Free@Last TV, a UK production company. The plan is to present each book as a 90 minute made-for-TV movie, the same format used for the international hit ACORN series featuring MC Beaton’s Agatha Raisin, which is made my Free@Last TV.

Cathy’s other series of books – The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries – feature a quartet of softly-boiled female PIs who solve quintessentially British cases from their stately home-based office in rural Wales. Her standalone novel of psychological suspense, The Wrong Boy, is set in Wales, and became a #1 amazon bestseller. Shortlisted for the Bony Blithe Award three times in four years, winning in 2015, she’s also been shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story.

Cathy was born and raised in Wales, though she now lives in Canada.

To learn more about Cathy and all her books visit CathyAce.com

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Talking to Animals and Solving Crime with Kathy Manos Penn

06/15/2020 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:29 — 10.9MB) | Embed

A dog, a cat and an anglophile walk into an English pub…

Talking to Animals and Solving Crime with Kathy Manos Penn

In her amateur sleuth, Leta Parker, Kathy Manos Penn has created a character that many of us will envy. Leta not only talks to her miniature Great Pyrenees and her cat…they talk back. But why stop there? Add Leta’s friend Wendy and her mum into the mix and you’ve got a recipe for delightful cozy mysteries set in the Cotswolds.

Like her heroine, Kathy is an Anglophile and in our interview we discuss her trips to England and how her stay in the Cotswolds inspired the Dickens & Christie mysteries.

In the introduction I mention my love for books that feature animals and how much one of the creative events in The 101 Dalmatians still affects me to this day.

This week’s mystery author

As a child, Kathy Manos Penn was a shy, introverted bookworm. She shed the shy, introverted traits but is a bookworm to this day, one who especially enjoys British mysteries.

Fast forward through a corporate career and a side job as a newspaper columnist, and today you’ll find her happily retired and writing cozy animal mysteries set in—where else—England.

To learn more about Kathy and all her books visit KathyManosPenn.com

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Muffins and Murder with PD Workman

06/08/2020 By Alexandra Amor 1 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:17 — 12.5MB) | Embed

Meet Erin Price, baker, former foster child, and amateur sleuth.

PD Workman writes in several genres, including YA, but mysteries are her focus. Today she reads to us from her cozy mystery series featuring Erin Price who has inherited her Aunt’s bakery and is starting a new life in a small town.

In the intro I mention that Pam has a BookBub deal today for the first three books in this series. The books are bundled together for just $0.99. If you’re not a BookBub subscriber, head over to their website to learn more.

This week’s mystery author

Award-winning and USA Today bestselling author P.D. Workman writes riveting mystery/suspense and young adult books dealing with mental illness, addiction, abuse, and other real-life issues.

Workman started publishing in 2013. She has won several literary awards from Library Services for Youth in Custody for her young adult fiction. She currently has over 50 published titles.

To learn more about Pam and all her books visit PDWorkman.com

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Mysteries in Small Town Texas with Terry Shames

06/01/2020 By Alexandra Amor Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:55 — 13.6MB) | Embed

Welcome to a small Texas town with no shortage of big characters.

Mysteries in Small town Texas with Terry Shames

I loved the performative quality of Terry’s reading in this episode. I can hear the Texas characters coming through her voice loud and clear, which made listening to her read very enjoyable.

In the interview we discuss the personal inspiration for Samuel Craddock’s character, as well as how the Covid-19 periods of isolation and social distancing have affected Terry’s writing.

This episode of It’s a Mystery Podcast is sponsored by the brand new mystery novel Lark Underground.

If you like your mystery novels with twists and turns and characters who spring to life you’ll love this latest book from award-winning author Alexandra Amor.

Reviewer Sandee said, “This story is an emotional heart-engaging roller-coaster. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I can hardly wait for the next one.”

Click here to get your copy of Lark Underground today at Amazon. Available in ebook and paperback.

This week’s mystery author

Terry Shames writes the popular Samuel Craddock series, set in small town Texas. She won the Macavity Award for Best First Novel, and the RT Reviews award for Best Contemporary Mystery, 2016.

The eighth in the series, A Risky Undertaking for Loretta Singletary came out in 2019. MysteryPeople has twice named Terry one of the top five Texas mystery authors.

Her latest short story, “Inheritance” will appear in Jewish Noir II, in September. Terry lives in Berkeley, CA and is a member of Sisters in Crime and on the board of Mystery Writers of America.

To learn more about Terry and all her books visit TerryShames.com

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Suspense, Skiing, and Murder with Kristina Stanley

05/25/2020 By Alexandra Amor 2 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:37 — 15.0MB) | Embed

Murder on the slopes in British Columbia!

Suspense, Skiing and Murder with Kristina Stanley

My guest today is Arthur Ellis Unhanged award nominee Kristina Stanley. Kristina has a trilogy of mystery novels set at a fictional ski resort and you’ll hear Kristina share how she was inspired to write this series.

The excerpt from Descent that Kristina reads led me to ask about the ‘confidence gap’ women often encounter when applying for jobs. And we also talk about Kristina’s writing process and her business that helps other writers improve their work.

This week’s mystery author

Kristina Stanley is the creator of Fictionary, a story editor, and best-selling author of the Stone Mountain Mystery Series, the stand-alone mystery Look the Other Way, and the non-fiction titles The Author’s Guide to Selling Books to Non-Bookstores and Your Story Editing Journey.

She is a Story Editing Advisor for the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).

She’s published by Imajin Books and Luzifer-Verlag (Germany). Her short stories are published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Voices from the Valleys anthology.

Crime Writers of Canada nominated Descent for the Unhanged Arthur award.

To learn more about Kristina and all her books visit KristinaStanley.com

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Murder in the Jazz Age with Lee Strauss

Audiobook Giveaway!

This week’s mystery author

Ian Fleming and a Locked Room Mystery with Cathy Ace

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Talking to Animals and Solving Crime with Kathy Manos Penn

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Muffins and Murder with PD Workman

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Mysteries in Small Town Texas with Terry Shames

This week’s mystery author

Suspense, Skiing, and Murder with Kristina Stanley

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