Blood Ties and Deadly Lies by Ang Pompano

 LUCY BURDETTE: It's always a pleasure to host my good friend Ang Pompano to the blog. Welcome Ang!

ANG POMPANO: Hello, Reds! It’s great to be back. I always feel at home here because Lucy, Hallie, and Hank were among the very first “real authors” I ever met. And they were so kind to me. Over the years, through conferences and book events, I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting Jen, Deborah, Julia, and of course Rhys. Each of you has been so encouraging that you truly feel like family.

And speaking of family…

Have you ever taken a DNA test? If so, did you discover anything that surprised you? Did you trust the results?

Those were the questions on my mind as I started writing Blood Ties and Deadly Lies, the second book in my Blue Palmetto Detective Agency series.

In the first book, When It’s Time for Leaving, retired cop Al DeLucia heads to Savannah to take over the detective agency given to him by the father who abandoned him. Al’s not exactly the sentimental type. If he has a soft side, it’s buried under layers of sarcasm, skepticism, and New Haven street smarts.



Al's Sachem Creek


Now, in Blood Ties and Deadly Lies, Al’s past crashes into his present when his high school nemesis, Abe Cromwell, a guy Al once dreamed of throwing into Long Island Sound, shows up with a wild story. Abe’s been arrested for assault and claims Al is his brother. Not a long-lost half-brother. A full-blooded, DNA-certified sibling.

Al doesn’t buy it. But something about Abe’s claim gets under his skin. When an old friend dares him to return to their hometown of Sachem Creek, Connecticut, to finally win the cross-Sound kayak race he was once cheated out of, Al agrees. Not to help Abe, but because he’s got a score to settle.

What Al doesn’t expect is to be handed hard DNA evidence that suggests Abe might be telling the truth. Before long, he and his partner Maxine are pulled into a case involving murder, family secrets, and a trail of lies that leads all the way back to colonial New England.

I won’t spoil how it’s possible for Al and Abe to be full brothers because trust me, it’s a twist. But I will say this: DNA doesn’t just tell you who you are. Sometimes, it tells you who you aren’t.

Writing this book got me thinking about how many people have taken DNA tests only to discover unexpected siblings, family secrets, or completely new cultural roots. It raises uncomfortable and fascinating questions. What really makes someone family? Is it blood? Loyalty? Shared history? And when a stranger shows up with scientific “proof” and says, We’re related, how do you even begin to trust that?

So I’ll ask you:

Have you ever taken a DNA test? Did you find anything that surprised you? Did you trust the results? And would you go to bat for someone just because the science says you share the same genes?

Ang Pompano is a mystery author, editor, publisher, and food blogger.  He writes the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency, and the Reluctant Food Columnist series, both published by Level Best Books. In addition to his writing, Ang is a co-founder of Crime Spell Books and serves as co-editor of the Best New England Crime Stories anthology. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Annette, an artist, and their two rescue dogs. His latest novel, Blood Ties and Deadly Lies, drops on July 1. Learn more at www.angpompano.com

Buy Link: https://amzn.to/43NNlaM 

Eating Our Way Through Paris by Lucy Burdette

LUCY BURDETTE: You know how much Hank loves it when a week turns out to have an unexpected theme? This week has two, searching for a place and food. Today you are going to eat with me in Paris, a trip that pushed me to really think about both food critics and chefs.

I was determined—some might say obsessed—about not wasting time on bad meals. You can’t imagine how much I researched where to eat before we set off. I’ve been collecting blog posts for years from David Lebovitz, Dorie Greenspan, Meg Zimbeck (who writes Paris by Mouth and puts out a yearly list of what she believes to be the top 50 restaurants in Paris), and many more.

To make things even more complicated, Lindsay Tramuta published a book with Eater (an online zine) called the Eater Guide to Paris right before we left. I was overwhelmed with possibilities! I had every kind of question circling through my mind: what kind of food do we want to eat? Should it only be French? Should it be fancy French or casual? Should it be confined to the center of Paris where we’d be staying, and if not, how far would we be willing to travel? Could we eat two big meals a day? Estimates of the number of restaurants in Paris fall around 40,000. How could we possibly choose the best when we were there for only eight days? How could anybody make a list of top 50 restaurants, not just in Paris but anywhere? This adventure gave me new insight into the challenges of restaurant critics.

(If all this is making you a little queasy, you might want to skip the rest of this very very foodie post🤪)

Luckily, my traveling companion (John) was relaxed about the whole adventure. He offered opinions when I asked him, but did not try to meddle with my ongoing obsession. I’ll share with you some photos of the meals we really loved. Stay tuned in the future for how some of this will end up in a book…

Pizza is not easy to find in Paris, good pizza that is. We took one of David Lebovitz's suggestions and traveled out to the 11th arrondissement to eat at Oobatz. This was a white asparagus and wild asparagus pizza, alongside a lovely salad. 

We eschewed the suggestion to have the chef's specialty. 

What is the chef's special? John asked.

Nothing specific, it’s whatever he feels like putting on your pizza, the server said.

Since we’d just read that some of his ingredients involved innards, we stuck with the asparagus.

I’d been dreaming about dinner at Café des Ministères which I regretted missing on my last visit, but it was too hard to get a reservation. This time I stalked the site until I grabbed one. I had been dreaming about their stuffed cabbage for years! Here it finally was and I swear to you, it was as big as a human being’s head! They brought it to the table, sliced it open and then poured on crème fraîche. We couldn’t even eat half of it. John ordered a cassoulet which was divine, filled with sausage, duck confit, and molten hot white beans.

Juveniles Wine Bar was the only restaurant we repeated from my last visit and as far as I know, it’s my favorite place in Paris. I had a roast chicken with potatoes and vegetables in an amazing sauce, whereas John ordered sausage in a pool of cheesy mashed potatoes. I could not pass up the rice pudding with caramel sauce on the side.

The next day went on a market tour of Rue Montorgueil, which is known as a foodie street, run by Amanda from Jane Bertch’s La Cuisine Paris. Everything we tried was amazing but this goat cheese was a standout, rolled in beautiful dried flowers and stuffed with a rose coulis. (I don’t even like goat cheese much, but this will definitely become a plot point…)

This was a lunch we had at Le Cornichon. I had what was essentially fish and chips on a homemade slaw (do notice those gorgeous frites in the background) and John had a little steak with a big glob of melted fois gras on top. 

Holy cholesterol, Batman! Fortunately, we were walking miles and miles a day.

This was another astonishing lunch at a Lebanese restaurant called Kubris. The best thing I ate was roasted cabbage with Aleppo pepper butter, shanklish, cri-cri peanut, pickled apricot and oregano. So many flavors! 

And then a stuffed eggplant shawarma. John once again enjoyed the sausage. 😂. 

I will stop there to give us all a break! And maybe give you time to grab a snack. One regret is that we barely had the chance to order dessert because we ate so much of the other food. This calls for another trip...

How does a normal person go about choosing a restaurant in a strange place? Inquiring minds want to know…

The Expats: Imagining Another Life @LucyBurdette

 LUCY BURDETTE: You've heard that John and I were in France for 10 days at the end of May. In Paris, we had the amazing opportunity to meet American, English, and Australian people who have moved from their home countries to France. This fascinates me! After I tell you about some of them, I would love to hear whether you would have either the urge or the nerve to move somewhere unfamiliar.

First, we had a glass of wine with a group of people who follow Heather Stimmler’s Secrets of Paris blog and newsletter. Heather is an American who moved to Paris in the 1990s. She started giving tours and now has a paying blog with exactly as the name says, secrets of Paris: places to go, how to get into a popular museum, meetups for those interested in socializing. At our table were two couples who have sold everything in the US and now rent apartments in Paris. We were interested to hear about their experience with medical care (good!), Learning the language (so hard!), making French friends (not easy.) One of the men is a musician who spends a lot of time playing with others and also listening to music so he’s met people that way. Another of the women knits and has joined knitting groups. John interviewed one of the men from our cocktail group and I know you will enjoy reading that article. 

We also took a tour with an English man who moved to Paris with his wife in the 90s. He’s built a business giving tours and doing podcasts through his website, the Earful Tower. His introduction into the world of Parisian people came through playing basketball. 

The real Emily in Paris, whom you’ve heard me speak of, came to Paris from London (she is Australian by birth) and then met and married a Parisian man. They now live in Paris with their two small children and his daughter from a previous marriage. She says her in to Parisian life is through her kids and also other expats in the city. She feels she will never be accepted totally as a French person. 

The Real Emily in Paris

Jane Bertch, who we've featured twice on the blog here, is also an American who first moved to London, and then to Paris in the banking world. She got the idea to found la cuisine Paris, and has written a memoir about the transition called the French Ingredient. She seems so comfortable in her new life! You can also read the cookbooks and newsletters of Dorie Greenspan and David Lebovitz, Americans who have mostly transplanted themselves to Paris and feel very much at home, while at the same time are aware of not being French.

Lucy with Dorie and Jane

My takeaways from meeting these folks? A big move like this is really hard! It’s important to love the city that you are joining and be patient with yourself. Parisians are not famous for easily accepting people. The truth is, much as I love that city, and would love to know it more thoroughly, I have a deep tap root that connects me to the US. Along with friends and relatives that I would miss dearly. Plus a husband who wouldn’t go. So alas, I can’t see myself joining the ex-pats. I will have to do this through my fiction.

What about you, Reds? Can you see yourself moving to another country? If you’re tempted, where would it be and what draws you there?

Stalking the Wild Muse: Where Does Inspiration Come From? by Carol Goodman

LUCY BURDETTE: Carol's wonderful book RETURN TO WYLDCLIFF HEIGHTS was on the short list for the Mary Higgins Clark award last year. When I noticed that she had a new book coming, I thought you'd love to hear about it. Welcome Carol!

CAROL GOODMAN: One of the most often asked questions any author gets at panels and book clubs and blog interviews is “Where do you get your ideas?” or, more ominously, “Do you ever worry about running out of ideas?”   It’s an age-old question.  I picture a Q&A after the first production of Oedipus Rex in 429 BCE at the Temple of Dionysus.  “Hey Sophocles!” a sandalled and bearded fan calls out.  “Are you worried about running out of ideas after such a big success?”

Sophocles might have quipped that the dysfunctional antics of the Oedipus clan would keep him busy for a while, or he could have appealed to the Muses.  The ancient Greeks regarded the inspiration of the artist as such a magical and mysterious event that it could only come from a divine source—or sources.  They needed nine to do the work of inspiring dull, lumpen-headed mortals.  But what if you don’t believe in divine inspiration?  Where do you find your ideas? 

The titular writers in my new book Writers and Liars think the answer is a retreat on a Greek island.  Is this the answer?  Do we need to travel afar or go to a writers retreat to find inspiration?  It’s certainly a tempting idea.  If only, we say to ourselves as we wrack our brains for the next book idea, I could go someplace free of the worries and interruptions of everyday life—no pinging phone, no household chores, no stacks of bills to pay or pile of papers to grade.  Shake off the coils of your everyday routine! sing the Sirens. Travel will yield inspiration and a retreat will offer the mental space to explore those ideas. 

And yet, in the end, the Muse can be a fickle travel companion.  She may join you for a bottle of Mythos at the local taverna—or she may have taken the last boat off the island and left you with a bunch of frustrated writers and a homicidal maniac.  Which, of course, is what happens in my book.  Because the other big idea the Greeks (i.e. Plato) had about inspiration was that it was a divine madness (theia mania) that possessed the artist, making a bunch of writers stranded on an island a volatile bunch.

So while inspiration may be found on the road, I have found it most often at home at my desk, on an ordinary weekday morning, after doing the Wordl and the crossword puzzle and making a second cup of coffee and indulging in just about every form of procrastination known to lumpen-headed mortals and feeling like I am scratching out my words on a stone tablet with a blunt rock … and then a word or an image—maybe a whole sentence!—will come to me that wasn’t there before.  And that feels like magic.  Picasso perhaps said it best:  Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

By all means, take the trip, go to the retreat if you can, but remember, inspiration is everywhere including (and perhaps especially) in your own backyard.  You just have to show up for it.  

So, tell me … where do you get your ideas? 

Carol Goodman is the New York Times Bestselling author of twenty-six novels, including The Lake of Dead Languages, The Seduction of Water, which won the 2003 Hammett Prize, The Widow’s House, which won the 2018 Mary Higgins Clark Award, and The Night Visitors, which won the 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award.  For over twenty years, she has taught creative writing at The New School and SUNY New Paltz and offered private classes, book coaching, and editorial services to writers in fiction and memoir.  She lives in the Hudson Valley.

In the latest thrilling suspense novel from Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Carol Goodman, a group of mystery authors gathers on a secluded Greek island for a writers retreat, only to discover that their enigmatic host has been murdered and everyone present is a suspect.

They’ll kill for inspiration…

Fifteen years ago, Maia Gold attended a prestigious—and very exclusive—writers retreat hosted by billionaire Argos Alexander on the Greek island of Eris. It’s where she wrote her first book, the one that should have launched a brilliant career. But something dark happened on that island, a betrayal that has hung over Maia ever since.

Now, Maia finds a familiar envelope in the mail. It’s an invitation to return to Eris, and according to social media, she’s not the only one from that first retreat who’s been invited back. This could be the second chance Maia needs to jump-start her dreams. A chance for reconciliation… or revenge.

Almost all of the writers from fifteen years before have returned to Eris, bringing unresolved resentments with them. Soon, the guests learn that their illustrious host is absent, though he has left instructions for them to participate in a contest: whoever can write the most suspenseful mystery while on the island will win a fortune and literary acclaim. But this is no harmless game—when the guests gather in the morning to share their first chapters, they find Argos Alexander, dead. 

Tensions simmer as the guests try to determine who’s capable of murder, not just on the page, but in real life. On an island full of mystery writers, anyone could be the killer—and anyone could be the next victim. Trapped together until the next boat arrives from the mainland, they must sort out old grievances and figure out how to trust one another... or die one by one.

Searching for Place

LUCY BURDETTE: You know that Key West as a place is important to me both because we live there half a year and because it’s the setting for my series. (The Mango Murders, number 15, coming to a bookstore near you on August 12!) I like nothing better than hearing from a reader about how much they enjoy visiting Key West vicariously or, how they have literally traveled in Hayley Snow’s footsteps, eating what she’s eaten, stopping to admire places she’s been.

Lorenzo and Dominique the cat man at Mallory Square

I travel this way as a reader myself. Sometimes I adore a book or series so much that I must travel there. You might remember this happened with Shetland, because of Ann Cleeves’ Jimmy Perez series.

At the end of May, John and I traveled to France for our vacation/anniversary. Yes, we went to my beloved Paris, but we first spent three days in Saint-Malo, a tiny peninsula on the north coast of Brittany. Once I knew we were going, I determined to read All the Light You Cannot See, which had been languishing on my bedside table forever. This walled city was bombed by the allies at the end of World War II, both in the book and the movie, and in reality. It has since been rebuilt, almost every stone put back in place, so that you can imagine what it looked like in the early 1940s. I could imagine the main character Marie Laure’s life as we walked the bumpy cobblestones of the old streets.

Here’s a bakery at approximately the place she visited over the course of the book carrying messages to and from the resistance.

Here is the path to the island that’s underwater at high tide where she loved to escape.

St Malo from across the bay…

Have you traveled to a place because you read about it in a novel? Are there places you’re longing to go (real or fictional) after reading about them?

When Food Becomes Story by Daria Lavelle

 

LUCY BURDETTE: I don't know Daria, but when I heard about her new book, I wanted to! I asked our past guest Laura Hankin to connect us. I hope you'll enjoy her post and her book as much as I did. Welcome Daria!

DARIA LAVELLE: There’s an old adage in storytelling—show, don’t tell. In other words, let the reader experience a narrative through its visual cues (set the scene; describe the action; create the characters). Most stories are written this way, with descriptions that enable a reader to picture exactly what’s going on, and of course that’s critical to a compelling story. But just showing neglects the other senses.

When sound, touch, smell, or taste—for me, especially taste—enter the chat, it heightens a story, making it not just something I can picture in my mind, but something I can experience in my body. A good food description can (and often does) make me physically drool (or recoil, or gag, or smack my lips). Food is such a powerful avenue for storytelling, but it’s often underused in fiction, leveraged just to highlight a character cultural background or their typical eating habits. 

But it can be so much more. 

Recently, on the UK leg of my book tour for Aftertaste, a novel which is, unsurprisingly, obsessed with food, I had the extraordinary experience of dining at a restaurant called The Fat Duck. It’s been on my bucket list for ages, and not only because it boasts 3 Michelin stars. I’ve been aching to eat there because the Chef Heston Blumenthal treats each meal as an immersive experience, one that uses every sense to tell a story about each dish, and also about the meal at large. Some examples? Okie dokie. 

One course, which was an appetizer, was made to look exactly like a child's breakfast. You were presented with a bowl of “milk” and a miniature cereal box—each of these different and custom printed to include fun quips and puns about the restaurant and the food world, as well as a cereal box game you could play with the pencil that came in the box. Inside, was a pouch of “cereal” which you opened and poured into your "milk." Only, when you ate it, it was clear this was not cereal. It was magic. A savory, jelly-rich, pudding with these perfectly crisped flakes for crunch. It was delicious, but more than that, it was nostalgic. It transported you to the delight of eating cereal on a Sunday morning, and doing the puzzles with your kid brother. 

Another course, which was meant to bring back the fun and whimsy of being at the seaside as a kid, started with miniature ice cream cones—crab bisque ice cream—and continued with a pair of headphones, which you donned to hear recordings from the beach (surf, sand, gulls, kids laughing and splashing) while you ate a dish made to look (I kid you not) exactly like the edge of sand meeting seafoam, where every component—the sand, the foam, the miniature “jelly fish” and “seaweed” and “shells” that had washed up on the shore—was edible. Eating that dish felt more like being at the beach than having my toes in actual sand. It captured the feel of those moments, their exact texture. It unlocked memories. 

I won’t go on—I could, at length—but it was the most magical meal partly because I had no idea what to expect, and I would hate to ruin it for others. But the point I’m making is that food can be so much more than ornamentation or accessory; it can be the story. To eat is to storytell. To cook, even more so. Food is memory, and memory makes character.

 When I approached writing food in Aftertaste, where a chef can taste the most significant meals of ghosts from the spirit world, and recreate the dishes to bring them back for a last meal with their loved ones, every ingredient in every dish did the double duty of carrying the emotional weight of memory. When a particular character ate the potatoes in a particular kind of soup, for instance, their rough skin didn’t remind her of an itchy sweater or a fraying picnic bench; they reminded her of a particular kind of clothing worn at her convent, because that clothing brought her to the person she longed to see again. Try it in your own storytelling, and see what happens, and how it energizes your text. Steep your characters’ foods in emotional meaning, and watch the flavors it gives your scene, or your chapter, or your whole book. 

Taste, in other words. Don’t just tell.  

Daria Lavelle is an American fiction writer. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and raised in the New York City area, her work explores themes of identity and belonging through magic and the uncanny. Her short stories have appeared in The Deadlands, Dread Machine, and elsewhere, and she holds degrees in writing from Princeton University and Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, children, and goldendoodle, all of whom love a great meal almost as much as she does. Learn more at darialavelle.com.

Synopsis of Aftertaste:

What if you could have one last meal with someone you loved, someone you lost?

Konstantin Duhovny is a haunted man. His father died when he was ten, and ghosts have been hovering around him ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. Flavors of meals he’s never eaten will flood his mouth,a sign that a spirit is present. Kostya has kept these aftertastes a secret for most of his life, but one night, he decides to act on what he’s tasting. And everything changes.

Kostya discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones—at least for the length of time it takes them to eat a dish that he’s prepared. Convinced that his life’s purpose is to offer closure to grieving strangers, he sets out to learn all he can by entering a particularly fiery ring of Hell: the New York culinary scene. But as his kitchen skills catch up with his ambitions, Kostya is too blind to see the catastrophe looming in the Afterlife. And the one person who knows Kostya must be stopped also happens to be falling in love with him.

Set in the bustling world of New York restaurants and teeming with mouthwatering food writing, Aftertaste is a whirlwind romance, a heart-wrenching look at love and loss, and a ghost story about all the ways we hunger—and how far we’d go to find satisfaction.

What We’re Reading

LUCY BURDETTE: I’ve been all over the map with reading lately so here’s the run-down. I finally picked up ALL THE LIGHT YOU CANNOT SEE (very late to this party!) because John and I were going to St. Malo (more on that later this week.) Quite fascinating! Then I read CAT AND BIRD by Kyoko Mori–I’ve always been a fan of her books as she gives so much insight into the culture of Japan and her very difficult family. This was a beautiful, quiet book about the author’s intense relationship with her cats, as well as the birds in her life. Of course, much more is revealed about her family and her life along the way. I picked up THE PARIS WIDOW by Kimberly Belle because it won best paperback original at the Edgars. A fast moving story, plus Paris! Next up BACK AFTER THIS by Linda Holmes. Loved the characters, and also loved that the romance trope did not feel at all forced. My favorite of her books so far! On the way home from our trip I finished MRS. ENDICOTT’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE–another captivating standalone from Rhys Bowen! Although this book is less mystery/suspense and more historical fiction crossed with women's fiction, it's a wonderful read. The characters develop beautifully over the course of the story, the bad-ish guys get their comeuppance, the heroes emerge during the brutal years of WW2--all this is presented in an appealing small town coastal setting. Can’t wait for you all to read it in August.

How about you Reds, what are you reading?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, I am thrilled to be reading Ruth Ware’s upcoming THE WOMAN IN SUITE 11,  she’s such a genius! And the amazing Shari Lapena’s new one, SHE DIDN’T SEE IT COMING, and then my idol Lisa Jewell’s (I am interviewing her GOH at Bouchercon! Whoo!)  DON’T LET HER IN. And yes, of course Mrs. Endicott, a must read! I also just finished FROM THESE ROOTS by Tamara Lanier, about her quest to get her enslaved relative’s daguerreotypes back from  Harvard. It’s amazing. And I am longing to get to CUE THE SUN, about the history of reality TV. And CARELESS PEOPLE. Talk about scary, both of them!

Oh, and please please do not miss WELCOME TO MURDER WEEK by Karen Dukess. Truly. Trust me. It is a lovely and smart and perfect book. ALL the reds and readers will love it.

RHYS BOWEN: I finally got around to Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club while I was in England. A pleasant easy read so I’ll tackle the subsequent books. I’ve also got to read Louise Penny’s The Grey and Black Wolves as we are being interviewed together for the Book Passsge Mystery Conference in July. Right now I’m reading a non fiction book I have to blurb about a woman becoming a farmer in WWII. Ghosts of the Farm

HALLIE EPHRON: I just finished Nita Prose’s THE MAID which I completely loved. What a great voice and boy howdy did the ending surprise me. And surprise me again. And what a great character, Molly Gray, even if she is yet another on-the-spectrum detective. There’s a reason why the trope works.

And I was riveted by Malcolm Gladwell’s TALKING TO STRANGERS. We’re so sure we understand one another, and yet all the science points otherwise. Got to be a must-read for anyone trying to write police procedure or courtroom drama. So many insights about how we get each other wrong. Counter-programming for the Karen Read trial.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: At a bookstore event for the wonderful Eliza Reid (former first lady of Iceland) and her debut DEATH ON THE ISLAND, I picked up EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS by John Green, author of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS and other YA best sellers. This book, however, is non-fiction, and is so fascinating I could hardly put it down. What an eye-opener!

Then, from another book event, THE DARK MAESTRO, the latest by Brendan Slocumb. Who else could combine a brilliant cellist, comic book heroes, and gangsters? What a fun read! Also, I’ve listened to the entire 15 hours of THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES by Jussi Adler-Olsen, the book on which the Netflix series DEPT Q is based. I’m fascinated by how they adapted this long book, what they changed while keeping the bones of the characters and plot.

Now, I’m finally indulging in Natalie Jenner’s charming AUSTEN AT SEA, and I especially love her portrayal of Louisa May Alcott. This one is a much-anticipated gem that I’m stretching out in small doses because I hate for it to end. Coming up soon is the new Damien Boyd, BLUE BLOOD, for those of you who love British procedurals. THEN, in July, the very much anticipated new Ben Aaronovitch, STONE AND SKY. And one more, I just downloaded the Netgalley of THE MANGO MURDERS by our own dear Lucy Burdette and cannot wait to dive in!

JENN McKINLAY: I’ve just gotten back to reading as my deadlines were CRUSHING me. I’ve been on a fantasy bender and devoured EMILY WILDE’S COMPENDIUM OF LOST TALES by Heather Fawcett (you need to read the first two to fully appreciate it), THE TELLER OF SMALL FORTUNES (delightful!) by Julie Leong, and on deck for when I head to Canada, I have an ARC of Rhys’s MRS ENDICOTT’S SPLENDID ADVENTURE, and Hub just handed me ASSASSINS ANONYMOUS by Rob Hart, which he highly recommends! 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm splitting my time between mystery, romance/womens fiction, and science fiction, as usual. For the first, I'm about to start THE BACHELORETTE PARTY by Camilla Sten. It's a combo girls-on-a-summer island luxe getaway and Swedish noir thriller. Talk about perfect for summer reading!

For the second, I'm loving Annabel Monaghan's latest, IT'S A LOVE STORY. Also a summer book, set on the beaches in Long Island. If you haven't read her NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT, you absolutely must.

Finally, I'm re-reading Martha Wells THE MURDERBOT DIARIES to go along with the Apple + show Murderbot. Read them! Watch the show! It's the perfect intro for the SF-curious - I promise you don't need a degree in physics to love Murderbot.

What are you reading Reds?

Thoughts for Father's Day

RHYS BOWEN:  I had a completely different post planned for today until I realized it was Father's Day. It's something we've never celebrated because it didn't exist in England and John has always maintained that it is a fabricated holiday designed to make people spend money. The kids will send him cards, I expect, apart from Dominic who will be on a Greek island.  But we don't do the big meal that we do for Mother's Day.

As I said,we didn't celebrate it in England but I would have liked a day to celebrate my dad because he was an all around good guy. He was kind, soft spoken, generous. He adored my mother and would have walked through fire for her.  They did everything together, including the supermarket shop at weekends. he visited his mother every Friday. The absolute family man. We talked about picnics the other day.. during the summer we went out as a family, usually to the seaside and would have a picnic along the way. When we were older we played tennis or swam. Memories of him often involve beaches. My dad loved to be on the beach with the kids. We'd play cricket or some kind of ball game. He'd build sand castles for us, on in my brother's case, a sand racing car in which my brother sat. 

One summer vacation we were in Wales. the weather was awful--cold, rainy, windy. He and I made a bet to swim in the sea every day. We'd drive the car onto the hard sand of the beach, park near the waves, dash in, swim up and down, dash out and jump back in the car. All the time laughing and shivering. We did it.

I didn't meet him until I was three. He was sent out to North Africa before i was born and after Rommel was defeated he was sent on to Palestine as the British occupying force until after the war. He often talked about it and was proud of the small part he played.

Other memories were of his generosity. I had seen a necklace I loved in a store and when I was visiting at home I asked if I could have it for my birthday (which was a few months away).  As my dad drove me to the train station he handed me some pound notes. "Go and buy your necklace," he said

Every Christmas he put four pairs of nylon stockings on the tree for my mom. boring but practical. One Christmas she got the same four pairs, but with a gold Swiss watch inside. 

He was a research engineer by profession, self educated as he grew up in the depression, but he held several patents by the end of his life. Always practical and busy. He ran a paper factory and their sister factory made wallpaper. So our house was the trial for new wallpapers. When one room was finished we started on another, all different and often rather lurid wallpapers.  He loved tinkering with his car and it always ran perfectly. 

He was incredibly social and friendly. When one of his workers got terminal cancer Daddy visited him in hospital every evening on his way home.  When they moved to Australia after he retired they took the cross country journey on the train--3000 miles from Sydney to Perth. By the end of that trip Daddy knew every person on that train and their history.

Later in life he loved his garden. They moved to Australia when he retired and he grew wonderful things in that climate. All their own vegetables and fruit. Every afternoon they'd take a picnic to a nearby beach. I visited several times, enjoying the incredible beauty of the place they had chosen.  He had a major heart attack at 65 and after that his heart grew weaker until it stopped beating. I flew out when I got the call that he was in hospital and not expected to survive and arrived three hours too late to say goodbye to him. I've always regretted that.

Now please share memories of your dads and let's raise a glass to them all today!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation!

 RHYS BOWEN: I have just returned from a short trip to England. It was all very intense as the object was for John to see all his family members.  His sister lives in Cornwall in a fifteenth century manor house (she married into an important Cornish family). Her sons and their families mostly live within reach so we had one big family meal after another.

One of the things I love about being in Cornwall is eating my favorite foods. Cornish pasties:

Cream teas:

The good news is that all calories leave when you pass the Cornish border.

The driving is always interesting as the roads are, well, rather narrow.

One of my favorite excursions is to St. Michael's Mount. This time the tide was up but when it's out you can walk across.

Then we went on to Bath and I spent two lovely days wandering around my home city, evoking memories and enjoying the new spa with rooftop pool. 

In London an extra treat. It was the Chelsea Flower Show and the main street in Chelsea and turned itself into Chelsea in Bloom with every shop doing a fabulous flower display:

As I look at this photos I'm already filled with nostalgia. It seems like a simpler, more sane life over there. 

What are your vacation plans this year? Who is going abroad?