The Comfort Of A Cozy Mystery... with Esme Addison

HALLIE EPHRON: Quick quiz: Which movie would you rather watch right now: Singin' in the Rain or Contagion? As for me, I'm on my fifth time reading the Harry Potter Books, so today's guest, Esme Addison's contention that many of us are looking for light reading, as we wait for the light at the end of the tunnel, rings true.

Esme is the author of A Spell of Trouble, an Enchanted Bay mystery with a protagonist who finds herself trying to help out estranged relatives who run an herbal apothecary known for its remarkably potent teas, salves, and folk remedies. These days we could all use a stash of those!

Welcome, Esme!

ESME ADDISON: The family featured in my story - the Sobieskis -  are Polish-American, so there’s Polish food. If you’re Polish or have lived in an area with a large community of Poles, you’ve probably had some good authentic Polish food. It’s hearty, tasty and very satisfying. What’s more comforting than a big, hot bowl of zupa koperkowa (Polish Dill Soup) or a slice of slightly sweet, moist placek z jablka (apple cake)? 

Comfort is on a lot of people’s mind right now. Whether it’s a comfort read or comfort food, we’re looking to be soothed, to feel good. And that’s why cozy mysteries are the perfect escape to a place of contentment and well-being. With the help of a few familiar elements, including lovingly prepared, satisfying foods cozies help us relive good memories and envision better times to come

Cozy mysteries are known to feature small town feels, close-knit communities, supportive families, down-to-earth characters and good, comfort eating… Did I mention food? Someone is always fixin’ somebody something to eat in a cozy mystery. Whether it’s chicken soup for a cold, fresh bread for supper or an apple pie for dessert. And I knew when I wrote my debut cozy, A Spell For Trouble that comfort food would be integral to the story.

Comfort food is an important element in my story, same for most cozies. Surprisingly, A Spell For Trouble is not a culinary cozy, but it is about family. Lidia, the aunt of the main character in my story is always feeding her family. Don’t we all have a mother, grandmother or aunt like this? For them, it’s an act of love, an attempt to fix, and while it doesn’t always correct problems, it certainly helps.

So, you’ll find a lot of Polish desserts in the Enchanted Bay Mystery series, and that’s because my mother-in-law who is Polish made us a lot of scratch-made desserts. And coffee. And we’d sit and talk. If not cake and coffee, it was kielbasa, potato cakes, homemade pickles, fresh bread… shots of vodka. The food and drink never stopped flowing. And it felt good, the hospitality amazing. A feeling of warmth, of comfort… of love.

And that was my hope for A Spell For Trouble, that the inclusion of comfort foods would be a balm for the reader. And isn’t that what we need right now? To be comforted. To know that everything will be alright? 

In this post, I’m sharing two photographs of meals my mother-in-law prepared for us when we visited them in Poland last year. Everything she made for us was made with love.

What is your go-to comfort food? 

If we’re not talking Polish food, well… I’m from the south. And for me it’s macaroni and cheese, the butterier, the cheesier… the better.

HALLIE: I confess, these days I am big into and comfort foods. Pecan sticky buns would be my #1. And not far down the list, mac and cheese.
Esme Addison has wanted to solve mysteries ever since she discovered Nancy Drew. As a mystery author, she's finally found a way to make that dream come true. When not writing, she can be found visiting breweries, wineries, and historical sites. A former military spouse, she currently resides in Raleigh, North Carolina with her family.

A Spell for Trouble - Aleksandra Daniels hasn't set foot in the quiet seaside town of Bellamy Bay, North Carolina in over twenty years. Ever since her mother's tragic death, her father has mysteriously forbidden her from visiting her aunt and cousins. But on a whim, Alex accepts an invitation to visit her estranged relatives and to help them in their family business: an herbal apothecary known for its remarkably potent teas, salves, and folk remedies.

Bellamy Bay doesn't look like trouble, but this is a town that harbors dark secrets. Alex discovers that her own family is at the center of salacious town gossip, and that they are rumored to be magical healers descended from mermaids. She brushes this off as nonsense until a local is poisoned and her aunt Lidia is arrested for the crime. Alex is certain Lidia is being framed, and she resolves to find out why.

Alex's investigation unearths stories that some have gone to desperate lengths to conceal: forbidden affairs, family rivalries, and the truth about Alex's own ancestry. And when the case turns deadly, Alex learns that not only are these secrets worth hiding, but they may even be worth killing for.

Giveaway
Giving away one copy of A Spell For Trouble. Please subscribe to my newsletter at https://esmeaddison.com/newsletter/ and comment on your favorite comfort food below + let me know you subscribed.

Follow Esme on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @EsmeAddison
Find her on Goodreads
And learn more about her at esmeaddison.com

Comfort Reads

RHYS BOWEN: Yesterday we talked about going back to a much loved place and whether we were disappointed or not. Today we're going to talk about revisiting a much loved book.
 Do you re-read books you've enjoyed? Do you have particular favorites you revisit again?

I love the feel of a real book in my hands, but on trips I've come to value my Kindle. I have it loaded with the complete Jane Austen, the complete P.G. Wodehouse and Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christies and Dorothy Sayers. These are my go-to comfort reads when flights are delayed, when I'm too tired to read anything new and complicated.
Of course my Kindle is also loaded with newer favorites: our Debs, my friends Jackie Winspear and Tasha Alexander and Louise Penny and several non-mysteries.
I've become a huge fan of Kate Moreton (The Secret Keeper) and I sometimes like to indulge in the light-hearted froth of Sophie Kinsella.
So I'm wondering what books are your go-to comfort reads.

ROSEMARY HARRIS: I don't have too many automatic re-reads but I can always take a spin with Pride and Prejudice, The Golden Bowl, The Razor's Edge, Howard's End or The Age of Innocence. Confession here..I read far fewer mysteries than the rest of the JRs. I tend to throw myself into a time period or subject matter. Right now it's the 19th century and it's morphed into the world of the victorian lady travelers.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Ro, I'm fascinated by Victorian lady travelers! Give us your reading list!
Rhys, I'm trying to downsize paper books, so putting comfort reads on my tablet is great idea.  I do go back to Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. Would love to reread Austen. And James Herriot. Right now I'm rereading The Hobbit, but in a gorgeous 75th Anniversary edition. Sayers, yes; PD James, no, although I love her books, they're not comfort reads.  Some odd choices: All Barbara Peters Amelia Peabody's. And Vicki Bliss. Susan Conant's Holly Winter books. Dick Francis. Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May books. Laurie King's Mary Russell books. Charles Todds' Bess Crawford's.
I like Sophie Kinsella, too, but my real British guilty pleasure/comfort reads are books by Katie Fford. They are funny romance/comedy of manners, and the characters always do ordinary things that I like; cooking or gardening  or living on narrowboats... Now I have to see if I can get them on my tablet as I don't think they are readily available in the U.S.

LUCY BURDETTE: I always THINK I'm going to reread so I don't get rid of books I love, but I find it very hard to go back and not forward. And since we have a big trip coming up in October, I'm already worrying about reading material. It may be that I'll have to read some on the Kindle or Ipad, but I'm still smarting from the occasion in which the Kindle failed as soon as we got abroad. Panic! Panic! Panic! I had to madly borrow books from other travelers...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Huh. I can't remember the last book I re-read. (Which does make me look at ALL THOSE BOOKSHELVES in our house in a different way...yikes. What are they FOR? But maybe that's a different blog.) If I loaded my Kindle with things like Agatha and Conan Doyle and Grafton, I would be delighted to know they were there, but I wouldn't read them.
Funny, yesterday we were talking about being disappointed when you go back to a place from the past. In reading, I'm a "go forward." I'd rather read Sue's new "W" than "A" again.

HALLIE EPHRON: Rereads for comfort? Anne of Green Gables. A Wrinkle in Time. The Little Princess.  Or one of the novels of Booth Tarkington (Magnificent Ambersons, or Alice Adams.) Or something by Barbara Pym. Or a Stephen King book of short stories. Or Early P.D. James (the Cordelia Gray mysteries).

And speaking of Sue Grafton... it would be very interesting to read "A" and "W" back to back. Maybe I will.
HANK: OOh, yeah Hallie, it would. I'm doing it, too. (I'm interviewing her next week, so that'd be fun.)

RHYS: So let's hear from you. Who re-reads old favorites? And what are your old favorites?

Comfort Reads for Uncomfortable Times: a guest blog by Tasha Alexander

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm logging in from my local library to post this, since I (as well as several other east-coast Reds) am still without power. Fortunately, I don't have to write anything clever; our friend Tasha Alexander volunteered to take on blogging duties today. 

I know Tasha is one of the Reds communities favorite authors. Her Victorian-era Lady Emily novels brings together wicked mysteries and heart-stirring romance in stunning locations like Vienna, Constantinople and Venice. The latest in the series, Death in the Floating City, was a New York Times bestseller. 

Since Tasha and her dashingly handsome husband Andrew Grant live in Chicago and the UK, we're usually the ones consoling her for lousy weather. (If you've ever taken a cross-country flight in the US, you know about Chicago's tumultuous climate.) She knows about the stresses and strains we all come under - and has a wonderful suggestion for easing them.

The pounding given to the East Coast by Hurricane Sandy has put me to thinking about comfort and those things we do when we need it. Most of us are fortunate enough to be assured of basic material comforts--food, shelter, clothing. But that does not mean we don't face challenges, disappointments, and a variety of seemingly unending stresses, and we all need means to cope with them.

Last year when I was here, I talked about books I wished I could read again for the first time. This year, I'm considering those dog-eared volumes that, like the most loyal and steadfast friends, stand by us through every difficulty. I have many, many comfort reads. First come the old favorites. The really old favorites. On the Banks of Plum Creek and These Happy Golden Years from Laura Ingalls Wilder's wonderful Little House series got me through those horrible pre-teen years when I spent most of my time at school dances crying in the bathroom. It probably speaks badly of me, but I took great joy in reading about Nellie Oleson dancing around the creek bank with leeches stuck all over her legs.

As I got older, Gone With the Wind became a favorite. I would get to the end of my enormous hardcover edition (a tenth birthday present) and turn straight back to page one. Until, that is, Scarlett's story was eclipsed for me by Pride and Prejudice.

Sometimes, when I'm stressed, I need a giant heap of books that I can tear through, one after another, to fill loads and loads of time. Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series could not be better for this. Amelia's wit and intelligence can divert my attention from almost anything.

Then there are the times when what I really want is something more ethereal. That's when I go back to Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and escape into a bizarre world that is at once magical and disturbing. Not to mention written in some of the most beautiful sentences ever.

Interestingly enough, what I don't turn to for comfort is the book I consider to be my absolute favorite, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. Maybe that's because I don't want it tainted by whatever is causing me stress. Maybe it's because I want to keep it separate. I'm not sure. But I am sure about the one book that, no matter what, never ever lets me down when I'm in need. I think we all have a book like this--the one you can never tire of reading, the best dependable friend. For me, that's Pride and Prejudice. What's yours?

Let us know your comfort read, and one luck commenter will receive a signed hardcover of the newest Lady Emily mystery, Death in the Floating City!

You can find out more about New York Times bestselling author Tasha Alexander and read excerpts of her books at her website. You can follow her on Twitter as @talexander, friend her on Facebook, and see some of the actual locations in her novels on Flickr.