Methods of Murder by Jenn McKinlay

 

Jenn McKinlay: As you can see I am I the thick of plotting a murder or two. It seems I prefer poison (much like Dame Agatha) but I think I need to diversify. I have a couple of ideas for Fondant Fumble, my current work in progress, but I thought I'd ask you, Reds and Readers, what are the most interesting methods of murder you've come across while reading? How much does the cause of death matter to you as a reader? Do you think some mechanisms are overused? 

Personally, I remember talking to an author when I first started writing  and she said she used blunt trauma 90% of the time because it left so many questions to be answered. 

I'm not big on shooting but I have another author friend who says she shoots everyone. Um...okay. LOL.

Tom Gauld on murder methods for modern mystery writers – cartoon, The Guardian

Following the new BBC adaptation of And Then There Were None, 

Tom detects the perilous endings that await modern-day murder mystery victims

Poison seems to be my modus operandi -- clearly, no one is ever coming to dinner at my house again -- but I do enjoy a good blunt trauma as well.

Lastly, should I be worried that I spend this much time thinking about murder? Occasionally, I'm concerned. Primarily because while doing a search about the most common methods of murder, this "You're not alone" intervention response came up:

How do I let Google know I'm okay? I'm not feeling homicidal. This was for work, I swear! Maybe I need to add "asking for a friend" to all of my searches. Eep!

Pumpkin Spice Peril is out TODAY!!!

Available TODAY AT 25% OFF in pbk and ebook formats!

JENN McKINLAY: I remember when my publisher accepted the title of this book, my editor said, "Your release date is in April, prepare for some pushback about pumpkin spice being in a title being released before September." 

Okay, I knew there were pumpkin spice haters -- to which, I say, "whatever" -- and I was duly prepared to defend my title to any and all. I was like, "Come at me, bruhs, with your pumpkin spice hatred." 

Clearly, I had no idea I was going to be releasing Cupcake Bakery Mystery #12 (We're at a DOZEN!!!) in the middle of a global pandemic and needless to say the haters have bigger windmills to tilt at than my modest cupcake based cozy mystery. I think this is most likely because no one has any idea of what day it is anyway. At this point, if someone told me it was September, I'd believe it. So, there's that. 

For me, a Pumpkin Spice Latte is something I enjoy once or maybe twice in autumn, when it's finally below 90 degrees here in the desert. It's like my love of the Shamrock Shake every March. The Hooligans and I live for those but we only have one or maybe two -- okay, they probably have five of six. It's a happy spring ritual that I don't really think that much about. 

But here's what I learned about the PSL (pumpkin spice latte), arguably the start of all things pumpkin spice, and the controversy surrounding it. Pumpkin Spice Lattes were unleashed to the world by Stabucks in August of 2003. The flavor peaked in popularity in 2014 but has become controversial because, as something enjoyed predominantly by women, it must be derided and mocked or so the people watching the controversy say. 

Given that I write cozies, rom-coms, and now women's fiction (all genres considered less than by the mainstream, because they are predominantly women centric - we won't even get into the fact that their markets are huge and they earn WAY more money than most other genres...ahem) this is territory with which I am quite familiar. 

As my friends Leah and Bea, from The Ripped Bodice Bookstore, wrote:

Read More:  Here

There was also this terrific piece from Vox: Pumpkin spice lattes — and the backlash, and the backlash to the backlash — explained: They talk about the life cycle of pumpkin spice, which has come full circle with people (women) pushing back and defending their choice of pumpkin laced coffee by saying (I'm paraphrasing here), "The world is on fire, let me enjoy my pumpkiny goodness in peace." 
I don't know about you, but I can totally respect that.

So, Reds and Readers, do you enjoy Pumpkin Spice (you knew I had to ask) and if not, what is a food you enjoy that is only seasonal?

Now here's A DOZEN cupcakes for you: Crazy, am I right?

What We're Writing - Jenn McKinlay

JENN McKINLAY: I am heinously, woefully, shockingly behind on writing PUMPKIN SPICE PERIL (April 2020, hopefully, click the title to pre-order), the 12th cupcake bakery mystery. I have seriously never been this late on a book in my life. Probably it's because I got a wild hair and decided to pen a women's fiction book, PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA (July 2020), in the very small gap of time available between writing BURIED TO THE BRIM (Jan 2020 - on sale right now for $6.57, click the title to pre-order) and this cupcake mystery. But what can an author do? 

When the muse yells, she yells LOUD! There was no other choice but to get the Paris book written. 

     Then, of course, the universe likes to pants you when you least expect it, and I came down with a couple of annoying health things that slowed me up as well. So here I am, trying my best to get PUMPKIN done, doing copyedits on BURIED, revisions of PARIS, researching ONE FOR THE BOOKS (Nov 2020), the next library mystery which is due Nov 1st, while promoting WORD TO THE WISE (Sept 3, 2019) and THE CHRISTMAS KEEPER (Oct 28, 2019). Click the picture captions to pre-order!

Sept 2019

Oct 2019

     Pardon me a second while I go breathe into a paper bag. . . Okay, there, all better! Everything will get done. I'm not worried. Not a bit. Not at all. Everything is fine. Totally, fine!
     So who wants an early looksee at the very, very rough opening chapter of PUMPKIN SPICE PERIL? If you're in, here it is:

Chapter One

     “Hi, how can I help you?” Angie Harper asked the customer across the bakery counter. She had her lips pulled back in what should have been a smile but looked like a grimace instead.
     Melanie Cooper glanced at her partner. Angie sounded weird as if she was forcing herself to be friendly when what she really wanted to do was reach across the counter and rip the person’s head off. Judging by the wary gaze of the customer, they weren’t buying the show of teeth either.

     “You okay there, Ange?” Mel asked.

     “Yes, of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Angie frowned. 

     Mel raised her hands in the air. “Just getting a vibe, an unhappy vibe, and I’m happy to step in if you need a sec.”

     “Why would I need a sec? I’m fine, totally fine!” Angie insisted. 

     “Then why are you yelling?” Mel asked.

     “This isn’t yelling!”

     “Not for nothing, but over on this side of the counter it sounds like yelling,” the customer, a thirty-something man in khaki slacks and a festive Hawaiian shirt, said.

     “I’m so sorry,” Angie said. It would have worked except, she said it in an exaggerated voice that made it clear she wasn’t sorry at all.

     The customer glanced from her to Mel. “Maybe you can help me. I’d like some red velvet cupcakes, please.”

     “Oh, sure, get someone else to help you,” Angie said. “Because I’m incompetent, is that it? Is that what you’re trying to say?”

     The man pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows. He was obviously a smart guy, realizing there was no winning here.

     “He might not say it, but I will.” A woman spoke up from the back of the line of people. She had gray hair, twisted into a topknot and she wore a chef’s coat in a bright shade of blue. Olivia Puckett.

     “Oh, crud,” Mel said. Owner of a rival bakery, but also dating Marty Zelaznik, one of Mel’s employees, Olivia was the last person Angie needed to tussle with right now as the two women rubbed together about as well as static and hair. “Olivia, don’t poke the bear.”

    Angie’s head swiveled in Mel’s direction. “Did you just call me a bear?”

     “Um…well…affectionately,” Mel explained. “You know, like a teddy bear.”

     “Or like a ginormous grizzly bear,” Angie said. “You think I’m fat!”

     “Oh, my god.” Mel pressed the heels of her hands against her forehead as if it would keep her head from exploding. “You’re not fat. Honestly, what is going on with you today?”

     “She looks hormonal to me,” Hawaiian shirt guy said. 

     “Ah!” Angie sucked in a breath. “I. Am. Not. Hormonal.”

     “Nah, he nailed it,” Olivia chimed in.

     Angie whipped around with a glower. “You hush.”

     “Angie!” Mel hissed. 

     Olivia laughed and nudged the customer with her elbow. “If you want cupcakes without the drama, you can hit my bakery Confections. It’s just down the street.”

     “Thanks, but I’m already here and I’ve got my eye on the red velvets,” he said. “I can wait out the pregger rage.”

     Angie blinked. “What did you say?”

     The man turned to look at her. “Pregger rage, you know, the unreasonable fury that comes with being pregnant. My wife was exactly like that when she was expecting our kids. We have four so I’ve been to this rodeo before.”

     “But I’m not…” Angie’s voice trailed off. Her eyes went wide and then she clapped a handover her mouth and ran back into the kitchen.

      “Vomiting,” the man called after her. “That’s another symptom.”

      Mel glanced from him to the swinging door, behind which came the unmistakable sound of someone retching. As if they’d been shot out of a cannon, Mel’s two bakery workers, Marty Zelaznik and Oz Ruiz, blasted out of the kitchen. 

     “Don’t go back there!” Marty said. “It’s bad.”

     “Really bad!” Oz confirmed.

     Mel stared at the door. Was Angie really pregnant? She and her husband Tate had been trying for months. Did it finally take? She needed to call Tate for backup, but she didn’t want to blow it if it wasn’t true or if Angie wasn’t ready to tell him. Dilemma!

So, is she or isn't she? Tune in next April to find out! 

And here's a sneak peek at the cover which just arrived in my inbox!

APRIL 2020

Now, how about you, Reds and Readers, have you ever had the muse yell so loudly that she upset your timetable and you created something you never anticipated?

What We're Writing - Jenn McKinlay

Jenn McKinlay: Technically, what I'm writing is Buried to the Brim, the next London Hat Shop mystery (2020), but I'm also writing the publicity posts for The Good Ones a bookstore rom-com (Feb 2019), finalizing the page proofs on Dying For Devil's Food, the next Cupcake Bakery mystery (May 2019), copyediting Word to the Wise the next Library Lover's mystery (Sept 2019), writing the proposal for One for the Books, the next-next Library Lover's mystery (2020), revising The Christmas Keeper, the second bookstore rom-com (Oct 2019), and working on a top-secret super special project completely out of my wheelhouse. So, what I'm writing is...well, it's complicated!

After much dithering, I decided to share the opener to Dying for Devil's Food, mostly because I just received the cover art, after much angst on the artist's part, and I have to say it is fantastic!

May 2019!!!

As the New York Times bestselling series continues, it's going to take every recipe the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew has to whip up a quick defense for Mel Cooper when her high school reunion goes from a cake walk to a car wreck...

Chapter One

     “Squeee!”

     At the screechy noise, Melanie Cooper squeezed her pastry bag too tight and frosting shot out of the tip into a big glob on top of the cupcake she was decorating for a wedding the next day.

     “Angie DeLaura, what was that?” she asked. She blew her blond bangs off her forehead as she glared at her business partner, who had just come running through the swinging doors from the front of the bakery into the kitchen where Mel was working.

      “That’s Angie Harper to you, and…” she paused to strike a pose and fan herself with a large envelope and fancy looking invitation, before she continued, “to everyone else we graduated high school with fifteen years ago.”

     “Huh?” Mel frowned at her recently married, petite brunette friend.

     “Our fifteen-year reunion,” Angie said. She pointed to the envelope in her hand. “It’s coming up and guess who they want to bake cupcakes for it?”

     Mel stared at her childhood friend and business partner. How could she put this as tactfully and delicately as possible?

     “No.” Mel used a rubber spatula to scrape the glob off the ruined cupcake and flicked it into the large garbage bin to her right.

     “What?” Angie froze in mid-fan. “What do you mean, no?”

     “I have no intention of baking cupcakes for those people,” Mel said. 

     She bent over the cake in front of her. It was a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. She was keeping it simple and working the frosting in a thick smooth swirl that she then sprinkled with small red hearts. Just the thought of going to her high school reunion made her want to mainline the frosting and shove a whole cupcake into her mouth like a boss.

     “But…but,” Angie stammered. It was clear she hadn’t anticipated this sort of response, which boggled Mel, but she continued on.

     “No buts,” she said. “You’re welcome to go to our reunion but I refuse.”

     “Mel, I don’t think you’re grasping the big picture here.”

     “Oh, I’m grasping it and I’m tossing it away.”

     “But look at us,” Angie said. She swung her arms wide to encompass the kitchen and beyond. “We’re hugely successful. We have franchises all over the country. That gives us a moral imperative to show up at our reunion.”

     “No.”

     “Mel, I know there were some people who hurt your feelings back in the day—“

     “Hurt my feelings?” Mel straightened up. She grabbed a pinch of heart shaped sprinkles and didn’t sprinkle them so much as threw them onto the freshly piped frosting. She stared at her friend. “Angie, they called me ‘Melephant,’ they bullied me about my weight, and Cassidy Havers, in particular, wrote my name in all of the boys’ bathrooms with my phone number. She was vicious and mean and cruel and if I never see her again, it will be too soon.”

     “She’s Cassidy Havers-Griffin now,” Angie said.

     “Griffin?” 

     “Yes, as in Daniel Griffin.”

     “She married Danny?” Mel asked. She felt her old high school crush spread its wings and rise out of the ashes of her adolescent heart like a phoenix. “When?”

     “A couple of years ago,” Angie said. “I think you were in Paris at culinary school at the time.”

     “And you didn’t mention it?” 

     Angie just looked at her and Mel nodded. Yeah, she wouldn’t have told Angie if her high school crush had gotten married either. Oh, wait, her crush had been Tate Harper and he had gotten married six months ago. To Angie.

     “But you’re going to marry Joe,” Angie said. “And you had a much deeper and longer lasting crush on Joe than on Danny, right?”

     “Well, of course, but I can’t believe he married her,” Mel said. She shuddered. “I mean he was captain of the basketball team and totally out of my league in high school, and she was the homecoming queen so I guess it makes sense, but I always hoped he’d meet someone…”

     Mel’s voice trailed off. She was not going to say it out loud.

     “More like you?” Angie guessed.

     This was the problem with besties, they knew you too well.

***

So, who gets iced at the high school reunion? Yeah, I'm not telling. You'll have to read the book to find out ;-)         

Now how about you, Reds and Readers, are you a fan of high school reunions, or not so much?

WEDDING CAKE CRUMBLE release day!

RHYS BOWEN: Toot the horns! Wave the flags! Everyone cheer because it's the publication day of Jenn's latest book in the cupcake series and we're all doing a happy dance. But I'm going to let you tell her about it!

JENN McKINLAY: Thank you, Rhys! There are moments in an author's life where she has to stop and look over her shoulder at her backlist and say, "Whoa!" This is one such moment for me as WEDDING CAKE CRUMBLE is the tenth book in a series that I was quite certain wouldn't last past book three. 

Why did I feel this way? Well, I'd already had one series fade. It was a crafter's series about decoupage (yes, really) written under the name Lucy Lawrence. I figured cupcakes were as on point as decoupage and was braced for the series to be kicked to the curb. But my publisher offered for three more books before the first book even came out and the series has continued to be enthusiastically renewed ever since. What do I know? Clearly, cupcakes have staying power - must be all of that sticky frosting. I'm happy to report there will be at least two more, which will bring the series to a dozen, which was my hope all along. 

I think two more books will give me just enough page space to wrap up all of the relationships and put the series to bed. Am I committed to that course of action? I don't know. I definitely don't want the series to go on so long that it begins to lose its charm, but when is that moment and will I recognize it when it comes? I sincerely hope so. 

In the meantime, what's the premise of this book? Well, two of the main characters, Tate and Angie, are getting married...or are they? Sorry, you'll get no spoilers here! And in and around their big day several murders happen, which unfortunately are many of the vendors they've hired for their big day. Naturally, the assumption is that someone is out to stop the wedding but who and why? Is it about their wedding or is there another motive in play? You'll have to read the book to find out! 

Now, what about you Reds and Readers, what do you think is the natural ending of a series? Have you read series that went on too long? How about series that ended too soon? And what makes you keep coming back to a beloved series? 

In case you've missed a title or two here is the series in toto:

Eating Like a Literary Character

LUCY BURDETTE: If you know me, you know I'm always thinking about food--what to have for lunch as soon as I finish breakfast, what to make for dinner, what Key West restaurant we haven't tried, and so on. (Of course, my low sodium diet has forced some changes, but let's ignore that for a moment.)  

My food critic character Hayley Snow is a lot like me. She loves nothing better than a little snack to fuel her writing, and she's an even better and more adventurous eater--except for slimy things with tentacles. Food is laden with meaning too. She spends days figuring out what cake she should bake for Valentine's day. 

But would this cake transmit the message that I cared a lot, but without any pressure, and that it was for Valentine's Day, but no declaration intended, nor anything expected in return? Would it send the message of love and care, without appearing needy, too sweet, or cliched?This, I realized, was a lot to ask of any cake. from​ Fatal Reservations

When Ingrid was set to join us here at Jungle Red (hooray for Ingrid and Jenn!), I of course picked up the first book in her Fina Ludlow series. And I have to admit, I'm a little worried about Fina. Diet Coke? Diet iced tea? Mallomars? Nutter Butters? She never cooks and she never seems to have anything in her refrigerator. All this becomes fascinating background for Ingrid's character.

And has me wondering, how big a part does food play in your characters' lives? And do you eat the way they do?

HALLIE EPHRON: Considering how obsessed I am with food--planning what to eat, shopping, cooking, enjoying--it's amazing how little of that translates into my characters. I did a serious homage to the jelly donuts of my youth in NEVER TELL A LIE. And I have fun with low country cooking in the new book, YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR. There's a mouth-watering scene with biscuits and sausage gravy. Southern cooking is exquisite. I make a mean biscuit. But none of my main characters (so far) have been into cooking.

RHYS BOWEN: As one who is not too keen on cooking, I love to read about meals. It all started with the picnic hamper in The Wind in the Willows. Eating vicariously is sinless and calorie free. But I do describe long and formal dinners that Georgie has to attend, contrasting them with the miserable baked-beans on toast existence she had to endure during the early books of the series. Molly has also moved up from near starvation to feeding a family but she serves good old Irish cooking: stews, hot pots, meat puddings. But I've set three books at Christmas now and really enjoyed going to town with the food preparations and the elaborate meals.

Of course In Farleigh Field is set in WWII and the food described is utterly dire and miserable, apart from one man who deals in the black market!

INGRID THOFT:  Lucy, you're not the only one worried about Fina.  I admit I was surprised when the first book in the series, LOYALTY, was released, by the number of comments I heard from readers about Fina's diet.  The most common feedback:  How does she eat like that and stay thin? No one could really eat that way!  Do you eat like that?  In terms of maintaining a healthy weight, Fina doesn't actually eat a large quantity of food; she nibbles and pecks throughout the day, and her meals and snacks are interspersed with foot chases and fistfights, which help burn calories.  Also, I know people who eat this way and stay thin.  They may be the exception, but they do exist.  Do I eat like Fina?  No, which is exactly the point.  Part of the fun of writing this character is that she doesn't worry about her cholesterol or her intake of leafy green vegetables.  One trait we do share is an equal opportunity palette.  She can sink her teeth into a Reese's peanut butter cup and also appreciate the fare at Boston's finest restaurants, and I'm the same way.  I can appreciate the merits of a Cadbury Crème Egg and lightly seared scallops!  As long as someone else does the cooking, Fina and I are game.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm glad to know I'm not the only one worried about Fina! When Ingrid and I had lunch in Seattle and she had a salad, my fears were allayed, however, but we did share a really sinful dessert. And Lucy, oh my! Can I just mention the Cuban coffee and the maple-glazed bacon doughnut she brought me when I stayed with her in Key West??? I was in Hayley heaven.

I do love reading about food, and writing about food. If my characters eat or drink something, you can be pretty sure I've either eaten it in a London restaurant, or cooked it myself. (This my excuse--or one of my excuses--for all the outing to London pubs and restaurants...) And I think we can all look forward to more food in the next book (and I will be enjoying the research!)

JENN MCKINLAY: Cake. Pie. Tarts. Cupcakes. Donuts. Ice cream. Gelato. Candy. Chocolate. Basically, all the sweet things. The only part of the food pyramid that I enjoy is the tippy top fats, oils, and sweets part. I love to bake but find cooking to be utter drudgery, except breakfast cooking because...chocolate chip pancakes, strawberry filled crepes, Belgian waffles! Need I go on? Minus the diet beverage thing (I loathe anything with the word diet in it), I am pretty sure Fina is my people! My love of baked goods is likely how I ended up writing a mystery series about a cupcake bakery because my characters eat their product and live on sweets just like I would if I didn't have to be a good mom and cook real food for growing hooligans. Also, it's allowed me to create recipes for everything from cherry cola cupcakes to mojito cupcakes. The research and development part of the recipes is one of my favorite aspects of writing this series.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: The main character of my new book (still no title, ahhhh) eats canned tuna and a lot of toast. And wine. And pizza. And coffee. No, she is not sick, she is just busy.  But I have to say, if you added almonds and diet coke to that menu, I would be okay. Typing that out right now, it's very sad, when you all are talking about mojito cupcakes and honey glazed bacon and seared scallops. All of which sound delicious.  But my main characters so far have all been journalists, and often they have to hurry hurry hurry and grab food on the run. So far, in the new book, there's no fun in the food. And my main character is unhappy. So that works, right?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It works, Hank! Food ought to reveal something about the character. I don't do recipes in my books, but I do describe the food Clare is cooking (or the coffee she's brewing) in some detail when I need to. She loves to cook and has every little gadget you could think of, which is the result of a decision I made when I was figuring out who she was before I ever started to write the first book. At the start of the series, Clare is in her early thirties and has been moving constantly since her college days, courtesy of the US Army. What sort of hobby or diversion would someone like that have? Well, she runs, and..she cooks. Because cooking is a highly transportable past time - in fact, traveling to different areas of the country or abroad is an advantage. 


Russ, on the other hand, can make himself burgers and macaroni and cheese. It's not that he doesn't like food, it's just that he went from a mom who coked for him, to a wife who cooked for him, to...another wife who cooks for him. 

Reds, which literary character do you eat like? And who would you enjoy meeting for dinner?

Jenn McKinlay--Cloche and Dagger

DEBORAH CROMBIE: You will guess, from the quote on the

cover of Cloche and Dagger, that I really loved Jenn McKinlay's new book. London? A hat shop? In Portobello Road, no less? A heroine named Scarlett? And a murder???? What's NOT to love!

So I asked Jenn to tell us a bit about how she came to write this very English story, and what is the deal with the hats?

(And remember I said to pay close attention to the hat in the photo from the film The Women in Monday's post? See anything familiar in the photos here today?  What goes around, comes around, it seems...)  Here's Jenn!

JENN McKINLAY: 

What was your worst fashion faux pas?

 I remember mine.  In my defense, it was the eighties.  At the tender (read dopey) age of seventeen, I decided it would be fabulous to shave the sides of my head and bleach my brown hair a brassy shade of blonde only found on clown wigs or troll dolls.  Obviously, that wasn’t enough, so I decided to wear a Pea Coat and combat boots bought at the Army Navy Surplus shop because high school guys love asking out a girl who looks like a dude, right?  Yeah, this is one of many reasons why I am so grateful that the Internet was still in its blessedly innocent infancy during my teen years.  The only evidence of my bad choices is a sleeve of negatives in a musty box in my mother’s basement.  Praise be to the stone age!

Now what if your fashion faux pas was photographed, went viral and inspired a traditional mystery series?  Yes, Princess Beatrice, I’m talking to you.
 
Like many of the fabulous authors here at Jungle Red, readers frequently ask me where I get my ideas. They come from a variety of places but for Cloche and Dagger, the first of the London hat shop mysteries, the idea came to fruition in a matter of hours.  On April 29th, 2011, I roused myself (like 22.8 million other American viewers) to watch the royal wedding.  I loved it all – the pomp -- the circumstance – the crazy hats!  And then, there she was, Princess Beatrice with that beige thing on her head.  I simply could not look away.

It became a worm burrowing into my skull.  I couldn’t stop thinking about Philip Treacy, the milliner who designed the hat, which then led my brain to wonder about the British custom of wearing hats.  Milliner is just not an occupation you see much in the States, although I’ve been told since researching this series that the popularity of hats is on the rise.  As I watched the Internet light up over Princess Beatrice’s chapeau, I wondered how she felt and hoped she was blithely unaware of the criticism.  I don’t like to watch people being bullied, I mean, it’s not like she designed the squid replica herself.  Then I wondered if she was miffed at Philip Treacy, and then BAM!  I knew I had to write a mystery series set in a hat shop in London, so I did.


Writing Cloche and Dagger was one of the best experiences of my writing life.  It challenged me in so many ways with a foreign setting, a business I knew nothing about, and it came out in first person in the voice of my American heroine Scarlett Parker.  For this adventure alone, I will be forever grateful to Princess Beatrice and Philip Treacy and that wonderfully inspiring hat.  As a thank you, because Princess Beatrice is too often associated with fashion faux pas, I’m including a picture of her where I think she is quite lovely (not sure who the dude is, but he’s cute – go, girl)!

Now, confess, what was your worst fashion faux pas?  And what would you have done if it went viral (besides cry)?

And now I must take a moment to give a tip of the brim to two of the Reds who were wonderful enough to slog through Cloche and Dagger while I was still whipping it into shape – Deborah Crombie and Rhys Bowen!  You both represent what is so terrific about the writing community – the camaraderie and support.  Smooches to you both!

Jenn McKinlay is the New York Times bestselling author of the Library Lover’s mysteries and the Cupcake Bakery mysteries.  She also writes under the names Lucy Lawrence and Josie Belle.  She lives in Scottsdale, AZ in a house overrun with kids, pets, and her husband’s guitars. 

DEBS: So, readers, confess your worst fashion faux pas and you could win a copy of Cloche and Dagger! (I would love this book for its utterly charming cover even if the story weren't so much fun!)

(And Jenn's right--Bea's BF is quite dishy...)