Jenn McKinlay: Book releases never get old. It's always a thrill -- like having your birthday, Halloween, and the Fourth of July all mixed into on great glorious day!
FOR BATTER OR WORSE is the 13th Cupcake Bakery Mystery -- 13th!!! -- which is remarkable mostly because when I started writing the series, I figured three books were about all I could get out of a mystery series set in a cupcake bakery. I've never been so delighted to be so very wrong.
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This particular book finds our amateur sleuth, cupcake bakery Melanie Cooper, attempting to marry her long suffering boyfriend/fiancé Joe DeLaura. Will they finally make it? Yeah, like I'm going to tell you.
It also follows one of the supporting cast members, Oscar (Oz) Ruiz as he leaves the bakery to go out on his own and become the pastry chef at a posh Scottsdale resort.
Side note: I just read in the paper that Scottsdale is the #2 spot in the country for bachelor/bachelorette parties. We're right behind Nashville. So, there's some inspiration for another book.
The kitchen at my fictional Sun Dial Resort was inspired by the audio book Kitchen Confidential written and read by Anthony Bourdain. I had been listening to it at the gym while plotting out the mystery and the idea of setting my story in an Escoffier inspired brigade de cuisine style kitchen took hold and wouldn't let go. If you haven't read Bourdain's book, I highly recommend it.
The inside look at the big kitchens in restaurants and resorts was fascinating. So many interesting people are chefs. Which makes sense because high pressure cooking for strangers is a weird occupation if you step away and look at it. The entire restaurant lifestyle is just so different. I worked as a waitress at Jimmie's of Savin Rock in New Haven (West Haven, technically) for a couple of summers in college. That's as close as I want to get to the high pressure restaurant biz, unless I'm a customer!
Now, because of my gym reading, poor Oz has a dust up with the executive chef and when the chef is found murdered with Oz kneeling beside him, Oz becomes suspect number one. Now Mel and Joe have to find the real killer before Oz's new career is put on ice.
If you want to chat more about it, I'll be live tonight at 8 PM EST on the indie Facebook: Fans of Jenn McKinlay page to celebrate the release of the book and answer questions! And I'll be at Murder by the Book on May 6th at 7 PM CST virtually with Mia P. Manansala and Terrie Moran Farley.
So, Reds, what books have you read that inspired your mysteries? And readers, how much fact do you like with your fiction, because I have to say sometimes it is really hard to pull back on all of the research and just sprinkle the story with pertinent bits!
