ABOUT THE BOOK
Has a curse fallen on the small town of Taylorsford, Virginia? After a young woman goes missing during a spring bonfire, library director Amy Webber must wade through the web of lies only to find a truth that she may not want to untangle.
Spring has sprung in quaint Taylorsford, Virginia, and the mayor has revived the town’s long-defunct May Day celebration to boost tourism. As part of the festivities, library director Amy Webber is helping to organize a research project and presentation by a local folklore expert. All seems well at first—but spring takes on a sudden chill when a university student inexplicably vanishes during a bonfire.
The local police cast a wide net to find the missing woman, but in a shocking turn of events, Amy’s swoon-worthy neighbor Richard Muir becomes a person of interest in the case. Not only is Richard the woman’s dance instructor, he also doesn’t have an alibi for the night the student vanished—or at least not one he’ll divulge, even to Amy.
When the missing student is finally discovered lost in the mountains, with no memory of recent events—and a dead body lying nearby—an already disturbing mystery takes on a sinister new hue. Blessed with her innate curiosity and a librarian’s gift for research, Amy may be the only one who can learn the truth in Past Due for Murder, Victoria Gilbert’s third charming Blue Ridge Library mystery.
Book Details:
Title: Past Due for Murder
Author: Victoria Gilbert
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (February 12, 2019)
Print length: 296 pages
On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours
LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH VICTORIA GILBERT
A few of your favorite things: Cats, books, chocolate, horses, music, film, theatre, nature.
Things you need to throw out: Tchotchkes, kitchen gadgets, clothes no longer worn.
Easiest thing about being a writer: Coming up with ideas.
Hardest thing about being a writer: Translating my ideas to paper (as I truly wish to express them).
Things you love about where you live: The beauty of nature in my area, my house, the ability to travel to the mountains or the ocean in less than a day, the people.
Things that make you want to move: Lack of ethnic restaurants and grocery stores, limited number of cinemas showing anything other than the blockbusters, humidity in the summer, red clay soil that hampers gardening.
Things you never want to run out of: Coffee, chocolate, fresh veggies and fruit, friends.
Things you wish you’d never bought: Any outfit that’s too sparkly to wear in the daytime.
Words that describe you: Creative, funny, logical, open-minded, inquisitive, driven.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: Stubborn, anxious, self-doubting, easily depressed.
Favorite beverage: Wine (tied with coffee for fave).
Something that gives you a pickle face: Beer.
Favorite smell: The ocean breeze.
Something that makes you hold your nose: Liver being cooked.
Something you’re really good at: Being creative in several fields.
Something you’re really bad at: Dancing .
Something you like to do: Travel, explore new places and cultures.
Something you wish you’d never done: Stopped drawing and painting (it will be difficult to get back to where I was if I want to do it again).
People you consider as heroes: Anyone who is kind, and ordinary people who have the courage to be extraordinary when necessary.
People with a big L on their foreheads: Judgmental and intolerant people, and anyone who refuses to learn new things or ever change their opinions.
Things you’d walk a mile for: A great book, kittens, new music I love.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Karaoke, greasy fried food, intolerant people.
Things you always put in your books: Friendships (esp. between female characters!), deeper themes, love, ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Things you never put in your books: Toxic alpha male characters (unless they are villains), graphic sex or violence, a lot of swear words, “mean girl” female relationships or female protagonists who trash other women.
Things to say to an author: “I enjoyed how you handled issue X in your book,” “I loved your writing style,” “Your characters are so interesting and human.”
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “So, how come you aren’t a bestseller like author A, B, or C?” “When’s the movie or TV show coming out?”
Favorite places you’ve been: Italy, NYC, St. Johns, Colorado, the Virginia mountains, New England.
Places you never want to go to again: Any place where most of the people are intolerant of cultural differences.
Favorite things to do: Read, write, listen to music, watch films and theatre productions, draw & paint, garden, sing.
Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: Cleaning house (I do it anyway), managing personnel (did it, done with it), attending meetings (same!).
The last thing you did for the first time: Published my first novel (at age 58!)
Something you’ll never do again: Go camping (did it a lot as a kid, now over it).
OTHER BOOKS BY VICTORIA GILBERT
A Murder For The BooksShelved Under Murder
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victoria’s first cozy mystery series, the Blue Ridge Library Mystery series, garnered her a three-book deal with Crooked Lane Books, which has since been expanded to five books. The first two books in the series have been optioned by Sony Pictures Television, and the first three were or will be produced in audiobook by Tantor Media.
Victoria also just inked a 2-book deal with Crooked Lane for a new cozy series, the Booklovers B & B series, set in historic Beaufort, North Carolina.
A member of Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime, Victoria is represented by Frances Black at Literary Counsel.
Connect with Victoria:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Buy the book:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Crooked Lane Books
