FEATURED AUTHOR: VICKI DELANY

ABOUT THE BOOK

Residents of Rudolph keep the spirit of Christmas alive year-round—but their joy is threatened when a group of grinches visits the town, in the charming fourth installment of the Year-Round Christmas series.



It's the week before Thanksgiving, and Merry Wilkinson, owner of Mrs. Claus's Treasures, is preparing for a weekend reunion of her mother's college friends. But when the group of women comes into Merry's shop, Merry is met with frosty attitudes and cold hearts. 



The women argue amongst themselves constantly, and the bickering only intensifies after one of the friends is poisoned. With her father's role as Santa in danger due to his proximity to the crime, Merry will need to use all of her investigative gifts to wrap this mystery up and save Santa and her favorite holiday.

Book Details:
Title: Silent Night Deadly Night
Author: Vicki Delany
Genre: Cozy mystery


Series: Year Round Christmas mystery, book 4


Publisher: Berkley (August 27, 2019)


Print length: 304 pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours




IFs ANDs OR WHATs INTERVIEW WITH VICKI DELANY

Ifs


Q: If you could live in any time period which would it be?
A: Now. Never anything but right now. We have peace, we have democracy, we have laws, we have respect for human rights, we have antibiotics and pain-killers. History has no appeal to me, outside of the pages of a book.

Q: If you could time travel for an infinite period of time, where would you go?
A: I’d love to visit Pharaonic Egypt. See the building of the pyramids, watch the creating of hieroglyphics, observe their ceremonies, see a King or Queen’s burial. Of course, wherever I went, I’d hope to be immune to disease or being mistaken for a poor local. Almost anywhere in the pre-industrial world would be marvelous to see the night sky.

Q: If you could be anything besides a writer, what would it be?
A: I think I’d like to be an opera singer. Now, that will never happen because I’m genuinely tone deaf, but I like the idea of standing on stage in an overly dramatic costume and hitting the high notes while the orchestra swells in the background.

Q: If you could choose a fictional town to live in what would it be and from what book?

A: I’d probably like West London, Massachusetts from my Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series. I could hang out at the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium and have afternoon tea at Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room next door.  I don’t think I’d like to live in Rudolph, New York, the setting of my Year Round Christmas mysteries. I love Christmas, but not all the time.

Q: If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
A: Pretty hard to beat Prince Edward County, Ontario, where I live now. But I sometimes get tired of the winter. I could live in the Turks and Caicos or on the beach in Mozambique. 



Ands


5 things you love about where you live:
    •    farms
    •    wineries
    •    bookstore
    •    friends
 and
    •    not in the city
  
5 things you never want to run out of:
    •    imagination
    •    love
    •    peace
    •    quiet 
and
    •    wine   

5 things you always put in your books: 
    •    food
    •    clothing
    •    scenery  
    •    laughs  
and
    •    mystery  

5 favorite places you’ve been: 
    •    Tofo Mozambique
    •    Hoi An Vietnam
    •    Malacca, Malaysia
    •    Masi Mara, Kenya
and
    •    Nelson, British Columbia, Canada

Whats

Q: What’s your all-time favorite place?
A: 
I’ve been to a lot of marvelous places in my life, but other than home and where family live, it has to be Wildwaters Lodge near Jinja, Uganda. 

Q: What’s your all-time favorite movie?
A: Lord of the RingsQ: What’s your all-time favorite picture of yourself?

A: This is me with my Canadian writer friends Anthony Bidulka, Barbara Fradkin, Robin Harlick, and Mary Jane Maffini at Bouchercon in Indianapolis. I love this picture, because it’s a fun picture of good friends being silly.

Q: What’s your all-time favorite city?
A: Amsterdam.

Q: What’s one thing that very few people know about you?
A: I am an extreme introvert. Really. Remember that introvert doesn’t mean shy. (I’m not shy)

What’s your biggest pet peeve?
People or places who call afternoon tea, high tea.

Q: What’s your favorite vacation spot?
A: Far too many to mention. I rarely go back to the same place. Earlier this year I was in Mozambique. Later in the year I’m going to Russia. Although, I do love Muskoka, in Ontario., where I’ve been quite a bit.

Q: What’s your favorite beverage?
A: I’ve been known to enjoy a glass of white wine or two.

Q: Would you rather tweet or post on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest?
A: I have a presence on all those things, but I find I use Facebook the most. Come over and say hi. I run lots of contests and give book news.

Q: What’s your all-time favorite place you’ve visited?

A: Nile River Camp in Jinja, Uganda.

Q: What’s one thing you never leave the house without? A: My iPhone. Not because I’m obsessed with it, but if I’m in an accident, I want to be able to notify my family.

Q: What is the wallpaper on your computer’s desktop?
A: My three daughters at my second daughter’s wedding. On my phone, it’s my grandson. On my iPad, it’s the beach at nightfall Tofo, Mozambique
.

Q: What author would you most like to review one of your books?
A: Louise Penny. And she did!


Q: What book are you currently working on?
A: The fifth in the Year Round Christmas series, still untitled. I’m also finishing up the seventh in the Lighthouse Library series by me as Eva Gates. Also still untitled. 


Q: What’s your all-time favorite place in your town?

A: The bookstore, Books and Company. This picture shows stpre the window advertising the festival I am co-founder and co-organizer of Women Killing it. You can find out more here. 

Q: What’s your latest recommendation for:
Food: Why not check out what’s happening at Mystery Lovers Kitchen. Ten cozy writers talk food and books, with recipes that suit every level of cook. 
Music: I love Gin Wigmore, a New Zealand singer. A much grittier, raspier Adele.
Book: The Lost Man by Jane Harper. Wow. The sense of place is overwhelming.
Audiobook: Can I say Something Read Something Dead by Eva Gates?  That’s the latest one I listened to. I like to listen to all my books once on audio. It’s a different experience.
Netflix: The best thing I’ve seen on Netflix is Happy Valley with Sarah Lancashire. 
Miscellaneous: If at all possible, get your vegetables from a small-scale, local farmer. Heirloom tomatoes in particular are a whole other thing than that what you buy at the grocery store.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Year Round Christmas mysteries for Penguin Random House, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane Books, and the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington.
Vicki lives and writes in bucolic Prince Edward County, Ontario. She is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada.  Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards. Vicki is the recipient of the 2019 Derick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing.


Social media links:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |   Instragram
Buy the book:
Amazon

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FEATURED CHARACTER: EVA GATES’ LUCY RICHARDSON

ABOUT THE BOOK

Halloween in North Carolina’s Outer Banks becomes seriously tricky when librarian Lucy Richardson stumbles across something extra unusual in the rare books section: a dead body.



Wealthy businessman Jay Ruddle is considering donating his extensive collection of North Carolina historical documents to the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, but the competition for the collection is fierce. Unfortunately, while the library is hosting a lecture on ghostly legends, Jay becomes one of the dearly departed in the rare books section. Now, it’s up to Lucy Richardson and her fellow librarians to bone up on their detective skills and discover who is responsible for this wicked Halloween homicide.



Meanwhile, very strange things are happening at the library―haunted horses are materializing in the marsh, the lights seem to have an eerie life of their own, and the tiny crew of a model ship appears to move around when no one is watching. Is Lucy at her wit’s end? Or can it be that the Bodie Island Lighthouse really is haunted? 



With The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on everyone’s minds and ghoulish gossip on everyone’s lips, Lucy will need to separate the clues from the boos if she wants to crack this case without losing her head in The Spook in the Stacks, the delightful fourth in national bestseller Eva Gates’ Lighthouse Library mysteries.



Book Details:


Title: The Spook in the Stacks


Author: Eva Gates

Character’s full name: Lucy Richardson

Genre: cozy mystery

Series: A Lighthouse Library Mystery, book 4

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (June 12, 2018)


Print length: 250 Pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours 


ABOUT LUCY

Lucy Richardson is the assistant librarian at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library. A few months ago she left her long-promised fiancé on bended knee (literally) and quit her job at Harvard Libraries to seek escape in her favorite place in the world: The Outer Banks of North Carolina, with her favorite relative: Aunt Ellen. But Aunt Ellen isn’t one for indulging nieces, and she soon arranged for Lucy to meet Bertie James, library director at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, who just happened to be searching for a new assistant librarian.

INTERVIEW WITH EVA GATES’ LUCY RICHARDSON

Lucy, how did you first meet Eva? 

I was a work-for-hire, meaning I was conceived in the offices of Penguin Random House. But Eva took to me instantly, and I felt that I could work comfortably with her. So she made me her own, so to speak, and now we get along just great. I was let go by Penguin, but was lucky enough to find a new home with Crooked Lane.

Tell us about your favorite scene in the book. 

Now that it’s all over, I can say that my favorite scene in The Spook in the Stacks is when I spot strange lights moving in the marsh. It wasn’t my favorite scene to live in, I can tell you. Scared the heck out of me. 

Did you have a hard time convincing Eva to write any particular scenes for you? 

She can be a bit prudish, so I have to push her to write romantic scenes between me and Connor McNeil. Let’s just say she’s still balking at that.

If you could rewrite anything in your book, what would it be?

I’d be taller and thinner and have less unruly hair.

Do have any secret aspirations that Eva doesn’t know about? 

I wish I could stop finding dead bodies in my library.

If you had a free day what would you do? 

My favorite thing in all the world is a beach day at the Outer Banks with my cousin Josie and our friends, followed by dinner of shrimp and grits at Jake’s Seafood Bar with Connor and then a long walk along the beach at night.

Tell us about your best friend.

My best friend is my cousin Josie O’Malley. We’ve been close all our lives. I was born and raised in Boston, but we visited my mom’s sister and her family in Nags Head every summer. Josie and I grew up together on the beaches and in the dunes. One of the best things about living in Nags Head now is how close Josie and I are as adults. I love her to bits. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that she owns Josie’s Cozy Bakery in town. 



What’s the best trait Eva has given you?

Best and worse are probably the same. I can be tenacious. When I face a problem, I can’t let go until it’s answered. I suspect that Detective Sam Watson would say that’s a bad thing. 



What’s Eva’s worst habit? 

She doesn’t take anything too seriously. Come on, it’s my life we’re creating here, and she keeps throwing curve balls at me. 



Is there anything you would you like to change about your life right now?
I’d change nothing at all. I’m exactly where I want to be, for now. I love my job in the library, I love my tiny apartment on the fourth floor of the lighthouse. I love my friends and (most of) my co-workers. And I’m loving getting to know Connor. Some day I might want more, but for now I’m good. 


Describe an average day in your life. 

No such thing! At our library we’re as much of a community center as a public library. People are coming and going all day, using the computers, attending literacy programs or children’s programs, taking in one of our historical lectures, doing research in the rare books room. And, of course, wanting advice on books. An average day does not include finding a dead body in the library and trying to find out how it got there, but sometimes it seems as though it does.


What makes you stand out from any other characters in your genre? 

Nothing really. I love being a cozy character.  My setting is somewhat unique though: our library is in a real-life place. Not just Nags Head, but in the actual Bodie Island Lighthouse. Which, I should mention, is not big enough to house a library and all that goes with it, including my fourth floor apartment. But it lives large in Eva’s and my imagination.

Will you encourage Eva to write a sequel? 

No encouragement needed. She’s already finished Something Read Something Dead in which we are busy planning Josie’s wedding.  Eva has a contract for the sixth book with Crooked Lane. 



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eva Gates is the pen name for Vicki Delany, one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. Under her real name of Vicki Delany, she has written more than thirty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing three cozy mystery series: the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane, the Year Round Christmas mysteries for Penguin Random House and, as Eva Gates, the Lighthouse Library series, for Crooked Lane Books. 

The fourth Lighthouse Library book, The Spook in the Stacks, was released in June 2018.

Vicki lives and writes in bucolic Prince Edward County, Ontario. She is the past president of the Crime Writers of Canada.  Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards.



Connect with Eva/Vicki:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Indiebound  |  Kobo

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CHARACTER INTERVIEW WITH VIVKI DELANY'S GEMMA DOYLE

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Renalta Van Markoff, author of the controversial Hudson and Holmes mystery series is murdered at a book signing in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, the game is afoot and it’s up to the unusually perceptive Gemma Doyle and her confused but ever-loyal friend Jayne Wilson to eliminate the impossible and deduce the truth before the police arrest an innocent man.

ABOUT GEMMA

Gemma is the owner and manager of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium located at 222 Baker Street in West London, Massachusetts (on Cape Cod). Originally from London, England, where she owned a mystery bookshop, she came to Massachusetts to run her Great Uncle Arthur’s Book store. She is also the part owner of Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room, located at 220 Baker Street. She wants to have the normal life of a modern young woman. Good friends, a successful business, even a love life. Unfortunately, being normal isn’t easy: she has a mind like the Great Detective himself.

CHARACTER INTERVIEW WITH VICKI DELANY’S GEMMA DOYLE

Gemma, how did you first meet Vicki?
Vicki is a well-established mystery writer. When she wanted to start a new series she hit on the idea of a Sherlock Holmes-themed bookshop. There isn’t much more popular in the world of popular culture today than the Great Detective, and it wasn’t hard to fill an entire store. By page two she realized that I have more in common with Sherlock Holmes than a deerstalker hat and a London accent. 

Want to dish about her?
No, because if I did she might decide to kill me and make Great Uncle Arthur Doyle the protagonist of the series.

Yikes! I wouldn’t want that. Tell us about your favorite scene in the book.
I thought it was a good idea to break into the police station. They had the evidence I need to clear my friend Donald Morris of the murder of Renalta Van Markoff. A big classic rock concert in the park would keep all the cops busy, I know my way around the place, and I knew exactly where to look. I gathered all the necessary tools, called Jayne Wilson to act as lookout and then . . .

Did you have a hard time convincing Vicki to write any particular scenes for you?
I’d prefer it if she didn’t point out all my faults. Too-clever-by-half she calls me. There’s a reason I haven’t told anyone the whole story of why Ryan Ashburton and I broke up, you know. And Vicki told the whole world.  I tried to convince her not to write that scene, but she went ahead and did anyway.

What do you like to do when you are not being actively read somewhere?
I love to swim in Nantucket Sound. Have a long swim, then relax in my beach chair with a good book I’ve grabbed from the shop. After that, I’ll take my dog, Violet, through the woods or along the seashore.

If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?


Oh, I dream about this all the time.  I own a bookshop in a tourist town. That means in the summer I work seven days a week.  In Body on Baker Street, I took a moment to dream about my special day:
The irony about living in a place so marvelous that hordes of tourists flock to it is that I myself don’t get much of a chance to enjoy it. I’d love nothing more than to grab Jayne, hop into the Miata, and take a couple of days to drive up Highway 6. To explore the historic lighthouses and open beaches of the National Seashore, poke around Truro and Provincetown, spend a night in a charming old B&B or a modern luxury hotel. Maybe make a day of it to take a whale watching excursion out of Brewster, explore the shops in Hyannis, and have a late lunch or early cocktails in Chatham. But summer in Massachusetts is short, and it’s the busiest time of the year, by far, at the bookshop, so I can rarely get away for more than a few hours.


Tell us about your best friend.
That’s an easy one. My best friend is Jayne Wilson. We’re business partners as well as friends. Sometimes that can be difficult but it works for us. She’s a baker, and runs Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room at 220 Baker Street. The kitchen is not my natural domain. I own the bookshop at 222 Baker Street and Jayne doesn’t interfere with that. She’s hardworking, smart, intensely loyal, very beautiful. Her only flaw is that she has terrible taste in men. I’m determined to do something about that. Fear not, I’ll be subtle.


What are you most afraid of?
Being lonely. I can’t not observe the things I observe or come to the conclusions I come to. Sometimes it makes people afraid of me.  I ruined the marriage proposal of the man I love because I couldn’t help being too clever by half. As he called me. 



What’s the best trait Vicki has given you?
I am highly observant, and I can analyze data in a fraction of the time it takes other people.  
What’s the worst?

I am highly observant, and I can analyze data in a fraction of the time it takes other people.


How do you feel about your life right now?
My life is pretty good. I love owning the shop. I love living with my Great Uncle Arthur, not that he’s around much. Which might be part of the reason we get on so well. I love living near the sea, and I’ve made a home and friends in West London. I just wish people would stop being murdered so near me.

Describe the town where you live.
West London, Massachusetts is located on Cape Cod, quite near to Chatham. The Atlantic Ocean is on the east and Nantucket Sound to the south west. We have historic houses, a charming shopping district on Baker Street, fabulous restaurants.  Please encourage all your readers to come for a visit. I’ll put the kettle on.

It sounds wonderful. Will you encourage Vicki to write a sequel?
She is hard at work on The Cat of the Baskervilles, which will be out in February 2018.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than twenty-five books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. Under the name of Eva Gates, she writes the Lighthouse Library cozy series for Penguin Random House. Her latest novel is Body on Baker Street, the second in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series from Crooked Lane. 
Vicki is the past president of the Crime Writers of Canada.  Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards.


Connect with Vicki:

Website  |  Facebook  |  
 Twitter and Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble
   

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