Blog Archives
Murder (and Other Unpleasantries)
Murder and Other Unpleasantries, by Julie Titterington, is a cozy mystery built around one very inconvenient day in Cornwall. Tamsin Castle is trying to keep her struggling bakery afloat when she meets Clarence Crumpet, a relentlessly friendly American with a dachshund named Fritz and a talent for turning casual conversations into marathons. Tamsin reluctantly accepts his help delivering food to a tearoom on the tidal island of St. Peter the Rock, where a storm traps them with a wealthy, deeply dysfunctional family and the suddenly dead Lady Atherton. The setup gives the book all the ingredients of a classic closed-circle mystery: a limited group of suspects, a poisonous cup of tea, old grudges, money problems, family secrets, and no easy way for anyone to leave.
What makes the book especially fun is the pairing of Tamsin and Crumpet. Tamsin begins the story committed to routine and suspicious of anything that might complicate her life, even making a reluctant promise to spend one day saying yes to new experiences. Crumpet is almost her opposite. He talks constantly, follows every stray thought that catches his attention, and seems genuinely delighted by nearly everyone he meets. Once the investigation starts, though, his rambling personality reveals a surprisingly sharp mind, while Tamsin discovers that she’s good at noticing inconsistencies and keeping him focused. Their friendship develops naturally because each supplies something the other needs. The dachshunds, Bundle and Fritz, add another layer of personality without feeling like accessories pasted onto the mystery.
The novel clearly has some Agatha Christie in its bloodstream. There’s even an early reference to Christie’s Bundle Brent, which signals the author’s affection for Golden Age mysteries. The isolated setting and hostile group of relatives bring And Then There Were None to mind, while the poison, inheritance questions, interviews, and carefully planted physical clues feel closer to a Poirot investigation. Titterington takes that familiar puzzle-box structure and gives it a much more playful voice. The book keeps bouncing between murder clues and wonderfully specific distractions involving scones, British vocabulary, bad tea, dachshund behavior, class manners, and the differences between American and British ideas about food. Tamsin’s position between Oregon and Cornwall also gives the culture-clash jokes more substance than simple tourist humor. She understands both worlds while feeling completely settled in neither.
The structural choice is one of my favorite things about the book. The first half largely lets us experience Crumpet from the outside, where his endless stories can make him look scattered, while the second half moves into his first-person perspective and shows how much is actually happening underneath all that chatter. The eventual solution is carefully tied to details that have been sitting in plain sight, particularly the almond-heavy menu, the tea, the family’s behavior, and Lady Atherton’s peculiar plans for the gathering. That makes the conclusion satisfying as a mystery. More importantly, the case changes both lead characters. Tamsin’s accidental adventure gives her a taste for a life beyond protecting her routines, while Crumpet finds in her the kind of partner who can steady a detective who’s been struggling since losing his wife. By the final pages, their proposed partnership at the Sausage Roll Bakery, with the possibility of future investigations, feels earned. Murder and Other Unpleasantries is a warm, eccentric mystery about murder, pastry, loneliness, friendship, and the strange things that can happen after one badly timed yes.
Pages: 314 | ASIN : B0H7SWNQ4W
A Peek at My Life
When Squirrels Fly follows a skeptical professor who teams up with a travel writer to find her missing aunt, only to uncover wormholes, secret research, and a conspiracy hidden within an eccentric neighborhood. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I’ve lived in college towns my entire life. Ann Arbor, the setting of my story, is my fourth college town. The eccentric neighborhood is my neighborhood. While I have worked for community-based organizations (the YMCA and parks and recreation) during my time here, I’ve also had the privilege to provide consultation for the University of Michigan’s Institute of Clinical Health Research through a program that focuses on community-based participatory research. I find medical research quite fascinating, and my consultation with MICHR has provided me a unique opportunity to look behind the scenes at the research process. The wormhole allowed me to jump around to my favorite places without really needing a strategic reason to highlight them. My story setup incorporated quite a bit of my personal experience.
Why did you choose Ann Arbor as the setting, and which local details were most important for you to include?
This is my debut novel. I had a lot to learn about the writing and publishing process. I chose Ann Arbor as my setting for a couple of reasons. I’ve lived here for almost 30 years. And during that time, I trained for 15 marathons with all of those training miles within a 10-mile radius of my Ann Arbor house on the old West Side. I have a hard-to-match familiarity with that radius, so I could describe it from memory and needed little research on the setting. This gave me more time to devote to learning about the writing process. Also, I grew up in Indianapolis with six brothers and sisters. I am the only one who moved away. My book gives my family a peek at my life. I made my story a bit whimsical to poke just a little bit of fun at them, as some of my siblings tease that my mind has been corrupted because I live in a college town. I highlighted some of my favorite places to run as well as some of my comfort foods.
How did you develop Allie’s emotional journey from guarded skepticism to greater trust in others and herself?
Allie is at a crossroads in her career at the outset of the story. She’s also still dealing with the heartbreaking loss of some important people from her life. Her adventure in Ann Arbor allows her to reconnect with her brother. Her brother, Nick, is somewhat based upon my own brother whom I lost to suicide in 2017. When my brother died, I realized how little one-on-one time I had spent with him throughout his life. I left home to go to college before he entered high school, and I never returned. I purposely created a brother-sister relationship in my book that would help me feel like I had more time with my brother. Allie’s interaction with her brother reminds her that despite the relationships that they have lost, and even because of those losses, their brother-sister relationship is something they can trust. And her brother helps her to realize that trusting others actually helps us learn to better trust ourselves.
Was Chidi always intended to play such an important role, or did the character become more prominent as you wrote?
Chidi is based upon my dog Cheech. I adopted him from the Humane Society to help me recover from the grief of losing my brother. I had a scare the week before my book’s publication date when my dog Cheech developed Congestive Heart Failure. I had to rush him to the emergency vet in the wee hours of the morning. By some miracle, he survived and is doing well. I think my brother was watching over us. I always intended him to play a pivotal role in the book, just as he has in my life. And Chidi’s behavior was inspired by a conversation I had with neighbors about indoor/outdoor cats. While a cat can wander the neighborhood all day without alarming its owners, I would be in a full-on panic if my chihuahua, who is the size of a cat, but not as “worldly,” somehow slipped outside through the front door when I wasn’t looking. I wondered what if my dog had a cat personality? That is how Chidi came to be.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
When Allie Caldwell gets a rambling middle-of-the-night call from her very excited aunt Mel, she initially curbs her concern; her aunt has always been a bit eccentric, after all. But when Mel disappears before telling anyone what has her so worked up, Allie drops everything –even her better judgement—to fly to Ann Arbor and find her.
In the ensuing days, Allie inexplicably ignores her gut instincts (and some weird dream-based warnings from angry flying squirrels) and accepts help in the search from her aunt’s handsome, enigmatic neighbor George Bennet. In order to discern how virtual reality goggles, innovative migraine research, hidden treasure, attack drones, and a neighborhood trellis are all connected to the case, they’ll need to survive bungled bids of help from Allie’s well-meaning brother, hidden agendas from multiple neighbors, constant interruptions from Mel’s itinerant Chihuahua and his exuberant pit bull puppy pal—and even some attempts on their lives.
Mean Cuisine
Mean Cuisine, by Wendy W. Webb, is a comic cozy mystery with a messy kitchen, a dead chef, a psychic investigator, and a black cat who seems to understand danger before everyone else does. Beluga Stein signs up for culinary school, looking for a change of pace, which is funny from the start because her first big food disaster involves exploding eggs. She tells herself the school will mean “Murder-free, safe cooking. No doubt about it.” Naturally, that hope lasts about five minutes.
The book’s real charm is Beluga herself. She’s nosy, dramatic, smart, food-obsessed, and usually aware that her life has become ridiculous. Her friendship with Tanya gives the story a lot of its bounce, since their conversations feel like those of two longtime friends who know exactly how to annoy and rescue each other. Planchette the cat and Emerson the goat add another layer of chaos, and the animal comedy never feels separate from the mystery. It’s part of Beluga’s world.
The mystery is built around the culinary school, where strict chefs, competitive students, strange accidents, and supernatural hints all share the same space. The murder investigation brings in poison, jealousy, hidden motives, and a cluricaun with a taste for wine. Webb keeps the pace lively by mixing classroom mishaps with clues, diary entries, and scenes that turn ordinary kitchen tools into potential hazards.
What stands out most is the voice. The humor is constant, but it comes from character more than punch lines. Beluga’s narration has a casual, sideways logic that makes even danger feel oddly cozy. By the end, when she writes, “All’s well that ends well. At least for some,” it fits the whole mood of the book: cheerful, suspicious, and perfectly aware that peace is probably temporary.
Mean Cuisine is a warm, weird, food-centered mystery about a woman who wants to learn to cook and instead finds herself sorting out murder, friendship, and a supernatural mess. It’s playful without losing the thread of the case, and its best moments come from watching Beluga stumble into trouble with total confidence that she can talk, eat, or investigate her way out of it. Webb’s work is best suited to fans of cozy mysteries and any reader who appreciates humor woven throughout suspenseful plots.
Pages: 224 | ASIN : B0DM2NYQHZ
A Tricky Dance
Trouble Afoot at the Three Hounds Bakery follows a mystery writer who inherits her aunt’s home and three dogs, where she finds herself in the middle of trouble in a town that is unwelcoming to her. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I grew up around dachshunds. They are extremely unique dogs, with definite ideas and temperaments of their own, and I wondered what it would be like to be plopped down in the middle of dachshund territory with no prior experience or warning. Setting up a character who is already a bit moorless and dropping her without warning into a nest of wiener dogs and a tricky mystery seemed like a very fun premise.
I found Willa Lattner to be an intriguing character. What was your inspiration for this character?
Willa sort of wrote herself. I planned on a plucky heroine who happened to write mystery stories, and she just showed up–every messy bit of her, from her crazy hair to her self-deprecating writing style. I liked her, so I let her stay awhile to see what would happen. I find I do my best work when I just let the characters show up and introduce themselves. Then my only job is to stay out of the way as much as possible.
What was the hardest part about writing a mystery story, where you constantly have to give just enough to keep the mystery alive until the big reveal?
I usually have to write a dozen versions of the same story before I’m satisfied with the pace at which the mystery is being delivered. Sometimes I say too much too quickly, and other times I get to the end and think I haven’t earned any of it! It’s always a tricky dance. Often, when I’m stuck, I bring in a reader to help me out. They haven’t been staring at the same story for months, and they can read with a fresh mind and let me know who they suspected, why, and what point, and help me really refine the ultimate clues and reveals.
When will book two be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?
Book two, Death Pays A Call To The Three Hounds Bakery, will be out on Kindle on January 31st. We’ll be seeing a lot more of Willa and the dogs, and may even meet a few more human (and canine) friends. Willa’s past life plays a huge role in this mystery, and we get a lot more insight into who she was before she came to Humboldt Cove.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
When mystery novelist Willa Lattner inherits her great-aunt Mina’s charming bakery in the coastal town of Humboldt Cove, she expects to find solace in new friends, fresh air, and all the pastries she can eat. Instead, she’s met with a trio of heartbroken dachshunds and an unsettling mystery surrounding Mina’s sudden death.
As Willa digs into her aunt’s legacy, she uncovers a web of old grudges and hidden agendas lurking beneath the bakery’s warm facade. With each clue, the stakes rise, and she realizes that someone is desperate to keep the past buried—at any cost.
With her clever canines by her side, Willa must navigate quirky neighbors, mend a tattered reputation, and uncover dark secrets. Can she piece together the puzzle before the killer strikes again, or will her first adventure be her last?
Trouble Afoot at The Three Hounds Bakery is a deliciously twisty mystery full of memorable characters, cozy peril, and non-stop dachshund fun.
Trouble Afoot At The Three Hounds Bakery
Julie Titterington’s Trouble Afoot at the Three Hounds Bakery is an intriguing, heartwarming, and suspenseful tale of inheritance, mystery, and small-town secrets. At its center is Wilhelmina “Willa” Lattner, a mystery writer thrown into an adventure that’s as puzzling as the stories she pens. Inheriting a house and three quirky dogs, Willa finds herself in a town where not everyone welcomes her arrival. A cryptic note hints at life-changing revelations, while unanswered questions about her aunt’s death spark a deeper mystery. Was it murder? And if so, why? The town’s residents may be keeping more secrets than they’re willing to admit.
Willa is instantly captivating. Her mix of charm, vulnerability, and determination pulls you in from the start. The depth of her character keeps you invested as she navigates her strange new life. One of the highlights is Mr. Pilkington, affectionately nicknamed “Mr. Peanut” by Willa. This elderly, steadfast attorney is as endearing as he is principled, adding warmth and a touch of gravitas to the story. Other characters stir emotions in unexpected ways. Lucy’s enigmatic presence raises suspicion, Jake’s likability doesn’t completely mask his mystery, and Brian’s secrets as the bakery’s chef linger just out of reach. The trio of dogs is a delight as well. As they settle into Willa’s life, they manage to settle into the reader’s heart as well.
The story’s pace is excellent. It moves with purpose while allowing moments of tension and tenderness to land fully. The upbeat yet edgy tone creates an enjoyable balance, while the setting complements the characters and the unfolding drama. Titterington expertly introduces Willa to the town’s colorful cast, making each interaction a standout. The scenes with the sheriff sizzle with tension, while “Mr. Peanut” provides much-needed sweetness. And the central mystery, layered with danger, hidden truths, and Willa’s personal growth, delivers on every level.
Trouble Afoot at the Three Hounds Bakery is a delightful mix of suspense, charm, and heart. Mystery fans will devour it, but its engaging characters and entertaining twists make it a fantastic choice for anyone who loves stories about new beginnings and hidden depths. If you’re looking for an entertaining read that keeps you guessing, this book is a must.
Pages: 371 | ASIN : B0DJBCLL2T
The Vacant House
Tamara G. Cooper’s The Vacant House immerses readers in a web of intrigue as it follows mystery writer Sophie O’Brion. Wrongly accused of murdering her neighbor and former teacher’s cat, Sophie soon unearths a trove of hidden secrets that only lead to more questions. When her neighbor goes missing, Sophie’s curiosity propels her into the investigation, even as her former flame, now local policeman Burke, is also on the case. With all evidence pointing to Sophie, the suspense builds: Did she commit the crime? Is her neighbor truly missing? Or is Sophie being set up?
As the first installment in the Sophie O’Brion Mysteries series, Cooper has crafted a riveting debut. The story grips the reader from the start, keeping them on edge and eager for answers alongside the protagonist. Cooper’s exceptional writing, particularly her use of descriptive language, enhances the narrative. For instance, in the opening chapter, she writes, “The fierce warrior rose up inside me, and I tossed the covers, grabbed my robe, slid my tired feet into slippers, and shuffled across my bedroom.” Such vivid imagery not only illustrates everyday activities but also deepens our understanding of Sophie’s character, fostering a strong connection between the reader and the story. Throughout the book, the constant emergence of unsolved mysteries keeps readers hooked and yearning for more. Cooper’s compelling storytelling is further elevated by the fresh perspective of having a mystery writer as the main character. This is a book I highly recommend, and I am eager to see where Cooper takes Sophie O’Brion next.
The Vacant House by Tamara G. Cooper is a well-crafted mystery that hooks readers from the very first page. With its intriguing plot, well-developed characters, and rich descriptive language, this book sets a high standard for the Sophie O’Brion Mysteries series. Cooper’s ability to weave suspense and curiosity ensures that readers are continually engaged, eagerly turning pages to uncover the truth. This debut installment promises an exciting journey ahead for both Sophie and her readers.
Pages: 245 | ASIN : B07SNGSCTK
