I’m happy to welcome award-winning author Nancy Raven Smith. Today, Nancy shares her favorite cozy mysteries and new release, Bushwacked in the Outback.

Here’s Nancy!

While I enjoy many mystery genres, this is a list of my favorite cozy mystery series. Some are old, some are new, and the list is in no particular order. It’s in no particular order. Things that I enjoy most in cozies are well written original characters, unusual locations, humor, suspense, adventure, and the unexpected. And of course, my top ten list should probably be my top fifty to include all the ones I truly enjoy. I hope you’ll discover a series that you’re not familiar with and enjoy it, too. Everyone has their own list of authors whose work they enjoy. Please share your favorite cozies. I’d love to discover some new ones.

1. Agatha Raisin Mysteries by M.C. Beaton

Agatha is a former ad agency owner, now retired to her dream cottage in a small English village. She’s quirky, unintentionally funny, and on the hunt for a man. She soon learns her imagined idyllic life has barnacles attached – including unfriendly villagers and dead bodies. I’ll never forget Beating About The Bush where Agatha defends Wizz Wazz the donkey and becomes a national celebrity.

Sadly M.C. Beaton passed in 2019. R.W. Green will continue the series.

2. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood

Phryne is rich, elegant and smart. With her pearl handled pistol and the help of her family, adopted and otherwise, she stops injustice wherever she sees it. The stories take place in 1920s Australia, but Phryne is not boxed in by the usual conventions of her time.

3. Miss Fortune Mystery Series by Jana DeLeon

Fortune is a CIA assassin hiding in Sinful, Louisiana from an international arms dealer. But living in a small, southern, bayou town, pretending to be a librarian may be her hardest assignment yet. When bones show up in her yard, as well as two old ladies, she’s suddenly embroiled in a local mystery. And it turns out there’s more to the old ladies than she expected. Will her cover get blown?

4. The Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries by Heather Haven

Lee Alvarez is the lead P.I. for her family’s detective agency located in Silicon Valley, CA. It’s called Discretionary Inquiries and it deals mainly with the theft of intellectual property and computer software with an occasional murder thrown in here and there. Each family member has his or her own special talent that makes the agency work. Like any family, each one also has their flaws and quirks.

5. Country Club Murders by Julie Mulhern
Ellison Russell has a problem. She’s a body magnet. She even swims into dead bodies at her Country Club pool. She also has to deal with a rebellious teenaged daughter, an over bearing mother, and a suspicious new detective. Her husband’s multiple affairs don’t help. Neither does the fact that she’s also a target for killers who are unsure of what she knows.

6. Poppy Field’s Adventures by Julie Mulhern

Poppy’s Mexican beach vacation is the start of her crazy new life when she’s abducted by a drug lord. She’s not prepared to rise to the occasion. She’s a rich, fashionista, with a movie-star mother, 84 million Instagram followers, and paparazzi following her every move. She has no obvious talent other than a gift for picking clothes and accessories.

Now her life has turned into one of her mother’s movies, but with real bullets and bad guys. Will she be able to survive?

7. Patricia Fisher Mystery Adventures by Steve Higgs

Discovering her husband’s affair sends middle-aged Patricia off the deep end. She empties her husband’s bank account and signs on to an around the world cruise ship that’s departing immediately. Unfortunately, she’s quickly thrown in the middle of a murder investigation where she’s the main suspect. Did she jump out of one bad situation and into a worse one? Can she solve the murder and save herself with the help of the new friends she’s made on board?

8. Murder on Maui Series – Robert W. Stephens

Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford has lost his job and his girl. He heads to Maui, where he’s looking forward to a vacation with an old friend. When a murder is blamed on his friend, Poe is determined to solve the mystery. He not only manages to save his friend, but he discovers two new loves – Maui and Detective Alana Hu.

9. Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon Mystery Series by Sherry Harris

Most of us know Sherry Harris as the author of the popular Garage Sale Mysteries, but she has a new series with protagonist Chloe Jackson, a former Chicago librarian. Chloe is fulfilling a promise to help her late boyfriend’s grandmother run the Sea Glass Saloon located in the Florida Panhandle town of Emerald Cove. Turns out the location is the target of land developers and vacationers. Chloe loves her new life pouring beers and mixing cocktails at the Saloon. It’s just that the grandmother and the residents aren’t what she was expecting.

10. Chet and Bernie Mysteries by Spencer Quinn

Author Spencer Quinn had me at his titles. Who can resist Dog On It, To Fetch A Thief, Scents and Sensibility, Tender Is The Bite, or It’s A Wonderful Woof? The original, funny mysteries told through Chet, the dog’s, POV don’t disappoint either.

Blurb

“If you can’t follow the money, follow the body.”

Lexi loves her job as a Beverly Hills bank fraud investigator. It lets her pursue scam artists and con men – known in the business as land sharks.

Sadly, one crook left her with a broken heart and a destroyed reputation. And the bank’s president is looking for any excuse to fire her.

Yet she risks everything when she follows a dead embezzler’s casket to Coober Pedy in the Australian outback. She knows it’s a gamble, but it’s her last hope to recover the bank’s stolen money. Unfortunately, she’s persona non grata in that country. She needs to get in, find the money, and get out before the Australian police discover her presence. But will the unexpected appearance of an ex-lover make her linger too long?

If you like cozy mysteries in exotic locations with deadly secrets and touches of humor, then you’ll enjoy the multi award winning Land Sharks Cozy Mystery series.

Buy Links

Amazon (US) | Amazon (CA) | Amazon (UK) | Amazon (AU)

Author Bio and Links

Nancy Raven Smith grew up in Virginia, where she ran and participated in horse sport events. On their farm, she rescued horses, dogs, and cats and is an advocate for animal rescue. Later in California, she traded her event experience for film work. Her screenplays and novels have won numerous major awards. When not writing, Raven Smith enjoys her family and friends, travel, art, movies, and white-water rafting. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Women in Film.

Website | Facebook | The Reluctant Farmer of Whimsey Hill

I’m happy to welcome back Wild Rose Press author Kimberly Baer. Today, Kimberly shares ten embarrassing moments and her new release, Snowdrop Dream, Cherry Thumbprint Screams.

I’ve lived long enough that I’ve had plenty of opportunities to embarrass myself. Here are ten such instances—though I can assure you, there are lots more where these came from. (Maybe if I get these off my chest, they’ll cease to turn my face red when I think back on them.)

1. All those times I responded to somebody who was waving at/smiling at/talking to me, only to realize they were actually waving at/smiling at/talking to somebody else.

2. During a beach trip with friends, I was frolicking in the ocean when a particularly forceful wave hit me. When I emerged, my friends started shrieking with laughter. That wave had undone my bikini top, and it was wrapped around my neck! Several nearby strangers got an unexpected show.

3. I used to work at an insurance claims office. Ken, one of our agents, would often speak in goofy voices when he called. One day I answered the phone, and a strange, slurred voice said, “Zis ze surance company?” Figuring Ken was up to his usual shenanigans, I said, “You are so weird!” There was a stunned silence, during which I realized the caller wasn’t Ken after all. It was a customer! I was so mortified, I put the guy on hold and made one of my coworkers take the call.

4. During a luncheon at my workplace, I was trying to cut my chicken breast with the flimsy plastic utensils we’d been given. The knife slipped and the chicken went flying—straight onto the plate of the lady sitting next to me. Silence prevailed for a long moment as everyone at our table stared at the errant chicken breast. Sheepishly, I stabbed it with my plastic fork and took it back, mumbling apologies.

5. When a friend and I were eighteen, we left our respective churches and started going to a new church together. Week after week, for unknown reasons, we would start giggling—silently, but with enough force to shake the whole pew—during the quietest part of the service. Despite the dirty looks we got, we just couldn’t stop.

6. When I was about fifteen, I thought the word vagina was pronounced “va-jeena.” (I mean, it has the name “Gina” in it, right?) I even got my friends saying it that way. I was pretty embarrassed when somebody finally set me straight.

7. I fell onstage while performing in a high school play. I was supposed to walk offstage, trailed by another character. But because of a mix-up, we weren’t standing in our assigned spots, and in an unprecedented ad lib, she grabbed me by the wrist and yanked me forward. My feet got tangled in my long gown, and down I went. Can you imagine being sixteen and taking a graceless tumble in front of an audience of hundreds? I would rather have fallen through the stage than on it.

8. Then there was the time I… Wait, no; that one is just too embarrassing to write about! Sorry!

9. As I was leaving a big-box store with two gallons of custom-mixed paint, one of the containers slipped out of my hand. When it hit the floor, the lid flew off, and a whole gallon of pink paint spilled across the floor, splattering the legs of nearby shoppers. If you were in the store that day and heard, “Cleanup at the main entrance!”—that was me.

10. At age fourteen, I had a major crush on seventeen-year-old Mike. One night my best friend and I went to his house and told his mom a crazy, made-up story: a strange man had tried to lure us into his car. She called Mike to come drive us home—which (bwa-ha-ha!) had been my plan all along. Years later, I ran into Mike, and we started dating. I confessed that I’d had a crush on him in high school and had made up the attempted-kidnapping story because I wanted to see him. Turned out he already knew and always had. I was mortified—not for my current self, who, after all, had gotten the guy of her dreams in the end, but for fourteen-year-old me, who, OMG, would have died, just died, if she’d known Mike knew she was into him. (Side note: The teenage crush depicted via flashbacks in Snowdrop Dreams, Cherry Thumbprint Screams is based heavily on my real-life crush on Mike. I’ve even included the fake kidnapping incident.)

Blurb

When Annie Barkley discovers a boy living in the attic of her cookie shop, she’s stunned—and oddly elated. She can almost believe the universe is giving her back the infant son she lost eleven years ago.

Annie senses that something bad happened to the boy, but he won’t talk. All she knows is that he’s terrified of being found. When her long-ago crush, police captain Sam Stern, stops by to inquire about a missing boy, Annie says she hasn’t seen him.

Big mistake. Because that lie might cost her more than a romance with Sam. It also leaves her vulnerable to a ruthless pursuer, one who’s determined to silence the boy for good.

Excerpt

The days passed in a blur of bliss and apprehension. Annie rushed home from work each day, half afraid the boy wouldn’t be there. But he always was. One afternoon he surprised her by making a lettuce and tomato salad to go with dinner. Another day he ran the vacuum. In the evenings the two of them watched sitcoms or played video games.

Before she knew it, a whole week had gone by. Then another. She still hadn’t contacted the authorities. She’d expected the boy to be talking by now, but he was clinging to silence, resolute as a monk.

Cookie Heaven was closed on Thanksgiving. Annie declined several dinner invitations, including Jessica’s. She made an elaborate turkey dinner, knowing there’d be far too many leftovers. In the end, there wasn’t as much as she’d expected, because Jonah ate like a pig.

She was cheered to see him eating so heartily. Relieved that he was starting to fill out. Proud that she was giving him the things he needed—nourishment, love, a warm bed in a safe, comfortable home.

At the same time, she was aware of all the things she wasn’t providing. Like education. Jonah should have been in school. He needed friends to hang out with. He should have been playing sports, getting exercise. He was living a stunted life—but there was no way around that right now.

She took the day after Thanksgiving off. After lunch, while the aging dishwasher rumbled and gushed and clattered, she and Jonah adjourned to the living room to play a video game. When Jonah made a mistake that cost him a life, he let out a wail of anguish.

“Ah,” said Annie. “So you do have vocal cords.”

Jonah shot her a look that said he got sarcasm and didn’t appreciate it.
A sound from outside startled them—the crunch of tires on gravel. “Who on Earth could that be?” said Annie.

Jonah’s game controller clattered to the coffee table. He slunk across the living room, as if sneaking up on somebody. As he approached the picture window, he halted. And then a rich, young voice rippled across the living room.

“It’s the police, Annie! The police are here. Help me, please!”

Outside, a car door slammed. Jonah whirled toward her, his face as stricken as it had been the night she’d caught him in the cookie shop. “Don’t tell them about me—please! Cause if you do, they’ll put me in jail!”

Pre-order here

Social media links

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Amazon | Goodreads

I’m happy to welcome author Rebecca Lee Smith. Today, Rebecca shares fascinating facts about crows and her new release, The House on Crow Mountain.

Ten Fascinating Facts About Crows

1. A group of three or more crows is called a Murder.

2. Crows can recognize human faces. (Researchers had to disguise themselves by wearing rubber face masks to keep the crows from considering them their enemies.)

3. Crows have the same brain-to-body ratio as a chimpanzee, which makes them one of the smartest birds in the world.

4. American crows use scraps of food as bait to catch fish.

5. Crows have funerals. Not only to mourn, but to find out what killed their fellow crow, then they band together and chase the predator.

6. They make and use tools (usually some kind of twig) to dig insects out of sidewalk cracks for food.

7. Crows build decoy nests if they think another predator bird is watching them.

8. They enjoy playing games while flying. (Tag, maybe?)

9. American crows like to party. They will stand on anthills and rub the ants into their feathers, which causes them to get drunk from the formic acid.

10. Crows can live up to fourteen years. (And I bet they have fun doing it.)

Blurb

When her aunt suffers a stroke, New York portrait artist Emory Austen returns home to the North Carolina mountains to mend fences and deal with the guilt over her husband’s senseless death. But that won’t be as easy as she hoped.

Someone in the quirky little town doesn’t like Emory. Is it the sexy architect who needs the Austen land to redeem himself? The untrustworthy matriarch? The grudge-bearing local bad boy? Or the teenage bombshell who has raised snooping to an art form? Even the local evangelist has something to hide. Who wrote the cryptic note warning her to “Give it back or you’ll be dead?” And what is ‘it’? As the clues pile up and secrets are exposed, Emory must discover what her family has that someone would kill for.

Excerpt

Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly.

“Fat chance of that.” I glanced up from the tiny sticker someone had stuck to the dashboard of my rental car and focused on the narrow winding road. I’d kept the little Ford Fiesta ten miles under the speed limit all the way in from the airport, and the drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains had still been one mini-adrenaline rush after another.

I pulled into a foggy scenic overlook, bemoaning the fact there was zero cell service, and grabbed the map I’d picked up at the North Carolina Welcome Center. I reached for the bag of candy I used to keep myself calm and selected a dark chocolate square, perilously warm from sitting too near the heating vent. With two miles and six switchbacks to go, I risked the inevitable mess it would cause and tore the foil open with my teeth.

One single drop of dark raspberry chocolate dripped onto the center of the map. One tiny dark red dot. Just like the one that had been sitting in the middle of Kent’s forehead when the coroner rolled him over on his back.

I shoved the memory out of my head—something I had gotten decidedly better at in the last two months—and tossed the map on the seat.

It had been a long day.

And it was about to get longer.

Buy Links

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Author Bio and Links

Rebecca lives with her husband and a dog named Wilbur in the beautiful, misty mountains of East Tennessee, where the people are charming, soulful, and just a little bit crazy. She’s been everything from a tax collector to a stay-at-home-mom to an award-winning professional actor and director. She loves to travel the world (pre-pandemic) because it makes coming home so sweet. Her Southern roots and the affectionate appreciation she has for the rural towns she lives near inspire the settings and characters she writes about.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Giveaway

Rebecca Lee Smith will be awarding a $25 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Rebecca on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.