Year: 2015

This is a sneak peek at a few of Kensington Publishing Corp.’s upcoming May/June Cozy Mystery titles.

A Catered Mother’s Day by Isis Crawford

Musseled Out by Barbara Ross

Death of a Cupcake Queen by Lee Hollis

Farmed and Dangerous by Edith Maxwell

Murder at Beechwood by Alyssa Maxwell

I love that more and more publishers are starting to get on the bandwagon of putting out samplers of their upcoming titles. Another one to join is Kensington.

I personally think this is a great marketing idea and it  gives the reader a sneak peek at upcoming books and perhaps introduce a reader like myself to a book that I might not normally have picked up on my own and honestly I normally don’t browse in this section at the book store but I have to admit that after reading the little snippets a few books have peaked my interest. Do you have any idea what they could be?

My only complaint would be that I wish they would have included more of a snippet rather then just a chapter of the book but over all I have to say it was nice being introduced to some new mysteries that are coming out and discovering some authors that I want to check out.

Do you like these kinds of samplers? Would you like to see more publishers doing this?

As you can see from the description five books are included in this sampler.

It’s Mother’s Day in sleepy Longely, New York, and this year, catering sisters Bernie and Libby Simmons help a friend—who happens to be an overworked and underappreciated mom—go to extreme lengths to teach her family a lesson. But when a prank turns deadly, the Simmons sisters will have to cook up a plan to clear their pal’s name…

Bernie’s college roommate Ellen Hadley is burning the candle at both ends. She’s grown a successful business baking treats for dogs and cats, and she’s a dutiful wife and mother who somehow manages to fit all the cooking and cleaning into her busy schedule. But after her children forget her birthday and her husband forgets their anniversary, her expectations for a memorable Mother’s Day are understandably modest.

When Bernie jokingly suggests Ellen fake her own kidnapping to set her family straight, she never imagined her friend would actually go through with it. But when Ellen’s husband follows her phony ransom note to an out-of-the-way hotel, he finds the police taking her into custody after she discovers a dead body in her room. Ellen swears she doesn’t know the victim, but as police investigate her half-baked plans, they turn up more questions than answers.

Bernie can’t help but feel guilty for helping her friend concoct a recipe for disaster, so she and her sister Libby enlist the help of Ellen’s kids, and together, they must race to find the true culprit—before Mother’s Day is postponed indefinitely…

Includes Original Recipes for You to Try!

The busy summer tourist season is winding down in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, but Julia Snowden senses trouble simmering for the Snowden Family Clambake Company. Shifty David Thwing—the “Mussel King” of upscale seafood restaurants—is sniffing around town for a new location. But serving iffy clams turns out to be the least of his troubles…

When Thwing is found sleeping with the fishes beneath a local lobsterman’s boat, the police quickly finger Julia’s brother-in-law Sonny as the one who cooked up the crime. Sure, everyone knows Sonny despised the Mussel King…but Julia believes he’s innocent. Proving it won’t be easy, though. It seems there’s a lot more than murder on the menu, and Julia needs to act fast…

Includes Traditional Maine Clambake Recipes!

As the food and cocktails columnist for the Island Times, Hayley Powell attends a lot of events–but this one will be murder. . .

On the eve of her high school reunion, Hayley dreads seeing the trio of mean girls who used to torment her: Sabrina Merryweather, Nykki Temple, and former prom queen Ivy Foster. These days Ivy wears a different crown as the cupcake queen–and flaunting her success is just the icing on the cake.

But maybe the prom queen should have been voted Most Likely to Die. At the reunion, Ivy is found murdered, cupcakes scattered around her. Is a killer out to teach the mean girls a lesson? As Hayley tries to get the scoop, she’ll have to be careful. . .or someone may be writing this columnist’s obituary next.

Includes seven delectable recipes from Hayley’s kitchen!

Snow is piling up in Westbury, Massachusetts, and Cam Flaherty’s organic farm has managed to survive the harsh New England winter. Unfortunately murder seems to be the crop in season. . .

Cam is finding the New Year just as hectic as the old one. Her sometimes rocky relationship with Chef Jake Ericsson is in a deep freeze, she’s struggling to provide the promised amount of food to the subscribers in her first winter CSA, and her new greenhouse might just collapse from the weight of the snow. Supplying fresh ingredients for a dinner at the local assisted living facility seems like the least of her worries–until one of the elderly residents dies after eating some of her produce.

Cantankerous Bev Montgomery had a lot of enemies, from an unscrupulous real estate developer who coveted her land to an aggrieved care provider fed up with her verbal abuse. But while the motives in this case may be plentiful, the trail of poisoned produce leads straight back to Cam. Not even her budding romance with police detective Pete Pappas will keep him from investigating her.

As the suspects gather, a blizzard buries the scene of the crime under a blanket of snow, leaving Cam stranded in the dark with a killer who gives new meaning to the phrase “dead of winter.”

For Newport, Rhode Island’s high society, the summer of 1896 brings lawn parties, sailboat races…and murder.

Having turned down the proposal of Derrick Andrews, Emma Cross has no imminent plans for matrimony—let alone motherhood. But when she discovers an infant left on her doorstep, she naturally takes the child into her care. Using her influence as a cousin to the Vanderbilts and a society page reporter for the Newport Observer, Emma launches a discreet search for the baby’s mother.

One of her first stops is a lawn party at Mrs. Caroline Astor’s Beechwood estate. But an idyllic summer’s day is soon clouded by tragedy. During a sailboat race, textile magnate Virgil Monroe falls overboard. There are prompt accusations of foul play—and even Derrick Andrews falls under suspicion. Deepening the intrigue, a telltale slip of lace may link the abandoned child to the drowned man. But as Emma navigates dark undercurrents of scandalous indiscretions and violent passions, she’ll need to watch her step to ensure that no one lowers the boom on her…